Monday, September 29, 2008

Have I Entered a Parallel Universe?

Last night as I was falling asleep I caught a few minutes of the film "Bowfinger," particularly the scene where the Hollywood star played by Eddie Murphy becomes convinced that aliens are determined to swoop down and steal his reproductive organs for scientific study.

Turns out it was a fitting way to end the day. For what I witnessed today had me truly wondering whether I had entered a strange alternative universe, one that looked and felt very much like ours except for the fact that every living soul had irretrievably lost his marbles (but, thankfully, not his privates).

First, I finally got around to viewing a bit of Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, particularly the passage lampooned on Saturday Night Live this past weekend by Tina Fey. I am simply flabbergasted. The video speaks volumes. Watch it here.

This woman simply is not qualified to serve as vice president. I have no other words to describe my utter incredulousness in the face of her candidacy.

Of course, we have the freedom to not vote for Palin. What our elected leaders in the House of Representatives did today by voting down the $700 billion bailout package that the Bush administration and congressional leaders hammered out over the weekend is an example of ineptitude and malice on the grandest of scales — and, unfortunately, there is little we can do about it in the near term.

With giant, blue-chip financial institutions falling like dominoes on a daily basis, countless others on the brink of failure, credit markets seized up and securities markets plummeting worldwide, a majority of House members stared into the abyss this afternoon and said "Bring it On!" The stock market responded with its worst day in two decades. We are in uncharted financial territory here. People are worried that the money in their savings accounts will disappear. The price of oil plummeted on widespread fears of a deep global recession.

Legislators, after scuttling the bailout for craven political reasons last week, had a second chance to behave like adults who cared more about their country and their fellow human beings than about their re-election prospects, and they blew it. Republican or Democrat, it does not matter. Our leaders have failed us and have thrown the United States and the rest of the world within a hair's breadth of a serious economic depression. Citizens should punish every last legislator who abandoned his country today by voting them out of office at our very next opportunity.

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