America-Take A Lesson From The Iranian People!

Why is President Obama capitulating to the political right after so many liberal-progressive voters chose him as their candidate and choice for president? By taking such moves, which are not even “center-based”, he has alienated a great many of his supporters. As Bill Maher has stated, “I didn’t vote for this!”

Progressives, liberals, or for that matter, many former-Reagan Democrats have flared up their ire, which is worse than whacking your big toe against a fixed object, when Obama began reversing his support for Democrats who protested against the White House when it decided to rally behind the telecom industry’s subversive Stalinesque use of their technologies to gather intelligence, without warrants, against everyday Americans. Didn’t Little Boy Bush do that?

We call these acts spying! Stalin, Khrushchev, Mao, Castro, Pinochet, Bush, and, of course, Hitler all spied on their own people, and now, Obama has walked that supportive tightrope. Such actions are part of the neo-con battle cry, and Obama has raised a few masts in that direction.

Another sail flapping on the Demo-con's phantom ship has emboldened across its sailcloth is his support for government funded faith-based initiatives. Just because he believes in religious action for people in need, it does not mean that it has to be financially supported through the government’s budget. Why is it that the government cannot directly fund such initiatives without having to go through religious organizations? I always thought there was a separation between church and state, but that belief continues to get whittled away.

The same questions come up over and over again in regards to the Federal Reserve Bank. Why is it that the government borrows money from the Federal Reserve, a private banking organization, in order to operate? The Federal Reserve buys government issued Treasuries, sells them, and then loans the government money. The US government, then in return, pays the Federal Reserve interest on the money it borrows.

Does this make any sense? Why cannot the US government establish its own bank, through the Treasury, and operate it without having to pay interest to itself? Why is the Federal Reserve still operating? It is because the international bankers, who sit on the Federal Reserve board, have incredible power over the government. The Federal Reserve Bank is just one of other international central banks affiliated with the International Bank of Settlements, which is the chief central bank for all these world banks.

Dr. Ellen Brown, of webofdebt.com, wrote about the innovative Bank of North Dakota (BND), which is North Dakota’s state owned bank, established in 1919. It just so happens that North Dakota has a budget surplus because of the way they use this bank. “By law, the state must deposit all its funds in the bank, which pays a competitive interest rate to the state treasurer. The state rather than the FDIC guarantees the bank’s deposits, which are plowed back into the state in the form of loans. The bank’s return on equity is about 25% and it pays a hefty dividend to the state, which is expected to exceed $60 million this year. In the last decade, the BND has turned back a third of a billion dollars to the state’s general fund, offsetting taxes. The BND avoids rivalry with private banks by partnering with them. Most lending is originated by a local bank.”

If this is just fine for North Dakota, then why is it not good enough for the federal government? Why must we have a Federal Reserve, when we can have the USA Bank? And, why is not every state legislature establishing their own state-owned banks to build equity for their state treasuries? It appears that every state can become solvent, and fund their own projects through their own state-owned banks paying itself interest and dividends?

Dr. Brown writes, “North Dakota has also managed to avoid the credit freeze, through the simple expedient of creating its own credit. It has led the nation in establishing state economic sovereignty.” “Only three of fifty states are now solvent, meaning they have the revenues to meet their state budgets; and one of them is North Dakota.”

She discusses that if we had our own national bank, then we could lend operating capital to our newly acquired car company-GM. She says “One advantage of a government-owned bank is that it could fund public projects interest-free or nearly interest-free, cutting production costs dramatically. Interest comprises as much as 77% of the cost of goods and services, such as public housing, that require large amounts of capital.”

Imagine our own government-owned bank creating jobs through the people’s GM company building electric cars leased by the US government, intra-city commuter rail cars, innovative and energy efficient buses, and alternative energy products, such as battery technology. The return on such an investment would generate jobs and real Green Shoots throughout the nation.

There are major concerns burdening working class Americans and government supported domestic spying, or faith-based initiatives are just some of several policies that need to be surgically removed from the cancerous growth spreading throughout the White House. President Obama has seamlessly connected some of the Bush dots into his own matrix.

A declining dollar, rising un-underemployment, stagnant wages, an escalating war in the Middle East, rising consumer prices, and energy costs, unaffordable health care, a mounting debt crisis causing destruction to the economy, and more are the most acute problems facing this nation. Yet, Obama wants to make great speeches addressing issues that are not life threatening, at this time, like the ones just mentioned.

President Obama embeds former president and CEO Edward Whitacre of A.T.&T to the helm of the new government controlled, but with no control, G.M. As we recall during the Bush administration, this telecom company and others were involved in offering up data information about Americans without their consent and had allowed the government to just directly hook up to their phone conversations, emails, and cell phone conversations without warrants. Now, this guy has been dropped into the driver’s seat of the new G.M company.

Wow! Does this not sound like what has been going on with the nation’s corrupt financial banking institutions over the decades? Their former employees have been embedded inside the Obama administration to fix the very firestorm they created as employee/representatives of these banks. And, the Federal Reserve has embedded its own homeboy-Timmy Geithner to make sure that the Treasury continues to do the bidding of the Federal Reserve Bank and its international banking organization.

I have to keep going back to President Obama’s campaign slogan of “Yes We Can”, and “Change We Can Believe In.” As a voter and supporter, if Obama had spoken about embedding Wall-Street bankster Trojan Horses in his economic recovery plan for the country, and said he would hire on former CEOs of corporations that acted against the Constitution, the interests of the nation, and the will of the people, I would have told him, ‘No You Can’t!’ and I cannot vote for that!

We are now seeing the Iranian citizens protesting by the tens of thousands against what they believe is voter fraud. They are willing to get out in the streets and raise their voices in protest, but here in America, the nation’s biggest economy theft and hijack of our economy by a bunch of banker criminals gets no protest. No protest over handing over $14 trillion to replenish the bankster’s losses while Americans go into foreclosure by the millions, with little help, and who have seen trillions of dollars in home value wealth evaporate, as well as their retirement nest-eggs. No protest. Not a peep in the street.

Back on April 3, 2009, the Obama Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss one of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) landmark lawsuits against illegal spying by the National Security Agency (NSA). “The lawsuit was aimed at ending the NSA’s dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans and holding accountable the government officials who illegally authorized it” as was reported by Tom Burghardt, in his April 13, 2009 article “Obama Administration Endorses Continued Spying on Americans.”

What we are seeing is that this president is not making it simple, nor building the same grassroots momentum behind him that elevated him into the presidency. If there were, then he would have the force to press the Congress and the nation’s elite to accept new policies that would benefit hardworking, middle class Americans without destructive and diluted comprises. He would have the momentum to take the country back from those who stole it away over the last 30 years from the very people that make it function—the middle class.

From all we are seeing and hearing from him is that there is little change we can believe in. The American people are to blame for this. We must harness the same courage to protest as we are now seeing from the Iranian people.

A Special Thanks to 101.7 CHLY Radio and Rae Kornberger!

We, who make up Eye-On-Washington blogspot, want to thank Ms. Rae Kornberger, the host of "A Sense of Justice" broadcasted over 101.7 CHLY Vancouver Island University radio for allowing us to share with her and her audience our view of politics, and political events and topics that occur in the United States. She has interview us twice, thus far, and will bring us back to her show on a monthly basis to discuss what we do on this blog for an hour of talk.

A special thanks to you Rae!!!

Your friends in Pittsburgh, Carl and Jerry

President Obama Gives Good Speeches!

President Obama has become a huge disappointment when it comes to saving the country from itself. We had hopes that he would live up to his promise of Change We Can Believe In. It has morphed into more of the same stuff that Little Boy Bush left behind.

The new book series he is writing has been titled, “I Left It Behind”. Harry Truman entered the Oval Office scared out of his mind. He had a nation to attend to. He rolled up his sleeves and placed a sign on his desk, which read, “The Buck Stops Here!”

After attending the inauguration ceremony in the bitter cold, on January 20, 2009, we all had hope for real honest to goodness change. That day, millions of us felt we did the right thing by voted for this guy. We defended his inexperience, his message, and his call for change, but now I, and many other progressives, am heavily disappointed. I have become so disillusioned that I have coined a new name for President Obama. I am now calling him President Peacock because he has begun to strut his colorful plumy feathers in full display for all to admire and applaud. I could forgive a president who struts his stuff about town, such as when he flew into New York City---Manhattan, where he and his misses attended a show, dinner and the splendor of the city that never sleeps. Good On Ya Barack, but Harry Truman would not have done that until he felt the nation’s suffering citizens were willing to say, ‘You deserve it now, Mr. President. You really busted your butt for all of us!”

We had Little Boy Bush riding the jet plane to Crawford, Texas in order to play in his brush pile, wear his cowboy hat, and his fancy boots driving around the dry, acrid and arid shrub plain where he could talk “Texan” and not look so stupid. A war had emblazoned around him, and the economy had seriously begun to show signs of crumbling, yet he took more time off than any president in his first term. So, really what is there to complain about when Mr. and Mrs. Obama decided to fly, not halfway across the country, but just over the state line? Little Boy Bush logged more Air Force One frequent flyer miles than anyone in history.

So lately, President Peacock has been out-sourcing himself in the Middle East giving great speeches about reconciliation, communication, respect for religious beliefs, tolerance, the strength of the U.S. economy and the resiliency of the American people, as well as the goodness of good people, while doing the work to achieve peace along with extinguishing the threats of terrorism and fanatical extremism. Who can argue with those talking points? Yet, Mr. Peacock, what is the best way to achieve those lofty goals of yours, but for the United States to be an example of those goals, and for the president to correct the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression, along with dismantling the evils of the Cheney-Bush legacy. Unfortunately, China is laughing at Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner for claiming the U.S. believes in a strong dollar, as President Obama considers Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as his chief economic regulator. So, President Peacock hires the Wall-Street pyromaniacs to replant the burned out forest, but then, asks the senior fire starter, Ben Bernanke, to guard the matches. These actions by President Peacock show Americans, and the world that he is not Harry Truman, nor Franklin D. Roosevelt during the nation’s most critical, and dangerous times.

Since last year, and on into this current administration the focus has been on rescuing the greedy bankers who stole the economy from everyone else, and various bankruptcies that ensued the nation while sucking out of the treasury $14 trillion, as the real economy was engulfed by an economic firestorm. Beginning in 1999, as the Clinton administration waned furthering the Royal Scam upon the country with the construction of the Future Commodities Modernization Act of 1999, making it illegal to regulate the private investment scam artists and the shadow banking industry located within every major crime syndicate financial bank, which was signed into law by the administration of Little Boy Bush, which allowed for a massive financial heist of America’s middle class wealth concentrating it within the confines of our corrupt Wall Street institutions and then, grabbed by the top executives running those companies. And, of course, there was the shelving of the Glass-Steagall Act, as well, no longer placing a firewall between savings banks and the financial casino-like institutions, such as Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers.

As the Wall Street pyromaniacs began to experience the rapid fire storm sweeping subprime mortgages, 401Ks, foreclosures, unemployment statistics, then on into the prime mortgage market, pension funds, personal portfolios, and more, these banksta gangstas sitting in the executive suites of the biggest financial institutions were still buying their second and third homes, luxury cars, yachts, airplanes, condominiums, collectible art, country club memberships, and stashing their liquid wealth into accounts opened in places like the Cayman Islands, and other tax haven hideaways.

As Pam Martens tells us Sandy Weill, for example, the former CEO and chairman of Citigroup, walked away from his job with $1 billion in ill-gotten gain. What did he actually create at Citi? Did he create a company with sustainability, job security, or tangible products, like shampoo, or dog food? No! He walked away from a burned out company that he set on fire through “creative” gambling securities scams, through the hocus pocus of imaginative and make-believe AAA rating agencies, credit default swaps, and other bogus scams.

And now, because of the erosion of the Glass-Steagall Act, defining the boundaries between banks and financial institutions, the data released from the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC), on March 31, 2009 revealed “there are 8,246 FDIC insured institutions with total assets of $13.5 Trillion and domestic deposits of $7.5 Trillion. Four institutions, Bank of America Corporation, JPMorgan Chase and Co., Wells Fargo and Co. and Citgroup Inc., four institutions out of 8,246, control 35% of all the insured domestic deposits and 46% of the assets according to the March 31, 2009 figures from the FDIC.”

Ms. Martens went on to report that Chairman Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve has not done anything to reduce this massive concentration of wealth into the hands of a very small portion of the population, and the collusion to corral more government funds to stuff in safety deposit boxes and fatten up balance sheets, since the crisis began, but has encouraged this concentration allowing these monopoly banks to absorb their financially wounded competitors at Blue Light Special prices. Such actions create even bigger “too-big-to-fail” behemoths that when found dying in their insolvency holes drowning in stale champagne, will ask Congress twice over for trillions more treasury minted dollars calling out once more that the sky will turn black, and the country will face mortal danger if they are not rescued again.

The Wall-Street taxpayer bail-out amounting to $14 trillion far exceeds the mere $500 billion offered up to Main Street’s real economy. The Wall-Street bail-out is 25 times bigger than the Main Street offering. Now, had this been reversed, we would be seeing a resurgence of new manufacturing jobs sweeping the work force, no doubt, contributing to a Green economy that would be exportable reducing the trade deficit, stimulating consumer spending, stabilizing the housing market, and replenishing the lost retirement dollars. But, President Peacock, and his flock of financial fundies have not moved toward such sensible solutions.

Part of the national bail-out is the U.S. government’s 60% investment in General Motors, which according to Robert Reich, the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor and professor at the University of California-Berkley, GM will eventually be no more. The only reason for the $60 billion rescue package is “designed to give the economy time to reduce the social costs of the blow” when its assets eventually get sold off and the company no longer exists. Dr. Reich went on to say that the $60 billion would have been better spent had it been allocated to retrain auto workers, as well as to give them extended unemployment insurance as they become retrained for other jobs.

As we recall, GM was able to retool during the build up to World War II in order to manufacture tanks and other war machines, therefore, why cannot GM retool to manufacture high-speed rail cars for the development of intra-city transportation corridors? Or, electric cars, such as the Aptera. But, President Peacock has stated that we, the investors who now own controlling interest in GM will say nothing about the products this dying automaker will manufacture. It appears that the GM brand name will eventually be sold to China, as has gone the Hummer.

Dr. Reich wrote that GM was once the nation’s number one private employer with strong middle class jobs paying $60 per hour to workers not requiring a college education. Today, Wal-Mart has replaced GM with their $10 per hour jobs. This is part of the new American paradigm shift the nation has been willing to accept over the last 30 years. Sit down, hold on, and shut up seems to be the mantra of Wall-Street to Main Street.

The real economy jobs are disappearing. Credit is not flowing. Borrowing has narrowed. The economy has contracted more than 6% average annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008, and first quarter of 2009. From December 2007 through April 2009, the economy has burned up 6 million jobs. Dr. Morici has estimated that the economy will likely have lost more than 8 million jobs as the recession wanes.

The editor note on the website layoffdaily.com has calculated that “we would need 48 straight months (4 years) of 350,000 jobs added a month to reach January 2008 employment levels [which had been 4.9% and considered full employment]. Keep in mind that to get there, we need every last one of these rosy projections to happen [create 7 million jobs to get back to 4.9%, adding 137,000 new jobs to keep up with the pace of working-age population growth], plus a sustained job growth rate unseen in our lifetime, plus no worsening or new financial crises, no additional sector collapses, no double dip recession, and no black swans.” Wow! Now that is a tall order for President Peacock!

According to Tyler Durden of zerohedge.blogspot.com, it seems that credit default swaps, those bets that specific stocks will drop in value, continue to be purchased in the billions of dollars every month in nearly every sector. He wrote that the “net notional value change [with JPMorgan] was an almost record $2.1 billion in the name alone (on $52.1 billion in gross) on a ridiculous amount of contracts.” The gambling continues. The real economy suffers. And, Ben Bernanke, Timmy Geithner, President Peacock and Congress sit on the sidelines doing nothing to control such stuff.

Bernanke had spoken about keeping mortgage interest rates down in order to encourage home buying, but he has been buying up mortgage backed securities, and treasury issues that he has been printing up, which has driven up mortgage interest rates, and not dropped them. It just seems Bernanke has been saying one thing to the homebuilders but doing another to sabotage their survival.

There is good reason to be disappointed in President Obama. What he has done is just not good enough. It seems he was promising us more, but it appears we misunderstood those great speeches he gave us. The motto, “Change We Can Believe In” was just part of a darn good speech.

Thanks for reading, Jerry

President Obama’s Economic Recovery Will Continue To Sputter

President Obama’s auto task force has reported that if GM goes into bankruptcy, then the bondholders would need to take a 10% stake in the restructured company in exchange for their $27B they hold in GM corporate bonds. The re-emerged downsized GM could acquire another $40 billion in loans, which would be in addition to the already nearly $20 billion they have already received. It appears that the bondholders have been squawking over their deal. I say, too bad. Suck it up or loose it! Where is their “shared sacrifice?” as President Obama has demanded from the workers, and all those peripherally connected to the auto industry? Didn’t anyone tell the bondholders that investment is a risk and not a guarantee; and, that this is a bankruptcy unraveling? The UAW health care group will receive 17.5% ownership stake in exchange for the $20B owed them by GM. The U.S government will take a 60% stake in the company, while Canada will own a 12% piece of the pie.

And then there is the bankruptcy of Visteon Corporation, and Metaldyne Corporation both of which supply parts and chassis respectively for Ford Motor Company.

Automaker sales have plunged 37% this year through April, according to Bloomberg News.

The auto task force wants to see the newly-government owned GM company manufacture future cars in China. This sounds like more of the same strategy of outsourcing American jobs. Ship good paying manufacturing jobs overseas where they can be made cheaply, adding to our trade deficit, unemployment problems, further erosion of wages, and a diminished domestic tax base. This is more of the failed Reaganomics-style policies that failed the nation in the past. Haven’t Democrats woken up yet? Oh, I forgot, many are a part of this problem. Aren’t they?

Robert Reich pointed out in “What Industrial Policy Should Be”, 5-19-09, “So tucked into the latest version of climate legislation unveiled this week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee is a provision that doubles to $50 billion loans to help auto makers comply [to fuel economy targets].” Will such research and development, as well as design and manufacturing be done domestically? Or, will that be outsourced, too?

Ralph Nader and Robert Weissman wrote a letter addressed to both Senators Dodd, and Frank strongly suggesting that the Congress exercise their oversight powers regarding Obama’s consideration of bankruptcy for Chrysler and GM, “or other irreversible moves until after the task force plan has been subjected to close and careful review via thorough Congressional hearings.” It does not appear that such considerations will be honored. Just get rid of middle class jobs altogether appears to be the mantra of the nation’s elite. The richest 400 Americans, who have a net worth of $1.7 trillion, based on 2008 figures, which is around 10% of our GDP, want the welfare state kept in place just for themselves. Remember, they got this rich based on shoddy regulation of the financial industry, and the government’s allowance of over-leveraged mortgage-backed securities, as well as the credit default swap scam that kept the high roller financial bankstas, who had been betting against gains, even richer.

According to Les Leopold, in his piece “Fear and Looting in America…” in 1982, the top 400 of America’s richest, their net worth was $604 million; but, by 2008, this net worth had grown to $1.56 trillion!

It seems that the White House has grown so far removed from the collapse of the economy that there won’t be a recovery strong enough to buy even cheap foreign-made GM cars. What we have heard from the media bobbleheads is how the economy has picked up in May. “Hurray! Has a recovery begun? Will consumers continue to spend money they cannot afford to part with? Let us sure hope so! They better stop saving 4% of their incomes and go back to a zero savings rate. Maybe they will start borrowing again, too.”

Bomlat.blogspot.com wrote that “Personal savings as a percentage of personal income was 5.7% in April, compared with 4.5% in March.” Americans are now getting it. They better save more and spend less.

The bobbleheaded media pundits cannot see the forest through the trees. What happened in May? Well, there were graduations: college and high school. People bought gifts for the graduates. They traveled to college communities to attend these events. They ate in restaurants and bars. High schoolers bought prom dresses, and accessories. College graduates went to department stores and purchased, probably on credit, a few outfits for their interviews. There may even have been a few house parties. OH NO. WE CANNOT HAVE THAT NOW!

I believe such spending can boost the economy a few percentage points. The AP news service reported that the Consumer Confidence Index rose from 40.8 to 54.9. Macy’s Inc., Apple, and Best Buy Co. saw an increase in sales. Such data makes temporary sense. Families may actually spend money they don’t have on short, and local vacations in the coming weeks. Watch credit card debt increase over the next few months. Has anyone noticed creeping gas prices?

Wages have remained stagnant for many. Foreclosures seem not to be taking a rest during this rise in consumer spending. The private economy continues to shrink shedding jobs at a pace of more than 600,000 a month over the last half-year. Where will all these new college graduates find jobs? Will they earn enough to pay down their student loan debts or will they declare bankruptcy? If some are lucky, they will find work in the public sector getting experience from jobs funded through the U.S. government stimulus package. The private sector surely will not be expanding anytime soon in order to bring on new employees. Households have seen their net worth fall down the well at a cost of $13 trillion.

Also found on Bomlat’s blog, “Real gross domestic product-the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States—decreased at an annual rate of 5.7% in the first quarter of 2009…estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.” We have seen GDP over the last 2 quarter fluctuate between 5.7— 6.3%. Other economists have stated that our real GDP is actually in negative to zero ranges.

Bomlat also reported that “intermodal volume of trailers or containers was off 19.1% from last year, with container volume down 14.2% and trailer traffic off 37.2%.” This data is not very reassuring that a recover is soon at hand. Can someone call Ben Bernanke and tell him so?

The stock market knows that it has no legs. That game is only for those who can jump in and jump out. It has its own rules separate from reality. It has no long term sustainability.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will be finding $1.7 trillion worth of treasuries coming due. He is printing up $1.75 more treasuries to pay for additional deficit spending. Who is going to buy these bonds? It will be the Fed themselves, more than likely. Will there be a point when foreign central banks and currency buyers stop believing in the continued erosion of the US dollar through debt expansion? Will the price of these bonds be driven down, while interest rates move upward? Will this build a wall in the path of home mortgage lenders and new house builders? Both Bernanke and Geithner already know that business-fixed investment, and non-residential fixed investment, which makes up most of all business investment, is collapsing at an annual rate of 40%. Does this sound like the private sector will be growing? The Bernanke fantasy that our national recovery will realize a 3% growth rate next year, 4% in 2011, and 4.6% in 2012 is just gobbligook. Currently, our GDP is basically negative. He drinks too much Psycho Kool-Aid at lunch.

Economist Niall Ferguson has stated that our 2009 deficit will move above 12% of GDP. He also stated that the Fed will likely be buying $300 billion worth of treasuries this year, but they will probably find themselves having to open up their balance sheet to buy more than that. Economist Paul Krugman claims that the US is currently in debt about 60% of GDP. Will the rest of the world back away from financing our growing debt by purchasing virtually zero percent interest bonds? The U.S is basically producing nothing of tangible value to export in order to bring down the deficits.

China is very happy to see all of our manufacturing going over to their side, so we can keep buying their cheap stuff. But at some point, most Americans will not have any money to keep that going. And, if our debt exceeds our GDP, we no longer are a viable economy. Our currency could become worthless through hyperinflation. If we ship our auto industry overseas, then many jobs, which would be interconnect to it, would disappear, too.

The economist Peter Morici recently wrote that “unless the economists are wrong, this key forward looking indicator of economic health [Durable goods orders in March were down 0.8% and the consensus forecast calls for another 0.3% drop.] would likely indicate that the recession has some to time to run. Until consumers have the confidence to purchase big ticket items and businesses put cash into new technology, the economic recovery is not at hand.”

Michael Whitney stated it beautifully. “The current downturn is not really a recession at all; it’s more like a self-inflicted wound perpetrated by avaricious speculators who put a gun to the economy’s head and blew its brains out. The banks and Wall Street have created a capital hole so vast that the entire economy is being sucked into the abyss. And it all could have been avoided. Credit production is too important and too lethal to entrust it to profit-driven vipers whose only motivation is self-enrichment. The whole system needs rethinking and public input before Bernanke wastes trillions more trying to revive the same crisis-prone business model. If “credit is the economy’s life’s blood”, as Obama says, then it should be distributed through a government-controlled public utility. The real lesson of the financial crisis is that privatizing credit has been a disaster.” (The Real Lesson of the Financial Crisis, Counterpunch.org, 5-19-09).

Thanks for reading, Jerry

President Obama Uses A Watering Can Instead Of A Fire Hose

George W. Bush liked to play with matches. He was the one president who started and maintained fires all throughout his play dates in the White House. His first fire was to ignore the threat of terrorists planning to fly planes into a major American city. He let a smaller fire grow into a raging fire by pouring gasoline onto what eventually turned into the biggest economic firestorm ever to sweep the nation. He started a horrible fire in Iraq, and then in Afghanistan. He set fire to the Veteran’s Administration, soldier physical and mental health care. He set a nice fire upon American jobs and wages and retirement savings. He gathered brush and let a health care fire burn to a point where 40 million Americans could not get treated for the burns they received from the heat. He decided to take a match to public education by not providing enough funding for his No Child Left Behind fire. He started a huge torture fire. He loved to throw huge piles of money on his debt crisis fires. He threw a firebomb onto civil liberties, American and real free market principles. He gave a fire trench of escape to the banking fraudsters. He threw fire propellants all over the environment, as well. It has become very clear to many, or most, Americans that Little Boy Bush was a pyromaniac.

Now Barack Obama has stepped into these multiple fires of his presidency with a watering can in hand. During his bid for the presidency, he filled arenas all around the country with his message of change—the change that we can all believe in. And, a “Yes We Can”, ‘we must put these fires out’, ‘together we can clear the debris’, or ‘rebuild from the rubble’ message, which has left us waiting for something more than a good speech. A ‘Phoenix Rising’ message with teeth is what was expected. This was not the message from his opponent representing Phoenix, Arizona. The voters called out for a Phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes-of-a-nation-left-to-burn message to be put into play on day one. We are still waiting.

A voting majority was listening intently, with hope in their hearts, since he talked of it everywhere he stopped to speak. His Phoenix Rising message had saturated the Democratic and hopeful Republican psyche. We were expecting it, for crying out loud! He went from swooning a ground swell of loyal stadium-sized supporters, to a rising bunch of folks wondering what the heck happened.

Of course, there were many who were not paying attention. Those who were not listening thought Barack Obama was a Muslim. They instead listened to the Right wing messengers, such as Limbaugh, and O’Reilly. Many of these same people did not know which state of the union KFC—the fried chicken franchise—first came from; or could name a country that began with the letter “U” (such as the United States); or, what is the religion of Israel (the answer is not Israeli); or, what religion are Buddhists; or, who won the Vietnam War (and yes, the U.S. was in that war.); or, who is Fidel Castro; or, how many sides does a triangle have (the answer is not NONE or ONE!); or, what is the currency used in the United Kingdom (the answer is not “the Queen Elizabeth’s money”); or, what country in the Middle East should be invaded next (the answer should not be Italy, France, Brazil, Korea); or, place a marker on the world map showing Iran (placing it on Australia is wrong); or, who is Tony Blair (the answer should not be “I don’t even know”, “Linda Blair’s brother”, or “an actor”); or, what is a mosque (the answer should not be “I don’t have any idea”, nor “an animal”); or, how many kidneys does a person have (the answer should not be one); or, what is collateral damage (the answer should not be “they just made a movie about it, and it must be something to do with what the movie is about”), or; how many world wars have there been (the answer should not be three); or, Star Wars is based on a true story: true or false (the answer should not have been answered “true”); or, what is Hiroshima and Nagasaki famous for (the answer should be Judo-wrestling); or, how many Eiffel towers are there in Paris (the answer should not be “about 10); or, what is Al-Qaeda (the answer should not have been “a suicide group in Israel and the president of it is Yasser Arafat. Everybody knows that.” Or, “a wing of the Masonic Order.”); or, where was the Berlin Wall (the answer should not have been “Believe me. I don’t know the answer to this question, but I am thinking. Israel?”). I cannot make such answers up. These were real people, on a city street in America, giving such answers to a person with a video camera and microphone for all to see on Youtube. They were young, middle aged, and old. This is the intellect of a significant population of this country. Maybe 90 million. Many of these Americans are functionally illiterate, yet able to get by everyday. They are able to work, pay bills, shop for groceries, buy beers, watch Fox News, listen to Limbaugh on their car or personal pocket radios. Some might call them marginalized individuals working for minimum wage, receiving government assistance, and living from check to check.

Such Americans may not know, or understand, what President Obama is trying to do with his “watering can”. But, there are millions of Americans who fully well know that to use a “water can” on dozens of raging fires will have little difference; and, when he eventually realizes that what he needs is an experienced team of firefighters, not afraid of putting on the protective gear and battling the fires and pyromaniacs with the utmost of professional understanding that fire hoses are required and not his useless “watering cans”, it maybe too late. By then, he could easily be dealing with a “Scorched Earth epidemic instead of just major fire damage.

Such a viewpoint can be very defeating. Many Americans had put their hopes in this man who they worked hard to get elected President of the United States--the most important position on Earth. Yet, when he pranced out the likes of Timmy Geithner, and Larry Summers, to just name two people who were fully engaged in the firestorm that Little Boy Bush had emblazoned, all we could do was place our heads in our cupped hands and cry. This president has let millions upon millions of hard working Americans burn badly through foreclosures, bankruptcies, disappearing retirement savings, stagnant wages, vanishing jobs, and more, while the fire starters and pyromaniacs continue to make critical decisions that affect all of us.

The “Shared Sacrifice Bitter Pill” that President Obama demands working Americans to swallow without complaint, has been discarded by the very financial corporate thieves and CEOs, as well as government officials who should, instead, be making the greatest “shared sacrifice” for all. Unfortunately, this is not Barack Obama’s agenda. His agenda is for Americans to suspend belief and support his illusion act which takes taxpayer’s wealth, hands it over to the largest financial banking entities when their own net worth just prior to the bailout panic attack was far less than what had been given to them by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve pretending that they were made solvent by their own accounting magic when in reality they were actually owned by the U.S. government and taxpayers. This is what is called crony capitalism. President Obama has elaborated on the Bush version of crony capitalism, which has now been made bigger and more corrupt. ‘My crony capitalism is bigger than your crony capitalism!’

Any Credit Card Bill of Rights will not be in place until 2010 allowing the credit card companies to launch their final assault upon the working American. There will be no investigation championed by this president to peel away the layers of lies and war crimes committed by the last administration. There will be no hurried round-up of corporate tax dodgers stuffing their wealth in undisclosed and protected off-shore bank accounts located in “Tax Haven” countries. There is no earth-shaking outcry or heated body-checking against the army of lobbyists hired to take down any government created health care plan endorsed by this president, let alone the American people. There has been little lecturing of the Democratic Party congressional leadership to act tough on behalf of working Americans. Now, this president speaks in support of Little Boy Bush’s complaint that Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson should not take their lawsuit against the government to a higher court in order to seek justice against the wrongdoing that was done to them by the Boy Bush administration.

All of this has been done in less than 200 days as president. The track record does not look good. The Change That We Can Believe In has been diluted down by his flimsy watering can to read The Occasional Sorta Change That We Might Be Able To Try And Believe In.

Barack Obama was given a huge mess by the outgoing regressive administration. I will grant him that. He has been trying to repair the damage done, and put out the raging fires, which are overwhelming in scope, but it cannot be done with a dime store watering can.

"Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population." Albert Einstein.

thanks for reading, jerry