The Fall of Capitalism

I remember when the Ronald Reagan myth was being created, the one where the fearless cowboy flew like Superman across the Atlantic in his red, white and blue spandex to single handedly punch the lights out of Communism/Socialism. I remember thinking, "this is a survival-of-the-fittest war between Socialism and Capitalism and Socialism died a minute before Capitalism fell to its knees and perished." Well, it seems that minute has passed.

Now we have an airport named after this bad man, but that is besides the point. The point is this: where does capitalism go from here, if it can go anywhere? The banks failed us due to deregulation. This is a fact that most sane people understand. These people who failed us, bankers and politicians on both sides of the isle (if you really still believe there are two sides) are not clipping coupons this morning. They are not wondering how they are going to pay for their x-rays like I was two days ago. They are not wondering how they will support their soon to be retired mother. I promise you, they are not. But, we the tax payers are going to give them over $800 billion for their crimes. Americans are not viewed as the sharpest knives in the cutlery draw.

So our banking system is nationalized (that's a soft word for socialism). We are borrowing money for a socialist country to bail out our failed capitalist system. Let me repeat that with a bolded font isolated on the white 'page' of this blog with the Block Quote button:

We are borrowing money for a Socialist country
to bail out our broken Capitalist Economy!

I have listened to some of the smartest economists in the world and they are all saying the same thing. I don't think this can be debated, at least amongst truthful, non-partisan, half intelligent, sane people.

I bring this up not only for the irony, but also for this question: where do we go from here? Even if this country pulls its head out of its behind and actually elects Obama, how can he turn this country around like Clinton did in the early 80s? That is my question. How?

Should We Be Surprised McCain is Lying?

I'm really not sure what scares me more, the fact that John McCain is lying and distorting truth so much it is tough to keep count, or that I accept it as something Republicans do? After almost eight years of the Bush Administration's lies, I am used to being misled. It is what the US government does. When I hear the Department of Defense claim that they killed thirty suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, I instinctively translate that to mean something more like ninety Afghan civilians, including over fifty children (which was what Afghan officials are claiming happened in a US led air strike in the village of Azizabad last week). Ironically it seems a man named Oliver North is the one in the center of the lies this time. This now Fox News correspondent was indicted and then later pardoned in the 1980s for lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal during on of our past Republican administration under Ronald Reagan.

Why are the left so surprised that McCain is lying? Shouldn't we expect this from these Rove Republicans?