Friday, June 12, 2009

Checks and balances, anyone?

Contrary to what morons like King George the Dim say, the US is NOT a democracy. Our founders were smart enough to realize that the inborn flaws of democracy are insurmountable. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for lunch. Sucks to be the sheep...

No, our founders established a republic. And not just any republic! They specifically shackled the federal government with a set of rules under which it could operate (the Constitution) and established a series of checks and balances to ensure that one branch of government wouldn't run roughshod over the other two.

It worked REALLY well for about a decade. Then the Supreme Court ruled that it was the sole arbitrator of constitutionality....and suddenly one of the balances was heavily skewed in their direction. It's no wonder that the courts are the authoritarian's first choice for ramming through all manor of unconstitutional BS. After all, this oligarchy of seven pretty much gets to decide the legality of everything, unchecked.

To be fair, the courts have served as a check to presidential aspirations on occasion. Think about how messed up we'd be if the Supreme Court of the 1930's hadn't shot down so much of Roosevelt's overreaching!

But with Il Duce, it's different. Just as the press gives him a free ride - nay, even CHEERLEAD for him! - so too the Court has given him a pass.

In spite of the fact that Delaware law is being violated by Il Duce's handling of the Chrysler fire sale to Fiat, the Court refused to hear a plea to reject it.

Two things. First, the Court has handed a blank check to a megalomaniac. Il Duce has control over major banks and 2 of the Big 3 auto makers. Add the Supreme Court to that list.

Second, the Court has abrogated its responsibility to protect US Citizens within the rule of law by allowing this sale. A provision of Delaware law which guaranteed in the neighborhood of 90% of invested dollars for certain classes of investors like pension funds in the event of Chapter 11 bankruptcy was turned on its ear by the Obama "The American people UAW comes first!" plan.

There's an additional ripple effect beyond the hit the pension funds have taken. Do you think for one minute that foreign money is coming to American markets now that the rules have suddenly become moot? If Delaware laws protecting investors can be steamrolled by the current Fascist* administration, what other laws protecting investors will be ignored? I know if I were a European investor, I certainly would avoid investing in US markets now!

Small investors, pension funds, and 401(k) funds, their portfolios already in the toilet (my 401(k) was down 40% the last time I looked), will be even further slammed as a result of this non-ruling.

It's no wonder the conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this administration. The only people who would perpetrate the abortions of common decency and common sense that this administration has committed are the truly stupid, the oblivious, the brain dead.......or those who wish to see this nation and its economic vitality destroyed.

Personally, I think the Obama administration is a mixture of all of those elements.

* I hate to have to run this disclaimer every time I use the word "fascist" or "fascism", but we live in an age where the word has become synonymous with repression. When I speak of fascism, I speak of a governmental/economic system that includes the public/private ownership of the means of production. That and nothing more.

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