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Fire all our elected officials

Saturday, October 18, 2008

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By Mark Gasster

With the collapse of prime lenders, investment institutions and the infusion of at least $1.8 trillion into a small segment of our economic infrastructure, I will be firing all of my elected officials this November. This will include state officials, as well.

We can point all the fingers we want; that will not change what has happened. People who could not afford or qualify for a home were allowed to purchase one and defaulted on their loans. Bad mortgage paper moved through our financial institutions as water does through a stream so that huge profits could be realized on multiple levels.

As of the president’s signing of the bailout bill on Friday, Oct. 3, we have moved closer to a socialist country. The bill’s growth from three pages (Paulson’s original bill) to 105 pages after its introduction to the House exposed the politics injected into it and its subsequent (initial) failure Monday, Sept. 29.

The Senate, in its infinite wisdom, expanded the bill to 442 pages, adding more pork than is believable. I wonder how many in the Senate and House actually read the bill. The real point of interest to me is that the bill does in no way fix the problem. It does not dissolve Freddie or Fannie, nor criminalize the actions of Raines or Gorelick, to name a couple those who were at the helm of these government-sponsored enterprises. Between the two they walked away with $116 million in bonuses. Their accounting practices were solely geared to making them bonuses without any Generally Accepted Accounting Practices in place. I would refer you to the December 2003 Report of the Special Examination of Freddie Mac by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The introduction alone will curl your hair. The saddest part of this whole mess is that the people who were in charge of the failed oversight have now taken over the very same institutions.

As for my state representatives, they are incompetent and completely useless. After 10 years of controlling Sacramento politics, the state, that’s you and me, is $160 billion in debt, including the bond debt we have incurred. The budget year 2009-2010 on June 30, 2009, will see us adding either $1.5 to 6.5 billion onto that figure. This will bring us closer to $170 billion in debt handed to us by our legislators. What kind of a sick joke is that? It gets better. The only way they can see their way out of this is to tax us even more! State Sen. Pat Wiggins and Assemblywoman Noreen Evans want to end the super majority vote (two-thirds vote required to raise taxes) effectively giving our legislature a blank check to tax and spend as they please. No voice for the minority and in total control of our hard-earned money. We will be at their mercy, so will your children and their children and so on.

So for me, I am firing all my state and federally-elected politicians. I just cannot see going forward with this type of irresponsible representation!

(Gasster lives in Napa.)ꆱ

18 comment(s)

justnana wrote on Oct 17, 2008 12:51 AM:

" Thank you! You have put into words exactly what I was feeling. I just didn't have the stats that you do! Totally agree...incumbents get a no-vote from me. I may even write in my own name. I probably wouldn't do any worse of a job. "

Dwayne wrote on Oct 17, 2008 9:46 AM:

" I don't think much of Cindy Sheehan, but I think even less of Nancy Pelosi...

I'm to the point where I'd like to see Cindy win, and oust Pelosi... "

lmiller wrote on Oct 17, 2008 9:53 AM:

" Hear Hear! I cannot on good concience vote for someone who scorned one bill for being useles, but when they loaded it 100 billion in pork, said "aye"! How embarrassing! "

PlasticPinkFlamingo wrote on Oct 17, 2008 10:05 AM:

" We need a Declaration of Independence from Incumbents. I'll place my signature large on that paper! "

funnyme wrote on Oct 17, 2008 10:59 AM:

" Mr. Gasster,
You said it perfectly and very nicely. Fired, is the right word!

Thank you! "

Sandra wrote on Oct 17, 2008 11:03 AM:

" Mark,
Have you noticed that many of Obama's supporters were against this bailout, along with most of America? Ironic, don't you think? This is the Obama method of governing. If he is elected he should thank Bush, and congress for getting an early start for him.
Makes you wonder if they even have any clue as to who their candidate really is.... "

amigo wrote on Oct 17, 2008 11:22 AM:

" Get out your red suit and drums.
We will all be marching to the dsp
Democratic socialist party.
Lower the flags to half mass
For the death of a once great nation is here.
Our soveignty is gone and our actions as citizens are limited.Its just a matter of time before free speech goes.The "fairness doctrine" is next.Our government will have their hand in every part of their citizens life. From cradle till grave "

glenroy wrote on Oct 17, 2008 4:02 PM:

" As if Gorelick didn’t cause enough damage to our country with the ‘additional intelligence wall’…a wall that enabled 9/11.....assuming it’s the same Gorelick….certainly the same political party and the same family….these so called public employees ran away with tens of millions of dollars…guess which party they belong to?

It really is a game of musical chairs in Washington….people like Pelosi, Reid and Murtha have amassed fortunes while, as they refer to ’severing the public’….they just keep scuffling their political party cronies like the Gorelicks from government job to government job, in and out, over and under….. yet the gullible public swallows it all up hook line and sinker.

Government revenue grew almost 50% since President Bush took office….are remarkable record considering the recession he inherited and the 9/11 attacks Gorelick contributed to….unfortunately our social handout commitments grew from 29 trillion dollars to an estimated 67 trillion dollars over the same timeline….leaving anybody with basic business math skills to conclude all these problems have nothing to do with taxation in a revenue sense, it’s out of control spending…and that’s management which is essentially an exclusive Fraternity or the same party that has caused this financial wreck.. "

Raven wrote on Oct 17, 2008 10:34 PM:

" not the 'wall' again.......okay for those who have forgotten...the wall was created in the 70s to stop[ the abuses of the 50s, 60s and 70s by the FBI and the intelligence agencies...it was reconfirmed by each administration since, republican or democratic, including Bush's.....talk about gullible, "

freeport56 wrote on Oct 18, 2008 10:53 AM:

" Raven-

Jamie Garelick under direction of Janet Reno (Clinton's A.G.) created the wall between the intelligence agencies to prevent them from doing their work in a combined effort. It was Clintoons effort to emasculated our intelligence services, right after raping our military. "

jonb3333 wrote on Oct 18, 2008 12:53 PM:

" I'd sur be fired if I acted like our government, and probably arrested and stuck in a federal pen. for more years than a rapist or serial killer. "

Raven wrote on Oct 18, 2008 1:24 PM:

" freeport she merely continued a practice already in place and one that was later endorsed by ashcroft and company..... "

kevin wrote on Oct 19, 2008 10:48 AM:

" The whole point of creating the department of Homeland Security was to get RID of Gorelick's wall.

She ended up a senior partner running Fanny Mae and pocketed millions of dollars driving it into bankruptcy! "

Raven wrote on Oct 19, 2008 2:25 PM:

" your evidence she pocketed anything kevin...?

Homeland Security...as I recall that was the department Bush didnt want to create.... "

anticommie wrote on Oct 19, 2008 3:16 PM:

" Mark:

Thank You for putting your rationale mind out for everyone to ponder. I agree with you. I once posted that no matter who wins in office, the Left ultimately wins. This bailout is absurd and dems and repubs are pointing
fingers at each other, when it was most of them!!! I'll point some fingers too:

1. Acorn and organiztions like them
2. Paulson
3. Barney Frank
4. Fanni and Freddie

I think one of the reasons Repubs never did anything about it. If they were to write legislation that discontinued acts like sub-prime loans, groups like the Rainbow Coalition and ACORN would have labeled them as the party against the poor as they always do. "

Raven wrote on Oct 19, 2008 5:24 PM:

" sometimes labels fit anti, and the GOP has never been what one could call a friend of the poor... "

and now ........ wrote on Oct 20, 2008 10:01 AM:

" Raven - Correvt me if i am wrong here but wasn't it the GOP who pushed for the Civil Rigths Act in the 60's and the Dem's who were oppoesed?

Don't listen to the current media, do some real research, for those who do not know history, are doomed to repeat it.

In this election I believe we have a wolf in sheeps clothing. I'll let you deciede who is who. "

freeport56 wrote on Oct 20, 2008 12:23 PM:

" Raven-

Your really need to view more news channels than MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS. Garelick walked from Fannie Mae with a $26 million dollar bonus. It has only been on the news for a month now.

Read the December 2003 special report examination on freddie mac by the OFHEO. It details the accounting practices, or lack there of, in which the ceos used to get millions in bonuses.

Do your homework, or did you just want the government to tell you... "

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