Ctrl-Althouse-Delete

End program:

MR. BROKAW: In fairness to everybody here, I’m just going to end on one note, and that is that we continue to poll on who’s best equipped to be commander-in-chief, and John McCain continues to lead in that category despite the criticism from Barack Obama by a factor of 53 to 42 percent in our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

This was Brokaw’s deeply unfair concluding remark at the end of this morning’s Press the Meat interview with McFAIL strategist Steve Schmidt and Obama strategist David Axelrod. When I saw it, I almost threw the remote at the screen. Then I remembered we were planning to use the TV to stay warm in the winter months. So I gave the kids my maxed-out credit cards to build a fort, put our next-to-last shoe on the stove for supper, and fucked off to stand in the bank-run line at WaMu with a jug of grain alcohol and a dead look in my eye.

But apparently Ann Althouse saw Brokaw this morning, too. And like me, she was hopping mad:

What? Why was it a matter of “fairness to everybody here” to end the debate with a thudding, unanswered poll result? At the end of a discussion in which both candidates were perfectly well represented by their mouthpieces, Brokaw thought fairness required him to say, essentially, “Well, the American people still think McCain is much better on these questions.”

Whubba? Could Althouse finally be getting that media bias, rather than working against Republicans, contrarily, and in quite an opposite fashion, tends to work for them?

Brokaw began the discussion by saying “We’re not going to get into this business about who won and lost the debate.” He made a point of not presenting Schmidt and Axelrod with poll numbers on that subject. And none of his other questions were based on polls, nor did Schmidt and Axelrod bring up any polls. So why did Brokaw end like that?

Why, indeed? Is it because he’s in the tank for McCain? Because he’s a total scrote? Because he likes the fucking shit out of the pulled pork at Straight Talk barbecues? Why, Ann, why?

My guess? Inside NBC, they are fretting about criticism that they show favoritism toward Obama, so Brokaw thought it might help to lob out a glaring hunk of McCain favoritism. Sorry! That just looked really weird. Consequently, it reinforced the perception that NBC favors Obama.

Please kill me now. And I really couldn’t explain why any better than the very first commenter on this Althouse post:

… few people are so addled that they would bother presenting pro-McCain tidbits as evidence of underlying pro-Obama bias.

 

Comments: 53

 
 
 

I’ll bet she thinks that God giving her that personality is a sign that he loves her.

 
 

what’s so hard to understand here? If the election is over five weeks before election day, who is gonna watch NBC news? Would both campaigns spend as lavishly on TV ads as if it was neck-and-neck.
OF COURSE, the media will turn against the front-runner! always!

It’s like when a game is a blowout and the anouncers are working extra-hard to persuade you that “with a little run here so and so is back in the game” or that “so and so has a history of major comebacks” etc. etc…

 
 

… few people are so addled that they would bother presenting pro-McCain tidbits as evidence of underlying pro-Obama bias.

Of course NBC’s management IS venal enough to pander to the conservative, age-45-plus viewers who make up a hefty percentage of the audience for the Sunday morning “talking heads.”

 
 

If people criticize me it means they are praising me, for otherwise they would ignore me, which would mean that they are jealous of me, which shows that they think I’m wonderful.

 
 

I guess it took a couple paragraphs for that second box of wine to kick in.

 
Anne AltBernsteinHouse
 

Whaddayamean that “O” doesn’t stand for “Onion Ring?” Which stands for vagina.

 
 

Since about 1963 has there been one CiC who hasn’t bolloxed the job one way or another? What has America gained from bushie’s oh-so-decisively-manly commander-in-chiefiness? Do Russia or China or Bin Laden have even the slightest worry that they’ll get out-manouevered by Grampy Stackblower?

Brokaw’s still stuck in 2002 and should therefore eat it.

 
 

I deeply regret the obligation to make up fictitious poll numbers, if there is nothing in any actual NBC / WSJ poll that fits the narrative of fairness to both sides.

 
 

In fairness to me, I’m just going to end with one note; rich people sign my checks and invite me to their villas in Tuscany.

 
 

To top it all off, Brokaw was simply lying. There was no such poll. Just remember; NBC = G.E., one of the biggest “defense” contractors in the country.

 
 

also, i regret deeply that i must continue to call the job to which these two men aspire “commander-in-chief”, in spite of the fact that this merely reinforces the mistaken belief that our president, in a republic, is some kind of general. that would be idiotic of me, repellent really, given that in our particular republic our civilian head is in fact separate and more important than our military heads, not just someone with a bigger military rank.

but instead i will merely lob something out there, not explain the context, not do enough research to have thought deeply about any of it, and remain content to cash my MASSIVE check while my company relentlessly downsized the news division, particularly overseas.

on a final note, america, please be aware that i, tom brokaw, have never been that bright a guy. i just have a gravelly voice and some good writers. my opinion about anything other than 500 dollar bottles of wine and the best place to get clam chowder on nantucket should be taken with can-be-seen-from-space giant grains of salt.

 
 

Am I going to die before this guy retires for good?

 
 

“You are as full of avian excrement as a Christmas goose.”

christmas dinners at his house must really SUCK.

 
 

… few people are so addled that they would bother presenting pro-McCain tidbits as evidence of underlying pro-Obama bias.

Unfortunately this is just not true.

 
Dragon-King Althaüs
 

So you see, when the media says nice things about Obama (which I’d like to point out, they do all the time) that’s evidence of liberal bias.
And when the media says nice things about McCain, that’s evidence of liberal bias.
This type of argument is what I like to call reason to uncork another bottle of red intellectual honesty. Because it recognizes the inherent and unarguable truth of left-wing media bias.
You know what else is a great example of the insipid hold that the poofy liberal élites have over all media discourse? Everything, that’s what.

 
 

In all fairness, how much “Commander in Chief” experience does the fourth-from-the-bottom grad POW get? I could be wrong, but I don’t think they played many war games in Hanoi.

That’s some kind of “crazy and paranoid crime boss” mentality to have, when you think that pro-you statements = pro-the enemy.

Shorter Althouse: “Only the true Messiah denies his divinity!”

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

Remove the cognitive dissonance, and the rightard personality crumbles like the House of Usher (and no, I don’t mean that shirtless young guy!).

 
 

I’m skipping all the other blah blah blah, which you can read at the link. It’s about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, al Qaeda, etc.

Nothing relevant to Presidential politics, surely.

 
 

You know, bottom line, one guy knew what the fuck he was talking about in that debate, and one guy seemed to have been dropped behind a podium with no notice and no time to find out thing one about the things he was blathering about.

And the American people think the clueless guy would make the best leader in a crisis? No wonder you have a long track record of bombing the shit out of your problems.

 
The Great Porn Dragon
 

Even I wouldn’t fuck her.

 
Ann Althouse's unfortunate liver
 

Help!

 
 

jenniebee,

Very, very few people inspire violence in me like that guy. I normally abhor it. For him, and Little Dougie Feckless (The Stupidest Fucking Guy On The Planet), I can make exceptions.

 
 

Very, very few people inspire violence in me like that guy.

Isn’t that a face that just screams, “Pie me!”?

 
 

Isn’t that a face that just screams, “Pie me!”?

With a fucking chainsaw.

Sorry, I just really feel that he is sub-human scrap.

 
 

dEar goD, pleeez let Say-ruh be Say-ruh…

 
 

Well, here we go.

The text of what I like to call the Banking Oversight and Healthy Investment for Corporate America act.

At first glance, just checking the table of contents, I have to wonder at this,

Sec. 133. Study on Mark-to-Market Accounting.

Study?!?!?!? Excuse the fuck out of me, but wasn’t that the primary problem behind the previous “biggest fucking financial disaster in three generations”, the collapses of Enron and Arthur Andersen? Okay, it was greedy bastards abusing the living shit out of the system, but M-to-M was the big vehicle that let them hide everything until it was waaaaay too late. This was years ago, people. Why the hell are we still allowing such “novel accounting practices” anyway?

This is not going to be good for my blood pressure.

 
Dragon-King Althaüs
 

Oooh, that misguided Doyle. See, there’s only one possible explanation as to why Brokaw said anything positive towards McCain, and that’s because he’s a raving socialist Obamabot – just like all media people are. Doyle calls it “pity” but as I pointed out, that just means he’s agreeing with me! Everybody agrees with me! I am so witty and charming and persuasive and pretty! So when he says he’s not agreeing with me, he really means that he thinks I’m the smarterest!

 
 

Nouriel Roubini, one of the most consistent economist who desperately tried to warn the U.S. financial establishment out of its idiocy for the past few years, is flaming-haired mad opposed to THIS ‘bailout’ bill:

Did we say really? Even by the normal standards of Roubini’s tendency to hyperventilate state his case forcefully, the good professor rises to levels of choler heretofore unseen.

Roubini focuses on many of the issues we have discussed in our earlier posts (most notably this one) but he teases out some of the issues in more detail. And he really hates it, whoops, I think we covered that already:

Whenever there is a systemic banking crisis there is a need to recapitalize the banking/financial system to avoid an excessive and destructive credit contraction. But purchasing toxic/illiquid assets of the financial system is not the most effective and efficient way to recapitalize the banking system…..

In the Scandinavian banking crises (Sweden, Norway, Finland) that are a model of how a banking crisis should be resolved there was not government purchase of bad assets; most of the recapitalization occurred through various injections of public capital in the banking system. Purchase of toxic assets instead – in most cases in which it was used – made the fiscal cost of the crisis much higher and expensive (as in Japan and Mexico).

Thus the claim by the Fed and Treasury that spending $700 billion of public money is the best way to recapitalize banks has absolutely no factual basis or justification.

This way of recapitalizing financial institutions is a total rip-off that will mostly benefit – at a huge expense for the US taxpayer – the common and preferred shareholders and even unsecured creditors of the banks. Even the late addition of some warrants that the government will get in exchange of this massive injection of public money is only a cosmetic fig leaf of dubious value as the form and size of such warrants is totally vague and fuzzy.

So this rescue plan is a huge and massive bailout of the shareholders and the unsecured creditors of the financial firms (not just banks but also other non bank financial institutions); with $700 billion of taxpayer money the pockets of reckless bankers and investors have been made fatter under the fake argument that bailing out Wall Street was necessary to rescue Main Street from a severe recession.

Instead, the restoration of the financial health of distressed financial firms could have been achieved with a cheaper and better use of public money…

….via public injections of preferred shares into these firms; via required matching injections of Tier 1 capital by current shareholders to make sure that such shareholders take first tier loss in the presence of public recapitalization; via suspension of dividends payments; via a conversion of some of the unsecured debt into equity (a debt for equity swap).

All these actions would have implied a much lower fiscal costs for the government as they would have forced the shareholders and creditors of the banks to contribute to the recapitalization of the banks…..For example if the private sector had done its fair matching share only $350 billion of public money could have been used; and of this $350 billion half could have taken the form of purchase of bad assets and the other half should have taken the form of injection of public capital in these financial institutions.

So instead of purchasing – most likely at an excessive price – $700 billion of toxic assets the government could have achieved the same result – or a better result of recapitalizing the banks – by spending only $175 billion in the direct purchase of toxic assets.

And even after the government will waste $700 billion buying toxic assets many banks that have not yet provisioned for such losses/writedowns will be even more undercapitalized than before. So this plan does not even achieve the basic objective of recapitalizing undercapitalized banks….

Thus, the Treasury plan is a disgrace: a bailout of reckless bankers, lenders and investors that provides little direct debt relief to borrowers and financially stressed households and that will come at a very high cost to the US taxpayer.

And the plan does nothing to resolve the severe stress in money markets and interbank markets that are now close to a systemic meltdown. It is pathetic that Congress did not consult any of the many professional economists that have presented – many on the RGE Monitor Finance blog forum – alternative plans that were more fair and efficient and less costly ways to resolve this crisis.

This is again a case of privatizing the gains and socializing the losses; a bailout and socialism for the rich, the well-connected and Wall Street.

And it is a scandal that even Congressional Democrats have fallen for this Treasury scam that does little to resolve the debt burden of millions of distressed home owners.

But, you know, SHUT UP, because our Democratic Leaders know exactly what they are doing by rushing to give President George W. Bush Jr. and Goldman-Sachs vet Hank Paulson $700 Billion to play with.

Sure, actual economists seem to think it’s a trillion dollar boondoggle, but we don’t want to see any mushroom clouds on Wall Street so we better pony up a trillion to investors right now right now right now right now right now right now right now right now right now right now right now right now right now right now else we all die The End.

 
 

Sounds like our little Annie Althouse has been sucking up the Two Buck Chuck again.

Or maybe not, as that would imply that she occasionally stopped.

.

 
 

The fact is, it’s a psychological fact, and it has been proven over and over again that empathy for another point of view is for the most part only available to the conservative mind. Liberals truly lack the ability to understand opposing viewpoints.

 
Gary-Ann Rupperthouse
 

The fact is liberal media bias is the only reason I’m not on teevee 24-7!

 
 

I am for the “Swedish plan.”

For all the good it does.

 
 

I too support an American turn to Swedish models.

 
 

I, for one, applaud the Bush Administration’s economic policies.

 
 

meh.

I haven’t read the thing, but it does seem to knock the worst edges off of Hank’s Big Adventure. I hear it’s going to start with only a quarter trillion in the kitty, which is a step in the right direction, I suppose.

Until I’m shown otherwise, I’m sticking with the belief that we’re fucked anyway.

 
Roving Gang of Tom Brokaws
 

Tom Brokaw 4: Looks like someone’s a little lost.
Tom Brokaw 2: Leave this lot, losers.
Tom Brokaw 5: Unless you want a licking.
Tom Brokaw 1: And we’d love to deliver that licking, right, fellas?
Tom Brokaw 2: Yeah!
Tom Brokaw 3: Love it!
Tom Brokaw 6: A lot!
Tom Brokaw 5: I’d love to lick a lemon lollipop in Lillehammer…and John McCain’s shriveled nuts.

 
 

“Tragedy today as former President Gerald Ford was eaten by wolves. He was delicious.”

 
 

The entire amount can be requested at once. And very little can stop them from getting it all upfront, either.

The final $350 billion, for example, can be requested by Paulson / Bush Jr., and it’s sort of a negative option.

(1) Bush requests the final $350 billion as already provided for in the draft legislation. A timer starts ticking for 15 days.
(2) Congress has to vote, and let’s say it votes no.
(3) Bush vetoes their “no” vote.
(4) If by the end of the 15 days from request, Congress doesn’t over-ride Bush’s veto with a 2/3 vote, Bush gets the money.
(5) Profit.

 
 

My guess? Inside NBC, they are fretting about criticism that they show favoritism toward Obama, so Brokaw thought it might help to lob out a glaring hunk of McCain favoritism. Sorry! That just looked really weird. Consequently, it reinforced the perception that NBC favors Obama.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 
 

So in other words, Ann, by suing Sadly, No! you’re actually in *favor* of the anonymous spoofing?

 
 

Do you even understand where I’m coming from?

Sadly, No!

It’s because I’m a contrarian, an outside-the-box thinker, someone who sees things that nobody else can.

In the old days, people called it delusional. Now they call it maverickosity.

 
Rest of the PGA field
 

I too support an American turn to Swedish models.

Damn that Tiger! Way out in front of us, AGAIN!

 
 

The apparent disdain shown by your commentators’ parodic comments using my name, Ann Althouse–and by insignificant websites like this publishing them–simply proves that they and you are afraid that the public will understand that they and you are in fact biased in favor of me, Ann Althouse.

While I, Ann Althouse, denounce your attempts to steal my name, I, Ann Althouse, welcome your actual bias in my favor that their presence proves. It’s about time!

 
 

D. Aristophanes said,

September 27, 2008 at 4:52

Big Palin reveal coming Monday. Re: Anon. Will alert teh krew as it hits.

I’m dying of curiosity. Any more word on this?

 
 

Just adding bookmarks to my new computer, please pay me no mind.

Also, what TE said.

 
 

Up is the new down.

 
The Goddamn Bathouse
 

Stop hitting yourself! Stop it! Stop!

 
 

El Cid,

Oh, thanks. I feel much better now.

 
 

Read these letters; they own you, S,N!

All that shows is that Palin’s admirers are impervious to the evidence that’s right under their noses. SadlyNo Snarkery can’t fix everything!

 
 

Read these letters; they own you, S,N!

Wow, Mr. The Trout sir, you’re SO right – I’m totally enthralled by the depth of insight & brutal (yawn) critique in (yawn) these brilliant (yawn) epistles from the … from the … from-m-m-m … mlrmf … blrf … zzz zzz zzz zzz zzz zzz.

 
 

I found something called a cpn number that will
give you a new credit profile within 30 days.
the website is

http://www.creditmenow.info

 
 

(comments are closed)