The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees (within reason -- ask Liddy Dole) your right to utter sleazy lies and innuendos to try to paint your political opponent as an un-American pal o' terrorists. However, it does not shield you from criticism of same. Please note the difference.
Early voting in Florida
Mr. Cracker had the day off, so he went to our closest early voting polling place, a rural library, to cast his vote for Obama. He's been gone for hours. Either he's run off with some floozy, or the stories we've been hearing about long lines at polling places are true.
UPDATE
He's back. Poor guy -- the library where he voted (not our normal polling place -- this one's for early voting) is near a massive retirement community. So he was in line behind countless geezers who had to read each individual ballot initiative (and there are many) at least twice before making their selections. I think they all drove home with their blinkers on too.
GOP: "Help me, Osami bin Kenobi..."
You're my only hope!
Will the world's top terrorist provide McCain a douche ex machina moment? Meh, prolly not, but not because he wouldn't want to. Al Qaeda has played George W. Bush like a violin, goading him into an unnecessary, ruinous war in Iraq, destroying the international standing of the US and encouraging Bush to impinge on our freedoms in a way no outside power ever could. McCain promises more of the same, so I'm sure Osama is rooting for him.
Phinished
Well, phiggety, phiggety phuck. There's no joy in Raysville tonight as the grizzled Phillies veterans finish off our upstarts in five games. Oh well, an American League Pennant isn't a bad result for a team that finished dead last in 2007. We'll be back.
PS: Suck on this, Philadelphia:
PPS: Humboldt, I will forward your designated charity the wagered amount -- plus a little extra. Congrats on the win!
The O man is funny...
From prepared remarks on the economy delivered in NC today:
"We've tried it John McCain's way. We've tried it George Bush's way. It hasn't worked. Deep down, Senator McCain knows that, which is why his campaign said that "if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose.Snap!"That's why he's spending these last few days calling me every name in the book. I'm sorry to see my opponent sink so low. Lately, he's called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class.
"By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in Kindergarten."
Joe the Dumber & Shep the Smarter
As I predicted the day after he bobbed to the surface to play pool noodle to a sinking campaign, Joe the Plumber is all the McCain-Palin ticket has left. And they're hoping his copious hot air can propel them out of the deep end. Check out how their lead pollster crows about making JTP famous in a memo yesterday:
This has been the week where “Joe the Plumber” has literally become a household name. An astounding 59% of voters in these battleground states have heard “a lot” about this story, 83% have heard “a lot” or “some” about this episode.So it's all JTP, all the time. But like Palin, JTP tends to wander off message, quickly getting out of his depth. I caught a clip of Fox's Cavuto show this weekend and watched in astonishment as Cavuto consulted JTP about the stock market as if he were some kind of financial oracle. The result was pretty much what you'd get if you took financial advice from your household pet; he didn't have a fucking clue.
He's equally clueless on the topic of foreign policy. But unlike the credulous Cavuto, who is dumb enough to think the PUMAs are an electoral force, Fox's Shepard Smith actually pushed back:
His protestations to the contrary, JTP was tap-dancing around the reasons for his accusation that a vote for Obama is a vote for the "death of Israel" like, as he might put it, Sammy Davis, Jr. Kudos to Shep for calling him out on it.
Will the ongoing revelation of JTP's vast ignorance diminish his effectiveness as a political tool? That certainly seems to have been the case with Palin, and it illustrates the danger of predicating your message on symbolism rather than substance.
But there's enormous precedent in this country for making election decisions based on empty symbolism; after all, a tee-totaling, bible-humping, male prep school cheerleader managed to pass himself off as an aw-shucks cowpoke with whom voters would like to have a beer, to our ruin. Will McCain pull off a similar feat? If so, there's always Plan C:
[Shep Smith story via TS at Instaputz]
Backs against the wall
Oh the Rays, the Rays, the Rays! Can they battle back from last night's epic meltdown? Not unless they manage to throw off twin pitching and batting slumps. It doesn't look good. But stranger things have happened. Whatever the week brings, it's comforting to know we can count on the Phillies organization and fans to stay classy. Fish, fish, fish!
Blogging may be light this week because, in addition to the demands of commerce, I plan to work my ass off for the next eight days to try to swing Florida for Obama.
Sandwich wars: The Rays strike back!
After the Phillies took game one of the World Series, I noted their home city's contribution to world cuisine: the cheesesteak. The accompanying photo looked so tasty it gave me an idea. Maybe if we ate a cheesesteak prior to the game, it would bring the Rays a little luck.
We did, and the Rays won. Coincidence? Probably. I mean, we had Big Game James on the mound, and I think he had more to do with the victory than crusty bread, thinly sliced ribeye, sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms slathered in Cheez Whiz.
But I'm the superstitious type, so cheesesteaks will be on the menu again Saturday. If any of you Phillies fans out there (I'm looking at you, Humboldt Blue) care to see if your sandwich mojo can overcome mine, you'll need to make yourself a Cuban sandwich.
Acquire a loaf of geniune Cuban bread and layer it with thinly sliced roast pork, genoa salami, boiled ham and Swiss cheese. Spread equal parts of musturd and mayo on one slice of the bread. (The condiments must be mixed on the same slice, not separated by the contents of the sandwich.) Top it with pickles if you so desire. Press the sandwich on a grill (a George Foreman thingie works fine). Slice catty-corner and lengthwise, not cross-wise as pictured above.
You'll enjoy the sandwich, if not the game. Cause the mighty Garza is coming to town.
Greenspan goes socialist
Former Ayn Rand boy toy Alan Greenspan is in "shocked disbelief" that the financial institutions he spent 18 years cutting loose from government oversight went wilding:
"As much as I would prefer it otherwise, in this financial environment I see no choice but to require that all securitizers retain a meaningful part of the securities they issue.''You mean the wheels of commerce must be greased with something other than Enlightened Self Interest (TM)? Rand must be whirling in her grave like a pinwheel in a hurricane.
So, Mr. Greenspan was just a little slower on the uptake than most of us, realizing at age 82 (about 68 years behind schedule) that Randian cretinism is no way to run a railroad. But many alleged adults haven't gotten the message yet. Witness these indispensable pillars of civilization threatening to go "John Galt" on us:
As Ayn Rand foresaw, productive Americans are fed up with supporting the unproductive and may not take it anymore.Oh noes! They're gonna unilaterally withdraw our supply of forensic psychologists and law school professors, sucklers at the government teat who nonetheless comprise the productive class! Oceans will boil! Frogs will rain down from the sky! Rivers will turn to blood, and the sun will go dark at noon!I recently wrote a post on my blog asking readers to react to the creeping socialism and expectation in our society that those who are productive must pay for the cost of our society:
Do you ever wonder after dealing with all that is going on with the economy and the upcoming election if it’s getting to be time to “go John Galt”? For those of you who have never read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the basic theme is that John Galt and his allies take actions that include withdrawing their talents, “stopping the motor of the world,” and leading the “strikers” (those who refuse to be exploited) against the “looters” (the exploiters, backed by the government).
Perhaps the partisan politics we are dealing with now is really just a struggle between those of us who believe in productivity, personal responsibility, and keeping government interference to a minimum, and those who believe in the socialistic policies of taking from others, using the government as a watchdog, and rewarding those who overspend, underwork, or are just plain unproductive.
Obama talks about taking from those who are productive and redistributing to those who are not — or who are not as successful. If success and productivity is [sic] to be punished, why bother? Perhaps it is time for those of us who make the money and pay the taxes to take it easy, live on less, and let the looters of the world find their own way.
It's time to stock up on gold, 12-gauge shotgun shells and Spam, fellow looters. An already economy teetering on the brink of ruin can't withstand this body blow.
Phillies take game one of World Series
Well, score one for the town that brought the world one of its tastiest sandwiches, the city whose clever citizenry recognized that Cheez Wiz could serve as something other than fish food.*
But don't get too cocky, Phillies fans: You haven't seen our best pitchers yet, and our bats will wake up tonight. Go Rays!
*If you ever go snorkeling on a tropical reef and wish to be surrounded by a cloud of colorful fish, take some Cheez Whiz with you. Fish love the stuff!
Bring on the Celestial Hoover
Dear Jesus: Will you Rapture up these stupid fucks already? Before November 4th, preferably.
If I were the praying type, I'd give the Almighty a shout-out for the husband too. I don't know why he hasn't stuck his head in a gas oven already. Poor bastard.
The line between Wright and wrong
What a difference 15 days makes. Here was chief McCain surrogate and all-around douchebag Joe Lieberman on the subject of character attacks and Reverend Wright on October 5, 2008:
Wallace asked Lieberman if McCain would bring up Rev. Jeremiah Wright after condemning state Republican parties for running ads criticizing Obama for his relationship with the controversial figure.How Maverwocky! But – quelle surprise! -- after the Ayers attacks flopped and the heartless electorate failed to shed tears over the prospect of poor Joe the (not quite) Plumber having to pay additional taxes if his income ever exceeds $250K per year, now suddenly a different "kind of line drawing" may be in order after all:
Lieberman responded: "He [McCain] didn't like that approach. Senator McCain feels that same way about bringing up Reverend Wright through his campaign. And that's the kind of line drawing that I think John McCain is all about."
John McCain's campaign manager says he is reconsidering using Barack Obama's relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue during the election's closing weeks.Like Joe (Joe the Douchebag, not Joe the Plumber) says, that's just the kind of line drawing McCain is all about. Tbogg was right -- McCain really is becoming the pity fuck candidate, and it’s not a pretty sight.
In an appearance on conservative Hugh Hewitt's radio program, Davis said that circumstances had changed since John McCain initially and unilaterally took Obama's former pastor off the table. The Arizona Republican, Davis argued, had been jilted by the remarks of Rep. John Lewis, who compared recent GOP crowds to segregationist George Wallace's rallies. And, as such, the campaign was going to "rethink" what was in and out of political bounds.
"Look, John McCain has told us a long time ago before this campaign ever got started, back in May, I think, that from his perspective, he was not going to have his campaign actively involved in using Jeremiah Wright as a wedge in this campaign," he said late last week. "Now since then, I must say, when Congressman Lewis calls John McCain and Sarah Palin and his entire group of supporters, fifty million people strong around this country, that we're all racists and we should be compared to George Wallace and the kind of horrible segregation and evil and horrible politics that was played at that time, you know, that you've got to rethink all these things. And so I think we're in the process of looking at how we're going to close this campaign. We've got 19 days, and we're taking serious all these issues."
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Thank you, Colin Powell
I'm glad General Powell endorsed Obama. But I'm even more grateful that he said this:
"I'm also troubled by - not what Senator McCain says - but what members of the Party say, and it is permitted to be said: such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim. He's a Christian; has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, "What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?" The answer's "No, that's not America." Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be President? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own Party drop the suggestion he's Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.Somebody needed to say that. Of course, the professional race-baiters will jump all over this, just as they've dismissed Powell's endorsement as an expression of tribalism. Says Imperial Wizard and Grand Cyclops Rush Limbaugh:
"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race," Limbaugh wrote. "OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."Well, Limbaugh might look into the Powell endorsement of a certain inexperienced white dude whose initials are "GWB." He may not qualify as a "liberal" on social issues, but he's a profligate spender who presided over the largest expansion of debt in the history of the country and is currently overseeing the nationalization of US banks, something that Limbaugh would be in an ear-splitting snit about if GWB had a "D" after his name.
The McCain campaign and its cheerleaders in the wingnut media will continue to scream "socialism" and "Ayers" because they've got nothing else. "Black power radical" will be their subtext. They are consciously echoing the sleazy emails circulated in wingnut circles for the past two years, the kind that animated the deranged old lady who accosted McCain at a town hall, forcing him to concede that Obama is not, in fact, an "Arab," but a "decent family man," as if the two descriptors were mutually exclusive.
McCain was visibly pained to have to confront one of the false rumors that is helping propel his campaign. Some interpret his discomfort with outright sleaze-mongering with his vaunted sense of honor. I think it's more about vanity. He doesn't mind benefiting from sleaze -- he'd just rather not have to scrape it off his $500 loafers.
In any case, it's clear that neither honor nor vanity will be an obstacle to the McCain-Palin ticket scraping right through the bottom of the wingnut barrel and digging ever closer to the molten core of the planet in their quest for votes. If the ticket fails spectacularly and Rovian sleaze is discredited as a result, McCain will have perhaps done his country a great service in his twilight years after all.
Tampa Bay Rays go to World Series
Miracles do happen. Last year, the Rays won just 66 games in the brutal American League East division. This year, they won 97 games and beat the defending world champs to win the pennant. On Wednesday, they take on the Phillies. Go Rays!
Joe the Plumber flushes credibility down the shitter
If only he had kept his yap shut and enjoyed his 15 minutes. But then he had to hold a press release in his driveway just now and reveal the raving wingnut beneath that beefy bald exterior:
1. Social Security is a joke that should be abolished. (That scribbling sound you heard was every geezer in FL crossing Joe off their holiday card list.)Campaign tool fail. Maybe the overcompensated media mavens don’t realize it, but it’s absurd to posit a dude who can buy a business that hauls in more than $250K a year as a Regular Joe. Give me a break.
2. The citizens of Iraq should be as thankful to the US as Christians are to Jesus. (Even the tens of thousands of dead ones? He didn’t say.)
But I expect the desperate McCain-Palin campaign, aswirl as they are in the porcelain vortex, to clutch Joe the Plumber’s broad back and hope he helps them bob to the surface. Just like that hard plastic ball in the toilet tank.
A plumber? Really, that’s all you’ve got? I think I speak for many Americans when I say that most of those butt crack-displaying bastards are merely thieves who wield wrenches rather than guns.
Hunka hunka burnin' dumb
Via the recently de-Buckley-ified National Review, I was made aware of the most jaw-droppingly vapid attempt to sway female voters since John McCain plonked a screechy, semi-literate, witch-banishing, reality-denying pea-brain on the GOP ticket.
The outreach effort is featured on a site called “Team Sarah,” and it offers unintentionally hilarious “dialogues” between “two undecided women voters.” Here’s how the site describes the accidental comedy:
Annoucing Team Sarah's "Lisa & Kelly Conversations"Remember those stupid anti-drug abuse films you had to sit through in high school? You know, the ones that featured absurdly contrived dialogue that went something like this:
Team Sarah’s Lisa and Kelly conversations represent the real concerns of two undecided women voters. Both are working mothers, Lisa is married and Kelly is divorced. They are interested in the presidential race, watching the coverage, and talking with friends and families about their impressions. As close friends, they catch up with one another daily, discussing the issues close to many women’s hearts.
MENACING-LOOKING PUSHER IN ALLEY: Hello there, young fellow. Would you like to try some “grass”? It’ll make you wildly popular on the social “scene”! That girl of whom you are so fond who currently declines your attentions will find you irresistible when you “puff the magic dragon!”
CLEAN-CUT KID: Gee, I don’t know, Mister. My mother and Dean Wentworth told me that “grass” is a gateway drug that causes hallucinations and leads inevitably to heroin addiction, a life of crime and a painful, lonely death in a rain-soaked gutter. Thanks, but I would rather just get high on life!Well, the “Lisa & Kelly Conversations” make the above dialogue look like a shoo-in for the Academy Award for Best Screenwriting. How dumb is it? Here’s a sample:
L: Hey girl, it’s me.Cause, you know, women are soooo goddamned stoooopit that watching blow-dried cretins disgorge 90-second sound bites on the economy composed entirely in 8th-grade level vocabulary words sends us reeling to the liquor cabinet, holding our heads and howling at the pain in our lady brains! Jesus. Sadly, the “conversation” goes on:
K: Hi Lisa! Is everything okay?
L: I have to stop watching the news. This financial crisis is making me crazy. I only understand one in three sentences.
L: ..I’ll tell you what really has me mad. Apparently this whole thing could have been prevented if Congress had done something about the two big companies behind the whole mess.Of course, there’s no mention of the lack of sleep caused by McCain’s campaign chairman sucking up Fannie Mae money until August. Nor is there “conversation” about the scarcity of repose attributable to McCain’s chief economic advisor, Phil “Nation of Whiners-Imaginary Recession” Gramm, being the architect of the deregulation scheme that enriched the fat cats and was the most obvious cause of the economic shitpile.
K: You mean Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
L: Yeah. They were making a lot of money on bad mortgages and counting on us to bail them out if things went bad. John McCain tried to put a stop to it.
K: Really? What did Obama do?
L: Nothing. He knew where his bread was buttered.
K: Let me guess: He got a lot of money from the guys in charge?
L: Bingo. He was near the top of their list for campaign contributions.
K: So now you can’t sleep at night.
L: I wonder how Obama can.
I’m sure Team Stupid will cover those minor details in a future installment. Or not. So far, they’ve got a “conversation” up that accuses Obama of hatching a nefarious plot to socialize medicine. There are a few other audio clips available that I can’t listen to right now without risking a stupid overload that would render me as moronic as “Lisa” and “Kelly.”
On the bright side, though, if this pathetic, amateurish hackery is all K-Lo and the gang at National Review can point to as an effective outreach to women, the McCain-Palin ticket is as dead as Elvis.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
My God can kick your God's ass
Some might take the fact that this Iowa preacher wasn't immediately reduced to a smoldering, burned-out husk by a bolt of lightning as evidence that there is no God. Others might see it as a sign that God has a limitless amount of patience with braying jackasses who invoke His name for petty purposes.
Me, I see it as an opportunity to help bail out the economy. Not by asking God to purchase shares in banks or to yea, verily restore value to default credit swap instruments.
Nope -- I see this as yet another sign that we should stop pretending that religious institutions have a First Amendment right to tax exemption. We should stop pretending that they are apolitical organizations that do not enrich their leaders and use the massive piles of booty they take in solely on providing spiritual succor to their flocks.
I have no idea how much taxing the value of religious institutions' property, assets and income would bolster the US Treasury. But around here, you can't swing a cat without knocking down a preacher or hitting the marquee of a church, so I'm guessing it would be substantial. That's my bail-out plan for the ailing economy.
I declare myself the Queen of England
No, the current Queen hasn't abdicated and designated me her successor. I don't think my American mutt bloodline entitles me to ascend the throne on any previously recognized precedent.
But hey, if Sarah Palin can respond to a bipartisan report that specifically concludes she is guilty of ethical lapses in the Troopergate scandal by saying she's pleased to be cleared of "any hint of any kind of unethical activity," then hey, what does reality have to do with anything?
I promise to be an even-handed sort of despot.
Irresponsible
All week long, the GOP candidates have whipped up their supporters by insinuating that Obama is a terrorist's pal and not quite as "American" as they are. McCain trotted out the Mafia Princess to hypocritically bray about Obama leaving the McCain and Palin whelps unfunded on a field of battle, knowing full well that her own husband opposed troop funding bills in a similar manner.
The rally intro goons point out that Obama has a scary Muslim middle name, and we all know what that means, wink-wink. As a direct result of McCain-Palin's actions, the rallies have started to resemble beer hall mobs, with yahoos shouting, "terrorist!" "treason!" "kill him!" "off with his head" and the like.
McCain-Palin have also turned their mobs on the media, blaming scary sharkish reporters like the thoroughly intimidating Katie Couric for Palin's gob-smacking displays of total ignorance. They've adopted Limbaugh-Hannity talking points wholesale and now accuse the media of filtering the news and boosting the scary Obama in the polls to the detriment of America. As a direct result, the mobs have turned on the press, telling a black sound man to "sit down, boy" and giving the press bus the finger at rallies.
When called on the decidedly ugly turn their supporters have taken, McCain-Palin flacks insist that the candidates aren't responsible for everything some random yahoo in the crowd spews. But the above YouTube proves that excuse is a lie.
When confronted directly with an unhinged rant like the above, McCain had a choice to make. He could have said something like this:
"I understand that Americans are frightened and angry. I think my economic plan will put us back on the right track. I believe Senator Obama's plan will make things worse. But know this: Both Senator Obama and I want what's best for this country. We're not socialists; we're Americans."But instead, McCain publicly agreed with the man's deranged rant. This is a new low in modern American politics; I've never seen anything like it.
McCain knows he might lose this election. He also knows that if he wins, he has to work with the Democrats to address the myriad crises this country faces. And yet he is encouraging the most vile demonization of his opponents to score cheap political points with the lunatic fringe. This is utterly irresponsible and proves beyond doubt that his "Country First" campaign slogan is a lie.
I've always thought McCain's carefully cultivated "maverick" image was opportunistic bullshit, but even I never thought he would sink this low. If the electorate doesn't deliver a stunning rebuke to this kind of politics -- particularly in the face of the extremely serious crises we find ourselves in -- then we are fucked.
Irrefutable evidence that Obama was in league with terrorists!
Here it is -- the smoking gun. Let's see Obama deny now that he was intimately involved in William Ayer's domestic terrorist Weather Underground organization.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
My mommy, right or wrong
Al Franken, who I hope will become a senator soon, once said something very wise about the difference between how conservatives and liberals view America:
We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow.This is generally true, and Governor Palin is currently behaving as if she were a prime example of the “my mommy right or wrong” type of conservative. She displays that mindset here in this snippet from her recent debate with Senator Biden:
Notice how her voice rises to a yippy Pomeranian pitch* when she indignantly pronounces the words, “hate America!” And like the incurious and/or stupid George W. Bush, she attributes the bad guys’ hatred of America entirely to their distaste for freedom, women’s rights, etc., when it is actually a whole lot more complicated than that.
Well, given the fact that Palin is literally in bed with a one-time anti-American secessionist and was providing encouragement to that anti-American group as recently as this summer, excuse me if I question her “America! Fuck Yeah!” bona fides:
But the sentiments of the yokels she’s targeting with her current rhetoric on behalf of McCain are real enough. And those people need to grow the fuck up. This isn’t about someone being mean to their mommy. This is about a planet on the brink, and we need a leader who can comprehend opposing viewpoints and thus negotiate the best course of action. Not to save us from further embarrassment on the world stage, though god knows that would be change I can believe in. But rather to save our asses, perhaps literally.
The world is getting a whole lot scarier and more complicated. It has never been as simple as wingnuts made it out to be, and the exercise of raw power was never the panacea they crowed about. But with the global financial meltdown and other gigantic, scary-as-shit issues -- any one of which could easily keep a person up nights (loose nukes, global warming and terrorism, for example) -- occurring simultaneously, we can’t afford a willfully simple-minded approach anymore. That’s why this election is so important.
*If anyone is tempted to accuse me of sexism for pointing out that Palin’s voice sometimes goes all screechy, spare me the lecture. It’s not a woman thing -- I’m a woman, and I don’t have a screechy voice. Palin doesn’t have to have one either. She could modulate her tone to avoid sounding like a fishwife. Or she could try bourbon and cigarettes. I’ll stop comparing her voice to that of Pomeranians and fishmongers when she stops sounding like them.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Having his shit sandwich and eating it too
Wrong-even-when-he-orders-waffles Bill Kristol outlines a way McCain can continue the non-stop character smears and not put off voters by completely ignoring the implosion of the worldwide economy: "Tie Obama's character to the economy."
Jesus H. Christ in a bread line. This is stupid even for Kristol, whose default mode is extra-stupid. So I guess McCain will tell us Obama will turn over the pre-looted Treasury to radical 60s bomb-throwers. Yawn.
[Via TPM]
Sign o' the times
Via Balloon Juice by way of The New York Times:
One Lehman document among thousands reviewed by the House committee showed that four days before the bank filed for bankruptcy protection, Lehman’s compensation committee was asked to grant $20 million in “special payments” for three executives who were leaving, Mr. Waxman said. An e-mail exchange recommending a delay in bonus payments was apparently brushed aside.Another document showed that executives were warned in a January 2008 meeting that the company was facing liquidity problems. Yet the firm moved forward with capital outlays, including $5 billion in bonuses, $4 billion in shares and $750,000 in dividend payments between 2007 and the firm’s bankruptcy filing on Sept. 15.
Does that say $5 billion in bonuses? Sweet Jebus.
Buh-bye, Florida
Watch out for that third rail, there, Senator McCain:
John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.
[snip]But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain's senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid.
I'm sure that this will come up in tomorrow's debate, and if McCain doesn't spin it someway that makes it clear he's not going to cut Medicare benefits, he can kiss Florida and its 27 electoral votes goodbye.
[H/T: J]
Smells like skeert wingnut
As (both of) my regular readers know, I am the lucky recipient of much wingnutty email correspondence – primarily sub-literate anti-Obama screeds forwarded from assorted kooky relatives. Most of it is crap that’s been cycling through the web since early in the primaries, long ago debunked by outfits like Snopes.com.
But lately, with the shift in the polls and the shortening election timeline, it seems some wingnuts are coming to grips with the unthinkable: McCain might lose, and Obama might actually become president. And they’re not taking it well.
The hysteria that lands in my in-box has ratcheted up several octaves in the last couple of weeks. And rather than recycling scurrilous lies, some of my correspondents have been moved by these desperate times to compose original hit pieces. Here’s a particularly lurid example I received just this morning (name redacted to protect the pig-ignorant; original grammar, spelling and random capitalization preserved):
WHAT OBAMA CAN AND CANNOT DO BY [REDACTED]Reading that over my cornflakes almost convinced me to add a shot (well, a cup) of vodka to my morning OJ. Silly wingnut emails typically evoke derisive laughter or anger and disgust. But this one surprised me by momentarily inspiring…pity.
WHAT OBAMA CAN DO through his control of the House and the Senate is alarming. There will be no checks and balances which have protected us in the past. He can stack the courts to define the Constitution of the U.S. in any way he might choose. Remember, he has the most liberal voting record in the Senate. They can make any kind of marriage legal; same sex; one husband and ten wives (to please his Moslem friends); marriage between a man and child or between sibblings or any other inclination of man. He can stack our Supreme and federal courts with jurists who believe that the criminal is the victim and the atheist has more rights than the Christians. President Bush was unable to get many of his judges confirmed by the Democrat congress, but Obama's appointments will go through without dissent.
Without biblical standards, the courts will approve any laws his Congress wishes to pass. (A former stacked court removed the right of an unborn baby to be protected by way of Roe vs Wade and removed spoken prayer, the Bible and the Ten Commandments from our public life). Because of Obama's 100% Planned Parenthood rating, they very well may declare abortions a basic right and make them free to all. They can declare the use of the Name of "Jesus" as offensive to his Moslem brothers and atheist friends. He through Executive Order or through his Democrat congress can remove the Name of God from our currency and monuments. His courts can declare Home Schooling unconstitutional or set up standards that make it impossible for a parent to do it. Reading of certain portions of Scripture that condemn particular sins can be deemed infringing on a sinners civil rights and punished as hate speech. The thought police can even reach into the churches to arrest such speech. He can surrender to the terrorists and bring home our servicemen and women. He can underfund our defense system and thus disarm our Nation. ( President Carter, with his Democrat Congress, gave away the Panama Canal and removed our friend, the policeman of the Middle East, the Shah of Iran, from Iran. All irreversible.) He can import more immigrants from the Arab world. His plans can redistribute the wealth of America to the world, so that we are leveled to the lifestyle of his family in Africa. That would be only fair in his eyes. He can guarantee the health care of the globe (as he has stated in his recent Global speech, worldwide inoculations and treatment of disease). His healthcare plan will lead to abuse, as it has in the nations who have government sponsored universal insurance. His plan could destroy America's present good health care system. This will also lead to a loss of motivation for young people to go into medicine or for pharmaceuticals to research for treatment of present diseases. He can guarantee a basic education to every child in the world (as he mentioned in that speech) and end up with our own schools so underfunded that no one is truly educated. He can send money from America to the world of Islam to give them incentive not to attack us. He can socialize every area of our lives and he can redistribute our wealth to the world. Through taxation he can kill that wonderful thing called free enterprise and capitalism, the thing that has made America the envy and the goal of the world's masses. The hope of profit has motivated us to make the world's great inventions and discoveries. Capitalism has given us luxuries that help us live more comfortably than any king in history. These discoveries and inventions have enabled us to contribute so much to the well being of other nations. (The parts of the world that do not practice freedom and capitalism are destitute even after thousands of years of existence.) Obama and his liberal courts can redefine and thus destroy the Constitution that guaranteed freedom, protection and opportunity to all of us. Our emails can be monitored for "hate" speech, as in China. He can, by Executive Order implement the "fairness doctrine," which would shut down talk radio. Without this, America's information would be filtered through the liberal media and we would not know what the Administration was really doing. It would be difficult to unite and take action on issues... and he can do much, much more harm.
BUT, HERE ARE THINGS OBAMA CANNOT DO.
As scary as his "change" is, he does have his limitations. He cannot take the blue from our beautiful sky or remove the fluffy clouds. He cannot stop the moon and stars from lighting up the night. He cannot stop the breezes on a sunny day or keep the spring rains from falling. He cannot erase our beautiful sunsets or stop the birds from flying overhead. He cannot take the songs from our hearts or take away our faith in Jesus Christ. He cannot take the fragrance from our flowers and the leaves from our trees. He cannot take the love from our hearts for our Lord, families, friends and our Country. He cannot remove the memory from our minds of the wonderful Country we inherited from our forefathers or the desire to see it restored. He cannot take the song from our hearts or keep us from thinking. Even though he has been dubbed "the messiah," he cannot take us to Heaven when we die or take Heaven away from those of us who are trusting Jesus Christ as our Savour. He is not the hope of the world, only Jesus fills that role. Our faith in Him is what will sustain us no matter what the future holds. May God bless America. [REDACTED]
It’s not that the woman who wrote it doesn’t deserve heaps of mockery and contempt for being such a monumental ignoramus, raging hypocrite, avid bigot, seething homophobe and all-around troglodyte. She is all of those things and more.
But she’s also afraid. And she’s bitter – infuriated at the prospect of a black dude with a funny name becoming president and overturning, somehow, the established order. Hence the “Obama can’t take away our ponies and rainbows” tone.
She’s an extreme example of the type Obama was referring to when he alluded to bitter people who cling to guns and religion. Notice how she lauds Gilded Age-style capitalism and America’s “present good health care system.” This might make sense from a Lady Lynn Forrester de Rothschild or Cindy McCain type who wakes up each morning trying to figure out which mansion she’s in and has a team of plastic surgeons on retainer.
But this is a woman who lives in a crappy trailer and gets substandard medical attention via that senior citizen dole we call Medicare. She probably has to eat goddamned cat food for a week every month to afford her medications. That she’s been brainwashed to despise the very people who might actually improve her situation – liberals – is an unparalleled feat of marketing, perhaps the most blatant sucker bet since the pet rock.
Maybe I’m going soft, but this just makes me sad.
The Kobayashi Maru Scenario*
Not since Cadet James Tiberius Kirk pwned his Starfleet instructors by gaming the simulated “no-win scenario” in his favor has a seemingly doomed participant avoided a humiliating exposure of incompetence as cleverly as Governor Palin did last night.
It truly was a no-win situation for Palin: As she’s amply demonstrated over the past several weeks, she doesn’t know jackshit about national affairs, foreign policy or McCain’s position on key issues. She also can’t respond coherently to basic questions. So how could she avoid a train wreck? By ignoring the questions and delivering talking points and attacks instead. And she pretty much pulled it off.
Damn, I wish such a strategy had occurred to me back when I was in college. Instead of studying for exams in dreary subjects like algebra, I could have just ignored the test questions and submitted an essay on the use of allegories as a foreshadowing device in Wuthering Heights instead. That would have showed those pointy-headed, elitist mathematics professors and their boring old numbers.
Except I would have flunked out. Luckily for Palin, debates aren’t scored objectively, and apparently, responding to the actual questions isn’t a requirement. Folksiness counts. So she did okay.
According to the snap polls I’ve seen, most viewers thought Biden won the debate. But the consensus is that Palin didn’t screw up. My sense at this point is that Palin avoided disaster but didn’t change the trajectory of the race. She made the wingnuts happy again and failed to move the center.
And it looks like the McCain campaign plans to call that good enough -- Palin’s line about the mainstream media indicates to me that she’s going to finish out the remnants of the race by sticking to wingnut informercials like the Hannity and Hewitt “interviews.”
I don’t see how Palin’s preaching to the choir helps McCain pick up the independents he has to have to win the presidency. But apparently avoiding a Palin implosion is good enough for McCain. And that has to be considered a win for Obama-Biden.
*1,000 nerd points to all who knew what this was without clicking the link.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Ifill for you
So, the wingnuts are going all bonkers about Gwen Ifill, the moderator of tonight’s VP debate. As it turns out, not only is Ifill affiliated with commie organization PBS and therefore predestined to be hostile to spunky, screechy-voiced, conservative moose-hunters, she’s (sotto voce) B-L-A-C-K and the author of an upcoming tome about the next generation of African American leaders, including – wait for it! – Barack Obama! She’ll make gajillions if Obama is elected.
When they’re not busy plotting how to bring down American capitalism and redistribute wingnut wealth to welfare queens, PBS types are always conspiring to rig elections for fun and profit. So Greater Wingnuttia has a pre-bate excuse to invoke in case Palin flames out in some spectacular manner.
Speaking of which, what do y’all think will happen during tonight’s debate? Will Palin reprise one of her many “moose-in-the-headlights” moments and cause all of us to spew beer and bar snacks before making mocking comments to our fellow viewers? Will she hold her own by not making a complete ass of herself? Will she score points and be declared the debate “winner”?
As my granddaddy used to say, “Damifino.” Unfortunately for me, I did not receive his equanimity via DNA, inheriting instead this soul-destroying combination of pessimism and cynicism from my maternal line, which I am passing on to my own daughter like some poisonous heirloom. For that reason, I can’t enjoy moments like this and must instead fret like a church lady at an ecstasy-fueled tweener rave party.
So until Palin opens her pie hole and disgorges an incomprehensible stew of inanity and dumb-fuck, I will worry that she’ll somehow haul McCain’s sad ole bacon out of the fire rather than revealing her vast ignorance and compelling even the drooling morons who haven’t yet made up their minds about the candidates to vote for Obama or stay the fuck home and let the folks who pay attention make the decision. What say you?
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
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