MAD AS HELL AND NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

I don't know about you, but I am tired of sitting still like some sacrificial lamb while the POWERS TO BE stomp our faces down deeper into the mud. Like film hero Howard Beale, we middle-class Americans are starting to scream, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" It's time for all of us to stop listening to the lies and propaganda spread, by the likes of Fox Noise and the Limbaughs. We're all in this together so let's wise the hell up and fight back before we become too financially frail to do so. (Now, if I only had a plan!) Oh, here's an idea, no more shop till you drop, like Bush urged us to do after 9/11. No more luxury items, touted as a way to happiness by the Corporate World and No more "Shopping is Patriotic" Rovian symbolism. Eyes wide open and purses closed, will make the biggest impact on our leaders, rendering them impotent to the point where they can do nothing else but LISTEN to our pleas, our demands! WHAT A TOOL WE POSSESS AND DO NOT USE. It's a mind-boggler! thinkingblue

A sacrificial lamb is a metaphor used to discount someone as in a sacrifice in order to further some cause.

American Middle-Class Rage Over Bush Economic, Spending Priorities

Yesterday, as I paid $3.39 per gallon for gas, I wondered why economic pressures on middle-class Americans haven't caught fire as an important issue for the 2008 presidential primary races.

Financial pressures on wage-earning Americans are earth-shattering in Fall 2007. Witness recent stories by Kimberly Amadeo, About.com's Guide to the U.S. Economy:

Employment Situation Gradually Worsening - "... year-over-year employment was up only 1.2%. This is the weakest year-over-year job growth since 2004, indicating a steadily declining trend since January 2006."
Credit Card Debt Up 8% from Last Year - "The declining housing market has caused many families to switch from home equity loans to credit cards to finance purchases."
How Bad Is the Current Housing Market Decline? - "Resale single-family home sales peaked in February 2007, when they were at an annual rate of 5.88 million... If price declines follow sales declines, it could cause a recession. If it gets bad enough, it would compare to the 24% decline experienced during the Great Depression of 1929."

Understanding today's complex economy almost requires a comprehensive M.B.A. education. But Americans fully understand the problems they and their families experience on a daily basis:

The astronomical price of gas
The rising cost of groceries, in part due to transportation costs
Falling values of their homes, often their largest investment
Employment instability and under-employment
Almost 50 million Americans with no health insurance
A faltering U.S. education system
The astronomical cost of a college education, making it impossible for millions of deserving students
Evaporation of hard-earned pensions

I contend that the U.S. electorate is extremely angry over the strangling pressures placed on their lives when the Bush administration, fully abetted by Congress, enacts false and even immoral economic and spending priorities, such as :

Now spending $271 million daily in Iraq. (Yes, daily!!!)
Refusing to budget $35 billion over 5 years to bring basic health care to uninsured children, yet spent $43.5 billion last year on elaborate, high-tech overseas spying.
Losing millions of middle-class wage jobs to other countries, under the banner of free trade. And yet the White House and Congress keep forging more such agreements.

And so much more...

The 2008 presidential primary season is winding down over the next few months, and by February 6, 2008, we'll know the Democratic and Republican nominees for the 2008 race for the White House. And then, I believe that middle-class economic issues will quickly rise in importance in presidential and Congressional election campaigns.

As I did with my new article, Pros & Cons of Free Trade Agreements, over the next year leading up to November 4, 2008, I will help you grasp the essential politics of the financial crises touching American homes.

Some derisively dub liberal anger over the spending priorities of the federal government as Democratic populism.

I call it good common sense, and taking care of my family while watching after my neighbor. I call that good ethics. And in my family's faith, we call that good Christian values in action.