Bailout Outrage Races Across the Web

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"Other People's Financial Excesses"

Then there are the more humble, makeshift calls to action, like a Web site called Tax Payers Against a Wall Street and Mortgage Bailout Petition, set up by a man named Thomas Roach. Readers can sign on to a letter to President George W. Bush and others politely asking, "Please do not support the efforts to bail out mortgage holders and mortgage lenders with my tax dollars. As a responsible citizen, I do not believe it is right for you to ask me to pay for other peoples' financial excesses."

The Project on Government Oversight and the National Taxpayers Union are criticizing Paulson's proposal to prevent any judicial or legislative review of his bailout moves. An open-government group called the Sunlight Foundation posted the full text of Paulson's proposal and Senator Christopher J. Dodd's (D-Conn.) counter-proposal on PublicMarkup.org, where readers can read and comment on each.

Other online manifestos are less earnest. A letter fashioned after the iconic Nigerian hoax e-mail is circulating in in-boxes. "I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America," the letter from "Paulson" reads. "My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.…We need a blank check.…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."

Meanwhile, on a site whose name defies publication, if not linking, users are posting pictures of their personal junk next to the tagline, "Hey Washington, can you buy my bad investments, too?" The total asking price of the "pile" submitted by users—which includes reading glasses and a book called The Boys and Their Mama for a combined $12,254.90, and $24,000 in student loans for art school—is approaching $500 billion.

Opposition on Social Networks

Not surprisingly, bailout critics are also having their say on social networking Web sites. There are almost 300 members in the Facebook group "Just Say No to the Government Bailout." The anti-tax group Taxfreesociety.com is also "organizing moral opposition" to the bailout through its new Facebook group, "Stop the Bailouts!" The group administrator says the purpose is "to utilize the latest social networking tools" to voice opposition.

Then, of course, there's YouTube. Bailout-related videos include straightforward clips of Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke calling on Congress for the bailout. Others, however, include rants by amateur newspeople, including a group called the Young Turks. The news-style segment, "This Is How The Bail Out Will Screw You," has had more than 24,000 page views.

Herbst is a reporter for BusinessWeek in New York.