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Pete Visclosky wrote me back today in response to the letter I wrote him yesterday. I was very pleased to get his response so quickly. Not only that, but it was personalized and he is on the same page as me and a lot of people I know.

I’m glad to be able to post Pete Visclosky’s views on the Wall Street Bailout. I haven’t seen anything in the paper about it and his websites are absent any opinions on the matter. So, consider this directly from the horses mouth and spread the word.

Check out my letter from Pete Visclosky about the Wall Street Bailout below.

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Dear Jonathan:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding government assistance to distressed financial institutions. I share your concerns, and I am outraged that American taxpayers are being asked to bail out those whose avarice created the crisis that we now face.

In 1991, Representative John Dingell stated that repealing the Glass-Steagall Act regulations would usher in a “golden age of thievery.” Mr. Dingell has been proven correct.

In response to the growing number of firms experiencing loss because of a lack of regulation, a lack of oversight, the greed of financial executives who often make sums in excess of 250 times the income of the average American worker, and bad judgment, President Bush is asking Congress to consider a hastily crafted $700 billion legislative package that would establish a system to bail out certain financial institutions using taxpayer money.

This Administration, which will soon leave office and never have to deal with the catastrophic financial dislocation they have caused and the long-term consequences of its request, is asking Congress to make a decision within seven days on whether to levy a $700 billion liability on you and every other taxpayer for at least a generation. I have the gravest reservations over the President’s bail out proposal and the arrogance of his suggesting that Congress act within a week to undo a disaster that has crescendoed over the last decade and enriched countless Wall Street executives and speculators while impoverishing multitudes.

The problems in our current financial system are not temporary aberrations in an otherwise healthy system, and may not be so easily addressed. Given the gravity and systematic nature of these problems, I believe that Congress should be deliberate and conduct a comprehensive examination of alternative solutions.

Be assured that I will consider any proposal with the greatest of caution, and I will assess its impact on you and every citizen that I represent.

Thank you again for contacting me.

Sincerely,

Peter J. Visclosky
Member of Congress

I know I’ve made it very clear in the past that I want to keep politics off of this blog, but with the recent upheaval in the financial markets and political wrangling that has followed, I thought I’d share the letter I wrote to Pete Visclosky today.

I’ve written him in the past and I still believe that he actually reads our letters and takes what we have to say to heart. Call me a sentimentalist if you want but I still believe my voice matters.

So, feel free to use this letter to come with ideas for your own. We need to do everything we can to stop this bailout.

End political message.

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Dear Mr. Visclosky:

I’m writing you with great concern about the Bush Administration’s latest grab for power in a supposed ‘emergency.’ My wife and I have watched in horror for the last week and half as the economy looked to be on the verge of collapse.

While we recognize that something needs to be done to contain the problem, we don’t think that bailing out Wall Street with $700 billion is the answer. These big investment banks have made their own bed and they must now lay in it.

I would not trust a man who was the former CEO of Goldman Sachs with unlimited fiscal power to fix the problem. While Mr. Paulson’s knowledge and experience may be admirable, he is tainted by his connections to Wall Street. He is not the man to lead us out of this. Wall Street executives don’t deserve to have their banks bailed out, then go on to receive multi-million dollar bonuses while we, the American Taxpayer foot the bill.

What is most frightening of all is how the Bush Administration already had this ‘emergency’ plan in the works for months. There is only 4 months left in Bush’s Presidency, don’t give them more unaccountable power in these last few months. They can still do a lot of damage and then leave an even larger mess for the next President to clear up.

We’re being pushed around by fear right now and these are the absolute worst conditions under which to commit to spending $700 Billion. I hope that you do not support the Wall Street Bailout and vote against it unless there are provisions within to protect our interests, punish those who let this happen and reign in the unmitigated greed in Wall Street.

I hope Congress gets paralyzed by indecision, as they usually do and don’t vote on anything before they recess to Election. That way, there will be time to weigh in all the options and come up with a viable solution that would not be influenced by Electoral Politics. This problem has been stewing for over a year, what’s a few more months? The banks can stop hyperventilating and just be patient.

I have no problem with Socialism and socially guided government programs. But this is just WRONG. I’m sure you’ve heard it repeated ad nauseam: “Socialized Losses, Privatized Gains” and that is exactly what this plan entails. I’d rather we spend the money on universal healthcare for all or better college tuition funding. I hope your other constituents in District One share a similar view and I hope that you are listening.

Warm Regards
Jonathan Thomas
http://dunesblog.jonathanwthomas.net
Valparaiso, IN

Well, it’s been almost two months since the transition of First National Bank of Valparaiso customers to 1st Source Bank. For me and many other customers it’s been an unmitigated disaster.

I won’t recount the horror story we’ve already experienced. You can read about my FNBV Disaster here. But I can assure you, it’s gotten worse.

One of the nice things about FNBV was that if you screwed up on your ledger and your account got overdrawn, they charged a flat $25 fee no matter how many transactions there were. This was freaking great, especially when you live paycheck to paycheck.

Well, 1st Source Bank is not so kind. Without asking FNBV customers, they transitioned us all into accounts that charge $32 PER transaction. $252 in overdraft fees is not a mistake I plan to make again.

Their customer service has gone down the tubes. Former FNBV tellers are apologetic but there is nothing they can do.

Security is also terrible, our bank account was breached through fraud (someone is riding the Chicago El on us). And even though it was fraud, the bank made us do all the work to straighten it out. Including filing a police report IN Chicago and signing nearly 16 forms to have the transactions reversed. Not to mention canceling out debit cards and freezing our account. They argued that since we were former FNBV customers, they were not liable for the fraudulent transactions on our old NFBV cards. Nice, excellent customer service there.

My parents experienced a similar security breach last month as well.

My wife was in line at the grocery store and overheard people complaining about the buyout. 1st Source Sucks is the general consensus. The people my wife encountered were cashing their paychecks at Wal-Mart to avoid them. Even my landlord has had nothing but problems since the transition and is looking for a new bank.

And so are my wife and I. We’ve decided to quit banks in general. We opened accounts at Allegius Credit Union. I like the idea of owning a share in my bank and having a say in how it’s run. Hopefully they’ll appreciate us a lot better than 1st Source. Check out my views on Credit Unions on my other blog, Austerity Blog.

We certainly won’t miss 1st Source Bank. But we do miss FNBV.

Lunacy.

That’s one word describes the plan. I’m an not in support of the closure of the Miller South Shore stop at all. I think it will be a terrible mistake that will hurt commuters and damage long term growth on the South Shore line. If anything the South Shore needs to be adding stations, not removing them.

This is just the latest attempt at building a Potemkin Village in downtown Gary. The logic behind closing the Miller Station is that it will force people to go to the new Gary Metro Center that’s being built by private developers. I want to know what the developers are smoking.

Do they really think that people will drive an extra 10-15 minutes to a new station, pay $3 a day to park, risk their car getting broken into or stolen just to take one for the team and support the new station? Nope, they most certainly will not. The current Gary Downtown South Shore station is underused and in perfectly good nick. The inconvenienced commuters will just drive over to Ogden Dunes South Shore stop, which is already at capacity or simply stop using the service all together, which is the last thing the South Shore needs while it’s trying to gain funding for it’s Valpariaso and Lowell extension. Mass transit needs encouragement for environmental reasons and congestion reasons, don’t give people a reason to ditch it for their cars.

Thankfully, the NICTD is rather dubious about the whole plan and that much was clear this past Friday when the consenus seemed to be that they won’t support closure of the Miller station but are going to have a vote on it at a future date. Miller residents and rail enthusiasts are making their voices heard and it looks like the powers that be might actually listen to them.

If this development of downtown Gary ever actually comes into fruition, let it stand on it’s own merits, don’t hold commuters hostage for the benefit of a private developer. Either way, Gary is a graveyard of failed revitalization efforts. The current downtown Metro center was the last attempt to draw people downtown and it didn’t work. Just look at the abandoned supermarket next to 80-94 for more proof.

Lunacy. I hope better heads prevail and commuters win on this one.

I was dismayed last week to read in The Times that the City of  Valparaiso is going to start a free Movie on the Square program later in the summer. I love movies as much as the next guy but I think this is a horrible idea for one simple reason: the 49er Drive-in.

I love the 49er Drive-in. My wife and I have had many wonderful dates there and seen some fantastic movies. The 49er helped fill the first-run movie void when the Village Theater was torn down a couple years ago.

Why am I opposed to the Movies on the Square? Because the 49er Drive-in does not need more potential customers taken away from it. It simply cannot compete with free. The City of Valparaiso has no business playing movies to the public at no cost.

The 49er is a Valparaiso and Northwest Indiana institution. It is already facing stiff competition from the newly opened Cinemark 12 as well as the massive carbuncle that is the Portage 16 Imax.

Look at it this way, if you provide a family night out on the weekend, with a movie and fun atmosphere that doesn’t cost anything, that option will beat out the Drive-in which which will cost more than that free. You simply cannot compete with free.

Some may argue that the Movies on the Square won’t be competing with 49er because they won’t be showing first run movies. But look at it with the logic of a mother of a family of four who is on a budget. She will pick the free option. The 49er does not need more customers taken away from it.

There is also the nostalgia of going to the Drive-in that can’t be replicated anywhere. Drive-ins are a drying breed and we are very lucky to still have one in such fantastic condition as the 49er. Where else can you get two movies for the price of one and sit in the comfort of your car? Where else can you conceive a child and then take them to the same place several years later?

I understand that Valparaiso wants to bring more people downtown, I just implore them to do it another way so that we don’t lose the treasure that is the 49er Drive-in. We’ve already lost the Y&W Drive-in. I don’t want to see another go.

Check out the 49er Drive-in website to see what’s playing this week.

Just say no to Movies on the Square!