It's happening again.  The psychotic and kleptocratic beast whose public face is the Bush administration is gathering itself to growl into action.  The American plutocracy may be a flea-bitten lion past its prime, but it is still a lion and the other powers that be -- the elected officials, the important people, the mainstream journalists, the economists are all either part of that lion or the jackals and buzzards that follow along.

The treasury department demands that we transfer 700,000 million dollars to private industry next week -- and these dollars shall be dollars owed by the American people collectively to foreign governments or to whomever happens to have money at the moment to buy the debt that will create out of thin air.

It is bad, but it is necessary they say.

And our objections?  The million voices raised to say, "Wait, what are you doing?  This doesn't make sense!  This is wrong!  Can we at least go over the facts!" --  are like the noise of mice and sparrows and crickets in the grass -- of no consequence to lions and jackals -- except perhaps as a snack when times are tough.

In the parables a million sparrows and crickets and mice might be more powerful than a lion and a pack of jackals, but in reality, not.  And I am not hopeful.