Is America Burning - a Forum To Discuss Issues: Inmates Running the Asylum

Cross Posted at thefuturewasyesterday

I don't pretend to understand national economics.I DO understand when sh*t smells like sh*t, not roses. This whole deal smells sh*tty to me!
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DAVID SIROTA
From Democracy to Crazy-ocracy...And Back Again?

Is it possible America has become a Crazy-ocracy? That is, is it possible we aren't ruled by merely the stupid (an Idiocracy) or the corrupt (a Kleptocracy) — we are ruled by genuinely insane people?

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http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008104002/democracy-crazy-ocracyand-back-again
(excerpt)
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Is it possible America has become a Crazy-ocracy? That is, is it possible we aren't ruled by merely the stupid (an Idiocracy) or the corrupt (a Kleptocracy) - we are ruled by genuinely insane people?

I don't mean this as a flippant joke - I'm dead serious about this, as is former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill today.As Bloomberg News reports, O'Neill said the $700 billion Paulson plan is "crazy" with potentially "awful" consequences for the economy. "Doesn't this seem like lunacy to you?" he asked.

Well, yes - actually it does, and not just to me, but to many of the nation's leading economists, financial analysts, business journalists, and investors. Many of these people say this bailout could actually make this situation far worse[...].

[...]they support it anyway because of the ultimate ideology of the truly psychotic: Namely, that somebody has to do something, no matter what that something is. They are pulling the classic move we saw during the lead-up to the Iraq War - officially supporting it, but also giving speeches of skepticism so they can cover their asses with "I told you so" haughtiness in the future .

And yet, the political system seems totally immune - even hostile to - basic sanity. O'Neill and Joseph Stiglitz, both bailout critics, are top advisers to Barack Obama on this bailout issue, but the Democratic nominee keeps insisting that it is unpatriotic to oppose this bill. John McCain is even crazier - saying that the bill is going to "put us on the brink of economic disaster" right after he voted for it. And worst of all, both Obama and McCain are insisting that the bill just hasn't been sold properly as a "rescue" instead of a "bailout" - the implication being that public opposition is borne out of stupidity rather than sanity.

O'Neill says part of the problem is that those running the asylum in the media and in the halls of Congress have little direct contact with the sane world. "I honestly don't think they really understand it and they're so much in a bubble that it's impossible to penetrate it," he said.

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