September 29, 2008: Black Monday - Dow drops 777 points

The Republicans today refused to vote for the government bailout that would restore faith in credit and stabilize the markets. To be fair, there were also Democrats who refused to vote for it. This is, after all, an election year, and elected representatives don't want to go home with a new tax bill for their constituents. But we all know that it is the prevailing philosophy that began with Reagan and reached its crescendo with the Bush administration that has landed us in this mess. The idea that government is always bad and that the "free market" needs to be left unfettered to allow the "invisible hand" to take care of the financial markets has been the hallmark of the extreme brand of Republicanism that has ruled this country from 1994 in Congress and from 2000 in the White House.

The Republicans have never had as power power as they have had during George W. Bush's tenure as President (nor will they ever have that much power again). And what did they do with that power? They steamrolled over everything, smashing everything in their path that ran contrary to their deeply flawed ideology. They buried stem cell research, health care, and veterans care. They fucked up education reform. But where they really failed was during those big leadership moments, when it was the bottom of the ninth with two outs and bases loaded and the whole world was watching: 9-11, Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the demise of our financial markets. And in the on deck circle, we have Iran, Russia and our missing energy policy ready to hit a few more into the seats in right-centerfield!

If you were unsure before, how could you not see now? The conservative-extremist Republicans who have had control over our government need to go. Sorry to be so partisan, but the facts do not permit me to conlcude otherwise.

More to come...

The End of Conservatism

For the past few decades, the Right has proclaimed, "We don't need no stinkin' regulation!" We've been told that the free, unfettered market will always correct itself and prevent disaster while shedding those competitors who are not up to the job. Reagan told us that government doesn't solve problems, it is the problem. However, as the past few weeks have shown, that is a bankrupt philosophy (no pun intended). The very same people who saw government as the problem now have their hands out and are asking for our tax dollars to the tune of $700 billion. The markets do indeed need regulation to prevent the darkest urges of human nature from ruling the day. For years, we have watched while the cost of everything has risen and asked, "How can the economy be doing so well? It sure doesn't feel like it." It has seemed like a shell game for a while now. Alas, the bubble has burst. And it will only cost us $700 billion to fix it.

Maybe the taxpayers do have to pay for this bailout. But it does raise many questions. What about responsibility? Where are the Conservatives who have preached to us about "personal responsibility"? Shouldn't the taxpayers get something for the billions we are being asked to pony up? And why should Henry Paulson get dictatorial control over this money with no oversight at all? Why can't the federal government take partial ownership of these companies and then sell them off at a profit at some time in the future? Why aren't we being told the truth, which is that this is just the beginning? We are in for a long recession and higher taxes no matter who is in White House in January of 2009.

We are being asked to give this the Bush administration another blank check. Why should we trust them now? On Bush's watch we have had 9-11, The Iraq War, Katrina, and now the collapse of our financial system. Even before this latest debacle, this incompetent child has been the worst President in our nation's history. Right up to the end of his tenure as President, Bush is mired the muck of disaster.

Who the fuck voted for this guy? I mean, all you had to do was hear that dopey Texas accent and hear him mispronounce "nuclear" and you knew he wasn't the guy for the job. But you wanted to have a beer with him. You thought, "He's like me". No, he's not like you. He grew up rich and privileged and never worked a day in his life. He avoided military service but acted like he stormed San Juan Hill with T.R. He raised religion up over science (the mark of a backward society - see Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, etc.) and divided the nation over the bullshit social issues while big business robbed us blind. He fucked us again and again and we put him back in power for a second term because we are a scared nation. The only silver lining in all this is that maybe people will start coming back toward the middle so that this nation can begin accomplishing things again.

Let's not get too serious.

During this highly charged political season, we must remember to take time out to have some fun. So, let's revisit our top story: Soledad O'Brien Falls Down a Manhole Cover.

Oh, would that it were true...

Watch the Debates !!!

Watch the first Presidential debate of the '08 campaign Friday, Septmebr 26th at 9:00 p.m. Easteren Standard Time.
Here are the dates for all debates:

First Predsidential Debate: Friday, September 26, 2008
Vice President Debate: Thursday, October 2, 2008
Second Presidential Debate:Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Third Presidential Debate: Wednesday, October 15, 2008
*All Debates start at 9:00 P.M. EST

Why doesn't anyone listen to Paul Krugman?

Economist (Princeton University) and New York Times Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has been writing about the coming market collapse for years. He warned of the perils of the housing bubble and predicted what would happen when (not if) it burst. So it begs the question, why wouldn't anyone take the advice of this really bright guy who was able to look ahead and see what was coming right down Wall Street? I have a theory. It is because he is a Liberal. When a Liberal like Professor Krugman warns of coming economic doom, the Right quickly pounces and says, "Oh, Krugman is a pessimistic Liberal ! He believes America's best days are behind us! But we Republicans are optimistic. Everything's fine! We believe America's best days are ahead of us. Don't listen to this commie Liberal !"

Well. Not only did Krugman lead the clarion call on the housing bubble, but he is now the leading critic of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson's plan to bail out Wall Street (see Krugman's piece "Cash for Trash" from the New York Times 9/22/08 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin).

Krugman asks, if the federal government is spending $700 billion in taxpayer money to bail out failing companies, what does it get in return? Why is the government not getting a stake in ownership of these companies in return for the huge amount of cash being plunked down? Furthermore, the proposal asks that there be no review of any of Paulson's decisions. That's right: no oversight at all. Well isn't that how we got into this mess in the first place? Eight years of "What me worry" Bush looking the other way will the fox guarded the henhouse?
Haven't we learned anything from the mistake of our Congress surrendering power to the President on the issue of the Iraq War? This will be the largest government intervention in our country's history. We can't afford to screw it up.

Is Oceania at war against Eastasia or Eurasia? or, How the Conservatives have mastered Doublethink

When it come to policy, whatever Conservatives say, they really mean the opposite. This is Orwell's vision realized. The current Republicans/Conservatives are masters at it. This is why they're great at getting elected, but can't govern worth a damn. Think about it. What do Conservatives claim to stand for and what do they really do? Let's see...

"Conservatives are for smaller government." Bullshit. After 8 years of a Republican President and 12 years of a Republican Congress, our government is bigger than ever.

"Conservatives are for fiscal responsibility". Bullshit. After 8 years of a Republican President and 12 years of a Republican Congress, our economy is falling apart due to the rigging of the game by conservative true believers. They want to "let the free market" decide. However, we know that the market isn't "free" at all; the rules are made so that those who take reckless risks know that they will be bailed out if they fail. CEO's who destroy their corporations walk away with millions while the workers lose everything.

"Conservatives don't want activist judges sitting on the Supreme Court." Bullshit. After 8 years of a Republican President and 12 years of a Republican Congress, the Supreme Court is quite activist, albeit for the Right. The very definition of activism would include reversing precedent, and this Court is committed to rolling back hard-fought gains made in the areas of women's rights, the rights of the accused and the right to privacy. Also, the Bush v. Gore decision from 2000 is the most glaring example of radical judicial activism. So much so that the Court's decision stated that the ruling was not to be used as a precedent for future cases. This was the first and only time that the Court has included such a directive in a decision.

"Conservatives want to preserve the sanctity of marriage." Bullshit. After 8 years of a Republican President and 12 years of a Republican Congress, we don't even hear about this issue anymore. What they really want to do is get a divisive issue like gay marriage on the ballot at election time to bring out the fear-gripped religious wing-nuts. Remember how important the gay marriage issue was in the 2004 election? It was on the ballot in many states at election time, especially in swing states. The Right pushed this because they knew that this would bring out the type of voter who would vote for Bush. It's funny how once the election was over, this issue that was so important during the election season practically vanished into thin air. It is evident that the Republicans used this wedge issue to scare swing voters and the hardcore base into going to the polls and voting for Bush. In reality, they probably couldn't care less who marries who. If they really believed in the sanctity of marriage, they would try to outlaw divorce.

"Conservatives want to drill for oil in Alaska to become energy independent." Bullshit. After 8 years of a Republican President and 12 years of a Republican Congress, we still don't have an energy policy that addresses the nation's 21st century energy needs. They say "drill, baby, drill" because it sounds macho and appeals to the low-information voters. In reality, drilling would probably cause the price of oil to rise. Experts say it would take years to get the oil out of the ground and would reduce the price of gasoline by only about 1 or 2 cents per gallon. However, this assumes that the oil companies that drill this oil out of the ground or off the shores of our country will even sell this oil to us. Since they are multi-national companies, they might sell the oil to some other country, like China or India. After all, they are free to sell their product to the highest bidder, and with demand so high in developing nations, that oil might very well wind up being sold to some other nation.

More to come...

Things some Jews are telling me

Notice I said some Jews. I haven't spoken to all of them yet....

Some Jews I know are telling me that they will not vote for Barack Obama because he is "a Muslim". When I explained to my Semitic friends that Obama is not a Muslim but a Christian, one of them replied, "Well, his father was a Muslim, so he is a Muslim". She also said that she "just can't trust him". I replied, "Oh, you mean he's black." She protested but couldn't explain to me why she didn't trust him. Another Jewish friend then went on to tell me that she could not vote for Obama because he would "go against Israel". I responded that going against Israel isn 't part of the Democratic platform, and that it would be political suicide if any US President went against Israel. The first woman then said,"I've got to see who they tell me to vote for when I go to temple." Wow. This just confirms my theory that most people do not want the responsibility that comes along with being free. There are some who want to be told what to do because it relieves them of the responsibility of having to think and make a decision. (Thinking and deciding is scary!) This friend also told me that she "really likes this Sarah Palin." When I asked which of her positions she agreed with, she replied, " I don't know, she's got kids, she takes them to work, I like that." My fellow-traveler Liberal friend then began peppering her with issues-based questions like: "Do you know Sara Palin wants to ban abortion in all forms? Do you know that she is against gay rights? Do you know that as Governor of Alaska, she made rape victims pay for their own rape kits?" Of course the response was "No" to all of these questions. And then, dead silence. It happens like that every time. I am losing friends all over the place.

This all points to the fact that the McCain/Palin ticket has a very good chance of winning this election. People in this country know very little about the issues that affect their lives. They vote for candidates because they think their children are cute, or because they say macho things about our enemies, or because they think they will protect us from some invisible enemy, or because they scream slogans like"drill, baby, drill". Mostly, though, people cast their votes out of fear. Remember, George Bush was (s)elected in 2000 mostly because people felt he was a guy they could have a beer with. Hey, he probably was. He just can't run the fucking country. In 2004, we elected Bush again out of fear that if we did not, the limp-wristed Democratic candidate John Kerry would allow the terrorists to set off nuclear weapons in the middle of New York City. By the way, remember how they bashed Kerry for windsurfing? Have you ever tried to windsurf? Most of us wouldn't last two minutes on one of those things. You need to be quite athletic to use one of those things. And yet, the Right portrayed Kerry as a gay, wine-swilling Francophile who sold secrets to the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam war. So, out of fear, we elected the boy king again. Now we find through Bob Woodward that the macho Bush has become despondent over the way the Iraq war has gone and has given over control to underlings because he can't hack it. What a wimp...

My Jewish friends need to find their strength and vote for Obama. Stop letting fear rule the day. After all, your people survived the diaspora, the Roman Empire, the Holocaust and all those shitty Adam Sandler movies. I guess what I'm trying to say is, "Hey, Jews, put a brother in the White House" (and not just to clean it).

A Modest Proposal

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin shoots 17 year old daughter with "Anti-Insemination" Ray Gun at annual Christian Conservative Convention only to later learn that it was defective

Well,well,well.....so the Governor's 17 year old daughter is pregnant. Oh, happy day! Forgive me, but the schadenfreude delights me. I am giddy. It is always funny to me when people who proselytize to others how to live their lives (Bill Bennett, Ted Haggart, Jimmy Swaggart, etc) wind up having the very same problems as the rest of us. They are no better and no worse than everyone, yet they want to tell us that they know how Jesus want us to live. Hey, drop dead jackass. The thing that pisses me off is not their human frailty, which we all share, but their insistence on claiming the high moral ground when, in fact, they are flawed just like the rest of us. It's like the priest who preaches the Word of the Lord to his parishioners, but has one hand in the collection plate and the other down the pants of a nine year old boy. I mean, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth (no pun intended). Anyway, I think this could have all been avoided. Remember what Palin claims she said that when Congress offered her state federal funding for the infamous pork-barrel boondoggle "Bridge to Nowhere"? She proudly claims that her response was, "Thanks, but no thanks." (When you read that, imagine it being spoken with that horrible Wisconsin/Minnesota/Midwestern nasal flat 'A' sound). Maybe Palin should have taught her daughter that phrase. The kid could have used it as birth control (when the guy offered up his rigid venison in the back seat of his sled, she could have politely said, "Thaaaanks, but no thaaaaaanks." )

So as long as Palin is the Republican candidate for Vice-President, I make a modest proposal (with apologies to Swift): I propose that if elected, McCain nominate Palin's daughter Bristol to be Secretary of State for these United States. We all know that Palin is known to bring her children to work, so it would be nice to find the something for the kid to do. She could bring the new baby to meet Putin and Ahmadinejad. Imagine her breast-feeding while negotiating the new Iraqi border with Ahmadinejad or discussing the rights of dispossessed Georgians with Putin while changing the diaper of little baby Anchorage. She could tour the globe as an ambassador for Conservative Christian values. Picture her and her husband Levi, their boots coated with elk shit and propped up on a conference table at Camp David, chewing on a Slim Jim, baby screaming for more moose milk, arguing over whose turn it is to clean out then crap bucket in their trailer while the Arabs and Israelis fidget nervously, staring at their shoes and commenting on the weather ("Hey, it's a hot one today, yes, Muhammad?" "Yes my friend, thank god"). And when she is called before Congress to testify on alleged corruption in the McCain-Palin administration, she would pause between breast pumps and shriek to her accusers, "Can't you see I'm a MOTHER!!! I'm PUMPING!" All good people and simple folk in America will comment on the callousness of those horrible elected officials in Washington, questioning a mother of all people. How dare they! It's a sin against god.

The young husband could become our newest celebutard. His mullet would become the fulcrum of a whole new retro-trash trend in fashion. But we all know that the true star would be the 17 year old bride. She will give birth right around Christmas (maybe even ON Christmas - holy shit!!!), giving rise to a myriad of new interpretations of the Christ story. Rove, Bush and Cheney will bring the baby frankincense and myrrh in the manger that was set up under the White House Christmas tree. The Christian Right will be wetting their pants! However, in a horrible twist of evangelical fate, soon after Bristol Palin is appointed Secretary of State, separate terrorist attacks will kill McCain, Palin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and President pro tempore of the Senate Robert Byrd, making young Bristol Palin President of the United States. Her first act will be to appoint little baby Anchorage as Vice-President. Baby Anchorage's first act as Vice-President will be to soil her diaper. In doing so, she will have raised the bar for Vice-Presidential selection criteria for decades to come. People will criticize potential nominees for Vice-President by saying, "What experience does he have? What's he done? He doesn't even crap his pants!"