I Guarantee You This: If There Is No Accountability, We Are Asking To Get Plundered By Our Overlords Again And Again

I really, really, really want to be like everyone else and trust Obama and believe he's going to really and truly change the way power is disseminated in our country. I see him on TV and listen to his idealism and it inspires me and makes me proud to be an American. And then I hate myself when I can't help but remembering the actual nature of power and how little a fluke president's idealism can effect it.

Last week we tried making a point about Schwarzenegger and Bush being two Republican peas in a pod. Sure there are superficial differences but, in the end, it's all about power and their eagerness to serve its interests. And now with the rubber meeting the road, I have a funny feeling about Obama's call to sacrifice falling disproportionately, as usual, on the shoulders of those who do not partake in power. Do you think former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neill will be asked to sacrifice his the $161 million bonus he absconded with after he oversaw his company's loss of $8.4 billion-- much of which has been underwritten by the taxpayers?

Somehow I don't think so. Somehow I reckon O'Neill and his ilk gets to keep their loot and the rest of us get... shafted. It may see clear beyond doubt that Bush was the most disastrous president in the history of America but I wonder how many people understand that it was GOP dogma that did us in, just as much as the venal little twerp fronting for it. Californians are starting-- finally-- to draw the same conclusions about Schwarzenegger. He's gutting the public sector, even the schools, irresponsibly driving the state over the cliff into bankruptcy... and all the while enriching his cronies, in true politician fashion. Yesterday's L.A. Times:

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger orders steep salary cuts for most of the state workforce, some Sacramento players are doing much better by him.

The governor has added state legislators and former political aides to the state payroll, with six-figure salaries. Their positions: plum posts on the same state boards and commissions that the governor crusaded to abolish a few years ago, calling them a waste of taxpayer money.

Two GOP lawmakers who recently left office and have limited expertise in thorny employment issues have received jobs at the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. The panel met 12 times last year, and members are paid $128,109.

"It's a soft landing spot for ex-elected officials who can make a good living while showing up 12 times a year," said Joel Fox, an antitax advocate who worked on the governor's aborted plan to shut down the boards. "The positions should be eliminated."

Seats on state boards have long been awarded to lawmakers loyal to governors and legislative leaders.

But Schwarzenegger made the most recent appointments just days after ordering 238,000 state workers to be furloughed two days a month or take an equivalent pay cut of about 9%. He also requested that the state payroll be reduced an additional 10%, including layoffs if necessary.

"People were very disgusted and upset about it," said Sandie Luke, president of a Northern California council for the Service Employees International Union, Local 1000. The local represents 95,000 white-collar workers.

Let's hope "disgusted and upset" leads somewhere. Even Pelosi, after two years of sitting and spinning, says she's finally open to pursuing investigation of Bush Regime abuses. Looks like "off the table" has morphed into "I want to see the truth come forward.” I'll believe it when I see it the gibbets being erected on that nice Mall.