BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

The Senate is set to vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 tomorrow… Wednesday. We must be heard. Call your Senators. Do not allow them to fund “No Banker Left Behind.”

The Elephants and Asses in Washington thought we were not paying attention. Did we surprise them!

The servers hosting the Web sites of the House of Representatives and its members have been overwhelmed with millions of e-mails in the past few days, forcing administrators to implement the “digital version of a traffic cop” to handle the overload — for the first time ever.

“This is unprecedented,” said Jeff Ventura, communications director for the House’s chief administrator.

The tidal waves of e-mails and page views began over the weekend after negotiators announced Sunday that a deal had been reached on legislation to enact a $700 billion bailout of the country’s financial system.

The call for America to wake up was answered loud and clear. Of course, the answer was not the one the House wanted or expected. Now it is up to us to follow through. We must not stop the phone calls, faxes and emails. And, we must remind each of those in the House that we aren’t going to stop with phone calls. We are going to vote in November! And, our votes will depend on their votes.

The bailout… rescue… golden parachute slush fund… whatever you want to call it… has failed because the American people are close to revolt, albeit an orderly revolt at the the polls.

The President, the candidates and those holding seats in the House and in the Senate may be wondering why we are being stubborn in our stand, not willing to compromise. None of us want to see our economy crash and burn around us. But, the call to action from Washington is suspect at best.

We all remember the “other” call to action, the rallying of the American people to war. It started with talk about what could happen if we didn’t do something. Of course, we know that we fell for that one, hook, line and sinker. And, we all know that it didn’t take long to figure out that those WMD’s in Iraq were a figment of a paranoid President’s imagination. Bush sold us a bill of goods to scare us into giving him the power to invade Iraq.

He lost credibility on that one. Now, we have heard another call to action… one that could equal or surpass the cost of the War in Iraq. This time the President has asked us to fund the Wall Street greedmeisters. The American people are not stupid. We know that the economy sucks. Washington keeps talking about the credit crunch beginning to trickle down to Main Street. Ride down any street in Our Town and you will see that the crunch has been squeezing us for some time. There are empty shops. The factory buildings are sitting empty. Houses are empty. The only building that is seeing any real activity is the Unemployment Office. And, they want to tell us that times are going to get bad?

The truth is that this is a trickle up recession. Main Street was hit first and hard. For months those in the Captiol Building have played at getting something done to help those of us on the front lines. So far, they have managed to send some of us a small check that barely covered the electric bill for one month. There was no real substance to their actions. It was a token gesture.

Now that the failing economy has found its way up to those who caused it, Henry Paulson appeared on the scene and much like Tommy Franks and touted a financial version of “Shock and Awe.” It had to be big. It had to be substantial. The first “Shock and Awe” plan accomplished nothing but destruction because there was no follow up plan. No one thought beyond Step One. As we listen to the newest version of “Shock and Awe” it seems that we are being asked to fall for the same scheme all over again. And, once we get beyond the fireworks of handing over $700 Billion to another Bush surrogate, what is the plan? Flying by the seat of our pants didn’t work the first time and it won’t work the second time.

The Bush administration has lost all credibility, even among staunch supporters. So, when Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke flank George Bush, we are only reminded of Colonel Tommy Franks who systematically destroyed Baghdad and Iraq, expecting flower girls to line the streets. Paulson and Bernanke have tried to sell us on the idea that with $700 Billion to float down on the banks, we can all get car loans and pay our bills. We may as well drop a few billion dollars from airplanes over Iraq and Afghanistan again. We will get about the same amount of benefit.

Excuse me if I am skeptical. But, the stock market seemed to regain over half its losses from yesterday. The store down the street has a “Going Out of Business” sign in the window. It’s too late for some of us. It’s just too late. Bush and his administration are treating the American citizens like a battered wife, her husband telling her he is beating the crap out of her for her own good. We have been beaten down for over a year. No one came to our rescue. And, no one is coming this time. By the time the Treasury has squandered our tax dollars, Bush, Cheney, and Paulson will be living off government pensions with full health care benefits somewhere that is untouchable by recession.

So, call me skeptical. Call me cynical. But, one of the best lessons I ever learned in life is that if the dog bites you, the first time it’s the dogs’ fault. If the dog bites you the second time, it’s your own damned fault.