Mad As Hell...

And yet. And yet. Since January 20th, I have read and listened to nothing but vitriolic attacks and nay-saying towards the Obama Administration. People claiming that the president is steering us towards socialism. That The "Pelosi Congress" (whatever the hell that is) is a joke and has no clue as to what its doing. That the nation's ruined and that recovery is nowhere in sight. Maybe it's the news I read. Maybe it's the people I talk to. Or the city where I live. Well, I for one, am tired of it. Tired of listening to people whine about the Democratic party, the president the nation overwhelmingly elected (official results show Obama defeating McCain by a ten percent(!) margin) and tired of the current plans being crafted to help assist the nation to better health. Eight years ago, the nation was told that the majority party in Congress and the new president who actually lost the popular vote, were given a mandate to change the country's direction. The results were a war on science, a war on church/state separatism, a war on international diplomacy and the rule of law, a war on 'loyal oppositions, a war on fiscal responsibility, a war on Iraq, a war on liberalism and ultimately, a war on reality. Nearly a decade later, the nation is in dire straits. All of this and here what we have yet to really hear coming from the media outlets, cable news and in the bars and coffeeshops of the nation:

-while anger is being directed at 'those who lived beyond their means' for the last ten years, there is no anger towards the institutions that encouraged people to do so. Credit card companies, lending institutions, banks, corporations. In typical fashion, we want to throw the book at one nailed for abusing drugs and yet do little to crack down on the suppliers, though we know they are.

-while anger is being directed at the Obama stimulus package and its costs, where is the anger being directed at the spending habits of the previous ten years? Obama's plan costs $800 billion. Now, quadruple that. There's Iraq. No anger on the return of that? Anger is being directed at bail outs for mortgages, but most of it at the borrowers. The purpose of the bail out is to help solvent homeowners keep their houses close to their values. The purpose is to keep people in their homes. The purpose is to make sure that money, however it is being moved around in this shell game, to at least remain the value printed on the bills. That people can still trust banks and the stock market.

-while anger is being directed at the plunging stock market, who is asking the really important question: who the hell believes he or she should be guaranteed a 300% profit on an investment less than a decade old? Are these the same people who took a lot of their not-so-hard-earned-money within the last ten years, traveled to Las Vegas and played the high rolling tables? Why didn't anyone get indignant over the house taking so many people's money at the casinos? That's what the stock market really was. Speculation is a high-risk game and many will and should get burned in playing with that money.

-while people are terrified that the nation is being wrecklessly steered socialism, they don't stop to see that what has really helped maintain a sense social, economic and political balance in the sixty years since the end of World War II has been the 'intrusive state'. However, whether it be the G.I Bill or Head Start, the government has served as a positive force in the nation's postwar evolution. To hear people whining about health care and yet still turn away from a nationalized system of healthcare, especially the program offered to members of the national government, is ridiculous. Cheaper, more efficient, with less money going into the bureaucracy and more and better care provided to its payees, this sort of system is being withheld, almost by the economic elite because they simply don't want to share.

-where is the outrage at the mentality of corporate leaders who believe they're worth the hundreds of millions and billions they give themselves at stockholder (and now taxpayer) expense? No one; I repeat, NO ONE is worth that much money and all these huge bonuses and salary packages do is take money away from the companies and employees who should see profits and salaries increase as their CEOS have seen. We all teach our children to share and then teach our adults to cheat, lie and steal. Ironic.

-while we're trying to nail Obama and the Democratic Party to the wall, where is the outrage at George W. Bush and the neocon-/GOP base that pushed this style of governance over the previous two decades? The head of the SEC was asleep at the switch the last three years; I demand his head on a pike. Doubling the national debt in just eight years and wracking up yearly deficits and no accountability? So what, MCain lost the election. That's all the nation wants in return, a new guy? The analogous news story this week has been the Bernie Madoff trial. People are out for blood. They want him dead and they have no sympathy. Even as Madoff stands as the symbol of punishment for the actions praticed by countless people in the positions to do so, nothing has been heard regarding our previous fearless leader. I say we place a 100% tax on Bush's $150,000 speaking engagements. He deserves an ankle bracelet in order for law enforcement officials to track his every move. You never know if he may just call the Saud family for their yearly 'thank you' chat. He deserves a chapter in my AP government text for 'how to really fail your country and make people believe you succeeded' section.

I'm done. You were done a long time ago. I need to go to the store to buy groceries. I can't buy as much as I could five years ago. Guys my age can't buy as much as their dads could. I'm seeing the price of agricultural products, many receiving unnecessary subsidies though we're supposed to live in the free market, rise monthly. And yet, I'm happy, because Best Buy has been having a great sale this last month on cd's from the 1980s. While I drive, I'll be updating my Marx, changing replacing 'religion' to 'pop culture'. Then miss everything else important in my life as I whine and complain about the failings the current government makes.