Meet the 'new' welfare queens.

Heard a particularly trenchant line during a 10-year-old episode of The Simpsons last night (yes, The Simpsons are huge in Australia). Something about anger being the historical basis of American progress. Didn't think much of it until seeing 'anger' in every other newspaper headline this morning. The US citizenry is outraged over the AIG bonus scandal but Republicans -- led by a thrice-married, drug-addicted radio blowhard and a lunatic whose unhinged cable TV show has become the latest conservative cause celebre -- are taking it a step further and blaming President Barack Obama for taking a baseball bat to the American dream.

Makes me ask ...
-- Where was Republican outrage when Bush economic policies created the largest financial discrepancy between rich and poor in US history?
-- Where was Republican outrage when The Miserable Failure was repeating over and over and over that the US economy was 'strong' when it was actually beginning its death throes?
-- Where was Republican outrage when the man responsible for fighting terrorism before the attacks of September 11th, Dick Cheney, didn't hold a single meeting related to terrorism until after the US had been attacked?
-- Where was Republican outrage when it was revealed that our government had been warned about terrorists flying planes into buildings and yet when asked about it afterwards National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was shocked and surprised that terrorists had attacked the US by flying planes into buildings?
-- Where was Republican outrage when it was revealed our country invaded, attacked and destroyed a sovereign nation under false pretenses?
-- Where was Republican outrage when photos of tortured Iraqi prisoners in Abu Graib cast the US government in the exact same light as 'evil' Saddam Hussein's and no one but low-level soldiers were held responsible?
-- Where was Republican outrage when a major US city drowned while The Miserable Failure patted his FEMA patsy on the back for doing a 'heckuva job'?

Know why these national calamities brought partisan bickering but nothing like the national outrage being expressed today? Because none of these things affected that great swath of Americans whose lives are rooted in owning the biggest TV and softest couch and most enormous bags of fried snacks and consuming said snacks while being assured that theirs is the only country blessed by a god most of them ignore until tragedy strikes and suddenly this god is all that separated them from the fate of their ruined neighbors and so they seek out TV reporters and thank this god 'til they're blue in the face before returning to their TV and couch and bags of snacks and forgettin' about the problems outside faster than you can say 'Where's the goddamned remote?'

This is the crowd of mouth-breathers who cheered Sarah Palin and hurled racist taunts at Barack Obama during Republican campaign rallies. This is the crowd who made TV stars out of Donald Trump and Sean Hannity and CNBC financial 'experts' who fleeced their audience while The Miserable Failure's vision of an ownership society -- propped up on an under-regulated credit market -- eroded the world's financial foundation. This is the crowd that was brought up on the conservative gospel of Uncle Ronnie Reagan's fairy tales about Cadillac-drivin' welfare queens and who now blame African-Americans and other minorities for the present economic meltdown. Not the bankers who gamed the rules and made millions. Not the corporations who maintained overseas addresses to avoid paying taxes. Not the Wall Street greed merchants who amassed fortunes. Poor people of color.

AIG executives receiving undeserved bonuses are a 21st-century version of Reagan's welfare queens. Temporary boogeymen. Placeholders. Their sense of entitlement is shameful but par for the course on Wall Street. Who can blame them for expecting to be rewarded for failure -- after all, hasn't the rewarding of failure been the 'American way' since The Miserable Failure and Dark Lord Cheney rode into Washington in January, 2001?

President Obama's pledge to change this culture of failure and selfishness is a threat to those whose faith is rooted in TVs and couches and snacks. Not a literal threat, of course, as a more fair distribution of wealth will bring about a healthier, better educated United States of America. But enough of a change in the status quo that right-wing media hacks may re-work Reagan's welfare queen propaganda into 'Socialist Obama' propaganda. And whaddayaknow? They can carry on uncle Ronnie's legacy of thinly veiled racism. God bless America!