Is this a good time?

Have you ever noticed how when something bad happens on the national scene the conservatives and the others on the wrong side of every issue, or as you know them, the Republicans and Libertarians always cry, "This is not the time to talk about ____."

If there has been yet another school shooting then they fill in the blank with gun control or stricter gun laws. To them it's never a good time to talk about closing loopholes in our crazy quilt of gun laws or about limiting people access to one of the main causes of death and destruction in this country.

If there has been another national disaster that we've been not ready for because too many resources are tied up in the endless quagmire that is the war of terror on Iraq then they fill in the blank with FEMA mismanagement. After Katrina they screamed, "Now is not the time to play the blame game!" And they said, "How dare you play the blame game!"

Well people in the wake of this latest disaster, the financial crisis, Sec. of the Treasury Paulson said something to the effect of, "Now is not the time to investigate the causes of this mess. Let's just roll up our sleeves and you give me all the money I ask for with no oversight and I may or may not fix this problem that I helped cause." Sorry Hank but that's bullshit. The time for not talking is through. It's time we stopped letting spoiled rich white guys who love to make decisions based on gut feelings decide what we talk about and when. It's time for our 'shoot from the hip' President to wake the fuck up and allow the grown ups who actually know something decide things for a change. I don't trust Chuck Schumer all that much, especially in the light of his decision to support Alberto Gonzalez Jr. as Atty. Gen., but I trust him a whole lot more than I do any Republican who voted time and time again to deregulate the banks and banking industry. Give me Chris Dodd and Joe Biden over Mitch McConnell and Dick Cheney any day of the week. Hell at this point I'd trust the decisions of a bucket of spoiled shell fish more than I would a living breathing member of the Republican party when it comes to this mess.

Personally I think they ought to take whatever billions or gazillions or quintillions they decide to throw at this mess and give that money to the people who's homes are in jeopardy. They ought to buy those mortgages and make gifts of those homes to the hardworking Americans who got suckered into getting shitty mortgages that made those banks millions of dollars in profit. The people on Wall Street and those who made a ton of money lobbying for them ought not to get one red cent. In fact they should be made to give any bonuses they made over the past few years to the government and then the government should take that money and use it to rebuild schools where they should teach kids all about how FDR and the Democrats saved this country after the last time conservatives, Republicans, and Libertarians almost ruined us financially.

I'm against this bailout of Wall Street firms. I'm against the bail out of the US auto industry too. It's time to stop throwing good money at bad greedy stupid people. If the people who ran these investment banks were stupid enough to make millions of dollars in bad loans and if the US auto companies were so stupid and shortsighted that they refused to make hybrid and electric cars in an era when gas and oil is becoming ever more scarce then they all deserve to fail and have their bones picked clean by scavengers, after all they did the same thing to other companies during the 'go go bull market' boom of the 1990's. What was fair for the goose ought now to be fair for the gander. Let the bad businessmen fail and let their companies topple and then maybe when they're standing in an unemployment line and worrying about how they're going to pay for their lights and heat and groceries then maybe they'll learn what the rest of us have either went through or are going through now.