I Just Go Berserk!

So let me get this straight. On September 11th, 2001, Osama Bin Laden directed his minions to fly planes into the Twin Towers in part to destroy the financial infrastructure at the center of New York City. It didn’t work. Now here we are just over seven years later and the financial market is being destroyed by the same greedy bastards that have been reaping all the rewards from unregulated capitalism gone wild. There is a small voice inside of me who actually cheers on these plummeting stock market numbers; and then I remember that we have a 401K plan for our retirement that is taking some awfully big hits these days. Also, my bank — Washington Mutual — was seized by federal regulators last week. I kind of knew this was coming. Supposedly all of my money (a big $40.07) is safe, because J.P. Morgan is buying up the assets or something. It will pay $1.9 billion to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and lay claim to $307 billion of assets and $265 billion of deposits. So the bigger banks are buying up the smaller banks that are in trouble.

The big bailout vote was today and guess what? It didn’t pass. Everybody’s pointing fingers. The Republicans claim that they were ready to pass it, but then they got insulted by Nancy Pelosi’s partisan speech. Now I understand why John Boehner is always breaking down in tears: The Republicans are actually ESP’s (Extra Sensitive People.) They had their widdle feelings hurt. Too bad, so sad.

Meanwhile, back on the campaign trail, John McCain found time to blame Barack Obama for the failure of the bill to pass. McCain’s strategy is obvious now. In addition to a constant stream of lies he has added mocking and sneering to his repertoire. This is the same guy, who a week ago claimed that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. He then wanted to fire SEC Chairman Chris Cox. Then there was some nonsense about creating a 9/11 type committee to figure out how we got into this mess. The next thing you know he announced that he was “suspending his campaign,” so that he could fly back to Washington and straighten the whole thing out. All of a sudden it seemed that things were good enough for him to attend the debate. This morning his surrogates, including the ever dapper Mitt Romney, praised McCain’s leadership for the ability to get this important economy-saving legislation passed. And then it didn’t pass. It was similar to last week when early Friday morning the McCain people posted a web ad exclaiming his victory in the debate that hadn’t taken place yet. When I actually start to think about this all this crap I just go berserk!

The First Debate . . . First Impressions

Well, I made it through the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain without my head exploding. I thought Obama did a decent job of tying McCain to the failed record of George (the "W" stands for War Criminal) Bush. I cheered when Obama brought up McCain's recent gaffe concerning a meeting with the president of Spain, a NATO ally of ours. It is tough though when Obama has to debate a pathological liar, whose sole ambition is to be president before he kicks. If I had been drinking milk it would have shot out my nose when McCain mentioned how proud he was a maverick as a partner (running mate.) With Palin's recent media exposure, and subsequent falling in the polls, I'm surprised that McCain mentioned her at all. He didn't actually say her name though. I was also happy when, in response to McCain's story of his bracelet from a dead soldier, that Obama said "I have a bracelet too." I'm so tired of Republicans being able to claim that they alone are the standard bearers of patriotism in this country. I am a veteran myself (U.S. Air Force, 1978 to 1982) and I think McCain's record on veteran's issues is abysmal. He likes to mention his backing of veteran's groups, but he leaves out all of the veteran's group in which he has very low ratings. He certainly doesn't have a very good reputation among the very important group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I don't know how he can say that he "loves" the veterans when he was against the recent G.I. Bill and didn't even have the balls to come to Washington to vote on it. (Instead he opted to attend a fundraiser in California.)I do think that the McCain campaign was a tad presumptuous to post a web ad this morning declaring that McCain had already won the debate when he hadn't even committed to attending it yet.

No that it's over and I've gotten Justin to bed it's time for me to watch the pundit's reactions and eat some comfort food (whole wheat spiral noodles slathered with blue cheese dressing. Yum!)

The Definition of "Suspend"

The always bright and intelligent Rachel Maddow was commenting on John McCain's kind of, sort of suspending his campaign as of yesterday. She briefly quoted The Princess Bride, which made me chuckle in the midst of all this madness. Does John McCain actually know what the word "suspend" means when he still has ads up across the country; his surrogates are still huffing and puffing on talk shows; and most of his campaign offices in key battle states have not stopped their standard day to day tasks.



Never mind the fact that he pissed off David Letterman. Dave's continuous rant last night about McCain's phony claims of having to cancel his appearance, so that he could rush back to Washington, is biting and funny.



Evidentally this is not the first time that John McCain has cancelled a debate when his polls were starting to slide. Back in February of 2000 McCain pulled out of a debate with George W. Bush.

With new polls showing his campaign dead in the water among California Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain has pulled out of a long-scheduled debate with Texas Gov. George Bush, set for Thursday in Los Angeles.

McCain campaign officials tried desperately yesterday to put the best face on their withdrawal, even as a new Field Poll showed Bush far ahead among likely Republican voters in the winner-take-all race for the state's 162 GOP delegates. [...]

The bait and switch on the debate left the Arizona senator -- whose favorite campaign line is "I'll always tell you the truth'' -- wide open to blistering criticism from his rivals.

"Clearly, this is more double-talk from the McCain campaign,'' said Alixe Mattingly, a spokeswoman for Bush. "Pulling out of this debate at the last minute is an indication that they're pulling out of California, where McCain's antagonistic message clearly isn't working.''

Thanks to BarbinMD at Daily KOs for this story.

Something's Fishy

John McCain just announced that he was suspending his campaign after his appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting tomorrow until this economic crisis is solved. He also stated that he wants to delay the presidential debate scheduled for Friday for the same reason. For some reason I'm just not inclined to believe Mr. McCain these days. I smell political gamesmanship afoot. He's acting the part of the nonpartisan when he and the lobbyists that surround him are thinking of one thing: power.

Oh, and on another note: Sarah "In what respect Charlie?" Palin will meet another five world leaders today. She's out to set a record. She's also scheduled to meet Bono today, which doesn't impress me, because U2 started off as a Christian rock band when they were young. I think he may just have a little too much in common with her "world view."

Righteous Rage

Representative Nancy Kaptur (D-OH) shows some backbone, which is a little unusual for Democrats these days. Tell it sister!


h/t: Bob Cesca

What a Week!

Earlier this week I was downright giddy with the apparent crumbling of the McCain-Palin campaign (or is it Palin-McCain?) But there are quite a few days left before election day, and McCain’s operatives are some of the most deft at the black arts. Witness Karl Rove, who still maintains that he’s not working directly for the McCain campaign, so that he can continue to spout his pearls before swine on the Faux News Channel. Today, after the disastrous week on Wall Street, McCain actually had the nerve to blame Barack Obama for the crisis. He claimed that Obama has been in the center of Washington, caving to the pressure of lobbyists. This coming from the guy whose campaign is run by lobbyists! It was just yesterday that he didn’t seem sure where Spain was. It’s mind-boggling at this point that any sane individual could cast a vote for the John McCain, but for decades the Republican party has depended on the fact that most Americans are more concerned about the latest missing child reports, and whether O.J. will actually go to jail for his latest act of stupidity. They think we’re dumb enough not to realize what party has had it’s hand on the tiller for the last 8 years. I switched on C-SPAN today just in time to see Senator John Cornyn (another fake cowboy from Texas) still endorsing tax cuts for corporations, because those corporations would then choose to stay in the country creating jobs here rather than going overseas to rape and pillage. The rich are still touting that "trickle down" theory of economics. The poor get the crumbs that fall from the table. When he asked for another three minutes to continue his bullshit I turned it off.

The first presidential debate is a week from tonight and I am waiting with bated breath. I am hoping that Barack Obama will kick some serious political ass. The topic of the debate will be foreign policy and national security, supposedly McCain’s strong suit. The first question: can you locate Spain on a map? Maybe John McCain will skip his meds that night and will demonstrate that infamous temperament of his.

New Site to Check Out

The Obama campaign has an excellent new web site up called McLobbyist.com. Take a gander at that line-up of moneygrubbers. Again, the reasonable question is: who does McCain and Palin plan to reform when their campaign is run by lobbyists?