What a mess!

Oh, yay, the Federal Government is helping bail out more financial institutions. Which means that's OUR tax dollars helping with that. Along with our obligations in Iraq and Afghanistan, no wonder we keep going further into debt. Eight years ago our government had a surplus! Eight years ago, gasoline was $1.49/gallon. Eight years ago, a $50,000 paycheck went much farther than it does today. What is going on? And despite all this, 50% of Americans still think McCain/Palin is the way to go? Are you kidding me?


And in case you're wondering, the lovely CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still getting lovely salaries for running the business into the ground. Man, why can't I have their jobs? I'd be retired by now.

Here's what Sadie's Soapbox had to say:


"How much money could we really be talking about? Well I looked it up, of course.Fannie Mae's CEO, *earned* a salary of $13.4 million dollars. Freddie Mac's CEO is a real go getter, so he was paid $19.8 million last year. What did you get for that? And why are you now working your ass off and paying your taxes just to support these ass holes?"


Yes, indeedy, Sadie, because we are so afraid the Iranians are going to get us, and then maybe North Korea and Russia might take a jab at us. We need someone with "experience" to get us deeper in this mess. And knowing that Sarah Palin likes big swanky projects that cost tax payers a lot of money, guess this is right up her alley. She can keep on keeping on with all the "old boys."


What happened to the old Republicans? The ones that cut our taxes, but also cut their SPENDING and actually wanted to make government SMALLER, not bigger? Guess the neocons ran them out of town?


And I'm sorry, I'm willing to pay higher taxes, if it means I get universal health care, quality education for my children, university at affordable prices, less dependency on foreign sources of power for all our cars and gadgets, and diplomacy where we make friends with everyday citizens of other countries instead of giving them one more reason to hate the United States as an entity. But NOT if it means I fund wars, corporate giants, and contract companies meant to rebuild the places the United States government destroyed around the world.

I wonder, if we could specifically designate where we wanted our money to be spent, how much of our budget would really cover things like war and corporate bailouts? I'm guessing a lot less of it would go there and more of it would go where it might benefit a taxpayer personally. Hm. Never mind the Dems or Reps, we'd all be out for ourselves. But isn't that what we're all about as a country.

Boy, maybe we do need to get rid of the two party system. Personally, I think government couldn't get any worse if we tossed all voters' names in a hat and had a lottery for public office.


And, for the record, in the vein of disclosure, yes, I support the Obama/Biden ticket. I voted for Obama as the Senator of the great state of Illinois when I lived there 4 years ago. And I will vote for him again, because he really does try to take the high road, even if the others want to keep dragging him down in the mud. And I believe he is more than talk, though, his skill at talking isn't a bad one to have when negotiating with foreign powers and people across the aisle alike. At least he's not name calling and making fun of other people's professions. Like THAT is going to help anyone reach across the aisle. Would you want to work with people who called you names? Really?


As I said to my mother, as we were arguing between Obama and Clinton: It really doesn't matter who gets the nomination for November. What matters is that the Democrats get in the White House.