Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Fog of War lies still on the battlefield

But the Foggo of the CIA has pled guilty to wire fraud and in return the prosecution will ask for a sentence of no more than 37 months. Also the CIA will allow his family to live if he promises not to reveal any secrets. All sides were pleased with the result.

Bob Herbert notices

Notices that the lunatics are running the asylum, that is. He and others should have seen this coming long before the economic problems arose, but they and we didn't. As a result we have this:
These were the reckless clowns who led us into the foolish multitrillion-dollar debacle in Iraq and who crafted tax policies that enormously benefited millionaires and billionaires while at the same time ran up staggering amounts of government debt. This is the crowd that contributed mightily to the greatest disparities in wealth in the U.S. since the gilded age.

This was the crowd that cut the cords of corporate and financial regulations and in myriad other ways gleefully hacked away at the best interests of the United States.
These folks are just another faction of the Wrecking Crew.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Quote of the Day

The wacky events of the week went unmentioned, and McCain made a strong case for himself as the candidate of adult leadership. Which, if you've been paying attention to his campaign, is probably true if your idea of an adult is Terrell Owens, although Terrell Owens is at least capable of running in a straight line.
Michael Grunwald describing John McCain's style in Time magazine.

Betting on John McCain?



Read more here.

More a man than the Republicans will ever be



Barney Frank has a few choice words for the Grand Old Whiners

House votes down Bailout/Rescue bill

And Wall St drops 770 points while crying out pitifully, "See what you made us do!"

And the Old Fart takes credit for the bill's passage before it failed. Just like he "won the debate"

Something to think about

Paul Krugman:
The bailout plan released yesterday is a lot better than the proposal Henry Paulson first put out — sufficiently so to be worth passing. But it’s not what you’d actually call a good plan, and it won’t end the crisis. The odds are that the next president will have to deal with some major financial emergencies.

So what do we know about the readiness of the two men most likely to end up taking that call? Well, Barack Obama seems well informed and sensible about matters economic and financial. John McCain, on the other hand, scares me.
Read more.

An excuse lamer than a 3 legged dog

What do you say when someone asks why you forwarded a slanderous e-mail? Well, you could answer as the mayor of Fort Mill SC did.
Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.”

When asked if he believed Obama was the antichrist, Funderburk replied, “I’ve got absolutely no way of knowing that.”

Funderburk said it “probably does give that impression” that he believed the e-mail was true “but that was not my intent.”
I guess smart is not in the job description.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Monday Music Blogging

The Ditty Bops- Wishful Thinking


There is an old joke

Mostly told in other Ivy League schools about how do you separate the men from the boys at Yale? With a crow bar. (rimshot). According to the latest reporting from Newsweeks Michael Isikoff, that same line could be used about the McCain campaign and the lobbyists. The only difference is that at Yale they do it for fun, the lobbyists are in it for big bucks.

28.6 Million

That was the number of Americans on food stamps in June. And that number has been increasing. Heckuva job Bushie! You done us Amerkuns proud, NOT!

CinderSarah steps in it again

This time just days before the Old Fart picked Ms Mooseburger as his VP candidate. And like in Troopergate this is another ethics problem for Snow Job Square Glasses that highlights her poor judgement.
For months, the confrontation mounted, a face-off that arguably held in the balance the fates of two of Alaska's biggest industries. On one side were companies hoping to open Pebble Mine at a huge gold and copper reserve adjacent to one of the world's largest salmon runs, Bristol Bay. On the other side were fishermen and environmentalists pushing a referendum that would make it harder for the mine to open.

The two sides spent more than $10 million -- unprecedented for such efforts in Alaska -- and throughout it all, the state's highly popular first-term governor, Sarah Palin, held back. Alaska law forbids state officials from using state resources to advocate on ballot initiatives.

Then, six days before the Aug. 26 vote, with the race looking close, Palin broke her silence. Asked about the initiative at a news conference, she invoked "personal privilege" to give an opinion. "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop. 4 -- I vote no on that," she said. "I have all the confidence in the world that [the Department of Environmental Conservation] and our [Department of Natural Resources] have great, very stringent regulations and policies already in place. We're going to make sure that mines operate only safely, soundly."

Palin's comments rocked the contest. Within a day, the pro-mining coalition fighting the referendum had placed full-page ads with a picture of the governor and the word "NO." The initiative went down to defeat, with 57 percent of voters rejecting it.

Three days later, Palin was named Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate, throwing Alaska into a media frenzy. But the fallout has lingered from an episode that may stand as one of the most consequential in Palin's 21-month tenure. The state ethics panel is examining whether her comments violated the law against state advocacy on ballot measures; it had already ruled that a state Web site was improperly slanted toward mining interests.
She no obvious reason to speak and every reason to blow off the question, but she stepped right into it, as if she could stop being Alaska's governor for a few minute. That is not the kind of judgement this country needs.

How we all lose in the mortgage market

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac were set up to re-liquify the mortgage lenders and support home ownership. Because of this they, we, are the owners of record of a lot of mortgages gone bad. Rising values, go-go salesmen and foolish mistakes by people who should know better has given us this example of how we lose.
The titular owner is Fannie Mae, which the U.S. government effectively subsumed this month, though the legal machinations are still ongoing. With the Treasury backing Fannie Mae, taxpayers have a huge interest in the fate of the mortgage giant's assets. They include the 1,296-square-foot, two-level, three-bedroom, 1 1/2 -bath house on Barksdale.

The most recent owner, Phyllis High Jones, refinanced the house through Countrywide Home Loans in 2006, taking out a $208,000 mortgage that would gradually inflate to $226,000. That same year, Fannie Mae bought the loan from Countrywide. Then the housing market collapsed in Prince William County. Jones defaulted this year. The townhouse went up for auction, but there were no takers. Fannie Mae had no choice but to become the buyer of record -- sale price $226,000.

This summer, Fannie Mae tried to sell the townhouse for $149,000. Still no reasonable offers.

The price has now been lowered to $69,900.
That's $157,000 up in smoke, if they can sell it for that price. And this is just one home that was not securitized and covered by a default swap. Hang on to your hats, $700 Billion may not be enough.

And in Iraq

It seems like there is always some further "validation" of the McCain surge on Sundays. Today is no different.
The most deadly attack came in Baghdad, where police said at least 11 people were killed and 26 wounded by two car bombs that struck shoppers making last-minute purchases before breaking their Ramadan fast. The blasts occurred in the western neighborhoods of Shurta Rabaa and Amil, formerly mixed districts that now have Shiite majorities after years of sectarian attacks.

Earlier in the capital, snipers fired on an army checkpoint, killing two Iraqi soldiers and a civilian in the eastern Zayona neighborhood. A roadside bomb also killed an Iraqi soldier on a patrol in Mansour, a mostly Sunni area in western Baghdad, police officials said.

Two civilians were killed in an armed attack in the town of Khan Bani Saad by a group believed tied to al-Qaida, a police official in Diyala province said. The town is near the provincial capital of Baqouba.

The same official said two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 wounded when a bomb targeted them in Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad late Saturday. A medic at the Balad Ruz hospital said the wounded suffered burns and shrapnel wounds and were later taken by U.S. soldiers to a military base.

When Rick gives the nod

All the politicians walk away from the table happy and John McCain was no exception. This time it was probably Chief Rick who tipped the nod. Given his position of oversight on Indian gambling and his many lobbyist connections, this scene should surprise no one.
Senator John McCain was on a roll. In a room reserved for high-stakes gamblers at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, he tossed $100 chips around a hot craps table. When the marathon session ended around 2:30 a.m., the Arizona senator and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings.

A lifelong gambler, Mr. McCain takes risks, both on and off the craps table. He was throwing dice that night not long after his failed 2000 presidential bid, in which he was skewered by the Republican Party’s evangelical base, opponents of gambling. Mr. McCain was betting at a casino he oversaw as a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and he was doing so with the lobbyist who represents that casino, according to three associates of Mr. McCain.

The visit had been arranged by the lobbyist, Scott Reed, who works for the Mashantucket Pequot, a tribe that has contributed heavily to Mr. McCain’s campaigns and built Foxwoods into the world’s second-largest casino. Joining them was Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s current campaign manager. Their night of good fortune epitomized not just Mr. McCain’s affection for gambling, but also the close relationship he has built with the gambling industry and its lobbyists during his 25-year career in Congress.
Well, well, there is that pesky Mr Davis again. It sure is nice to know he didn't lose all his Fannie Mae money at the tables. Read it all if you want to know why the Old Fart will never be a big loser at the tables.

The Fey one does it again

This time she is talking to Amy Poehler as Katy Couric. Put down all beverages and swallow before viewing.


Saturday, September 27, 2008

Bill Maher last night, must see TV

Even if he does have Ralph Nader sounding like your grandfather after his stroke. The New Rules is wickedly on target.



Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Ron Suskind

New Rules

Nobody likes outsiders coming in and pushing people around

Not even in the the "Wild West" of Northwest Pakistan. Some of the locals are pushing back against the Taliban and al-Qaeda types, who when you get down to it, aren't really anymore sensitive to local customs than we are.
A popular resistance movement is emerging in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province to challenge Islamic extremists, who now exercise control over whole districts and maintain a stranglehold over the local population.

The movement in both the province and the lawless tribal territory bordering Afghanistan relies on fierce tribal customs and widespread ownership of guns in the north west of the country, to raise traditional private armies, known as a lashkar, each with the strength of hundreds or several thousand volunteers.

The movement arose after local tribal leaders ... decided that the state can't or won't come to their aid as a radical, alien, form of Islam seeks to impose itself on them down the barrel of an AK-47.
Not a perfect solution but one that will have more success than cross border incursions.

It's nice to see an ad on the issues


Biden speaks truth to Fur Face



Fortunately this clip has very little of Wolf.

Now that all the horses are gone

From the NY Times:
The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a longtime proponent of deregulation, acknowledged on Friday that failures in a voluntary supervision program for Wall Street’s largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis, and he abruptly shut the program down.
And so the Republicans have destroyed another, once effective, part of government to please their corporate masters. It will take years to repair the damage they have done.

Quote of the Day

To be fair, it had been a very long week for McCain, what with ruling out the debate, ruling in the debate and returning to a Senate from which he has been AWOL so long that it’s believed his desk is now being used to store janitorial supplies.
Gail Collins, describing the Old Fart's week.

The whole ticket sucks

What do Rosa Brooks and Bob Herbert have in common? Each, with one column this week, shows that the Republican candidates for President and Vice President are totally unfit for the job. First Rosa Brooks reminds us of the great stain of the Old Fart, what most Republicans would call a badge of honor, the Keating 5.
Once upon a time, a politician took campaign contributions and favors from a friendly constituent who happened to run a savings and loan association. The contributions were generous: They came to about $200,000 in today's dollars, and on top of that there were several free vacations for the politician and his family, along with private jet trips and other perks. The politician voted repeatedly against congressional efforts to tighten regulation of S&Ls, and in 1987, when he learned that his constituent's S&L was the target of a federal investigation, he met with regulators in an effort to get them to back off.

That politician was John McCain, and his generous friend was Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings & Loan. While he was courting McCain and other senators and urging them to oppose tougher regulation of S&Ls, Keating was also investing his depositors' federally insured savings in risky ventures. When those lost money, Keating tried to hide the losses from regulators by inducing his customers to switch from insured accounts to uninsured (and worthless) bonds issued by Lincoln's near-bankrupt parent company. In 1989, it went belly up -- and more than 20,000 Lincoln customers saw their savings vanish.
After dodging this bullet, St John went on to become a Republican powerhouse in the battle for deregulation so the entire US economy could enjoy what happened to the S & L industry.

Bob Herbert may seem to have an easier job of it until you realize how many people are looking at this election through Kool-Aid goggles. Nevertheless he does a fine job displaying the many incompetencies of CinderSarah.
The McCain campaign has done its bizarre best to shield Ms. Palin from any sustained media examination of her readiness for the highest offices in the land, and no wonder. She has been an embarrassment in interviews.

But the idea that the voters of the United States might install someone in the vice president’s office who is too unprepared or too intellectually insecure to appear on, say, “Meet the Press” or “Face the Nation” is mind-boggling.

The alarm bells should be clanging and warning lights flashing. You wouldn’t put an unqualified pilot in the cockpit of a jetliner. The potential for catastrophe is far, far greater with an unqualified president.
This lack of qualifications can not be repeated too often, some people need the repetition.

Add up the two and if your reaction is not "Holy Shit!" give me a call, I have several leftover bridges I am trying to sell.

R.I.P. Paul Newman



Actor, racer, philanthropist, loving husband and father and a real mensch. You will be sorely missed.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Once upon a time Kathleen Parker supported CinderSarah

You wouldn't know it after reading her latest piece in the National Review Online. When you see her write quotes like:
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
And
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
You know that not only is the honeymoon over, but Ms. Parker is filing divorce papers.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Parker is not the first to suggest it but adds her voice to a growing chorus of conservatives who plainly see that CinderSarah brings Bupkis mit Kuduchas to the ticket.

Since MSNBC won't run this ad

I will


Ted Stevens Republican to the core

Dana Milbank reports on the Ted Stevens corruption trial.
Sen. Ted Stevens, his career and his freedom in jeopardy, did the honorable thing as he went on trial yesterday on corruption-related charges. He blamed his wife.

Yes, Stevens, the first sitting senator to be indicted in a generation, failed to report a home renovation and other pricey gifts from a pipeline company. But, his lawyer told the jury yesterday, it was his wife who reviewed the bills and took care of the finances.
What a man! What a Republican!

Tom Toles Friday



Click pic to big

McCain blocks credit relief plan

So the Feds seize WaMu the real estate whale to show the urgency of getting a plan in place. JP Morgan Chase has a huge new franchise and a large addition to their shitpile for a mere $1.9Billion but they are better able to handle it. This relieves some of the immediate pressure on Washington to get a deal done. And the winner in this whole magilla? Alan Fishman, CEO of WaMu, who has been on the job for less than three weeks, is eligible for $11.6 million in cash severance and will get to keep his $7.5 million signing bonus. Nice work if you can get it.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Music from the Brothers Simon



Anji - Paul Simon and his brother - Ed

Of what matter is a fart?

Pretty big if you happen to be near a cop with no sense of humor. Gordon at Alternate Brain has all the sad details.

Jon Soltz is mean to the Old Fart

In a post at The Huffington Post, he wishes that the troops in harm's way could take a time out to avoid problems that crop up, but they can't. So he has to point out this salient feature of the job of President.
When you're Commander in Chief, I don't think there'd be a worse signal to send to our troops in harm's way than to say, "Hey, hold on guys. I know you're getting killed over there, but I have to get a time-out here to deal with Wall Street."

If troops need to multi-task without a break, is it so wrong that we demand that a potential President-in-waiting prove that he can manage a financial crisis, and still address crises around the world for 90 minutes? And, if a potential President-to-be can't manage that, is it wrong to think that maybe he ought not just suspend a debate and the campaign, but move aside and get out of the race?
The Old Fart was taking a nap at the time and wasn't told about it.

Tonight's lesson on the Keating 5



Garrick Utley reporting

5 Grand to make the old stiff look alive

I would say that beats a $400 haircut any day of the week, like a flush beats a pair.
The 72-year-old was recently made TV-ready by makeup artist Tifanie White who's worked on So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

McCain paid the 2002 beauty-school grad $5,583.43 for her services, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Does that include the tip?

Quote of the Day

We’re trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign,
Barney Frank, making it clear to reporters that the Old Fart's return to DC was superfluous.

Last night on Letterman



Dave was pissed!

The lynch pin of McCain's strategy

An effigy of Barack Obama was found hanging from a tree on the campus of George Fox University, a Xtian college. Will John McCain abjure the perpetrators? Or will he laugh as he did when that woman called Hillary a bitch?

Accidents will happen

But when you send your talking points to the press, with the not unexpected publication thereof, your competence should come into question. It is one thing to gin up some points that don't work. It is a whole 'nother world when you give them away before using.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Trust us - Joe Galloway says N F W!

But he uses language appropriate for a nationally syndicated columnist. His lead in anecdote is wonderful, his quick and dirty summation of the problem is spot on and there is no way to fault his conclusion.
If you're ready to buy this deal from a used war salesman like George W. Bush and his cronies on Wall Street, then I have a real deal for you on a bridge to nowhere.

Trust us, they say. In a pig's ass, I say.

McCain shows the white feather




From This Modern World by way of the Great Orange Stan

Jack Cafferty scores a perfect 10

Jack thinks Obama and the Old Fart need to have the debate so we can know what these two want to do with our country.


Laura Bush says CinderSarah isn't qualified.

I guess her meds need adjusting because she let this Carlyesque phrase slip past her rubied lips.
Asked by CNN's Zain Verjee if she thought Palin's resume included sufficient foreign policy experience, Bush said, "Of course she doesn't have that."
She does try to coverup by saying that would not be her role, without mentioning "as long as John McCain is still alive". As a side note, Laura was in the City
promoting global literacy. She also met with political dissidents from around the world Tuesday, including a Burmese monk.
Throw in Todd Palin and she could kill two birds with one stone.

Pat Oliphant today



Click pic to big

MoDo shoots at a lot of targets

But she is shooting at the Republicans who are providing a target rich environment these days.

Buffett buys his piece of the shitpile

Noted cautious investor Warren Buffett has made a $5Billion investment in Goldman Sachs. That should keep them afloat for a while and maybe out of the Treasury's pocket. Tell your Senators and Congressman to take note of what Buffett got in return.
Berkshire will buy $5 billion of Goldman perpetual preferred stock that carries a 10 percent dividend.

It also will receive warrants to buy $5 billion of common stock, or 43.5 million shares, at $115 per share, within five years, which could give it a roughly 9 percent stake in Goldman. Last week, Goldman said it averaged 448.3 million common shares in the quarter ended Aug 29.
No Bailout Without Equity!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Quote of the Day

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.
George Will, who like the blind pig (sans lipstick) will find the occasional acorn.

Right on! Pat Oliphant



Click pic to big

Slow down and get it right

That's what Bob Herbert thinks about the latest shock attack on the American people, also known as The Bailout. It is not so bad that a few more days to spot the flaws would be a bad thing, unless you are one of the businesses lining up for a handout.
Lobbyists, bankers and Wall Street types are already hopping up and down like over-excited children, ready to burst into the government’s $700 billion piñata. This widespread eagerness is itself an indication that there is something too sweet about the Paulson plan.

This is not supposed to be a good deal for business. “The idea is that you’re coming here because you would be going bankrupt otherwise,” said Mr. Baker. “You’re coming here because you have no alternative. You’re getting a bad deal, but it’s better than going out of business. That’s how it should be structured.”
Their eagerness betrays them. Let us hope Congress puts enough into the plan to make them howl and whine.

Monday, September 22, 2008

You gotta have Heart

Found this at Earthbound Misfit



Click pic to big.

Today's Obama ad



Health care is no big deal for the Old Fart. He gets it from the government, just like he has all his life.

This might work if the media had not awoken from its slumber.

From the NY Times:
Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing.

But last week the McCain campaign stepped up a running battle of guilt by association when it began broadcasting commercials trying to link Mr. Obama directly to the government bailout of the mortgage giants this month by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae’s former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.
In past elections this would have been glossed over in the news while the talking heads woudl tsk-tsk the Democrat. Not this time.
Incensed by the advertisements, several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.

The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” said Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, who said that while he worked there from 2000 to 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together paid Mr. Davis’s firm $35,000 a month. Mr. Davis “didn’t really do anything,” Mr. McCarson, a Democrat, said.
Game and set. And just like the good old days on McEnroe and Connors, the Old Farts leading slimer and Rove protege, Steve Schmidt threw a hissy fit , furious that the New York Times would print the truth. Methinks he should pound salt up his ass to calm down.

Poor old Wall St.

It looks like the denizens of that sink of inequity aren't too happy at the various adjustments being required by Congress to get their hands on the last of the Treasury. It looks like we will not be simply handing out money with a Thank You would you like some more?
And a government official with knowledge of the talks said the administration had agreed to create a plan to help prevent foreclosures on mortgages it acquires as part of the bailout - a key demand of Democratic lawmakers.

Under other additions the Democrats are asking to the administration package, according to a draft of the plan obtained by The Associated Press:

- Judges could rewrite mortgages to lower bankrupt homeowners' monthly payments.

- Companies that unloaded their bad assets on the government in the massive rescue would have to limit their executives' pay packages and agree to revoke any bonuses awarded based on bogus claims.

The plan also would require that the government get shares in the troubled companies helped by the rescue.
Congress is getting uppity, but it remains to be seen what roadblock the Republicans are planning.

Headline of the Day

Can you trust a Wall Street veteran with a Wall Street bailout?
McClatchy asks the question that more and more people are saying NO to.

Cash for Trash

That is the title of Krugman today and a damn good description of Henry Paulsons "Save the CEO's" plan. Read, learn and call Congress. It's good for you.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Monday Music Blogging



JESSI COLTER- I'M NOT LISA

New Obama ad



And they just keep getting better.

Business as usual to Wall St.

Holy Crap! to you and me. The good people at Lehman Brothers, who very considerately drove the firm into the ground, are in line for $2.5 Billion in bonuses. Given are the standard reasons for doing so.
The $2.5 billion had been accrued as part of the contribution to Lehman’s group profits for the first nine months of the year. Barclays said there is no obligation to pay it out but analysts say the competitive pressure to keep key staff
Which begs the question, Why would you keep the guys that failed?

Krugman has a caveat

And it is a big one that we should all have and should be pushing hard on the guys running for re-election.
Here’s the thing: historically, financial system rescues have involved seizing the troubled institutions and guaranteeing their debts; only after that did the government try to repackage and sell their assets. The feds took over S&Ls first, protecting their depositors, then transferred their bad assets to the RTC. The Swedes took over troubled banks, again protecting their depositors, before transferring their assets to their equivalent institutions.

The Treasury plan, by contrast, looks like an attempt to restore confidence in the financial system — that is, convince creditors of troubled institutions that everything’s OK — simply by buying assets off these institutions. This will only work if the prices Treasury pays are much higher than current market prices; that, in turn, can only be true either if this is mainly a liquidity problem — which seems doubtful — or if Treasury is going to be paying a huge premium, in effect throwing taxpayers’ money at the financial world.

And there’s no quid pro quo here — nothing that gives taxpayers a stake in the upside, nothing that ensures that the money is used to stabilize the system rather than reward the undeserving.
It really does look like another application of the Shock Doctrine, this one designed to be left behind by Our Dear Leader to fuck with his successor, whoever he may be.

h/t to Josh Marshall

Who do you want to fix the economy?

If you can say this two word magical incantation you are halfway there.


KEATING FIVE


The other half comes on November 4 when you vote.

EXTRA CREDIT
: Devilstower has a lot of information to flesh out the picture.

Todays Sermon


Country First?

Not if you work for the McCain campaign. As this look at Charlie Black reveals, your first allegiance is to your clients, the country is only first as a source of revenue.
Black, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign, has represented at least 120 clients from more than two dozen countries within the past decade. He has used his clout to help kill tax reforms that could have hurt foreign clients, and he once even pressed a judge to go easy an associate convicted of fraud.

Earlier this year, amid criticism that McCain's reformist message was being undercut by a campaign top-heavy with lobbyists, Black, 60, retired from his lobbying company.

But that hardly marked Black's departure from the Washington influence business, nor from private business dealings directly dependent on the decisions of the federal government.

Black remains a director of Civitas Group LLC, a low-profile consulting firm he set up months after the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security to invest in security companies and give them advice. National security is both the firm's business and the signature issue of the McCain campaign. Neither Black nor the McCain campaign would discuss Black's role with Civitas.

Federal law requires lobbyists to disclose who their clients while consulting firms, like Civitas, are not. But to some, that is a distinction without a difference; a consultant who devises the strategy lobbyists use, for example, is not considered a lobbyist.
What Charlie is putting into the head of McCain is probably every bit as dangerous to the US as what the Vietnamese put in there when Johnny was their "guest".

Bernie Sanders has some ideas to help us taxpayers

Since we are going to be stuck with the cost of the shitpile, Bernie thinks we should get something back. He has some good ideas.
In my view, we need to go forward in addressing this financial crisis by insisting on four basic principles:

(1) The people who can best afford to pay and the people who have benefited most from Bush’s economic policies are the people who should provide the funds for the bailout. It would be immoral to ask the middle class, the people whose standard of living has declined under Bush, to pay for this bailout while the rich, once again, avoid their responsibilities. Further, if the government is going to save companies from bankruptcy, the taxpayers of this country should be rewarded for assuming the risk by sharing in the gains that result from this government bailout.

Specifically, to pay for the bailout, which is estimated to cost up to $1 trillion, the government should:

a) Impose a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue;

b) Ensure that assets purchased from banks are realistically discounted so companies are not rewarded for their risky behavior and taxpayers can recover the amount they paid for them; and

c) Require that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.

(2) There must be a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages. Among many other areas, we can create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and moving our country from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Further, we must protect working families from the difficult times they are experiencing. We must ensure that every child has health insurance and that every American has access to quality health and dental care, that families can send their children to college, that seniors are not allowed to go without heat in the winter, and that no American goes to bed hungry.

(3) Legislation must be passed which undoes the damage caused by excessive de-regulation. That means reinstalling the regulatory firewalls that were ripped down in 1999. That means re-regulating the energy markets so that we never again see the rampant speculation in oil that helped drive up prices. That means regulating or abolishing various financial instruments that have created the enormous shadow banking system that is at the heart of the collapse of AIG and the financial services meltdown.

(4) We must end the danger posed by companies that are “too big too fail,” that is, companies whose failure would cause systemic harm to the U.S. economy. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. We need to determine which companies fall in this category and then break them up. Right now, for example, the Bank of America, the nation’s largest depository institution, has absorbed Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, and Merrill Lynch, the nation’s largest brokerage house. We should not be trying to solve the current financial crisis by creating even larger, more powerful institutions. Their failure could cause even more harm to the entire economy.
These don't have much chance of happening because there is little appetite in the halls of power for placing responsibility where it belongs. You just don't do mean things to your friends and supporters.

Cindersarah to meet real foriegner

The Republicans would have you believe he is a real world leader but actually he is only Hamid Karzai. He was chosen because his long experience with neocons and Bushoviks will enable him to keep a straight face during the meeting.

From the pen of Mike Lester


What's in your 401K?

If you don't know, you probably don't want to look. The WaPo has a few stories from the DC area if you want to compare your lot with others.
Kenney, 58, had a gauzy vision of what his retirement would look like. A creative type, he didn't want to decamp to Florida or play golf all day. He wanted freedom. That meant having enough money to do only the work that he loved, to compose music, finally get to those two books he's been meaning to write, perhaps buy a farm in Iceland.

But after last week, Kenney, like tens of thousands of people reaching retirement age, is being forced to reconsider his future. Glued to his chair in front of two Mac computer screens, chain-smoking Camel Lights, Kenney watched, wide-eyed, as over the course five business days one-third of the value of his retirement savings simply vanished.

He hasn't slept well since.
He should follow the example of Our Dear Leader. If Iraq didn't disturb his sleep, you know this won't.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Steal this image, please!



h/t to The Political Cat

Like this will stop him

Dick Cheney and the Bushoviks lost another court case today. This one was brought by CREW to require him to preserve the records of his time in office.
A private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is suing Cheney and the Executive Office of the President in an effort to ensure that no presidential records are destroyed or handled in a way that makes them unavailable to the public.

In a 22-page opinion, the judge revealed that in recent days, lawyers for the Bush administration balked at a proposed agreement between the two sides on how to proceed with the case.

Cheney and the other defendants in the case ''were only willing to agree to a preservation order that tracked their narrowed interpretation'' of the Presidential Records Act, wrote Kollar-Kotelly.

The administration, said the judge, wanted any court order on what records are at issue in the suit to cover only the office of the vice president, not Cheney or the other defendants in the lawsuit. The other defendants include the National Archives and the archivist of the United States.
This is a righteous ruling but as in all legal victories over the Bushoviks it assumes that they will obey the law, which they haven't done much of since 2000.

Frank Rich starts slowly this week

NOT until 2004 could the 9/11 commission at last reveal the title of the intelligence briefing President Bush ignored on Aug. 6, 2001, in Crawford: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” No wonder John McCain called for a new “9/11 commission” to “get to the bottom” of 9/14, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off another kind of blood bath in Lower Manhattan. Put a slo-mo Beltway panel in charge, and Election Day will be ancient history before we get to the bottom of just how little he and the president did to defend America against a devastating new threat on their watch.
But he soon builds up a full head of steam as he delineates just why electing the Old Fart would be something like re-electing Herbert Hoover back in 1932. A MUST READ and don't forget to follow his links for all the stuff you won't find on cable news.

Dependable Renegade is amazing!

How else could I have learned about this fabulous charity.


McCain's advisors




Cindersarah lies again

But you knew she would. The only thing you, and all of us, don't know is just what she will lie about today.

Pie Gallon Palin

My Palin name had I been been unfortunate enough to be a part of that family.

Sign the Petition

Alaska Hockey Moms For Obama has a petition calling for a stop to the Troopergate coverup. They are calling on all Alaskans and all Americans to sign on. Here is a chance to ask SnowJob SquareGlasses to keep her word.

Welcome to the new Cambodia

From the NY Times:
A huge truck bomb exploded at the gateway of the five-star Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday evening, just a few hundred yards from the prime minister’s house, where all the leaders of government were dining after the president’s address to Parliament.

At least 40 people were killed and 100 were wounded, according to The Associated Press. The toll was expected to grow because of reports that many people were still trapped inside the six-story hotel, which was engulfed in flames.

An idle thought from an idle mind

Now that the government has put out $Billions to rescue Wall St and pledged another $700Billion to buy up the shitpile, we should reconsider how we look at this election.

This is an excellent time to get rid of those who believe that government doesn't work and replace them with people who know it can. Can we afford not to?


Sticking it up your ass since 2001

A new voting bloc?

Perhaps, according to this column, everybody's favorite Old Fart is not lying as a tactic but as a strategy to appeal to Anerica's newest silent majority, the hypocite vote.
the 26% of Americans that describe themselves as evangelical Christians have strong hypocritical tendencies, politically at least. Evangelicals first became a political force in the 1980 presidential election, when they abandoned small town Sunday school teacher and born-again Christian Jimmy Carter for divorced, Hollywood actor and infrequent churchgoer Ronald Reagan.

A Pew Research survey released early this year found that evangelicals are nearly as likely to be living together out of wedlock as the public at large and more likely to be divorced. Perhaps more telling, the Barna Group found that only about one in five self-proclaimed evangelicals actually hold the tradition's key core beliefs. Underscoring that point, evangelicals have loudly applauded Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old pregnant daughter of the Republican vice presidential candidate, as a goddess of life rather than condemn her as a sinner. One suspects they wouldn't be quite so forgiving if it was an Obama offspring was the mother-to-be – or the shotgun groom.

But hypocrisy cuts across religious as well as party lines. Tens of millions of Americans talk the talk but don't walk the walk or think things through. They drive their SUVs to Earth Day rallies. They watch Fox News and parrot complaints about the media's liberal bias. They believe America needs to keep good, high wage jobs at home yet shop at Wal-Mart, Chinese exporters' best customer. They don't see a contradiction or even a connection between abstinence-only sex education and pregnancy crisis centres.
What a diabolical scheme! Appealing to the voters who do no wrong themselves and just can stand it anymore when the people they don't like continue to be so wrong. It easily explains why the Old Fart has not been laughed off the national stage.
For them, McCain offers not just a hypocritical campaign, but a hypocritical agenda for the White House. After 26 years on Capitol Hill, President McCain will reform Washington and put the lobbyists who run his campaign out of business. He'll cut taxes, yet balance the budget. He'll reduce regulation yet bring order to Wall Street. He'll continue the American war in Iraq to victory, even though there's little sign of political progress among Iraqi factions despite the decrease in violence. He'll stop global warming while providing bigger fixes to satisfy America's addiction to oil.
Evangelicals think the AntiChrist will be charismatic but it could be he will just be old.

A new report on the surge

States what many people already know, the surge did not have the success that some old farts are claiming.
A study of the Pentagon's satellite imagery concludes that ethnic cleansing -- not last year's surge of U.S. military forces -- is the main factor in the reduction of violence in Iraq.

The report's conclusion about the surge's ineffectiveness are supported by many Iraq experts and international organizations who credit a population shift with the decline of sectarian violence, especially in Baghdad, Reuters reported.

Conducted by the University of California, the study analyzed the use of nighttime light across Baghdad and how it changed before, during and after the surge. It's findings show only some neighborhoods have higher levels of output, suggesting the others had been ethnically cleansed before the surge.
The effect of the surge can be argued from now until Alaska melts, but it it was only one of the factors involved in the changes in Iraq and to most people who observed them, not a very large part at all.

Friday, September 19, 2008

This man has a great idea

Over at AmericaBlog, one of their readers has a great reason to vote Democratic. It starts like this
How many times do we have to hear:

We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Social Security.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Medicare.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to provide health care to ALL Americans.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to help out Americans losing their homes.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to help all our veterans returning from war.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to rescue "no child left behind".

BUT...

We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Bears Stearns.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out AIG.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to pay for an unnecessary TRILLION DOLLAR war.
There is more, but really, how much more do you need?

Quote of the Day

In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path.

Don't just get rid of one guy. Get rid of this administration. Get rid of this philosophy. Get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem and put somebody in there who's going to fight for you.
Barack Obama telling us how we can begin to overcome the current Republican recession

Cindersarah's mice have stopped the clock from striking midnight

Todd "First Dude" Palin, the last of the subpoenas, has told the Alaskan legislature to go stuff it. This finally achieves the aim of the McCain camp to coverup or stonewall the investigation until it is too late to make a difference to Americans.

What are you hiding Cindersarah?

This should tip the balance

A new poll says Americans, by a margin of 50 to 47, would rather watch a football game with Barack than with John. Thank God this important issue has been decided early so people can make their choice with clear facts. Poor old John probably lost because he would screw up the Wave.

Buy up the shitpile

Various elements of the government are in serious discussion to decide just how they will do this. The markets are having orgasms of fiscal delight at the very idea. Hopefully the rest of the financial world will not now collapse.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Music for a Thursday Night

The jazz is cool and the weather is getting there.



Alison Moyet - Cry me a river

Obamas biggest problem

As Frank Caliendo sees it



EXTRA: Tim Wise by way of Rising Hegemon adds something more to this

He invented the Blackberry without knowing what it does.


Elizabeth Edwards has a good day in Congress

Her first visit to the hill since the scandal broke and she was not asked any questions about it. She was there with nine other people but she turned out to be the star attraction simply by talking about health care and noting how far off that mark John McCain's plan is.
But Edwards kept her focus Thursday on political matters, reciting one of the many personal stories from her husband's stump speech and even managing to rankle Republicans with her repeated commentary about McCain.

"Let's consider Sen. John McCain's approach (to health care) as the ideal conservative approach," Edwards began.

She went on to slam McCain's ideas on health care tax credits and the fact that his plan wouldn't cover all Americans, including some who may have pre-existing conditions such as cancer.

"Senator McCain and I have something in common, which is that neither of us would be covered under his health care plan," Edwards said. "If you're 55 with cancer... good luck to you."

Edwards occasionally deviated from her prepared testimony, submitted a day ahead to the committee, which never mentioned McCain. It is unusual to hear such political talk during a policy hearing.

Republicans on the committee appeared frustrated as Edwards went on eight minutes beyond her allotted five-minute slot.
Good for her! I wish someone had the video of her time.

This is important to all of us older folks

Some time in the next 6 years I hope to retire. If my Social Security were to take a beating like my 401K, I would be lucky to be living on dog food.


Right on the money! (ours)

From Pat Oliphant



Click pic to big

Poll results

There are, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 37% of the population that believes John McCain will bring change to Washington. And we wonder why the Nigerian scams keep finding suckers.


The Many Faces of John McCain

Gail Collins takes a look at the various and sundry re-imaginings of the Old Fart as reality stays one step ahead of him. The is the old guy with a sound economy and the old guy who says we are in trouble and he is the one to fix it. There is the old guy for deregulation and there is the old guy who will re-enact tough regulations and enforce them.
Folks were wildly enthusiastic as the event began. That was partly because Sarah Palin was also on the bill. (With Todd!) And when McCain took the center stage, they were itching to cheer the war hero and boo all references to pork-barrel spenders.

Nobody had warned them that he had just morphed into a new persona — a raging populist demanding more regulation of the nation’s financial system. And since McCain’s willingness to make speeches that have nothing to do with his actual beliefs is not matched by an ability to give them, he wound up sounding like Bob Dole impersonating Huey Long.
And in the end it is just an old guy saying what he thinks you want to hear today.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Joe Galloway has high hopes

Among them, the hope that the Dow Jones' remarkable swan dive from the top of the cliff will bring real issues to the forefront of this election. I am totally on his side in this one, we need to bring out the issue driven John McCain.
Republican presidential nominee McCain was doing his best to sound, well, presidential, albeit Bush presidential, as he expressed confidence in the underlying strength of the American economy and the productivity of American workers, at least those who haven't lost their jobs yet.

He vowed that when he becomes president, he'd appoint a 9/11 Commission to get to the bottom of how the "social contract between capitalism and the American worker" was frayed and shredded by the greed and rapacity of Wall Street.

McCain neglected to mention that for most of the last eight years, a Republican president and a Republican Congress aided and abetted this shocking development. Bowing at the free market altar, Republican politicians caponized, neutered and rendered toothless the regulatory agencies that were established to protect the public from predatory capitalism — all while accepting fat campaign contributions from the predators.

Nor was there mention of the fact that nearly eight years of George W. Bush has made the very rich very much richer and put the bedrock of this nation, its broad middle class, very much at risk of falling through the cracks his administration has pried open in the floor beneath their feet.
And let us not forget the Keating 5, after all, character is what counts.

Barack on the economy


Obama's ad today




Today from Toles



Click pic to big

MoDo went to Alaska

And what did she find about Cindersarah?
R. D. Levno, a retired school principal, flew in from Fairbanks. “She’s a child, inexperienced and simplistic,” she said of Sarah. “It’s taking us back to junior high school. She’s one of the popular girls, but one of the mean girls. She is seductive, but she is invented.”
Boy are we lucky she can't run Hewlett-Packard.

In the never ending tale of Cindersarah

We find that Cindersarah's fairy godcandidate has worked his magic and organized the mice of Alaska to join in an effort to stop the clock from striking Midnight. Yesterday we began with 5 Republican lawmakers filing suit to stop the investigation. Now we hear that the Alaska Attorney General says that state employees will not honor subpoenas issued by the legislature.
In a letter to state Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, Republican Attorney General Talis Colberg asked that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He also said the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature votes to compel their testimony.
Cindersarah certainly has come a long way, from welcoming a look at what occurred to a full court Bush style cover up.

Will the mice stop the clock? Will Cindersarah lose her shoe or is it just another Republican turd? What are they really trying to hide?

Stay tuned

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A pair of good ads





A woman voting for John McCain is like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders.

Carly Fiorina declares Palin not qualified to run Hewlett-Packard

And she should know best about not being qualified to run Hewlett-Packard.

John McCain invented the Blackberry

But, to clear up the confusion that has arisen, this was not the wonder of electronic communications that so many people have. No, what John McCain did was invent the tasty little fruit one day when he was hanging around the Garden of Eden lending a helping hand to God. If that doesn't make him qualified to be president, what are you looking for?

Rumor has it the thorns were his favorite part.

From the pen of Pat Oliphant



Click pic to big

One of John McCain's Lies

And actually one of his bigger ones is his plan to "improve" health care in this country. His plan can be boiled down to a simple theme. He plans to strip away any and all advantages of employer group plans, remove any and all regulations that protect the consumer and throw us all on the mercy of the health insurers. Bob Herbert examines the details if you are interested, and you should be.

Monday, September 15, 2008

John I got a song for you


When I saw this picture from The Huffington Post, I felt a pang of sympathy for the Old Fart. So I went out and found a song for John to play at his "rallies"



"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" by Bessie Smith

Oh, the irony, it hurts! it hurts!

There was old John McCain trying to sound fierce on the economy while keeping in line with Prez Lame Ducks line of the economy being sound and never saying anything bad about the guy on whose watch it happened.
Flanked by Florida's three recent Republican governors, McCain spoke at Jacksonville's Veteran's Arena, promising to reform the financial regulatory system to ''protect the deposits of hard-working Americans.'' He said he will oppose any attempt to rely on taxpayers to bail out the troubled system.

The criticism was apparently aimed at the administration of President Bush but McCain never mentioned the president by name except to say that has has ''been a good president'' and has made America safer.

Sitting behind McCain was former Gov. Jeb Bush, who was hired a year ago by Lehman Brothers as a financial consultant. As governor, Bush served on the three-member State Board of Administration that agreed to let the state's retirement fund buy a series of questionable mortgage-backed bonds from Lehman Brothers. The subsequent steep drop in value prompted a $9 billion run on the fund last December by local governments who had invested their money in the SBA managed fund.
Looks like another Bush will be out of work soon. And this one had such great hopes of being another Phil Gramm.

Thinking about believing John McCain?

Then check out the new website set up by the Democratic Party to keep track of which side of his mouth his latest remarks are coming from. (Hint: They aren't coming from the side of truth)

Biden returns and he's got his sights on the Old Fart

The good people at TPM Election Central have the text his latest speech on the economy and how John McCain just doesn't get it and never did.


And the press is catching on

Whether it is in the Charlotte NC Observer
The problems for McCain started with a pair of ads last week critical of Obama's position on early childhood sex education and his "disrespectful" words toward Sarah Palin. Both ads were roundly criticized for what one analyst called "a dubious disregard for the facts." Then the Boston Globe reported that Palin had never visited Iraq, as the McCain camp had claimed, and Bloomberg News reported that the campaign may have even fibbed about crowd estimates, attributing the numbers to sources that don't do crowd estimates.

Add to that, finally, Palin's insistence last week on claiming she said "thanks but no thanks to Congress" for the now infamous Bridge to Nowhere - a notion debunked by several media, including the conservative Wall Street Journal. It's enough fibbing that conservative media and Republican strategists have winced a bit - including Karl Rove, who told Fox News yesterday that McCain had "gone one step too far, attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100 percent truth test."
Or from Tom Toles in the Washington Post



The press is waking up to the Old Fart and his Rovian playbook.

EXTRA: US News & World Report and David Ignatius are getting the picture.

It's all about the lies


Dahlia Lithwick has a suggestion

About what to do with Sarah Palin, put her on the Supreme Court! Wouldn't that perk things up? You can read her column here, please read it carefully.

A momentous day on Wall St

As the famed investment bank of Merrill Lynch is swallowed up by the Bank of America and Lehman Brothers is left to die by the roadside, Paul Krugman gives us some more insight as to what is going on here.
The new system was supposed to do a better job of spreading and reducing risk. But in the aftermath of the housing bust and the resulting mortgage crisis, it seems apparent that risk wasn’t so much reduced as hidden: all too many investors had no idea how exposed they were.

And as the unknown unknowns have turned into known unknowns, the system has been experiencing postmodern bank runs. These don’t look like the old-fashioned version: with few exceptions, we’re not talking about mobs of distraught depositors pounding on closed bank doors. Instead, we’re talking about frantic phone calls and mouse clicks, as financial players pull credit lines and try to unwind counterparty risk. But the economic effects — a freezing up of credit, a downward spiral in asset values — are the same as those of the great bank runs of the 1930s.

And here’s the thing: The defenses set up to prevent a return of those bank runs, mainly deposit insurance and access to credit lines with the Federal Reserve, only protect the guys in the marble buildings, who aren’t at the heart of the current crisis. That creates the real possibility that 2008 could be 1931 revisited.
Are you ready for some fun?

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Monday Music Blogging

Frank Zappa sings about the two pillars of male wisdom.



Frank Zappa - Titties and Beer

From the pen of Jim Borgman


Short sweet and to the point

Share this with 90% of your family and friends.


Quote of the Day

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."
Karl Rove, on Fox News stating that McCain has been lying. Karl would know.

Leopards don't change their spots

So how can we expect that of John McCain?


Just because one candidate says it's so

Doesn't mean the surge was successful. Patrick Cockburn, writing in the Independent, has the details your news sources don't give you.

Saturday Night Live

Opened the season with a wickedly funny skit that included Tina Fey in a remarkably accurate representation of Sarah Palin. The suits at NBC made YouTube take it down but you can see it on Raw Story.

The imminent demise of Lehman Brothers

Yesterday I put up a post about the negotiations for Lehman Brothers. One of my remarks was
a safe guess would be they discussed which player got which juicy plum from Lehman and how the gov't would be stuck with Lehman's pile of shit.
Today the NY Times has a story about how the leading contenders for LB are bowing out because the Feds are refusing to take on the shitpile at taxpayers expense.

Values? We don't need no steenking values!

The Family Research Council at its Values Voters Summit makes it very clear that they have never looked up the word in a dictionary. The are people who oppose a presidential candidate that is still happily married to his first wife. They support a candidate who, upon returning from a 5 year imprisonment, found his wife terribly injured and disfigured by an automobile accident. So he took off chasing every skirt he could paw until he found a rich babe who would have him. In his haste they took out a marriage license a month before his divorce from his first wife was final.

They oppose a VP candidate who returned home every night from the Senate to rear his remaining children after his wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident. They support a VP candidate whose values include allowing a daughter to run around and get knocked up while requiring a judge to admonish her and her family for trash talking the father of her sister's children during their divorce. The judge compared their actions to child abuse.

But their worst effort is the unabashed racism evident in the "Obama Waffles" being sold at the summit and other places. It seems one of the values so cherished by this group is best summed up by the classic line from "Blazing Saddles". You remember, when the new sheriff greets one of the towns ladies, her response is, "Up yours, nigger!"

I think it is obvious that Republican Party driven by Karl Rove has a good idea how they want to win the election.

Every Republicans favorite fiscal hack

You know, that old booger Alan Greenspan. Well after years of working hard to create the fiscal disaster we are in, the old bastard finally says something that makes sense.
The United States cannot afford Sen. John McCain's proposed plan for $3.3 trillion in tax cuts without cutting spending, Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Bloomberg Television on Saturday.

In an interview with host Al Hunt, Greenspan said he does not support tax cuts of the magnitude McCain proposes.

"I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money," Greenspan said.
Just like all his Republican BFF's, Greenspan loves to recommend closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen.

The Palinator style of governing

The New York Times has a close look at how Sarah Barracuda has done the peoples business in Alaska. What is apparent is that her nickname Barracuda is still apt, because there is a lot that is fishy if not outright wrong in the way she operates.
Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy.

interviews make clear that the Palins draw few distinctions between the personal and the political.

Ms. Palin ordered city employees not to talk to the press. And she used city money to buy a white Suburban for the mayor’s use — employees sarcastically called it the mayor-mobile.

She surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church.

An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a BlackBerry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”

Ms. Palin and aides use their private e-mail addresses for state business.

Many politicians say they typically learn of her initiatives — and vetoes — from news releases.

Mayors across the state, from the larger cities to tiny municipalities along the southeastern fiords, are even more frustrated. Often, their letters go unanswered and their pleas ignored,

At an Alaska Municipal League gathering in Juneau in January, mayors across the political spectrum swapped stories of the governor’s remoteness. How many of you, someone asked, have tried to meet with her? Every hand went up, recalled Mayor Fred Shields of Haines Borough. And how many met with her? Just a few hands rose. Ms. Palin soon walked in, delivered a few remarks and left for an anti-abortion rally.
So we know the Old Fart is going for another 4 years of the same old shit and it looks like he found an eager and reliable backstop for all that is worst in American politics. Just another reason to destroy the Republican Party.


Saturday, September 13, 2008

A good night hug for you,




See you tomorrow.

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