Dream Come True

The President, Glancing In A Mirror At The White House
(Photo: Talking Points Memo, "Obama's First Year")

Well, as Donka Ufman© would say, this is a rant n' rave™ that's going to be long. But, don't worry! I'll put in pictures of cute animals. Think of them as load-bearing walls in the Winchester Mystery House that is this blog.

So, let's see: President Obama decided that, in his first year of office, he would

--> Continue the Bush-Cheney Policies on Executive Privilege and National Security programs which allow spying on Americans' communications, and blatant violations of Due Process and protections against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures -- frightening legal precedents that undermine basic constitutional principles;

--> Allow to be placed in appointed positions, in the SEC and Federal banking system, former or current executives from Wall Street investment firms (principally, Goldman-Sachs) where they are in positions to affect national policy and legislation that could directly benefit those 'former' employers (this is commonly called "conflict of interest");


This Little Guy Doesn't Want To Live Under Sharia Law.

--> Expand the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and, insofar as we're able the northeastern provinces of Pakistan to seek out and destroy Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership and infrastructure (this, I absolutely agree with -- it should have been done years ago... so, about damn time);

--> While overseeing a massive, taxpayer-funded bailout of banks and investment firms (all so interconnected that if you paid money to one it ended up with another -- for example, a third of the bailout funds paid to AIG actually went to Citibank and another large percentage to Goldman-Sachs), Obama made the assumption that the money would allow banks to begin lending again, thus fueling a recovery by creating production, demand, and jobs for the millions who badly need them.

Instead, the banks and investment firms took the Federal bailout money -- that would be yours, and mine -- and rather than lend more to small businesses, restricted their loans... and then paid out hundreds of billions in bonuses to its executives (and some to a few staff employees, too).


This Little Kitty Is Goldman-Sachs' New Advertising Mascot --
You Know, Like The Aflac Duck, or the Merril-Lynch Lion.

--> At The Same Time, the banks were slow to renegotiate the terms of many toxic mortgage loans (when they did at all), and Federal programs to assist homeowners with mortgage issues seemed designed more to help the banks holding the mortgages, rather than homeowners;

--> Finally, Obama, as head of the Democratic Party, gambled all its political capital with the public that had voted, hopefully, for Obama in 2008, on a single throw -- Health Care reform legislation. That may now have gone into the toilet.


This Cute Puppy Is Non-Denominational.

As a result, in a future not all that long from now, the period of mid-2006 to early 2009 may be seen as an aberration, a break in the Thug dominance of the country. We may be headed towards a Dream Come True for the wealthy and the social conservatives, who don't really care if a Christian Hitler clone or an Avocado is made President (please note: I didn't say elected).

We may move closer to the kind of nation Lil' Boots was beginning to rule when he was brushed off: Where the Middle Class is made poorer, year after year; where the upper 2 to 5 per cent of the American population is made richer; where politics is dominated by a single party so completely that most national policy is about allowing the Free Market to do whatever it wants...


Daily Purchase Of These Plush Mini-Toys Will Be Mandatory.

Leaving us with a small group of Owners with money, access and influence; and a group of social Xtian Thugs allowed to enact whatever laws or regulation they want on the country -- so long as they don't really challenge the Owners. And then there's the rest of us, serving both of these groups or their interests, one way or another -- because we won't have any choice.

And for all this, I'm pissed off.

UPDATE: Over at TPM (a site I go to daily, just to note what new Thang is happening in American politics), a former Republican Congressional staffer emailed the site's owner, Josh Marshall, with some observations about What's Up With Obama and the Dems.


Our Fiscal Problems Have Forced Us To Rely On New Forms Of
National Defense That We Can Afford. China Is Pleased.

Ask yourself, is it easier to pass a difficult, complex legislative agenda when the country is under stress if the opposition party is seen as the Party of Bush, or if the opposition party is able to begin redefining itself as the party of populism, or of un-Washingtonism, or of fiscal restraint? Give the opposition party a fresh start, for free, and you've bought yourself all manner of trouble. That's really the only transformative development Obama has presided over so far.

A fairly trenchant and cogent analysis, as they say; worth the read.

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