N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 0 9

ELIOT KATZ

Bail Out What?

As the U.S.-built trojan-horse mortgage-backed insecurities

crisis continues to hop aboard freight elevators moving

continually downwards; as the Wall Street bull let loose from its

iron base continues to rampage through the trickle-down

bloody back streets of overworked America; as a discredited

treasury department of a disgraced presidency attempts to tickle

nation's plastic-card wallets by yet one more midnight

pour-oil-down-the-bank-chimney approach; as Congress shrugs

its confused shoulders and nods in sleepy assent, with Democrats

making sure recruit enough Republican votes to share blame

for a firecracker bill they all knew in advance was a dud; as nervous

homeowners and shopkeepers wait by silent phones for a sign

from heaven that manna-tasting loans and credit cards are

raining from the skies in infinite variety of shapes and sizes;

as the four corners of the decade's deregulated pyramid

scheme prove no match for international capital's globalized

wrecking ball; why should it surprise that a chef's knife can't carve

edible food out of a stack of blowing thousand-dollar bills?

With all major commentators warning about the need to halt

the next Great Depression, where's the proposal for a new

New Deal? Why not Dems voting for bills they are proud

to pass alone, and then watch Bush sign because embarrassed

there is no other rational or irrational choice? Why not put world's

heaviest military budget on a strict low-carb diet? Why not new

olive-green bridge-building projects paying a guaranteed living wage?

Why not freeze foreclosures and send $10,000 checks to every

struggling renter and homeless family worried about opening

their next medical bill? Why not rip all medical bills and create

a single-payer health security system? Send every high school

graduate to college as long as they can learn to mapquest

their way there! Build the next generation of pyramids with clear

publicly accountable front windows! There are so many jobs waiting

for those who can help build a solar energy cell or write a song

to heal a deeply troubled nation. Let's tickle the bottom of

the economy's feet and watch the electricity rise upward.

10/08