Sunday, September 28, 2008
Haw haw...
This graphic, from the Christian Science Monitor's site, would be even funnier if she were not in reach of the vice presidency...
Saturday, September 27, 2008
McCain Craters with Letterman
In much the same way that SNL blew all the magic hockey dust off Sarah Palin with Tina Fey's brilliant... um, you know... I dunno... mockery of her, Letterman may be personally responsible for driving a stake through McCain's campaign suspension stunt.
From a campaign PR standpoint it was the worst yet. Letterman was so pissed off by John McCain's last-second cancellation in support of this proposterous stunt that he would proceed to lambaste McCain hilariously for an hour in front of something like 3.4 million amused Americans. Worse yet, halfway through the show it is revealed that McCain lied to Letterman about the fact that he was heading straight to the airport to fly back to Washington. (As it turned out, McCain didn't even leave New York until the next day!)
Whatever you think of McCain or Letterman, it was one-of-a-kind television moment at a pivotal point in this election. It will be interesting to see if the negative effects disappear in the media clutter or resonate further. A certain percentage of the millions who saw that show on teevee or have since watched the clips on YouTube came to the conclusion that I did:
John McCain is a man that will tell you a big fat lie right to your face to serve himself.
Remember when the Republicans were very concerned about the lies a Presidents might tell? "We don't care that Bill got a blowjob from Monica, its the fact that he lied about it," they said on their way to launching Clinton's impeachment on charges of perjury.
Well whether they care about it now or not, the rest of us had better beware. You'd better believe that if McCain will lie to an "important" guy like David Letterman he'll sure do it to the American People.
From a campaign PR standpoint it was the worst yet. Letterman was so pissed off by John McCain's last-second cancellation in support of this proposterous stunt that he would proceed to lambaste McCain hilariously for an hour in front of something like 3.4 million amused Americans. Worse yet, halfway through the show it is revealed that McCain lied to Letterman about the fact that he was heading straight to the airport to fly back to Washington. (As it turned out, McCain didn't even leave New York until the next day!)
Whatever you think of McCain or Letterman, it was one-of-a-kind television moment at a pivotal point in this election. It will be interesting to see if the negative effects disappear in the media clutter or resonate further. A certain percentage of the millions who saw that show on teevee or have since watched the clips on YouTube came to the conclusion that I did:
John McCain is a man that will tell you a big fat lie right to your face to serve himself.
Remember when the Republicans were very concerned about the lies a Presidents might tell? "We don't care that Bill got a blowjob from Monica, its the fact that he lied about it," they said on their way to launching Clinton's impeachment on charges of perjury.
Well whether they care about it now or not, the rest of us had better beware. You'd better believe that if McCain will lie to an "important" guy like David Letterman he'll sure do it to the American People.
McCain = Jimmy Carter?
Short but fascinating commentary by Thomas Defrank on McCain's latest Hail Mary pass against shifting polling numbers.
Biden was on Olbermann's show after the debate tonight and it was plain that he intended to stand back and let her hang herself with her own mouth.
Based on what we have seen of so far, I have to believe the theory that Keith Olbermann expressed on Letterman the other night - that it was a desperate attempt by McCain to screw up the debate schedule so that the Biden/Palin debate would end up being canceled.
OXFORD, Miss. - At a difficult moment in the Vietnam War, crusty Republican Sen. George Aiken of Vermont offered a novel solution - simply declare victory, and leave.
John McCain resurrected Aiken's playbook Friday - except he declared defeat, and left.
Biden was on Olbermann's show after the debate tonight and it was plain that he intended to stand back and let her hang herself with her own mouth.
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Palin Doctrine - CNN Reports (first 3 min)
I bet you didn't even know that God had a special plan for Alaska during the End of Days!
I can see Russia from my house!
The reality is worse than SNL. Put to the question once again, we find ourselves in the company of a woman who cannot complete a sentence.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Couric - Palin Interview!
Key moments:
0:00 A pre-interview statement by Katie Couric noting that John McCain's campaign manager has been receiving payments of $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac up until last month. Freddie Mac, of course, just received a $200 billion taxpayer bailout.
0:30 Sarah Palin's response, in which she not only refuses to address the question put to her, but then has the audacity to use the question as a rhetorical jumping off point for the need for a good clean Washington. Palin starts to sound less pained in trying to come up with an answer when she can click back into the "we're going to clean up Washington" section of that one speech she has been giving since the Republican convention.
Her claim is preposterous. A total of 115 lobbyists are working on the campaign of John McCain, including campaign manager Rick Davis, who - you might of heard - was being paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac right up to the completion of the bailout, when they took him off the payroll. Mission accomplished, thanks very much for a job well done!
No one in their right mind can possibly believe that John McCain is going to run the lobbyists out of Washington if lobbyists are literally managing his campaign and profiting - right now - from the crisis that we are in.
1:52 Don't miss this - its the first escalation of the price tag of the bailout in the public spotlight, when Palin notes that this is probably more likely to be a $1 trillion buy-out. Watch to see this new number eased into the conversation once people have swallowed the initial $700 billion price tag.
I don't think anyone has any idea what the real number will be, but before you believe even the brand new $1 trillion estimate I would remind everyone of what happened the last time the American People were asked to write a blank check. On October 1, 2002, the Congressional Budget Office told the nation that the War in Iraq would cost between $9 and $13 billion. Cost to date: $646 billion and no end in sight.
3:11 Lately the news has been filled with a lot of facts and figures where "since the Great Depression" was cited. Now the language has suddenly moved to a Depression all our own. Is this our financial 9/11, or is this Wall Street's version of the WMD's?
4:10 Palin has made it clear that this Wall Street bailout package must be passed or the world will end. Without a trace of irony she then goes on to make it clear that there is no reason to protect average Americans from losing their homes, noting "decisions that have been made poorly should not be rewarded". Unbelievable! Sarah Palin is ready to step up to bat for Wall Street, but not a dime for the one million Americans who have lost their homes in the last two years.
4:26 Another red flag shoots up when Palin notes that it needs to be a "comprehensive, long-term solution". Hide the checkbook! Its the rebranding of Iraq as the "Long War" all over again!
4:43 Couric asks Palin to cite an example of John McCain's leading the charge on reform over the course of his 26 years in Congress, aside from supporting the 2006 Fannie/Freddie regulations. Couric dismisses her "he's done a heckuva lot more than the other Senators" rebuttal by noting that his legislative record has been consistently in favor of less regulation. Like a doll that will recite random statements when you pull the string in its back, Palin announces "He's The Maverick!" Pressed again, she cannot come up with a single example.
Well I've got an example of John McCain's track record of success in the area of regulation of the financial industry! In the late 1980s and early 1990s McCain was one of five US Senators who received a total of $1.3 million in contributions from Charles Keating, chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan, with the express purpose of shielding them from regulation. Freedom from government oversight led directly to a debacle that included the failure of 747 Savings and Loans Associations and a taxpayer bailout of $124.6 billion. McCain would eventually be cleared of legal impropriety by the Senate Ethics Committee, but would be condemned for poor judgement.
Just as Palin promised, John McCain has a track record of experience that directly applies to the current situation!
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
I'm not that fond of heights
It is increasingly clear that we truly are poised at the brink of a monumental financial collapse.
The strength of the language being used by all parties tells us the truth is finally being revealed, that we are at the nexus of a perfect storm of negative economic forces:
At the center of this storm is the $700 billion proposal from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, which was a naked attempt to hang the entire bill for this massive bailout on the American people, with no restrictions of any kind. I was STUNNED, absolutely STUNNED to learn that the first proposal delivered by Paulson includes this language:
Hank Paulson, of course, had a 22 year career at banking giant Goldman Sachs that ended with his nomination to the current position of Treasury Secretary in 2006*. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs is one of the two giant investment banks that was left standing after the wave of collapses over the last two weeks, a fact that would be rewarded by investing giant Warren Buffet with a $5 billion influx of cash this week, perhaps to help them celebrate their transition into the world of deposit-accepting banks along with a much tattered Merill Lynch.
The whole experience would be a win-win for Paulson and his many friends in the investment banking industry, having made all that money while constructing that giant pyramid of subprime mortgages, and then again through an unregulated, unscrutinized taxpayer bailout after the balloon finally popped.
Undoubtedly he got the idea to bleed the taxpayers from Vice President Cheney, whose previous employer - Halliburton - has enjoyed record growth in the course of implementing the war plans first written when Cheney was Sec. Defense for George H. W. Bush. Or perhaps he was inspired by W. himself, an oilman whose friends back home have realized all time record high profits since W. took office.
Three cheers for the big brass balls of Hank Paulson! Its good to know his first thought was on protecting his personal net worth of between $500 and $700 million. Perhaps he will agree to fund a few soup kitchens if the rest of us go down the drain.
Senator Obama is demanding that any bailout include these four features:
1. The plan must include protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to further reward the bad behavior of irresponsible CEOs on Wall Street. This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives.
2. Second, the power to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money cannot be left to the discretion of one man, no matter who he is or which party he is from.
3. If taxpayers are being asked to underwrite hundreds of billions of dollars to solve this crisis, they must be treated like investors. The American people should share in the upside as Wall Street recovers. And after the economy recovers, we should institute a financial stability fee on the entire financial services industry to repay any losses to the American people and make sure we are never asked again to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes. We can ask taxpayers to make an investment in the stability of our economy, but we cannot ask them to hand their money over to Wall Street without some expectation of being made whole.
4. The final plan must provide help to families who are struggling to stay in their homes.
For his part, McCain is seeking to flee the scheduled debate, incomprehensibly throwing away his opportunity to stand up and tell the nation what he plans to do to lead us from this catastrophe. Either McCain or Obama is going to be running the country in roughly three months. We, the American People, have a right to know what McCain plans to do about all this.
It is possible that has caught whatever ailment is afflicting Sarah Palin, whose exposure to real questions from the press or the public has still been limited to practically none at all. We have had eight years of continuous stonewalling from the Bush Administration. Can we expect anything else from a McCain/Palin administration that had already raised their force fields 39 days from the election?
* A little known piece of trivia - immediately prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1974, Paulson worked in the Nixon administration as John Ehrlichman's assistant. He lost this position when Ehrlichman was forced to resign by the Senate Watergate Committee, the first step toward a road that took Ehrlichman on to an 18 month stay at Safford Federal Correctional Institution for convictions in conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.
The strength of the language being used by all parties tells us the truth is finally being revealed, that we are at the nexus of a perfect storm of negative economic forces:
- The end of the era of easy, inexpensive petroleum due to massive oil field production collapses around the world, the impact of which on prices has been compounded by exploding growth in global demand and the uncertainty in the market generated by the Iraq war.
- The collapse of the pyramid scheme of subprime mortgages that began in 2006.
- The subsequent collapse of the home building industry with its tremendous demands for economy-fueling labor, raw materials and the vast collection of finished goods needed to fill them all up.
- The wave of collapsing investment banks that ended this week with the dissolution of the "investment banking concept", which was a 75 year experiment in dodging the scrutiny, oversight and regulation that is delivered to regular deposit-accepting banks.
- Most importantly of all, a trillion dollar debt that was raised to finance the Iraq war - the first time in history that an American war (let alone two) was not at least partially paid for with an increase in taxes. Now the value of the once mighty dollar has literally sunk to zero on the global market; today the value of a one month Treasury bond actually dipped below zero before returning to 0.5%.
At the center of this storm is the $700 billion proposal from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, which was a naked attempt to hang the entire bill for this massive bailout on the American people, with no restrictions of any kind. I was STUNNED, absolutely STUNNED to learn that the first proposal delivered by Paulson includes this language:
The incredible balls of the man to even put that forward! It sounds a lot like what Naomi Klein calls:“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
"the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy.
Hank Paulson, of course, had a 22 year career at banking giant Goldman Sachs that ended with his nomination to the current position of Treasury Secretary in 2006*. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs is one of the two giant investment banks that was left standing after the wave of collapses over the last two weeks, a fact that would be rewarded by investing giant Warren Buffet with a $5 billion influx of cash this week, perhaps to help them celebrate their transition into the world of deposit-accepting banks along with a much tattered Merill Lynch.
The whole experience would be a win-win for Paulson and his many friends in the investment banking industry, having made all that money while constructing that giant pyramid of subprime mortgages, and then again through an unregulated, unscrutinized taxpayer bailout after the balloon finally popped.
Undoubtedly he got the idea to bleed the taxpayers from Vice President Cheney, whose previous employer - Halliburton - has enjoyed record growth in the course of implementing the war plans first written when Cheney was Sec. Defense for George H. W. Bush. Or perhaps he was inspired by W. himself, an oilman whose friends back home have realized all time record high profits since W. took office.
Three cheers for the big brass balls of Hank Paulson! Its good to know his first thought was on protecting his personal net worth of between $500 and $700 million. Perhaps he will agree to fund a few soup kitchens if the rest of us go down the drain.
Senator Obama is demanding that any bailout include these four features:
1. The plan must include protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to further reward the bad behavior of irresponsible CEOs on Wall Street. This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives.
2. Second, the power to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money cannot be left to the discretion of one man, no matter who he is or which party he is from.
3. If taxpayers are being asked to underwrite hundreds of billions of dollars to solve this crisis, they must be treated like investors. The American people should share in the upside as Wall Street recovers. And after the economy recovers, we should institute a financial stability fee on the entire financial services industry to repay any losses to the American people and make sure we are never asked again to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes. We can ask taxpayers to make an investment in the stability of our economy, but we cannot ask them to hand their money over to Wall Street without some expectation of being made whole.
4. The final plan must provide help to families who are struggling to stay in their homes.
For his part, McCain is seeking to flee the scheduled debate, incomprehensibly throwing away his opportunity to stand up and tell the nation what he plans to do to lead us from this catastrophe. Either McCain or Obama is going to be running the country in roughly three months. We, the American People, have a right to know what McCain plans to do about all this.
It is possible that has caught whatever ailment is afflicting Sarah Palin, whose exposure to real questions from the press or the public has still been limited to practically none at all. We have had eight years of continuous stonewalling from the Bush Administration. Can we expect anything else from a McCain/Palin administration that had already raised their force fields 39 days from the election?
* A little known piece of trivia - immediately prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1974, Paulson worked in the Nixon administration as John Ehrlichman's assistant. He lost this position when Ehrlichman was forced to resign by the Senate Watergate Committee, the first step toward a road that took Ehrlichman on to an 18 month stay at Safford Federal Correctional Institution for convictions in conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)