” . . . . what (Palin) did in Alaska and can do for the rest of the country.”

Does he mean the part about getting more cash for the US than folks are paying in taxes? I think China’s already been taking care of that.

You’re getting ahead of yourself there, Cap’n. You need capital gains first before you start worrying about a tax on them.

They need to run ads of just Palin, and her speaking to the Energy Inpedence issue and what she did in Alaska and can do for the rest of the country.

Actually, if we were to institute massive windfall taxes on oil companies the way Palin did in Alaska, I wouldn’t be against it:

Republicans in Congress this June united to defeat a proposed windfall tax on oil companies, deriding it as a bad idea that would discourage investment in U.S. oil exploration.

Things worked out far differently in the GOP stronghold of Alaska, a state whose economic fate is closely tied to the oil industry.

Over the opposition of oil companies, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska’s Legislature last year approved a major increase in taxes on the oil industry — a step that has generated stunning new wealth for the state as oil prices soared.

At a time when Americans are feeling the pinch at the gasoline pump and oil companies are racking up record profits, Alaska’s choice foreshadows one of the sharpest debates in the upcoming presidential election.

Democrat Barack Obama supports a national windfall-profits tax, while Republican John McCain opposes it.

Alaska collected an estimated $6 billion from the new tax during the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. That helped push the state’s total oil revenue — from new and existing taxes, as well as royalties — to more than $10 billion, double the amount received last year.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html

Can’t believe they’re still pushing the trickle-down bullshit.

Wait, yes I can…

Do these people need one of these falling institutions to actually land on their head before they get it?

Team McCain did a good job in getting in front of the issue

In this instance, “getting in front of the issue” means putting out a completely self-contradictory message.

McCain today on the economy reminds me of Bush in the months after 9/11. “Things are fucked up; the fundamentals of the economy are strong.” “Be terrified; everything is fine, so go about your business.”

Oh, God, please make this happen.

I wouldn’t wish this because history shows it would work. You gotta tell people that you care about putting money back in their wallets.

OT but you need to see this:

Fox News calling out the McCain campaign for lying. THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT IS AT AN END.

Okay, up until now I was convinced that all this “the economy is sound” bullshit was just them being politically calculating and cynical. They couldn’t possibly really believe it.

But they do. It’s all faith-based with them, and this is just one more instance of them reciting the Rosary while the house burns down around them.

I’ll just never get these loser turds. They just believe so fucking hard that a completely unregulated market is the only solution, ever. They SEE Ivan Boesky happen and they don’t give a fuck.They watch Enron, Abramoff, WorldCom, Countrywide, the list goes on and on and on. It’s like they’d read 52 articles about tainted food and the first thing out of their mouths is: “let’s eliminate the FDA!”. Caveat Vorator!
Does some ratfuck named “Cap’n Ed” really believe that some day, oh boy howdy soooooome day, he’s gonna be sitting on a board somewhere just voting hisself acres of cash he can store, untaxed in the Caymens and bwahahaha then he’ll show you! Oh yes, you just wait and see!!!
W. T. F?
Maybe it’s like pregnancy/birth when women’s brains shoot fun chemicals into their brains to make them forget those 27 hours of labor and actually want to do it again. No matter how many times Cap’n Ed or “My Grill Done Broke” Wankee lay a bowling ball, they keep coming back for more from these assholes that are laughing at them as they rob them (and us) blind.

I guess the McCain campaign will just have to punish Fox News for this insolence by pulling Palin out of her interview with Hannity.

“Oh noes! Obama is gonna tax and spend you to death.”

I’m so over this moronic wingnut battle cry. Please tax me a little bit more so my three nephews aren’t left holding the burden of our record deficit. I’ll pay a little more for quality health care for the elderly and poor and I will throw a few bucks extra for crazy ideas like fixing our failing infrastructure and increased benefits for vets.

Ed is happy to bail out Fannie Mae. Fucktard.

“They need to run ads of just Palin, and her speaking to the Energy Inpedence issue and what she did in Alaska and can do for the rest of the country.”

How many henries does “Energy Inpedence” have? (I’m assuming the idiot Malkinoid is talking about impedence)

Do these people need one of these falling institutions to actually land on their head before they get it?

You know, something very similar to that happened in a dream I had once.

“…the people most needed to return stability back to the markets. Now more than ever, we need low capital-gains tax rates to encourage investment and risk-taking in order to create more strength in the economy.”

You want to really stimulate the economy? Give money to poor people. Those fuckers spend every red cent they get their hands on!

Has anybody else noticed that ole Special Ed seems to have lost a few more IQ points now that he’s gone to work for The Madwoman of Shallow?

“I’ll just never get these loser turds. They just believe so fucking hard that a completely unregulated market is the only solution, ever.”

Not hard to figure them out, actually…

They just blame EVERYTHING on Liberals.

Their big Talking Point is that the Dem congress caused the current problems, attributing an “economic delay time” of a year or so. Their “economic delay time” varies anywhere from 1 day to 20 years so they can blame a Dem for each and every single problem they cause.

There’s an Energy Impedance issue? I thought you just had to make sure whether you were hooking the speakers up in series or parallel, as long as you bought the right impedance.

Please give me tax & spend liberals over borrow & steal Republicans.

The Era of Bad Government Is Over!

Obama’s speech last March about Wall Street to Wall Street bears some revisiting. Check it out here.

A few of the bullet points: “First, if you can borrow from the government, you should be subject to government oversight and supervision. … Second, there needs to be general reform of the requirements to which all regulated financial institutions are subjected. … Third, we need to streamline a framework of overlapping and competing regulatory agencies. … Fourth, we need to regulate institutions for what they do, not what they are. … Fifth, we must remain vigilant and crack down on trading activity that crosses the line to market manipulation. … Sixth, we need a process that identifies systemic risks to the financial system.”

(They sound better when he elaborates them, actually, as he does for each.) On regulation, Obama will probably be able to congratulate McCain for moving slightly towards his own position. But then Obama segued into tax cuts for the poor and health care for all, and bingo we have a distinction with a difference.

Of course, we’re gonna NEED that health care …

John McCain has bracelet with the letters WWGD* inscribed.

What Would Gramm Deregulate

Off topic – the mighty Don Surber has posted another masterpiece. Did you know that oil companies freed the slaves and saved the whales?

If someone’s already mentioned this gem, my apologies. I’ve been distracted by gigantic hurricanes and haven’t been keeping up with SN.

I think this time we should demand a $900 check!

Give money to poor people. Those fuckers spend every red cent they get their hands on!

Right. All spending is subsidy if you spend in America and it helps your own guys. The cynic’s view of foreign aid is that it’s a subsidy to American industry when you send a bunch of John Deere tractors to help farmers in North Buttfuckia. It seemed to me to be a ridiculous betrayal of the secret of military spending when Airbus got a chunk of Pentagon spending.

If you want to prop up those small businesses you pretend to give a shit about then let people who aren’t going overseas have money to cycle around in your own economy. Tax the zillionaires to do that.

If they think there’s an energy impedance issue, it would make sense that they’re trying to install a resistor to solve it.

THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT IS AT AN END

Megyn Kelly: “I’m not giving him (Obama) any credit, I’m saying what the independant analysts are saying. They say that that claim is false, and if that’s false why would John McCain do that Tucker? Why wouldn’t he just level with the voters and say – look he’s going to raise taxes on the wealthy or whatever you consider someone making more than $250,000 and it’s going to have a trickle down effect…”

McCain – so out of touch even “trickle-down” morans think he’s lost it. Next up: Laffer curve enthusiasts start attacking McCain FROM THE LEFT.

The ad copy writes itself:
We can’t afford Obama’s dangerous policies that will stop wealthy investors and CEOs from tinkling their wealth down on you. Please save our 3 vacation homes and luxury yachts! Vote McCain ’08!

From the McCain ad in the Malikn link:

Only proven reformers like John McCain and Sarah Palin…

BWAHAHAHAHHHA!! Sarah Palin – proven reformer.

McCain – Palin. Leadership. Experience.

BWAHAHAHHAHAHHAH!!!!

They seriously are running with the whole Sarah Palin is a wily veteran, a tough as nails – seen it all – executive-o-matic.

Now more than ever, we need low capital-gains tax rates to encourage investment and risk-taking in order to create more strength in the economy.

They never fucking learn, do they?

Addicts are like that.
.

One of the Red States that terrorist appeaser Barack Obama supposedly had a good chance of carrying has just smashed his hope to pieces.

John McCain now has a solid ten point lead over Obama in Virginia. Couple that with his twenty point lead in North Carolina (another Red State that Obama supposedly had a chance to carry) and his one new found lead in Michigan, than this spells certain doom for the man of “hope and change.”

http://www.topnews.in/usa/virginia-polls-mccain-having-healthy-lead-over-obama-21241

J— said,

Don’t Mock Supply Side Jesus, mf’er!

Here’s an idea: Let’s get American workers to increase their productivity even more than they already have in the last twenty years, making sure that none of the resulting windfall goes to anyone but these desperate bankers and CEOs and Paris Hiltons who need it the most. Then let’s give them a whopping big tax cut—it’s their due after all and we should show them our gratitude —while we raise Social Security taxes on workers, eliminate overtime pay, and cut pensions and benefits.

Has this been tried this before? I think it’s a winner.

terrorist appeaser Barack Obama

I believe he appeased Al Qaeda with milk and cookies one day.

Did I hear a little bird chirping?

Poll: Obama Takes Narrow Lead In Virginia.
~

Actually, if we were to institute massive windfall taxes on oil companies the way Palin did in Alaska, I wouldn’t be against it

Not a bad deal, $3,200 from the state. Word is, the payments are so high this year that minors will have file tax returns (yes, this is taxable income) for the first time. Palin seems to understand that buying votes is good politics. Not sure she can scale it up nationally and stay on the ticket, since McThuselah is opposed to windfall taxes.

I believe he appeased Al Qaeda with milk and cookies one day.

If you give a terrorist milk and cookies, he’ll probably want to institute sharia law, especially if they weren’t made from halal ingredients.

Don’t Mock Supply Side Jesus, mf’er!

Ha. To the DFH mantra “Jesus was a community organizer!” true patriots respond, “Jesus was a supply sider!”

If you give a terrorist milk and cookies, he’ll probably want to institute sharia law

If a terrorist wants to institute sharia law, he’ll probably start looking around for whips and swords.

Now more than ever, we need to build piles of fake money and dance around them as we light them on fire, hoping the gods of money-bringing will bring back the money they had been raining on us. We don’t need no damn pointy-head arugula-eaters telling us it’s got something to do with like regulatin’ and policy-makin’ and taxin’ and sech.

Don Surber is crying out for some S,N luv:

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2008/09/14/oily-excuse/

15 yard penalty and his life savings wiped out by BushMcCainPalin handing it to Lehmann Bros to ‘Robert White’ for “taunting”.
Ya know, White, my job and life are pretty rock solid for the next few years, come what may. It’s people like you who sometimes make me hope you get what you wish for and taunt us 55 days out from the election about. And I also hope that when you get back, injured, from Iran/Georgia/Venezuela/Russia/Taiwan/The Stans/wherever else McPalin want to send you (I’m too old to be drafted, alas), you find your savings destroyed and Vets benefits cut by your Maverick Messiah McCain (as McSame already has voted to do). I really don’t see how assholes like you will ever see the light otherwise, and that’s unfortunate. A little Tough Love and maybe you’ll learn the GOP has been robbing you blind while you wave your tiny, ahem, pennant (“go team!”) from the nosebleed section of the bleachers.
The rest of us are concerned that the very visible policies of McSame will be as disasterous for our nation as the past 8 years have been. We cheer for Team America, not Team Destroy America For All But Our Rich Cronies.

And if you give him some whips and swords, he’ll probably ask how many wetsuits you own and if he can borrow them.

How many henries does “Energy Inpedence” have? (I’m assuming the idiot Malkinoid is talking about impedence)

Actually I’d guess it’s ‘energy independence’.

Reminds me of one of the better Friends gags:

– “Hey Joey, what would you do if you were omnipotent?”
– “That’s easy. I’d kill myself.”
– “Um… what?”
– “Well, if Little Joey’s not workin’, then Big Joey doesn’t wanna live.” (Laugh track)
– “No, no, Joey – om-nipotent.”
– “Jeez, I feel for ya, man.”

Robert White – hey, why don’t you get back to us when you’re standing in a soup line next year after your messiahs win and flush this whole mess entirely down the crapper?

Oh, and about that “10 point lead” McCain has in Virginia? Sorry, but SurveyUSA (just released today) shows Obama leading McCain there by 4 points. And that’s with him getting only 88% of the black vote…which you just know is too low. I’d be surprised if McCain gets more than 5% of the black vote when it’s all said and done. After all, W wasn’t able to get more than 8%.

If they think there’s an energy impedance issue, it would make sense that they’re trying to install a resistor to solve it.

Impedance matching with maximum power transfer requires the use of a transformer. Provided we’re talking AC energy here, of course.

They need to run ads of just Palin, and her speaking to the Energy Inpedence issue and what she did in Alaska and can do for the rest of the country.

Doesn’t he mean the Alaskan Independence issue? Because it’d really help if those moochers let loose their death grip on the federal tit.

If you give him westuits, he’ll want to veil your women.

While we’re at it, we also need more guns in the schools to protect our children from school shootings!

And once he’s done veiling your women, he’s going to be hungry….

Actually I’d guess it’s ‘energy independence’.

No, we already solved that – just raze and invade any place that has our oil underneath it.

the Energy Inpedence issue

I think, nowadays, they have these little blue pills for fixing that. Or maybe Energy just needs a nice massage and some visual aids.

That’s what we need, Mad dog!!

Transformers!!! huge, kick ass robots that look like cars and trucks and helicopters….

wait, what?

Actually, you’d see Palin actually speak about a topic ahe CAN ace, due to her time working zealously hand-in-tentacle with Big Oil – a relationship she can airily spin into an advantage – & see her do it right when she’s still quite popular to boot.

I’ll stick to wishing for my “My Little Mecha-Pony(TM)” … because that is how I tend to roll.

I, on the other hand, DO want Palin to speak to her rationale for jumping into the Veepstakes while under investigation. Entering national politics under a cloud of judicial suspicion isn’t exactly propitious or even reasonable now, is it?

A Big Oil VP (with a President as old as the hills) right after the Big Oil President – golly, what could possibly go wrong there?

By calling it “Energy Inpedence” the wingnut believes it can solve the oil issue by misspelling it, misunderstanding it, & hoping really really hard it will just go away. Sadly, the wingnut is neither endangered nor rare & it can mate prodigiously.

Lucid insight into science, history, politics or culture renders wingnuts either rabid or oblivious. Ironically, it is also the best preventative vaccine against wingnuttery.

Now more than ever, we need low capital-gains tax rates to encourage investment and risk-taking in order to create more strength in the economy.

Addicts are like that.
******

Sounds like we need to do one massive motherfucking intervention.

Since impedance is resistance, “Energy inpedence” is close to a Freudian slip. But even more like serial killers leaving clues at the crime scenes, because their conscious mind is out to lunch and some little sliver of humanity that still remains in the unconscious is screaming “Stop me before I kill again”.

They are resisting any transition off of oil that they can possibly imagine.

But why?? What does that even have to do with the mess of things they *say* they care about? Using oil has screw-all to do with big government, abortion, God guns or gays. Replacing oil would make us *less* dependent on furriners, not more. In a logical world you’d think they’d love that.

This *is* a logical world, of course. It’s just the logic gets hidden when it’s unconscious. Oil usage is now part of the Big America they love; part of that ideology that they’ve been sold on that’s all boiled together into one greasy sugary mess.

As near as I can figure out, conservatism now stands for one part “Fuck everyone else”, one part “I don’t want to change”, one part “Damn the facts, I *feel* like I’m right!” and one part “blarg goofle vshitiltfixaxen huff huff AYEEEEH USA USA USA!”

I could make a flow chart from this that would blow your mind.

From “the blogs posts write themselves” dept: a commenter over at J.H. Kunstler’s joint weighs in:

This has been a Democrat controlled governance for the past eight years. Bush has been a weak hand and a neo-con but not representative of flag ship Republican tenets. The mortage collapse evolved out of a liberal demand that Everyone is ENTITLED (operative word)to thier own home whether they can pay for it or not.

Are you getting this? ZOMG!@1! Mitch McConnell and the Boyz are Stealth Democrats! Who knew?

What must be done? Easy…….. vote Republican!@1, because we can’t afford any more big spendin’ Republicans…umm. Stealth Dems …. no, wait, I know this one…aww, screw it……. he’s black, OK?

Now more than ever, we need to build piles of fake money and dance around them as we light them on fire

As of this morning, it would probably be cheaper to just use 13-week T-bills instead of printing fake money.

Quick: Operation THE LAST 7.5 YEARS OF REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN WASHINGTON (AND REPUBLICAN ABSOLUTE POWER 2002 – 2006) NEVER, EVER HAPPENED! must be sent into Phase II!

Replacing oil would make us *less* dependent on furriners, not more. In a logical world you’d think they’d love that.

But you’re forgetting that Teh Librulz~!1 like alternative energy, and the entire leg-tingling _rush_ you get out of being a conservative comes from pissing off the Dirty Fucking Hippies. They like it because we don’t. QED.

Operation THE LAST 7.5 YEARS OF REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN WASHINGTON (AND REPUBLICAN ABSOLUTE POWER 2002 – 2006) NEVER, EVER HAPPENED!

I keep calling it the Highlander 2 presidency.

The idiots like Robert White scream endlessly about Liberals because they’ve been programmed and ordered to by their heroes like Limpballs.

I’m not sure why “law-n-order” republicans idolize a convicted felon like Limpballs, but it probably revolves around their dependency issues and their need for a “Big Daddy”. I think Scaife and the other people who finance propagandaizers like Limpballs picked him out quite consciously for his oodles of fat. They also picked out Coulter, Malkin, and the other “cute” haters so that republican males would have something to masturbate with.

When trying to figure out the head-scratching question of “Why do republicans think the way they do?”, it is never bad to fall back on these facts:

1) first of all, they don’t “think”. They react, and follow orders. No thinking allowed.
2) their beliefs are shaped by the tremendous amount of hatred, fear, anger, and cowardice that fill them
3) many, many, MANY of them were diddled by Uncle Johnny or by Father McCain (just a coincidence), and they are trying desperately to figure out a way to erase that pain from their heads.

I just read where Lehman Bros. folded with $613 billion in debt.

Pikers.

The Bush administration piles up that much every fuckin’ YEAR.

Speaking of the “Crisis” ad – everyone’s favourite McCain fluffer is working overtime:
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/outrage_and_outrageousness.html

In the comments, this is how he defends himself:

J.J., the issue with that Obama ad was the verb tense. The ad says Black and Davis lobby in the present tense. They don’t. They used to. Some of the other volunteer advisers with the McCain campaign still are lobbyists, however, as I have written about before.

So, in order to give his “Obama’s doing it too” spiel, he has to nitpick the exact wording – even though he concedes that the point is still essentially correct. He actually revisits this later in the thread, splitting hairs and whatnot. I recognize it’d be pretty hypoctirical to accuse him of being pedantic – but it’s no surprise that only one side gets this level of error-hunting. Remember – he also categorically rejects any accusations of bias. Also:

it does not follow that if I say both McCain and Obama have mislead voters, then i am arguing that McCain and Obama have equally mislead voters.

Also not following: if I say that Michael Scherer’s writing stinks in the same way that a greasy smear of diarrhea reeks – I am not arguing that they smell equally bad. Clearly Scherer’s shit is way worse.

Eventually leading to this hissy fit(http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/outrage_and_outrageousness.html#comment-577743):

Dear Equivalence Critics, Please stop, all of you who are accusing me of claiming equivalence. Go back and read the story I wrote. Go back and read the blog post. I do not claim equivalence…

Okay then – it’s obvious that Michael can’t disagree with the fact that McCain has been WAY WORSE in terms of pearl clutching at the fainting couch. So it should be no problem for him to just simply state that. A new post with a MS byline that goes something like this:

Clarification
Posted by Michael Scherer

My posts are meant to be strictly informative (BWAHAHAHAHA) and objective and unbiased (HAHAHAHAHHAHA), but looking over the most recent ones, I can see that one can infer from my writing that Obama and McCain have been equally dishonorable in the running of their campaigns. I felt I didn’t need to address this since it’s obvious to everybody (even ones with their lips planted firmly on JiSM3’s “platform”) that the McCain camp has been much more egregious in this sense. So to clarify, yes Obama’s doing too – but McCain’s been hammering the vapid and negative campaigning so hard it seems very weak tea to try and compare them.

The “people most needed to return stability back to the markets?” He’s talking about super-rich people, right? I mean, he must be, because those are the ones who would be most affected by the Obama tax-plan.

Did I miss the version of the past 10 years where the middle class caused all the economic turmoil while the rich folks were desperately trying to return stability to the markets? Or maybe I’ve just slipped into an alternate universe.

In the version of reality that I come from, the current economic toil was caused by the super-rich engaging in complicated schemes designed to hijack every last penny out of the economy through unbridled greed and chicanery.

What’s been going on in this universe?

An addendum to my rant above:

Don’t EVER let idiot whackjob wingnuts try to claim they are brave and Liberals are cowards. Let me put it this way:

One group has a huge need to walk around with guns and keep arsenals in their homes to feel safe. The other group has no such need, and doesn’t seem to suffer in the least by not being armed to the teeth.

Remember: republicans are cowards. They prove it with every gun they brag about.

To add to what Repig said,

They believe that the world (“life”, whatever) is a zero-sum game. If anyone else is “getting” anything, then it must be getting taken away from them. What’s worse, because only they are “God’s Chosen”, if someone else gets something, that means that “EVIL IS WINNING!”

Everything else just seems to proceed logically (or not) from this.

Spotted, a proponent of the free market system accuses Republicans of socialism.

Quoted if only to make Gary Ruppert and The Truth’s eyes red and wheezy:

From an administration that purports to favor free markets…they proclaimed their regrets that they would have to spread the costs of this error over the entire population. Instead of fixing the problem, however, they only worsen it, underscoring the principle that America will not tolerate failure in business, and the bigger the failure, the more likely it is to be bailed out.

Note that this socialistic bailout and nationalization – to use two forbidden words – were enacted by a Republican administration. Isn’t it ironic that when you look back at the big upticks in government intervention over the economy, you often find Republicans at the helm.

Yes, isn’t it ironic that Republicans – those fiscally conservative chaps who believe in free markets – have created a shitpile of unrepayable debt and laid it all at the tax payers’ door. Where oh where has all the money gone (Iraq) and who oh who makes a tradition of shitting on regulation (Republicans) and who is owed hundreds of billions of dollars (China…she must be chortling).

As for McCain and Palin, they wrote in the Wall Street Journal that this bailout is “sadly necessarily” even as they promise reforms that will “require the highest standards of accounting, reporting and transparency ever demanded in government.” Well, here’s the thing: no one demands higher standards than the market itself, but you have to turn these institutions over to the market in order to elicit such standards.

damn, forgot to put my name in. that was me just above.

> Quoted if only to make Gary Ruppert and The Truth’s eyes red and wheezy:

It won’t, because of the fantasy noted in this thread that “Bush is a dirty LIBERAL!”

It is fantasyland 24×7 for the terrified-of-reality republicans.

Hooray for Energy In Pedants!
Replacing oil would make us *less* dependent on furriners, not more

WTF?! Where do you think wind comes from? It blows onto American shores – from foreign places. And solar? Last time I checked, there’s no zip code for the Sun.

You do know that the Mooslems are gearing up the EndTimes Unholy Army of Islam-homo-atheist-Marxism. Those evil imams are gonna use the powers that Satan/Mohammed gave them to swallow the sun, make the rivers run with blood (which coagulates! Kiss all that lefty-dream micro-hydro generation good-bye) and something that’ll make turbines less efficient too – probably by wearing them on their heads.

The only way to fight off the threat is by burning oil drilled from the ANWR, to power the factories that’ll make our bullets.

> As for McCain and Palin, they wrote in the Wall Street Journal

I’ll give anybody 10,000 to 1 odds that they wrote this.
You put up a dollar and win 10,000 from me if they actually wrote it. Any takers?

PLEASE????

The only thing that worries me about this is that there already is a Black Monday

Actually, I quite enjoy being a Liberal and “armed to the teeth” for the way the cognitive dissonance makes Reichtard heads esplode.

(bbbrrRRRAAAAP! splat.)

> Actually, I quite enjoy being a Liberal and “armed to the teeth” for the way the cognitive dissonance makes Reichtard heads esplode.

I think it would be fun to go to a gun convention with a nice big Obama button on.

What I have read over the years regarding the economy, and various posters’ opinions thereof as to tax rates, government spending, etc., I have concluded that economics is a religion, not a science.

Despite eight-plus (since Clinton did some of this too) years of deregulation and tax cutting to the “most productive” sector of the economy (i.e. corporate top dogs, stock market giants, banking conglomerates and multimillionaires), the economy is now moribund and gasping for breath. Yet what do the fervent “believers” call for? More of the same.

Apparently no empirical evidence of actual success is required when espousing tax cuts and slashing government programs as the path to prosperity.

Northern Bob White:
A small chicken-like bird of the eastern United States and Mexico, the Northern Bobwhite is an important game bird. It is extensively hunted in some areas. Its loud call announces its name.
* Medium-sized quail.
* Runs on ground.
* Small round head with slight crest.
* Round body with very short tail.
* Colored reddish and brown.
* Pale throat and eyestripe white in male, buff in female.
*Declining significantly in most states.

Their big Talking Point is that the Dem congress caused the current problems, attributing an “economic delay time” of a year or so. Their “economic delay time” varies anywhere from 1 day to 20 years so they can blame a Dem for each and every single problem they cause.

Oh jeez this is so true. I remember, as a young lad, we were living through the long national nightmare of peace and prosperity that was the Clinton years. And I remember watching the talking heads on Sunday TV (my dad was an addict) – these pieces of shit went on the shows one by one and said the economic prosperity was due to Reagan and (father) Bush, and there was a “lag time” in the system where we didn’t see it until Clinton came to office.

It’s such a huge pile of bullshit yet they keep trotting it out and it keeps getting said. I promise you, if the economy starts to turn around when Obama is President, they will bring out that fucking “lag time” argument and claim it is because of current Bush’s policies.

You all don’t *get* economics at all. We *can’t* do anything at all about the domestic economy and spend 10 billion a month in Iraq (financed by our friends the Chinese) at the same time!!!

Did I hear a little bird chirping?

[pouting a little]
ttlw – you could have slipped in a little mockery about relying on an article that opens with Engrish, and -then- snickered at the foolishness of citing polls that are 8 days old. Yeah, yeah, borg and all that, but, but, we have standards!

Apparently no empirical evidence of actual success is required when espousing tax cuts and slashing government programs as the path to prosperity.

Nah, all they need is for Jesus to climb up on His dinosaur, wave, and with a hearty “Hiyo Silver” and a tip of His cowboy hat, adorned with a lone star of course, ride off into the sunset silhouettes of the busily pumping derricks.

P.S. this one’s for Captain Ed who seems to be a little clueless.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/business/smallbusiness/11sbiz.html?8dpc

As credit lines fade, credit cards come into play
Just as the slowing economy has made access to cash a higher priority for a lot of small businesses, banks have become more reluctant to extend traditional lines of credit to those businesses, experts say. But they have been offering “small business” credit cards. Bank cards and lines of credit offer money when it is needed, but there is a fundamental difference: Lines of credit have low, fixed interest rates or slow-moving, variable ones, while interest rates on credit cards can jump unpredictably.

Let’s see how this plays out! A little subprime action for the small business owner who is going to have a hell of a time selling anything in the is economy. Beyond the higher interest rates, expect the service charges to escalate.

> Nah, all they need is for Jesus to climb up on His dinosaur, wave, and with a hearty “Hiyo Silver” and a tip of His cowboy hat,

Don’t forget the bandolier of Holy Mooslem-seeking armor-piercing .50 caliber rounds.

That lousy peace-loving Jesus is SOOOOOO New Testament. Give me that great fire-and-brimstone, punishment theme ride called the Old Testament.

But who should be the face of the McCain ‘let ‘er ride’ platform? HotAir.com commenter ‘jp’ has a brilliant suggestion:

They need to run ads of just Palin, and her speaking to the Energy Inpedence issue and what she did in Alaska and can do for the rest of the country.

Oh, God, please make this happen.

And when you make it happen can you also emphasize Palin’s support for the bridge to nowhere (bolding “nowhere” and repeating the word “waste” as many times as possible)? Thank U!

Looking forward to the next Palin speech, the one where she feels that the audience hasn’t applauded enough – where she feels that they aren’t fulling supporting her in her duties as JiSM3’s running mate – and then she fires them all.

Shorter Sarah Palin, according to ‘jp’: “Let them eat oil.”

Bigby @19:02
“I’ll just never get these loser turds. They just believe so fucking hard that a completely unregulated market is the only solution, ever. ”

Your head would go ‘splodey if you ever read Eds’ reasoning for the elimination of the minimum wage laws.
I want to sell more pizza!

He is… is… is… oh fukit. He’s not a human.

Every two term Republican in the last 80 years who isn’t Ike had some kind of a severe meltdown in the financial system. Coincidence?

How soon we forget.

Now more than ever, we need to build piles of fake money and dance around them as we light them on fire

Yes, setting piles of fake money on fire is a well-established part of the traditional Chinese funeral. Our new ChiCom overlords are hardly ‘traditionalists’, of course, but I’m sure Chief Engineer Hu will grant us gweilo gods-botherers the balm of a nicely-designed, precision-staged, internationally-broadcast ritual funeral for the American economy, a victim of parricide at the hands of its most privileged offspring. And, as MaineMan says, they can save the bother of printed fake American dollars by using the metric tons of ‘financial paper’ that’s now worthless as either fiat currency or toilet paper.

the ongoing death spiral of our economy
This gives me an excuse to link to my favourite painting from the Essen Folkwang museum.

I love This article.

“If you believe what the textbooks say, we’re the incumbent party. We’ve held the White House for the past eight years. We’ve held Congress for most of that time. So what does that make us? The party of change!

“And you know how we prove that? By offering all the same policies as President Bush. Apart from global warming, we’re the same on every major issue. That’s how we’re going to shake up Washington. Just by being us

Dear Mrs. Palin-

If you insist on being as fact-free as possible w/r/t the Bridge To Nowhere, can you at least stop using the same damned exact phrase each time you lie about it? Thanks, but no thanks! Thanks, but no thanks! Thanks, but no thanks! We get it. You’re a liar, and you lack creativity. 10-4.

“they can save the bother of printed fake American dollars by using the metric tons cubic buttload of ‘financial paper’ that’s now worthless as either fiat currency or toilet paper.

Fixed.

As a teen, watching the Presidential Debates, I suddenly realized that most people WANT to be lied to. They fear and hate the truth. I’ve no idea why, perhaps a psychologist could tell us.

Repubs lie lie lie, without taking a breath, and people love it.

Yet what do the fervent “believers” call for? More of the same.

aka, “Tinkerbelle Economic Theory.” CLAP HARDER!

These knuckleheads who keep demanding more tax breaks to excite the “risk takers” are going to end up eating bark and grass because they were too stupid to invest in the real up and coming commodities of the future: Canned food and shotguns.

The Repugs knew a financial shitstorm was coming: they expected it to come next year, when a Dem Congress was in power, and maybe a Dem president, to blame it all on.

“I’ll just never get these loser turds. They just believe so fucking hard that a completely unregulated market is the only solution, ever.”

See, an unregulated market works beautifully for Republicans because they have an astounding amount of faith in human nature and consider greed and a “me first” attitude healthy. Let greed run its course, everything will work out in the end. And when it doesn’t? As long as you have a Republican administration, why…you can always rationalize laying the bill at the door of the taxpayer. Of course, if Obama were in power right now and tried this, the Rethugs would be all over him with death threats, but he’s not and Bush is and…well you get the picture.

In an ideal Republican world, America would look like China and you could have scandals like this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/world/asia/16milk.html

Total deregulation is what they want. And the libertarian Rethugs, like Amy Alkon, want it the most.

I wouldn’t mind, as long as she’s and others of her ilk are chugging back the poisoned milk.

“Let’s see how this plays out! A little subprime action for the small business owner who is going to have a hell of a time selling anything in the is economy. Beyond the higher interest rates, expect the service charges to escalate.”

Not to mention the fact that the bankruptcy “reform” legislation makes it much, much harder to erase credit card debt. In the case of a HELOC, the credit line is secured by a home (or possibly other real property). But prices are falling on real estate, and who can guess where the prices will end up? Screw HELOCs, think the banks; let’s get those small business owners sucked into a nice handy credit card account with a sexxy teaser rate. Then, once we’ve got ’em hooked, our revenue stream will be all the better for it.

Banks (indeed, any entities in the finance industry) are DESPERATE for depositors and/or revenue stream. We all know exactly where this will end up.

Hmmm… Maybe the Texas Democrats should make buttons that say: “If McCain is President… Will we still call it Black Monday?”

> I wouldn’t mind, as long as she’s and others of her ilk are chugging back the poisoned milk.

According to republicans, when a baby dies from poisoned milk due to lax regulation, that is the proof of the efficacy of the free market.

Since the baby is now dead, less milk will be sold. The company will now suffer due to the loss of 1 baby’s sales worth of milk.

That’ll show those bad businessmen. Their bonus might be reduced by 1 or 2 cents so they can no longer afford chewing gum, at least one day’s worth.

See? The Free Market works!

McCain should send Bush out to push his economic plan. Remember how well Bush explained his plan to save Social Security?
Feb 4, 2005 President Discusses Strengthening Social Security in Florida

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, she’s asking about the cost of the transition. It’s estimated about $600 billion over a 10-year period of time to get the personal accounts started on the — the way we’ve suggested they grow. It’s a good question.

Yes, ma’am.

Q — really understand how is it the new plan is going to fix that problem?

THE PRESIDENT: Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There’s a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to what has been promised.

Does that make any sense to you? It’s kind of muddled. Look, there’s a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

I’m sure he can come up with something equally stellar to save the entire economy.

According to republicans, when a baby dies from poisoned milk… it’s natures way of sorting out the strongest from the weakest.

Just thought I’d throw this other Republican tenet in to compliment the one you shared.

Banks (indeed, any entities in the finance industry) are DESPERATE for depositors and/or revenue stream. We all know exactly where this will end up.

Apparently, the Fed pushed through a rule change today that allows banks to use depositor funds to bail out their own failing investment bank subsidiaries.

Huh.

And many folks though it was the Large Hardon Collider that was gonna create the black hole.

“thought”, dammit

A new poll released today shows your terrorist appeasing “messiah” losing in the vital swing state of Ohio by four percentage points 49% to 45% . McCain leads Obama by sixteen percentage points among whites, 13 percentage points among men and perhaps most suprising of all to you liberals anyway, McCain and Obama are tied among voters younger than Obama.

There goes your supposedly more liberal youth vote. Among voters who say terrorism is their most important issue, McCain leads the terrorist appeaser 32:1. By don’t take my word for it, look at the poll yourselves.

Christmas is coming early this year.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=43154ee9-1bca-4042-84df-131e90cc13ad

In our neck of the woods we have “Republicans” who shoot the puppies in cold blood.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/09/15/bc-quadra-dog-shot.html

I’m assuming they’re neoconservatives. Rednecks usually are.

(too low of me?)

Oh look who’s back. Robert White who ran away from this comment thread http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/11859.html#comments
yesterday because Atheist’s questions terrified him.

I guess his job is to copy and paste. Just don’t ask him to explain what he means or thinks. That scares him.

I guess his job is to copy and paste.

So is copy-pasting the click fraud of the McCain Trolling Points Program?

HelenaHandbasket: Husband & I just made a nice “Quail Garden” including a sunken area with rock walls full of nooks & crannies. The quail visit in family groups- it’s fascinating to watch the moms & dads hustle the little ones away when they see me watching. Hard to imagine anyone killing them, even to eat. But they area adaptable, and are taking up residence in cooler non Basin climates, like Oregon & Washington.

The Repgus were hoping it would be the Democrats who’d have to bail out the mortgage firms and Banks and Brokerages. Then they (Repugs) could scream “Socialism!” “Dems spending working folk’s money to take over private enterprise!” ‘SOOCIALISSSSMMMMM! WAAAAA!”

As a teen, watching the Presidential Debates, I suddenly realized that most people WANT to be lied to. They fear and hate the truth. I’ve no idea why, perhaps a psychologist could tell us.

Fozzetti

Didn’t Jimmy Carter once say that he lusted in his heart, and conservatives actually had the stunning hypocrisy to get mad at him for saying it?

It truly scares me sometimes. The people honestly seem to hate truthfulness. I wish I could get a better handle on this, understand how to fight it.

[Quail] are adaptable, and are taking up residence in cooler non Basin climates, like Oregon & Washington.
And New Zealand.

Banks (indeed, any entities in the finance industry) are DESPERATE for depositors and/or revenue stream. We all know exactly where this will end up.

Right where we are now, I presume.

By the way, who slipped Rich Lowry the red pill?

I suddenly realized that most people WANT to be lied to. They fear and hate the truth.
It sounds better in Latin.

I’m just delighted that Obama has fought back by, erm, whining like a bitch about McCain’s campaign. There must be a huge constituency that will be wowed by “You’re beating me and it’s not faaaaiiiiiiiiiirrrrr”. I mean, fucksake, the McSame is a walking target. How can they not hit him and hit him hard?

And LOL at Palin as economic manager. She ran up a $23 million debt in a *village* in six years. I guess that’s less per capita than Bush, but he had a whole country to mismanage.

THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT IS AT AN END

See what happens when you smash particles in Europe?

Economics (n.) – The complex system of rationalizations and excuses whereby the rich are provided legal cover to steal from the poor.

Gary Ruppert said,

September 16, 2008 at 0:39

Not sure exactly what it is, but something about this post screams “fake Gary”.

… and how Obama’s tax and spending proposals ….

Which ones are these, please?

They need to run ads of just Palin, and her speaking to the Energy Inpedence issue …

Yes, please more clips of Palin talking about how she told ExxonMobil “thanks but no thanks, CHAR-leee….”

Anything interesting happen today?

Start of a new quarter, and another bank collapse. The Great Orange Satan posted this when Bear Sterns collapsed in April, and gives you something to think about:

BOB MOON: OK, I’m about to unload some numbers on you here, so I’ll speak slowly so you can follow this.

The value of the entire U.S. Treasuries market: $4.5 trillion.

The value of the entire mortgage market: $7 trillion.

The size of the U.S. stock market: $22 trillion.

OK, you ready?

The size of the credit default swap market last year: $45 trillion.

The entire mortgage industry, stock market and bond market combined is $33.5 trillion. The CDS market (the market consisting of “investment” vehicles based on shaky sub-prime loans) was “worth” ~$12 trillion more than that. Those numbers don’t add up at all, and alone should’ve been glaring red flags, complete with sirens and flashing lights.

It sort of reminds me of during the heady dot-com days when someone boasted that Priceline (which at the time was just selling airline tickets) was “worth” several times more money than the entire airline industry, despite being not even two years old. The big problem is that at least the dot-coms weren’t exactly foundations of the entire economy. If you thought the dot-com crash was bad, this bank crisis is far, far worse.

Bad link

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/12/13151/0195

… and how Obama’s tax and spending proposals ….

They will continue this line of whine until we have long ago moved to trading rocks.

Dibs on the round ones!

what she did in Alaska and can do for the rest of the country.

The evening sun touched gently on the lies of Sarah Palin
the roof top where she climbed when all the laughter grew too loud
bowed and curtsied to the man who reached and offered her his hand,
And he led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd.

Obama will raise the number of pebbles you have to give to the goobermint for each rock trade.

We can’t afford that, my fellow cave-dwellers!

The fact is, shut the hell up.

And he led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd.

Jeebus?

The morning sun touched lightly on the lies of Sarah Palin
In her white ex-urban bedroom, in a white ex-urban town
As she lay there ‘neath the covers, dreaming of a thousand lovers
‘Til the world turned to orange and the room went spinning round
…
At the age of 37, she knew she’d found forever as they rode along through Paris
With the warm wind in her hair.
—————————————-
Unfortunately I can’t do Marianne Faithfull’s voice so someone else will have to make the Youtube clip.

Pointy ones are better for killing things and starting fires…

“You all don’t *get* economics at all. We *can’t* do anything at all about the domestic economy and spend 10 billion a month in Iraq (financed by our friends the Chinese) at the same time!!!”

Yes. That is the real reason they need endless war, because it makes even the slightest addition to the safety net impossible by sucking up all the money that could possibly be used to do it.

I like pointy ones, but you only need a few of those.

A nice big round rock like a loaf of pumpernickel bread; now that’s got a thousand uses.

The fact is, shut the hell up.

Has anyone ever seen Gary Ruppert and Josh Marshall in the same place at the same time? It would be irresponsible not to speculate!

’m just delighted that Obama has fought back by, erm, whining like a bitch about McCain’s campaign. There must be a huge constituency that will be wowed by “You’re beating me and it’s not faaaaiiiiiiiiiirrrrr”. I mean, fucksake, the McSame is a walking target. How can they not hit him and hit him hard?

How is “McCain’s a dishonorable, lying toad who you can’t trust, as he’s demonstrated repeatedly over the last few months” the same thing as “whining like a bitch”? How the fuck do you want him to hit McCain?

“Gary Ruppert said, Economics (n.) – The complex system of rationalizations and excuses whereby the rich are provided legal cover to steal from the poor.”

Not sure exactly what it is, but something about this post screams “fake Gary”.

For one thing, Gary Ruppert thinks ‘Ambrose Bierce’ is the furrin company what brougt up good ol’ all-Amurkin Anheiser-Busch.

I heard Glenn Beck on the drive home this evening….he was saying the problem isn’t the bank failures or stock market drop – it’s Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and we must stop funding these immediately.

Oh, and Lou Dobbs says immigrants are at fault.

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

St00pid people on TV.

They cut out the best part of Glenn Beck when he had that ass operation that went bad.

Only thing that went wrong, as far as I can tell, is that they stopped cutting. He’s entirely colon – from head to sphincter.

Oh, and Lou Dobbs says immigrants are at fault.

They receive millions in bonuses that honest American board members should have.

Obama fights back
http://blurbomat.com/archives/2008/09/15/obama-starts-to-fight-back/

How the fuck do you want him to hit McCain?

Maybe he doesn’t realize “with the chair!” is often meant as metaphor?

ew…don’t want to be GR mom for too long. I start to feel like I’m in this movie.

aha, you gotta see this
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/09/15/a-mother-of-five-who-likes-shooting-wolves-from-helicopters/

They fear and hate the truth. I’ve no idea why, perhaps a psychologist could tell us.

Well, I’m not a psychologist, but I’ve been in therapy forever, so that’s got to count for something.

The truth is often painful to hear, at least initially.

Who wants to be told by their doctor that they need to lose weight, by their partner that they’re no longer as thoughtful as they once were, by their banker that they don’t qualify for a loan, or by their mother that they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain and thus, no cookie?

Or, worse still, who wants to confront any of these truths by admitting them to themselves?

No, pain is to be avoided at all costs. Near-term self-interest trumps everything else.

A friend who sells longterm care insurance says that the two biggest impediments to a sale are procrastination and denial. This is a pretty righteous dude with good ethics and a strong belief that his products can be very beneficial to the folks who can afford them. He’s very scrupulous.

He says that even the smart people who objectively see the need to take action consistently delay doing so; and even when they start to, they frequently concoct various reasons for denying their risks.

It’s all about avoiding reality, if reality even hints at pain.

It’s not so much about living in the moment as it is about pretending that this and all subsequent moments are just fine, even when common sense says that it just can’t be so.

And if someone’s gonna come along and do all the work that lying takes, well, shit, that’s just too easy.

Atheist: Regarding people’s fear of truth (which simplistically put, seems to be yet another dividing line between Liberals & Cons).

Well, recognizing it can help us Libs understand why the politicians on our side don’t always state the Bald Truth. Sometimes I fret “Why why why doesn’t Obama say this-or-that?” Probably he remembers President Carter. Of course men lust in their hearts (and elsewhere)! So do women who swooon over the latest Hunk.

Even when they KNOW the lie is a lie (“I said Thanks but No Thanks”) they still love it. It may partially be the child’s determination to believe in Santa Clause. My 10 year old wept hysterically when she found out there wasn’t an easter bunny. She didn’t WANT to know the truth, she was so distressed, I wished I’d never gone along with the… stories in the first place.

http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/ calls Sarah Palin the snowbilly queen, which is rather sweet don’t you think?

I saw a textbook once. I understand that makes me an expert in psychology.

I saw a textbook once. I understand that makes me an expert in psychology.

That depends on the textbook, and on how it made you feel.

Because its so well reported, we tend to think of the stock market as being a larger part of the overall economy than it really is. That’s why I’m here tonight offering shares in Gigantism. Yes, Gigantism will hold its relative value even when the Dow shits the bed to the tune of five hundred eff sharps. Gigantism can impress your friends and make the neighbors envious. So dust off those North American Currency Union Credits (NACUCs) and buy some Gigantism at http://pinealstimulation@postindustrial.world

Forget Sarah Palin, the Wasp in the Avengers movie is rumored to be Eva Longoria. /nerd interlude

That depends on the textbook, and on how it made you feel.
It reminded me of my mother.

Krugman The Wise was on Olbermann The Deft this evening. He said the top two people responsible for the current financial disaster were; 1) Alan Greenspan, whom McCain recommended serve a lifetime term, and 2) Phil Gramm, McCain’s economic advisor. If Obama can’t tie this streamer to the tailfin of McCain’s sixth gooney bird, he just ain’t trying.

bad person said,

Krugman The Wise was on Olbermann The Deft this evening. He said the top two people responsible for the current financial disaster were; 1) Alan Greenspan, whom McCain recommended serve a lifetime term, and 2) Phil Gramm, McCain’s economic advisor. If Obama can’t tie this streamer to the tailfin of McCain’s sixth gooney bird, he just ain’t trying.

In response, the McCain campaign has cried, “SEXISM RACISM OWW MY KNEEE RED CARD!!!!”

Obama has recieved $105,849 from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac

So why won’t he return these contributions?

Wonder how much money he got from other failing corporations.

Now more than ever, we need low capital-gains tax rates to encourage investment and risk-taking in order to create more strength in the economy.

And some Ruby Slippers to get home with when we’re done with our adventures!

“Sadly, the wingnut is neither endangered nor rare”

Despite regularly imploding as a result of the incessant scritching, scratching screechy noises it makes (apologies to Wiley).

That is the real reason they need endless war, because it makes even the slightest addition to the safety net impossible by sucking up all the money that could possibly be used to do it.

Long ago, when I took Econ 101, this was framed as guns vs butter. Anyone think it’s time to re-read Ike’s Cross of Iron speech?

a link to Ike’s all-too-apropos words

I confess I jumped when he referred to “the last 8 years . . . “

And some Ruby Slippers to get home with
Check the Pope. He might have a spare pair.

Obama has recieved $105,849 from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac

Is this going to be a GOP talking point now? Because if it is, it’s only out there to fool the rubes. Corporations are prohibited from donating to campaigns and candidates. Individuals are permitted to donate, and they often indicate where they work, and many people who work for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have contributed… some to Obama, some to McCain. Should Obama give back contributions from those individuals? Is McCain giving back their money? (They’re probably going to need it.)

Or is it that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had PACs that contributed to the campaigns? Are you suggesting they violated the $5,000 limit? Because according to OpenSecrets.org, the Freddie Mac PAC has contributed about $100K to each of the Democratic and Republican parties — or rather, to their candidates for the House and Senate. No record of PAC contributions to either presidential campaign. The Fannie Mae PAC gave a lot more to both parties’ candidates, and favored Dem candidates, 57%-43%… but again, no presidential campaign contributions.

This has all the smells of an Internet chain email. It is totally bogus, yet it gets an appearance of truth because of the specificity of the amount (“$105,849”).

Obama has recieved $105,849 from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac

I’m not worried about the money.

We need to get to the bottom of all those free chocolates from Fannie Farmer and the free Big Macs.

Now there’s your scandal right there.

Bizarro World

[…] Sadly, No! » Best Advice Ever: Don’t EVER let idiot whackjob wingnuts try to claim they are brave and Liberals are cowards. Let me put it this way: […]

Can we pleeeeeease start talkin’ about Sarah Palin again? ’cause it’s kind of like people were just sort of waiting for the inevitable Tina Fey SNL skit and now that it’s done they’re starting to get bored with Palin already. It’s almost like she has a limited number of talking points or something and they’re already starting to feel run into the ground– but that can’t be it.

Moose!
Lipstick!
Bridge to Nowhere!
He’s a…. Community Organizer!
I Live Next to Russia!
My daughter’s preggers!

Hello?
Hello?!!
Is this thing on?

Does this remind you of anything?

WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

Shorter GOP: The economy is just fine and we are the best ones to fix it

Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

I think when they use that word “qualifications” does not mean what they think it means.

No kidding: David Brooks on how Sarah Palin is Bush Jr. II, and her inexperience (formal and intellectual) is dangerous for the nation:

… Look at the condescension and snobbery oozing from elite quarters, her backers say. Look at the endless string of vicious, one-sided attacks in the news media. This is what elites produce. This is why regular people need to take control.

And there’s a serious argument here. In the current Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward argues that the nation’s founders wanted uncertified citizens to hold the highest offices in the land. They did not believe in a separate class of professional executives. They wanted rough and rooted people like Palin.

I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.

And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired skills. Most of all, it requires prudence…

… Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.

The idea that “the people” will take on and destroy “the establishment” is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.

I’m seeing a trend here: conservatives admit that it’s a terrible idea for crazy right wingers to try and install this crazy lady in power, but liberals are just as bad, and maybe even worse, for making this point in a smug and rude fashion.

Clearly, Republicans are intellectually unfit to govern.

On the other hand, we need to trust the anti-regulation Republicans who got us into this mess to get us out.

It’s okay to risk everything on the guy who helped kill an entire sector of our banking system 20 years ago, because, you know, it’s not like there’s much at stake.

There is therefore a substantial possibility that A.I.G. will be unable to meet its obligations and be forced into liquidation. A side effect: Its collapse would be as close to an extinction-level event as the financial markets have seen since the Great Depression.

A.I.G. does business with virtually every financial institution in the world. Most important, it is a central player in the unregulated, Brobdingnagian credit default swap market that is reported to be at least $60 trillion in size.

So, the naive, inexperienced Obama has actually passed through the biggest lobbying ethics reform in his short term in the Senate. The other, old guy, passed campaign finance reform in part to make up for having tanked the Savings & Loan industry to the tune of some $200 Billion.

Excuse me, I’ll choose the prudent new guy over the risky veteran.

I shot a moose in my lipstick…

Oh, and if you haven’t had enough of capitalists screaming about the evils of unregulated capitalism (from that same NYT opinion piece on AIG):

Regulators knew that if Lehman went down, the world wouldn’t end. But Wall Street isn’t remotely prepared for the inestimable damage the financial system would suffer if A.I.G. collapsed.

While Gov. David A. Paterson of New York on Monday allowed A.I.G. to borrow $20 billion from its subsidiaries, that move will only postpone the day of reckoning. The Federal Reserve was also trying to arrange at least $70 billion in loans from investment banks, but it’s hard to see how Wall Street could come up with that much money…

…The Fed cannot afford to stand on principle. The myth of free markets ended with the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Actually, it ended with their creation.

Michael Lewitt is the president of a money management firm.

Or maybe:

“It’s ride and smug of you to point out how badly we’ve screwed up.”

That would be “rude” instead of “ride,” there.

Yeah, I get the feeling that right wingers have started to use the word “smug” whenever it involves liberals being correct.

You know, liberals are so smug about the Iraq WMD’s = f*** you liberals for being correct.

Liberals were so smug about how George W. Bush Jr. was going to drive the country into the ground with his arrogant ignorance that the elites hated = f*** you for getting that correct too.

Liberals were always g** d*** whining about how all this deregulation and anti-regulation leadership in the financial markets were just gonna like ‘kill everything’ and cause some sort of ‘New Great Depression’, and now that it looks like that they’re just all in their damn smug glory = f*** you for, yeah, calling that one 100% correct.

I’ve got your smug right here!

GOP Delegate Robbed Blind by Sexy Hero Gal.

What’s he wearing, anyway? Some kind of rockabilly getup from 1983? Good lord, money sure can’t buy class.

I’ve agree with one of the common taters: He should have known he was getting set up when a woman acted interested in him.

It would be kind of nice to be so rich I had $120K worth of stuff in my hotel room, presuming of course that these were luxuries instead of me having sold my home in exchange for a beautiful emerald.

Did you watch the interview, El Cid?

It’s an excrutiating 2 and 1/2 minutes…what a total douchebag. “Cut taxes and more war.”

That’s your GOP base, right there.

The fact is, this is OT – via Gary Ruppert

Remember Dickie “McPOW’s Core Principles” Cohen? The guy drooling over an ancient geez-bag’s dancing skillz? The guy pivots so fast we could probably use his pointy head to drill for oil in Alaska!

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains — his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that’s all — but just as honorably. No more, though.

I would argue the idea that this behavior is something new for POW-y McCunt. The man’s reputation is built in part on being a total FUCKING ASSHOLE. Still, this is an article where Richard (big fan of JiSM3’s “bottom line”) Cohen is comparing Old Man Johnny unfavorably with Joy Fucking Behar.

You’re saying if you’ve lost self-described liberal and funnyman Dickie Cohen, you’ve lost the Village, Dragon-King?

I think Fred Hiatt already jumped ship, but Dave Broder is still gumming away.

Maybe that block quote doesn’t get the impression across. I mean sure, it’s scathing for Richard Cohen output – but looking at it by itself doesn’t convey the extent that Dickie has shifted. Here’s the closing line:

Once is tragedy, a second time is farce. John McCain is both.

Also, and i feel kinda bad about kicking Cohen right now, as he is in the process of extracting his lips from McCain’s “bottom line” but this needs to be addressed:

Richard Cohen, June 24, 2008 (McCain’s Core Advantage)

In some recent magazine articles, I and certain of my colleagues have been accused of being soft on McCain, forgiving him his flips, his flops and his mostly conservative ideology. I do not plead guilty to this charge, because, over the years, the man’s imperfections have not escaped my keen eye.

Richard Cohen, tomorrow’s WashPost (The Ugly New McCain)

I am one of the journalists accused over the years of being in the tank for McCain. Guilty.

Looks like Dickie owes some apologies to a bunch of commies.

John McCain was apparently on Morning Joe I Didn’t Kill Lori Klausutis She Fell Really Hard And Hit The Back Of Her Head On A Desk In My Office Somehow While I Was Out Of Town Scarborough, and barked at Joe’s colleague and typical recipient of Joe’s sneering derision & interruption Mika that “I know you’re an Obama supporter” when she asked him about the truthfulness of these ads that even Karl Rove is mentioning are lies.

Here’s to more interviews like that, where Jesus H. Moderate Magic Maverick McCain III is about one vocalization away from calling her the c-word.

Even the deranged, chinless beaver has turned on McCain now.

Via LGM:

[Richard Cohen is] kinda like a kid who, upon discovering that there is no Santa Claus, attempts to locate the precise moment in time that Jolly St. Nick ceased to exist.

I heard Glenn Beck on the drive home this evening….he was saying the problem isn’t the bank failures or stock market drop – it’s Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and we must stop funding these immediately.

“Stop funding” Social Security? It’s not “funded” now. In fact, SocSec helps fund everything else.

FY 2009 Projected Federal Budget (summary):
Social Security receipts = $950 billion
Social Security disbursements = $625 billion
Social Security surplus = $325 billion

Federal revenue (not including SocSec receipts) = $1750 billion
Federal expenditures (NOT including SocSec disbursements) = $2475 billion

Budget deficit (excluding “borrowed” SocSec surplus) = $725 billion (also does not include “off-budget” expenditures on Iraq/Afghanistan)

Medicare + Medicaid/SCHIP expense = $650 billion
Treasury Dept expense = $550 billion
(includes interest on the National Debt, but NOT up to a couple hundred billion $$ for various “financial sector” bailouts)
Defense Dept = $500 billion (NOT including up to $165 billion in “off-budget” expenditures on Iraq/Afghanistan)

All other budgeted expenses* = $775 billion

* Includes: NIH, CDC, FDA, USDA (food stamps), VA, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Labor (unemployment benefits), HUD, DHS, Justice Dept., DoE, State Dept., NASA, Interior, Commerce, EPA, Corps of Engineers, Federal Judiciary, NSF, SBA and the entire Legislative Branch budget.

El Cid said,

Yeah, I get the feeling that right wingers have started to use the word “smug” whenever it involves liberals being correct.

Whereas the righties, as regularly evidenced on this board by choads like The Truth, manage to be stomach-churningly, vomit-inducingly, rather-stick-a-rusty-fork-in-your-eye-than-read-another-word mega-smug about the fact that they are completely fucking wrong about everything.

I saw that, too. McCain pointedly avoided answering the direct question that Mika put to him.

Paraphrased:

Mika: Senator McCain, do you feel that the Obama ad (the one that hits McCain on the economy) is fair?

McCain: Mika, I’m going to let others decide that, and I since I know you’re an Obama supporter, I ask you to relay a message to him to join me in the town hall discussions that I’ve called for.

One of McCain’s campaign advisors dropped this gem on the WashPost on Sunday (be sure to read the comments):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202415.html

. . . and the very next day, McCain touts the ‘fundamental strength’ of the American economy on the same day that the Dow drops over 500 points. Add that to the fact that McCain is a kept man who doesn’t know how many houses he and his wife own, and YOU FUCKING BET the ad was fair.

McCain is completely disconnected from the economy — just like his advisors — yet he wants us to trust him and Mrs. Small-Town-Mayor-With-A-Big-City-Deficit to pull us out.

When it comes to the economy, McCain’s got no knowledge, no skill, a really shitty record, notoriously bad judgment and equally bad advisers. A rabid badger would be a better choice than McCain.

You know, it’s easy to work up anger at someone who’s snubbed you, but you can’t get the same intensity of deranged hate for them as you can at your ex.

Hiatt is, of course, waffling. There have been a handful of unsigned op-eds that actually acknowledge McCain’s addiction to misrepresentations, and then again there’s still stuff like this:

A Maverick’s Appeal
…Being a “maverick,” Mr. McCain said, means that “I understand who I work for. I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”…

P.S. Your republican economy…still just fine, whiners!

INDEX PRODUCTS
CONTRACT LAST NET CHGE

S&P 500 DEC08 1173.90 A -2220
E-MINI SEP08 1173.00 -2200
E-MINI DEC08 1174.00 -2200
NSDQ100 DEC08 1706.00 A -1525

AMER INTL GROUP INC(NYSE: AIG)
NEW Pre-market Real-time: 3.00 -1.76 (-36.97%) 8:59am

This is all the Democrats’ fault. Republicans have not been anywhere near Washington in 8 years. It’s time to give some conservatives a chance!

Dammit! 13-week T-bills are back up to 88 cents!

I knew I shoulda bought them instead of that book of postage stamps.

Even a deranged badger knows bullshit when I see it, from Donald Luskin’s hilarious piece of shit:

Here’s another one not to be too alarmed about: Obama is flat-out wrong when he frets on his campaign Web site that “the personal savings rate is now the lowest it’s been since the Great Depression.” The latest rate, for the second quarter of 2008, is 2.6 percent — higher than the 1.9 percent rate that prevailed in the last quarter of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Going to the link that Luskin himself provides, here are the savings rates for the last 10 quarters: 1.0, 0.6, 0.5, 0.9, 1.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.4, 0.2, 2.6.
That 2.6 looks kinda like an outlier – or in Luskin’s case an out-and-out liar.

If you switch to annual numbers, and click “get all years” what do you find? Three years with personal savings rates lower than in 2007: 1932, 1933 and 2005. IOW – FUCK YOU DONALD LUSKIN.

Clearly, McCain meant to say that the fundamentalists of the US economy are strong.

Here’s a treasury of lovely Luskin quotes. Use them on a conservative you love. Be sure to mention that he’s one of McCain’s economic advisors.

http://cunningrealist.blogspot.com/2008/05/yeah-that-worked-out-well.html

McCain says that by “fundamentals” he meant “American workers”. So a grown-up Presidential candidate is claiming that when asked about the American economy and investment bank collapses he replies that “American workers are strong”? WTF? He’s seeking dock workers? What?

ads that even Karl Rove is mentioning are lies

You have got to be shitting me. McCain’s gone too far for Turdblossom?
Amazingly, Yes!
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/mccains_lying_has_gone_too_far.php

The killer quote is from Team Obama’s Tommy Vietor:

In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove — the man who held the previous record — said McCain’s ads have gone too far.

Obama’s tax and spending proposals will hurt the people most needed to return stability back to the markets

Yes, we simplay cahn’t allow that Negro to tax our benefits any longer, darling…more caviar?

Going to the link that Luskin himself provides, here are the savings rates for the last 10 quarters: 1.0, 0.6, 0.5, 0.9, 1.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.4, 0.2, 2.6.
That 2.6 looks kinda like an outlier – or in Luskin’s case an out-and-out liar.

I’d give good money that’s the tax rebate Bush sent out earlier this year. I can imagine a few people who merely rent put that away.

Watch out. John McCain has lost Dickie Cohen.

McCain says that by “fundamentals” he meant “American workers”. So a grown-up Presidential candidate is claiming that when asked about the American economy and investment bank collapses he replies that “American workers are strong”?

Funny thing:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

-The unemployment rate rose from 5.7 to 6.1 percent in August, and non-farm payroll employment continued to trend down (-84,000)
-The number of unemployed persons rose by 592,000 to 9.4 million in August
-Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 2.2 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.4 percentage points, with most of the increase occurring over the past 4 months

Even using his definitions he’s still wrong.

BTW, that’s from the August report – maybe something might happen in September that might cause the trend to change…

Maybe that block quote doesn’t get the impression across. I mean sure, it’s scathing for Richard Cohen output – but looking at it by itself doesn’t convey the extent that Dickie has shifted.

Actually, Cohen’s new column begins with a fascinating point:

Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred.

Wow. McCain abhors the Confederate battle flag? That might be something to mention in the South. Obama can’t do it directly, for obvious reasons, but maybe some 527 group could in the hopes of keeping the ultra-righties at home.

Even the deranged, chinless beaver has turned on McCain now.

+

In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove — the man who held the previous record — said McCain’s ads have gone too far.

Sure… but it seems to me, in assessing the meaning and effect of Cohen’s, and Rove’s, criticism of McCain, you have to remember the source. Cohen and Rove are both bullshit artists. They’re propagandists who exist to create artistic bullshit for strategic and tactical purposes. This bullshit is used by powerful, large-scale liars to defeat their opponents, keep the common people in check, defend against investigations, etc.

So, if in fact Cohen, and/or Rove, are actually “defecting” from McCain in a real way, which no-one should be certain about, then all that has actually happened is that some professional bullshit-spewers have come to your side of the fence. Since we are a group which values logic, reality and actual political progress, I don’t see that this is necessarily something to celebrate.

actor212,

I forgot about that. It’s a little hard to tell, since the numbers are aggregated, but here’s the differences between ’08 Q1 and Q2 –

Personal Savings Q1 = 20.6, Q2 = 279.9 or plus $259.3 Billion
Personal Current Taxes Q1 = 1535.0, Q2 = 1352.0 or minus $183 Billion

Note that tax receipts have been trending up (with the exception of Luskin’s magic quarter) – last year, the Q1 – Q2 jump was $30b.

So it looks like you’d probably win your bet.

Latest scores:

AIG down about 48% across the board with 230 million shares traded.

OTOH, Cracker Barrel is up about 9%!

Rabid Badger ’08!

Shorter me

When huge liars say that other huge liars are lying too much… can you believe them?

atheist,

An excellent point. The idea that Rover has some sort of moral line that he won’t cross is laughable. But I don’t see how this admission is going to help JiSM3 at all. I think that when said that McCain’s campaign is full of shit, he just slipped.

Scherer update:

Not sure anybody is still reading this thread, but I will try one more time. The issue is not the noun “lobbyist,” it’s the verb “lobbies.” In the ad, Obama does not just suggest Black and Davis are lobbyists. He says Black “lobbies” and he says Davis “lobbies.”

Holy Fucking Hell.
1. Here he is arguing the semantics. Hilariously, he’s parsing an ad he didn’t even mention in his post – that ad he can’t say shit about since it’s based on a story he wrote himself.

But let’s play Scherer’s stupid fucking game for a moment – since he’s still full of shit. Black and Davis are lobbyists – he does not dispute that. Lobbyists lobby. End of fucking argument. They may not be engaged in lobbying at this exact moment but they still lobby.

To clarify since Michael Scherer is unable to grasp very simple and easy to understand concepts – unless they make McCain look good:
Firefighters fight fires. If a firefighter says to his wife “I’m off to fight fires” when he leaves for work, but then spends the shift in the fire hall because there were no fires that day – he is not a liar.
At this very moment Michael may be engaged in sucking up to McCain’s campaign guys, and not actually writing anything – but that doesn’t change the fact that Michael Scherer writes patisan RNC garbage.

Palin did for Alaska?

Put it deeper in debt while simultaneously taxing their biggest industries more and slashing budgets while not actually curtailing overall spending (reassigning the chef rather than taking them of the payroll), and…

…Also, where would the US get the billion dollars in outside monies? The UN?

Man, how’d I get on this comment thread from the other one?

“According to republicans, when a baby dies from poisoned milk…”

…it’s far, FAR better than purposefully preventing a single cell from implanting in the uterine lining. That shit’s murder, y’all!

‘Sides, if it’s a *brown* baby dying, that’s just a patriotic blow against the mooslims! (…what? China’s not mooslim? …are you sure?)

[…] John McCain’s long history with bank failures and financial scandals makes him uniquely ‘qualified’ to speak to the current crisis. […]

NPR Marketplace has stopped playing Stormy Weather and is now playing It’s Raining Men.

DKW,

It says a lot about this country when the mere act of a few million people only putting away $300 or so in three months can quadruple our savings rate.

I’m sorry to read I’d be right in this instance.

Uhm,

“Energy Inpedence issue”

wtf?

Maybe they mean Impedence??? Impudence??? Impotence??? Imponce??? Impurance??? Imp@#%$&”))#???