China Owns Us--This cannot be Good

It had been a nice but short vacation. Ever since that cold January day when Mr. Potter was wheeled to his car and tossed into the back seat for his ride home, America hadn't seen much or heard from the evilest person in America: Dick Cheney.

Last Sunday, he was on the Sunday talk-show circuit telling us (actually, sort of spitting out through that "I just ate a lemon look") how President Obama had weakend the US by regarding terrrorism as a law enforcement issue instead of a strictly military one.

In perfect Repig-speak, with a oink-oink here and littel piggy went to the market there, he had the audacity to say that he and his buddy, W., only took actions that were took in line with the Constitution: yeah, maybe the Russian one.

Really, so much of what he was spewing was rhetoric, pure and without pulp. But, the words that have stuck in my head and continue to ring like a massive and intricately carved church bell bonging and bonging and bonging are these: "he has weakened our country."

A Deep Breath

I have taken a deep breath and now I am ready to continue. Today, China owns 60% of our government paper. That is not good. Somewhere some economist is saying that in the new world where all economies are linked together in a web of cooperation, this does not matter so much. This same economist will tell us that China cannot hurt us because then they will lose their investment. This same rationale is used by the mafia when someone owes the a lot of money--kill the guy and you never get your money. I really don't think we should want our nation being compared to a degenerate gambler, for example.

As the largest single investor in the America, China has almost a right to be involved in Washington's affairs, more than so than even the tax-payers. China is bailing out our failing system; financing the rebuilding of our faltering nation. China owns us, feeds us, clothes us. What else?

Now, my question is this: who blazed this trail to massive government debt? Who made it not just acceptable but patriotic to run up massive government deficits? Which president started the bankrupting our nation via the shredding of budgets needed to keep our food safe, our roads safe, our air safe, our schools safe, our cities safe? Um...let's see, it wasn't Jimmy Carter. It wasn't Bush I--he actually raised taxes, God love him.

No, it wasn't Clinton who actually managed to balance the budget while investing in our nation's infrastructure, while making our cities safer, while overseeing drops in teen pregnancy and a decreasing mortality rate of children under 5 (we lead the industrialized world in this category today!!).

Well, let's end the suspense: yes, it was old silver shoes himself, Ronald Reagan.

Since 1981, we have had 20 years of Republican presidents and 8 for Clinton. In that time, our nation has rocketed itself into debt. We have spent the past 28 years rewarding the rich for creating wealth for themselves, only to be divied up amongst people who look very much like themselves. The American worker, despite his amazing levels of productivity, has grown poorer and poorer during this period; except, for a brief respite during Clinton, and the weatlhy have amassed ever more power.

And, all I need say is W. and most sane Americans can readily recall the 8 years of theft, corruption, dishonor and bankrupting that has taken place thanks to the leader of the GOP his fat, white friends like Dick.

We Are Weaker

Again, I write these words: we are weaker than we have ever been (and I am not talking about missiles or numbers of aircraft carriers); we are broke; our nation has been auctioned off by the GOP for the benefit of a very small amount of really wealthy Americans--many who have lost sunstantial sums in this crisis but, still have millions and even billions to keep them fed and clothed.

Nothing good can come out a world with a weak or irrelevant America. Irrelevancy, however, is nothing we have yet to worry about. We are so relevant that when our economy went sour so did the world's economy! The Chinese, however, with their wealth, the Russians with their gas and oil and the Indians with whatever they have won't let us pull them down again in the future.

Barack Obama has made our nation stronger from the very second the polls closed on election night. By making so many of us believe like we have not believed, feel empowered like we have not felt in so long, he has already done more good for our nation than the republicans have done since their policies of hateful-economics and then economics-dictated by politics took us astray in 1981.

For many of us, for the world's sake, America is again united. History shows us that a united America is a strong America, a good America and fair America. Now, today, once again, it is so important for us to let President Obama lead as he has been leading to let him take our nation, with our help, back to the prominent place the world wants for us: leadership.

Cheney's World

Dick Cheney's world is one where there is silence except for the whining music of a violin. Some random Hungarian ballad is being plucked to life while in this sepia version of Cheney's world good and evil are clashing in cataclysmic battles. Yet, what we learn in the end of this thriller is that the "good" are Cheney and his corporate friends from the big military industrial complex and the "evil" are all of us.

Kind of reminds me a little of "The Matrix."