When will it stop? Well, my hope is January 20th, 2009 – but I’m not altogether sure of that. What am I talking about? In a short answer: The fleecing of the treasury of the United States of America. It is such a privilege to be part of this great nation and it is so so painful to watch the Bush administration kick their skulduggery into high gear as they are preparing to be put out to pasture. The problem I see with this is that it’s George Bush being put out to pasture, but thousands of the rest of them will remain, either as still part of this government or hanging around until their next opportunity. As I was driving to school yesterday (my day job – and believe me I understand the importance of keeping it) I heard the news that Henry Paulsen and his surrogates had stayed up all night again, this time to “bail out” Citi corp – which is essentially Citibank and a bunch of connected businesses. I thought immediately, when is this dude going to run out of money to give to his banking friends? And how blatant can you get – won’t “loan” the auto makers $25 Billion but will give $45 Billion to a bank that had put itself up for sale the previous week and evidently wasn’t worth buying.

There are a bunch of problems I have with this. First off, we have Democrats (rightly so) demanding some accountability from the auto makers before they will step in and provide them the “bridge loan” that has been requested. I’m OK with that, as long as the lawmakers are committed to getting this done before the calamity of a GM bankruptcy – and I’m not buying for a minute the republican speel that this would be good for GM and the country. Whatever you think about GM’s management, they are being victimized by the financail “meltdown” that is the result of republican nonsense for the past 30 years, but accelerated by stupid greedy decisions – more than normal for even the republicans – in the past 8 years. People can’t get loans to buy cars, and now with all the lost jobs, people can’t get loans period, because they can’t even pay for their food! As I wrote earlier, I’m convinced the republicans see an opportunity to destroy one of the largest unions in the country and that is their goal here, no matter what the residual consequences – they have the money to withstand whatever lies ahead.

At the same time they are fighting the auto makers, republicans (ie Bush/Paulsen) continue to give this money to their banking buddies, and pretty much without oversight. I mean I’m even hearing Senators and Representatives wondering what these institutions are doing with the money. We know that AIG was using the money to further executive perks that were obscene to anyone but the filthy rich. The initial recipients of the money that was originally intended to buy up the “toxic” assets of the struggling mortgage lenders reportedly have used much of that money for things like executive bonuses, dividends to shareholders, and to buy up other banks. In other words, it’s been business as usual and we, the taxpayers, have just extended their incredible ripoff of the last eight years for a few more months. I’m supposing that these bankers are guessing that once Obama is President and they run out of the first “wave” of the $700 Billion, he will be forced to give them the second wave of the money – and I’m sure they are arrogant enough to expect it to be without “strings” then as well. This whole thing is unbelievable to me.

Does anyone besides me remember that some rich Saudi (remember, Saudi Arabia is where all the highjackers from 9/11 came from, it’s where we’ve been sending our money for the last so many years to the point where they have more of it than we do) purchased something like a $5 Billion interest in Citibank just a few short months ago? Has it crossed anyone’s mind that the Bush family has generational ties to the Saudi’s – including the Bin Ladens and others in the aristocracy over there, probably including whoever this “Sheik” was that invested in Citi? I mean, Washington Mutual was allowed to go into bankruptcy and was immediately purchased by JP Morgan Chase. Why did Citibank deserve more? Forgive me, but I have to think that the interests of this Saudi Billionaire (I really wish I could remember his name – and now that I think of it, it might have been the royal family or a large Saudi business that invested the money – if I was a real blogger I’d investigate :o) Really now, is it any surprise to see the Bushites claiming as much of this money as they can before they are booted out the door.

And I think it’s the bold arrogance of it all that bothers me the most. They have the Democrats pegged to a tee! They fully understand that this generation of Democrats don’t have the spine to stand up to them. I personally don’t get it. I can only assume that the Dems view their job security as worth capitulating on some of the most important challenges of the past half century. They’re standing by, making excuses about how “their hands are tied,” as this continued robbery goes on and on (of course they’ve been making the same excuses for the last two years – seems to be kind of habit forming). I even heard today that Paulsen is poised to ask for the remaining part of the $700 Billion because he’s run out of “fun money” for his buddies. All of this while the rest of us just keep sinking lower and lower – hoping that Obama gets here in time to rescue the ship. Of course, the last thing the republicans want is for Obama to be able to rescue the ship. They want to create a situation that is so bad that they can spend either four or eight years blaming the putrid economy on President Obama and hope that the American people are dumb enough to buy it. I hate to say this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the lame duck congress gave them the money – they’ll get scared into it again – probably in return for giving GM, Ford, and Chrysler enough to last them until Obama gets into office. UGHHHH!!!!

These republicans need to be in jail for what they’ve done and what they are continuing to do. They put Martha Stewart in jail for some flimsy “insider trading” charge a few years ago – probably because she went on a date with a Democrat or something – to set an example. Isn’t that ironic – them setting an example – knowing full well that the Democrats are afraid to set a true example with them. I mean, they lied us into a war – borrowed every penny of the funds to pay for it – and pilfered billions right off of the top – again with no oversight and no strings attached. Blatant no-bid contracts that even 6th grade school teachers like me could see for what they were. War profiteering to the tune of incredible sums of money – without even a hint of trying to hide what they were doing. Wiretapping our phones without warrants – reading our emails without a warrant – I mean I never thought I would live to see the day when my government would be doing this let alone getting away with it in “broad daylight.” And at this point, I blame the Democrats – because if they don’t stop these thugs there’s no one else to do it. The republicans have control of the “liberal media” and the courts – we have been voting to get Democrats in Congress to put a stop to all this – and the result is that Bush and company have just increased the thievery!

I’m reading a book by Mark Crispin Miller called “Cruel and Unusual” which is a bit passe’ because it was written in about 2004, but it’s a very enlightening book. One nugget I got from the book is that the refusal to honor subpoenas is nothing new for Bush and the republicans. They were doing the same thing in Texas before Bush became President (illegitimately as it was – now there’s a topic for a bunch of history books in my opinion). But I fully expect the democrats to allow Rove, Meyers, Bolten and the others who have refused to honor subpoenas to walk away “scott free.” This to me is appalling. And the torture. When the US tortures people, we are ALL responsible! I really don’t understand why that is such a hard concept to get across to the Democrats in congress. We need more than inquiries, we need criminal investigations, and we need to let the cards fall where they may. I am increasingly nervous that Obama is going to let these thugs “walk” in the interest of “moving on.” Clinton did this regarding Iran/Contra and the same criminals re-appeared eight years later and look at the results. It just got worse, and mark my words, it will get worse again – they will be back feeling enabled to take their thuggery to the “next level” if we don’t draw the line right now! These guys won’t quit and go away just because they lost an election.

There is much to be hopeful about, but untold damage can be done in the last two months of Bush’s Presidency. Anyone who thinks that Bush is not going to do as much damage as he possibly can, is fooling him/herself. In the run up to the election I felt a real sense of apprehension thinking that even though, by rights, considering the qualifications of the two candidates and the circumstances “on the ground” it should be a “blowout.” However, I just didn’t trust the system – the voting machines, the media, eveything involved seemed to have been “fixed” over the last many years. As I watched Obama declared the winner I was embarrassed because I couldn’t contain the tears (I’m a former sawmill worker – sawmill workers don’t cry! :o) My sense of excitement over an Obama presidency will wear off rapidly if the Democrats continue to act like cowards in the face of a group of people who are clearly trying to circumvent the clear intentions of our founding fathers who created this great self-ruling nation. I can think of a lot of scenarios that could have led to the last 30 years, some seemingly very far-fetched, but the reality is that the republicans have stolen trillions (with a capital T) of dollars and they’re trying to steal the entire government that is the longest standing self-rule in the history of the world. Once Obama is officially in office the word “Bailout” need only be used to describe Bush/Cheney & Co.’s personal needs!