If hypocrisy was money, the recession would end today

Juiced up by Rick Santelli's myopic rant, conservatives are getting ready to throw "Tea Parties" to protest "all of this fiscal irresponsibility", referring to the huge Obama budget and its ensuing deficit.

What a joke.

It is true that the deficit is historically high, as a percentage of GDP, akin to deficits right after WWII. It is also true, that we are in an economic emergency equivalent to, or close to, that of the Great Depression. It is also true that Obama and his team are focused on solving the massive problems left to them, and are doing so in a manner so open it contrasts violently with the secrecy and Enron-like accounting practices that were hallmarks of the previous administration.

The big joke is that Santelli didn't rant during the 8 years of fiscal irresponsibility that brought this mess upon us, and I didn't hear him rant last October when it became absolutely clear that the deficit under the next president would reach these heights in order to avoid a total global catastrophe, thanks in large part to George W. Bush's "guns and butter" fiscal train wreck.

The joke is that these people are masquerading as patriots when they should be treated as traitors. These "patriots" continue to do the only thing they know how, stir up anger and division, during a time when level-headedness and cooperation are the call of duty.

Not funny in the least.