Let me start of by saying that I know full well that our country is not at the present moment an outright socialist state. Let me also point out that I believe the American people as a whole would not allow the establishment of a socialist state in its full form. That sentence, however, leads me to a quote by Norman Thmoas who was a 6-time U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate that said "the American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism', they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." That quote sums it all up.

   The first, and most important, clue that we are very close to being completely socialist comes from the Wall Street and banking bailouts, and I know that George W. Bush started it (I dont like republicans either). Because of that brilliant plan the United States Government now owns a huge amount of common stock in many of the nation's biggest financial institutions. In fact the government owns 36% of Citigroup's common stock. Common stock is the form of stock which grants the holder a vote in company activities. Since the government owns more common stock in Citigroup than anyone else, they are the deciding vote in company decisions. The government literally controls one of the biggest financial institutions in the world. That is socialism 101. It is only a matter of time before bailout mania causes the government to own that kind of common stock in EVERY banking institution.

   Scary clue number 2: Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presently has the power to seize banks that may be failing if they impose a "systemic risk" to the health of our financial system. We all know that, once again thanks George W. Bush for starting this bailout madness! But guess what? It gets even scarier. Geithner is presenting to capitol hill a document which will give him the power the seize not only banks, but ANY company that the Obama administration sees as necessary to our financial system if it is not doing as well as they would like. Guess who gets to decide if they're not doing so well? You guessed it! The administration themselves! So let's recap. The U.S. Government controls major banking, and they now could have the power to determine if they should take over any other company that they deem "to important to fail".

   Let's move on to the absolute most sickening branch of this socialist tree. "Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that now apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance," says Barney Frank who is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and a raving extreme-left statist lunatic. Currently any C.E.O. of a company who received TARP funds, or bailout money for the non-politically savvy, can only have a salary of $500,000. Fine, they messed up and asked for government help so they should get some limitations. But now R. Frank (D) wants to extend that salary cap to EVERY corporation in America. And why not? They've already set a salary floor with the minimum wage, so why not a salary ceiling too? It only makes sense right?

   So let's recap again. The U.S. Government has control over major financial institutions, they are seeking the power to take over any company as they see fit, and now they are very close to setting a limit on how much citizens of this country can be paid by a so-called "private" company. Do you really think they won't continue this insane socialistic thinking and place limitations on all of us? What's to stop them? Apparently not the constitution, since they really don't seem to care about it. But hey, to quote Rahm Emanuel who is Obama's Chief of Staff "we can't let a good crisis go to waste". That my friend's is a main staple of the Rules for Radicals, a book about how to impliment socialism in America which Obama, Emanuel, and Hillary Clinton all claim to have read and fully appreciated.

   Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reed, and the bumbling, snivling Barney Frank are not out to help you and I. They're out to seize power. They're out to destroy capitalism as we know it, and they're out to make sure that the left has as much power as possible.

TURN OFF AMERICAN IDOL AND MTV AND WAKE UP!

-Benjamin W. Consuegra