From the blog "Margaret and Helen:"
My name is Helen Philpot. I am 82 years old. My grandson taught me how to do this so that I could “blog” with my best friend Margaret Schmechtman who I met in college almost 60 years ago. I have three children with my husband Harold. Margaret has three dogs with her husband Howard. I live in Texas and Margaret lives in Maine.
Check it out!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Heartwarming Picture!
From Andrew Sullivan:
US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama supporters stand in the cold during a rally at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, October 28, 2008. By Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty. McCain canceled his Pennsylvania rally because of the weather.
US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama supporters stand in the cold during a rally at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, October 28, 2008. By Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty. McCain canceled his Pennsylvania rally because of the weather.
Fox's Shepard Smith Disavows Joe the Plumber
From the Huffington Post:
So, Joe The Plumber was out on the trail with John McCain today, apparently giving the thumbs up to someone in the crowd who felt that an Obama Presidency would bring about the end of Israel. From Raw Story:
So, Joe The Plumber was out on the trail with John McCain today, apparently giving the thumbs up to someone in the crowd who felt that an Obama Presidency would bring about the end of Israel. From Raw Story:
The Ohio plumber, who has no license and is actually named Samuel Wurzelbacher, spoke at a McCain campaign event in Columbus Monday. A McCain supporter asked if "a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel." JTP hardly batted an eye.
"I'll go ahead and agree with you on that," Wurzelbacher said.
Anyway, five minutes with Joe The Plumber had Shepard Smith so frustrated that the Fox anchor felt compelled to issue a disclaimer, immediately following the segment, pushing back on any notion that Obama would mean the "death of Israel," saying: "I just want to make this 100 percent perfectly clear -- Barack Obama has said repeatedly and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend of the United States, no matter what happens once he becomes President of the United States. His words." Smith later added, "The rest of it -- man...some things -- it just gets frightening sometimes. We'll be right back." I haven't seen Shep this broken up about the state of the world since Katrina.
More Palin Love (Not so Much!) From the McCain Campaign
From Politico's Mike Allen's Playbook Blog:
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, on a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”
In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”
Priceless!
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, on a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”
In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”
Priceless!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Wouldn't it be Swell! (HT Pam)
Dear Red States:
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. It may even include Florida and Ohio, they are seriously considering it. We've given them until Nov. 4th to decide. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country. Since we're dropping the middle states we're calling it United America, or simply the U.A.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. You can take Ted Nugent. We're keeping Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. You get WorldCom and whatever lessons can be gathered from the crater of Enron. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get Ole' Miss. We get Harvard and 85 per cent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms, and the highest concentration of pregnant unwed teenagers. Please be aware that the U.A. will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, really we do, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
We'd rather spend it on taking care of sick people, and educating our children.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy Redies believe you are people with higher morals then we Bluies..
Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.
Peace out,
Blue States
The Tubes Are in Mourning!
Ted Stevens found guilty! Claims he's innocent! Still running for Senate!
Hagel calls a Palin a Palin
From a lengthy article about Senator Chuck Hagel:
Hagel may be the only senior Republican elected official who has publicly criticized McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. “I don’t believe she’s qualified to be President of the United States,” Hagel told me. “The first judgment a potential President makes is who their running mate is—and I don’t think John made a very good selection.” He scoffed at McCain’s attempts to portray her as an experienced politician. “To try to make the excuse that she looks out her window and sees Russia—and that she’s commander of the Alaska National Guard.” He added, “There is no question that this candidate is arguably the thinnest-résumé candidate for Vice-President in the history of America.”
Ouch!
Hagel may be the only senior Republican elected official who has publicly criticized McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. “I don’t believe she’s qualified to be President of the United States,” Hagel told me. “The first judgment a potential President makes is who their running mate is—and I don’t think John made a very good selection.” He scoffed at McCain’s attempts to portray her as an experienced politician. “To try to make the excuse that she looks out her window and sees Russia—and that she’s commander of the Alaska National Guard.” He added, “There is no question that this candidate is arguably the thinnest-résumé candidate for Vice-President in the history of America.”
Ouch!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
McCain and the Economy
Mark McKinnon, McCain's communications director during the primaries, wrote the following in The Daily Beast:
If not for a major economic event that interceded a few weeks ago (for which a strong majority of voters blame Republicans), this race might still be competitive. It isn’t Steve Schmidt’s fault. It’s the economy, stupid.
Josh Marshall from TPM thinks otherwise:
....I thought most observers were overstating the degree to which an economic crisis automatically advantaged the Democrat. To some degree, sure, especially in the dying days of an unpopular Republican incumbent. But remember, McCain's sell in this campaign was steadiness, experience, unflappability in a crisis. If he'd convinced voters that that was what he brought to the table, I do not believe the damage he sustained by the economic crisis would have been nearly so great. I continue to think that McCain's reaction to the economic crisis was the turning point in the election.
If not for a major economic event that interceded a few weeks ago (for which a strong majority of voters blame Republicans), this race might still be competitive. It isn’t Steve Schmidt’s fault. It’s the economy, stupid.
Josh Marshall from TPM thinks otherwise:
....I thought most observers were overstating the degree to which an economic crisis automatically advantaged the Democrat. To some degree, sure, especially in the dying days of an unpopular Republican incumbent. But remember, McCain's sell in this campaign was steadiness, experience, unflappability in a crisis. If he'd convinced voters that that was what he brought to the table, I do not believe the damage he sustained by the economic crisis would have been nearly so great. I continue to think that McCain's reaction to the economic crisis was the turning point in the election.
Alexander Cockburn On Obiden & McPalin
The whole article, found here is excellent, as usual. However, it is not safe reading for doctrinaire Democrats. Money graph:
Biden’s lucky in having an opponent for the vice presidential slot who’s now drawing about 95 per cent of the press coverage for the entire campaign. There’s no space for nasty questions about his very special relationship to MBNA, the largest independent credit card company in the world, or for the immense favors he did for the credit card industry as a whole with the bankruptcy bill that even Bill Clinton vetoed before Bush finally signed it. But did anything ever so clearly indicate the truly incredible stupidity of McCain’s team of strategists, handlers and consultants than the disaster the Palin candidacy has become?
Biden’s lucky in having an opponent for the vice presidential slot who’s now drawing about 95 per cent of the press coverage for the entire campaign. There’s no space for nasty questions about his very special relationship to MBNA, the largest independent credit card company in the world, or for the immense favors he did for the credit card industry as a whole with the bankruptcy bill that even Bill Clinton vetoed before Bush finally signed it. But did anything ever so clearly indicate the truly incredible stupidity of McCain’s team of strategists, handlers and consultants than the disaster the Palin candidacy has become?
Tom Harkin Spanks His Opponent
After a contentious Iowa debate in which Republican Senate candidate Christopher Reed called Senator Tom Harkin "Tokyo Rose" and "anti-American" and accused him of giving "aid and comfort to the enemy," Harkin did the following:
After the cameras were turned off, Harkin calmly told Reed: “You’re a nice young man and I thought you had a political future ahead of you but that just ended your political career right there” and walked away. Reed said nothing.
That's gonna leave a mark! You can read more here.
After the cameras were turned off, Harkin calmly told Reed: “You’re a nice young man and I thought you had a political future ahead of you but that just ended your political career right there” and walked away. Reed said nothing.
That's gonna leave a mark! You can read more here.
David Frum Takes McCain to the Woodshed
Read it here. For those of you unfamiliar with David Frum, he's the guy that coined the immortal words "Axis of Evil" for Bush's 2002 State of the Union speech. Of course, he's full of cr*p regarding "angry liberals" stiffling dissent (and a lot of other things), but it's interesting nevertheless. Money graph:
Sure enough, the base has responded. After months and months of wan enthusiasm among Republicans, these last weeks have at last energized the core of the party. But there's a downside: The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.
Sure enough, the base has responded. After months and months of wan enthusiasm among Republicans, these last weeks have at last energized the core of the party. But there's a downside: The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.
Sunday Afternoon Limerick Blogging
I made this one up myself:
There once was a girl from Wasilla
At Obama she'd lob verbal missilla
McCain was too stupid to vet her
And things for Dems have never looked better
Now she's a Republican electoral prospect killa
There once was a girl from Wasilla
At Obama she'd lob verbal missilla
McCain was too stupid to vet her
And things for Dems have never looked better
Now she's a Republican electoral prospect killa
Tina Brown on the Torrent of Republican Endorsements of Obama w/Some Thoughts About Palin Thrown In
Good stuff. 1st graph:
If one more Republican grandee or neoconservative bigwig endorses Obama, his campaign will collapse under the weight of counterintuitive adoration. It seems it’s not enough to garner the blessing of General Colin Powell; now he’s collected the imprimatur of the neocon foreign policy hawk Ken Adelman, the guy who introduced Dick Cheney to Paul Wolfowitz at a Washington brunch the day Reagan was sworn in. Adelman came out for Barry yesterday to George Packer on his New Yorker blog.
If one more Republican grandee or neoconservative bigwig endorses Obama, his campaign will collapse under the weight of counterintuitive adoration. It seems it’s not enough to garner the blessing of General Colin Powell; now he’s collected the imprimatur of the neocon foreign policy hawk Ken Adelman, the guy who introduced Dick Cheney to Paul Wolfowitz at a Washington brunch the day Reagan was sworn in. Adelman came out for Barry yesterday to George Packer on his New Yorker blog.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Get Thee Some Pearls Here!
How about some Saturday Night pearl blogging? We love ourselves some fancy yet well-priced Tahitian pearls. They are pretty because they come in all sorts of pretty colors, like green, aubergine, pistachio, yellow, blue, white, and yes, even gray! Sarah Palin would love herself some Tahitian pearls, but she'd never get them from our site because she likes paying retail.
Mas Rogue Por Favor!
Politico reports that Sarah Palin is beginning to disregard the advice of her handlers and is "going rogue," which is only adding to the tension in the rapidly sinking McCain campaign. Reminds me of Timothy Dalton as James Bond in Licence to Kill...
Friday, October 24, 2008
Financial Gloom & Doom From Mike Whitney Part 146,179
Full article here. Money graph:
The actions of the Fed, the Treasury and the FDIC are likely to cost in excess of $2 trillion. That does not include the trillions in market capitalization that are wiped out by plummeting home and stock prices. Nor does it include the incalculable suffering from rising unemployment, falling living standards, or personal hardship. Eventually, the Fed's emergency measures will result in higher taxes, soaring deficits and slower growth. As America's "consumer-based" economy flags and the recession deepens, capital will flee US Treasurys and securities and create a funding crisis. This may be hard to imagine, now that the dollar is strengthening and US Treasurys appear to be in great demand, but the handwriting is already on the wall.
As Iron Maiden said, run to the hills, runs for your lives.
The actions of the Fed, the Treasury and the FDIC are likely to cost in excess of $2 trillion. That does not include the trillions in market capitalization that are wiped out by plummeting home and stock prices. Nor does it include the incalculable suffering from rising unemployment, falling living standards, or personal hardship. Eventually, the Fed's emergency measures will result in higher taxes, soaring deficits and slower growth. As America's "consumer-based" economy flags and the recession deepens, capital will flee US Treasurys and securities and create a funding crisis. This may be hard to imagine, now that the dollar is strengthening and US Treasurys appear to be in great demand, but the handwriting is already on the wall.
As Iron Maiden said, run to the hills, runs for your lives.
Pretty is as Pretty Does!
Kathleen Parker writes a curious piece for National Review Online (NRO) that is instantly attacked by everyone else at NRO!
Expensive Lipstick on a Pig!
The New York Times reports that Sarah Palin's make-up artist was the highest-paid member of the McCain campaign staff for the 1st half of October - a whopping $11,400 a week!
Get Yer Cool Aid Here!
Excellent article about "investigative journalism" in the right-wing blogosphere.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Early Voting in Evansville, Indiana
From Ben Smith in Politico. Money graph:
For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn't in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president.
For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn't in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president.
Thursday Night Commie Folk Singer Blogging!
One of the best ever anti-war songs, Waist-Deep in the Big Muddy, starts at about 4:10. Pete Seeger - a real American hero!
Joe the Plumber is a Moron!
Excellent Rude Pundit post about Joe the Plumber. Here are a few PG-13-rated graphs:
...Wurzelbacher appeared on that Fox "news" model of journalistic ethics, Hannity and (to a lesser extent) Colmes. In two lines early in the interview, Wurzelbacher pretty much destroyed whatever sad little argument he might have had about why the rich shouldn't pay more taxes. Sean Hannity, who was practically humping the desk at the thought, asked Wurzelbacher of Barack Obama's tax plan, "Why do you view this as 'socialism,' because that's the word you used?"
Wurzelbacher never even realized the brutal irony and self-contradiction of his answer: "I grew up poor. You know I actually have been on welfare, you know, my parents, you know, a couple different times, and we'd, you know, worked harder and got off of it and then, you know, actually did fairly well."
A moment later, Alan Colmes, who always looks like speaking causes him endless pain, pointed out that Wurzelbacher would actually get a tax cut with Obama's plan. And then, in a line so pathetically filled with denial of who he was and where he came from, Wurzelbacher answered, "To be honest with you. You know I don't think it's right to -- you know, you know, there's principles involved. I don't want to make or have my taxes cut if it means somebody who worked hard or had a better break than I did, and take his money. I don't want his money...I don't want someone else's money who worked hard for it. No."
Did you get that? Joe the Plumber and his parents were on welfare during hard times. But he doesn't want someone else's money and doesn't think it's fair to take money from one person to give it to another person. Can you wrap your mind around that without blowing two or three gaskets?
...Wurzelbacher appeared on that Fox "news" model of journalistic ethics, Hannity and (to a lesser extent) Colmes. In two lines early in the interview, Wurzelbacher pretty much destroyed whatever sad little argument he might have had about why the rich shouldn't pay more taxes. Sean Hannity, who was practically humping the desk at the thought, asked Wurzelbacher of Barack Obama's tax plan, "Why do you view this as 'socialism,' because that's the word you used?"
Wurzelbacher never even realized the brutal irony and self-contradiction of his answer: "I grew up poor. You know I actually have been on welfare, you know, my parents, you know, a couple different times, and we'd, you know, worked harder and got off of it and then, you know, actually did fairly well."
A moment later, Alan Colmes, who always looks like speaking causes him endless pain, pointed out that Wurzelbacher would actually get a tax cut with Obama's plan. And then, in a line so pathetically filled with denial of who he was and where he came from, Wurzelbacher answered, "To be honest with you. You know I don't think it's right to -- you know, you know, there's principles involved. I don't want to make or have my taxes cut if it means somebody who worked hard or had a better break than I did, and take his money. I don't want his money...I don't want someone else's money who worked hard for it. No."
Did you get that? Joe the Plumber and his parents were on welfare during hard times. But he doesn't want someone else's money and doesn't think it's fair to take money from one person to give it to another person. Can you wrap your mind around that without blowing two or three gaskets?
It Must be the Uniforms!
From the London Times:
The successor of the Austrian far-right leader Jörg Haider was dismissed yesterday after he revealed a “special” relationship “far beyond” friendship with his former mentor.
The successor of the Austrian far-right leader Jörg Haider was dismissed yesterday after he revealed a “special” relationship “far beyond” friendship with his former mentor.
In emotional interviews with the national broadcaster and a tabloid newspaper Stefan Petzner spoke openly about his affair with Haider, who died at the age of 58 in a high-speed car crash after heavy drinking session at a gay club this month. Haider’s party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, captured 11 per cent of the vote in national elections last month .
“He was the man of my life. Our relationship went far beyond friendship,” Mr Petzner, 27, said after only a week in the job, adding that Haider’s wife, Claudia, 52, “did not object” to their relationship.
“I only had him. Now I am all alone. I would spend nights with him and his family and that was important for me because I often was afraid to be alone in the dark,” he added.
Solidarity! (HT Arindam)
There is less than one month until the election, an election that will decide
the next President of the United States.
The person elected will be the president of all Americans, not just the
The person elected will be the president of all Americans, not just the
Democrats or the Republicans.
To show our solidarity as Americans, let's all get together and show each
other our support for the candidate of our choice.
It's time that we come together, Democrats and Republicans alike.
If you support the policies and character of Obama, please drive with your
To show our solidarity as Americans, let's all get together and show each
other our support for the candidate of our choice.
It's time that we come together, Democrats and Republicans alike.
If you support the policies and character of Obama, please drive with your
headlights on during the day.
If you support John McCain, please drive with your headlights off at night.
Thank you for your participation.
If you support John McCain, please drive with your headlights off at night.
Thank you for your participation.
Thursday Morning Pearl Blogging
Check out TahitianPearls.Biz's awesome Tahitian pearl jewelry. TahitianPearls.Biz has great selection and excellent prices, usually 50-70% off retail!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Interesting Article About the McCain Campaign
Hopefully, it's a pre-post-mortem of the McCain campaign. Longish, but well worthish, it can be found here.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Palin Has Balls the Size of Churchbells!
She takes her kids everywhere on state business, even when they are not invited, and charges the state for all the travel. Read about it here.
What else do you burn apart from witches? Part 2
You can read a letter asking fundies to pray extra-hard against curses that Kenyan witches and warlocks aligned with Obama are conjuring up against McCain and Palin. I sh*t you not.
Hedge Fund Manager Call It Quits...
...with a fun letter to his clients. You can read the letter here (PDF).
Monday, October 20, 2008
What the crazies are saying...
A collection of comments, collected by Wonkette, from right-wing cesspool website freerepublic.org regarding Powell's endorsement of Obama:
* I’m not surprised that Powell has endorsed a Chicago street thug over a real American hero either. “How ‘bout some ‘blow’ General? Then we’ll go help ACORN register some more ‘voters’.”
* This is why you don’t let traitors in your midst. They are capable of doing far more harm than good.
* Clown Powell showed us his true colors with his endorsement of this communist weasel. He just spit in the face of the military he supposedly cares about.
* It’s all about Powell’s racism and everyone knows it
* Well, there goes the Muslim vote!
* Possibly less about Colin’s leanings than his wife’s. He’s always struck me as someone without bearing.
* Oh please….he’s black and he is endorsing one of his brothers…just too obvious. It’s not hard for the everyday American to understand.
* Planet of the APes mentality..”Monkey supports monkey”..
* Before this election, I treated blacks as individuals. I was wrong. They are a clan.
* Is it ok still to say “white sheet?”
* The McCain campaign should take Powell’s $2,300 campaign contribution and throw it out on a busy street. Watch the hounds jump all over the bills and take that “welfare money”.
* Look, it’s Powell Diddy!
* I just saw the video. Somebody should toll Powell that yes, it IS a problem if a Moslem becomes President. The Constitution is not a suicide pact!
* “blacks are the most racist group of people in the USA.” And the most ungrateful.
* I wrote this on Malkiin’s site: The Presidential Tyranny of Obama, these coming years, will hit all hard, and tragically. None will be spared, none will thrive. But of those hurt the most, it will be urban blacks (and hispanics to an extent). Among them there is no real sense of community, they will fight each other most viciously, the murder rate — already high — will skyrocket as groups fight for dominance. That is speculation on my part — and not an outcome I wish! I pray to G-d we will elect McCain.
* As a white blues guitarist here in NY City I too have seen reversed racism.
* I’m not surprised that Powell has endorsed a Chicago street thug over a real American hero either. “How ‘bout some ‘blow’ General? Then we’ll go help ACORN register some more ‘voters’.”
* This is why you don’t let traitors in your midst. They are capable of doing far more harm than good.
* Clown Powell showed us his true colors with his endorsement of this communist weasel. He just spit in the face of the military he supposedly cares about.
* It’s all about Powell’s racism and everyone knows it
* Well, there goes the Muslim vote!
* Possibly less about Colin’s leanings than his wife’s. He’s always struck me as someone without bearing.
* Oh please….he’s black and he is endorsing one of his brothers…just too obvious. It’s not hard for the everyday American to understand.
* Planet of the APes mentality..”Monkey supports monkey”..
* Before this election, I treated blacks as individuals. I was wrong. They are a clan.
* Is it ok still to say “white sheet?”
* The McCain campaign should take Powell’s $2,300 campaign contribution and throw it out on a busy street. Watch the hounds jump all over the bills and take that “welfare money”.
* Look, it’s Powell Diddy!
* I just saw the video. Somebody should toll Powell that yes, it IS a problem if a Moslem becomes President. The Constitution is not a suicide pact!
* “blacks are the most racist group of people in the USA.” And the most ungrateful.
* I wrote this on Malkiin’s site: The Presidential Tyranny of Obama, these coming years, will hit all hard, and tragically. None will be spared, none will thrive. But of those hurt the most, it will be urban blacks (and hispanics to an extent). Among them there is no real sense of community, they will fight each other most viciously, the murder rate — already high — will skyrocket as groups fight for dominance. That is speculation on my part — and not an outcome I wish! I pray to G-d we will elect McCain.
* As a white blues guitarist here in NY City I too have seen reversed racism.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Powell Endorses Obama
And spanks John McCain in a very polite way.
We at Fargin Bastages has never been fans of Powell. He has been a political tool since his time in Vietnam, when he was tasked with investigating a letter, written by an American GI, detailing American military abuses against Vietnamese civilians. His conclusion was, "[I]n direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." This is around the same time is My Lai. As Casper Weinberger's senior military aide, he was up to his neck in Iran Contra, and lied to Congress about what he knew. As chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he played a leading role in derailing Clinton's effort to allow homosexuals to serve openly in US military, which resulted in the moronic Don't Ask Don't Tell policy "compromise." As Bush's Secretary of State he laid out the case for the Iraq war at the UN, using intelligence he either knew of should have known was inflated or outright lies.
That said, Powell's endorsement of Obama on Meet the Press today was fantastic. He very cogently made his case for Obama, while at the same time calling out McCain on his petty and divisive campaign.
We at Fargin Bastages has never been fans of Powell. He has been a political tool since his time in Vietnam, when he was tasked with investigating a letter, written by an American GI, detailing American military abuses against Vietnamese civilians. His conclusion was, "[I]n direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." This is around the same time is My Lai. As Casper Weinberger's senior military aide, he was up to his neck in Iran Contra, and lied to Congress about what he knew. As chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he played a leading role in derailing Clinton's effort to allow homosexuals to serve openly in US military, which resulted in the moronic Don't Ask Don't Tell policy "compromise." As Bush's Secretary of State he laid out the case for the Iraq war at the UN, using intelligence he either knew of should have known was inflated or outright lies.
That said, Powell's endorsement of Obama on Meet the Press today was fantastic. He very cogently made his case for Obama, while at the same time calling out McCain on his petty and divisive campaign.
Excellent Post on Tire Swinging
Incredibly funny and informative post at Talking Points Memo about journalists' complicated relationship with John McCain.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
McCain's Fascist Mob
I am not sure that the retrograde genie that McCain and Palin have let out of the bottle can be put back in once the election is over. Watch this video of people (and I use the term loosely) lining to go into a Palin Rally in Johnstown, PA on October 11:
Friday, October 17, 2008
Friday Night Pearl Blogging
Here's a lovely Tahitian pearl necklace, comprised of seven high-luster, round 9-10mm multicolor Tahitian pearls, separated with 14k yellow gold spacers, on a 14k white gold omega chain.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Plumber's Crack!
It turns out Joe The Plumber is not really a plumber - at least not a licensed one!
A re-emboldened, more radical right-wing in our future?
Mike Davis sure thinks so. Reprinted from tomdispatch.com:
Can Obama See the Grand Canyon?
On Presidential Blindness and Economic Catastrophe
By Mike DavisLet me begin, very obliquely, with the Grand Canyon and the paradox of trying to see beyond cultural or historical precedent.
The first European to look into the depths of the great gorge was the conquistador Garcia Lopez de Cardenas in 1540. He was horrified by the sight and quickly retreated from the South Rim. More than three centuries passed before Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers led the second major expedition to the rim. Like Garcia Lopez, he recorded an "awe that was almost painful to behold." Ives's expedition included a well-known German artist, but his sketch of the Canyon was wildly distorted, almost hysterical.
Neither the conquistadors nor the Army engineers, in other words, could make sense of what they saw; they were simply overwhelmed by unexpected revelation. In a fundamental sense, they were blind because they lacked the concepts necessary to organize a coherent vision of an utterly new landscape.
Accurate portrayal of the Canyon only arrived a generation later when the Colorado River became the obsession of the one-armed Civil War hero John Wesley Powell and his celebrated teams of geologists and artists. They were like Victorian astronauts reconnoitering another planet. It took years of brilliant fieldwork to construct a conceptual framework for taking in the canyon. With "deep time" added as the critical dimension, it was finally possible for raw perception to be transformed into consistent vision.
The result of their work, The Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District, published in 1882, is illustrated by masterpieces of draftsmanship that, as Powell's biographer Wallace Stegner once pointed out, "are more accurate than any photograph." That is because they reproduce details of stratigraphy usually obscured in camera images. When we visit one of the famous viewpoints today, most of us are oblivious to how profoundly our eyes have been trained by these iconic images or how much we have been influenced by the idea, popularized by Powell, of the Canyon as a museum of geological time.
But why am I talking about geology? Because, like the Grand Canyon's first explorers, we are looking into an unprecedented abyss of economic and social turmoil that confounds our previous perceptions of historical risk. Our vertigo is intensified by our ignorance of the depth of the crisis or any sense of how far we might ultimately fall.
Weimar Returns in Limbaughland
Let me confess that, as an aging socialist, I suddenly find myself like the Jehovah's Witness who opens his window to see the stars actually falling out of the sky. Although I've been studying Marxist crisis theory for decades, I never believed I'd actually live to see financial capitalism commit suicide. Or hear the International Monetary Fund warn of imminent "systemic meltdown."
Thus, my initial reaction to Wall Street's infamous 777.7 point plunge a few weeks ago was a very sixties retro elation. "Right on, Karl!" I shouted. "Eat your derivatives and die, Wall Street swine!" Like the Grand Canyon, the fall of the banks can be a terrifying but sublime spectacle.
But the real culprits, of course, are not being trundled off to the guillotine; they're gently floating to earth in golden parachutes. The rest of us may be trapped on the burning plane without a pilot, but the despicable Richard Fuld, who used Lehman Brothers to loot pension funds and retirement accounts, merely sulks on his yacht.
Out in the stucco deserts of Limbaughland, moreover, fear is already being distilled into a good ol' boy version of the "stab in the back" myth that rallied the ruined German petite bourgeoisie to the swastika. If you listen to the rage on commute AM, you'll know that ‘socialism' has already taken a lien on America, Barack Hussein Obama is terrorism's Manchurian candidate, the collapse of Wall Street was caused by elderly black people with Fannie Mae loans, and ACORN in its voter registration drives has long been padding the voting rolls with illegal brown hordes.
In other times, Sarah Palin's imitation of Father Charles Coughlin -- the priest who preached an American Reich in the 1930s -- in drag might be hilarious camp, but with the American way of life in sudden freefall, the specter of star-spangled fascism doesn't seem quite so far-fetched. The Right may lose the election, but it already possesses a sinister, historically-proven blueprint for rapid recovery.
Progressives have no time to waste. In the face of a new depression that promises folks from Wasilla to Timbuktu an unknown world of pain, how do we reconstruct our understanding of the globalized economy? To what extent can we look to either Obama or any of the Democrats to help us analyze the crisis and then act effectively to resolve it?
Is Obama FDR?
If the Nashville "town hall" debate is any guide, we will soon have another blind president. Neither candidate had the guts or information to answer the simple questions posed by the anxious audience: What will happen to our jobs? How bad will it get? What urgent steps should be taken?
Instead, the candidates stuck like flypaper to their obsolete talking points. McCain's only surprise was yet another innovation in deceit: a mortgage relief plan that would reward banks and investors without necessarily saving homeowners.
Obama recited his four-point program, infinitely better in principle than his opponent's preferential option for the rich, but abstract and lacking in detail. It remains more a rhetorical promise than the blueprint for the actual machinery of reform. He made only passing reference to the next phase of the crisis: the slump of the real economy and likely mass unemployment on a scale not seen for 70 years.
With baffling courtesy to the Bush administration, he failed to highlight any of the other weak links in the economic system: the dangerous overhang of credit-default swap obligations left over from the fall of Lehman Brothers; the trillion-dollar black hole of consumer credit-card debt that may threaten the solvency of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America; the implacable decline of General Motors and the American auto industry; the crumbling foundations of municipal and state finance; the massacre of tech equity and venture capital in Silicon Valley; and, most unexpectedly, sudden fissures in the financial solidity of even General Electric.
In addition, both Obama and his vice presidential partner Joe Biden, in their support for Secretary of the Treasury Paulson's plan, avoid any discussion of the inevitable result of cataclysmic restructuring and government bailouts: not "socialism," but ultra-capitalism -- one that is likely to concentrate control of credit in a few leviathan banks, controlled in large part by sovereign wealth funds but subsidized by generations of public debt and domestic austerity.
Never have so many ordinary Americans been nailed to a cross of gold (or derivatives), yet Obama is the most mild-mannered William Jennings Bryan imaginable. Unlike Sarah Palin who masticates the phrase "the working class" with defiant glee, he hews to a party line that acknowledges only the needs of an amorphous "middle class" living on a largely mythical "Main Street."
If we are especially concerned about the fate of the poor or unemployed, we are left to read between the lines, with no help from his talking points that espouse clean coal technology, nuclear power, and a bigger military, but elide the urgency of a renewed war on poverty as championed by John Edwards in his tragically self-destructed primary campaign. But perhaps inside the cautious candidate is a man whose humane passions transcend his own nearsighted centrist campaign. As a close friend, exasperated by my chronic pessimism, chided me the other day, "don't be so unfair. FDR didn't have a nuts and bolts program either in 1933. Nobody did."
What Franklin D. Roosevelt did possess in that year of breadlines and bank failures, according to my friend, was enormous empathy for the common people and a willingness to experiment with government intervention, even in the face of the monolithic hostility of the wealthy classes. In this view, Obama is MoveOn.org's re-imagining of our 32nd president: calm, strong, deeply in touch with ordinary needs, and willing to accept the advice of the country's best and brightest.
The Death of Keynesianism
But even if we concede to the Illinois senator a truly Rooseveltian or, even better, Lincolnian strength of character, this hopeful analogy is flawed in at least three principal ways:
First, we can't rely on the Great Depression as analog to the current crisis, nor upon the New Deal as the template for its solution. Certainly, there is a great deal of déjà vu in the frantic attempts to quiet panic and reassure the public that the worst has passed. Many of Paulson's statements, indeed, could have been directly plagiarized from Herbert Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, and both presidential campaigns are frantically cribbing heroic rhetoric from the early New Deal. But just as the business press has been insisting for years, this is not the Old American Economy, but an entirely new-fangled contraption built from outsourced parts and supercharged by instantaneous world markets in everything from dollars and defaults to hog bellies and disaster futures.
We are seeing the consequences of a perverse restructuring that began with the presidency of Ronald Reagan and which has inverted the national income shares of manufacturing (21% in 1980; 12% in 2005) and those of financial services (15% in 1980; 21% in 2005). In 1930, the factories may have been shuttered but the machinery was still intact; it hadn't been auctioned off at five cents on the dollar to China.
On the other hand, we shouldn't disparage the miracles of contemporary market technology. Casino capitalism has proven its mettle by transmitting the deadly virus of Wall Street at unprecedented velocity to every financial center on the planet. What took three years at the beginning of the 1930s -- that is, the full globalization of the crisis -- has taken only three weeks this time around. God help us, if, as seems to be happening, unemployment tops the levees at anything like the same speed.
Second, Obama won't inherit Roosevelt's ultimate situational advantage -- having emergent tools of state intervention and demand management (later to be called "Keynesianism") empowered by an epochal uprising of industrial workers in the world's most productive factories.
If you've been watching the sad parade of economic gurus on McNeil-Lehrer, you know that the intellectual shelves in Washington are now almost bare. Neither major party retains more than a few enigmatic shards of policy traditions different from the neo-liberal consensus on trade and privatization. Indeed, posturing pseudo-populists aside, it is unclear whether anyone inside the Beltway, including Obama's economic advisors, can think clearly beyond the indoctrinated mindset of Goldman Sachs, the source of the two most prominent secretaries of the treasury over the last decade.
Keynes, now suddenly mourned, is actually quite dead. More importantly, the New Deal did not arise spontaneously from the goodwill or imagination of the White House. On the contrary, the social contract for the post-1935 Second New Deal was a complex, adaptive response to the greatest working-class movement in our history, in a period when powerful third parties still roamed the political landscape and Marxism exercised extraordinary influence on American intellectual life.
Even with the greatest optimism of the will, it is difficult to imagine the American labor movement recovering from defeat as dramatically as it did in 1934-1937. The decisive difference is structural rather than ideological. (Indeed, today's union movement is much more progressive than the decrepit, nativist American Federation of Labor in 1930.) The power of labor within a Walmart-ized service economy is simply more dispersed and difficult to mobilize than in the era of giant urban-industrial concentrations and ubiquitous factory neighborhoods.
Is War the Answer?
The third problem with the New Deal analogy is perhaps the most important. Military Keynesianism is no longer an available deus ex machina. Let me explain.
In 1933, when FDR was inaugurated, the United States was in full retreat from foreign entanglements, and there was little controversy about bringing a few hundred Marines home from the occupations of Haiti and Nicaragua. It took two years of world war, the defeat of France, and the near collapse of England to finally win a majority in Congress for rearmament, but when war production finally started up in late 1940 it became a huge engine for the reemployment of the American work force, the real cure for the depressed job markets of the 1930s. Subsequently, American world power and full employment would align in a way that won the loyalty of several generations of working-class voters.
Today, of course, the situation is radically different. A bigger Pentagon budget no longer creates hundreds of thousands of stable factory jobs, since significant parts of its weapons production is now actually outsourced, and the ideological link between high-wage employment and intervention -- good jobs and Old Glory on a foreign shore -- while hardly extinct is structurally weaker than at any time since the early 1940s. Even in the new military (largely a hereditary caste of poor whites, blacks, and Latinos) demoralization is reaching the stage of active discontent and opening up new spaces for alternative ideas.
Although both candidates have endorsed programs, including expansion of Army and Marine combat strength, missile defense (aka "Star Wars"), and an intensified war in Afghanistan, that will enlarge the military-industrial complex, none of this will replenish the supply of decent jobs nor prime a broken national pump. However, in the midst of a deep slump, what a huge military budget can do is obliterate the modest but essential reforms that make up Obama's plans for healthcare, alternative energy, and education.
In other words, Rooseveltian guns and butter have become a contradiction in terms, which means that the Obama campaign is engineering a catastrophic collision between its national security priorities and its domestic policy goals.
The Fate of Obama-ism
Why don't such smart people see the Grand Canyon?
Maybe they do, in which case deception is truly the mother's milk of American politics; or perhaps Obama has become the reluctant prisoner, intellectually as well as politically, of Clintonism: that is say, of a culturally permissive neo-liberalism whose New Deal rhetoric masks the policy spirit of Richard Nixon.
It's worth asking, for instance, what in the actual substance of his foreign policy agenda differentiates the Democratic candidate from the radioactive legacy of the Bush Doctrine? Yes, he would close Guantanamo, talk to the Iranians, and thrill hearts in Europe. He also promises to renew the Global War on Terror (in much the same way that Bush senior and Clinton sustained the core policies of Reaganism, albeit with a "more human face").
In case anyone has missed the debates, let me remind you that the Democratic candidate has chained himself, come hell or high water, to a global strategy in which "victory" in the Middle East (and Central Asia) remains the chief premise of foreign policy, with the Iraqi-style nation-building hubris of Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz repackaged as a "realist" faith in global "stabilization."
True, the enormity of the economic crisis may compel President Obama to renege on some of candidate Obama's ringing promises to support an idiotic missile defense system or provocative NATO memberships for Georgia and Ukraine. Nonetheless, as he emphasizes in almost every speech and in each debate, defeating the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, together with a robust defense of Israel, constitute the keystone of his national security agenda.
Under huge pressure from Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats alike to cut the budget and reduce the exponential increase in the national debt, what choices would President Obama be forced to make early in his administration? More than likely comprehensive health-care will be whittled down to a barebones plan, "alternative energy" will simply mean the fraud of "clean coal," and anything that remains in the Treasury, after Wall Street's finished its looting spree, will buy bombs to pulverize more Pashtun villages, ensuring yet more generations of embittered mujahideen and jihadis.
Am I unduly cynical? Perhaps, but I lived through the Lyndon Johnson years and watched the War on Poverty, the last true New Deal program, destroyed to pay for slaughter in Vietnam.
It is bitterly ironic, but, I suppose, historically predictable that a presidential campaign millions of voters have supported for its promise to end the war in Iraq has now mortgaged itself to a "tougher than McCain" escalation of a hopeless conflict in Afghanistan and the Pakistani tribal frontier. In the best of outcomes, the Democrats will merely trade one brutal, losing war for another. In the worst case, their failed policies may set the stage for the return of Cheney and Rove, or their even more sinister avatars.
Mike Davis is the author of In Praise of Barbarians: Essays Against Empire (Haymarket Books, 2008) and Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (Verso, 2007). He is currently working on a book about cities, poverty, and global change. You can listen to a podcast of Davis discussing why the New Deal isn't relevant as a solution today by clicking here.
Copyright 2008 Mike Davis
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Chistopher Buckley Gets Fired by The National Review
William F.'s son endorsed Obama a few days ago, so he got fired by The National Review. Read his entertaining post at The Daily Beast here. It's awesome when the Kool-Aid drinkers eat (or drink?) their own!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Tahitian Pearls of Wisdom
Tonight's Tahitian pearl of wisdom - Cartman's Haiku
Shut your goddamn mouth
Or I'll kick you
Square in the balls
Shut your goddamn mouth
Or I'll kick you
Square in the balls
Who "helped" the first dude build his house?
Interesting post from Daily Kos. It looks like the "buddies" Todd Palin said "helped" him build his house might have all been the same contractors who were busy building the Wasilla Sports Complex boondoggle that Sarah pushed through as mayor. Nice payback if you can get it. It's hard to tell exactly what happened, cuz in spite of all that snow, Alaska seems to be quite opaque - no building permits were filed.
Senator Ted Stevens all over again!
Senator Ted Stevens all over again!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
What Obama Must Do...
...which of course I believe he won't. From David Seaton:
[T]he legendary prosperity of the American middle class, their massive home ownership and dizzying consumption have long been based on easy credit, that with the end of the cold war, America's credit binge went out of control, that the days of easy credit have just ended with an enormous bang or thud and that if Barack Obama, probably the next president of USA, has any specific ideas about what to do about the whole thing, he is playing his cards very close to his chest, indeed.
The reference to the cold war is very relevant, in my opinion.
If a worldwide banking meltdown, such as we are experiencing right now, had occurred in the 1960s or 70s, the large soviet backed, communist parties of France and Italy, and their trade unions, would have been out in the streets in force rapidly destabilizing those countries: the reaction in Asia, Africa and Latin America might have been even more explosive. Certainly the risk of strengthening such political movements would have been a conscious restraining factor for regulators all over the capitalist world. Those parties and those unions no longer exist. At the end of the cold war, as William Pfaff writes, "without the enemy, the machinery of power begins to race, with nothing to resist it; megalomania sets in."
With this crisis the era of easy private credit is surely drawing to a close and we will see a revival of traditional, conservative, lending practices. This means, for those too young to remember, that to get money you will have to already have money. Nouriel Roubini gives a short list of things that you will find yourself paying up front for besides a house: anything you usually pay for with a credit-card, or a college education, or an automobile, etc.
As you look at the list of things that you will have to save up to buy, James Stewart's, Charles Bailey voice may echo in your ear, "Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars?" In 1946 you could buy a house with five thousand dollars, nowadays you can't buy very much with that sum, but it is still hard for anyone on minimum wage, or not so minimum wage, to save five thousand dollars.
A great many people are going to discover for the first time in their lives that they are poor and they are going to resent it.
Many more people than today are going to feel bitter and in Barack Obama's prescient phrase, "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations”. As another major new voice in American politics might add, "you betcha".
With nothing to threaten it, the system has set out to destroy itself. Now the danger to our system is right wing populism not socialism. Socialism or at least some version of a Scandinavian social democracy is the only way to stabilize this situation and stability is the most truly conservative of values.
This ultra-right, Le Pen-like populist anger is going to sweep America and make an already horrible situation much worse, unless very proactive, openly social democratic, anti-poverty programs are put quickly into place: universal, free health care, grants, not loans, for higher education, government sponsored, high quality subsidized rental housing with option to buy, etc. And make no mistake, this means cutting back defense spending, closing tax havens and raising taxes on the very rich and moving the money into education, health and infrastructure... right away.
Nothing original here, the plans are already drawn up, all you have to do is translate them from Swedish.
The wing nuts are accusing Barack Obama of being a "socialist radical", oh, but were it true.
I think he should quickly announce his future cabinet choices and give a detailed outline of the legislation he aims to pass in his first hundred days.
If Obama doesn't move strongly with vigorous social democratic measures to stabilize the situation of America's seething masses of nouveaux pauvres, he will simply be fattening frogs for snakes... keeping the Oval Office chair warm for Sarah Palin or even worse in 2012.
[T]he legendary prosperity of the American middle class, their massive home ownership and dizzying consumption have long been based on easy credit, that with the end of the cold war, America's credit binge went out of control, that the days of easy credit have just ended with an enormous bang or thud and that if Barack Obama, probably the next president of USA, has any specific ideas about what to do about the whole thing, he is playing his cards very close to his chest, indeed.
The reference to the cold war is very relevant, in my opinion.
If a worldwide banking meltdown, such as we are experiencing right now, had occurred in the 1960s or 70s, the large soviet backed, communist parties of France and Italy, and their trade unions, would have been out in the streets in force rapidly destabilizing those countries: the reaction in Asia, Africa and Latin America might have been even more explosive. Certainly the risk of strengthening such political movements would have been a conscious restraining factor for regulators all over the capitalist world. Those parties and those unions no longer exist. At the end of the cold war, as William Pfaff writes, "without the enemy, the machinery of power begins to race, with nothing to resist it; megalomania sets in."
With this crisis the era of easy private credit is surely drawing to a close and we will see a revival of traditional, conservative, lending practices. This means, for those too young to remember, that to get money you will have to already have money. Nouriel Roubini gives a short list of things that you will find yourself paying up front for besides a house: anything you usually pay for with a credit-card, or a college education, or an automobile, etc.
As you look at the list of things that you will have to save up to buy, James Stewart's, Charles Bailey voice may echo in your ear, "Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars?" In 1946 you could buy a house with five thousand dollars, nowadays you can't buy very much with that sum, but it is still hard for anyone on minimum wage, or not so minimum wage, to save five thousand dollars.
A great many people are going to discover for the first time in their lives that they are poor and they are going to resent it.
Many more people than today are going to feel bitter and in Barack Obama's prescient phrase, "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations”. As another major new voice in American politics might add, "you betcha".
With nothing to threaten it, the system has set out to destroy itself. Now the danger to our system is right wing populism not socialism. Socialism or at least some version of a Scandinavian social democracy is the only way to stabilize this situation and stability is the most truly conservative of values.
This ultra-right, Le Pen-like populist anger is going to sweep America and make an already horrible situation much worse, unless very proactive, openly social democratic, anti-poverty programs are put quickly into place: universal, free health care, grants, not loans, for higher education, government sponsored, high quality subsidized rental housing with option to buy, etc. And make no mistake, this means cutting back defense spending, closing tax havens and raising taxes on the very rich and moving the money into education, health and infrastructure... right away.
Nothing original here, the plans are already drawn up, all you have to do is translate them from Swedish.
The wing nuts are accusing Barack Obama of being a "socialist radical", oh, but were it true.
I think he should quickly announce his future cabinet choices and give a detailed outline of the legislation he aims to pass in his first hundred days.
If Obama doesn't move strongly with vigorous social democratic measures to stabilize the situation of America's seething masses of nouveaux pauvres, he will simply be fattening frogs for snakes... keeping the Oval Office chair warm for Sarah Palin or even worse in 2012.
Obama: The Master of Rope-a-Dope
Interesting article by Andrew Sullivan, where he posits that Obama is the master of the rope-a-dope. Best paragraph:
"Obama rarely directly attacks. He subtly baits. His most brilliant rope-a-dope of the entire campaign was against Bill Clinton in the spring. In a newspaper interview, Obama cited Ronald Reagan as the last transformational president. He didn’t mention Clinton. The former president was offended by being implicitly dissed, took the bait and unleashed a series of unwise public scoffs at the young Democrat, culminating in a dismissal of Obama as another Jesse Jackson. Suddenly, black Democrats abandoned Clinton’s wife, and the Clintons’ base collapsed. Obama merely stepped out of the way as the Clintons self-destructed. He didn’t just end their campaign; he helped to bury their reputation."
"Obama rarely directly attacks. He subtly baits. His most brilliant rope-a-dope of the entire campaign was against Bill Clinton in the spring. In a newspaper interview, Obama cited Ronald Reagan as the last transformational president. He didn’t mention Clinton. The former president was offended by being implicitly dissed, took the bait and unleashed a series of unwise public scoffs at the young Democrat, culminating in a dismissal of Obama as another Jesse Jackson. Suddenly, black Democrats abandoned Clinton’s wife, and the Clintons’ base collapsed. Obama merely stepped out of the way as the Clintons self-destructed. He didn’t just end their campaign; he helped to bury their reputation."
Al Franken Spanks Norm Coleman!
Here's a cool Al Franken ad, where he does a pretty great job of shaming Norm Coleman!
The script:
Announcer: Paul Wellstone used to run alongside his son, David, when David was running cross country races. Listen to Al Franken tell the story.
Al Franken (from speech at Wellstone Center): And David said, "Yeah, but get this. My dad made me run cross country. And this is like a two-and-a-half- three-mile race every time. And my dad would run alongside me on the edge of the course, off the edge of the course. And I'd get to the last quarter mile, and I'd be behind by, you know, ten or fifteen yards, and I'd be totally out of gas. My dad would see it. And my dad running alongside would start yelling, 'You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy."
Announcer: Look familiar? That's right. Ads for Norm Coleman use this footage of Al Franken telling this story about Paul Wellstone and his son and try to make is seem like he was angry. Minnesota deserves better.
Al Franken: I'm Al Franken and I approve this message.
The script:
Announcer: Paul Wellstone used to run alongside his son, David, when David was running cross country races. Listen to Al Franken tell the story.
Al Franken (from speech at Wellstone Center): And David said, "Yeah, but get this. My dad made me run cross country. And this is like a two-and-a-half- three-mile race every time. And my dad would run alongside me on the edge of the course, off the edge of the course. And I'd get to the last quarter mile, and I'd be behind by, you know, ten or fifteen yards, and I'd be totally out of gas. My dad would see it. And my dad running alongside would start yelling, 'You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy."
Announcer: Look familiar? That's right. Ads for Norm Coleman use this footage of Al Franken telling this story about Paul Wellstone and his son and try to make is seem like he was angry. Minnesota deserves better.
Al Franken: I'm Al Franken and I approve this message.
Macro Man thinks it's time to buy stocks!
From Macro Man, a pretty cool financial blog:
"And so Macro Man has decided to bid adieu to an old friend, his equity short position. Most major indices are down 20%-25% this month alone. While it is of course foolish to suggest that further downside is impossible, Macro Man now believes that prices are discounting a bone-crushing recession and could actually be cheap. At the same time, the Four Horsemen of the Investment Apocalypse- Risk Aversion, De-leveraging, Illiquidity, and Panic- stalk the land like hounds from the bowels of Hell."
"And so Macro Man has decided to bid adieu to an old friend, his equity short position. Most major indices are down 20%-25% this month alone. While it is of course foolish to suggest that further downside is impossible, Macro Man now believes that prices are discounting a bone-crushing recession and could actually be cheap. At the same time, the Four Horsemen of the Investment Apocalypse- Risk Aversion, De-leveraging, Illiquidity, and Panic- stalk the land like hounds from the bowels of Hell."
Sell! Buy!
Here's a tragically funny cartoon from The Economist in 1987, recently posted on Paul Krugman's blog:
Suitgate!
Here's Culleen Sheehan, Norm Coleman's campaign manager, refusing to answer whether or not the Senator accepted expensive suits from a rich campaign contributor:
Biden not so nice?
From Counterpunch:
Biden is the guy who pretty much singlehandedly, on behalf of MBNA -- the largest employer in Delaware, also the largest independent credit card company in the world, major contributor to Biden and sometime employer of Biden's son -- swung the Democrats in the Senate behind the credit card bill in 2005 which makes it impossible for Americans to go bankrupt and get clear of their debts. Think how many people are going to go bankrupt in the years ahead. As Eric Nguyen points out in an Friday NYT op ed:
Biden is the guy who pretty much singlehandedly, on behalf of MBNA -- the largest employer in Delaware, also the largest independent credit card company in the world, major contributor to Biden and sometime employer of Biden's son -- swung the Democrats in the Senate behind the credit card bill in 2005 which makes it impossible for Americans to go bankrupt and get clear of their debts. Think how many people are going to go bankrupt in the years ahead. As Eric Nguyen points out in an Friday NYT op ed:
Lenders have been foreclosing on about 250,000 homes every month this year — one every 10 seconds. And among the hardest-hit Americans have been families with school-age children. Many of those families file for bankruptcy; indeed, nearly two-thirds of those trying to save their homes in bankruptcy have young children. Yet our laws make it especially difficult for families to keep their homes.
Thank you, Joe Biden. Of that bankruptcy bill Biden said in the debate, "I though the glass was half full; Obama thought it was half empty." And then of course Obama voted against establishing interest rate caps and said of the bailout that it should NOT include bankruptcy reform.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Andrew Sullivan Agress With Jose!
It took almost a whole day, but Andrew Sullivan ends up paraphrasing me!
Bush's Moronic Certitude Know No Bounds!
From today's NYT (full post here):
Now, as he spends his last months in office trying to avert a global economic collapse, Mr. Bush has been telling people privately that it’s a good thing he’s in charge.
“He said that if it was going to happen at all, he was glad it was happening under his presidency, because he had a good group of people in D.C. working for him,” Dru Van Steenberg, one of several small-business owners who met with Mr. Bush in San Antonio earlier this week. The president expressed the same sentiment, others said, during a similar private session in Chantilly, Va., the next day.
What else do you burn apart from witches?
Obama's a witch - or is it a warlock? He can predict the future!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Arabs are not decent family men!
From CNN:
Later in Minnesota, a woman told McCain: "I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab."
McCain shook his head and said, "No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man...[a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about."
McCain's "defense" of Obama could not be any more racist if it tried! What an asshole!Friday Night Pearl Blogging
A beautiful 9-11mm round Tahitian pearl and yellow sapphire rondel necklace, finished with a yellow sapphire ball clasp. Available at my favorite on-line jeweler, Tahitian Pearls.
How Long Will the Stock Market De-Unraveling Take?
By Aaron Task in Yahoo Finance
If 1987 was like being in a bad accident, this market is like running into a bully who beats you up and takes your lunch every day, day after day. In that regard, the current market upheaval is "more insidious" than the 1987 crash, says John Roque, technical analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder.
Whether 1987 or 1929, the now year-long slump already ranks among the worst in U.S. market history. Both the Dow and S&P are now down more than 40% from their 2007 peaks, the worst bear market since 1973-'74, when the Dow fell 45% in two years.
Given the historical nature of the current decline, it's useful (and wise) to recall how the market fared in prior periods of prolonged distress, as Roque recently did in a report entitled "Don't Know Much About History."
- From 1909 to 1919, the Dow was essentially flat for 13 years.
- After peaking in 1929, the Dow didn't make a new all-time high until 1957, nearly 30 years later.
- From 1965 to 1982, the Dow was essentially flat for 16 years.
In other words "it takes time" to recover from the kind of drops occurring now, Roque says. Expectations for a rapid recovery a like expecting a basketball player who's suffered a serious knee injury to start playing at full speed right away.
If there's any solace in this grim tale is that's the Dow and S&P are now back to 1998 levels, meaning we're 10 years into the latest period of prolonged market malaise.
William F. Buckley's Son Endorses Obama!
Read the article here. It's a nice piece, though it suffers from the usual "McCain used to be a good guy but now he's not" BS. He has ALWAYS been a fargin bastage, as has Joe Lieberman.
A fun e-mail making the rounds (HT Victoria!)
Getting A Parking Ticket
The other day I went downtown to run a few errands. I went into the
local coffee shop for a snack.
I was only there for about 5 minutes, and when I came out, there was
this cop writing out a parking ticket.
I said to him, 'Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a
break'?
He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. His insensitivity
annoyed me, so I called him a 'Nazi.'
He glared at me and then wrote out another ticket for having worn tires.
So I proceeded to call him a 'doughnut eating Gestapo.' He finished the
second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first.
Then he wrote a third ticket when I called him a moron in blue.
This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I talked back to him the
more tickets he wrote.
Personally, I didn't really care. I came downtown on the bus, and the
car that he was putting the tickets on had one of those bumper stickers
that said, ' McCain in '08.'
I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired.
The doctor tells me that it's important for my health...:
The other day I went downtown to run a few errands. I went into the
local coffee shop for a snack.
I was only there for about 5 minutes, and when I came out, there was
this cop writing out a parking ticket.
I said to him, 'Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a
break'?
He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. His insensitivity
annoyed me, so I called him a 'Nazi.'
He glared at me and then wrote out another ticket for having worn tires.
So I proceeded to call him a 'doughnut eating Gestapo.' He finished the
second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first.
Then he wrote a third ticket when I called him a moron in blue.
This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I talked back to him the
more tickets he wrote.
Personally, I didn't really care. I came downtown on the bus, and the
car that he was putting the tickets on had one of those bumper stickers
that said, ' McCain in '08.'
I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired.
The doctor tells me that it's important for my health...:
Wonkette Rules!
All Michigan Republicans Now Hate McCain
John McCain used to be famous and handsome, when he was a lot younger, and many “moderates” enjoyed his personality and funny jokes about gorillas raping ladies. Now, however, he is a repulsive old cretin spouting utterly phony wingnut bullshit that he can’t even be bothered to pretend to believe — after all, he believes in nothing but the counsel of lobbyists, his right to massive wealth and his elite military bloodlines. This is why every Republican leader in Michigan — including the dead moderate ghost of Gerald Ford — has gone public with their deep hatred of John McCain, the horrible old fraud.
The Grand Rapids Press reports today:
John McCain used to be famous and handsome, when he was a lot younger, and many “moderates” enjoyed his personality and funny jokes about gorillas raping ladies. Now, however, he is a repulsive old cretin spouting utterly phony wingnut bullshit that he can’t even be bothered to pretend to believe — after all, he believes in nothing but the counsel of lobbyists, his right to massive wealth and his elite military bloodlines. This is why every Republican leader in Michigan — including the dead moderate ghost of Gerald Ford — has gone public with their deep hatred of John McCain, the horrible old fraud.
The Grand Rapids Press reports today:
“He is not the McCain I endorsed,” said former Republican Governor William Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. “He keeps saying, ‘Who is Barack Obama?’ I would ask the question, ‘Who is John McCain?’ because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.”
Other famous area Republicans who now loathe McCain include Phil Arthurhultz, a former Republican state senator, Bob Eleveld, “a former Kent County Republican chairman who led McCain’s West Michigan campaign in 2000,” and former U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee, who is from Rhode Island, but is wandering around Michigan bitching about what a sellout McCain has become.
Yahoo Finance on Nouriel Roubini
By Aaron Task:
Today's global rate cuts have reduced the risk of a market crash, but won't resolve the underlying crisis, says NYU economist Nouriel Roubini of RGE Monitor.
Today's global rate cuts have reduced the risk of a market crash, but won't resolve the underlying crisis, says NYU economist Nouriel Roubini of RGE Monitor.
But the financial market crisis has unfolded even quicker than Roubini expected (which is saying something), and the economist now thinks the Dow and S&P will suffer 50% declines from last October's peak vs. 40% previously.
In other words, the Dow is going to 7,000, but over the course of months vs. days if Roubini is right, as -- unfortunately for bulls -- he mostly has been for the past two years.
"The policy response is going to become more aggressive [but] a steady flow of bad financial and macro economic news is going to push down equity markets," he says, forecasting a real bottom won't be hit until "sometime next year."
Because of growing slack in the global economy, Roubini says deflation is going to become a much bigger threat in the next six months vs. inflation. In such an environment, cash, Treasuries and gold are the only safe bets he says -- provided your holdings are within the FDIC's new $250,000 insurance cap.
Joe Klein Truth Telling (Mostly)
From Joe Klein's blog. He's bang on, except for the statement that McCain "no longer has his honor." Truth is, he never had any.
Better be "a guy of the street" than a guy of the gutter.
But seriously, folks, I'm beginning to worry about the level of craziness on the Republican side, the over-the-top, stampede-the-crowd statements by everyone from McCain on down, the vehemence of the crowds that McCain and Palin are drawing with people shouting "Kill him" and "He's a terrorist" and "Off with his head."
Watch the tape of the guy screaming, "He's a terrorist!" McCain seems to shudder at that, he rolls his eyes... and I thought for a moment he'd admonish the man. But he didn't. And now he's selling the Ayres non-story full-time. Yes, yes, it's all he has. True enough: he no longer has his honor. But we are on the edge of some real serious craziness here and it would be nice if McCain did the right thing and told his more bloodthirsty supporters to go home and take a cold shower. But McCain hasn't done the right thing all year. His campaign is appalling, as the New York Times editorial board said today--and more, it is a national disgrace.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
It's the end of the world as we know it...
...And I don't feel fine. Nouriel Roubini has some advice on how to stop a deep global recession or a full-fledged global depression from happening. However, it looks like everything The Fed and The Treasury do is too little too late, so there may be no way to avoid some pretty terrible stuff!
Tahitian Pearls
Veronika made me blog about Tahitian Pearls - Gorgeous and affordable even in a down market!
George Will on McCain
Beautiful - from today's Washinton Post:
"Time was, the Baltimore Orioles' manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign...."
And this:
"[T]he Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seems surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep.""
"Time was, the Baltimore Orioles' manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign...."
And this:
"[T]he Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seems surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep.""
Redneck Rampage!
This is a scary video from Andrew Sullivan's blog. It seems to me that one of these rednecks is going to kill Barack Obama if he manages to become president. Therefore, the only prudent thing to do is put all Republicans in concentration camps for the duration of the Obama presidency in order to insure his safety. How about building a giant fence around ANWR and sending them all there? I hear winters are not nearly as bad as they used to be...
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