Fantasy Money

I know I don't suffer fools gladly. And I also know that I can be adamant about something and be completely wrong. About the current state of the election in this country, I'm adamantly appalled. I'm at the point of yelling at the t.v. ads put out by the McCain campaign which are obviously lies. How can Sarah Palin repeat over and over that Obama "pals around" with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers?" (And of course, this is also about the stupidity of the American public). Does she want some nutcase out there to decide to fight the war on terror by doing away with Obama? Every time I see the ad, I think she's just ratcheted up the chance of an assasination attempt. Can she be that stupid? Or that insensitive? Or is it just about winning the election?

I am heartened to see that Obama is up in the polls by 10 points. I hope he wins by a landslide and buries the McCain campaign and the right-wing bigots who support him and his lovely vice-presidential candidate. The famous beauty queen will be at Dover High School on Wed., and I will be outside helping to hold the American Friends Service Committee banners which spell out the financial disaster that is the war in Iraq. Remember the war? We thought the election would be a referendum on that, until the massive collapse of the financial system. Money will always trump concern for peace.

So....let's talk about Fantasy Money - yours, mine and ours. Where, exactly will the 700 billion come from that will enable the government to a) buy up bad debt (how do you buy a bad debt?) or b) buy equity in a big bank, or a big business, thereby expanding each of our persoal portfolios to include shares of say, AIG, or Fannie Mae? Will we have to borrow the money from China? Will we just print a bunch more money? Or are these just "paper transfers" of fantasy money?? And while I'm at it, could we focus on the irony of a Republican administration essentially nationalizing the banks and financial institutions in this country? Talk about eating crow......I hope George Bush gags all the way back to the ranch in Crawford, Texas. And takes a whole lot of Credit Default Swaps with him.

So, to recap this ramble, we, the American taxpayers, have been gouged for the past year on gas and oil prices; we've spent trillions of dollars on a war which was designed to expand the powers of the President and justified by lies, and now, we've had the opportunity to watch our life savings and pensions lose 40% of their value over the last 7 days while the Wall St. fat cats make out like bandits. The Republican house of cards has collapsed. Sadly, the collapse has taken the rest of us along with it, through pre-emptive war to moral and financial bankruptcy. Fantasy money and fantasy government. Indeed.