Mad as Hell

I am outraged. If you aren't, you're not paying attention.

• Citigroup went ahead with plans to get a new $50 million corporate jet, the exclusive Dassault Falcon 7X seating 12, after losing $28.5 billion in the past 15 months and receiving $345 billion in government investments and guarantees.
• The banks that received bailout money refuse to specify what they did with it and guess what - they don't have to.
• Republicans are blocking Obama's bailout bill that seeks to invest in things that will benefit us long-term, like infrastructure.
• Obama's first four years are only going to be spent cleaning up the heaping mess Bush left while W gets to kick back on a ranch in Texas, no consequences.
• Automakers keep whining about making their vehicles environmentally responsible because it's expensive.
• Bush's reign enlarged the gap between rich and poor to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, practically decimating the middle class. An example? Warren Buffet paid 17.7% in taxes on his gigantic income -- a rate lower than paid by his secretary.

And if you're a New Yorker:

• Our baseball teams are still getting new stadiums. Are you getting a shiny new home financed by taxpayer dollars and Citibank? Didn't think so.
• Our new senator has the highest possible approval ranking for public officials from the NRA.
• Our governor was more concerned with pulling someone from certain demographics for the senate seat than someone who would kick ass at the job. This is the New York State equivalent of McCain selecting Palin.
• Bloomberg and his whole 3rd term nonsense was weakly justified post-debacle by his claim that he's the best person to fix the Wall Street mess, but I don't see our billionaire mayor doing shit to help New Yorkers through the economic mess. Do you really think a finance CEO is going to persuade fellow finance CEOs to start behaving responsibly?
• The MTA, arguable the most corrupt and poorly run organization in our city, is raising fares on those of us who depend on mass transit as our primary means of transport without improving service. What happened to the billion dollar surplus from a few years back?
  

If you ask me, each one of us should be doing some combination of hurling bricks through Citibank's windows, picketing Wall Street, bombarding our elected officials with emails, calls, and letters, and sending invoices to Crawford, TX, daily demanding George W. Bush to personally cover all our losses.

Why aren't those of us who are losing big time as a result of all this doing anything about it? Are we too overwhelmed by everything that's wrong, feeling powerless? Are we so used to not being heard or accounted for after the past 8 years?