Questions or should I say concerns that never get resolved:
Why didn’t the public know about the collapse of the economy before it collapsed?
There must have been signs indicating an economic meltdown way before the end of the Bush administration? Why did financial experts Ben Bernanke and before him, Alan Greenspan who were the bean counter experts, fail to warn us about the future financial woes? Why were we not aware of the fallout on Wall Street before it spilled over on Main Street? How did the banking business become so aloof in handing out credit to those who could barely afford to pay their debt? Back in the 80’s people could only qualify for a house mortgage that was 3x the amount of their annual salary, plus they needed to have at least a 20% downpayment. How and why did these financial institutions become so lax in their lending criteria? Could it be that they all knew they’d be bailed out?
What about Tim Geithner? The fact is that, when he was the chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank he had racked up millions when he made an undisclosed purchase of Goldman Sachs stock, “a violation of Federal Reserve policy,” as stated by the Wall Street Journal. This activity occurred at a time when the New York Fed was supposedly overseeing the actions of the Wall Street firm. Why didn’t that antic of Geithner’s raise an eyebrow from the SEC, Congress or the MS Media?
Not only did Goldman Sachs receive a huge cash infusion from the Government, Goldman also received an additional $8.1 billion that the taxpayers will never receive back. Could this be a gift of sorts engineered by then-N.Y. Fed president Geithner of AIG, which listed Goldman as its top insured credit-swap customer?1
According to a Wall Street Journal article, The US Treasury has bailed out AIG several times since last September to the tune of at least $180 billion. No one knows for sure where the money went. Regulators refuse to identify AIG’s counterparties. The US Federal Reserve refuses to publicize a list of AIG’s derivative counter parties. The bailout giveaway has been going on since last September whereby no one from Congress has bothered to be truly concerned about until recently. Now they’re crying outrage, after the milk has been spilt — a little late don’t you think? WE, the taxpayers, are going to pay for the greedy bankers who are laughing all the way to the bank.
Now to another unanswered question:
Why are we still fighting two unnecessary wars? Besides stretching our armed forces to the limit, there is also the war on drugs that we have been fighting in our own country for donkeys years — a necessary war, and one that we can’t seem to get control of. Yet, while our troops are in Afghanistan, the opium poppy business has skyrocketed.
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As an industry, the farming and harvesting of the opium poppy has taken over every other form of agriculture in Afghanistan, making millions for the opium drug lords, keeping innocent families in poverty, and augmenting the strength of the Taliban. This situation will not change by foreign troop occupation, nor will we succeed in wiping out the Taliban or Al Qaeda. These faction groups will simply pop up somewhere else. These guys are not like any military we have ever fought. |
So the premise from President Obama is that our forces will train an Afghani police force that will tackle the problem of illegal drug trade and enforce the law against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Okay, just how many years will that effort take in order to show some slight progress? The Afghanis are not your everyday enlistees. Most of them are illiterate, poor, desperate and do not like being told what to do by outside parties. Good luck. Meanwhile the burden of another triple billion dollar bill gets paid for by the taxpayers. And just where are all the taxpayers going to find the money to do this if they have no income? To add insult to injury, we still have the huge debt of the Iraq war, which by the way has there been any mention of a withdrawal date yet?
Why hasn’t the Obama administration called for a criminal investigation of George Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the Bush cabal for invading a country based on lies and causing the deaths of thousands of innocent people? And for creating the worst financial mess since the Great depression?
Ah, and last but not least, The Tiger is loose. Yes, I mean Tiger Woods. OMG, he’s committed adultery, not once, not twice but more times than he would care to admit and with different lasses. Of course, this is putrid fodder for the news media and all those opponents he’s beaten mercilessly on the golf course. I’ve never been more appalled at the media than I am now – and let’s not forget the one important thing here, Tiger Woods is not a world leader for humanity – he is a sportsman, plain and simple. He does not influence world, national or regional policy, and that’s that. Leave the man and his family alone to work it out the way they see fit. Besides, I really don’t know of any male celebrity that can keep staving off the she-bears out there that would sleep with a married man in order to secure some infamous dalliance that they can brag about later on; plus make a few bucks from some rag-tag media outlet. Enough about Tiger Woods and his groupies.
Ask this question: Why is the private life of Tiger Woods more important than the failing economy? Or the environment? Or man’s inhumanity towards man? Or illegal wars? Or a lying bunch of politicians hell-bent on ruining the fabric of society? Or how about milking the taxpayers so the very few rich can maintain their ultimate lifestyle? Or how about the thousands of people who, everyday go hungry, are sick and are fearful of the future?
Aren’t those questions more important to address than the life of Tiger Woods?
