The ANTIs

 
And oh how the mighty have fallen, as Lincoln's Grand Old Party ain't looking so grand lately, its leaderless power vacuum apparently now being filled by that insufferable ogre, Rush Limbaugh. "I WANT the new president to fail," he told listeners on his show recently. Hear it again in case you missed it: he wishes the administration to go down in flames. Did that sink in properly? As you struggle to pay your mortgage, if you haven't already foreclosed, or as you pump down the heat to save a fistful of bucks, or stretch that loaf of bread you've had frozen for a couple of weeks now. Why, not too long ago under the leadership of another administration, those words constituted near treason; they were un-American...perhaps even "terroristspeak."

What disgusts me to no end at a time like this is the GOP partisan bickering and refusal to support the new stimulus package which passed the House a few days ago. Are Republicans that out of touch with reality that in their delusionary state they honestly believe we need more tax cuts for the rich and corporations? The very things that got us to this deplorable state?

"I WANT the new president to fail..."

Maybe the Republicans don’t think there is an emergency. Remember now, it was Phil Gramm, John McCain’s economic guru, who told us last summer that the pain was all in our heads, that this was a “mental recession.” And so the 20,000 jobs Caterpillar has announced it's eliminating, the 8,000 cut by Sprint Nextel, and 7,000 axed by Home Depot, all within the last two days...all of this is in our heads.

The Republican answer? Tax Cuts! Jesus, these people need to be committed. It's infuriating to stand by and listen to this decades-old rhetoric, which has somehow brainwashed reasonable Americans into thinking that as of Tuesday this country is being led into the realm of Communism. Are you kidding me? Wake up! You're getting ready to be evicted and you're worried about two gay men marrying. Or from out of the suspended unknown that is space-time continuum, through a hidden wormhole, some colonialist redcoat will materialize, break down your front door, and take away your beloved guns.

If anything, the stimulus package is not large enough. But the GOP won't stand to hear it. It's complaining that Republican members are being pressured into accepting the deal. Pressured! Imagine that, actually holding politicians accountable for making a ballsy decision without pussyfooting around and working backroom deals with influential businesses back home.

Imagine a political system in which decisions are being taken without consulting with parasitic lobbyists and hangers-on offering comp-ed packages of all-inclusives in the Caymans.

The GOP has become the party of Anti. Anti-abortion, Anti-immigration, Anti-gay marriage, Anti-union, Anti-anything that the rational mind of a hard working American can fathom to do in order to help himself and his fellow human being.

This is the party that preached fiscal discipline and then cut taxes in time of an un-ending war with a phantom enemy. This is the party that still wants to decimate Social Security and Medicare. This is a party that, given a choice between Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, would choose Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat.

what are you doing tomorrow?

I think I might take a walk down the street and have a chat with someone at the local Bank of America.

There is this teeny-tiny part of me that wishes I and a large group of angry, disaffected ne'er-do-wells would storm the banks, but do the tellers really need that? We're in the same boat, ain't we? Perhaps we can sow the seeds of discontent. Perhaps. Wishful thinking on my part, but why not try? For a change I feel a modicum of hope.

Citiboobs Get Grounded

 
There's nothing more to do for me than to just sit here in the 5 a.m. hour with java in hand, and shake my head not only in disbelief at what Citibank tried to pull with its $50 million corporate jet, the exclusive Dassault Falcon 7X, after losing $28.5 billion in the past 15 months and receiving $345 billion in government investments and guarantees, but almost ready to give up on this system which breeds nothing but gluttonous consumption, greed, and a propensity for voluntary, individual accessorizing with horse blinders from its denizens.

It's not just the economy, stupid...it's the stupids who drive the economy, stupid. And it's the stupids who continue to passively endure economic abuse from the fatcats' ruinous, bankrupt tactics, stupids. What this country needs about now is a mass of pissed-off, unemployed Joe the Plumbers taking to the streets, torches (and PVC pipes) in hand. The Revolution WILL be televised. Chris Matthews is waiting.

Lot by lot I realize what ill fits capitalism and deregulation are for me. Over the last few months I've heard from my colleagues "if you don't like it, LEAVE" so often, that I've started packing boxer shorts into suitcases (well, that settles THAT debate for those of you wondering about my choice of underhosen). Not really, I have family ties which bind me here, but one can take metaphorical liberties when one deems himself some sort of op-ed wanna-be columnist. Or is just fed up with abuses.

In any case, to my incredulity, these Citiboobs---as the New York Post, which broke the jet news calls them---didn't learn jack from the auto bigwigs who got in trouble last month for flying their private jets to Washington to ask for bailouts, or the A.I.G. moguls who got dragged before Congress for spending their bailout on California spa treatments. Don't get me wrong, I highly respect and value mammary glands in general, and would never demean this most important piece of female biology, but these particular boobs didn’t get the message---the squash-headed, moronic dummies. Gagootz!

Writing in The New York Times this morning, Maureen Dowd puts it quite nicely:
"The former masters of the universe don’t seem to fully comprehend that their universe has crumbled and, thanks to them, so has ours. Real people are losing real jobs at Caterpillar, Home Depot and Sprint Nextel; these and other companies announced on Monday that they would cut more than 75,000 jobs in the U.S. and around the world, as consumer confidence and home prices swan-dived."

Virtually pricked in the ribs by an appalled Senator Carl Levin, Tim Geithner — even as he was being confirmed as Treasury secretary — instructed Treasury officials to call the Citiboobs and tell them the new jet would not fly.

“They woke up pretty quickly,” says a Treasury official, adding that they protested for a bit. “Six months ago, they would have kept the plane and flown it to Washington.”

These pests will never learn on their own, though. Consensus around Washington is that Geithner will have to flex his muscles and rein in the vermin using his new leashes.

“I have no confidence that they intend or desire to change,” Senator Carl Levin told The New York Times. “These bankers got away with murder, and it’s obscene that close to nothing is being asked of financial institutions. I get incensed at the thought that a bank that’s getting billions of dollars in taxpayer money is out there buying fancy new airplanes.”

Revolution, anyone?