365 days and 5600 DOW points later. The Bush-Catastrophy Continues While Conservatives Remain Clueless.
October 10, 2008

 
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Exactly 365 days ago yesterday, the DOW hit its record high of 14164.53 following a wild ride of “irrational exuberance” that saw the DOW climb over 1,000 points in just under a month. I wrote about the anomaly here, back when a 438 point plunge was still news. One year later, the Market, in near collapse, has closed below… not just 9,000, but 8,600, for the first time since May 22, 2003.

The current economic collapse has resulted in the failure of some 15 banks and financial institutions, with a panic-stricken Congress issuing a $700 Billion dollar bailout of Wall Street, and a Republican presidential candidate that championed the very cause of this mess… deregulation… for years is now flailing wildly, resorting to personal attacks and smears as he sees himself sinking in the polls.

Meanwhile, clueless Conservatives are angry, venting their anger at Senator McCain during his rallies, mystified over how they can possibly be so far behind a “Liberal Democrat promising to raise their taxes”, begging Senator McCain to get “even tougher” in the upcoming third & final debate, and “go after” Senator Obama on “issues” like “his association with William Ayers“:

Yeah! Because with the economy in the toilet, rampant unemployment, two wars and a $10 TRILLION dollar national debt, what Americans REALLY want to know about is why Senator Obama allowed a man that threatened to bomb the Pentagon back when Obama was eight years old, raise money for his reelection to the Illinois State Senate over a decade ago.

Besides the 5,585 point drop since October 9, 2007, the DOW has fallen just under 4,700 points (so far) just this year, and over 1,700 points just since Monday! That’s astounding.

Did I mention that they can’t figure out why they’re losing?

You’ve probably seen this already, but it’s a great political cartoon from last month that seems to sum it all up very nicely:

Fiscal Conservatives
(Click to enlarge)

One wonders how the Conservative mind works. Consider the disaster that has been the Bush Administration:

  • Two recessions in eight years.
  • Ignoring warnings of an imminent attack by Osama bin Laden resulting in a failure to prevent the worst terrorist attack on American soil in history.
  • Allowed bin Laden to escape when he was surrounded at “Tora Bora”.
  • Lied the country into launching an unprovoked attack against a country that was NO threat to us (Iraq), only to trap us there when their one & only exit strategy (“put Chalibi in charge”) fell through.
  • Pushed through “The Patriot Act”, giving the government sweeping unconstitutional powers, including warrantless searches/seizures (of any item, including your guns) of American citizens.
  • Suspended the Constitutional Right of Habeas Corpus for American citizens.
  • Legalized torture, including the use of “water-boarding” by the CIA, a crime the U.S. once prosecuted Japan for after World War II.
  • Wiretapped American citizens without a warrant.
  • After winning reelection on the grounds Bush would “keep us safe”, he lost an entire city, failing to protect thousands in New Orleans from a threat we could see coming from space for THREE DAYS, that was so devastating, it left dead bodies floating in the street.
  • $147 a barrel oil and $4 a gallon gas.
  • After attacking President Clinton for “Nation Building” and supposedly leaving behind a military “not ready for duty” (that later conquered both Afghanistan & Iraq in a matter of weeks), the U.S. has spent nearly a Trillion dollars “nation building” in those countries, stretching the military to the breaking point where we now don’t have enough troops to send to Afghanistan to hold off a resurgent Taliban.
  • al Qaeda is stronger today than it was before 9/11.
  • A North Korea that has gone from one nuclear weapon to as many as seven, and even test-firing missiles over the sea of Japan.
  • An Iran, once held in check by neighboring Iraq and an unfriendly Saddam Hussein, whose own President is now welcomed by the new government of Iraq before cheering crowds in mid-day where American officials must slip in under the cover of darkness unannounced to avoid hostile fire.
  • An empowered Iran that is now pursuing nuclear technology while heightening hostile rhetoric towards Israel.

And now a collapsing economy, rising unemployment, and a Treasury Secretary whose only solution to the crisis is “to throw money at it“.

If this were a Democratic President, Conservatives would be screaming for the President’s head on a platter. But instead, they are rallying behind another Conservative presidential candidate that promises, not only to continue the policies of the current President, but to double-down on them, and BEGGING him to focus on idiotic tabloid-worthy stories about who Senator Obama allowed to raise money for him back in 1996 (I can’t confirm that year but it appears to be correct.)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Conservatism is a mental disorder”.

POSTSCRIPT: If you are wondering, the stock market crash of 1929 that precipitated The Great Depression, was actually a two-day event, where the market fell 12.5% two days in a row. The collapse this week, from 10,322.52 on Monday to 8579.19, has been 16.9% (23% since September 29th, when the DOW fell 777 points).

Whereas the Depression of 1929 resulted in massive unemployment, people losing their entire lives savings because their bank went into default, and retirees losing their pensions with nothing to fall back on, we don’t need to worry about a “Great Depression II” today. Our bank deposits are insured thanks to the FDIC, and we have Social Security to guarantee that retirees and the disabled don’t end up homeless… all thanks to FDR… and ALL programs Conservatives have fought to eliminate for the past 79 years.

So when you go to bed tonight, say a special prayer of thanks for Franklin Roosevelt before your head hits the pillow.

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October 10, 2008 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Politics

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