I just saw a AP news item here on TPM announcing with the following headline:  "Goldman Exec Named First COO of SEC Enforcement."  You can find the article here: 

 http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/10/goldman_exec_named_first_coo_of_sec_enforcement.php?ref=fpa

For those of you who didn't realize how rotten the appointments of Summers and Geithner by Obama to the Obama administration were, I would think this ought to finally open your eyes.  Of course this was not a direct Presidential appointment so the Obama apologists will say since he didn't personally make the appointment, blah, blah, blah...  No President who would allow these thieves to be in charge and allow this sort of thing to come to pass after they and their buddies wrecked the economy, can claim to be a friend of the common citizen.  No friggin way!

This was a very important and politically sensitive appointment.  Due to the corrupt nature of the appointment it is no surprise the announcement is made on a Friday aftternoon.

Goldman Sachs is the most corrupt, monopolistic big investment bank on Wall Street.  Goldman Sachs, along with it's former Chairman engineered the first heist of taxpayer money to cover the bad debts of the crooks on Wall Street.  Goldman Sachs' butt boys Summers and Geithner have been managing the remainder of the heist.  The last person who should be heading up an office like this is someone who works for Goldman Sachs.  It could not be more obvious that the Obama administration is not serious about enforcement or curbing the criminal fraud that brought this nation to it's knees when they appoint a Goldman Sachs executive to this key position.  The conflicts among people like Summers and Geithner, et al are extraordinarily glaring and this new appointee is no different.  But in some respects this is even worse given the central importance this position will have in preventing the sort of criminal irresponsibility Wall Street is so famous for.  I wonder how big this fella's bonus was last year and how big it was this year?

By far, President Obama's worst moves have been the appointment of Summers and Geithner and their "work" since January to service the criminals who brought about our economic collapse and rig the game once more for the despicable leaders of Wall Street are enough to turn the stomach of any decent, law abiding, tax paying citizen.  There ought to be a revolt over this transparent move to protect the interests of Wall Street while claiming to reign in abuses.  It's sickening.  But as we already knew, this crowd of crooked bankers has no shame. 

It is at times when I hear of stunts like this that I pray to God that hell is real and painful because I know that these guys are going there.  It's too bad our President isn't protecting the interests of the people on such matters.  It is going to haunt the nation for years to come as a result of the predictable negligence and insider's influence that will no doubt characterize the performance of this office's responsibilities in the coming months and years.  It will also haunt whatever legacy the President hopes to leave.

Is it really all that big a surprise that its own greed got the best of the insurance industry causing them to agressively criticize the Baucus Caucus Insurance Subsidy bill?  Despite being handed tens of millions of new customers and the billions in profits that means to them, the insurance companies seem to be having cold feet when it comes to health insurance reform.  Remember, we gave up health "care" reform a long time ago.

I've heard several "experts" speculate already that this signals that the insurance industry as a whole has gotten cold feet and they will try to kill the reform effort altogether.  Of course the first reaction of any progressive is naturally to start thinking about how to stop them from scuttling the efforts of Congress when we are this close to the end of the process.  But ya know what?  I'm not sure that scuttling the tortured morass of industry protections, subsidies and other favors that we are being asked to swallow is all that bad and I'll tell ya why.

We all agree, even the President agrees, that we ought to have a single payer health care system in the United States.  It is only because of the President's unwise decision to take the best option off the table that it hasn't been seriously discussed this year.  Instead, we have had to swallow mouthful after mouthful of rotten half measures that will neither cover the entire population nor do a great deal to reduce healthcare costs in the long run.  All this was done to placate and buy the support of the insurance industry and their fellow travelers in obscene profit at the expense of the sick.  The insurance industry has been kept in line up until today with the prospect of all those millions of new customers and profits subsidized by taxpayers.  But their greed just won't let them stay in line.  And good for them!  I think it's important that they show their true colors to the American people.  They are about profit for themselves and nothing else and the people need to be fully aware of that.

If the insurance industry turns the screws here in the coming weeks they will likely be able to kill the entire effort of the many committees of Congress and the White House and the various interest groups that have been lobbying their little $400/hour hearts out all year long to come up with a dog of a bill featuring the onerous mandated insurance subsidy scheme.  And when they kill reform what should the response be from the President and the progressives in Congress be? 

My suggestion is that they should respond to this as a call to arms.  They should respond to the perfidy of the insurance industry as a declaration of war that must be answered.  My suggestion is that the response be a full court press for Medicare for All!

All year long, despite refusing to even discuss single payer, the President and the Democrats have been accused of favoring a single payer system.  They have weathered the storm of criticism.  They have managed to counter all the claims of the Republicans and their allies in the insurance and related industries that are sucking the life out of our economy for their own profit. 

So since Democrats are being accused of wanting Medicare for All I say the President and the progressives in Congress go balls to the wall for just that come January.  The timorous corporate Democrats cowering at their wine and cheese parties and at their elegant dinners in Georgetown would shriek in terror at the very thought.  The oh so wise and serious mavens of our insular and out of touch Capitol City would declare the Democrats crazy and perhaps even suicidal.  And perhaps they would be.  But I think not. 

We would, however, for the first time have a proposal we could all get behind that is everything the malodorous beast moving through Congress right now is not.  Medicare for All is simple.  It is easy to explain and to understand.  It is the best plan for our nation and achieves the greatest savings possible while covering everyone.  And on top of it all it can be relatively quickly and easily implemented because the system is already working efficiently and equitably for millions of our seniors.  The Medicare for All legislation could take effect (even if passed in 2010) long before the garbage they are now debating would ever begin to take effect! 

By championing Medicare for All, our candidates would have an energized population behind them.  Remember, a majority of Americans support a single payer system already even though most of our leaders have been too timid and cowardly to fight openly for it with the exception of a few brave souls like the late, great Teddy Kennedy and a handful of others in Congress.  What the Democrats would also have, for the first time, would be the strategic advantage politically.  They could go on the offensive and stay on the offensive making the issue of Medicare for All the line in the sand that would define American politics favorably for Democrats for the next 50 years just as Social Security has done for the last 70 years.  And when they do this, the President should push for quick action on Medicare for All so that two things could happen.  First, citizens across the land would find out where their members of Congress stand on the issue of Medicare for All and if they don't support it, primary opponents who favor it could be found.  And second, for the Republicans, their Democratic challengers could bludgeon them day and night through Election Day in November and possibly even defy the odds by knocking off some Republican incumbents and actually increasing the majority Democrats have in both houses in an off year election despite it being midway through the term of a President of their own party.

If, just for once, the Democrats in Washington DC would have the courage of their convictions, if they would just stand up and really fight for what is right, the American public would back them up.  But that is clearly the toughest part of the task... getting the pathetically cowardly DC Democrats to stand up and fight for anything let alone the most important thing they could possibly fight for: the health of their constituents and the simultaneous rescue of millions of small businesses while making American corporations competitive once again with foreign companies who already have government run, single payer systems.

The wimpy Democrats of DC would, of course, need to learn how to actually stand for something but they could take lessons in having balls and backbone from a few of the more courageous members of Congress like House members Grayson, Weiner, Kaptur, Kucinich and Conyers.  They might even get a few tips on standing up for what you believe in from Senator Brown of Ohio.

So, despite the huge obstacle of Democratic spinelessness in Washington that has plagued us now for a generation that remains my suggestion: come back in January and make Medicare for All the singular priority of the Congress. 

Be relentless in demanding Medicare for All.  Let the President forcefully denounce (if he can bring himself to do it) the insurance industry and the other parasites that killed the bill in 2009.  Let him actually lead us in an effort for demonstrably real change of the kind we elected him to pursue!  Let our progressive Democrats lead a vigorous populist assault against the corporate greed of big pharma and big insurance, et al.  Make Medicare for All the litmus test for everyone running for Congress in 2010. 

If we lose, we are better off, in my opinion, and certainly no worse off than we would be if we get saddled with the rotten bills going through Congress this year.  But, if we lose we will have at least defined the debate on our terms now and forever and we know it is only a matter of time before we do pass Medicare for All because it is a necessity for our people and our economy.  And even if we don't get it passed in 2010 the people will finally be able to have some respect for the Democratic Party once again as a party that fights for what it believes in and that also fights for the interests of the common man and woman in America: even when it is hard.

So for now I say to the insurance industry go for it!  Do your thing!  Kill that rotten insurance subsidy scheme and show the people how truly ugly and worthless you really are so they'll never forget it.  Set the stage for progress by showing your true character, you reprehensible parasites, so we can finally do what should have been done 60 years ago. 

Bring it on baby!

While the media is doing a full court press to aid and abet the Military Industrial Complex's demand for escalating the war in Afghanistan it is increasingly clear that what they are demanding is an excercise in futility.  Instead of bending to the will of the Washington establishment that demanded the illegal invasion of Iraq which necessitated failing to get the job done in Afghanistan when it could be done, the President needs to tell the Pentagon, their contractors, their bought and paid for enablers in Congress, and the all war all the time wing of the corporate media it is time to plan and implement a scaling back and eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

Why should we do this when practically every very serious person in Washington and in the media is telling us we must at least stay there forever, but moreover we must dramatically escalate the war if we hope to "win"?  Several reasons, all of them quite sound.

First, not one soul in the warmongering chorus coming out of DC can tell us what victory is, how long it will take to accomplish, how much it will cost us or what we could possibly hope to gain by it.  That, it would seem to me, is a real problem.  But it isn't a problem for the media or the warmongering cheerleaders of Washington.  It makes no sense at all to support escalating a war, the costs or aims of which, cannot be justified. 

Second, the same people demanding endless war in Afghanistan are the same very serious and smart people who also demanded we invade Iraq based upon lies.  The folly of the Iraq war, not to mention it's illegality and immorality, is apparent for all to see.  Why it is that the same nitwits who insisted on the benefits of invading Iraq are not thoroughly discredited and ignored now is beyond me.  The insistence of the isolated and out of touch warmongers of Washington on remaining in Afghanistan is no reason for thoughtful citizens not to look at the facts and ignore those whose bad judgement and shortsighted lust for blood got us into Iraq.

Third, we simply cannot afford to stay at war.  Our nation is virtually bankrupt.  This is not because of the stimulus bill, it is because of the outrageous and irresponsible combination of waging two wars simultaneously while also cutting the taxes of the rich by trillions of dollars these past ten years.  This idiocy on the part of the very serious and smart people who run our government, our corporate media and economy has nearly ruined our nation's once unchallenged economic superiority.  The combination of the wars and tax cuts with the thievery and fraud (still completely unpunished) conducted by the largest banking institutions on Wall Street have brought our nation to it's knees and caused a modern depression (yes, that's what it is and it's time to face up to it) that threatens the future stability and prosperity of our country.  We cannot afford to waste money, as we have been doing, on these imperial wars when our economy has collapsed and when as many millions of our people are suffering as there are suffering now.  Again, I point the reader to the up to date numbers on what the two pointless imperial wars are costing us.  Go here to see how obscene the cost of imperial war really is and ask yourself if anything the oh so serious and wise people on tv are talking about is worth this pricetag: http://www.costofwar.com/  As I write this the total appraoches a trillion dollars and is relentlessly increasing.  And by the way, it's all borrowed money for which we'll get absolutely no return as we would doing almost anything else with it.  When you look at the numbers, consider how much good that money could have done here at home in myriad ways including but not limited to how useful it would be and what a difference it would make if applied to healthcare or education just to name two vitally important areas of concern to our people.

Fourth, for the amount of money we've spent, we could have built a new Afghanistan instead of destroying it.  Just as an example, we could have bribed every citizen of Afghanistan into ceasing opium production and disarming themeselves. Everyone has their price and we could have bought off the Taliban's soldiers and paid the tribes to lay down their arms.  We could have built factories to employ the people, we could have built schools to educate them, hospitals to care for them, we could have done an endless amount of positive nation building.  Instead, we choose to try and blast and maime and kill them until they behave.  That's just plain nuts.  We could have made everyone in that poor nation rich beyond their dreams with all the money we have wasted on killing and destruction.  When the cost of war is far in excess of the cost of peacefully buying off the population, what the hell are we really doing?  Realizing there's not a chance in hell for our policy makers to use the money they are wasting on death for peaceful and productive purposes, we need to get out and demand they stop wasting all those funds.

Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, the people are already opposed to our continued involvement in Afghanistan.  The people, once again, are smarter than the leaders and have realized there's no victory to be had in that war.  It is time to bring the troops home not to send more into the slaughterhouse.  The most surreal aspect of all the brouhaha the past couple of weeks about what to do in Afghanistan has been the complete lack of mention that a majority of our citizens oppose the war and want it to end.  How stupid and arrogant are our leaders?  It boggles the mind.

Sixth, if our objective is to keep the Taliban and Al Qaeda in check, we can certainly do so by any number of less expensive means and with fewer soldiers.  Isn't that what all our war technology, air superiority, drones, etc... is all about?  Escalating the war and ocupying Afghanistan for an undetermined length of time is not the only option we have for achieving the stated objectives.  But, imperialists demand occupation and control of territory and cannot conceive of other options.  Yet, scaling back is the area in which we have real options that are both effective in achieving the desired outcomes and far less expensive than attempting to win an unwinnable war.

The very smart and serious people who clamor for escalating the war are not smart enough after 8 long years of futility to have learned there's nothing to "win" in Afghanistan.  I am unwilling to see anyone else's sons or daughters go to their death, be wounded, maimed, permanently traumatized, etc... just because of the stupidity of our leaders and their refusal to admit they cannot win.  I am also unwilling to endorse the further murder of the many Afghan civilians who will necessarily die if we remain there and escalate the war.  I am in the majority on this question yet the majority and I appear to have no voice in Washington.  It's time for that to come to an end.  Is that the change we voted for?

So, for all these reasons and more we, as citizens need to stop listening to the idiots who have gotten us into the disasterous imperial wars, nearly bankrupted the government, and brought our economy to it's knees.  They need to start listening to us.  We need to make it clear to them that we do not approve of their imperialist aims, that we will not tolerate endless war and that we have far more important priorities here at home like our children and their economic future just to name one important priority.

The President is the only official elected by all the people.  He alone represents the nation as a whole.  More than anything else we must demand that the President not give in to the clamor for escalation and endless war.  Mr. President we want you to wind up the war effort in Afghanistan and bring it to an end.   Quit wasting our money on a gold plated imperial military and return the focus of our government to the very serious problems we have here at home.