Where's the Shame? America's Misdirected Anger: Prisoner 61727-054's Billion Dollar Scams; President 43's Trillion Dollar Tricks

We are mad as hell and Bernie Madoff has become the receptacle for our national rage. Mention his name and you are speaking about the man all America loves to hate. At present he is the dark star of cable news. Add the bonuses at AIG and other bailouts to tone deaf CEO's and the hissing begins. Such is the nature of displaced anger among a frightened people.

For eight years this government has been run by W and Co., the greatest group of Ponzi schemers to appear in our time, perhaps in all American history. They took us from a robust albeit flawed prosperity under Clinton with high employment figures to the disaster we currently face. The Bush 43 legacy of unregulated greed and mismanagement has been dumped upon President Obama, and thus, on to all of us. I won't rehash the lies, the corruption, and the cruelty of the misbegotten Iraq war that happened on the Republican watch -- the alleged result of 9/11 -- a catastrophe that occurred because the President and Ms. Rice, his National Security advisor failed to pay attention to the reports of what was happening. The Iraq war they chose is a disaster, no matter what its outcome, costing nearly a million Iraqi dead and the lives of four thousand American men and women, and trillions of dollars. And the number grows. Yet throughout that time there was little protest among the citizens of this country as they trusted the criminal lies told to them by Bush about the war much as Madoff's clients trusted his financial shenanigans, both groups knowing better, suspecting the reports as too good to be true but wanting so much to believe in a benevolent authority watching out for us.

Along came Madoff these past weeks to rescue Bush's economy from the true outrage and possible punishment that Bush and his fellows committed in those eight years. The rage is all on Bernie. Bush is ignored while Madoff is a prisoner of the state. But there are wonderful similarities. Both now live in guarded, gated communities; Bush in Dallas, surrounded by Secret Service men to keep him safe within his once restricted manse; Madoff protected by prison guards and federal agents to keep him safe -- at least until the puzzle of where the money is hidden is solved, if ever. It's a small comfort but neither man will have the freedom to rehabilitate their images in the years ahead. Bush will find his post presidential life circumscribed by the slow and painful unraveling of his lies told to the world. I don't see much travel ahead for the ex-President who draws hurling shoes like flies to honey and someday, one hopes, draws the judgment of the World Court, if only in damning words. Unlike the despicable Bernie Madoff, George W. Bush has not had the decency to admit to the wrongs he has brought down on his country. Madoff must be doing his mea culpa in the hope of a softer sentence, but he's spoken the words: I did wrong and I am ashamed. Bush merely fiddles away at building his presidential library as America burns, hoping that America will never notice that he has been the presiding figure in the sub-prime mortgage scandal, the sleeping Nanny of the stock market, and the one responsible for the accrual of overwhelming national debt. Sorry folks, Madoff is the wrong poster boy for horrendous greed and abuse of trust.

What brings out the smoldering Mt. St. Helena in me are the Mitch McConnells, the John Thunes, the Rush Limbaughs, the Norm Colemans, and the new Republican jeering section who supported Bush in bringing down the economy of the country, and now demand a say in how we can restore it. One hopes that Obama will turn a deaf ear to their carping voices. My fear is that these voices may speak for caution at a time when even greater boldness is necessary to rescue us from their disaster. What they propose is doing next to nothing to reform our battered and abused financial system from which they and their friends have been the long time beneficiaries. Shameless. But if the first casualty of the war that Bush and his party waged against the American people is truth; the second casualty is shame.

Comments

[Shawnie1673]

"Cleaning up spilled milk." I was asked by a Republican co-worker, if it is smart for we Liberals to continue, bringing up and blaming the Bush Administration? And I answered, "Yes!" The atrocity of the previous administrations will linger with us for years to come, and the financial part of it is just the tip of the ice berg, I won't even start on the human rights issues, so back to the economy. Obama did not do this and I find it so ironic that the very people who created this, Shelby, Cantor, Boehner, to name a few, now fain disgust, and disbelief. Obama is trying to fix their screw ups and their angry because he wants to clean up the spilled milk. What in the world is going on?

[fightorleave2]

It's so perfect that your story garners so little attention while the Madoff (his name is not really pronounced Made-off, is it?) story accrued countless hours in the corporate media. Talk about dripping with irony, but the best part is that you are correct: Madoff and even the Jon Stewart/Cramer story are diversions. They divert attention from the fact that Obama continues to hire Blackwater/Xe. That the US military, which is supposed to serve under Obama, wants private insurers to pick up the veterans' tabs. That the lies that are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still going full steam ahead with Gates, Petreaus, and Mullen as well as many other Bush officials, ambassadors and US attorneys, are all still in place. I know Obama is trying, but he never should have appeased them with his claim to be a moderate or non-partisan.

[greyhound2]

Madoff and AIG are diversions. Your right, Bush and company babysat eight years of policy which opened the floodgates for the cockroaches to come pouring out of the woodwork. And, suprise, they did.
What is such a joke are statements that "We are a nation of laws"and "nobody is above the law", except if your President. "Contracts to pay bonuses are law" by those on the receiving end of a taxpayer bailouts.
It could be that this country is just too far gone, too rotten and too corrupt to be saved.

[Briarcircle]

After eight miserable years we thought we could stop being angry but as you stated "...the Mitch McConnells, the John Thunes, the Rush Limbaughs, the Norm Colemans, and the new Republican jeering section who supported Bush in bringing down the economy of the country, and now demand a say in how we can restore it." Where do we go, what do we do to channel our fury? God bless and protect President Obama to see us through this mess, so we can stop being angry.

[strangerinthenight]

Only, this time it got worst. If only oratory could save the day.

[3dtrix]

What he said!

[JoeTheBlogger]

I agree. it's funny who get to define our agenda: the gop and the msm. no wonder why we are so screvved.