Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Okay, this is freaking brilliant. It's the new Nigerian American scam, below the fold.
Dear American:I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had a crisis that has caused the need for a large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Franklin Raines, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. You may know him as the Chief Economic Advisor for Senator Obama's presidential campaign, and the former head of Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2006.
Let me assure you that this transaction is 100% safe. Mr. Raines is completely trustworthy with your money. His record speaks for itself.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of friend so the funds can be transferred. Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully
Henry "Hank" Paulson
Minister of Treasury
Next thing we'll get is an email from Paulson and Bernanke telling us that if we don't forward that email to 10 people and give them $700 billion, we'll die.
Politics
Comments
It's a hoot but, seriously, between the $700billion bailout, the problems recently foreclosed citizens will have voting, the Iraq quagmire, dead soldiers, constant lying, mismanagement, incompetence, and humans rights violations, isn't it time you guys, you know, rebelled?
It's not treasonous. It's written right into American Law that when a government gets this bad, it should be overthrown. (ok, so they should have been overthrown by 2003, but it's not too late!)
Posted by: Fason Jailes | September 26, 2008 9:33 AM
Still awaiting the arrival of conspiracy theories connecting the start-up of the LHC to the current global financial meltdown.
And LOLcats. Always and forever LOLcats.
Posted by: Jon | September 26, 2008 9:36 AM
90% of the versions I've seen have the following paragraph in the middle:
Where'd you get your version?
Posted by: Eric | September 26, 2008 9:42 AM
Actually, the chances that Mr. Raines would be appointed Treasury Secretary in an Obama administration are about equal to the chances of Mr. Brayton seeing the back of his own ear.
Posted by: SLC | September 26, 2008 10:42 AM
It's written right into American Law that when a government gets this bad, it should be overthrown.
No, it's in the Declaration of Independence, a historical document written before the United States existed. "American Law" would be the Constitution of the United States, international treaties ratified by the States, and acts of Congress. I don't think any of these condone an attempt to overthrow the government under any circumstances.
Posted by: ShavenYak | September 26, 2008 11:45 AM
Thanks, ShavenYak, no wonder I couldn't find it.
Seriously, though, how bad does it have to get before you people do something about it? Seriously, it's killing my own country's economy, and the whole world economy.
How long until you throw the entire Bush administration in jail for massive corruption and incompetence? Indeed, given what they've done to Iraq, how long before they're all charged with war crimes, and hopefully executed?
It's all well and good to be polite, and well-manned and rational, if you're in a university or other civil setting, but evidently out in the land of American politics it does little but give others the room they need to steal elections, destroy education, murder civilians, eviscerate the economy, and line their own pockets with your wealth.
Posted by: Fason Jailes | September 26, 2008 12:05 PM
Jon, obviously the testing of the LHC created a miniature financial black hole into which all of the money fell. Don't you know anything about physics?
Posted by: Spidergrackle | September 26, 2008 12:06 PM
There's a hypothesis -- leaked by two members of the Scientific Establishment -- that, due to temporal effects that the creation of the God Particle would cause, the LHC can never actually be fully operational as it's operation would create a time paradox. Something must always stop it from running, no matter how seemingly -- or actually -- unconnected to the LHC that something is. Causality demands it. So far we've seen the hypothesis hold up: a part of the LHC has malfunctioned, putting it offline for months. Once repairs are made, something else will -- no, must -- stop it again.
Perhaps our current global financial meltdown will be the next -- maybe even final -- blow to the LHC. It takes a lot of money to maintain and operate a Big Science project like the LHC. Can it be justified economically if Europe is dragged further into the financial crisis?
Mark my words, if CERN is allowed to press on with trying to get the LHC to run, they will inevitably bring about a World Depression that will end civilization as we know it.
Posted by: jpf | September 26, 2008 3:19 PM
Fason Jailes asks:
Revenge is sweet but does little to ensure the future. (Dang it all!) Instead we have elections, in which the population expresses a great range of choice, based upon their insight into, their conversations about, and their conclusions concerning the relative value of competing political views. These conclusions dictate how they will vote their consciences when the go to the polls, and their collective wisdom will ensure that the newly elected administration will reflect the highest aspirations of an involved and committed citizenry.
This is based upon citizens having access to reliable information, the capacity to judge political speech in terms of real-world experience and observation not to mention a sense of civic responsibility. An educated and well informed citizen is the basis of the American form of government. Or at least it used to be.
I'm in my fifties and though it pains me to say it, I have very little faith in the citizens of my generation or their children. I think a future, or now very young, generation may have to come to the rescue. If, against great odds, they can learn the basics of the republic and wrap their minds around the idea that the privileges of citizenship are contingent upon the assumption of certain responsibilities, maybe they will be educated, alert, informed and participate in a way that is infinitely more important than simply being a good consumer.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | September 26, 2008 7:38 PM
Irrelevant, but interesting. The Right to Revolution doesn't exist in the US Constitution...but it does in the NH Constitution. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Constitution#Article_10._Right_of_Revolution
Posted by: MPL | September 26, 2008 11:08 PM