So Glad It's Over

As a bonus now that the Coliseum-like circus of the Presidential election is over we get to deal with the reality that is America in the fading days of the Bush presidency.

Reality has been around throughout but subject to the effervescence of the election; we really haven't grasped the seriousness of our position, of the precipice on which we sit. But we will.

It seems so long ago now when the banks begged like beaten dogs for our bailout money. Congress, while going through the motions of feigning angst and teeth-grinding, gave our money to them despite public demands - screams - to the contrary.

They wrote the robbing of the people into history not as the "Bill to Bailout our Big Bastard Banking Buddies" as it should have been, but gave it the soft Summer's Eve title of "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" - how grand, how magnificent, how noble, how governmental. How recent and how long ago and how utterly worthless an expenditure.

The banks were irrevocably screwed going into this meltdown and they continue to be, regardless of the generosity of the public funds Bush and Congress threw their way. Oh, a couple of big shots on Wall Street may not be able to be seen in public over Christmas smoking their ludicrously large Cohibas, but be under no doubt our money has been well used. At least the bankers think so - they're like dogs in the park rolling in poo with happiness.

The election extravaganza distracted us from noticing the fast-accelerating Winterization of our newly fragile economy. Banks aren't lending, houses are sitting empty and unsold. Unemployment is rising and the economic Colorado River of consumer spending has slowed to a trickle. Even though the average taxpayer bailed out the crooks, the poor fool who did the bailing is practically homeless. Indeed many are.

Once the Holidays are over expect the reality of the deep freeze to set in. And a deep freeze it will be as even the aforementioned trickle threatens to dry up. Investment funds have been not so quietly withdrawn from the marketplace, the investors left licking their wounds. Hedge funds have lost their shirts - yours actually. Mortgage lending has all but stopped. Home equity lines have been withdrawn, credit card limits axed and the banker nearly pees himself with laughter when you ask for an overdraft. Mark my words, when retailers go cap in hand to their banks in January for funding to ride out the Spring slow season it is widely expected that they will get what we, the people, should have given the Wall Street bankers when they came abegging to us; the door. Or more appropriately- the finger.

Obama will be stepping into a stinking bloody morass with the Middle East conflict. 4,741 U.S. war dead in two theatres and upwards of 30,180 maimed and wounded. Untold tens of thousands suffering from post traumatic stress from repeated and unwarranted deployments in Bush's desperate attempt to avoid reemploying the draft. The expense is monumental.

Without rehashing the whole debacle we can see that what should have been a quick in and out of Afghanistan turned into a ego-fest of Bushlomania as we trekked through Iraq and pounded whoever got in our way from Baghdad to Syria. And through it all, Bush never caught Osama.

After 20 months of speculation, debate, talk shows, scandals, experts and taking heads, what have we learned? We learned that until election night those overpaid yet handsome and pretty ladies in TV land know just as much as we do about the outcome; nothin'.

Let me be the first to welcome you back to reality. A reality that marks the turning point in American history and politics as we welcome Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. A job well done.

Until next time.