George Bush and WMW*

The only thing more mind-numbing than Bush's absolute disengagement over the current (and growing) financial crisis is the steadfast, continued support of him by a small minority. Now, that's loyalty - or is it ignorance?

• The master of "What, me worry?*" leadership will always be remembered as the guy who:

• Was positively shocked to find out that gas will probably go up to $4 a gallon this year,

• Believes we're facing a financial "rough spot" (Is that what you call taking $30 billion from American taxpayers to bail out Wall St. fat cats?);

• To this day, refuses to admit we're facing a recession - won't even use the word - despite the fact that his own boy, Paulson, has admitted as much;

• Has refused to hold a top-level bipartisan economic meeting to address the growing mortgage crisis (Yes, I said growing. You ain't seen nothin' yet.)

• Is tooling around the world, making speeches about NATO, while Fed Chairman Bernanke is delivering the bad news about the economy.

Hey, Mr. President, forget about simply focusing on some possible future terrorist attack; we are being destroyed right now from within and all you want to do is shuck and jive in Eastern Europe.

You want to know about 1000% more than your uninterested President does? Read on.

Let me start by admitting I am no expert on the "shadow financial system." But I do know one thing: the guys who created this debacle - you know, the ones who keep insisting that these financial instruments (credit default swaps, which were responsible for Bear Sterns' collapse) are too complicated for mere mortals to fully understand - aren't as smart as they think they are.

If they were we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.

Is Bear Sterns the mine disaster or the (dead) canary in the mine? Who knows? Who knows what other investment banks are on the verge of collapse?

The "great plan" Paulson came up with was not in response to this crisis, as he's led the public to believe. No, he started putting his plan together in March of 2007 in an attempt to make our financial system more like Great Britain's so we could be "more competitive." You know what happened in Great Britain? Among other things, a top financial institution, Black Rock, went belly up and had to be taken over by the British government. Sound familiar? They are reeling over there. And he wants the same for us?

Yes, Paulson and his friends want less regulation. Yes, LESS. Despite the talk about how his wonderful plan is going to make things better, he actually is calling for less oversight of these maniacs.These guys only want to give the government the right to step in when the entire financial structure is ready to collapse and, until that point, they think that "market discipline" among Wall Street firms, hedge funds and private equity partnerships will be enough to protect us.

Yeah, like it has so far.

Remember this: all the way back to 2001, Alan Greenspan was warned about the precipitous nature of these "market discipliners". And he did nothing, nada, nyet except support the destructive anti-regulatory ethos and practices of the administration. Does that make you feel better?

(By the way, one of the main architects of this regulation-free system was Phil Graham, in case you're interested.)

Consider this: Warren Buffet, who is no financial slouch, has called these unregulated financial instruments "the financial equivalent of Weapons of Mass Destruction."

Hey, George! We finally found them!

Read the rest of my opinions on my own blog www.politicaldoodle.com

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written by Grassroot Vizir, April 20, 2008

There is simply no excuse for it. The Bush administration is the worst government that Americans have seen for a long time. There is absolutely no excuse for the utter incompetency, corruption and stupidity of this administration.

The sooner we are rid of him, the better.The past 8 years is what happens when you allow a FRAT BOY to rule a country. He's treated his job as a joke. We need a REAL president.

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written by CenterLeftLiberal, April 20, 2008

I think it is fair to say the W is shining example of the peter principle; one wonders where he would have ended up had he not been born a "blueblood" (even more amazing, this son of old-money privelege manages to paint Democrats as elitists while coming acorss to many as folksy).

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written by Bacchus, April 20, 2008

Exactly. How many 'cowboys' get into Yale with a C average?

Bush and co. are as elitist as you get. It's always amazing how the Republicans get to paint Liberals as the elitists, when the Republican overlords are the most detached from the lives of the common American. You have to really admire their ability to craft perceptions though.

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