Tuesday, September 8, 2009

He Tried

For the record, I don't look for profundity among members of Congress.  There are no brain surgeons in residence.  Just guys towing the line, taking a paycheck and supporting their families. 

There's nothing wrong with that.

Except for the fact we don't pay them to relax when they hold our lives in their hands.

Do you keep track of what your Congressman is doing?  Of course not. Neither do I. How does one do it?
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Alot of people talk smack about Ted Kennedy.  He's a murderer, don't you know.  He left some chick to die in the Chappaquiddick River. He is not particulary profound. But at least he tried to help you.

You're man, and we both know who we are talkin about, is responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Regular folks who ran out of their homes as bombs dropped on their heads, carrying their dead children in their arms.  I heard them screeching and crying on public radio.  It was a disgusting fiasco.  Innocent, normal people like you and I, paying the price for some political agenda they knew nothing about.

When he was done, he destroyed your economy and your healthcare.  His politcal friends slipped out the back door with billions.  Money you and I funded with our taxes.. Enron, Haliburton.  Where is your outrage?  I'll tell you, you're scared to death of losing your job or your house. Fear is how we silence people. I understand. I've likely lost more then you.  But I want it to end.  No more bailouts of shisters that behaved badly or were professional con-artists,  (Why do people in this country get rewarded for behaving badly?)  It only occurs because we agree to it.  How is this happening? Why isn't anyone saying anything?

But you don't listen to public radio do you?  You watch CNN. You prefer to be spoon fed like a 2 year old with lies.  FYI: The spoon of mashed peas heading for your mouth is not actually an airplane.

(Ted and his brain tumor...talking below.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrJVbCzJH6c

12 comments:

Everyday Goddess said...

It's up to us to make the words Yes We Can and The Dream Lives On, our reality.
We have tools. We have energy. We have to make it happen.
Thanks for sharing this Charmaine.

SweetPeaSurry said...

It's not an airplane? Are you sure?

Excellent post Charmaine!!! We do need to start watching out, complacency no longer has a place!

Senorita said...

I really thought the bailout was such a bad idea.

I don't think it's safe to put the blame of all this on one man and his administration. I think that things got this bad over time and more than one person was involved.

You don't get overweight overnight. You put it on pound by pound.

♥ Braja said...

Excuse me, but fucking brilliantly written....
xoxo

Briana said...

I gotta say Charmaine, you had me a little distressed with the Ted Kennedy diss. You wanna smack Bush/Cheney, just do it. God knows, there's plenty of ammo (pun not intended).

You don't need to try to legitimize your contempt for Bush by first pointing out a moral defect/error in judgement in the most renowned and honored liberal of the Senate. Do you really think that you need to criticize Democrats in order to increase your credibility when criticizing Republicans? Come on!

Timoteo said...

I love your passion--and writing isn't writing without it!

SSP said...

i am with ya, but I do agree with Senorita...as much as I dislike the Shrub and his minions, this disaster has been in the works for decades...remember the savings and loan crisis? greed and ignorance drive this country, sadly, not innovation and intelligence, and we are ripe for disaster...and I do think it is going to get worse....the reason that gold is over $1K today is cuz our dollar is so fucking worthless...we owe money all over the world.....and we live on our debts....not the way to operate a business, OR a country....

and hey, Ted made some mistakes, and yeah it feels like they have been swept under the rug for the most part, but in the end, he did do a hell of a lot of GOOD (I am not forgiving him, or anything - NOT my job...but I am also not holding it against him for eternity)

The Peach Tart said...

All I say is every American and wake up, get informed, get involved.

Charmaine said...

Savings and Loan Scandal---

Jeb Bush, George Bush Sr., and his son Neil Bush have all been implicated in the Savings and Loan Scandal, which cost American tax payers over $1.4 TRILLION dollars.

Between 1981 and 1989, when George Bush finally announced that there was a Savings and Loan Crisis to the world, the Reagan/Bush administration worked to cover up Savings and Loan problems by reducing the number and depth of examinations required of S&Ls as well as attacking political opponents who were sounding early alarms about the S&L industry. Industry insiders were aware of significant S&L problems as early 1986 that they felt would require a bailout.

This information was kept from the media until after Bush had won the 1988 elections.

Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million loan from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at $500,000, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars.

Neil Bush was the most widely targeted member of the Bush family by the press in the S&L scandal. Neil became director of Silverado Savings and Loan at the age of 30 in 1985. Three years later the institution was belly up at a cost of $1.6 billion to tax payers to bail out.

The basic actions of Neil Bush in the S&L scandal are as follows:
Neil received a $100,000 "loan" from Ken Good, of Good International, with no obligation to pay any of the money back.

Good was a large shareholder in JNB Explorations, Neil Bush's oil-exploration company.
Neil failed to disclose this conflict-of-interest when loans were given to Good from Silverado, because the money was to be used in joint venture with his own JNB. This was in essence giving himself a loan from Silverado through a third party.

Neil then helped Silverado S&L approve Good International for a $900,000 line of credit.
Good defaulted on a total $32 million in loans from Silverado.
During this time Neil Bush did not disclose that $3 million of the $32 million that Good was defaulting on was actually for investment in JNB, his own company.

Good subsequently raised Bush's JNB salary from $75,000 to $125,000 and granted him a $22,500 bonus.
Neil Bush maintained that he did not see how this constituted a conflict of interest.

Neil approved $106 million in Silverado loans to another JNB investor, Bill Walters.

Neil also never formally disclosed his relationship with Walters and Walters also defaulted on his loans, all $106 million of them.
Neil Bush was charged with criminal wrongdoing in the case and ended up paying $50,000 to settle out of court. The chief of Silverado S&L was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for pleading guilty to $8.7 million in theft. (Keep in mind that you can get more jail time for holding up a gas station for $50.)

Don said...

And you never even got to the Bush family association with the Saudi royal family.... Guess I'm just really tired of ALL politicians! Or as Shakespeare said "let's kill all the lawyers" - well, at least when they run for public office. (And always leaving out http://lawyermommusings.blogspot.com/ )

Tomatoaddict said...

It's very naive to believe that only the GOP has evil doers...Don't any of you understand that it's the entire government? Both parties? That's why I am a libertarian. I refuse to be a part of partison BS that not only goes on in D.C. but on the tv and radio. If you open your eyes and your minds, you will find equally corrupt leaders from both parties. Don't be spoon fed from either side.

Charmaine said...

Tomater...I agree.