Last Rant from the Peach State

So today is my last day in Atlanta. My list of things to get done is overwhelming, but nothing can be as important as a good last rant from the peach state. I have lived and worked among many extremely conservative folks here in this state over the past 20 years and have become more and more liberal in my thinking about social responsibility and more and more conservative in my thinking about fiscal responsibility--the exact opposite of what is typical in Georgia.

I have become overtly disgusted with the administration's incessant clamoring about moral values while they commit what I believe to be some of the greatest immoral atrocities on humankind I have witnessed in my lifetime: justifying torturing people, and killing tens of thousands of people so easily written off abroad as "terrorists" and leaving the middle class and the poor to rot in the decay of unfettered wealth mongering at home.

I recently asked a person who does far more international traveling than I what the people around the world have to say about our elections, who they want to see win the White House, and what they want to see happen in this country. Answers: Anyone that's not a Republican, and a suggestion for the first thing on America's agenda: "an apology would be nice!"

I can not begin to comprehend why this nation is so fixated on the sexual and personal lives of our politicians to the exclusion of their job performance in public office. Can anyone explain this to me?! Life isn't a soap opera! Despite all of the claims of our president, since he was appointed by the Supreme Court, the nation's economy has been going to hell for the past 6 years, and we can't stop hearing about who's sleeping with who?!

Attention everybody: I just do not care!!!!!

That's their business. If they break the law, prosecute them. Otherwise, I just want adequate job performance. Do you hear that? I'll settle for merely adequate.

I want fiscal responsibility. I don't want wars that are bankrupting the nation and making the oil industry the most profitable it has ever been in its history. And obvious to me that deregulation of the financial institutions just leads to financial corruption and an unsustainable economic model that fosters the wealthy eating the middle class and the poor alive. When middle America can not afford housing and the gas they need to get to work, the nation is in serious trouble!

By the way, this looks like an interesting read when I have time: The next bubble: Priming the markets for tomorrow's big crash.

So why am I ranting like a madman on this my last day in the peach state? I guess it probably has something to do with good people supporting bad politicians. Georgia is full of them. Ever so typical: A giant gas-guzzling Hummer at the airport a couple of weeks ago had three "W" stickers on it. Good heavens!

How do you get good people to stop focusing so narrowly on the smaller, less significant issues while surrendering the larger issues that matter so much more--a problem that isn't just epidemic in Georgia.