House 228-205 Vote To Reject Bailout!

American can breathe a sigh of relief today.

From the MSNBC article:

Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.

Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home. Despite pressure from supporters, not enough members were willing to take the political risk just five weeks before an election.
Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill.

Update: Apparently House.gov received so many emails from concerned voters that the website went down (or at least slowed it to a crawl and made it unusable). So maybe people can make a difference in government sometimes...OK rarely... I'm sure the protests didn't hurt either. The problem is they are protesting the wrong place. Although every financial institution in America is scrambling to be included in this potential handout, the idea for the for the bailout is coming from Washington, from all those politicians with something to lose if their buddies companies go tits-up. Thankfully the will of the greedy and "Still" President Bush was not imposing enough to force the bailout through the House uncontested. So thank whatever higher power you may or may not believe in, that there are still a few souls left in politics who look out for the nation as a whole.