Out of the mouths of babes

The following is an email I sent to Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut regarding the massive bailout plan currently festering in Congress.

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Dear Senator Dodd,
I desperately wish to propose a solution to the current financial maelstrom. Rather than buying packages based on bad debt, as the bill which just failed in the House allowed, why can the government not pay off the bad mortgages that caused the failure? The mortgage-backed securities will be secure again, because all will be paid off; thousands if not millions of Americans will be able to stay in their homes; and if my calculations are anywhere near the mark it will cost several hundred billion dollars less than the current bailout plan. As a final provision, rather than making taxpayers foot the bill, the CEOs who made these corporations fail should be made to pay for at least part of it. I understand that the FBI is investigating, among others, Lehman Brothers and AIG. Should those investigations find any scurrilous behavior, the executives should be made to pay even more to stabilize the companies they drove into the ground.

I believe that burning golden parachutes and increased financial regulations are essential for keeping this sort of thing from recurring, as well. Reinstatement of usury laws would help prevent fraudulent lending. Perhaps certain members of Congress will complain that such measures would "stunt growth" or "encourage socialism," but what we have is not growth, it is a cancer. It must be removed so that real, measured, healthy growth may resume.

Thank you very much for your time, and please consider sharing these ideas with your fellow Congresspeople.

Sincerely,
[Me]

*facepalm*

So, to begin, I repeat my disclaimer from my first ever post in saying that the following is MY OPINION and MY OPINION ONLY. I am a raging liberal and if you disagree with any of this that's fine, although I wonder what you'd be doing reading my blog in the first place.

Sarah Palin.
FAIL.
Aside from the fact that I disagree with her on basically every front, this business with her daughter is, quite frankly, horrifying and repulsive. Kudos to Obama for refusing to touch the issue---for a man of his standing, that is good and proper. But that doesn't mean I can't rant about it.

First: I feel awful for the poor kids. Especially the father! I can't imagine what he will be going through. It's not his choice to marry little miss Palin, I'll bet. And I doubt that the situation is his fault, either. Here's why.

Governor Palin is, by all accounts, a violent opponent of abortion and birth control. Abstinence only! She also had no intentions to change the laws about sex-ed in Alaskan schools. As it stands, it's not required or even funded! So this mother of five (yep, she sure doesn't like birth control) expects her children to go through adolescence as completely chaste little angels. ...Yeah. That always works. Do these abstinence proponents even remember their own childhood? When kids aren't taught about this sort of thing, they usually find a way to learn about it themselves, and don't go about it safely either. Then, as evidence of "family values," there's going to be a shotgun wedding as soon as these kids turn eighteen. The fact that they're keeping the baby is being held up as a shining example of Compassionate Conservatism, but given Sen. Palin's record, there's no chance in hell that her daughter would be allowed an abortion. And the whole mess would have been prevented by a little pill, a scrap of rubber, or a bit more attention from mommy.

Here, then, we have three ruined lives: two too young to have experienced much of it yet, and one not even begun. And the cause of it all is nominated to be Vice President, who, if elected, is more likely to have to assume the primary role than any other VP in history. The McCain campaign is trying to use the issue to show that its choice is going through the same difficulties as normal Americans. Well, you know what? I don't want a "normal" American in the White House. The "have-a-beer-with-him" argument got the current schmuck where he is (that and some rigged machines), and I'll be damned if that works again. We need somebody special, somebody who can understand but not be mired in the hardships we face.

You'd think that the Republicans would wise up a little, really. Were I the type to believe such things, I'd say that it's pretty obvious that God doesn't want McCain elected. He's been badly upstaged at every turn: the South America tour while Obama was in Berlin; Hurricane Gustav resulting in his convention being postponed (to what end is unclear, because the attendees are partying like crazy); and now this. There are other examples but I can't recall them because he wasn't as important. Take a hint, seriously.

I shall conclude this with a cry heard more and more often around my house.

I HATE STUPID PEOPLE!!!!!