"Trick or Treat?” When is Enough is Enough is Enough, People?

“Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. - Macbeth

Here “we the people” are pushing for, hoping for –and perhaps even VOTING for "CHANGE" in the forthcoming election (just 4 short days away) and our current President, who enjoys an approval rating of roughly 27% (and for whom this is obviously of no consequence) is now going for that one last push, that one last “bend over” that aims to weaken even more government rules currently protecting consumers and the environment.

Why aren’t we out there in the streets YELLING at the top our lungs–“No More Deregulation... We’re Mad as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take it Anymore!?” As I recall, some years back we participated in helping coin Daddy Bush's “no more taxes!”

According to an article in today's Washington Post:

“the new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.” These rules would, in effect, “help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.”

Is this the “trick” or the “treat”?

Didn’t “we the taxpayers” (yes, there will ALWAYS be taxes), a silent majority, just allow our Congress to dole out some $750 billion+ dollars to bailout Wall Street (with no oversight!)? Didn't we just agree to ensure that its senior level executives get their due, namely bonuses and pensions -- the result of this administrations previous deregulation? The WSJ reports that after all “the big boys owe their executives more than $40 billion for deferred compensation and pensions.”

But no matter, we’re too focused on the election and concerned about potentially losing our homes and jobs (and/or looking for new ones), gas and food prices as we continually drift along the way, saying nothing!

Why should we care that the party isn’t really over?

There are at least 90 new regulations (or tricks) hoping to get pushed through and apparently nine of them are "economically significant." They will reportedly “impose costs or promote societal benefits that exceed $100 million annually. They include new rules governing employees who take family- and medical-related leaves, new standards for preventing or containing oil spills, and a simplified process for settling real estate transactions.”

According to the WP article, “On the afternoon of Bush's inauguration, Jan. 20, 2001, his chief of staff issued a government-wide memo that blocked the completion or implementation of regulations drafted in the waning days of the Clinton administration that had not yet taken legal effect.”

Riddle Me This:

How do we currently define democracy, through the lens of the American domestic and foreign policies that have been (and are still being implemented) over the last eight years?

Our efforts at protecting our civil rights and the environment are continually being hindered and scaled back. Can we really afford to allow ourselves to be so lightly dismissed? and this country's poorest (and of late not so poor) people to be continually crippled?

Doesn't it it anyway distress us that our voices are not being heard and attended to, but 'straight up' ignored? Or perhaps it is rather that we do not even have a voice, a choice anymore in this "great" country of ours?

While the country is focused on the outcome of the election, the Bush administration is out “Trick” or “Treating.”

"Country First," right?"

Who is getting the “Treat,” and who is accepting the“Trick?”