Crisis, Republicrats, and "Change" Elites Can Believe In

As the saying goes, I don't come around here much any more. It's not for lack of interest. To the contrary, my interest in the political health and happenings is as strong as ever. Certain things beyond my control limit my ability to write. So you might say I'd have to get fairly fired up to print anything.

No one was more pleased on November 4th last year to see Barack Obama win the presidency. For, like many, I believed. I believed an unprecedented crisis called for a cessation of "more of the same." The nation simply can't afford it. I repeatedly said that if Barack Obama turns out to be another Bill Clinton; we're screwed. Not since March of 1933, when Herbert Hoover handed a flaming torch to Franklin Roosevelt has there been such a stark choice put before those who govern.

That is, play the same game, side-tracking onto issues that fit an ideology, or really DO something about the steady, corrosive dismantling of the middle class in America. The people of the United States do not have the luxury of pretending that this whole mess is just a little hiccup on the road to "recovery"...that is, recovering the status quo prior to the economic collapse in September 2008. In fact, the collapse was nothing more than the end result of 40 years of separating politics from economics.

Mr. Obama has not even assumed the office of president, and already the signs are there of the choice being made. Same 'ole same 'ole....throw the old bums out; put the new bums in, as Stephen King put it once. The first is the S-CHIP program, voted on this week. It involves a $33 billion dollar budget for a very laudable and worthy program. However, in light of current events there is something disconcerting about depending so strongly upon tobacco taxes.

S-CHIP will benefit those of lower incomes who make too much for Medicaid yet not enough to afford private insurance. Congress (and the new President) are ensuring an extension and expansion of S-CHIP by levying a huge tax increase on the lower economic strata. It's simply a fact that most smokers are not well off; in fact most are not far above or are below the poverty line. But smoking is evil, etc., and that's just too bad. After all, it's .....FOR THE CHILDREN!!

So our new government is going to transfer a huge amount of money from the bottom and to the bottom. Now that is an exchange any Wall Street banker can believe in.

Additionally, President-elect Obama is making noises about "fiscal responsibility" that involve Social Security and Medicare. Granted, Medicare is a mess, especially after that ridiculously irresponsible "drug benefit" launched by an idiot president and an equally idiotic congress.

But Social Security has been stolen from EVERY YEAR since the mid-1960's. Remember, even the "surpluses" at the end of the Cinton years wouldn't have looked so rosy if the money stolen from Social Security was not included. If the word "stolen" seems a little excessive, I'm just quoting the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who, testifying before a senate committee many years ago, made that claim. I clearly remember him telling the committee that if General Motors was doing with their pension funds what the congress was doing with Social Security, the board of directors would have been in prision a long time ago. But, legality is not a problem when you're the ones making the laws.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration is making it clear that this "Grand Bargain" is going to require some people in the country to bend over. And it isn't going to happen on Wall Street.

So lately I'm asking myself what the difference is between this new era of "change" and the status quo? A Democratic Party that is more like the Republican Party means the change is in the rhetoric, not the substance. Peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining is not change.

I personally don't matter. The nation matters. And if, through stupidity and myopia the "leaders" in government kow-tow to the elites who have fairly well run us over a cliff and into a manure pile, ....well that DOES matter.

Bush Admin Ignored Warnings Again, Leading to More Disaster

Good Morning Papamoka Bloggers - I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and weekend. It was beautiful here in Southern California. I would like to talk about a new AP story this morning that is saying the Bush administration ignored plenty of warnings that the current economic MELTDOWN was on its way.

I know many of you Republicans out there like to say that 9/11 was not the Bush Administration's fault. Most historians disagree. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Bush national security team ignored plenty of warnings from the outgoing Clinton Administration and from intelligence agencies. Many historians blame them for the disaster. It happened ON THEIR WATCH.

Now there is evidence to suggest that the Bush economic team ignored warnings of the economic disaster. According to the AP, they "backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed." They supposedly "ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown."

"The administration's blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of its governing philosophy, which trusted market forces and discounted the value of government intervention in the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since the 1930s."

If you go back to the very beginning of this blog (Our Rants & Raves), you can read some earlier posts where I give my own first-hand exposure to the type of mortgage sellers described in the AP story. I worked across the hall from one - it launched months after Bush won the office. It was obvious to anybody watching that it was a new kind of mortgage business - it was obviously predatory.

So, it appears that the Bush Administration is not only going to be known for one of the worst and most deceitful foreign policy blunders in American history, the Iraq War, but it will also be proven over time that it could have prevented TWO OF THE WORST DISASTERS EVER TO HIT THE NATION - 9/11 and the 2008 Economic Meltdown.

I hope you Republicans understand exactly how much damage you caused. You elected a MORON! I know that you never admit it, but it's true. You caused more damage in eight years than any foreign power could ever aspire to. Your success at installing that IDIOT was the worst thing to happen to this nation since the Civil War. You devastated us.

Bush keeps saying in various recent interviews discussing his "legacy" that he never compromised his principles. He's like a broken record talking about his principles. SO THE HELL WHAT? Principles are important, but there's more to being a leader.

Why doesn't he regret his JUDGEMENT? He never regrets how he ignored relevant facts and made bad decisions. The man had/has NO INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY and HORRIBLE JUDGEMENT! I challenge any of you to defend the Bush Administration. Go ahead, I dare you. This is a blog, use it!

Incredibly, your support for McCain/Palin, two more bottom-of-their-class-bottom-dwellers, shows that you haven't learned your lesson. I only hope that you learn a thing or two about governance over the next four to eight years, and abandon that unbelievable willingness to elect fools as leaders.

Hopefully the majority of Americans, especially independents and fair-minded Republicans, will realize that voting based on fear, narrow moral views, or simple passion is not enough. We must always vote for the most qualified individual. We must always try to elect the person who understands the issues, subtleties and complexities of this very complicated world. I sincerely hope we never have to suffer through this again.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog