Bin Laden's Success

When does our government stop attempting to reduce our angst regarding the state of our country with lies, false truths, and self aggrandizement?

'Everything will be fine' goes the  standard message. We are just going through tough times.  "we cannot allow to let these 'institutions fail' or it will be disaster."

It is a disaster.  No verbal assurance will assuage the public, who awake each morning to hear of another bank failure, automobile industry implosion, and probably much more that  does not make the daily news cycle with a 'sound bite'.

We are on the prepuce of a possible financial revolution, that if not  fixed will threaten social order, because our country has sadly gradually slipped into  two systems.  The rich and the poor. The middle class as defined by a range of income, can no longer be defined by assets, wealth, or income.  The dollar as we knew it is becoming worthless.

The middle and lower classes have become dependent on social welfare systems....even those who earn good income depend  upon government for non necessary items, hidden in budgets, school loan programs, subsidies to colleges, and more programs, grants, loan guarantee programs and more.

The federal bailout is fast approaching 1 trillion dollars. For those of you who did not take calculus that is a 1 with 12 zeroes after it. The choices the feds are making are

1.Having the public buy shares in failed institutions

2. Buying 'toxic' assets that are devalued by 50% to 90% or more.

We have had a long standing legal process called bankruptcy.  The mechanism is all there already. Why should we call this anything but a bankruptcy?  A federal bailout is not going to rekindle confidence in Detroit, Wall Street, or other financial markets.

I do not want to own Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, WAMU, Wachovia, nor an incompetent Detroit auto manufacturer.

Also we must demand  transparency. In the days of the internet it is possible for all these 'numbers' to be public. Trust me has become a meaningless word.  Trust is earned by actions, not words.  Congress has been duped, for a long time.  Do you believe anything that Barney Frank and  Chris Dodd say??

In two months time our country has been brought to it's knees. I think it began back on September 11, 2001.  Bin Laden accomplished what he set out to do. Make no mistake about it.  They  don't have to mount another terrorist attack. One did it all.

Bin Laden and El-Qaeda calculated that Bush and our nation would have a knee jerk reaction of indignation and anger to search out and attempt to destroy the agent of devastation. In a highly charged and emotional moment our government failed to estimate what invading Iraq and Afghanistan would mean. They fully calculated our response and the cost to us of carrying out our plan for

Essentially they bankrupted America just as in the Reagan era we bankrupted the Soviet Union it their attempt   to keep up with the United States.

Would it have been better to  'lick our wounds' and tighten our borders and security to fight another day at a  time to our advantage?  For the price of the war(s) we could have built a line of 10 fences from California to Florida.

The United States, despite setbacks, remains a great republic, the strength of which lies in the people, our freedom and the ability to transform our challenges.