So whadda ya gonna do about it?

While reflecting on the last year, and possibly a few more as well, I can't help but breath a bit easier knowing that BushCo has been partially ejected from the engineers seat of the speeding train of social and economic upheaval; yet watching Democrats flagellate their way into self-destruct mode leaves little hope for improvement. I certainly hope that one of the major components of Change I Can Believe In as promised by the Obama administration involves Getting Their Act Together. It's not looking so good thus far...

One of the primary issues confronting the US is the imploding economy which has been listing progressively for years. Contrary to common assumption this current state of affairs was not unforeseeable, nor was it unavoidable. Most of your elected leaders have consistently kowtowed to the interests of greed and high profit margins by allowing millions of manufacturing jobs to vacate the country; leading to multi-trillion dollar deficits with Mainland China. They have allowed speculative smoke and mirror trading bubbles and ponzi schemes to topple Wall Street and they have blatantly ignored billions in fraud, waste, and incompetence while bleeding the public till in the name of "National Security". In short, the majority of your beltway insiders are corrupt, incompetent, and utterly complicit. They are serving those who elect them - K Street corporate interests with buckets of money to throw at elections - not you or I. Joe the Plumber isn't even on their radar, with the sole exception of verbal crumbs of hope they toss out at election time - which are quickly forgotten once back in session. These people are primarily concerned about maintaining their cushy positions in Congress, their taxpayer-funded lifetime heath care, and "growing" their portfolios of favoritism and insider dealings. Most have become so bold, so arrogant, so unapologetic concerning their unethical, crony dealings that a common response in today's political climate is "Don't like it? Whadda ya gonna do about it? And by the way, I'm going to get you fired if you don't leave this alone". Illinois' Blogojevich and Georgia's "Sonny" Perdue both demonstrate an eerie resemblance in this regard. While Illinois residents are a bit quicker to catch on to such skullduggery, Georgians are notoriously poor at spotting, or holding accountable, the crooks they (re)elect on a regular basis. Which explains why the GOP has such a strong hold on and invests so much energy into the south. Georgia is also one of the most predatory, citizen and consumer rights unfriendly states in the nation.

While Blogo may eventually be ousted, Perdue continues to flagrantly violate the public trust by selling public use lands to private developers. His latest land grab for corporate interests involves Jekyll Island, a barrier island off the coast of GA. Under the guise of "revitalization", miles of prime, public oceanfront property is being turned over for the next 50 years to Linger Longer, a company owned by Mercer Reynolds. Reynolds is a well known Republican fundraiser who contributed several hundred million dollars to the Bush 2004 reelection campaign, and of course, lesser amounts to Perdue himself. What does the public get, you ask? 1% of net condo sales, 3.5% of motel/hotel rental receipts - but only after 4 years of profits; 10 years on food and beverage. This is NOT a good deal for the citizens of GA who will lose all free access to these public park lands. Add this to the Oaky Woods debacle and several crony deals involving Florida developers, and you can plainly see who is zoomin' who. But ignorant Georgians would rather argue about Rebel Flags and Them Uppity Blacks than their own well being; and the press presents a virtual blackout - Big Surprise.

But back to the employment dilemma. These mobsters have been complicit in the gutting of the country's infrastructure of manufacturing; iron, steel, textiles, electronics, phone support, toys, printing, plastics, machine parts and equipment, tools, screws and nails, and even the much lauded savior of the early 2000 economy: Information Technology. It's Gone. And now we argue over why there is rising unemployment? Get serious. There is no easy cure for the gasping chest wound that was once the US economy as this situation has been years in the making, but a good start would be a cost of living tariff on imported goods. US workers cannot compete with 50 cent an hour workers - Ever. (Perhaps if housing, food, fuel and power were to drop to 1910 levels, but I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.) Small businesses are disappearing in lieu of large corporate interests, and staggering mediocrity, low wages, and poverty are the end result.

Is any real, meaningful reform likely to occur? Probably not, and we will continue to dole out grossly inflationary, stop gap measures such as hundred billion dollar bailouts that serve only those who created the problem in the first place. The best thing that has happened as of late is Wall Street collapsing like the house of cards it is and hitting a few of these maggots in the wallets. Perhaps it will wake a few people up before it is too late - if it's not already. Short term thinking, avarice, and vulture capitalism is methodically destroying this country brick by brick; family by family. What happened to common sense and patriotism? It long ago took a back seat to profit. Take a look at Dick Cheney's investment portfolio to see just how hopeful these folks are about the future of this country.

So whadda ya gonna do about it?