The New Road

Palin - For Real?

Check out this latest bit of nonsensical insanity from Caribou Barbie:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? … Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.

Huh? Is she fer real?

We can't be serious. She seriously can't be second in line for the Presidency. This is a joke? Right? Right? Seriously?

McCain - On Track But Unfocused

Building on my previous post. Apparently McCain can still be unfocused while he is on a single track. Turns out that hasn't even read Paulson's three page plan. It's three pages and he hasn't read it.

McCain - Mr. Single Track

Presidency of the United States is not a job for a person who can't multi-task. It's becoming increasingly apparent that a strong flaw in McCain's personality is his inability to multi-task. This most recent decision to bail on the debates, to stop running his smear ads and what not, is just yet another example of this problem. His complete lack of faith in Palin to run the campaign in his absence is just another sad reminder of another snap decision he has made.

Now I understand a little better why he is so proud of his ability to 'decide fast'. That's a useful skill for someone who can't multi-task. They can single-task a lot of things quickly and poorly and appear as if they are multi-tasking.

It's now not just a question of temperament with McCain. I think he is simply incapable of handling the complexity of the role of President. It's too complex of a job, with too many things going on, to be someone who is incapable of handling multiple issues at the same time, prioritizing, weighing options, and making rational decisions.

Bailout Plan Months Old

Here is a little tidbit that has flown under the media radar; The $700B bail-out plan has been in development at the White House for months. Perhaps months ago, instead of planning a bail-out, they could have tried to prevent the crisis instead of letting it happen. This is The Shock Doctrine in action. Let systems go into failure, then push through government reform which implements a Friedman-friendly libertarian philosophy.

Along that lines the canned 3-page $700B legislation came with absolutely no oversight. Plus it allows for the government to funnel billions into solvent banks. A back door to implementing privatized social security?

McCain - Hasty Decision Maker

Here is an interesting excerpt from McCain's 2002 book:

"I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can," McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, "Worth the Fighting For." "Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint."

Does he even recognize his own faults here? On the one hand it sounds like he does. On the other hand it sounds to me like he looks at his flawed decision making style as a beneficial curse of some sort.

The man has issues.

What's that line again; "Poor people are crazy, rich people are eccentric." These are the types of character flaws that a guy like McCain, who never has to work a day in his life again, who owns eight houses, thirteen cars, and a private jet, can afford to have. He's just eccentric. And I'm sure he has a throng of lackeys around to clean up after his eccentricities. But giving him the United State's economy to make hasty decisions about will not be a smart thing to do.

BTW, I admit that I was wrong about the DJIA yesterday. I was hoping that injecting blue chips would prop it up. It looks as if they just staunched what would have been a 500+ point drop.

Palin - The New Albatross

You may be asking yourselves; "Where is Palin?" Good question. She is in hiding. Which is what you do when every time you appear in public your favorability numbers go down. She is now down twelve points since her introduction.

Losing favorability is really bad. Americans like people sight unseen. So to have big unfavorables means they have to have seen you and have decided they don't like you.

Palin is the new albatross around McCain's neck. One he certainly doesn't need right now. What a change from the days after the convention where McCain was heralded as a genius for the pick.

I spent a little time phone banking tonight for Obama. The calls I made were to Democrats, but one of the people I called was a Republican. Long story short, the guy was a committed conservative, but he couldn't vote for McCain because of Palin. Vice Presidential picks are supposed to add votes, not take them away.

McCain - The Elitist

McCain has thirteen cars, a private jet and eight houses:

Obama has one car and one house, and people call him an elitist. Ridiculous.

How many people do you know that have thirteen cars, their own jet and eight houses?

Obama - The proven right choice

If there is anything positive that came out of last week's financial meltdown it's the fact that I now feel supremely confident in Barack Obama. When faced with a crisis situation he was calm, deliberate, effective and connected to reality. He has also shown just in the last day or two, that he genuinely has the interests of the middle class at heart. He has said, "Not so fast" on the blank check bailout, wanting to ensure that the best interests of regular people are served while we bail out the fat cats.

John McCain on the other hand... wow... what a disaster. The guy was panicked from the start. He was all over the map when it came to policy. He showed himself to be completely disconnected from Main Street while beholden to Wall Street. And, by the end of the week, with his poll numbers in the toilet from a crisis of his own making, he lashed out at Barack Obama with sad racist attacks. What a shame. Where is the "The Daily Show" John McCain of 2000? I don't even know this new McCain. And I'm absolutely sure I don't want four years of him leading the country

I've definitely made the right choice going with Obama in 2008.

Palin unable to debate openly

They are having to rewrite the debating rules for Palin. Apparently she is more than ready to go toe to toe with our enemies abroad. But she is unable to debate ole Joe Biden directly. I am imbued with confidence.

You know, I was thinking about the trillion dollar bailout (apparently another $300B got thrown in there somehow). Couldn't have had universal healthcare for that? Couldn't we have sent every kid through college free for that?

A trillion for the economy. A trillion for Iraq. Is trillion the new billion?

Of course, the trillion for Iraq is just a complete waste. But the trillion for AIG and the banks. Maybe that will help lower my car insurance rates?

Updated bail-out number

Turns out the bail-out will be $700 billion. That means every man, woman and child in the United States owes aronud $2,200 to clean up Wall Street.

Thank you, Present Bush. Yes. Thank you. For all of your heroic efforts to deregulate our markets.

Now That I Own Everything

What can I do with all of these companies that I suddenly own? I suppose I just made a little money on my new set of unconditional investments? Given that the DJIA is going to drop the bad apples on monday and slide in a few blue chips from another sector I think the numbers will go up again next week.

BTW, with 300 million Americans and a 300 billion dollar taxpayer buyout that means every man, woman and child now owes about $1,000. Would you like to pay that with cash or credit?

Williams Sonoma goes Brookston

I was perusing a Williams-Sonoma catalog this morning and it was sad. Years ago I read a message from the CEO of William-Sonoma about their philosophy. It was great. He talked about how they did extensive testing and found just the high-quality right tools for kitchen jobs. Times have changed because this catalog was full of crap. There were dusters, irons, embroidered aprons, all kinds of crap.

I even saw a tool that had an avacado pitter on one side and a ribbon cutter for cutting the avacado on the other. Williams-Sonama, ten years ago, would have sold you a chefs knife to do that.

Does every store have to turn into a Brookstone over time?

Rush - It's all the dems

Rush Limbaugh (pictured left) was at it again this morning. No advice for anyone on what to do. No plan to actually fix anything. Just ranting bout how this is all Clinton's fault, and all those dastardly 'dems' faults, and the 'libs'. Conservatives have been running government for eight years now, but somehow the sneaky dems were able to siphon off billions into their own personal bank accounts all the while.

More oxy side effects perhaps? Rush, my friend, for eight years the Bush administration has been replacing agency higher-ups with cronies and crony contractors.

The reaction from the right this week has been really informative. Let's assume for a moment that one is looking for ideas about how to fix the problem. How do the conservatives stack up in the past few days?

Tragic. Really.

In case you haven't noticed this already. There is nobody even close to your tax bracket speaking for the conservatives. All of these people are worth millions. They have absolutely no clue about what it means to have a mortgage. They would be absolutely fine if they never made another dime for the rest of their lives. As such, they have absolutely no empathy for the average American.

Obama has a plan. He's been active on this issue, trying to get the conservatives to do something about it for years. Let's give him the power to fix it.

Market totally fucked

Just in case it wasn't clear enough already, the financial market was totally and completely fucked this month and here is some great graphical proof via the New York Times.

Best line of the campaign so far

"The old boy's network. In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting." Righteous!

I couldn't be happier with the Obama campaign at this point. He has run it like a damn clock. He is super cool under pressure. He's just got his game on. It's McCain who is running around like a chicken with his head cut off and making incredibly stupid decisions (i.e. Palin).

BTW, Palin down 10 points in favorability in three days. That's incredible. Fast to rise, fast to fall. I guess when you live on lies that's bound to happen.

More McCain/Palin debunking

Finally someone is picking up on the fact that the McCain campaign lies like a rug:

Unfortunately they continue with 'ugly on both sides' crap. Sorry, but saying that McCain wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years (which he did say) is not equivalent to repeating lies over and over again like McCain and Palin do. Palin said the bridge to nowhere lie 23 times as of Monday.

With the economy in serious trouble and our nation facing real problems. Can we really afford four years of bozos who want to talk about lipstick and moose hunting?

You pay for government you don't get

Jacqueline brought a good point up with me this morning. She noted that Clinton pushed for Fannie and Freddie to loan more to low wage earners in 1999. That's true, and you can debate the merits of that. But what Clinton and Gore relied on when they made those changes was a functioning government and within that a functioning regulatory system.

Conservatives are opposed to regulation. So Bush and Cheney wanted to deregulate the markets. Now there are two ways that you can deregulate. You can either legislate deregulation and change the law. Which would let markets and investors know about the increased risk inherent in a deregulated market. Or you can just tell the regulators to stop regulating. I betcha can't guess which direction they chose.

Bush and Cheney have outsourced the functioning of government to contractors. Those contractors are more expensive. Which means our government costs more. Thus the increased debt. And the contractors have less oversight. So they do... nothing.

The situation has gotten so bad that folks at the Department of the Interior were caught having sex parties and doing lots of drugs instead of overseeing government contracts. California, along with several other states, has sued the EPA to get it to do it's job. Iraq reconstruction has been rife with contractor fraud. And FEMA, well, we all saw what happened there.

Honestly, I don't have a problem with de-regulation as long as the government is up front about it. Change the law. De-fund the agencies. Tell me I have to assume new risk. Notify me that there will no longer be oversight. But don't spend my tax money, or borrow more money from the Chinese, to pay contractors not to work. If I'm paying for government, then I damn well want people to do their jobs.

Did Clinton do the right thing by opening up housing loans to poor families? That's another discussion. But you can't hold the Clinton administration accountable for the Bush administration coring out the regulatory oversight behind the scenes. A well regulated bank would not have been allowed to put the bulk of it's portfolio in high risk equities.

We can't afford more government. And we certainly can't afford to pay for the government we have to go to seed as we have under Bush. We need an administration that will run the government properly and give us our money's worth. This will restore the good faith and credit of the United States which is what has really been faltering over these past eight years.

Freaking awesome

Obama is freaking awesome in this ad, as usual:

Totally well worth the watch, and our support. This man knows what he is talking about. He is a smart guy who will work with smart people to get our government working for us again. When you look at the two candidates face on, there is just no comparison between Obama and McCain.

Out of work

Looking at the bank failures and the rising unemployment numbers I have to wonder if the slogan for 2008 is:

Can your family afford for you to be out of work for four years?

Republicans think you can. Can you really? The vast majority of Americans can't afford to be out of work for four months, let alone four years.

Lying about hate

Fox is back at the old trick of smearing Democrats and Liberals as haters. This when Fox News, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly are the ones with a body count. There are two dead in Tennessee because of the endless spew of radio hate that convinces the low IQ fanboys to kill innocent people to fight the liberal agenda.

Conservatives against Christians

I was under the impression that conservatives liked fundamentalist Christians, but apparently not. I've been hearing a lot of defenders of Palin say that she does not believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Hey, I thought that belief was ok? You mean it's strange to believe that dinosaurs walked with man? I thought that was hunky-dory. I thought we were supposed to be teaching our kids that. I thought this stuff was ok:

Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

But now the conservatives seem to think this kind of stuff is weird or something. Like believing that we will be teleported into heaven at any moment and thinking that Earth is purgatory is kind of like being in a death cult.

Maybe batshit crazy Christian isn't as mainstream as the right wing wants us to think.

Obama Waffles

Classic:

It's The De-Regulation Stupid

Conservatives will try to shroud today's economic meltdown in mystery, but the reality is very simple. Phil Gramm de-regulated the mortgage industry and the mortgage industry went nuts with greed and sold a bunch of loans nobody could afford. That's the same Phil Gramm that de-regulated the energy futures market, which is what artificially added several dollars to your gas prices.

It's simple, Democrats support regulated markets, Republicans support un-regulated markets. This is an argument that goes back all the way to FDR. But now, with the advent of electronic markets, the dynamics of the argument have changed drastically even though Republicans don't seem to realize it. When you can have adaptive software doing thousands of trades per second in an electronic marketplace an un-regulated market is a license to steal. Which is exactly what happened to energy market, the oil market and now the housing market.

Completely free and un-regulated markets only work in a society without morals. If you want a libertarian nirvana you have to be willing to let people die of starvation, or freeze from lack of heat. If you aren't willing to do that then you have to either 1) regulate the markets, or 2) watch markets collapse and let the government (and the people) pick up the tab.

Regulating the markets is a pro-active simple measure that allows companies to still make money while not allowing a feeding frenzy.

De-regulated markets that collapse and are mopped up by the tax-payer amount to nothing more than a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich through taxation.

This is why I have such a hard time understanding the social conservative psyche. Un-regulated free markets are the polar opposite of an 'I am my brothers keeper' Christian philosophy. The dichotomy is at it's apex in the abortion debate where the people who want abortion banned are the same people who support a poltical/economic policy that would have no way to pay for the enforcement of such a ban. A 'government so small you can drown it in a bathtub' can't enforce an abortion ban.

How Truthful

Palin is at it again, lying about the bridge to nowhere. She dropped it from her stump speeches in Alaska because she knew the locals would see it for the lie it was. But she is back in the lower 48 now, where she thinks we are stupid enough to not know it for the lie it is.

McCain's afraid to talk about the issues, so now he wants to talk about Palin's lying:

And how 'disrespectful' it is to be called a liar by someone telling the truth. With all of McCain's flip-flopping and lying I'm sure it is tough for him to differentiate between lies and reality. But hey, with an economy where the profitable businesses are repo and foreclosure:

Who really wants to talk about the issues anyway. Let's talk about lipstick, pigs and lies.

John McSame - Neo-con

There has been a lot of coverage of John McCain's horrible appearance on the view. The hosts rightly accuse McCain of lying about Obama. McCain says he doesn't. And then he launches into a lot of middle of the road rhetoric. For example, "We aren't going to get rid of Roe v. Wade, we are just going to leave it to the states.", "I'm a uniter", "I'm a reformer.", etc. That middle of the road stuff is all bullshit and here is why:

The Democrat Party

Whenever McCain talks about the 'Democratic' party he slips up and calls it the 'Democrat' party. And while most uninformed folks wouldn't even notice the error, it's a code word to neo-cons. Only neo-cons use the 'democrat party' slur. Whenever you hear someone say 'The Democrat Party' you know they are a neo-con. Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, Sean Hannity, all those idiots, they all say the 'democrat party'.

McCain wants you to believe he is a moderate, or even a liberal, but he is clearly sending coded messages to the hard core right that he is in their corner.

McCain on Palin

John McCain: "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."

Palin - What a joke

Palin is such a joke. McCain's campaigning on national security, and Palin doesn't even know what the Bush Doctrine is? The Bush Doctrine is well known, to anyone who is even reasonably informed, as the underpinning of our current strategic policy. The fact that she didn't know what those words meant is incredibly disturbing. She is completely uninformed.

This is really sad. The Republican party is really hurting this country by selecting this idiots and incompetents.

Democrats - Afraid To Win

All this hand wringing about the polls says to me; Democrats are afraid to win. Grow a pair! Seriously! Let me make this simple. It would be impossible to do a worse job at President than Bush did.

When Bush took his oath of office Karl took him aside and said; "Screw everything up. Go on vacation all the time. Don't decide anything. Be the worst you can be. Because the worse the government performs, the better for us. Conservatives hate government, so bad government just reinforces our beliefs."

Any government is better than a neo-conservative government because neo-cons don't believe that government should exist. So they destroy it from the inside.

So let's not be afraid to get back into control of this beast. There is no possible way we could screw up worse than Bush. The only thing worse than Bush would be McCain/Palin.

John McCain is scum

A day after Rove comes out as a key member of John McCain's campaign we get this:

An ad so disgusting. So vile. That it makes me ill just to watch it. Apparently Rove interprets 'age appropriate sex education' as teaching kindergartners about sex. Rove is disgusting. McCain is a reprobate. His campaign is in the toilet. He is a waste of flesh.

A good bill that's meant to allow teachers to talk to kids about what appropriate and inappropriate touching is, to help them become their own first defense against predators, misused in this way. It's foul. Heinous. Disgusting.

And this on a day when we find out that Palin supported forcing rape victims to pay for the cost of the rape kit. Who the hell are these people? What planet do they come from?

Bridge Coverage

We don't hear the truth about Palin and the bridge down here. But they do in Alaska:

Apparently they can take on conservatives for their blatant lying in Alaska, but not down here.

Palin Contnuously Lying

So we have Palin out there continuously lying about the bridge to nowhere. She was not just for it before she was against. She was a key supporter of it. Her 'thanks but no thanks' line was debunked 30 minutes after she said it.

The amazing thing is that nobody is calling her on it outside of a few progressive hosts and the Obama campaign. Obviously Fox isn't going to call her on it. But nobody on CBS, ABC or NBC is saying anything because they are all cowed by the sexism charge.

Speaking of the sexism charge. Wasn't it Fox who put on pundit after pundit to say that Hillary claiming sexism was silly because our enemies won't be politically correct. And now you have the McCain campaign saying that they won't put Palin in front of the press because of supposed sexism. Where is the outrage from the right now?

What a joke. The coverage has been so unbelievably biased in favor of McCain. It's the only reason why this race is even close. If American's had unbiased information about Bush, Cheney, McCain and Palin this would be a runaway for Obama.

Palin's "God Damn America" Problem

Palin spoke in front of an Alaska Independence Party meeting last year. The leader of that movement is quoted as saying:

The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government...

And I won't be buried under their damn flag... I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.

And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska.

Of course, while conservatives hold every single thing that Obama's pastor said against Obama, I'm sure they have lots of excuses for this insane anti-American hate speech.

McCain/Palin - Four More Years

Maverick And A Housewife

This line of John McCain being a maverick and Palin being a housewife is total bullshit. John McCain has his head so far up Bush's ass that they both have the same eyeglass prescription. And Palin? She is no 'regular housewife'. Not unless regular housewives are batshit crazy, become mayors of peabot towns then run them into the ground. How many housewives do you know that think abortion should be illegal under all circumstances, even after rape or incest? How many housewives do you know that believe that Christian creationism should be taught in schools instead of evolution? How many housewives do you know that would stand up in church and say that the war in Iraq was a holy crusade against the infidels? How many housewives have husbands who are in a party that wants Alaska to secede for the union? Palin is in no way shape or form a mainstream American, she is way, way, off on the right wing fringe.

More Palin Thoughts

It offends me to no end that the Republican response to the nightmare of George Bush is to appoint someone to the Vice Presidency who is 100% polarized. This woman makes W look like a consensus builder. She has absolutely no idea what anybody wants, and nor does she care. She has her agenda, and she drives it. Voting public be damned.

Ugh. You would think at some point that the Republicans would wake up and realize that government in this country is supposed to be of, by and for the people. The government isn't something we should have to work against, or protest about. It's us. It should represent us. It should be how we accomplish goals that are too large for one person, group or company.

Before I said that a Palin presidency would be a disaster. That's true. But not for what she would actually accomplish. She would accomplish nothing. She would come in with crazy ideas, put them forward as policy and be completely denied by the congress. The only thing she could do would be through executive fiat, a Bush has done, and what he has done there, well, the results speak volumes for themselves.

This just reinforces for me why I am a Democrat. It's not because I believe in everything the Democrats stand for. It's because I don't belong in the wacko conservative Christian club that is the Republicans. And in this polarized world you are either a Republican or you are not. And I am not Republican more than I am a Democrat.

Palin : Just Another Shrill Pundit

Sarah Palin made a wonderful demo reel for her Fox News punditry spot last night. She was smug, shrill, nasty, mean, unfeeling, and uncaring. Everything you would expect from the kooks on the far right fringe of the Republican party. Everything that the McCain of 2000 was against.

These ultra-right conservatives just don't get it. They don't understand that they are attacking 90% of the people in the country when they say that unless you believe that the last eight years were a raging economic success, and that the war in Iraq was a glorious victory, that you are a commie-pinko-liberal traitor who should be shot.

Palin is just a cheap copy of Bush. She has demonstrated abuse of power, cronyism, a complete misunderstanding of American freedoms, love of pork barrel spending, and the ability to run up massive debts. Under her short reign the tiny town of Wassila with only 9,000 people was saddled with $3M in debt where it had never been in debt before. And that was even after she got millions in federal pork for the town.

Historically Vice Presidents have a one in three chance of becoming President. And it usually happens earlier in the term rather than later. Seriously, people, we cannot afford a one-in-three chance of a long Palin Presidency. That would be a disaster.

Fiorina

As you are watching Carly Fiorina give her strange head twisty speech, just remember that she ran HP into the ground. HP was doing well, was reasonably profitable. And then she came along and crashed it with a horrible management style and dreadful decisions. Why anyone should trust her judgement on anything is beyond me.

Palin

There is so much to say about the Palin pick. Though most of it has been said already. Personally I look at it as more proof that John McCain is just completely out of control. He had three months to vett candidates, and his team took only one day, the day before announced her, to vett her. It's like he was cramming for a test or something. Is that the same type of diligence he is going to give to matters of state? All signs point to yes.

As for Palin herself. Wow, what a fruit loop. Her antics as mayor of Wassila are legendary. Banning books, firing people who won't pledge their loyalty to her. All the usual neo-con antics. But in a town with 9,000 people in it. It would be funny if she wasn't trying to be second in line for the presidency.

Honestly, we have the worst president in history serving right now. If McCain wins then he will be in the running for that distinction in no time. And if he dies in office, Palin will quickly jump to the top of the charts. What is it with Republicans continuously trying to find the worst possible candidates for president?