The Audacity of Disdain

What Have You Heard from Your Republican Congressman about the stimulus package currently working its way through the Federal government? What doesn't he like? What would he change?

What Conservative Ideal Would He Apply to make this stimulus package better?

What Changes Would It Take, to get your Republican Congressman to Take Action on behalf of the American people?

What Has Your Republican Representative Told You about the failure of Conservative ideology, as evidenced by six years of Republican-controlled government (2001–2007)? As admitted in former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s apology to Congress last Fall?

Let’s Examine These Tenets of Conservative,
Republican Economic Ideology:

If the Great Depression Was Ended by World War II, and not by FDR’s New Deal, why hasn’t the Republican-led War in Iraq boosted the economy this time around?

If Free Markets Do Not Destroy Jobs, but create them, why are all of America’s manufacturing jobs going overseas?

If Free Markets Regulate Themselves, why are so many corporate CEOs giving themselves huge bonuses at a time when their companies are posting record-setting losses, and when bankruptcies are stealing all value from under the noses of their shareholder bosses?

If Tax Cuts Make the Economy Thrive, why has the economy gone to pieces under Republican leadership?

Conservative Economic Ideology Is: Dead

Conservative Ideology as Administered under Our Republican Leaders Has Failed. The Republican leadership offers nothing to replace it. Instead, they line up for photo opportunities with the new President, negotiate changes to the stimulus package—including even more tax cuts—and then brashly vote against it. Unanimously. One and all.

What Do Our Republican Representatives
Offer Us Instead?

The Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives Have Nothing to Offer Us. Or so they would have us believe. And so they thumb their noses at the American people, by grinning big grins while thumbing their noses at the President.

Maybe These Representatives Think it Makes Them Look Good, and tough, and smart, to blind-side America's new President.

The Republican Congressional Caucus Has Nothing Left to Offer America. Instead, its members cleverly stonewall the President, while offering up nothing—not one single new idea—to get the economy going.

Smart? Or Heartless?

Maybe the Republicans Think They Look Smart, standing up there in the Nation's Capitol, thumbing their noses and grinning at their constituents.

Maybe with Their Families Safe and Their Jobs and Houses Secure, they don't have anything more-important to worry about, than trying to undermine the spirit of the American people, by trying to make the President look bad.

But in a Time of National Crisis, There's Nothing Smart or Clever or Funny about standing before the American people, while millions of us are losing our homes and our jobs, and there stand the Republicans in Congress, displaying a heartless audacity of disdain.

Does John McCain Still Want to Be President?

In John McCain’s History, we see a war hero who has devoted his career to serving the American people in the United States Congress. His efforts at following conscience over the dictates of political convenience have been respected in both political parties.

The Three Cornerstones of Senator McCain's Politics have been reform and deregulation and war.

As Regards Reform, he sponsored 2002’s McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act. He speaks firmly now in favor of regulating the greed that has taken the American economy to the brink of disaster. Senator McCain’s commitment to reform in Congress is clear.

But Has It Made Any Difference?

As Regards War, Senator McCain believes strongly in the conduct of the War in Iraq. He has supported the current president unwaveringly, saying that he would rather lose the presidency in order to win a war, than win the presidency and lose the war. Some people believe that the senator's commitment to the War in Iraq reflects a desire to re-fight the Vietnam War—and win this time. No more "domino effect," leading the Communist Chinese and Vietnamese hordes to make beach-landing attacks on our Pacific shores.

Not Like Last Time...

But on the Deregulation Front, it is the Republican Party’s relentless pursuit of deregulations that has led us to the current financial crisis.

The Result of Deregulation Is the Current Economic Fiasco. 1999’s Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, which removed the Depression-era safeguards of 1933’s Glass-Steagall Act, was the precipitate cause of what we face today. (This act was sponsored by the same Phil Gramm who until recently was the senior economic advisor of the McCain campaign.)

More-Recently, the Demise of the Entire Republican Economic Premise was acknowledged by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. "Shocked disbelief" is how Mr. Greenspan put it, admitting that the underlying basis of Republican economic theory is as bankrupt as the nation on which the theory has been tested.

If John McCain’s Primary Focus as a Senator has been to move toward deregulation—as he has reiterated countless times during the lengthy presidential campaign—and it is the abject failure of such deregulations that has caused the current financial meltdown, what is left for John McCain to do?

Net Result: No Effective Reform, No Win in Iraq, an Economy in Crisis.

So What Would John McCain Do if he were elected as President? What more would he deregulate? What new wars would he choose to fight?

Does John McCain Really Still Want to Be President?

If So, Why?

NEWS FLASH! President Bush Declares National Celebration!

[DISCLAIMER: The confusion of today's events have compelled this imaginary effort to make some sense of it all.]

President George W. Bush Today, speaking from the White House, announced that “September 29th, 2008, shall henceforth be celebrated as National John McCain Day in honor of the role that Presidential Candidate John McCain played in pushing through the legislation today that quite literally may have saved the nation.”

“We Were Going Over Niagara Falls in a Handbasket,” President Bush said. “The subprime-mortgage fallout over the declining economy was making it hard for you and me and the man on the street to get a credit card to use to buy his groceries. And the same for his gasoline, which has gone up as high as $4.00 a gallon in some parts."

“America Did Not Hesitate in Knowing Where to Turn,” said the President. “There was a meltdown. A literal meltdown. And the Democrats, well, you know. This is no time for partisan politics that blame those on the other side of the aisle, in the Democratic Party, who stood by and watched the empty beer keg floating in the barrel of melted ice.”

“And Then, Along Came John,” the 43rd President of the United States said from his podium in the Rose Garden. “And John McCain got the job done.”

“There Was This Other Candidate, You See,” Mr. Bush continued. “Barack Obama, see, he didn’t—Well, you can’t just phone it in. You have to be there.”

“And John McCain Was There,” the President added. “He was there just as he had been in Vietnam as a P.O.W., a prisoner-of-war who when they let him go home, he said that, ‘No. I’d rather stay.’ And he stayed. And the rest is history.”

“Yesterday, as a Result of the Dedication of My Friend, John McCain, the biggest bailout in American history took place,” said Mr. Bush. “We were pulled from the brink of disaster, our economy. And so I hereby declare this a national day of celebration.”

“National ‘John McCain Saved the Day’ Day will now be celebrated throughout America every year on the 29th day of September. And if it falls on a day other than Monday, then we will move it to Monday. And have two holidays that year.”

“Thank You, John McCain, for Rescuing America Single-Handedly Once Again.”

NEWS FLASH! President Bush Announces Time-Horizon for Withdrawal

[A Hypothetical Media Encounter Somewhere in Iraq]


IRAQ—Speaking in Iraq Earlier Today, leading presidential contender Barack Obama spoke to the President’s decision to set a time-horizon for withdrawing American troops from Iraqi soil. Said Obama, “I congratulate George Bush for having the strength of character to change directions and show the Iraqi people the respect they deserve.”

“Furthermore,” Obama Continued, “on behalf of the American people, I would like to thank President Bush for giving us what we have wished for as a nation: an honorable conclusion to this unfortunate war, and for allowing us to redirect our attention to getting the perpetrators of September 11 and to seeing our brave men and women of the military safely home.”

Said Obama, “It is Time to Restore Faith and Trust in the American dollar and in the nation as a whole. It’s time to get back to the sound and humane fiscal policies that will help America face the many new challenges, to energy and the environment. Now we can move forward at last, so that the next time the world calls on America, America will again be in a position to answer.”

In Response to a Followup Question—Referring to Iraq Withdrawal-Deadlines, Iran negotiations, and acknowledgment of environmental changes—whether the President’s change of course constituted “flip-flopping,” Barack Obama said, “While some pundits will take the opportunity to label these decisions flip-flopping, I believe these changes represent President Bush’s growing understanding of America’s role in the future of the world, in terms of politics, in terms of the environment, in terms of the price of oil, and in terms of our challenged economy. These recent statements by George W. Bush show growth and change that he can be proud of. And for those Americans who have opposed the Administration’s policies for so long, President Bush’s correction of those policies is like the return of the prodigal son.”

The “Prodigal Son" refers to a parable in the New Testament, which mentions a young man who gathered his share of his father’s property and took “a journey into a far country,” where he “squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.”

When the Son Decided to Return Home, “his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” (from Luke 15:13-24, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles.)

Senator Obama Is Visiting Afghanistan and Iraq in connection with his duties as a United States Senator.