What?  Everything would be better if it were privitized?  Sure, I remember.  That was the mantra regarding social security.  Except now that the stock market is in the tank, no one wants to talk about it.  I'm looking at Certificates of Deposit because my old one's expired and a 3% APR is gold!  My 401k would be literally ten times better if it were all in a CD.  I do not see how privitizing would work.  Sure, some days are better then others, but my CD is grinding ahead at 3%, guaranteed.  That is a much better outlook.  It is simply a safety net, after all, not a golden parachute. 

My question now is, not only related to the single issue of retirmement funds, but the nation as a whole.  We need help.  Private monies are not getting us there.  With over half a million jobs evaporating before our eyes, private firms are not able to offer assistance.  This is a job for government.  It is ridiculous to hope that a private enterprise, whose sole purpose is profit, will help those less wealthy.  However, it makes perfect sense that a government, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" will. 

Government is where we help each other.  Private organizations are where people help themselves.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Corporations have their place in this world and have done great things, but they do them only for their own interests.  Government is a corporation in the interests of the people, or at least it should be.  Yes, some politicians think government is where they help themselves, but there will always be those who will ferret them out and laws exist to remove them if not get replace them. 

A government of the people is a transparent entity.  We are allowed access to the innner workings because it is our money.  Put our money in private hands and we are allowed access to their attorney.  What fools find this a more beneficial relationship?  Fools and the ones who were given the money in the first place. 

This is how we challenge the Reich, by reaching out to people and asking them, challenging them, to explain how TARP has helped this economy.  What difference has it made in their lives?  Why do they expect private companies to take responsibility for their well-being?  It is not in the DNA of private entities to help people unless there is a profit involved and there is no incentive to help them one more dime then necessary.  The game is for comapnies to help themselves. 

This democratic government, on the other hand, was created to help the people.  It is the sole reason for its existence.  If the government is not helping the people there is a problem in the government, the problem is not government.  The stimulus package and TARP are not the same thing.  I wonder if people understand that.  The stimulus package is government helping us, or more precisely, it is "we the people" helping each other.  Only fools would sit idly by and wait for private companies to help them.  It ain't coming.  But one can be certain, if given half a chance, our government, we the people, can and will help each other.  

As I was watching the news this evening, I heard time and again how Republicans would support the stimulus where they could find common ground.  How generous of them!!!  In other words, they are not moving an inch.  By definition, common ground is where Dems agree with what the Reps want.  That is what is common.  The Reps are declaring, as if they are expresssing good will, that they will work with the Dems where there is common ground. 

What is needed is for them to leave their ground.  The Reps, especially since they are the minority party, are now going to have to compromise.  If they have any idea what that means, they have never been able to express it.  There are no leaders in the Republican Party.  This is perfectly clear.  If there were any leaders, they could take a courageous stand in favor of the stimulus because we are in a financial crisis.  They could decide in favor of spending to alleviate the plight of their citizens, but caveat that with their promise to remain vigilant to whether they will do this in the future.

As for the Dems, they might get a little snarky right about now.  They could remind everyone of how the Reps behaved when they were the majority party.  A remark to the fact that, being in majority is new to the Dems and they were looking back on how the Reps compromised when the Reps had the majority, but could not find any examples of it. 

The only good omen out there for the stimulus this evening is that the Reps from Maine are leaning toward support.  This is probably because they just witnessed the Dems running the table in New England and the the Mid-Atlantic states.  That's two!  It would also be nice if Al Franken could get seated.  There is a man with the right words to express the discontent of the Dems.  There is a man who can label the Reps as the obstructionists they are, thinking of party first, rather then country first. 

There is plenty of historical precedent to believe that a stimulus will aid in shortening the length of this economic slump.  Once we get this thing running again, they can argue all they want about what else to fund.  Right now, it's the people who need funds.  People with no money, not the people with money to pay taxes.

{First, let me acknowledge that this phrase is from the Rachel Maddow Show, just in case they have it trademarked already.  I would also say that this article may have some truthiness, and give Steven Colbert credit for that.}

The question constantly being posed across the MSM at this time, sourced from the limp Republican Party, is that given the numerous scandals, how is this Administration reflective of the change Obama promised during the campaign?    To answer this question, every day one can go to the Rachel Maddow Show and watch the segment about "Scrub. Rinse. Repeat."  This segment serves to reveal things that were kept hidden for eight years, or were ignored for eight years, or were described as good, but which we now find was probably not such a good idea. 

The things kept hidden for eight years are so numerous I am unable to list them all.  I started a thread once to try and gather these things into a single place, but it did not get much traction.  For examples of hidden, I suppose we can go with the breadth of the illegal wiretapping, which is truly breathtaking.  My paranoid self says, everything is saved and catalogued from practically everyone at this point.  If there is a company offering to forward voice mail as an e-mail to another device, if the technology is so common that common people can have it, the government probably has it too.  Couple the inexpensive value of computer memory and the old myth that they were recording conversations with specific words and the myth gets closer to probability, if not reality.  Maybe they are only saving those conversations? 

Ignored things would include torture.  People on TPM were up in arms about torture, but the Bush Administration was pretty much ignoring it having redefined the deeds with new verbiage and dismissed further discussion of the topic until just prior to their departure.  There are other examples of things ignored.  I would guess we could expect more bridges to fall if the stimulus package fails, and we can ask why the SEC had so few Bloombergs too. 

Finally, those things we thought we good.  You're probably already screaming at the monitor.  Oh yeah!  Tax cuts!  Trickle down economics!  What good did we ever get from those?  We got nothing from them, if you are like me and have never seen a six figure salary.  It would appear that those who benefitted from these perks took their money off shore.  Like Cheney and Halliburton, they simply have other priorities. 

What is similar today to suggest this country has not changed, since it appears we are still subject to scandals?  If one is looking at the past problems, there was a theme throughout that is obvious when looking back.  The point is that all these problems are looking back.  The change is that we do not allow these things to develop in the first place.  When we find them we clean them.  Daschle and the others are not eight year stains on this Administration.  All they have done is actually brought shame on themselves and they were identified BEFORE they formally entered the Administration. 

It feels like we are not getting patronizing spin from Team Obama.  We are not insulted with outlandish descriptions that defy what we see with our own eyes while they perpetuate their lies.  We see an Admnistration willing to call things what they are, and willing to show us what they are, without deciding that it is better to hide the truth and live a lie then to reveal what things are.  We are not being protected from harsh realities like children that one assumes cannot handle the truth.

To sum this up, the difference is that we simply wash, rinse, and repeat now.  Things get dirty.  In Washington, DC, only an idiot would think it could be any other way.  It's like those folks screaming about how Obama is letting the Clintonites into the White House.  They were half the freaking party when Obama was a community organizer.  But now we can clean these things up while they are fresh.  We handle these laundry issues promptly so that the item is cleaned and we can, actually, wear it again.  This is what is really good, that we have saved the fabric by acting promptly, no more scrubbing! 

Previously we simply put another item over the top of the dirty one, and then another, and another, until we were like Charlie Brown in the middle of winter, unable to move.  Now that we have realized this is not actually good, although it was sold to us as such, we are trying to clean the dirt, which is now a stain, and we can hope, because that is really all we have left, that we will be able to save the fabric.  It seems more then likely that had we acted sooner, while Bush was in office, we could have.  If were up to TPM, we would have.  Now, despite all our best efforts, things are not so clear, but to be sure, we are not accumulating nearly as much dirty laundry as we had before things changed, and yes, they have changed and things are very different.

"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels -- men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, we may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion." Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thank you, Ike, for so aptly describing Rush Limbaugh's latest declaration, disloyal subversion.  It is clear that the Right has no real patriotism.  That their pretense was merely that.  All those bumperstickers screaming at those who had the misfortune of driving behind them, UNITED WE STAND!!!  All the while demanding we follow the lead of the most deceitful Administration in our nations history.  Real Americans kow-tow to no one, not even our President.  The Republicans did exactly that when George the Pretender took possession of the White House in his first term.  The vote was desecrated by an official in Florida clearly detached from reality, as evidenced by her actions in her own Senatorial campaign.  Then the vote was further insulted by a Supreme Court who could not be bothered to count the ballots again, more thoroughly and with greater transparency.  The deeds of that Court gave America transparency into their insincere devotion to democracy.  It was shocking that the will of the people could be so easily discarded.  It was a newspaper that finally counted the votes to show who really won, and the country barely skipped  beat.

Here we are now, with Barack Obama the popular leader of the United States of America and a braodcaster declares I want him to fail!  Where are those false patriots now?  Beggin ghis forgiveness for stating the obvious, that those words are treason.  Where are the protests in front of his radio station?  We should voice our offense because "a rising tide raises all ships", and a receding tide will leave ships aground.  The carelessness of Rush's statement is somehow not given it's full meaning.  Are there still so many Zom-Bushes that they do not realize it is their ships that will run aground if we fail to turn back the tide?  

It is pure insanity, repeating the same mistake and expecting a different result.  The Republican ideals were fully and completely implemented during the Bush Administration and they have failed.  Why are we hearing people suggest we just need to keep to that course?  Why does anyone give it any credence?  Now is the time for us to stand united.  It is time for us to disavow those who put their interests before those of the America people.  There are ways to get ahead without sacrificing the well being of our fellow countrymen.  It is those who refuse to consider them that will be our undoing.  We need to speak out and declare who these traitors our, now that we have a President who actively listens to all voices.  Although on this point I do disagree.  There are times to disagree and be disagreeable.  To the weak that have followed Rush for his apparent voice of authority, a new voice of authority can easily garner their loyalty.  Now is the time to silence Limbaugh and we can do it if we stand united.  His words are treason, pure and simple.