Wednesday, November 11, 2009

BUSH DEBACALYPSE SPREADING IT'S WINGS?

If anyone is wondering whether the Bush Debacalypse is over we need to look no further than these three stories ...


Robert Benmosche, the CEO of government bail out champion AIG, is threatening to quit because he's not getting his way on everything he wants from the federal government. Will the government cave in to his demands? I don't know, but I suspect so.

Given the Obama administration's reluctance to take on Wall Steet's malfeasance and incompetence I have to believe that Benmosche's arrogance will somehow be rewarded. Here's an overview from nakedcapitalism.com of a man who (1) took a two week vacation before he started work, (2) then told everyone that he - and not Uncle Sam - was in charge, (3) handed out bonuses to incompetents in a collapsed industry, and (4) then publicly went after NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for drawing attention to the bonuses. It's not pretty.

If you're not sure whether to support the notoriously weak health care reform passed out of the House of Representatives on Saturday this link from Firedoglake won't help. But it provides more information than most media outlets have on what's really wrong with the House bill. At this point, while I don't like much of what's in the House bill, the trajectory we're on is worse. Damn.

Finally, we have the Obama administration's uncertainty over what to do with President Bush's Bungled Wars Project (Here's a hint: We're broke, they're not afraid, and they see us as occupiers. Leave).

With Congress operating as if it's business as usual on something as important as health care, corporate America's CEOs still pushing their weight around as if their industry deserves a prize for ruining the economy, and President Obama's uncertainty over a failed wars project that threatens to last longer than any war in American history (whatever happened to the "last throes" Cheney talked about?), my hunch is that things are going to get worse before they get better.

Is the Bush Debacalypse spreading into the Obama administration? It would appear so. Stay tuned.

- Mark

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