Well, I have to pat myself on the back again, UNFORTUNATELY, because – as I’ve been saying for the previous (almost) 3 months of the Obama administration – my fears have proved true. Last night I was watching the Keith Olberman show on MSNBC and it was reported that not only is the Obama administration defending the illegal wiretapping done under George Bush, but – if I understood what was said correctly – they’re taking it one step further. That is to say, where the Bush administration was using some legal maneuvering called “State Secrets” to prevent the courts from hearing cases regarding their warrantless eavesdropping on the phone calls of virtually ALL AMERICANS, not only is the Obama administration upholding those baseless claims but they’re suggesting that anyone who has been wiretapped has no legal basis to challenge the government in court! As I said in an earlier post – if this happens I will – WANT MY MONEY BACK.

I’m actually going to follow through with this and write a letter to the Obama website asking for my money back. I wrote them during the campaign when Obama inexplicably supported the FISA bill which granted the retro-active immunity to ATT&T and Verizon (and maybe others) and I was assured that (should he become) President Obama would “fix” the problems with this bill once he gained the office of President. Well, he has apparently “fixed” the problems alright – he’s (if this reporting is true) MADE THINGS WORSE! I’ve said it before, what motivated me to start writing on this so-called “Blog” was the reprehesible behavior of our 43rd President and his administration. Behavior that was openly and arrogantly in violation of the constitution and, not only our domestic laws, but international laws as well. They re-instituted the “Nixon doctrine” which states: “If the President does it, it must be legal.” Well, that “doctrine” was no more ridiculous then (during Watergate) than it is now, and it’s high time that we find some leaders in this nation to stand up and say something about this! Now, I know about 20 people per day view this blog. As I’ve mentioned many times, I have no idea who you are (I’m talking directly to you, because – not trying to be presumptuous – I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you’re one of the people who I don’t know who you are :o) – but if you at all agree with my disgust with President Obama on this issue – please do two things. First: call or write your representatives in Congress (Republican or Democrat) and express your outrage – DEMAND CONGRESS TO STEP IN AND PUT A STOP TO THIS – and Secondly, email the address of this blog (https://www.dfpiper.com) to some friends who might do the same. I have either known or suspicioned this was going to happen for three months. I’m just a 6th grade school teacher, so I think it’s safe to assume that many members of the media (what’s left of it) and members of Congress either knew, or should have known, that Obama was going to continue this outrageous government behavior. REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ALIKE NEED TO JOIN ARMS IN PROTEST OVER THIS CONTINUED VIOLATION OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO PRIVACY. Here’s a fantastic opportunity for the bipartisanship President Obama is seeking – I’d love to see a veto-proof majority of both houses of Congress enact legislation stopping this violation of our basic rights.

Let me give you an example of why this is so important – THAT IT BE DEALT WITH IMMEDIATELY. Everyone knows that the economy is in the tank. As a teacher, my salary is dependent on the health of the state economy because about 75% of my salary is paid by state funds (either from state generated funds, or funds passed to the state from the federal government). The state of Washington (my home) has a shortfall of around 8 or 9 BILLION dollars! It stands to reason that there is not enough money to continue funding education at the levels that it presently is “enjoying.” We are going to be taking a “haircut” – to use the vernacular I’m hearing regarding investors committed to companies like GM who are fighting to stay out of bankruptcy court. I am a member of one of the few remaining unions in this great country (which, I might add was made great largely on the backs of union workers the last time we went through a major financial crisis about 75 years ago). I am also the de-facto union rep from my school, so I attend all the union meetings, and understandably there is a lot of intensity in the bargaining process which is getting under way for our new contract. As you might imagine, both sides in the “talks” regarding the teacher contracts are taking the position that we should do what’s best for the students (and whether or not the “sides” are genuine in their “stance,” I certainly believe that is the proper stance to take – because the reason we teach is for the benefit of the students).

Well, the “haircutting” began with the moneys delegated from the state to the district that I work in. First of all, the amount of money teachers will receive next year (and maybe the next two, I’m not sure if the state talks are for one or two years) will be reduced by somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 to 7 percent (the disparity comes from the fact that a legally mandated COLA has been cancelled – this is money that we were supposed to get, but an argument could be made that it’s not a reduction because we haven’t technically received it yet so based on our 08-09 salaries the cut from the state is “only” 3 percent. Well, in the face of millions of Americans being without jobs – THERE’S A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR! Now, we go to bargaining with the district which has a shortfall of somewhere between 5 and 8 million in their state allocation and they, of course, want the teachers to take additional cuts. In fact, what they want the teachers to do is provide what we call “give backs.” That is, to give up benefits that have been bargained for in previous years. I apologize for the length of this analogy, but I’m getting to my point. The union has been through this before and the reason they are reluctant to “give back” is because history says that once you “give back” after the crisis is over, the district will not be willing to undo the “give backs” and we’ll find ourselves going through battles again that have already been won.

The question becomes how much are we willing to “give back” in order to save jobs for our compatriots who are basically going to be the younger teachers (yes, the beauty of unions – at least from the perspective of someone who has committed a large segment of his adult life to teaching – is that experience matters). And, I believe there will be a willingness to sacrifice if it is truly “shared” which is what the administration of our district is proposing – it’s just that the sacrifice and the “give backs” have to be across the board. The reality in this situation and the one I’m trying to make a point on is that LEADERSHIP COMES FROM THE TOP – CHANGE COMES FROM THE BOTTOM! (that is, the people at the top should make the largest “sacrifice” – they should set the example)

OK, back to my main point. Just like where our union doesn’t want to “give back” because once you do this whatever you give back is basically, for all intents and purposes, GONE! The same holds true – AND IN SPADES – with our constitution. I remember Republican friends of mine when the illegal wiretapping first became common knowledge saying stuff like, “It doesn’t matter if they’re listening to my phone calls, because I’m not saying anything for them to worry about.” To me, that is classic STUPIDITY! Let me give you a scenario based on one of the guys who was defending the government’s intrusion into our computers, cell phones, and landlines. (Keep in mind that it’s been documented that the Bush administration was closely monitoring communications of numerous members of the media – newspaper reporters, columnists, and TV personalities ie people like Olberman). One of the “water carriers” for Bush and, for that matter, anything Republican was Rush Limbaugh – the de-facto head of the now pathetic Republican party. Is Rush going to be defending this policy NOW when he finds out that Barrack Obama is listening to HIS phone calls (and I’m not talking about the ones when he’s on the air) and monitering his emails, credit card transactions, and who knows what else they’re doing? I DON’T THINK RUSH IS GOING TO LIKE THIS! And, for once, I’m going to be on the side of one of the people that I despise the most.

I have 3 grown children, one grand child, another on the way, and potentially several more. I don’t want them to inherit a country which has abandoned the constitution which held this nation together for over 200 years, the constitution which has allowed this nation to grow into the greatest nation in the history of the world, the constitution which has had untold men and women give their lives so that the rest of us can live in a state of relative FREEDOM! If we give this up, DOES ANYONE REALLY THINK OBAMA WILL CHANGE COURSE ONCE OSAMA BIN LADEN IS CAPTURED? If you do, I respectfully would suggest that you’re being a bit naive. And what comes next? We give up our right to privacy and then – maybe – FREE SPEECH? I mean Bush managed to get a law through our spineless congress allowing him to basically identify anyone he wanted as an “enemy combatant” and cart them off to some secret prison somewhere and leave them indefinitely without being charged with a crime, without habeous corpus, without any rights at all. IF THIS ISN’T GETTING YOUR ATTENTION, WHAT WILL????

I supported Obama, I am one who wants him to succeed. But, I don’t think many of the people who voted for him understand the position he’s taking on this – at least I hope they don’t. And I certainly hope that they will take a firm stand against what he’s doing on this when they find out. That is why I’m asking you to email this “post” to as many people as you can – Republican or Democrat (I’m not trying to become famous, I just don’t want Uncle Sam listening to my phone calls or reading my emails or – more importantly – those of my children). To me, THIS IS SCARY! Truly the implication that our government is becoming BIG BROTHER is real. If we don’t get this stopped NOW – every day the chances of permanance becomes more real. And believe me, if they get away with this, it is just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. I’m outraged, I’m encouraging anyone who might read this to be outraged! Illegal warrantless wiretapping is WRONG whether being done by a Republican President or Democratic President!

When I started this “blog” (I’m not sure if it’s technically a blog because so far no one has made any comments except me) I wasn’t sure if I would write 2 posts, let alone almost 120 as I’m writing tonight. Additionally, I have always felt that I’m writing to myself, kind of like an online journal, for the purpose of allowing me to express my political views without making all my coworkers turn and walk the other way each time they see me. For several months I had no idea if anyone was “watching” until one of the guys at 1and1 (my service provider) showed me how to get the “web statistics.” These techno geeks can do amazing things these days – I know people are occasionally visiting (my highest count for one day is 49) – I just have no idea where they’re (you if you’re reading this) coming from. That all being said, it appears that I’m going to continue writing for awhile. In fact, I’m almost finished with the new book by Thomas Ricks, the guy who wrote FIASCO – one of the best books I read on the Iraq occupation. The new book is called the Gamble which is about the so-called Surge in Iraq and soon I will have several comments about that book and by extension the surge itself.

That all being said, for the last couple days I’ve been thinking of the word “habit(s).” My previous post was based on the word greed and I’m sure you can speculate on that post if you’ve been on this site before – at least what my take would be on it (if not, read the post :o). In a “nutshell” I believe greed is a MAJOR problem in the United States and has driven us to the brink of becoming a second rate nation. Despite the efforts of Republicans to “help” President Obama “fail,” I believe the future of this nation for at least a generation depends on his success. That is, I feel certain that the rest of the world is loosing patience with America and the policies that the Bush administration (and the Republican party for the past 30 years) was following. They are looking for change almost more than we are. One of the problems that Obama has to overcome is, in my view, the bad habits we have developed as a nation.

For example, take the banking crisis. A small number of “risk managers” – at least as I understand it – took some ridiculous “risky” risks, and the result is huge losses for millions of Americans in their stock portfolio’s, their retirement accounts, and in the value of their homes and other real estate. Now, at least as far as the real estate, it didn’t take a genius to see that prices were escalating at WAY to “brisk” a pace – around where I live upwards of 20% per year for several years. The problem was that as a property owner it’s easy to get in the HABIT of thinking that real estate ALWAYS goes UP! In fact, not only had people in the real estate business (brokers, and sales agents) been convincing one buyer after another that this was the case, but the banks got in the HABIT of believing their own ridiculous rhetoric and they started making absurd loans to just about anyone who could write their name on the bottom line. It was not unusual for me to get several “You’re Prequalified” offers to loan me 125% of the value of my home – EACH WEEK! Thank God, I didn’t fall for it – but unfortunately millions of Americans did – because we have developed the HABIT of living on credit – and our homes became like cash machines.

I am guilty of this (abusing credit) myself. I bought into the 0% credit card scheme that the banks were “pushing” 3 or 4 years ago and ran up huge credit card debt – almost destroying my marriage in the process (well, there were some actual marital issues that were involved as well, thankfully now resolved) – but my point is that it was easy for me to borrow as much as I wanted to borrow. I kept making the payments, so all these credit card companies kept increasing my “credit line.” Ultimately, I could have paid off my house with credit from the credit card companies – which fortunately (again) I’m not that stupid. I had enough equity in our home to pay off the credit cards with a low interest refinance – but had I waited another year to address my stupidity, I would have been caught up in the crisis which is now nearly destroying our nation’s financial standing in the world.

Remember, much of the debt being carried by this nation is held by foriegn countries with China, I believe, holding almost $2 Trillion itself, and who knows how much being held by the oil suppliers of the middle east. This HABIT of constant borrowing is VERY BAD! Then there’s the HABIT of thinking that we are the world’s greatest democracy and we should be turning every other country in the world into a democracy. In fact many people think we are obliged to do this (they think occupying Iraq is a good thing and actually believe we will someday turn Iraq into a thriving Democracy). The problem, as I see it with that line of thinking, is that these people would bring us more of what Bush gave us, and they’re terrified of what Obama is bringing to the table. Tonight I talked to a gentleman who is a great guy (he fixes my garden tractors), very honest and excellent at what he does. He made a comment that led me to believe (I chose not to “get into it” with him) he’s listening to the right wing “talkers” as he drives around from one broken lawn mower to another – saying we are no longer a democracy because we have the “Muslim” Obama as the President. Now, I know this guy is smart enough to know better than that, but we have a bunch of people spewing “garbage” on the radio and television air waves (which are “owned” by “we the people”) which is undermining the very government we all depend on. These talkers aren’t just disagreeing and proposing alternatives, they are “riling” people up with venomous talk that is, not only completely untrue but, seditious.

And these right wing talkers, based on the statistics I’ve seen, control about 90% of the air waves. I know several otherwise intelligent people who listen to them and actually believe what they’re hearing. THEY HAVE A HABIT OF TRUSTING PEOPLE LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH for their information! This used to be annoying to me, but it is getting to the scary stage. When I start hearing the talk about the President of the Untited States “is going to take your guns away,” or “The United States is no longer a democracy – it’s a Muslim nation with a Muslim President,” or “President Obama is a Communist” I believe the people have gone too far. I realize there are a lot of institutionalized racists in this country who are never going to accept a Black President, despite the competence he’s showing, but this venomous talk going over the air waves is getting to be over the “edge” for me. I believe it’s beyond free speech and someone is going to have to deal with the results of it – SOONER RATHER THAN LATER as far as I’m concerned. Based on what I’ve heard the three police officers who were killed in Pittsburgh over the previous weekend are victims of this venemous rhetoric.

I mentioned a few weeks back that the Republican leaders who are associated with “Walker Texas Ranger” – Chuck Norris – should be forced to either agree or disagree with his successionist remarks IN PUBLIC. Mike Huckabee in particular should be called on this (I often saw Norris at Huckabee rallies during the 2008 election). The guy in Pittsburgh was evidently listening to these extremist whackos who are claiming Obama is a Communist, he’s going to take everyone’s guns away, and he’s going to destroy this nation. These right wing whackos on the air waves have developed a bad HABIT of making vile comments almost routinely with no concern as to what the results might be. REMEMBER TIMOTHY MCVEIGH?? Have we learned nothing since the bombing of the federal building in Oklahama City? Are we going to have another major trajedy before we call these people on this seditious rhetoric? Another really bad HABIT in my view, and this one is on the Democrats – and that is looking the other way when people are breaking laws because they don’t want to “rock the boat.” THIS IS BIG!!! So far, they’ve let the Bush administration walk all over the constitution with little hope that there will be anything close to a full accounting – the Democrats seem to be getting manipulated by what few Republicans remain in the Congress – and I don’t see much disgust with all this armed revolt, successionist, talk coming from Republicans (remember, Sarah Palin’s husband was part of a successionist movement in Alaska and she spoke at their convention – with little or no consequence to her national standing in the Republican party – THAT IN ITSELF SHOULD BE A DISQUALIFIER!)

So I hope we, as a nation, can get out of the HABIT of putting up with these bad HABITS. We all need to start thinking “green” (I didn’t even mention our bad HABITS regarding the environment), stop abusing credit, and definitely stop allowing people with access to the national airwaves to spew anti-American garbage. I put up with eight years of George W Bush and never once suggested anything besides people needed to work together to change things at the polls. That is how things have worked in this great nation for the past 200+ years. These people like Norris, Limbaugh, Hannity, Palin, Savage, and the others who are making comments suggesting that people take up arms against our own government ARE WAY OVER THE LINE! And it’s time the Democrats developed a spine and started enforcing the existing laws which have provisions for whackos like this. Let’s not wait for another Oklahoma City trajedy before we hold people accountable for seditious rhetoric!

Greed, this is the word that keeps coming to mind as I’m trying to get my mind wrapped around where we’ve come as a nation, and what we need to do in order for “the good times” to return. And, I suppose there could be a spirited debate just on that. What constitutes the “good times?” Trying to put myself in the shoes of the business people who have so lavishly benefitted from the previous administration and the past 30 or so years of trickle down economic theory in vogue with our leaders in the federal government – I would guess more of the same. In fact, we’ve proven in the last 6 months (at least from the perspective of our government leaders) how valuable these people are. As taxpayers, we are replacing their losses from bad “gambles” virtually dollar for dollar, because they are supposedly “too big to fail.” We – and by we, I’m assuming there are a lot more people besides myself – have discovered how much money many of the people on Wall Street and the Corporate elites (remember these people referring to Barrack Obama as an elitist during the last election – laughable then, pathetic now as I look back) actually make. The CEO of GM was recently “fired” by the government because he’s led GM into what for all intense and purposes amounts to bankruptcy – and he walked away with a severance package worth over $23 million. And, of course while it’s still fresh on anyone’s mind who might happen by this site, the AIG bonuses for executives who created a large part of the so-called economic meltdown receiving “retention” bonuses in the millions because they are too important to “fixing” what’s wrong with the company.

What makes these CEO’s and Wall Street bankers so important? I “get” that many of the multinational corporations are huge with hundreds of thousands of empoyees in some instances and that a few people can have a large impact on the “bottom line” of these corporations. I’m just wondering what has brought us to the place where the guy at the top is worth hundreds, maybe thousands, more than the guy at the bottom? In my younger years I played lots of sports, mostly basketball. I managed to continue playing basketball for several years after my college playing days ended. One of the things that sticks out more than most others from that experience is remembering how the good coaches I played for always emphasized that the team was no better than the guy who sat on the end of the bench. Even if his job was just making the “starters” better by working hard in practice, he was an important part of any success the team experienced. That seemed to be the business attitude in America in the 60’s when I graduated from high school and entered the work force. The guys at the top of the corporations made maybe 5 to 10 times what the guy at the bottom made. In those days peple who had very high salaries paid a much larger percentage of their income – I believe once it went over a certain amount – in income taxes. There were incentives, in the form of tax write-offs which encouraged these people to invest in churches and other non-profits with their excessive incomes. Of course, this led to many illegal tax schemes, but the point was that there wasn’t this desparity between the “haves and the have-nots” as it exists today.

I have watched over the years as the Republican party has become virtually sold out to the large corporations and the executives that lead them. They (the corporations) figured out how to give money to the politicians as an investment that paid exponential returns. This has led, in my view, to a society that is being destroyed by GREED. I have wondered over the past 20 years or so, how much is enough for these people? I have personal friends who I feel are caught up in the same cycle of GREED and don’t even have a clue what is happening to them. And, the one thing that is common between all the people I know in this “cycle” – they are all, 100%, Republicans. When I talk to them they sound like the Republican politicians in Washington DC. Any discussion relating to politics ends up with complaints about paying taxes. I’ll give you one example. I have a very good friend (I know a few details about this person because I used to have a Real Estate business and helped him buy some properties) who is a very successful businessman. And, I’ll give him all the credit he deserves – In my mind, I actually worry about him because he works too much – he is very good at what he does, but I actually pray for him that he won’t work himself into an early grave (I’ve never told him this – probably should, but I don’t think it would do anything except strain our relationship – which I value). I’m guessing that his business brings him a profit in excess of half a million each year and I helped him purchase several properties many years ago which he still owns. One of them, a 10 acre piece of land, was purchased for the then absurd price of $9,000 per acre – based on my advice (I’m only including that part because I could never follow my own advice due to the fact I couldn’t afford to) – and today he is selling it for something in the neighborhood of 60 times that amount. I’m only pointing these things out because everytime we get together he complains about all the taxes he pays.

Now, I get that a small businessman such as my friend does pay a lot of taxes. I look at my paycheck and see all the payments my employer makes “matching” my FICA and Medicare payments, the Labor and Industries taxes, retirement (I’m certain my friend pays into a retirement account for his employees) and expenses for health care which I’m sure seems like another tax for him (he is a very honorable man – despite being a Republican :o). But, the bottom line to me is that the people who are in this position (and I do agree that there needs to be tax incentives to encourage people to have small businesses) benefit more than guys like me from all the services that our taxes pay for. We need roads, we need police and firemen, in general we need organized functioning communities with vibrant “mini” economies for these small businesses to flourish. Right now, all across America, we are witnessing the result of what happens when the GREED factor puts too much money at the top of the “food chain” and these businesses start running out of customers who can pay for their services. Now, in the case of my friend, I’m not at all suggesting that he’s greedy – in fact he’s just the opposite in the sense that he performs an important public service, very professionally, at a far better price than his competitors. It’s just frustrating for me, in this instance, that he believes that the Republicans are the “answer” because of their annual push for tax cuts for the wealthy (he’s a Christian so maybe part of his rationale is the Republican’s disengenuous use of the abortion issue for the past 30 years). I, personally, look at it more like my basketball coach. When the guy at the bottom can purchase my friend’s services the economy is then flourishing and he will make even more money!

Where the real problems set in is when the small business people like my friend give credence to the Republicans who then pull the strings for the large businesses resulting in damage to the “infrastructure” or fabric of our society. These large corporations have no sense of patriotism – EVERYTHING IS BASED ON THE BOTTOM LINE. I was listening to a discussion today about how a corporate “head” was rewarded for bringing India nationals into the US to be trained to do a certain job and then shipped back to India where they took over a “public relations” part of the business at a fraction of the cost – allowing this person to “eliminate” several US jobs in the process – thereby increasing the bottom line for his company, increasing the unemployment rolls in America, and – most importantly to him I’m sure – increasing his bonus. Words like loyalty, longevity, and community are no longer part of the mantra of many of the large corporations in America. Hewlett Packard was once a very employee friendly company. Years ago one of my friends who worked there said they had NEVER laid off one worker! Enter Carly Fiorina (one of John McCain’s economic “advisors”) – who, over the strong objection of the Hewlett Packard (original) family, created a merger with COMPAQ corporation, a company HP was in direct competition with, for the express purpose of eliminating jobs. Another of my friends who still works for HP said the workers stopped what they were doing and cheared when it was reported that Fiorina was ousted – but the damage had been done – and HP is now a “modern company” where the workers don’t know from one week to the next if they will still have a job. It’s like we have traded the idea of loyalty for the notion of constant accountability with your job being on the line.

And the reality is, just as with General Motors, the American workers are the best in the world. They are the most productive, the most reliable, and the most skilled. It is the executives who usually make the huge mistakes and it is the workers who pay for their mistakes. I wonder what the hard working blue collar men and women of GM think about their former boss taking $23 million away with him while the company is going down the tubes – thanks in large part to his reluctance to make prudent decisions about the focus of the company. This idea of “squeezing” the workers has permeated most of American society at this point. I don’t know how we turn this around without some kind of major change in thinking by the general public (the place to start, in my view, is to get rid of the Republican party and replace it with something more in tune with the needs of the average American – we desparately need an opposition party to the Democrats).

I would just remind anyone who might read this about the theories of Karl Marx. Now, he is a bad word in most of American culture, but the reality is that Marx was a philosopher and his theories about capitalism are ringing quite true in America these days. It is greed that funnels the money upward until you “hit” the breaking point, which is when the “proletariat” rebel. Our economy is getting way too “top heavy” – and there needs to be an orderly redistribution of the wealth. Despite the fact these greedy ultra rich will, in most instances, fight this tooth and nail – what made the United States the greatest nation on the earth was a strong and vibrant middle class. Entreprenuers, Small businesses, and hard workers are the backbone of what made this country what it is – and we need desparately to get back to that “model.” These large corporations have gotten way too powerful and they’ve received way too much favorable treatment from our government. I believe rules need to be put in place which protect workers and cause these corporations to have to participate more in the society that produces their profits. There needs to be caps placed on the salaries of the top executives – even if it’s in the form of higher taxes on the higher levels of earnings. And this idea that people on Wall Street, or across America, can make huge profits gambling on stocks has to change as well. Rules have to be put in place where the stock market is returned to a place where people make long term investments in companies and the people who are gambling as day traders and the like, should be taxed more heavily. What they are doing produces nothing (except grief for the real working class in this country).

And the idea that corporations can do business in this country and not pay taxes has to end. Corporate “tax havens” off shore need to be “discovered” and ended. Companies like Halliburton, who bilk our government for billions with favorable “no-bid” contracts, shouldn’t be allowed to operate in this country if they want to move their headquarters to places like Dubai in order to avoid taxes and government oversight. WE COULD GET ALONG JUST FINE WITHOUT HALLIBURTON – SOMEONE WOULD FILL THE VOID. We live in a great nation, we should all be proud of that and be willing to pay our fair share to keep it that way. I accept that my fair share is more than my son who is young and is just getting started in life. Once he’s more established in whatever carreer he chooses then his “share” will increase. We are sending the wrong message to our children when we complain about taxes, we borrow to the hilt, and we support a government which does the same. It is time for the general mentality to be changed – the old “attitude adjustment” – where we start thinking collectively about preserving and maintaining the infrastructure of this nation (and I mean the physical infrastructe as well as the internal – meaning the institutions, government ideals, education system, etc.) and placing more importance on those who facilitate that than those who generate huge profits for their companies and stockholders. Our schools, our bridges, our forests, our environment, and our principles are all FAR more important than the shareholders of the major corporations in this great nation!

Today I watched some of the reports on the so-called G-20 Summit that is happening (or happened) in London – Barrack Obama’s first “foray” onto the international “stage” as the President of the United States.  While I’m absolutely certain the Republicans of this nation will find many things Obama did that were “anti-American,” by all accounts he was a very refreshing change to the people of the rest of the world who were probably more sick of GW Bush than we were.  I am trying to keep an impartial view of how Obama is doing, as best I can, because I am so happy that we have finally removed Bush and the Republican party as it is presently constituted from the mainstream scene.  Despite the few misgivings I have about his first 75 or so days in office, I was pretty impressed with what he accomplished during this London conference (and his wife was even more impressive – based on the results I saw).

The first complaint I saw that was stirring Republicans was that Michelle Obama evidently put her hand on the Queen’s shoulder (while the Queen was putting her hand on Michelle’s back) and I thought these people have no boundaries which they will stoop to in order to attempt putting a negative “face” on what President Obama is trying to achieve.  Now, as I’ve stated on a couple of my earlier posts, I’m not all that happy with everything that’s coming out of the White House since Obama’s inauguration.  For example, I’m sure there are many who are happy that the stock market has taken a strong move upward in the past 3 or 4 weeks.  I have to say that I’m very concerned that we will judge the “recovery” based on the health of the stock market – in other words, Wall Street will continue to “rule.”  I really hope that is not the case – it feels to me that we are pouring so much money into Wall Street, in an attempt to (for some reason) allow them to escape from their misdeeds in one piece (while GM is headed for bankruptcy) and, as I’ve said before, I hope that we start measuring the health of this nation by somehow measuring the health of the middle class.

We are seeing first hand the obscene salaries of the “moguls” on Wall Street, and if we prop up a system that is so top heavy in rich people – that is, continue to support an economic system that funnels money to the few at the expense of the many – my take is that we haven’t learned anything.  Everyone knows that the family unit has been deteriorating in this nation for a generation, and, in my view, the only way to turn that statistic around is to “retool” in a way that better rewards “work” and productivity, and more realistically rewards bankers and executives.  It is hard for me to “get” that a Wall Street banker is worth a bonus which is 50 times my salary as an experienced teacher.  They talk about the huge risk involved in their jobs – but what kind of risk is it when you can fail and still receive an obscene salary.  The truth is the risk these guys are taking is with other people’s money – and when they lose, it’s the other people who lose and they apparently walk away as if nothing happened.  People got up in arms when the 160 million of AIG bonuses were dished out recently, but they didn’t say much when $3.5 Billion in bonuses went to the executives who “crashed” Merril Lynch (and millions of American’s retirement funds) or the other $15 Billion in bonuses to banks receiving so-called TARP funds from the government.

Internationally, we saw the results of this greed personified with the protestors at the Summit meeting President Obama was attending.  People around the world are hurting and the recession is intensifying – no matter what Wall Street says.  I really want Obama to succeed and, as I said above, I was very impressed with how he handled himself at this summit – but I caution anyone who reads this blog that there is a lot left to solve before we are on sound footing again.  And we need an opposition party in the United States – one that can participate in the dialogue of how to get out of the mess left behind by the Bush administration (I honestly don’t know how he sleeps at night).  Some of Obama’s supporters are sounding too much like the Republicans under Bush – whatever he says is going to be OK with them.  If that is the case, then we haven’t gotten very far in the struggle to get this nation back on the so-called “solid ground.”  And, as the Republican party is constituted today, it is a joke.  They either need to completely change their leadership and their message, or we need another party to emerge to keep the Democrats from feeling too good about themselves.

I mean, I didn’t read the Republican budget, but I listened to the guy who was chosen to present it, and all I could think about was that it was April fools day, and this must be a joke.  These people are unbelievable!  More tax cuts for the wealthy (maybe they should just propose no taxes for the wealthy and get it over with) and a reduction in spending.  And, of course, their budget proposal would increase the deficit even more than Obama’s despite the desparagy in government spending.  On top of this they are being led by people like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and Dick Cheney (the guy will probably only go away if he’s put in jail, where he belongs).  Well, I forgot to mention John McCain – the man who proved his incredible incompetence as Obama’s “foe” in the previous election – and Mitt Romney, the liberal Republican turned Conservative (he’ll be whatever you want him to be – mark my words – as the public views become more internalized by Republicans Romney will be like the Prodigal and he’ll return to his “liberal Republican” ways – whatever might get him their nomination) – and then there’s the one they would really want, Jeb Bush, but I don’t even think the Republicans are stupid enough to put another Bush in front of the voters any time soon.

What we need are Republicans who will actually stand for family values – not for rich people.  Republicans who will take the anti-abortion fight to a realistic place where they attempt to find programs which minimize the demand for abortions and where support for unwanted pregnancies goes beyond the birth of the baby.  That is the party needs to get some empathy regarding the average people in this country – and the plight they face in today’s world.  They need to actually stand for fiscal responsibility and get off of this platform that “deficits don’t matter.”  For them, the only time deficits matter is when a Democratic President inherits their ridiculous deficits – then you hear them squacking about “tax and spend” liberals – when they are actually the guilty party.  They need to stand firm for the constitution and stop manipulating it as a document that only has meaning to the “little people.”  The other day the present Attorney General set a great example of how they should treat our constitution and system of justice when he vacated the convicion of Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska because of “unearthed” prosecutorial misconduct.  He didn’t allow partisan politics to interfere with a fair judicial decision.  That is the way Republicans should act – with fairness to the system we all depend on.  Instead of wanting Obama to fail, Republicans should be standing for traditional values which will make this a better nation when he succeeds.

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!