O Captain! My Captain!

January 20, 2009:
The End of an Error
--Bumper sticker

Well I told you once and I told you twice
That someone will have to pay the price
--The Last Time, The Rolling Stones

This love affair is over
Gone, gone, gone
--Gone, Gone, Gone, Madonna
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Ranger Question of the Day:
Is this just a diversionary attack,
with the main thrust of the enemy's efforts
yet to strike another vulnerable sector?
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President Bush suggested in his recent speech that Wall Street is on the verge of imminent collapse, lest Congress do as The Divider, er, Decider decrees. And of course, Congress after the requisite hemming and hawing, will acquiesce, albeit under protest and with panache. Rubber stamping is the order of the day.

It may be instructive to view the fiscal emergency threatening the total well-being of our society through the eyes of a soldier, since his fans are so fond of seeing President Bush in his Commander in Chief hat.

Viewed as a military operation, America is dug in a non-mobile defense. The President and Congress have ignored the threat for so long that the perimeter is about to be penetrated and overrun.

What the President and Congress will not tell us is that this is not a local penetration that can be contained by maneuvering assets to neutralize the threat. This is a decisive engagement; the U.S. will win or lose with the forces that are engaged. Our entire financial force structure is employed forward and has no reserve elements in place to affect the action.

Further, the local penetrations that that neither the President nor Congress can blunt are only the first phase of the operation. We don't even know at this time if this is the main attack, or merely a diversionary one; possibly, it is only a probing attack.

After this penetration is blunted there will be other breaches that can lead to the entire front crumbling. How can a C in C wait until the entire front, or any sector of the front, is in danger of collapse before he even recognizes the problem, let alone reacts to it?

It is time to relieve this Commander for total incompetence before we are all thrown into total panic and disorder.