Like after a hurricane, the American people are seeing why their nation is so ugily messed up

A story in the Financial Times provides even more evidence about why bailouts are first passed for Wall Street fatcats, why families being kicked out of their homes are not rescued and why the American people are left with such poor choices for president Nov. 4.

This story is incredibly outrageous and depressing. And it demonstrates why the American people have no trust in their government or its officials. It also is representative of why Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain will not bring change to Washington.

You can read the story here at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35d28f90-9f13-11dd-98bd-000077b07658.html

First, however, let me set the scene and its main player -- greed.

Republicans and Democrats are part of the problem. And Sen. Barack Obama used this vehicle for greed to make his fortune. So did Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton along with Lynne Cheney. So have members of the news media including Bob Woodward and Gwen Ifill besides former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Every institution and its players in this nation are tied to this greed and its system (and its unofficial chief executive officer, a politco, lawyer, book agent) It serves their personal needs first ahead of the nation. The conflicts of interest are shocking.

And all this scandalous mess revolves around selling big-dollar books to make personal fortunes for all these people with titles and power derived from your trust and votes.

We the American people are being played for suckers while these folks rake in big bucks. Meanwhile, your retirement and other savings are gutted by 50 percent or more through the latest downturn. They can afford it. We can't.

Perhaps we can overlook the excesses of people like Obama and the Clintons because they promote the need to take care of each other as brothers and sisters. They also push social programs to do so.

But this system that promotes greed over any other human characteristic ultimately hurts the poor and vulnerable, too, as the current downturn will show as it worsens.

While the Financial Times article is a most worthy read, it also is a sickening one as to how far this nation has fallen in serving your needs first. As after a hurricane, the carnage left on a beach shows some of the ugliness we can't see below the beautiful ocean.