One Is the Loneliest Number

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Lots of talk these days about some pretty big numbers. Deficits, stimulus bill price tags, tax cut giveaways to appease "centrist" Republicans, votes in the Congress....yep, they all have three or four or nine or... digits, these numbers.

So it's pretty easy to talk numbers and forget about people. Suck it up you folks who might benefit from the Democratic plan, says South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford this morning on CNN. Ten thousand jobs here or a bazillion foreclosures there? pffft. Piffle. You got yourself in this mess. It's gonna be tough getting out, guess you're gonna be one of the collateral damage.

And his rationale is the same entities that screwed up Katrina would screw things up if we go down the Democratic path. And John King just lets him spew that spin unchallenged. Unauthenticated.

For one thing, George Bush isn't at the top of the entities, having his minions and cronies seed everything with the corrupt incompetent ideologues who were in charge the last eight years.

The Republicans are in lockstep now, with few exceptions. Standing against the will of the American people. Standing against the needs of the American people. Standing against the interests of the American people.

Because for John "Bagman" Boehner (remember him handing out those tobacco lobby checks on the floor of the Congress? No? Well no wonder the country's in such dire straits) and Mitch McConnell and Richard Shelby and Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Republican leadership, it's all about scoring points against the new President. It's all about roughing him up..."Welcome to Washington"...it's all about carrying water for the same elite insiders that drove us into this quagmire the last eight years.

And they're not going to give up...heck, they're going full bore with their talk radio partners in propaganda still.

This week, President Obama is reaching out to the American people. Going to town halls to talk directly to the American people.

While the Congress meets in their cloakrooms and closets and caucus retreats and talks to each other. And their willing watercarriers in the media.

And in northern Minnesota, here in tall timber country, the foreclosure listings fill the paper. The business news is the layoffs at Teamworks.

And in Akeley, Minnesota, the Paul Bunyan Grocery is going out of business because the owner cannot afford the losses any longer.

So tell that little eighty-year-old widow lady in Akeley who depended on that Grocery because she doesn't drive and the nearest "big" town of Walker is some ten miles away. And it's 20 below and the wind chill's even colder.

Tell that lady to suck it up, because the posturing and preening of the demigods for those who line their pockets is so much more important than passing an economic stimulus bill that will put America back on track.
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