Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Lying politicians, and elections...

An update... I'm behind on responses to the folk who've dropped by to visit here and who've said things to me in conversations elsewhere, and I apologize. I've been snagged by that nemesis of those of us who are keyboard-bound, stalled in tunnels of the carpel kind, so both hands are now in splints. At a terrible time too: the goings on in the world are shrieking for comment. Unbridled capitalism has finally had its comeuppance, throwing the US into chaos and crashing stock markets... Don't get me wrong. I'm not crowing. Too many ordinary folks are in real trouble, not just in the USA, but here in Canada, and no doubt elsewhere as well. As usual, the people who can least afford it are hurting while the chaps on Wall Street who caused the trouble will walk away unscathed. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the rest will be bailed out (however that is arranged) by monies that come , one way or the other, from the taxpayer's pocket. Comments on two matters, for now. First! When it was reported that mortgage giant Freddie Mac had paid an advocacy group run by Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, $30,000 a month until the end of 2005, the McCain campaign denied that Davis still had ties to Freddie Mac. Davis himself told reporters that "it's been over three years since ... I had any contact with those folks." Newsweek's Mike Isikoff reports, however, that Freddie Mac paid Rick Davis's consulting and lobbying firm a consulting fee of $15,000 a month starting in 2005 and ending only last month, when the U.S. government acquired the firm. This is scandalous, and makes liars of the two Republican candidates, a big part of whose platform is that they are against those nasty lobbyists. Fact checkers (found easily online) report that Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice-President, has used lobbyists as well. We all make fun of politicians – the only people who tell bigger lies than statisticians – but this barefaced lying is an insult to the intelligence of the American people and they should not put up with it. (Bible believers should also remember who Jesus ran out of his Father's temple – the moneylenders!) Second. Anyone who is thinking of voting for Stephen Harper in Canada's coming election ought to bear the American situation in mind and recognize how dangerous it is that he's emptied our coffers with his ill-advised tax cuts leaving us with no surplus, nothing to tide us over bad times. We now know clearly that hurricanes, out of whose paths God has kindly kept us, are not the only things that shatter economies and upend countries. Disease in humans or animals, collapsed infrastructure, crop failure, drought, floods, a nuclear meltdown in one of those old reactors, underhand dealing in our fiscal sector, any of these can suddenly arrive, and if they come now we have no nest egg to dip into, thanks to Mr Harper. Quite apart from the environment, quite apart from the divisive tactics according to which he's encouraging people who do needlepoint, sew, quilt and make handcrafted canoes to think they are somehow different from people who write and paint and carve, if you are thinking of voting Conservative in the upcoming Canadian election, remember America, a nation with empty coffers. These are critical times, requiring good government, and Conservatives aren't big on government: they think, the less of it, the better. But when the skies fall, as in times of war, disaster and famine, good government can make all the difference. So put you vote where it counts this election... Your life may depend on it.

9 comments:

FSJL said...

It would brighten my declining years to see some of the evil bastards who helped created the financial crisis jumping from tall buildings. A friend of mine suggests firing squads, but I think of that as a waste of good bullets.

You're right, the people who are suffering most are the poor, the humble, the hard-working who don't have much and who have consistently had the rotary fasteners applied to them.

Jdid said...

I think you overestimate the intelligence of the american public. Those facts will all be repackaged as unwarranted attacks by the liberal leaning media and many many people will ignore them.

there is no room for facts in politics its all about spin.

Sorry to say it but Harper wins handily although I've never seen a government go out of its way to shoot itself in the foot during election time so much and so often than this current conservative party. talk about being your own worse enemy.

clarabella said...

Hi fsjl:

If they jump from a tall building, ther agony is over pretty fast. The Sheol of the Old Testament (that is Dante's Purgatorio, good old Catholic Purgatory) is a more appropriate punishment. There you roast until God decides you've done enough penance for your sins! I'm about to do a post in which I'll say a bit more about just how much the poor have suffered in this business. Peace and plenty – wisdom, especially.

clarabella said...

jdid:

Howdy. Behind on responses to you, and very sorry about that, but just so you know, we were away in the US, so, no, I wasn't at Word on the Street. (I don't like the new location much. I preferred the old one on the street!) How was it? As for your comment about the American public, it's inspired my next post, so thanks. And re our election here, a reminder that "It ain't over till the fat lady sings!" P&L

FSJL said...

Pam: When they jump they have time to contemplate their action, and regret it, on the way down. Afterwards, of course, they cease to exist.

ruthibel said...

"So put you vote where it counts this election... Your life may depend on it"

Well said

clarabella said...

fsjl: They cease to exist, do they? I do so wish I thought so!

clarabella said...

Hi ruthibelle: Good to hear from you again. I hope people not only vote, but vote wisely, strategically, without this idolatrous allegiance to a party they feel they are married to. It bugged me in the last election in Jamaica that so many people told me, "I didn't vote because I just couldn't bring myself to vote for so and so. I just never have voted for that party." Such nonsense. And if they were out picketing somewhere I wouldn't have minded so much!

FSJL said...

Pam: Fortunately, or unfortunately, I find it a little difficult to believe in an afterlife.