$3 Trillion + $900 Billion = Corporate State

It's official. It's waaaaaaay beyond official. The Grand Ole Party has Hulked-out into a well-armed, well-funded, propaganda-spitting, corporate-aiding extortion machine that should change its moniker to the Grand Crony Party.

There is no arguing it. The Republican Party's primary function in government is to act as an armed middle man for CEOs. Their top priority is to take money out of your pocket and take them directly to corporate bank accounts.

Noble Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says the Iraq War carries with it a price tag of $3 Trillion. As outrageous as this number is, it would sting less if that money was spent on veteran care, troop equipment, and the rebuilding of Iraqi schools and infrastructure. Not when the neo-cons are in control of the Republican machine. Billions upon billions have already been funneled into companies like Halliburton and Blackwater, who basically take tax payer dollars to do a shoddy job of things that our troops should be getting paid to do. Make no mistake, Iraq is like an offshore tax scheme for corporate America. War profiteers are nothing new, but the scale is.

In the last six months or so, the Federal government has spent $900 billion to bail out the Wall Street gamblers who work with billion dollar bets. Guess who gets hurt? Local governments who have cut revenues from the home-owner crash and working folks who are losing their homes. These professional gamblers are rewarded with multi-million dollar bonuses and severance packages, while the tax payers foot the bill.

I would argue that all the recent economic woes make a lot of sense when considering the structural deficiencies of capitalism itself. Many free enterprise faithfuls would argue that the system we have set up is nothing like the vision of Adam Smith's free market ideas from 1776. I have to agree with that assessment, but it doesn't mean that large scale capitalism is a great idea. But this is neither here nor there to this note.

The point is this: in the most prosperous nation in the history of planet, anyone who tells you that social security, socialized medicine, housing for all, food for all, higher education for all, and free child care are evil programs, while simultaneously funneling trillions of dollars into rich-white-assholes' coffers is the most vile piece of filth on this little blue planet. These people are the filth who have invaded OUR White House and Congress and air-waves. Some of these are Democrats, most are Republicans, and John McCain is absolutely one of them.