Congressman Donald Young, a Republican who is Alaska's only representative in the House of Representatives voted No to the financial rescue proposal on Monday. But now that there's some momentum for the ultimate passage of the legislation, Representative Young decided to extract some good out this thing other than just the provisions of the financial rescue. In Section 503 of the revised bill, a provision has been added at Representative Young's request that will lower the excise tax on wooden arrows (yes, like in bows and arrows). Reportedly, the "arrow amendment" was drafted for Representative Young by a lobbyist for a sporting goods manufacturer. Representative Young has agreed to vote Yes on he re-vote if his amendment is included in the bill.

I'm sure there are probably some Democratic congressmen who are "piling on" this bill, as well. But if there was ever an example of someone who was lining his pockets when he should be considering the resolution of a national crisis, this is it.

Tom Friedman of the New York Times was right when he wrote in today's column, "I’ve always believed that America’s government was a unique political system — one designed by geniuses so that it could be run by idiots. I was wrong. No system can be smart enough to survive this level of incompetence and recklessness by the people charged to run it.