I don’t normally write two posts in one day – but I’m a school teacher and I’m on spring break, so I’ve got a bit of extra time (before I start correcting papers, etc.).  And, based on information I saw today, it calls for a little “patting on the back,” if I do say so myself!  Actually, I do say so myself – I guess I get to do this because it’s my blog :o)  Also, it’s time for the “alarm” to go up a bit as far as the direction of this nation, at least, in my opinion.  If you’ve been reading any of my posts (and based on my service provider some people have) you know that I’ve been calling for investigation of the Bush administration from day one.  Actually, in the beginning of this blog, I was challenging the Democratic Congress to find the courage to impeach the most corrupt administration in our history – the administration of George W Bush.  The main target for me was none other than Dick Cheney, Bush’s Vice President – in the view of many, the man behind many of the most blatant violations of American law during their eight years in office.

 On several occasions I have pointed out that the authorization of torture – admitted publicly by both Bush and Cheney during their final days in office – violated international law, more specifically the Geneva Conventions which were essentially put in place by the United States after World War II and the torturing of American troops by the Japanese.  In fact, I believe one of the “techniques” specifically outlawed at that time was what Cheney calls “enhanced interrogation” and what civilized people call “waterboarding.”  Cheney has openly claimed that the use of waterboarding has been instrumental in “keeping us safe” since 9/11 because of all the attacks that have been “thwarted” with the information gained.  Notwithstanding the fact that his claims have been debunked numerous times by people involved in the actual running down of the “leads,” the use of this technique led to the trial and execution of members of the Japanese Army post WW II.  Everyone who knows even a little about American law and International law understands that by authorizing this torture Bush and Cheney became war criminals (as did the CIA agents who carried out the orders – they’ve destroyed 92 tapes in an attempt to protect their agents).

Where I believe I deserve the “pat on the back” is that, also on several occasions, I have warned President Obama of the consequences of not only not allowing investigations and prosecutions where warranted, but of not encouraging these investigations – and making a firm stand in front of the rest of the world that we will police our own when they commit International crimes.  I pointed out that it would look very bad for the Untited States in its attempt to reclaim the “moral authority” it squandered during the “Bush years” if another country took up the “gauntlett” and did the prosecuting for us.  Well, it looks as if my warning is coming to fruition.  It was announced today by more than one source that the Spaniards are preparing to indict six former Bush administration officials for the war crime of torture.  Based on the reports I saw, David Addington, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, and three others (including a sitting federal judge – appointed, of course, by former President Bush) are soon to be indicted.  According to the report I saw, they will not be arrested unless they leave this country.  I’m not sure how that will play out, but I think this could get even stickier.  Neither Bush nor Cheney was one of the six members of the administration listed in the reports that I saw – one report listed all six and the other listed four – with the caveat that the unnamed two were not Bush and Cheney.

Well, since both Bush and Cheney have admitted to authorizing this, President Obama is left with an interesting dilemma.  Should he encourage prosecutions from our own Justice department or wait for another foreign country to lose patience with our government and indict both Bush and Cheney.  EVERYONE KNOWS THEY AUTHORIZED THIS – and some of the reports I’ve seen imply that the torture went way beyond waterboarding.  When he testified before Congress John Yoo wasn’t even decisive in saying that burying someone alive and then digging them up before they suffocated wasn’t torture – he seemed to imply that as long as they were not killed – it was not torture – THIS GUY IS STILL TEACHING CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELY – OUCHEEEEE!

In my opinion, WE NEED LEADERSHIP HERE!  Sure the economy is in a disastrous state – but how we resolve the lawbreaking of the Bush administration will have far greater long term effects on our nation than this recession – even if it takes five or ten years to get out of this economic mess.  The misdeeds of Dick Cheney are HUGE!  I believe he was the catalyst behind the warrantless wiretapping (which will have to be dealt with sooner or later – whether Obama wants to deal with this or not), the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson (Treason), many of the no-bid contracts in Iraq which resulted in an as yet undetermined amount of fraud against the taxpayers, and this torture policy.  On top of that it has been reported that Cheney was running a Death Squad right out of the Vice President’s office and as many as 10 foreign leaders may have been assasinated as the result, and today it was reported that he was busy undermining Obama’s authority with Israel as his term in office was winding down and they were occupying the Gaza Strip.  I mean, how much does everyone in this nation need to know about Dick Cheney before President Obama decides it’s time to uphold the laws of this great land?  Are we going to leave it up to Spain to prosecute Dick Cheney for all his lawbreaking?

I have shared my concerns regarding President Obama, the position he inherited, and my take on some of the decisions he’s apparently making. I VERY MUCH want President Obama to succeed – just as I wanted President Bush to succeed. And I will be watching carefully as Obama’s administration unfolds – giving my “take” on things – and trying to base my perspective on what I consider to be “the right thing” regarding his decisions. As I’ve stated on this “blog” several times, Obama does not get the free pass from me that the Republicans gave George W Bush during his presidency (and to listen to them now – I think they might be re-thinking the idea that if the President is from your party you just rubber stamp anything he proposes). I was for Obama and I have a vote Democratic bumper sticker on my car – but the bumper sticker was because I was disgusted with Republicans for “rubber stamping” the President. However, I have always been an “Independent” voter and, despite the fact that I find several of Obama’s positions appropriate, I have a lot of questions – and the strength of my support for him was very much influenced by my disgust with Republicans and especially their ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

John McCain proved to be about as two-faced as any politician I have witnessed in my 41 years as a voter. I found it to be a real indictment of our media that he wasn’t “called” more on the incredible number of “flip-flops” he made during his campaign, and worse yet, the “foopahs” where he demonstrated an alarming lack of knowledge regarding the major issues facing this nation. Not knowing the difference between Sunni and Shia got my attention (he made this mistake on several occasions), not knowing that Czechoslovakia is no longer a country, referring to the non-existent Iraqi/Packistani border, and giving himself (as president) powers that don’t exist as he would fire the head of the SEC – all of this demonstrated an incompetence that conceivably could have surpassed that of George W Bush himself. This was really brought to light when McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. The more I discovered about her, the more ridiculous this choice was. Now, for my Republican friends who care only about the Right to Life issue (and only as it has been “used” by the Republican Party to gain a “base” of Conservative Christians) Palin was a great choice. These people are quick to buy into the arguments made by people such as Rush Limbaugh (that in itself really puzzles me – how can devout Christians listen to someone as vile as Limbaugh – someone who in his own life has been shown to be morally corrupt?) explaining away the troubles we face as a nation to everything but their own bad ideas – which have been in the “mainstream” for the past 30+ years. I, myself, would be –  actually, now that I think about it, I can’t even imagine where I’d be mentally – if I had to rely on John McCain and Sarah Palin to solve the enormous problems inflicted on this nation by eight years of George W Bush and company.

We are seeing the results of this over and over as the Obama administration is into its 3rd month in office. Many people understand the situation is dire and they can see we are all depending on Obama to make the “right” decisions – but, from my perspective, things evidently haven’t gotten bad enough for the general public to really “get” how bad it really is. I try to picture the challenges facing Obama and it just seems approaching impossible. Pulling together is our best chance, but that doesn’t seem to be happening just yet. For example, we still have the Republican party saying “No” to everything President Obama proposes. Many of them have openly said they hope he fails. This, in itself, should be enough to put them in their proper place, which in my opinion is oblivion. I guess, many of them don’t see the same consequences of Obama “failing” that I see. And, I guess it’s hard for me to comprehend that Obama’s mission is to “fix” the problems created by the Republicans and GW Bush, so if he “succeeds” it will prove that their ideas are “bankrupt” which many people such as myself have been saying for years. Additionally, the only way I can conceptualize them wanting Obama to “fail” is that they believe if he can’t pull us out of the mess created by Bush et al it will all be Obama’s fault – and then they can regain the power they lost in the 2008 election and revitalize their mission to control every aspect of our government (Karl Rove’s “permanent Republican majority”) – they obviously think the American public is stupid and all I can say about that is I hope they are wrong.  (Their big mistake here, in my opinion, is that acting in opposition to every move he makes will make them the “problem” if he “fails.”)

All this being said, I still believe that our country functions best when there is rational dissent leading to an exchange of ideas with the purpose being to solve major problems. I, for one, am not comfortable with several of the decisions coming from Obama’s presidency. I’ve stated on several occasions that I’m concerned he’s continuing the warrantless wiretapping of the Bush administration – so far, that hasn’t hit the “mainstream media” and I hope I’m wrong about this – but that is a deal breaker for me as far as giving Obama any more financial support (I don’t think he’ll miss my occasional $25). I also don’t see any signs of troops coming home from Iraq and I’m afraid Obama is getting “played” by the military establishment – and for me even if he does what he “last” said, leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq for an additional year and a half (and I believe it’s going to be longer) is unacceptable – ALL THE TROOPS NEED TO COME HOME! and ASAP! At the same time he’s leaving the troops in Iraq he’s sending more troops into the quagmire known as Afganistan – In his campaign he talked about being able to make the “HARD” decisions – I’m really beginning to question this.

And then there’s the economy. Well, in America the economy rules when it comes to keeping your job as a politician – so it is understandable that most of the focus of this nation right now is on the economy. The Bush administration had essentially “bludgeoned” our economy – the best way for me to describe it would be an incredible reverse Robin Hood phenomenon – stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. I couldn’t believe it as it was happening – there was a lot of information “outing” the Bush administration as they were doing this – but the outrage never materialized into any significant numbers until the Wall Street “meltdown.” There were always pundits pointing out the damage of the “trickle down” economic theories put in place by Ronald Reagan – but they had managed to create this incredible false economy through the use of bogus credit schemes which tricked the middle class into thinking that their homes would go up in value forever.   They could then just use them as a bottomless debit card. The problem now is that the middle class is the place where the suffering is intensifying and all the “Reverse Robin Hoods” are situated with billions just waiting to further benefit from their accumulation of wealth as they pick up the pieces left from those who are losing everything – especially their homes. And I don’t believe the worst has happened yet.

All of this has gotten me to my main thoughts for today. I read this morning that the Obama administration has rejected the GM and Chrysler plans required for them to receive additional government “loans” while they try to survive this enormous downturn in their ability to do business. Yesterday the government forced the CEO of GM, Rick Wagoner, to “resign” or take an early “retirement.” Of course I’m not at all involved in the negotiations which have taken place, and, while I believe that these actions are probably very much warranted (I have for a long time felt GM couldn’t see the forest for the trees, so to speak, regarding their continued reliance on “gas hogs” as the main source of profit for each of their “brands”), based on what has transpired during the previous 6 months this action makes the bailouts on Wall Street look even worse. With GM and Chrysler we’re talking about 30 billion dollars (supporting 3 million “blue collar” jobs). Now, in my mind, that is a HUGE PILE OF MONEY! However, it pales in view of what the government has “given” to Wall Street. And, when I say given, that is literally what I mean. A couple trillion with no apparent “strings” attached and nobody getting rid of any CEO’s or anyone else who caused these problems in the first place (well, they did replace the CEO of AIG last fall). FOR WORKING FOLK LIKE MYSELF, THIS DOESN’T LOOK GOOD! A strong case can be made, in my view, that the problems at GM and Chrysler are largely the result of the failure of the banking system. I realize that the government can’t bailout every industry that is affected by the misdeeds of the banking system – but there needs to be some kind of, at least, appearance of fairness in dealing with this crisis.

When we look back on this disaster, and many surely will, I’m feeling that we are going to find a select few Americans’ greed the cause for millions of Americans’ grief. It is of paramount importance that the government provide transparent accountability for all that HAS HAPPENED and IS HAPPENING. I’m absolutely certain that there is and has been a lot of cheating going on by these wealthy Wall Street “moguls.” Bernie Madoff was discovered, but I don’t believe he’s the only one who has been cheating the average American citizen. And I’m very much worried that President Obama is not going to uncover all the wrongdoing. He’s shown a stubborn reluctance to encourage the investigation of his predecessor (despite widespread belief that major crimes were committed) and he’s showing a reluctance to let the Wall Street banks fail (which I believe would lead to investigations uncovering the wrongdoing they have been perpetrating for, in some cases, many years). What kind of message are we sending to the people of this nation (and the world) when we throw – literally – trillions of dollars at our financial institutions – letting them off the hook for their decisions which have been destructive to millions of middle class Americans – and then micro-manage GM before we will loan them the money they need to survive (much of this money would go to thousands of blue collar workers and retirees)? Personally, I believe restructuring Wall Street is far more important than restructuring General Motors!

I’ve been kind of an observer of the stock market for quite some time now. I participated in it, either directly or inderectly, with my own funds for some 10+ years before I tried to get as far out of it as you can while still having money invested in money markets. So, during the last two weeks or so, as the DOW has moved from around 6500 to close to 7500 (I think it got there before it made a slight “retreat”) it has been interesting to read the comments from those who are imbedded in the investment business. It is no surprise to me that they are on the edge of their seats hoping and waiting for evidence that the economy has “turned around.” And, of course, they will measure whether or not the economy has turned around by the numbers generated by the different market averages. I, for one, don’t trust that to be the measure that will really tell when the economy is on the mend. I watched for the eight years of the Bush administration as the market moved higher and higher – while the wages of the middle class were stagnant at best, and by some measures moving lower – and wondered what do these market averages really tell us anyway?

I think, and hope, that dramatic changes lie ahead for our economy. To me, the idea that the stock market is the measure of the health of our economy is the rationale that leads us to measure Christmas by the profits made at Macy’s, Nordstroms, etc. I really hope that we can find a more people-friendly way to measure the health of our nation – and it seems we measure the nation’s health by looking at certain economic “indicators” defined by Wall Street. I believe that some of the statistics that we have grown accustomed to – translate into either confidence or a lack thereof which effects the willingness of Americans to spend their money – and who defines what statistics are important? I think it’s Wall Street. And, the spending – and saving – habits of Americans seem more to be at the root of our nation’s economic health. It seems quite obvious to me that we were living beyond our means in many ways – but that a small percentage of our population was taking a way of life for granted that is more un-sustainable than those of us in the middle of the middle class. Maybe the statistics which would really show the strength of the economy would be aimed at the health of the middle class (or Main Street) instead of the health of Wall Street.

Watching the stock market “move 10%” in the past 10 days or so, in my mind, only threatens to lite the same fire under the “money changers” on Wall Street that got us into this mess in the first place. I try to imagine myself as someone with a large amount of disposable income who might have purchased a million shares of Citi at $1 and sold it a week later at $3.50. I suppose if I was able to do that I would be in a very celebratory mood, but it makes me think that I’m hoping we don’t go back to the “same old, same old” as a way out of this mess. The end result of that, to me, would be more of what got us into this initially and would just mean that we will re-live this experience again, probably in the not too distant future. I’m pretty much expecting the market to take some more heavy drops – and soon – but I don’t pretend to understand how it works. (if you can’t tell, I don’t want to go back to what got us here as the solution to our problems) The other day I heard people talking about how much money has been “lost” in the past couple of years – but the thought came to my mind that – as the stock market is selling off, the money is going somewhere – it’s not like it’s totally disappearing. It seems to me that it just means that those of us who put our money in money markets and differing stock funds are the ones who lose (like the teachers I work with who claim their retirement accounts have dropped as much as 40-50%) – while the people who gamble every day probably are the ones who pulled billions out and are sitting on the “sidelines” waiting for the right time to put it back in. My point is that in my mind the money that got pulled out has to be somewhere – again, I don’t understand how this works, but it just feels like there is a lot of money just sitting somewhere waiting for the “right time” to “jump back in” and continue the get rich quick mentality of the previous few decades (my remembrance of the stock market when I was young – 60’s and 70’s – was that investments in the market were intended to be long term – a matter of years and not days.

This is the mentality that has brought us the banking failures of the past year and, worse to me, the government “bailouts” of the very people who have made bad judgements and have been overcome by greed. Now, the idea of these bailouts are totally on the watch of George Bush, Henry Paulsen, and Ben Bernanke. I mean Bernanke has been throwing money at the problem as if there is an unlimited amount just sitting around waiting for the opportunity to get into circulation. This not only has the hair on my back standing on end, I believe it is finally reaching fever pitch with the public in general. In my mind the AIG “bonuses” put many Americans “over the top.” (I’m still wondering where all this anger was when it was announced at the first of the year that other Wall Street recipients of taxpayer funds had paid out bonuses in the amount totalling 18.5 Billion dollars – including 3.5 Billion to Merrill Lynch executives to reward them for leading this stalwart American corporation into bankruptcy!) What I’m trying to get to here is my fear of where this might be leading us – as a nation.

I realize that Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans are rooting for President Obama to “fail” and I believe this bailout program might be their secret way of doing just that. Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe that Obama is making some very significant, if not huge, mistakes during the infancy of his presidency. This shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone, because the “mess” that was “left behind” by the Bush administration was about as close to impossible a mess as you could leave someone, if it wasn’t impossible. If for no other reason than if Obama is perceived to be failing we could get another dose of Republicans – I REALLY WANT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO SUCCEED! So, I’m going to tell you where I think he’s going wrong – even though some of what I will say will sound like a broken record if you’ve spent any time at all on this site – but, unfortunately, it’s beginning to feel like some of my biggest fears are coming true.

President Obama’s first, and possibly biggest, mistake is trying to work with the Republicans. While, in theory, that is a wonderful idea – IT IS IN THE PROCESS OF BLOWING UP IN HIS FACE. I would be OK with the strategy, if there was a parallel strategy of uncovering all the wrongdoing of the Bush administration that was proceeding forthwith – not at a snale’s pace, but a full agressive investigation of all their shenanigans – which would include the bailout of Wall Street – especially, the bailout of AIG – which seems to have been a totally unregulated gift from Henry Paulsen, via Ben Bernanke, George Bush, and very possibly Tim Geithner (ugh!! – that will be bad for Obama) – a gift that very possibly has an indirect effect on many of the recipients of the so-called TARP money, giving them a double “bonus.” Everyone knows about the torture, the illegal wiretapping, the rendition, the lying us into a war, the outing of a CIA agent by the Vice President of the United States, the corrupting of our Justice Department for political gain, and the destruction of our economy – What is a bit of a mystery is the connection Hank Paulsen had with the people who received about a trillion dollars in the dying days of the Bush administration – ALL OF THIS NEEDS TO BE AGRESSIVELY INVESTIGATED!

And I will tell you how things are going to transpire. If Obama doesn’t change his stance and move toward the investigations of the Bush administration, he is going to find himself on the defensive very soon. The stark reality for President Obama is that he doesn’t have the luxury of a bunch of blind followers who will approve of every decision he makes like Bush had for the first six years of his presidency. People are already questioning the competency of Tim Geithner. All I know about him is that he was head of the New York “Fed” when the TARP bailout was designed and when AIG was declared by Henry Paulsen to be “too big to fail.” Well, when the AIG money is investigated I believe we are going to find out that there was a lot of “benefits” going to “friends” of Paulsen and possibly (I hope not) Geithner. This is not going to look good, or go over very well with “Joe Sixpack.” If Geithner’s involved in this and Obama continues with his present “tact” all eyes will soon be pointed right at him – and it will be too late to do the investigations I’ve been calling for for months now. People are very angry about what is going on. Unfortunately, it appears that Obama is continuing the policies of Bush regarding these failed banks. Just last week it was announced by Bernanke that he’s “throwing” another TRILLION dollars at the mess on Wall Street saying “whatever it takes.”

These guys are causing General Motors to reinvent itself in order to get about $30 billion – including huge “givebacks” by the United Auto Workers – and they’re throwing money at Wall Street as if we can’t get along without them (and, unfortunately, as each day passes President Obama is gaining more and more ownership in the mess he inherited – because of his lack of will to punish those who created it in the first place). I honestly don’t know what those peolpe do that is so important that we couldn’t have just let them get the consequence they deserved a long time ago – which was bankruptcy. I’m sensing that in the long run we’ll discover it would have been much cheaper and more effective to have let them fail – and then come in with the trillions that the Fed seemed to have lying around in order to reconstitute these companies without all the multi-million dollar “risk managers” who have failed so miserably – FOR ALL OF US! For some reason President Obama’s administration has adopted the “They’re too big to fail” approach to this problem just like his predecessor and it almost appears as if all of his economic advisors come from the very environment that is at the heart of this problem – Wall Street. He is going to have to make some HARD DECISIONS – he needs to totally separate himself and his administration from the people who caused this (even if Geithner and Larry Summers have to “go”) and I so hope he succeeds. However, I’m feeling that he’s falling into a trap set for him by some very cagey Republicans – and the thought of them “coming back” makes me sick to my stomach (I’ll say it again, can you imagine John McCain and Sarah Palin in charge of this mess – and all the other things Obama is dealing with?). So my message to the President is: President Obama, put the Republicans on the defensive via agressive investigations, and make a clean break from the policies of Bush/Paulsen et al!

OK, if you’ve been around this site before you know that I supported Barrack Obama in his campaign for President but that I am not giving him “Carte Blanche`” as GW Bush got from his Republican supporters during his term as President of the United States. And I’m seeing evidence of the “Red Flags” I mentioned a few posts back (it’s all becoming blurry to me – I never imagined writing over 100 posts when I started this self-psychological project – trying to keep my sanity in a world “gone bad”) regarding decisions of our new President. I guess what I’m trying to do is have a public “I told you so” record which nobody will know about unless I point it out to them – kind of like the guys on TV who predict who will win the Super Bowl and you never hear from them after it’s over unless they were right. I guess like most people I want “my cake and eat it too.” (I never quite understood where and why that “truism” ever came about)

I’ve been cautioning President Obama to stop “coddling” Republicans – warning him this was a strategy that will ultimately blow up in his face – possibly destroying his Presidency. He doesn’t appear to be reading my site. I’ve been encouraging him to “go after” the criminal element of the Bush administration which would include Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Gonzales/Rove/Addington/Yoo/Wolfowitz and others to some degree – maybe just discressions which would cause them to lose their professional certification – such as John Yoo, a Law Professor at Cal Berkeley being disbarred (I can’t even imagine him at Berkely – shows you the problem with tenure) – while others should be doing jail time. My fear is that Obama’s reluctance is tied to the possibility that there is some kind of unwritten rule that Presidents don’t “go after” other Presidents – kind of like doctors don’t make accusations against other doctors, lawyers tend to shy away from testifying against other lawyers, etc. The problem is that we have these corrupted cultures at the top of the “food chain” to use an analogy that hopefully paints the right picture – and the only way to get this problem cleared up is for people at the top to prosecute people who have been at the top before them, i.e. – Obama’s Justice Department prosecutes Bush’s administration from top to bottom – and Obama makes a principled stand in support of this which sets an example for generations to come that the abuses of the past eight years will never again be tolerated – PERIOD!!!

I know a lot of my acquaintances don’t even want to hear that Obama might be following the footprints of Bush in any kind of way. And I can tell you that it will be very uncomfortable for Democrats if he does and then has to defend those actions against a Right Wing which has seemingly become more marginalized than ever following the previous election disaster for the Republicans. But let me clear your thinking a bit here. First of all, the true “Right Wingers,” that is, the ones who are acting like a tiger which has been backed into a corner (and they have) are coming out fighting. Don’t for a minute think that they are feeling defeated. They are using terms like socialist when they talk about the Bush administration and they are the ones mostly on the attack regarding the actions of the previous eight years. Now, I “get” that most of their anger comes from the fact that they had almost pulled off the impossible and gained a stranglehold on the entire government of the United States of America – much to the chagrine of our Founding Fathers. Madison/Jefferson/Hamilton et al had attempted to create a document when they wrote the Constitution which made it virtually impossible for one “party” to gain control of all three branches of government. They came close to doing this – and they fully realize that if the “Obama Phenomenon” can be limited to four years, they might still be able to accomplish their goals.

You might think this is absurd at this point – but let me give you a possible scenario where things could blow up in President Obama’s face. First of all, his reluctance to hold Bush and Company accountable is angering many of his followers – and many of his potential followers – people who believe that he, as a constitutional scholar, has to know better than to let some of this stuff go unchallenged. And, I can guarantee you that as time passes, more and more of the “transgressions” are going to be coming out and Obama will look worse and worse for not pushing for investigations should they not happen. That will make him vulnerable to losing the support of people like me. Second, the Right Wing of the Republican party REALLY DOES WANT OBAMA TO FAIL! And they will do whatever they can to make sure that happens. Right now, they are setting him up by their own “Throwing Bush under the buss” tactics which will make Obama look bad the more stuff that becomes public that is obvious illegal activity – can’t you just hear all the “I told you so’s coming from the Limbaugh’s and others as they try to undermine Obama’s popularity?

Then we get into the real problem for Obama. The places where he actually supports Bush policies – this will be his undoing if it happens. It appears that Obama is going to be leaving troops in Iraq indefinitely (according to Thomas Ricks in “The Gamble” his supplement to his great book “Fiasco” on Iraq) – certainly he’s already said they will be there for 15 months longer than his campaign pledge – and I haven’t seen anything coming from Ricks so far that would lead me to believe that he doesn’t know what he’s reporting – THIS (Indefinite occupation) IS GOING TO BE A PROBLEM “DOWN THE ROAD.” Then there’s Afganistan – Obama has already pledged an additional 17,000 troops for a mission that is not defined – and which to me is a potential MAJOR PROBLEM. Osama bin Laden’s original wish was for us to get bogged down in Afganistan – and I hope that Obama doesn’t fulfill that wish 7 years after the “fact.” He’s also continuing the financial bailouts which, even though it’s absurd to place any of the blame on him for the problems at AIG or the major financial institutions, the Right Wingers are already attempting to do so and they are setting Obama up for some major attacks in the next year or so if things don’t drastically change – and if Obama sticks to his guns regarding changing the direction of our economy he will need time – years not months – in order to be successful. Propping these banks up and drowning our economy in printed money has the distinct possibility of backfiring as well – and, believe me, the Limbaugh’s, Hannity’s, Gingrich’s, Huckabee’s, and the one who I believe will be their water carrier Romney – are preparing to pounce on every opportunity to turn this country against President Obama.

Obama is going to need every one of his base of support when it comes time to get a second term – and the thing that is irking me the most is apparently actually coming true. I have mentioned on several occasions that I have a really bad feeling about Obama’s take on the warrantless wiretapping abuses of the Bush administration. The first “Red Flag” came when he voted, as a Senator, for the FISA bill which granted immunity to the Telecom companies who have conspired with the NSA to “eavesdrop” on millions of American’s phone conversations and email messages. This was the Bush administration’s way of protecting themselves from court proceedings which would have exposed the obscene number of felonious legal violations they committed during the post 9/11 “era” (many people have reported that the illegal wiretapping began pre-9/11). Well, it looks like my fears in this area are coming true, although for some reason the news hasn’t made the front page yet. In the Al-Haramain case which is in the court of Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco the Obama Justice department is supporting the Bush administration’s effort to keep secret some documents which were accidentally mailed to the Al-Haramain Foundation’s lawyers proving that they were being illegally wiretapped without a warrant. This case has the possibility of being the first to document the abuses of the Bush administration in their blatant disregard for the fourth amendment of our constitution. I would expect Obama to allow this case to go forward without defending the Bush policies – but it’s been reported that Obama “doesn’t want to give up this power.” I can say without question that I will no longer support President Obama if he chooses to continue the illegal wiretapping of the Bush administration! And, along with these other points, I believe he will be choosing to be a one term president if he follows this path. I mean, do you really think the Right Wing Republicans will be supporting illegal wiretapping when it is being done by President Obama?

There’s a book out called “Angler” about the Vice Presidency of Dick Cheney and anyone interested in the present day war of ideas between the banished Republican “neocons” and the so-called “progressives” led by President Obama should read this book. Apparently, not only are the right wing – what I call – “nutjobs” led by Rush Limbaugh – you know, the guy who has had three failed marriages, who was implicated in a sex scandal in the Caribbean when he was caught with unprescribed Viagra pills (the rumors of that trip are very unsettling – if you’re reading this I’ll let you google Rush Limbaugh, Caribbean and decide for yourself what he was doing), the guy who was addicted to prescription pain pills, and the guy who apparently speaks for the party of “family values,” – but these guys have brought out Dick Cheney to try to vindicate the past eight years AGAIN! I really wish someone would get on with the investigation of the Bush administration so I wouldn’t have to listen to Cheney any more – he keeps popping up as the only one, evidently, who can defend the Bush/Cheney administration with a straight face. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ve no doubt heard me point out how people who are pathological liars eventually start to believe their own lies. CHENEY FALLS INTO THAT CAMP.

What these guys are doing is spreading so-called “talking points” in a brazen attempt to persuade the American people that all the trouble we are in is the result of two months of President Obama’s administration. Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not happy with everything Obama is choosing to do, but I guarantee you it is a darned sight better than anything the Republicans have come up with in the past or are suggesting in the present (actually, what they’re suggesting in the present is exactly what got us into the mess we’re in – the same “failed policies” they crammed down our throats in the past). The reason I’ve been such a persistent proponent of prosecuting Bush/Cheney et al for all the legal transgressions committed under their watch is for exactly the reasons we are seeing – in fact, this Republican “campaign” is happening quite a bit sooner than I had anticipated. They are starting their “pushback” way ahead of schedule. I think Cheney knows that he is on the hot seat, so to speak, and the only way this guy knows how to go about things is very aggressively. And the Democrats better pick up on this, or we’ll be writing about these same “transgressions” again, and a lot sooner than I had even imagined.

While I believe Cheney is a criminal of the nature of an organized crime boss, I have to give him credit for being gutsy and fearless. He believes in striking first – and he is definitely on the attack. Now, my TV isn’t working presently (makes my wife happy) so I’m only catching snipits of what’s going on this past week, but the few snipits I’ve managed to listen to are alarming to say the least. Cheney is on the prowl and, I believe, the Democrats are making a HUGE mistake if they don’t hammer him at every opportunity. Some of the things I’ve heard him say in the past week: First – he’s still stating the claim that the Bush/Cheney administration “kept us safe after 9/11” – and he’s claiming that President Obama is making us “less safe” or words to that effect. Well, the absurdity of both of those statements should be such that they don’t even deserve a response, but I guarantee you there had better be a strong Democratic response. Unfortunately Cheney has one thing right, the Democrats show themselves as whimps more often than not – especially when dealing with him and his boss, George W Bush. But, back to his argument, for them to continually claim that they “kept us safe after 9/11” just really #*&%*# me off! Where were they before 9/11? There is ample evidence that they were sleeping at the switch prior to 9/11 and it never should have happened. Both Bush and Cheney ignored warning after warning and the way they set up the Defense department with Donald Rumsfeld led to a lack of cohesion between the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI – allowing the terrorists who ultimately took down the trade center to roam freely in this country for over a year (read “Shadow Factory” by James Bamford if you want to really understand what they did “to keep us safe”) when they should have been stopped.

And to claim that we are “more safe” because of their decisions is equally if not more absurd. Every expert that I’ve read – and there are many – says that al Qaeda is stronger today than it was right after 9/11 specifically because of the decisions of the Bush administration. For example, one of Osama bin Laden’s goals in attacking the World Trade Center was to get the United States “bogged down” in an endless war in Afganistan – with the ultimate objective of bankrupting our country just as they had bankrupted The (former) Soviet Union in the mid to late eighties. Well, Bush and Cheney did them one better – instead of capturing or killing bin Laden when they had him on the run in Afganistan during the early months of 2002 they decided to get “bogged down” in Iraq – thereby fulfilling bin Laden’s plan, only in a much better way for him. Bin Laden was able to escape and reconstitute his forces in Pakistan (which is now far more dangerous than any other place in the world – in fact if a huge disaster comes from all of these blunders by Bush/Cheney I believe it is likely to come from Pakistan and the terrorist forces embedded there) and the US is bankrupting itself in Iraq in an endless war (another interesting point; Bush/Cheney actually paid the Pakistani government something approaching 10 Billion dollars in aid while it was allowing bin Laden and the Taliban to roam freely in its country). In fact, President Obama has already said that our troops will be in Iraq for 15 months longer than he “promised” in his campaign, and I fully expect them to be there indefinitely (bin Laden couldn’t ask for more – and this is one area where I disagree with Obama – I say get ALL the troops out of Iraq in the timeframe you promised – but that’s a subject for another day).

Our presence in Iraq where our troops and their support “contractors” have committed numerous atrocities while suposedly defending Iraqi’s has been a great recruiting tool for bin Laden and other terrorist cells around the world. So, to suggest we were “safer” under their watch is so absurd that I hope the Democrats out there with a little spine “call” Cheney on this. And if it’s true that Cheney was running a “Death Squad” out of the Vice President’s office which led to assasinations in numerous countries (the reports I heard placed the number at 9 or 10 different soveriegn nations) – as has been alleged by Si Hersch – then I guess Cheney believes that will make us safer – I’m actually feeling when the truth comes out about the US killing world leaders there are going to be a lot of really MAD people in these other countries. WE’RE PRETTY MUCH NOT SUPPOSED TO GO AROUND KILLING THE LEADERS OF OTHER COUNTRIES, EVEN IF WE DON’T AGREE WITH THEM. I mean, Dick Cheney shouldn’t even have the credibility to get his voice heard – of course that’s in a perfect world, and a perfect world doesn’t include FOX “News.”

Obviously, I could go on and on here – and I only heard a few things he said. A couple more that struck a bell with me. Cheney said something along the lines of “I love Rush Limbaugh” and I can’t remember the rest but it was a ringing endorsement of Rush. Maybe Rush really is the leader of the Republican party – as hard as that is for me to believe. I figured the Republicans were in a down time, but I just couldn’t imagine them being that stupid. However, I would be all for it. In fact, I would like to see Limbaugh run for President in 2012. I think the perfect Republican ticket would be Limbaugh/Palin – they would get 100% of the white supremicist/successionist vote in the country. The other thing Cheney said was that he felt the Bush administration was not at fault for the economic “meltdown” because they were so busy keeping us safe. When you study the history of the Iraq invasion and the occupation you wonder how they could say they were busy keeping us safe – because they didn’t really do anything. They just assumed everything would turn out OK, and while you won’t get them to admit it today, George and Dick were “licking their chops” over the prospect of controlling the second largest known oil reserve in the world. I’m sure they figured this would be the biggest heist job in the history of this planet. I guess they assumed that the Iraqi’s would be so happy to be rid of Saddam they would just give us their oil (remember the Bush/Cheney claims that the Iraqi oil would pay for the war? – which was going to cost only a few billion dollars! Ughh!)

These guys were idiots every step of the way – and now they are busy trying to make sure the history books reflect something far more reflective of what they want us to see than what is the truth. However, history books don’t work that way. I suppose the first “histories” of their administration are so negative they feel it’s important to kind of circle the wagons and defend themselves – in other words, they don’t want to leave it to the historians because the first installments don’t look at all like what they would like. In reality, they have come close to destroying the very fabric of this nation – and really as I read about what’s happening in the rest of the world, these guys (Bush/Cheney and their close associates) were infecting many other nations with their venom that is backfiring in one country after another. I have come to the conclusion their economic philosophy could be called exponential borrowing. They not only believed in borrowing to the hilt (and hiding as much of it as possible – like the accounting scandals of the 90’s) – but they leveraged the borrowing with the so-called credit-default swaps, etc. Borrowing money and gambling with it – over and over – creating this huge pile of paper wealth that was almost imaginary – REMEMBER, THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THEIR OWN LIES – They probably believed this wealth was real. So now Cheney is trying to blame Obama for the economic crisis and convince the American public that our sitting President is making us “less safe” by adhering to the constitution and honoring our basic principles regarding human rights. Despite the fact the greatest tragedy in the history of this nation happened on his and his President’s watch – he wants us to believe that he kept us safer. Dick Cheney wants you and me to believe that his endorsement of warrantless wiretapping, his outing of a covert CIA agent, his lying us into a needless war, his part in ruining our economy (he was the one in the Bush administration who said “Ronald Reagan proved deficits don’t matter”), his part in running an alleged “Death Squad,” his endorsement of torture which led to Abu Ghraib and waterboarding, and him and his boss letting Osama bin Laden go – the very guy who masterminded the 9/11 attacks – has kept us safer. Well, if you believe Dick Cheney’s claims – I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you!

For those of you out there who think I’m nuts when I keep pushing for accountability for the Bush administration and their right wing associates let me help you out a bit here. Now, if you’re the type of person who somehow has come to the conclusion that this nation was intended to be full of WASP’s – and I don’t mean the kind that might sting you – I mean the White Anglo Saxon Protestants who somehow have determined that they are the “true” Americans – then you won’t like what I’m about to write. But if you’re the type of person who actually takes our Bill of Rights and our Constitution at face value – and celebrate, as I do, that this nation is the epitome of the “melting pot” – that is a mixture of cultures and nationalities from around the globe who are proving people can “get along” – then maybe you’ll find this interesting if not alarming.

George W Bush once said something along the lines of “it would be OK for this to be a dictatorship, so long as I’m the dictator.” He said this with what appeared to be a tongue in cheek, but as the evidence is coming out, maybe the tongue wasn’t so much in the cheek. The nine memos released a week or two ago from the Justice Department described an executive branch that was actually thinking along the lines of a dictatorship. They had given themselves the power to declare any American citizen an “enemy combatant,” arrest them, and wisk them off to some detention facility who knows where in the world, torturing them and, as was the case in South America with some of the dictatorships our CIA put into power in the 70’s and 80’s – “disappearing them” – with the people never to be heard from again. It’s unclear if they used this power, but it is clear that they, along with the Office of Legal Counsel – manned by thugs like John Yoo – had given themselves this power.

Most people hear about this stuff and the natural reaction is that they can’t believe it – so they don’t believe it. If you’re one of the people who have this tendency I would recommend that you read Naomi Klein’s book titled “The Shock Doctrine.” It will open your eyes to what our CIA was doing long before GW Bush ever got into the White House. More distressing than the 9 memos was the news reported this past week by Seymour Hersh – one of the most respected, if not the most respected, investigative journalists in our nation – that Dick Cheney was running a “Death Squad” made up of elite Navy Seals right out of the White House. It was reported that this group had entered at least 9 or 10 foriegn, soveriegn nations, and assasinated leaders whom our government did not approve. Can you picture this – George W Bush doesn’t approve of you and Dick Cheney has you assasinated – Wow! Now, if that doesn’t get your attention I don’t know what will. Well, just in case let me take it a bit farther. How about the Bush administration and Cheney authorizing the CIA to be actively working within the borders of our nation spying on American citizens. THESE ARE MAJOR CRIMES – AND YOU’D THINK EVEN REPUBLICANS WOULD BE TURNED OFF BY THESE REPORTS AND DEMAND INVESTIGATIONS.

But the one thing you can count on with Republicans is that they all seem to act like sheep. They go in whatever direction their leader points them in (this would be doubly scary if their leader was say, someone like Rush Limbaugh), without a second thought, and they seem to have no conscience whatsoever regarding the actions of our government (so long as our government is made up of right wing wackos). For most of them, as long as they can continue to delude themselves that the Republican party is the “pro-life” party – they will “see no evil.” THIS IS AMAZING TO ME! And I know a lot of Republicans, they are not dumb people. Many of them just don’t have time to figure out what is happening (really) with our government – so they listen to these ridiculously dishonest, disengenuous, and immoral leaders – and then they all start sending emails around spreading fear messages about Barrack Obama. IT’S GETTING A BIT MUCH FOR ME! Well, this isn’t all of it – in fact as the news comes out things just get looking worse and worse.

This next one will probably make you think that I’m nuts – or that Chuck Norris is just a “nut job” – depending on your perspective – but this just compounds the information that is already out there. Now Norris (who played Walker, Texas Ranger on TV) has been following Mike Huckabee around for the past year, since Huckabee ran for President in the Republican primaries of 2008. Huckabee, actually did pretty well and won a few primaries. Well, the other day Norris was quoted in some magazine article as saying that some day he (Norris) might run for “President of Texas” once they secede from the union. He pointed out that when that day comes, which could be sooner than most people realize – according to Norris – there will be “thousands of cells” joining in from all across the nation. This is beyond the pail type of talking and Republicans everywhere should be challenged as to whether or not they are with Norris – especially Huckabee who is contemplating another run for President in 2012. You think these guys are just a bunch of wierdos who are nothing but blowhards?

Well, how about this? Last year I read a book about Blackwater Inc. – which I believe has changed its name to XE – pronounced ZEEE – the private militia who was hired by the Bush administration with bloated no-bid contracts in Iraq to provide security for our State Department. In the process they were involved in several incidents where Iraqi civilians were allegedly murdered – on one occasion 17 unarmed civilians including women and children – and they claimed they were immune from both Iraqi and American laws. Hopefully, they won’t get away with that – but the real story with them lies ahead in my opinion (they have been thrown out of Iraq and are presently “looking for work”). They have a mercenary Army of several thousand of the “baddest” banditos from Central and South America along with some of our best special forces retired from the Army and Navy and Marines waiting in the wings for their next call to duty – along with a huge cache of weapons, a miniature air force, and navy. This corporation is headed by a man named Eric Prince who falls into the extreme right wing Christian extremist category and in the book I read it was reported that Blackwater was prepared to participate in an armed insurrection in the late 90’s in the US. Some of the people involved in the group which was contemplating this were the so-called leaders of the “Christian Right.” Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson to name some of the ones I remember from the book. Their plan, evidently, was to bring good old fashioned “Christian morality” by force – and did I mention that many of the people associated with their group have racist tendencies (Remember Sarah Palin – her husband was part of a successionist movement in Alaska that was tied to the John Birch Society – ugh!!!)

Putting all this together with the allegations above, and the fact that most of these people have clear track records as white supremists, and I’m sure you can guess where this is going. I’ve been saying for months that the most important thing for President Obama to do when he gets into office is to make sure that the Bush administration (and anyone associated with them) be investigated thoroughly. My original thought was that it is of paramount importance to insure that the legal violations they committed be uncovered to prevent the possibility of their recurrence. It is getting more severe now. If Hersh is correct about Cheney leading a Death squad right out of the White House he should be in jail – IMMEDIATELY. And if Norris is still affiliated with Huckabee or any other national politician they should be called before Congress and forced to either denounce Norris or publicly acknowledge that they are thinking along those lines and agree with him. Of course, no one will associate with him publicly – because what he said was Sedition – which is a treasonous violation of our laws (I guess he “implied” some insurrection is in the wings – but his intent was clear). Remember, we have our first Black President, and the way these right wing wacko Republicans are talking they will do anything they can to undo him – regardless of the consequences to this nation. I know that Obama is trying to “reach across the isle” to Republicans – but this part of the Republican party isn’t going to be listening or working with him, no matter what happens to our economy or anything else. My question to Obama, the Justice department and to the Democratic Congress is – when are we going to have this investigation? How far do they have to go over the edge before you take them seriously? They are the ones acting like terrorists and they need to be stopped. I don’t care whether there is a “truth” commision or Special Prosecutor, but the “Bush Crime family” needs to be investigated!

For years I have watched in amazement at the type and style of the new houses being built. I remember often saying things like, “I wonder how people can afford these houses?” or “What will happen if the bottom falls out of the market?” Well, it won’t be long and I believe we’ll have a good answer to both of those questions. For the most part, I believe hardly anyone can (or desires to) afford the really nice house around where I live. Now, I do live in an area that was once “rural” (actually, it still is, you just wouldn’t notice by looking at the homes – it’s just that they’re all on acreage) and where half a million dollar homes were selling in a matter of hours – not days or months. Now, virtually every house I’ve seen for sale for the last year or so, is still for sale. The house I live in has lost about a third of its value and we are in an area that is supposedly one of the better areas regarding the “Location, location, location” rule of real estate. But the grim reality is that most of the homes close to where I live are listed – even in these horrific times for home sales – in excess of $500,000. People have to have good jobs and be secure in their jobs for there to be any kind of market for these types of homes.

The question then becomes, “When will the market return?” Or should I say, “Will the market return?” So far, around us there aren’t any “bank owned” signs that I’ve seen, but there has to become a point where people say “enough is enough” as far as keeping homes that continue to drop in value and have no prospect for sale. I have friends who, even they would admit, got “sucked in” to the “sub-prime” scandal and they have a home that they can’t afford to keep. The thing that is a bit frustrating is that they paid $375,000 for this home and today it’s probably worth about $250,000 and the banks don’t want to work out a deal with them. I’m not sure they are in a position to even do that, but if they were, wouldn’t it be in everyone’s interest for as many people as possible to stay in their homes. I keep thinking about the CNBC rant by Rick Santelli calling the people who are losing their homes “Losers” and telling President Obama “We don’t want to pay these losers’ mortgages!” Well, I’m having enough trouble paying my own, but as long as we’re bailing out the banks to the tune of a trillion dollars or so – it seems that preserving as much of the home market as possible makes sense to me.

Now, I wasn’t in favor of the bank bailouts in the first place – certainly not under the “no strings attached” terms with which they were granted. But, as long as we’ve gone down that path, it makes sense to me to try to stop the hemorrhaging foreclosure problem. I mean, how much will the banks lose if the reported ten million homes are foreclosed on? Or, is the plan for the taxpayers to prop up the banks so that they can withstand these huge losses, and then capitalize them so that they can profit off of the losses of the foreclosed homeowners – because the homes aren’t going to go away – someone, eventually is going to buy them and live in them. I suppose the Santelli theory is to keep the banks viable (his buddies on Wall Street) and then make the killing on the homes that will be sold for a fraction of what it costs to build them – but if the banks are being paid for the losses from making the bad loans in the first place, and then they get all the homes that are foreclosed as well – to be eventually sold again – it seems like maybe we’re propping up the wrong people here. I really don’t understand how this works, I’m only speculating here, but I would be happy to hear from someone who better understands how this works – what I REALLY DON’T WANT TO SEE HAPPEN is for the banks to get a double benefit here – and the mortgagees get screwed (any worse than they already are).

The other day I heard a radio show (The Peter B Collins show) where they brought on a series of guests who were “underwater” in their homes in California. What was the most interesting to me was the fact that almost all of the guests were current on their payments. They certainly weren’t acting like the “Losers” Santelli portrayed those who were looking to the government for some relief. The sad reality for most of them was that they purchased a home in the previous two years and the value of the home had dropped in half. For example, one lady that I remember had a home originally purchased for $550,000 with $250,000 down – and the home is now worth $300,000. Well, in my mind, instead of saying “tough luck – Loser” – I believe it makes sense to assist this woman in renegotiating the mortgage on the home so that the bank shares with her in the loss. As the home dips under the balance on the mortgage, and she owes more than it’s worth – it seems reasonable to me that the bank would rework her loan to make it worthwhile for her to stay in the home. If we allow 10 million foreclosures – as a nation – we are continuing the “me, me, me” philosophy of the previous 30 years of Republican rule (with a very slight “blip” during the Clinton years) – and home prices could fall another 50% or more. Buying a home might no longer be the “American Dream.”

This overbuilding and over-loaning was “pushed” by the banks and by those in positions in the government to want to perpetuate the false economy of the past decade almost exclusively built upon borrowing. And the banks that are saying they are making a profit today (Citibank claimed today they made 8 Billion in the first two months of the year – in this age of creative accounting I can virtually guarantee you there is a caveat to that number that the CEO didn’t want anyone to know about) haven’t even begun to deal with the credit card bust that is sitting on the horizon. If you were wondering why the banks pressured Congress to pass the bankruptcy law of a couple years ago, you will soon know why. I believe there’s going to be a growing and growing number of people defaulting on credit cards in the months ahead – I’m not sure if it will be as severe as the housing crisis – but I believe it is inevitable.

So, what do we do? Well, if you’ve read any of my previous posts on this site – I support President Obama and hope he succeeds – but I’m not sure I agree with some of his “plans.” However, I believe the best chance we have going forward of slowing down the “meltdown” of our economy, is for Obama to be able to pass legislation without having it “glutted” by recalcitrant Republicans in the Senate. Then, once the policies have a chance to work or not work, we know where the buck stops. With Republicans “muddying the waters” I just wonder, what if? What if the Democrats could just pass the progressive legislation the voters wanted. I feel almost totally certain (I truly hope I’m wrong) that the so-called stimulus package was too small and contained too many tax cuts which will have a negligible effect on our problem. I don’t believe we need to give people like me another 30 or 40 dollars a month to spend – I believe we need people to have jobs that would motivate them to be customers of the stores that are closing down once again. I listened with dismay a while back at the CEO of Home Depot railing against the idea that his employees might have an easier path to forming a union because of the “Employee Free Choice Act” – as if it would cause the end of the world almost. What seemed strange to me at the time was that I kept thinking workers earning union wages create customers and, without customers, businesses like Home Depot keep failing,which causes less customers which causes more businesses to fail, etc. Obama is going to have to come back for more “stimulus” in my opinion (again, I hope I’m wrong) and, If Obama can pass true “progressive” stimulus legislation, maybe the economy will revive and our homes will still have some value.

I long ago gave up reading the local newspaper and switched to the NY Times online. Some of my Republican friends find this publication “liberal” although I have to say that I often times find it like a real newspaper should be – actually reporting news. That isn’t to say that parts of it might not be considered “liberal,” but certainly some parts would fall into the category of “conservative.” But to me, much of it is what I expect from a “news”paper. I really enjoy the op-ed page, there are some very interesting columnists there (In fact, when I first had the urge to write, I foolishly sent in some op-eds – not realizing that 6th grade school teachers from the “left coast” wouldn’t be too appealing to their readership). One of the columnists who I have had a tendency to shy away from – due to wondering where in the #*@% he’s coming from – is Thomas Friedman. But I have to say that he wrote (I believe it was yesterday) one of the more interesting columns I’ve read for some time – it coincided with a lot of what I’ve been thinking about in trying to get a handle on the economic crisis as I watch all the “experts” searching for the bottom of our economic meltdown.

Friedman pointed out – and I think he got the idea from someone else – that maybe what is happening is what he called “The Great Disruption.” His point was that maybe we are at a point in time where both the Stock Market and Mother Nature are saying “enough already” – or words to that effect – in unison. Well, I’ve been thinking along those lines, but I have to say that I don’t give the “Market” that much credit. I’m not willing to put a place where high paid executives gamble with other people’s money – in fact I’m beginning to look at Wall Street as the world’s largest gambling casino, on the same plane as our planet. In my opinion it’s Mother Nature that is saying “enough already.” The stock market is just one more part of the machine that is out of whack – I suppose using Friedman’s thinking (or at least how I would conceive it) the Market could be considered the axle on which the wheel turns – therefore its demise is emblematic of the larger society’s demise. Businesses are going belly up all around me – not just “small businesses” but some of the more prominent businesses that have seemed to be invincible. It is becoming clear that nothing is invincible.

Part of Friedman’s point was that we have been in an economy that is measured by year over year growth with this mindset that it will go on forever. A good number of people have understood that the lifestyle of many Americans was not sustainable – and it appears to me that the ones at the “top” – that is the people who have the most income – are going to be the last ones to understand what is happening. In my mind, this is because they will be able to go on almost as if nothing is wrong because of their “reservoir” of resources – but, depending on the severity of the downturn, their time could be coming. Of course, they would have to be almost blind to fail seeing what is happening to those around them – I have several friends who have lost their jobs and have no prospects in sight. And keep in mind that my peer group is the pre-retirement group in their 50’s and early 60’s – many who have lost their retirement savings and are getting quite anxious about what lies ahead. Getting back to Friedman’s point – it seems quite evident that the entire direction of this nation is shifting – out of necessity. For all those “Global Warming deniers” out there – if Friedman (and me to a certain extent) are correct – there is going to be a huge shift in our economy – WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT!

Some of these companies that the government is trying to bailout – maybe they are a thing of the past no matter what the government does – but if they are going to survive it will be in an entirely different form. The Republicans continue to complain about President Obama – many of them calling him a “socialist” or worst – as he appears to “get it” and is attempting to change the course of this nation in an attempt to mitigate the disaster that is lying ahead. And while I am sick of listening to Republicans, I can see the importance of getting beyond the partisan bickering in Washington – one of Obama’s main goals – if we are to respond effectively to the challenges that lie ahead. In fact, I’ve said on this site several times in the past that I believe maybe it’s time for a new “opposition” party – to counterbalance the Democrats. At the rate they’re going the Republicans are going to appeal to a smaller and smaller minority of American voters as the evidence mounts regarding the changes we all have to make in the future. It is greed that has fueled the crisis we are in and greed has no place in the solution. Maybe the “Green” party is looming as the next major political force in this nation as we try to bring the earth that we depend on back to health (and us along with it).

Until our national attention is redirected to a “Green” economy – and companies, whether new ones or old ones that retool, get focused along those lines I believe that Wall Street may continue to slide. I mean when companies like AIG and CitiCorp – two businesses that are “too big to fail” are trading at less than a dollar a share – despite the commitment of the government to “save” them – well, that’s a REALLY BAD SIGN regarding the health of this nation’s economy. Stop with the talk that this is just another recession and it should “turn around” sometime in “the third quarter.” The other day I listened to a snipit of the John Stewart show – Comedy Central’s version of the news – and it was recordings of “advice” given in the last year by a number of the “experts” (like Jim Cramer and Rick Santelli) on CNBC – the cable channel dedicated to Wall Street and the economy. If these guys weren’t so pathetic it would have been a lot funnier – but their advice has been somewhat akin to someone at the race track telling you to bet on the number four horse because he took a dump during the post parade (if you’ve never been to the horse races – that would be laughable). These guys have been making predictions that probably cost you your life savings if you listened to them. Business as usual on Wall Street is OVER! They can blame Obama for all of this all they want – BUT WHAT THEY REALLY NEED TO DO IS GO LOOK IN A MIRROR TO FIND THE “CULPRIT.”

Just like General Motors MUST RETOOL in order to survive (and I firmly believe we need to close our ears to the Republicans who want GM to declare bankruptcy) our nation must RETOOL in order to maintain its leadership position in the world. And I believe the world needs the US to show leadership more than any time in the past 75 years. Tonight I won’t get into the importance of prosecuting those who got us here any more than to say it’s part of the requirement of showing leadership – we will hold our own accountable first – in order to claim credibility when dealing with others (and the reality is that it’s probably a bit harsh to say “they got us here” – it’s probably more accurate to say they have accelerated the process – this was inevitable). Saving the planet is certainly a multinational challenge. If we are going to lead in this area, the time to kick things into “high gear” is NOW! And I agree with Friedman that it is none other than “Mother Nature” who is demanding this change.

If we continue to look to Wall Street for solutions and ignore the realities in the world around us – this “Great Disruption” could last for a decade or longer. There are billions in this world already suffering from shortages of food and WATER. Are we going to wait until the crisis is actually killing our citizens before we deal with it? I’ve heard experts say that within 10 years water will be a much bigger issue in America than oil. Are we going to ignore these experts and listen to the ones on Wall Street who have proven their fallibility? We live in a society where the average Major League baseball player earns over one and a half million dollars per year and the average teacher earns that in a career. Are we going to continue to misplace our priorities in this manner? We take for granted the food supply while we continue to deplete the land that grows the food and the aquifers that supply the crops with water. 30 years ago Jimmy Carter put CAFE standards on the auto industry which respected that oil is a finite resource – and we willingly voted in politicians who derided him as they reversed his policies. Carter was ridiculed for putting solar panels on the White House in an attempt to set an example for the rest of the nation that we needed to conserve energy – Ronald Reagan had them removed shortly after replacing Carter as President. Hillary Clinton was roundly criticized for attempting to institute a national health care policy in the early 1990’s which was critically needed then and is desperately needed now. There are examples after examples of people who have tried to change the fundamental direction of this nation in the past 30 years – usually meeting with resistance from the “establishment” that is embedded in Wall Street. As I’m writing this tonight, the Republican party is positioning itself as the “Party of No.” Many of them have said they feel we’d be better off with more of GW Bush’s policies than those proposed by Barack Obama. I can only guess where Thomas Friedman would come in on this, but I can tell you that I believe it’s time for them to get out of the way. Forget Obama’s campaign slogans. Both Wall Street and Mother Nature are telling us IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE!

I keep listening to the people who created the economic mess we find ourselves in trying to rewrite history in ways that suggest total states of denial in regard to their own role in leading us into the quagmire we find ourselves stuck. Between the Wall Street “experts,” the right wing economic gurus who spent the last 8 years enabling George W Bush and company (some of them enabling supply side economics for 30+ years), and the Republicans who are desperately trying to shield the reality of what they have caused, but essentially proposing more of the same, it is getting a bit much. As far as I’m concerned these people need to crawl back into the hole they came out of. And then to listen to them trying to place the blame for everything from the recession (which began about 18 months ago), the deficit, the banking crisis, and the Wall Street meltdown on Barrack Obama and his administration of about 6 weeks defies rational thinking.

But you have to keep in mind that these people haven’t used rational thinking for as long as I can remember. What I do remember, very distinctly, is that back in the eighties Republicans came up with (what I have to admit has been a very effective) propaganda strategy which has become known as the “talking points.” Now, the theory behind this is that if enough of them repeat the same thing over and over and over and over (well, you get the point) hordes of people who have busy lives will hear them and actually believe the bull #*@% they are spewing out is true. This is how they have convinced people to vote against their own self interest. Obama had it exactly right during the campaign when he pointed out that Republicans use “wedge” issues – like abortion, or gun rights, or gay marriage – to rile up their base and get every day “blue collar” Americans to support things like the fleecing of the US treasury that took place on a regular basis during the Bush reign in office. Well, the Republican party has unleashed this strategy again – only this time I think the American people are so sick of their shpeel that nobody’s listening – or at least I hope not. The other day I heard about five of them say the exact same words in five different venues – from radio announcers (you know who), to TV announcers, to the really disgusting Congressional “leaders” who have bought into this strategy of repeated lies.

And this fleecing was monumental and arrogant to the point that the fleecers actually started to believe the company line – that is that they actually deserved – and were worth – all the money they were pealing off from the tax roles. If the so-called no-bid contracts given to Halliburton, KBR (and Dick Cheney), Blackwater, Parsons, Bechtel (Rumsfeld), and the others are ever fully investigated the American people are not only going to go into a state of shock – THEY WILL BE VERY ANGRY! Now, I personally believe that the “grand finale” – the TARP bailout of his Wall Street buddies by Henry Paulsen during his last couple months in office will be the greatest fleece of them all – but the other ones were War Profiteering – ripping off taxpayers while our troops were dying in Iraq due to insufficient armor and equipment. Our wounded troops were sitting in rat infested rooms at Walter Reed, or taking showers in Iraq not knowing whether or not they might be electrocuted due to faulty work by contractors – and these corporations were skimming Billions upon Billions from the war funding which was all borrowed money and which was hidden from the actual deficit figures reported by the federal government.

The Wall Streeters, immediately upon receiving the first wave of funding from Paulsen, started handing out bonuses at an alarming rate – almost as if they knew the “gig was up” and they were grabbing as much as they could while the public’s collective attention was diverted to other things. The thing that is the most alarming about all this is that I believe these banks are already failed – and the government very likely can’t print money fast enough to save them – in this case I believe you could say that the cure is worse than the disease. Last week I pointed out that CitiCorp was worth around 13.5 Billion as the government was about to put another slug of “relief” their way – that is after the initial 45 Billion which was 300% the worth of ALL THE STOCK IN THE COMPANY. Well, since then the value of the company has dropped to about 5 Billion – and very likely headed toward ZERO!!! As I’ve stated before, if feels like we’re sending “good money after bad.” When will it stop?

Well, as ludicrous as it is to blame all of this on President Obama, it is – and should be – fair game to question what he’s doing about it (I really do wish the Republicans would participate in the discussion in some kind of way besides more tax cuts for the rich – that “record” is beyond BROKEN). I support Obama, and unlike Rush Limbaugh, I truly hope he succeeds. But the reality is that he’s inherited a mess that may not be fixable – at least with the known economic remedies of the people he has advising him. I mean, most of the names are way too familiar to me – in my mind Larry Summers participated in the demise of the regulation system when he worked for Bill Clinton – and Tim Geithner was the New York Fed Chairman as Wall Street was imploding – so, to me, it is fair game to question what they are doing. I’M JUST HAPPY THAT WHAT THEY ARE DOING ISN’T WHAT BUSH AND CO. WERE DOING.

However, I question if the reason they keep putting money into the Wall Street Banks and AIG is because the money was already allocated in the original TARP funds. To me, that’s not a good reason. Of course, I’m on record as opposing the TARP bailout right from the start – but hopefully I’ll be wrong and it will eventually work in getting the credit markets “moving” again. In my mind, the more money we throw at these enterprises the more money we have lost. The sensible approach was to allow the banks that are insolvent to fail with the government coming in to pick up the pieces. It’s like we are trying to protect the very people who created this mess in the first place. There was over a trillion dollars spent – by my account – before a single cent was aimed at the foreclosure crisis and the American families losing their homes. Where’s the Republican “family values?” I’ll tell you where it is – look up Rick Santelli on the internet – he has become a Republican folk hero for calling the homeowners seeking help to stay in their homes “LOSERS” and making it clear that he feels any restructuring of their loans (which makes sense even for the banks – I don’t think they want 8 – 10 million foreclosures) means he’s paying their mortgage for them. This is the kind of “Me, Me, Me” thinking that has driven the “party of family values” for the past quarter of a century.

So, while – as I said – it is ludicrous to blame Obama for the troubles we are in – he does have some incredibly tough decisions facing him. I’m suggesting one of those decisions is to give the Republicans what many of them have been clamoring for – let the free market determine the solvency of these banks that Henry Paulsen said are “too big to fail.” The reality is they have already failed – and what is the best and cheapest way to get a banking system functioning in this country again. The fact that we’ve already poured hundreds of billions of TARP dollars onto their balance sheets is not a sufficient reason to continue to do so. Think of the requirements that have been put on GM and Chrysler for a far smaller amount of taxpayer money – which is in the form of a loan – and then tell me that similar expectation shouldn’t be expected of any bank or anyone else seeking assistance during this economic meltdown. I believe continuing the TARP program may be like pouring gas on a fire – it is just making things worse. These large banks should have to provide a plan that demonstrates SOLVENCY before they receive another cent of TARP funds!

If you’ve been reading any of my posts for any length of time you know that I have been PUSHING for the investigation and prosecution (where appropriate) of the GW Bush administration since I started this blog. I’m sure you can surmise that my intensity about this was gaining steam for a long period of time prior to my needing to write, a (seemingly at the time) deparate attempt to make myself feel better. I mean, when you’re watching your own country dissolve into a semblance of a second rate dictatorship, all because of a terrorist organization which you could have summarily stamped out, but chose to disregard for the sake of an “oil grab” of historically incompetent proportions – you feel – well, I have to be careful here (you know the saying about making assumptions) – I feel the only honorable way out of this for America is to make a clear statement to our citizens and to the rest of the world that we are a nation of laws and not men. I mean, the level of hypocrisy as GW and his cronies were pushing “Democracy” in Iraq while suspending it at home is beyond belief. I honestly never thought something like this was possible in this nation I love.

Well, it looks like the “you know what” is hitting the fan as far as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Addington, Yoo, Wolfowitz, Gonzales, and others are concerned. And the way it’s playing out is quite interesting. I mean, on the one hand President Obama is stating “I want to look forward and not backward” – discouraging words to me – but then his justice department makes public nine memos from the Bush Office of Legal Counsel which have really “stirred” the waters as far as an investigation of Bush is concerned. Today, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers – two of the Bush advisors who refused to tesify before Congress – agreed to appear before John Conyers House Judiciary committee – not under oath, but subject to perjury charges (whatever that means, I’m sure we’ll find out later) – and not in public session – to testify regarding the firing of the nine US attorneys during Bush’s second term. The allegations are that the attorney’s were fired illegally (essentially by Rove) for partisan political reasons – and with at least two of them, David Eglesias of New Mexico and Carol Lam of San Diego California – there is overwhelming evidence they were fired because either they weren’t aggressive enough in prosecuting Democrats or too aggressive in prosecuting Republicans.

This scandal will lead to other areas besides the attorneys who were fired. It is sure to be rehashed about how Monica Goodling was hiring Justice Department lawyers based on their loyalty to Bush as opposed to their legal credentials – this in a department that has prided itself on non-partisanship – the integrity of our legal system depends on the public perception that our Justice Department is fair and unbiased in prosecuting the laws of the land. This proposed investigation will also lead to the events leading up to the illegal imprisonment of Don Siegelman, former Democratic governor of Alabama, who was railroaded into prison by Karl Rove – that one will be not only very interesting when it comes to light, but I guarantee you it will be a sobering example of why we have to prosecute these people so that this kind of criminal activity never happens again in any part of our government – or at least we set a precedent of what will happen if it does. Karl Rove should get at least 4 or 5 times as much jail time as he subjected Siegelman to – for starters (and, believe me, Rove is “dirty” in several other areas as well.

Bush’s White House was getting weak kneed attorneys to write legal opinions giving them abusive authority that all of them had to know was unconstitutional. Of course, you have to keep in mind that Bush’s VP was Dick Cheney who felt ever since Watergate that the executive branch of the government had lost power that he wanted to get back. For example, the warrantless wiretapping will lead right to Cheney when everything comes out, the torture will lead right to Cheney when it all comes out, everyone knows that Cheney is the one who “outed” Valerie Plame Wilson (she was a covert CIA agent, and we’ll probably never know the full ramifications of what happened to those in her “network” – a treasonable offense – and was shielded from guilt by Lewis “Scooter” Libby who took the “fall” for him – hopefully, this will come out.

The Senate Judiciary committee is proposing a “Truth Commission” – a series of investigations to find out everything that was happening while Bush was President. Today, the leading Republican opponents of that plan suggested that if laws were broken that we don’t need a “Truth Commission” (I happen to agree with them, for once) – there should be a special prosecutor and any lawbreaking should be prosecuted. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is on record that he just wants to make sure that the truth comes out so that these abuses are not repeated again – whether by the Obama administration or any other future administration. Should prosecutions prove to be appropriate, then they should happen. He seems to think both things can happen. The important thing to me is that the truth comes out and we SOUNDLY repudiate all that happened under GW Bush! Not only for our own nation, but as a statement to the rest of the world that we will not tolerate this abusive behavior – especially when it comes from our own. Just the torture policy (which has been publicly admitted by both Bush and Cheney that they authorized it) is a HUGE NATIONAL DISGRACE!

While I’m very encouraged by these developments and I’m pleased that Eric Holder released the memos which have heightened the “push” for investigations, I’m still very curious about the position of President Obama and his legal advisors. For example, it has been reported that the deal getting Rove and Miers in front of the House Judiciary Committee was negotiated by Obama’s Legal counsel – preventing them from being in the position of possibly defending Rove and Miers in Court. As I’ve stated many times it’s much easier to give up our rights than to get them back. And while I am a supporter of President Obama I’m still on “Red Alert” as to how he’s going to deal with all this. Presidents don’t like to prosecute Presidents. I think they believe in the “What goes around, comes around” theory – and would rather just look the other way. THIS WON’T DO IN THIS INSTANCE! The Bush administration abused their power to such an extent that IT MUST BE REVERSED! Whether Obama wants to give up this power or not. The case of Rove and Miers would have been an executive privilege case that Obama would have lost in court had he taken it on – it would not have been wise (In fact, I don’t think it was wise to even let on that he was considering it). He is soon to face another crossroads in this issue – warrantless wiretapping – and my suggestion to President Obama (it’s reported he doesn’t want to give up the power assumed by Bush) is to take the “high road” and do the right thing. Get the government off of our phone lines and out of our emails – and any other areas where they have overstepped their bounds. You talk about a possible area which would unite Republicans and Democrats – just let it get out that you are continuing the eavesdropping tactics of GW Bush!

I will close by saying that this representative democracy has survived all these years by considering the constitution a non-negotiable document. It is what it is, and the government – just like the citizens of this great nation – is obliged to abide by it. The US is not a dictatorship, and Bush/Cheney et al need to be prosecuted to prove it!