Bone picking.

I don’t know who (if anyone) reads these posts (aside from me-self…. and me wife), but there might … just might… be one or two of you out there who think I go a little easy on the Obama administration. Yes, I know – I seemed a bit more eager to take a few swings at his predecessor’s administration (alongside millions of others), and most of them were richly deserved. And yes, I did vote for Obama and not (repeat, NOT) for George W. Bush. But hell, we’re just getting started here in Obama-time, and I’ve got more than a few bones to pick with what’s been happening thus far. Let’s start with the b’s….

Bank bailout. Okay, it took some suspension of disbelief, but most of us were able to convince ourselves that the $700 billion sluiced into the coffers of some of our largest financial institutions was solely the responsibility of the Bush administration. Yes, it was their idea (in response to their massive fiscal crisis), but there were plenty of democratic hands on the lever for that one. Now that we’re a solid six months down the road, it’s becoming clear that this business of floating too-big-to-fail banks and insurance companies on oceans of public cash is becoming some kind of model for how to get us out of trouble. The banking “stress test” results were made public today, and it looks like some of the biggies are in line for another infusion. But don’t worry – Tim Geithner says we won’t be involved in the banks on a decision-making level. (Just because we’re paying for them, doesn’t mean we’re going to own them.)

Barack-O – fire this loser, give Summers his pink slip, and get some reasonable people on board, like Paul Krugman, Robert Pollin, and Jim Galbraith. To hell with these Wall Street punks.

Afghani-Pakistan. Okay, this worries me. After months of hearing both administrations complain that the Pakistanis were not doing enough to take the fight to the Taliban, they appear to be doing what “we” asked them to do… and killing lots of civilians in the process, as well as creating a massive outflow of refugees. Though rare as hen’s teeth, I did hear a good segment on NPR’s Morning Edition the other day – an interview with two Pakistani fiction writers, who pointed out that Pakistan’s larger cities are being choked with homeless young people displaced by the fighting. These young Pakistanis are often sought out by religious zealots, who provide them with some base comforts and – perhaps – build on their resentment against the government (and its U.S. paymasters) who rendered them homeless in the first place. Like the Iraqi refugee populations in Jordan and Syria, no good will come of this.