Fear; isn’t that the objective of terrorists. Just thinking about the term, terrorists, leads anyone, I believe, who is thinking logically to come to the conclusion that instilling fear in people would be exactly what people like Osama bin Laden are trying to accomplish through their actions. Therefore, if they succeed in doing this, does that mean they are winning? I’m following former President Bush’s logic in declaring a “war on terror.” To be honest, I never understood the logic behind that “philosophy” if that is what you could call that type of thinking. Isn’t terror, per se, a tactic? How do you declare war on a tactic? I’m trying to generate thought (it would be great to have a discussion, but so far my attempt at a blog has not resulted in any comments, let alone a discussion) about the consequences of having the leadership of our nation resorting to “fear mongering” to accomplish their goals. (when they do that, are they then, themselves, acting like terrorists?)

Now, I know in my heart that the American people are not afraid of bin Laden, or any other leader on the world stage. I believe that, with an honorable man at the helm, should this nation need to mobilize for some terrible reason, whoever might attack us would find the result quite devastating. I believe that most Americans were expecting exactly that after 9/11 and feel betrayed by the Bush administration and their allowing bin Laden to escape while lying this great nation into a disastrous occupation that has nearly destroyed our country. In fact, GW Bush used fear mongering to get the “green light” from Congress to invade Iraq, and they continued to use this tactic for the rest of their administration to get whatever they wanted. Unfortunately, they had a Congress that was way too willing to fall for their tactics. During the first 6 years of Bush’s term it’s a bit easier for me to understand this because the Republican Congress was nothing more than a rubber stamp for whatever Bush/Cheney wanted (I hope to have a discussion about that subject one of these days; I believe part of the reason Congress was so willing under the Republican leadership was because of Dick Cheney and their knowledge of what he would do to any dissenters – but that’s a story for another day)

The capitulating in Congress after the 2006 election, when the Democratic party gained the majority in both houses, is much more difficult for me to understand. There were many cases of where the Democrats allowed themselves to go along with Bush/Cheney because they succumbed to the fear mongering. I’m going to start at the last example of this and maybe work backward, but my purpose is to demonstrate how important it is that we, as Americans, not allow our leaders to “scare” us into making decisions. I DON’T WANT TO FEEL LIKE THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON! Take for example the TARP bailout program for Wall Street. Now, this wasn’t directly connected to the 9/11 attacks, but the strategy Bush/Paulsen used to get it through came directly from what Bush and company had been using to get what they wanted since the World Trade Center/Pentagan tragedies – fear mongering. If you can remember that far back into history, Henry Paulsen and George Bush had convinced everyone in Congress and a solid majority of Americans that the stock market would “tank” (my word) and the banking system could fail if we didn’t act and act quickly. If you remember, Paulsen originally showed up with a three page proposal that would give him total authority of the money with absolutely no oversight.

Of course, the Democrats – being in control (or so it was supposed to be) – said “no way!” They made multiple public statements about how absurd it was for Paulsen (and Bush) to have the nerve to think they were going to get $700 Billion with no strings attached. All the “great” minds of the two parties got together (in fact, if you remember, John McCain “suspended” his campaign for President because this was so important – and he, with virtually no knowledge of our economy – was going to lead the Congress to a solution) and in a couple “hectic” weeks came up with the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailout. This program was going to give the Treasury enough money to buy up the “toxic” assets of the major banks who were hemmoraging from the result of all the sub prime mortgages going bad. Once relieved of these assets, the banks were supposedly going to be able to start lending again. There was talk of some kind of program, once the TARP was in place, to provide relief for the millions of Americans who were losing their homes to foreclosure. Everyone hailed the legislation as vital to saving our economy from disaster.

Well, as we now know, ALL OF THIS WAS UNTRUE – AND AFTER 8 YEARS OF BUSH, SHOULDN’T WE HAVE EXPECTED EXACTLY THAT? First off, the stock market tanked even further – and by my calculations has a fair bit to go before the “moneychangers” get the point. As I’m writing this it’s at about 8000 and it was somewhere around 9 or 10,000 at the time of the “bailout.” Second, not a dime was spent on buying up the so-called “toxic” mortgages which was the original intent of the legislation. Which leads me to point number three; there were virtually no guidelines on how Paulsen could spend the money. As incredible as that seems, IT IS TRUE! I was aghast at the time, and that would be a mild descriptor of how I feel today. And I don’t know who to be more upset with: Henry Paulsen? George Bush? Dick Cheney? – by this point in time – I didn’t expect any of them to do anything that was honorable. And, of course, they didn’t! Paulsen went right to the “brothers” he has spent the past 20+ years prior to his stint as Treasury Secretary to almost force them to take government bailout “loans” which he called investments. More on that a bit later – it’s the Democrats who I believe need to get “what for” for this blunder. They had the majority. They didn’t have the courage to say no. How many times does someone have to “screw” you before you get the picture?

The Democrats caved, just as they had on the war, just as they had on torture, just as they had on warrantless wiretapping, and just as they seem to be doing today as far as any post-Bush accountability. Well, getting back to the TARP bailout funds and what happened to them should finally get the Democrat’s attention. If it doesn’t, I don’t know what will – THEY’VE GOT TO STOP WITH THIS IDEA OF “LOOKING FORWARD!” If they don’t start looking backward, and in detail, Bush/Cheney/Paulsen/et al will have gotten away with BY FAR the greatest heist in the history of this world. I’m not talking exclusively about TARP – but it’s just an example of the brazenous of these b@#%*$ds – and shows how important it is to finally get some accountability. The Democrats essentially gave Paulsen what he originally wanted. They managed to change the original three page proposal into one of considerably more pages that could have been written on the original three pages. There was no oversight provision, no accountability, and Paulsen was able to do with the funds (I guess the only thing they did that might be considered thoughtful, was they limited Paulsen to half of the money – ONLY $350 BILLION – UGHHH!) exactly what he pleased.

So what did we discover this week? The Wall Street banks who received bailout funds from the taxpayers – supposedly banks which would fail (and they were “too big to allow to fail”) – doled out, collectively, $20,000,000,000 in bonuses! I used the zero’s for anyone who doesn’t understand how big a billion dollars is. This comes after finding out that they used the money for just about anything except what was originally intended, to get the flow of money going in the credit markets. The only reason this isn’t criminal is because the Democratic Congress gave Paulsen and his buddies on Wall Street a green light to screw the American taxpayers. As I said in my last post – these are the guys that the people who drive around with “Support the Troops” and McCain/Palin bumper stickers on their cars are supporting. What’s more embarrassing and disgusting for me, I have a “vote Democratic” sticker on my car. The Republicans don’t give a second thought to stealing from the American taxpayer (they’re totally against welfare – unless it’s coming their way) while the Democrats keep bending over and letting the Republicans “have their way with them.” THIS IS FRUSTRATING! President Obama needs to stop pandering to these people and get on with things WITHOUT THEM! And he needs to demostrate a backbone to the rest of his party. Fear mongering has brought us the Iraq war, torture, illegal wiretapping and the “shredding” of the 4th amendment, TARP, and when I really think about it – the second term of Bush/Cheney – they essentially scared people into voting for them. I’ll try to make this clear; Unless we stop with the fear mongering, the terrorists win!