Agreeing With No One

Sometimes it is difficult to agree with no one. Watching the Sunday News talk shows this morning was like pounding nails into my skull. (ok, that is a bit extreme)

No, really, I am so sick of listening to a pile of half truths. Politics suck.

First you have the Republicans, which by jumping on the Bad Capitalist bandwagon (i.e. Wall Street bankers and brokers who originated the sub prime slime and sold it to main street), have pretty much lost any respect I had for them. I mean seriously, how can they be FOR Wall Street investment banks taking deposits and trading derivative securities at the same time?! How could anyone be for that? It is an incentive nightmare. I know they say they want to end "too big too fail", but I don't believe them. Hank Paulson (former Bush Treasury Secretary) pretty much wrote TARP, and they hold him up as the ideal Capitalist? My God, what is wrong with them? Do they really think they can have it both ways? They sound like whiny children.

"Hey Dad, I don't want any rules imposed on my behavior. I want complete an absolute freedom to pursue my dreams. But, if I crash the car while driving drunk I want you to steal money from the neighbors to buy me a new one, because my activities were necessary to keep the party going."

These large financial institutions want FDIC, taxpayer bailouts, practically free $ from the discount window to lend to risky borrowers, all at TAXPAYER EXPENSE (yes, I know the banks pay directly into FDIC, but we still pay its employees salaries)! Of course they are against BANKING REFORM. They want a new shiny car stolen from the neighbor to replace the old one they crashed!

And the Republicans support this?! Enable it even? Shame on them. Someone in the party needs to step up and say NO MORE! If they don't, they deserve whatever they get. If they don't, they deserve a Socialist state headed by Mr. Obama himself.

Obama is loving every minute of this. He is a brilliant politician, and has apparently outwitted the Republicans big time here. I don't know if he really cares about financial reform or not, but his administration is on the right track. In my opinion the banking reform legislation doesn't go far enough. Someone, anyone, show me a Republican who would be in favor of the return of Glass-Steagall.

I am all for free markets, but here is the truth folks: we have not had a free market in the banking system since the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The only way to "fix" this is to get rid of FDIC and completely overhaul our financial system. I know this is a very radical thing to say, but if the Federal Reserve System was designed to protect us from the booms and busts of Capitalism, then why hasn't it? The answer is this: it wasn't created for that purpose. It was a Government grab for power, just like Health Care Reform is. The monetary system our government runs is one of the main causes of booms and busts.

I know it is completely unrealistic at this point to eliminate FDIC and the FRB. So guess what? We have no choice. The only rational thing to do here is to reinstate Glass-Steagall, as it worked pretty damn well. We already bailed out the Fat Cats. They needed to be allowed to fail, and they weren't. So now they are just a child of the state.

Guess what, when Daddy pays for your car, he gets to decide whether to take it away or not when you get a DWI!

It is too much to ask for at this point to get the Government out of banking altogether. So take away the damn sports car!

And Liberal Democrats accusing Glen Beck and Sarah Palin of sedition? Has the world gone mad? Are Liberals becoming intolerant Fascists? They tolerate the fascist hate speech of Islamic extremeists in the U.S., but call Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's support of the constitution seditious? You have got to be kidding me!

This country has gone mad. Or maybe it hasn't, maybe I just need to turn off the damn TV.