ahoy captain - iceberg ahead!

Well fellow Americans, how does it feel to be on the modern-day equivalent of the Titanic? After today's vote against legislation that would have injected $700 billion into the credit stream of our country and possibly save it from a recession, our elected representatives voted with the idea of saving their seat in Congress in the upcoming (and arguably worthless) November election. I say worthless because by that point in time, the US may actually be worth nothing. McCain and Obama will be vying for a bankrupt country and may have to pony up their campaign contributions to pay for moving expenses into the Citibank White House. I figure the government will need corporate sponsorship by that point in time.

Lawmakers said they rejected the bill because their offices were flooded with phone calls and emails from their constituency demanding that they not vote in favor of the bill. Ya know, the same informed public that can't find the home states of McCain or Obama on a map, the same informed public that more obsessed with what Britney's hair style is than figuring out their finances, the same informed public that bought the houses that they are currently defaulting on and have put the country in the crisis that it is in. Screaming and yelling, the constituents said, "Make sure those money-grubbing executives don't get one dime in severance!" even though the $700 billion is designed to pay for the mortgages that they couldn't afford (and I blame the banks too but they are run by the people who vote, hence why I say constituents). So Democratic and Republican members of the House voted against bi-partisan legislation in order to ensure that they got the votes of the people who may not have a clue about what is really going on and are quite possibly the reason for this mess to begin with. They voted to protect their seat in Congress instead of voting to preserve a country. Do they not get that it could be a Pyrrhic victory in that they will be re-elected to a country that may not exist by the time the election is over? Blinders on, the mantra of "must get re-elected" was heard out of more than one lawmaker today.

Listen, I am not a Bush fan, not by any stretch of the imagination. I've criticized him before on this blog and still think he's made some incredibly HUGE mistakes while in office. But I will grant him this - he understands the severity of this situation and is working his tail off to get this country upright before he exits from office. He's not trying to preserve his legacy at this moment, he's just trying to preserve the country so that history will be able to note his legacy. And on top of that, his own party put him out to dry? This was legislation that was proposed by his administration with bi-partisan help to draft it, and then voted down BY HIS OWN REPUBLICANS. When a President is stabbed in the back by his own party, you gotta question why and what motivation these people have. Even John McCain, the Republican nominee to be the next President, knew that it would be suicide for the House to vote this down; and yet down it went.

And so did the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell by 777 points. Look it up folks, that's a record. Even during the collapse of the Great Depression the stock market didn't fall that much. Now to be fair, 777 points in today's market was 7.0% of the total value whereas the worst days in history saw a 20% drop. Nevertheless, I'm not thinking that this 777 is exactly a lucky number. Other measures of the American markets showed similarly bad numbers; NASDAQ was down 9.1%, S&P 500 was down 8.8%. American markets weren't the only ones affected. Japan - down 4.6%, Australia - down 5.3%, Canada - down 7%, England - down 5.3%, and the list continues.

Some blame Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for the failure because she made a speech criticizing Republicans as the voting was taking place and some think that some Republicans voted against the legislation just to smite Pelosi for saying that. I really hope for the sake of this country, and possibly the world, that those representatives were NOT that spiteful. Why the world? If the US falls, who becomes the superpower to take care of the world? Who stands up to aggression by terrorists or radical fundamentalists? Who patrols the seas to ensure that shipping isn't pirated? You think the Russians or the Chinese can step up at the moment? As a former sailor I can tell you this - neither one of those navies (or armies for that matter) is ready to step up and conduct operations on a regional or global scale.

So tonight I am absolutely amazed at the turn of events that has happened in the United States over the last 96 hours. The warning was shouted from the crow's nest long ago about the economic iceberg yet people still think that we are on the unsinkable ship. Can anyone think of a time in US history where they has been worse time in our country? Economic collapse is imminent, fighting a war on two fronts against a word (terror, or unknown opponent if you want to get more technical), and Janet Jackson was hospitalized tonight, unable to make her concert (had to throw in a jab at the entertainment press). We only need one more bad thing to happen and the four horsemen of the apocalypse will come riding into Washington to announce their own takeover. Citibank taking over Wachovia will look like nothing compared to that.

My rant to Congress is this - people with a whole lot more knowledge about the impending financial meltdown are telling you what to do and you're listening to people who can't balance their checkbooks. For once, defer to those who know and make the right decision. Fuck politics, fuck your re-election, fuck the pissed-off voters. Doing the right thing may be the hard thing, especially when it may cost you your elected position but in the end, at least you'll know that you did the right thing in trying to save this country from an epidemic of unemployment and depression.