OUTRAGE!

Sorry it's been so long. You would think with everything going on these past few months, I would have plenty to post about, but between the holidays, my new job, vacation, and other good news (;-)), I just haven't had the time. I have let you down and I am sorry. At least I am apologizing and admitting accountability, which is beyond most people's abilities these days.

Which is a perfect segue for today's post. So, according to yesterday's Washington Post, these same bankers who destroyed the international financial system with their leverage fetishes have been spending millions of the taxpayers' money (read "ours", as in "yours and mine") on lobbying Congress to stymie regulations on executive pay and "tougher financial regulations" (ie regulations which make it difficult for them to screw up the system in the future). The fact that these scumbags are using our money against us has made me reached my boiling point.

Despite my penchant for judgement and rage, I have to say that I have been pretty calm throughout this debacle. When the stock market tanked in late 2008, I said it would rebound; when the Marie-Antoinettes at AIG audaciously defended their ill-gotten bonuses, I thought they were stupid and beyond greedy, but I never joined the mob. But, now that Wall Street - the same Wall Street that screwed us all and never admitted any responsibility - is actively trying to screw us in the future, what else can I say rather than I...am...pissed.

That said, I will calm myself by thinking this through analytically. Unfortunately, my thought process arrives at some pretty somber conclusions. Number one, this is going to make it REALLY difficult for the Obama Administration to sell future bail-outs, as they will most likely have to, once the results of the "stress tests" come back. Furthermore, it severely jeopardizes the credibility of an Administration that was going to "end corporate lobbyists' stranglehold on doing business in Washington."

Which leads to number two, which concerns the already-diminished credibility on the US Congress. Based on a variety of root-causes, Congress is already highly mistrusted among the American people. Add to that stories about legislators like Chris Dodd - chair of the Senate Banking Committee - getting "VIP" treatment from problem-children like Countrywide, and people start connecting the dots: was Congress in on this when the "bon temps" were "rouler-ing"? The answer is unequivocally yes, and that is made all the more clear by the fact that our so-called representatives are now shaking a fist at these Wall Street types with one hand, and continuing to take money from them with the other. Add that to the already lengthy list of Congressional hypocrisy.

I am certain this is only the tip of the iceberg. Lobbyists are never going to go away, as long as Congress continues using them as ATM's.