On Safety and Government and Bailouts
I noted in the news this morning that congressional and senate leaders are attempting to change the bailout legislation to be acceptable to the members of the House that voted, “No,” and defeated the measure yesterday. What gets me is that the President (who sounds seriously sleep deprived) is playing the press game and claiming that innaction is far worse than action and that it is essential for Congress to pass his bill. This is interesting as he has this really odd record of pesistently and consistently being wrong about everything. His insistence that this bill needs to pass and that it is essential doesn’t hold much water (or anything else for that matter) with me as I read and listen to what he has to say. And on top of that, get Nancy Pelossi to pander to the public and I have to tell you, there is only one female politician I dislike more than Hillary Clinton and it is Nancy Pelossi. She and Clinton are made of similar stuff, and Nancy is worse that Hillary. (For the record, on the level of politicians I dislike, Nancy and Hillary are both near the top without regard to gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation (or lack thereof), and etc.) Nancy claims that it is the Republicans who are stopping the bill from passing (she didn’t bother to count the number of Democrats who didn’t support the bill) and failed economic policies of this administration. I agree and disagree. Just because you are in a leadership position does not mean you have any more (or for that matter, less) understanding of the situation or how to resolve it. Historically, everything Congress does has a tendency to backfire and most of the successful legislation that has been passed over the years has been passed in spite of Congress and not because of Congress.
Like the President, Congress has gone along with the man too many times and has allowed too much in the way of hand wringing and cries of doom and destruction to be their mantra. As a result, and I believe this will show itself in the coming elections where many of the incumbants will not be re-elected, especially ones who feel they are safe, the People are getting tired of politics as usual. And the sad thing is this is only politics as usual in comparison to the last twenty or so years when, as a nation and a political structure, we are still such babies with little national experience as to not have a significant understanding of the needs that exist for a very long period of time in advance of where we are right now.
AND, when we deal with finances and financial institutions, it is important to note that periods of growth have to be accompanied by periods of financial collapse and failure. The reason is that growth cannot be sustained indefinitely, nor can economists or politicians logically expect it to be sustained for long periods of time. The outcome, whether Wall Street or Congress or the President or investors want it, is a recession and/or depression in the economy. Since the world is basing their economy off the United States (and a serious enough depression will affect the entire world) a depression in the U.S. will affect the rest of the world negatively. Which makes sense that the rest of the world is clamoring for Congress to do something in light of an economic downturn, globally, even though world leaders should know better than to dictate to another country what they should be doing.
With that said, we (e.g. the United States) is very good at dictating to the rest of the world what they should be doing and so I guess it is fair play to have the world return the favor to the United States.
One problem, me thinks, is illustrated in the cargo ships that are being held by Somali pirates who are looking for tens of millions of dollars in ransom money (Russian tanks and supplies to include ammo being shipped to Yemen and being held for $20 million). The international community and especially the United States is telling shipping companies to ensure safety and take precautions. Wise thinkers are claiming that we cannot go back to the days or yore when all ships were equiped with cannons to protect themselves from pirates or marauders since we live in a more enlightened and understanding age. Excepting the fact that much of the cargo going through that region of the world is oil, people who claim that self-defense is stupid especially when pirates or others bent on killing you are involved. We are not so advanced or enlightened or have a greater or broader understanding of the world and people and etc. as to be beyond a need to defend outselves. The difference is not in moral superiority, but in the immediate availability of seeing the outcome through television, online, or in other mediums. When pirates were in books or heard about through letters and you never actually had to see one, then we talk about something completely different.
There are a couple of things, in that light, that simply annoy me. First, a countries statement:
We do not negotiate with terrorists!
And, that same country doing nothing (or next to it) to ensure that terrorists don’t have the chance to accomplish… whatever. No, I am not someone who believes that whatever the President and Congress and the Military complex are doing has done one wit of good for this country. There are too many reports and too many security audits on airplanes and in airports that suggest we are still not safe, just more annoyed and harrassed. More, to state that most of the security concerns are going to be secret and not shared publicly.
One thing I’ve learned is that when someone tells you they are working in your behalf and they won’t tell you how or to what extent, there is a very good possibility that they are not working with your interests in mind.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West
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