Please Cut the Crap!

Bipartisanship With Petulant Children; Is it Possible?

Look, I'm all for President Obama seeking support from Republicans.  After all, he is the president of all of the people, and Republicans are people, too. But for Chrissakes; at what point does he get that the leadership representing the Republican Party in Congress -- especially the Senate -- is made up mostly of people whose election hasn't come around yet, so they haven't had the opportunity to be tossed out on their asses. Yet. Moreover, they have no concept of what "bipartisanship" actually means, so you have to teach it to them. To them, bipartisanship means, "you do what we want." They sound very much like the biggest kids in fifth grade, who have gotten to ninth grade, but don't seem to realize all of the other kids are now bigger. 

 

When you listen to these morons, I swear to you they're living in a goddamn echo chamber or something. They seem to be sealed off from the real world somehow; to them, 2006 and 2008 never even happened.  First, the idiot Republicans in the House voted as a bloc AGAINST a stimulus package designed to relieve the current economic mess that THEY caused in the first place. And what did they choose to bitch about? I mean, besides the pennies the bill was scheduled to toss at contraceptive programs.

 

The DEFICIT!

 

I kid you not! I almost fell out of my chair! Suddenly, John Boner (sp?), the House MINORITY Leader (I made the letters bigger so that he understands that's who he is now -- the MINORITY Leader), decided he finally gives a shit about the deficit, and perhaps we shouldn't add to it, because, well, it's pretty big. HIS PARTY is responsible for adding $10 trillion of the $11 trillion debt we find ourselves with, and they accumulated that debt at a time when they were declaring the economy was just humming along. Now, suddenly, after they tossed our tax money to their friends and supporters for the last eight years, they've decided we're borrowing too much, and we should really be a little more responsible with the people's money.

 

Bite me, Boner (sp?).

Failing to Bail

My feelings are so mixed after this bailout bill failed today.

 

I read the bill last night, and again this morning, and I have to tell you; it was a pretty good bill. Instead of handing $700 billion over to the Bush Administration in a lump sum, it put the money out there far more slowly and deliberately, and required accountability all the way down the line. Given the intransigence of the Republicans on the issue of oversight (they want none), and their inability to admit they have ever done anything wrong, it was a pleasant surprise to see a bill, crafted by both parties that limited the sales of mortgage securities and closely monitored the market, to make sure taxpayers weren't being ripped off. More impressive still was the provision that prohibited anyone from "unfair enrichment." Okay, so that idea is open to interpretation, but at least it's there.

 

So, I was a little disappointed that it didn't pass.

 

Let's make something clear. There needs to be a bailout. Yes, the markets have acted irrationally, and a lot of crooks have been allowed to rape the market under the Republicans' watch. And yes, the rampant deregulation of pretty much everything financial ended up screwing us royally.

It Really Is the Economy, Stupid -- This Time, Let's REALLY Change It!

You know, one of the greatest frustrations in being somewhat liberal is the tendency for others of my ideological ilk to demonize individuals, and to focus on specific people as "the problem."

Our economy is damn close to a total meltdown, and we're closer to being a Third World country than at any time in our history. In a system that purports to be capitalist, we the taxpayer are now expected to bail out these "Captains of Industry" to the tune of $1 TRILLION, just to prevent the collapse of the economy.

Let me make something clear here, folks. This is not the fault of a few select individuals; it's about ideology. This election represents a turning point for this country. It's not about Republican vs. Democrat, it's not about Obama, or McCain, or Bush and Cheney, or Palin. This election is about repudiating an IDEOLOGY; an ideology that has kept us stagnate since the far right took over the government in 1981, that has managed to make the economy look better than it was with a series of bubbles and an unprecedented amount of debt, and which has pushed us to the brink of economic annihilation.

A good economy makes things and sells them for a profit. A good economy provides good jobs for as many people as possible, and pays them enough to create a good life. A good economy encourages entrepreneurship.

We do not have a good economy, and we haven't for at least 35 years. We started to recover in the right way under Bill Clinton, because he guided programs that propped up the bottom rungs of the economy, and he encouraged manufacturing and increased trade. But overall, our economy has been shipping most good jobs overseas, pay has been largely stagnant since the mid-1970s, and the level of actual entrepreneurship is so low as to be frightening. And has anyone even begun to comprehend the amount of debt we hold as taxpayers? We'd better start thinking about it, because that debt has to be paid back at some point. And the higher that debt goes, the harder and more expensive it will be to borrow money later. And since we're currently counting on borrowed money just to make ends meet in the current right wing economic environment, that will eventually cause us serious problems in the near future. 

And no matter what the people on the right tell you, make no mistake; it's not liberal policies, or free-spending liberalism, that is causing our economic problems.

The culprit is a right wing Republican ideology, which takes money from the poor and hands it to the rich. They still push the completely discredited concept of "trickle down economics," even though it's been nearly 30 years, and the only thing that's "trickled down" to the poor and working classes is the urine from the rich fat cats who have made out like bandits on your dime, and who are proceeding to piss all over you.

This election is about returning us to an economic model that worked, and abandoning the failed economic policies of a generation of right wing Republican theory that has proven itself to be both economically and morally bankrupt. Again; this isn't juast about a difference between Obama and McCain;this is about  complete change in mindset; to making people count again.

When Did the United States Become a Nation of Pussies?

Today is the 39th anniversary of the day that American astronauts first set foot on the moon.

Think about that a moment. Within ten years, this great country was able to go from being unable to fire a rocket into space, to putting men into space, then creating a way for them to land on the moon, take off from the moon, and return home safely, six out of seven times.

Contrast that with today, 39 years later, when we're looking at taking 20 years to increase the average gas mileage of our cars to 34 miles per gallon, and lessening our use of "foreign oil."

When World War II was declared, a factory in Detroit that made Ford automobiles was retrofitted to manufacture helicopters for the war effort, and was able to do so in the space of eight weeks.

Contrast that with today, when all American car companies claim they can't compete in the global market, and they have to shut down for years, just to be able to make cars that people want to drive, cars they should have been making all along.

During World War II, our leadership was able to mobilize the entire country to defeat the Nazis and Japanese Imperial Forces, two of the most formidable powers in the history of world, and helped defeat them within four years.   

Contrast that with today, when our leadership expects us to cower in fear at rogue actors who might strap a bomb to their waist and blow up everyone within a short distance.

What have we become? We're afraid of everything these days. How have we gone from "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," to the current attitude, whereby; we're afraid of terrorists, because they might want to "kill us for our freedoms;" we're afraid to switch to alternative fuels, because it might entail pumping something other than gas; we're afraid to try anything new, because it may not work?

When did the United States become a nation of pussies?

McCain Trades Political Favors for Campaign Cash

The kind of thing I read in this morning's Washington Post makes you wonder if John McCain's psychology isn't such that every time he does something good, he follows it up with something bad, just to even things out, and make sure he can still be a member of the Republican Party.

See, there were these developers in Arizona, and they wanted to do a little land swap, so they could build 12,000 homes in Tempe, presumably to be purchased with the sub-prime scam loans that are causing such a problem. Well, at first, John McCain the sometime environmentalist was against it; too many people, and bad for the environment.

Then, the lobbyists for the developer started talking to him, and he went from being against it, to being their champion. Funny thing about those lobbyists; that developer knew just who to hire to get McCain to go for his idea; it was uncanny. They hired one of McCain's former campaign managers, two of his former staffers, one of which is now he chief of staff for his current presidential campaign, and a major McCain donor, who is now bundling lots of checks for the presidential candidate.

it was amazing; they started talking to him, and within a short time, he was not only no longer against the land swap, he was championing legislation to make sure it happened.

Pretty amazing the influence these lobbyists have with "The Maverick," isn't it? Oh, did I tell you; so far, his buddy, the lobbyist-bundler, has raised more than $100,000 for the McCain campaign. But that has nothing whatsoever to do with McCain's support! Perish the thought...

Now, for those of you with short memories, this revelation comes just a couple of weeks after the New York Times reported that in 1999 McCain helped the aptly named Don Diamond, one of the senator's top fundraisers, to obtain the land and water rights to a prime spot of California coastline after the closing of an Army base for $250,000. Two years later, Diamond sold that same land for $30 million. It wasn't the first time he rewarded Mr. Diamond, either; in 1991 and 1994, McCain passed bills that purchased some of Diamond's land for national parks, for either millions of dollars, or thousands of acres of other land.

Now, perhaps I'm naive, but aren't these stories just a little more important than whether or not Barack Obama wears a lapel pin, or has a pastor with a big mouth?

Just asking...