What color is your Zebra?
Well, what color is your
zebra? Is it white with black stripes or black with white stripes?
You probably don't know or care if there's a difference; after all
they're all zebras.
The same can be said
about our politician brethren ... they argue about whose stripes are
white and whose are black when there is not spitting distance difference
between them when it comes to results. They spend their energies picking
at each others scabs in annoying displays of barely concealed school yard
power-plays while the Ship of State sinks.
Considered the current
economic crisis ... the Republicans are moaning about how much and for
what the Democrats are spending our grandchildren's money. A few
years ago, when the Republicans held both Houses of Congress and the
Presidency, they were the ones spending our future with unbridled lust.
Admittedly, it had been a long time since they had so much cumulative
power. I suppose they can be excused for becoming a bit intoxicated and
acting like a freshman who had too many beers at his first college kegger.
If the Republicans would
stop to look back to when they had the majority, they had the opportunity
to prevent the current crisis by reigning in the immoral lending
practices that got us into this in the first place. No politicians,
with the notable exception of John McCain and two or three others, raised
a peep about the looming landslide.
Now Republicans are
bemoaning the Socialist trends our government is taking, beating the
drums and making fundraising calls - I had 3 today -to circle the wagons
in support of "smaller government and controlled spending". Well I
voted Republican in 2000 out of hope, and again in 2004 out of fear of
John Kerry. Again, in 2008 I voted for John McCain ... but the
economic collapse happened sixty days too early for him to win.
It is all too obvious
that the vast majority of politicians think first about how something
affects their re-election chances. Next priority is the effect on
their political party and how they can raise more money for their
Political Action Committee (PAC). Way down on the list of their
concerns is the real future of America.
An example of this is
the recent Congressional Hearings that attempted to crucify the CEO of
AIG ... you remember, the company that was "too big to fail" and received
over 165 BILLION dollars in bailout money. The skewer de jour was
the bonuses that were paid to AIG employees as required by their
contracts. Well, Mr. Congressman, there are three things here that
stink, besides your brimstone breath. First, demanding that
contacts be disregarded because you are offended is not exactly the way
law is supposed to be practiced. Are you not sworn to uphold the
constitution? Does this not include contract law? Second, the man they were attempting to roast was the
same man the government had asked about 60 days ago to come out of
retirement to stabilize AIG and who gets the salary of ONE dollar a year. If I had been that man I would have
laid down my pen on the table, pointed to the congressmen and said, "Sir,
you are the one who created this mess." I would have then quit and told
them that they could run AIG ... if they could, and then gone back to my
quiet retirement.
Have you no shame,
congressman? Do you think the American public is so stupid that we
mistake your dog-and pony shows for real statesmanship, or real concern
for America?
Ok, lets get off that
horse, or zebra, and get on another. Much has lately been said about
resurrecting the "fairness doctrine" on the public airways. The
Democrats, feeling their power, must have assumed they had become Lazarus
to attempt such a feat. It would, by government mandate, require
news and commentary TV and Radio programs to air the "other" side of any
issue they discussed. Well folks here it is ... the bald faced
assumption that there must be only two sides, the Republican and the
Democratic. Are they so vain as to think that perhaps there might
not be a cogent "opinion" that does not match either one? The only
things the Democrats and Republicans hate equally, and more than each
other, is the threat of a third party. They lock out third-party
attempts so they can always be sure they slip no further back than number
two and can trade off being number one between themselves.
So what color is your
federal zebra?
Since
they are all covered with so much mud and dirt, you can't tell... and
this probably includes most of the local zebras too.
