After the celebration, back to work in Congress

We can be proud as Missourians that one of our Senators had been on board with the candidacy of Barack Obama from the beginning. They were good friends when Claire McCaskill was running for her current office, and Obama came to Missouri to campaign for her, as she later accompanied him in his run for President.

Now that he is our President-elect, as well as still a Senator for another couple of months, here is a speech that you might want to read that reveals how she felt about the bailout. She and Obama ultimately both voted to support it, but these words do reveal how well she comprehends what they were doing and how adamantly she decries the continued corruption of a deregulated free market system.

Here is a letter that I just sent her encouraging her to continue reigning in the CEOs.


Dear Senator McCaskill:

Most Americans are elated to have our newly elected President preparing to take over. As Missourians we are also proud to have one of our Senators playing the role of close associate to him.

At the same time the reality of everyday life has been shaken by our economic catastrophe. The "news" of the downturn apparently was brought out to the surface months after it first appeared as a way of making certain that the privileged few at the top could hold onto some of their wealth through legislative robbery of the people who are mere workers.

Don't imagine that your constituents will simply get over this. People are blogging about which of these "bailed out" firms contributed to whom and in what amounts.

You yourself are a woman of considerable wealth compared to most, and I hope that you understand that many of us are still angry at the Clinton Administration for passing NAFTA, which seemed to have been based on the economy of Arkansas related to Tyson chicken factories.

When John McCain's campaign began to use the phrase "change is coming," I laughed, saying, no, CHANGE IS HERE. This is the truth of the matter. The ever expanding materialistic marketplace that has put product above humanity has cornered us. Those who recognize how some of this happened will reassess the size of their own garages and tighten their belts, as our parents used to say.

But we will also be looking for people in Washington who are going to show genuine tightening of the Beltway as well.

We are done with artificiality. We want the Senate to take leadership in reigning in the spoiled rotten CEOs. No economy, no bonus. No bailout for bank administrators.

Bailouts for workers.