Jay Bookman

By TW

September 23, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this

Thanks JAY. Great post.

By Ray

September 23, 2008 12:07 PM | Link to this

Anybody hear how Palin’s ‘World Leadership by Osmosis’ session went today?

By getalife

September 23, 2008 12:11 PM | Link to this

Senator Bunning is stealing my words:

“Instead of celebrating the Fourth of July next year, Americans will be celebrating Bastille Day,” Bunning said. “The free market for all intents and purposes is dead in America.

“The action proposed today by the Treasury Department will take away the free market and institute socialism in America,” Bunning said. “The American taxpayer has been misled throughout this economic crisis. The government on all fronts has failed the American people miserably.”

It was the second time in less than a week that the junior senator from Kentucky blasted Federal Reserve and Treasury Department leadership. On Wednesday, Bunning criticized the Fed for an $85 billion bailout of insurance and finance giant American International Group; he introduced legislation that would strip the agency of its power to use taxpayer money in future bailouts.

“I have said on more than one occasion that I don’t think the Federal Reserve can handle the powers they have, and this irresponsible bailout just proves my point,” Bunning said earlier this week. “The only difference between what the Fed did and what Hugo Chávez is doing in Venezuela is Chávez doesn’t put taxpayer dollars at risk when he takes over companies — he just takes them.”

Scary, just vote no.

By Vonnie

September 23, 2008 12:17 PM | Link to this

I agree with the article and deregulation has hurt our country. I, for one, do not want this bailout. I want another way looked at. I remember when we went to war, we were fed a pack of lies to make it seem that time was of the essense when truth be told, there was no danger. These greedy people probably have another agenda that they want to protect, could it be their own accounts? If you want to use my money, then I think I should have some say since when you were entrusted to it before, you did nothing but screw us.

By Copyleft

September 23, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this

I’m not clear… is Bunning saying “the free market is dead” in a disapproving way?

Because this nonsense about worshiping a “free market” is just that… nonsense. And as we’ve seen in the past week (not to mention on countless other occasions), it’s DANGEROUS nonsense to boot.

Deregulation is always a bad idea; it always leads to corporate malfeasance, and it always requires an expensive taxpayer bailout at the end to recover from it.

REGULATE, people. Even the High Holy Priest of Faux Libertarianism, Neal Boortz, was talking this morning about how terrible it was that there was insufficient government oversight and regulatory control over the banks and lenders (blaming it all on the Democrats, of course).

Laissez-faire has failed. Freidman’s “Chicago-school” policies have failed. Time to get the economy back where it belongs, under public control and accountable to the public for its actions. Time to join the rest of the civilized Western democracies, putting corporations to work for people rather than vice-versa.

The “Free Market” is dead? About stinkin’ time.

By Goldie

September 23, 2008 12:27 PM | Link to this

What a mess — you’d think that after the savings and loan bailout in the 80’s, mainly due to John McBush’s failure to lead in the Senate, we could’ve stopped all this trash going down again this week.

McBush — Unfit To Lead America.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 23, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this

Jay, did you bother reading the article?:

In addition, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas is on a jihad against the Community Reinvestment Act, which is designed to make more loans available to low-income borrowers. He’s trying to strip those provisions out of the bill.

Thanks for showing us how much foresight Gramm had in seeing the real problems coming.

Cause this damn sure ain’t being caused by “business failures.”

By Swami Dave

September 23, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this

It appears that the seeds for this debacle were indeed bad lending practices that increased and underestimated risk(whether by corporate decision - as was the case of commercial loans or by government regulation - as was the case of the residential loans to low-income borrowers).

Would that standard underwriting procedures had been followed (reasonable equity position, market interest rates, and normal terms)?

So is this another case of the problems with “compromise governance”? Namely, two competing world views with different goals and plans so the “compromise” is to implement both! (i.e. cut taxes - increase spending, bad loans to commercial interests - bad loans to the poor, etc.) Facing no real mandate, both sides partially implement competing portions of their agenda for little positive effect (many times the worst of both options).

What do you think Jay?

-Swami Dave

By getalife

September 23, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this

“Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, has emerged as one of the most strident enemies of the bailout proposal, and he did not disappoint today. “It’s financial socialism, and it’s un-American,” he said in his opening statement.”

I hate it when I agree with the gop.

Just vote no.

By getalife

September 23, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this

Ray,

She asked the Pakistan guy, “How is Bhutto doing and wanted to talk to another woman leader?”

The German and Israel people said,” Geez.”

By Paul

September 23, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this

Molly Ivins said “jihad” in 1998?!!? 1998?!!?

By getalife

September 23, 2008 12:40 PM | Link to this

Paul,

Maybe she was a witch like dusty?

By getalife

September 23, 2008 12:44 PM | Link to this

I learned today from Cox of the SEC that there was deregulation.

It was voluntary and it failed.

Duh.

But lets give these idiots 700 billion.

Just vote no.

By Bosch

September 23, 2008 12:48 PM | Link to this

Paul,

You’re supposed to be watching Heroes. I’m out for a while.

Later.

By hillbilly ragger

September 23, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this

Paul, why is the use of the term “jihad” in 1998 surprising to you?

By BDAtlanta

September 23, 2008 12:53 PM | Link to this

Good post, Jay.

Why wouldn’t Clinton oppose the bill? Did he have his hands full with the Monica affair at the time?

Banking used to be boring because it was regulated and felt safe. Then they had to sexy it up by allowing the mergers.

I hope the current set of lawmakers get it right this week with no golden parachutes and lots of future oversight. But that won’t happen because those guys who ran this into the ground are the ones who have elected officials in their pockets.

If you aren’t in the top 5%-10% in wealth, you get the shaft every time. Look at Carly Fiorina. When she left HP the stock was worth half of what it was when she took over. She got fired and received $42 million in compensation. The people who received pink slips during her tenure probably received a month’s pay for every year they had worked.

Folks, the deck is stacked. As Warren Buffet said, “There is a class war in America…and my class is winning it.”

By TeaTime

September 23, 2008 12:55 PM | Link to this

Molly Ivans failed to communicate the folly well enough for the average person to understand. That’s the problem. Molly Ivans didn’t understand how to dumb reports down. Even today, ten years up the learning curve, most of the readers here did not understand a word of what Molly wrote.

What if nobody knows how to communicate how this credit crisis escalated? If we cant form an understandable narrative, then the bailout cant work.

The CNBC pundits all agree that the crucial detail in describing what went wrong involves deterioration of the trust and confidence of those participating in our economic system. Trust in the institutions brokering the money is crucial.

The implication here is that all participants ignored common sense, and that we’ve seen a society-wide erosion of the legal consequences of fraud. No, America, you didn’t all make 85 thousand last year, and no, investment banker, you cant trust a taxpayer to pay his taxes without there being people rotting in prison for not paying their taxes.

Worse, because everyone in the country knows how dishonest they themselves are, they assume that the other guy is dishonest too. That’s how the hand-shake evolved: to make sure the other guy didn’t have a weapon. Maybe we aren’t in unchartered, uncivilized territory. Maybe mankind has simply come full circle from the suspicious zeitgeist that necessitated the handshake.

Perhaps this is a symptom of the decline and fall of the american empire. Historians think Rome fell because Rome wasn’t Rome anymore. Persia was Persia, not Rome, and Persians simply erased “rome” from the map, and wrote “Persia”, and there was no consequence for doing so. The guys guarding the hen house simply quit and joined their uncle selling shoes and making real money.

Similarly, there is no consequence for liar-loaning a 750 thousand dollar mortgage, just to flip it. 99 percent of americans would have to liar loan that application.

They say when the sex goes, the marriage cant survive. We’ll, when the trust in the intercourse of your countrymen goes, then the country cant survive.

Think about whether you would loan money to a stockbroker right now, or even a banker. America, would you loan money to a Wachovia suit? I wouldn’t. I’d give him my two cents worth and tell him he hasn’t the “trust Collateral”, and that after a year or two of building trust collateral, then maybe he could have my spare change, but I’d also tell him that if he din’t pay it back, I’d have to “fiddy cent” his sorryAss.

By getalife

September 23, 2008 1:04 PM | Link to this

Why wouldn’t Clinton oppose the bill?

Good question.

Was it needed in a spending bill so Newt could not shut down Congress?

He made mistakes like NAFTA but nobody is perfect.

By Tony

September 23, 2008 1:04 PM | Link to this

who cares what the dead old woman said? she was a constant whiner while alive.

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this

RAY

FYI

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, on Tuesday banned reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew. CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought…

By Bosch

September 23, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this

Paul,

I was going to go out, but my ankle isn’t moving well, so blog on!

BDAtlanta,

“Banking used to be boring because it was regulated and felt safe. Then they had to sexy it up by allowing the mergers”

LOL!! Sexying up the banking system. BWA!

For those of you who aren’t completely outraged by this and think the rest of us are just “jealous” - ponder this:

What would happen to you if you had overcharged your checking account by say $20 billion?

And I’m glad someone brought up Carly Fiornia. How does that happen? And guess who she is advising?

By Shawny

September 23, 2008 1:07 PM | Link to this

Clinton didn’t veto. And his wife, Obama, and Dodd are in the middle of the fray.

Flash to 2005, “But the bill didn’t become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on the matter. “

and

“But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years. “

By N-GA

September 23, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this

Let me try to simplify what ultimately caused this mess.

The lack of oversight UNABLED this mess, but GREED caused it.

Executive management, empowered by laissez faire Boards, lined their pockets with bonuses earned by using attainment objectives that never measured risk, only short-term results (emphasis on short-term).

As long as executives were awarded HUGE annual bonuses based upon sales/earnings/stock performance for periods ranging from the last fiscal quarter to the most recent fiscal year, this financial tsunami was bound to occur.

Nowhere on Earth are CEO’s and other senior executives compensated as they are in the USA. Without government oversight of corporations, the consumer doesn’t matter, the environment doesn’t matter, and even shareholders only matter when lots of executive stock options are involved.

Every year there is a new executive scam…backdating options, realizing contract revenues in a year other than when they were earned, and now failure to exercise good fiduciary judgement. I mean, “interest-only” loans? That makes the assumption that real estate values only go up…and empirical eveidence shows that to be a stupid assumption.

Perhaps what we are learning is that the finest minds should go to Harvard, Wharton, Chicago School of Business, etc. not to learn how to run a company, but to learn how to to construct the latest scam.

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 1:11 PM | Link to this

VERRRRRY INTERESTING

Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.

So let’s get this straight….they suspected this would happen for months?

They had a plan in case it happened?

Maybe they should have tried some of that Bush pre-emptive stuff…..BEFORE it happened.

Excuse my French but WTF!

By VB

September 23, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this

I miss Molly Ivins.

I’m grateful that we had her at least for a time, to bravely point out the foibles & deceits of the Chimperor, using straight talk & humor.

By N-GA

September 23, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this

That would be “Enabled”

Good grief!

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 1:17 PM | Link to this

AND MORE OF MY OUTRAGE

They have been working on the plan for weeks and months…..

AND IT’S 3 PAGES LONG?

By Bosch

September 23, 2008 1:24 PM | Link to this

Mrs. G.,

Writing 3 pages with words on them, was probably a stretch for them. I wonder if it’s single spaced or double spaced. Single space would be a real accomplishment for Bush.

By JAY BOOKMAN

September 23, 2008 1:28 PM | Link to this

Management, the CRA has been in effect since 1977. That’s 31 years ago. As Matt Yglesias puts it:

“Are we supposed to believe that CRA was working smoothly throughout the Carter, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton years and then only under Bush II did overzealous anti-”redlining” enforcement come into play, perhaps a result of Dubya’s legendarily close relationship with ACORN? Or maybe overzealous enforcement back in the late 1970s is somehow responsible for a real estate blowout that only materialized 30 years later? It doesn’t even come close to making sense.”

Second, the CRA applies only to traditional banks, which in Atlanta and other metro areas orginate less than 25 percent of mortgages.

Third, while a few smaller traditional banks have failed, the far bigger problem has been with mortgage companies and investment banks, which have no CRA requirements. If CRA was a major problem, you would see CRA-regulated neighborhood traditional banks having the big problems, while mortgage companies and non-CRA banks would be exempt. The opposite is true.

Fourth, most CRA loans are well-documented, traditional type mortgage loans, not the no-doc, low-doc and adjustable-rate garbage which is where the problem lies.

Fifth, an analysis of CRA impacts released in January concluded that “To a much greater extent than other lenders, CRA Banks avoided making the types of home purchase mortgage loans that provoked the foreclosure crisis.”

That same study found that banks covered by CRA were more than twice as likely to keep loans on their own books rather than sell them to Wall Street. In Atlanta, CRA banks retained 51 percent of mortgages to low and moderate-income borrowers, while non-CRA lenders kept only 20 percent of those loans, shipping 80 percent off to Wall Street.

So those non-CRA lenders were the source of the problem.

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 1:28 PM | Link to this

Bosch,

You hit that nail on the head.

By sunshine and thunder

September 23, 2008 1:33 PM | Link to this

Wow:

We have prescience from that tower of finance, Molly Ivins.

I don’t suppose it ever occurred to Jay Bookman that deregulation had nothing to do with this crisis. The minute he can find some moonbat that agreed with him and supposedly “warned” of this crisis ten years ago he’s, of course, going to write a blurb about it.

Now the Democrats are blaming the financial crisis on “deregulation.” This is a canard. There has indeed been deregulation in our economy — in long-distance telephone rates, airline fares, securities brokerage and trucking, to name just a few — and this has produced much innovation and lower consumer prices. But the primary “deregulation” in the financial world in the last 30 years permitted banks to diversify their risks geographically and across different products, which is one of the things that has kept banks relatively stable in this storm.

By Dusty

September 23, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this

Well, I see Bookman’s aviator piece got shot down so he digs up a TEN YEAR OLD piece by deceased Molly Ivins to prove his point. The whole ten yards at that.

As AJC/DNC Management noted, Ivins wrote that Phil Gramm tried to strip the bill of loans to people who, in all probability, could not repay them. But he was not successful. Now…tra la..the “gift that kept giving” ‘til the bank broke was the NON PAYNMENT OF HOME LOANS. Like Andy said, maybe Bookman didn’t bother to read the article, just depending on the bulldog liberalism of Ivins.

Ah well, Congress lingers longer on finance as Sen. Dodd(D) said carefully last night:”We must take things slowly and care fully to get them correct the first time…” The Republican senator kept saying “We’re running out of time. We’re running out of time!”

Poor Bookman. Does anybody have something current he could latch on to..such as Biden’s flip flopping over the distateful ad produced by Obama’s staff? Some subject Bookman hasn’t rehashed several times??

(Watch out, folks! The Halloween kiddies, Getal, Midie & boschi will soon be here giggling over witches. Sorry about that!)

In the meantime, hang on to your piggy banks. You may need them .. while…. we … are… waiting…….

By hillbilly ragger

September 23, 2008 1:36 PM | Link to this

Jay, thanks for your comment @ 1.28.

It deserves to be a brand new post.

By Tarheel

September 23, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this

I miss Molly Ivins

By Bosch

September 23, 2008 1:39 PM | Link to this

Mrs. G.,

And, you know, the whole “reading” thing is a bit weird for Bush as well.

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 1:50 PM | Link to this

For those of you who think…..

The WSJ piece noted above by the weather girl was written by Charles Calomiris and Peter Wallison…..couldn’t find two bigger wingnuts…..AEI guys…..these guys support big tobacco…they rent space in their building to THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY…these creeps pushed for regime change in IRAQ and of course they are global warming deniers

Our weather girl has some creepy friends!

By Dusty

September 23, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

Dear Mrs. Godzilla,

So good to have you back. I was worried while you were gone.

I read in the AJC that a giant carpazilla had been caught!! For a moment I thought they had finally nabbed YOU. But no, it was a giant carp! What a relief!!

But..how was the wedding? Were you able to get into that beautiful dress from Good Will? I bet you were a big hit. Welcome back!!

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 1:53 PM | Link to this

Bosch

And apparently his acolytes as well.

By sunshine and thunder

September 23, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this

Mrs Godzilla wrote

For those of you who think…..

The WSJ piece noted above by the weather girl was written by Charles Calomiris and Peter Wallison…..couldn’t find two bigger wingnuts…..AEI guys…..these guys support big tobacco…they rent space in their building to THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY…these creeps pushed for regime change in IRAQ and of course they are global warming deniers

Hmmm. Mrs G thinks that these guys don’t have credentials because, among other things, they are shhh…, global warming deniers. OMG!

Aside from casting some amusement on this board what credentials do you or any of your moonbat crazies carry?

I guess we are to throw out documented evidence because one of the presenters once supported shhhh…, big tobacco.

Do you know how strange your post sounds? LOL.

Molly Ivins was an idiot. RIP.

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this

Dusty

You are always a delight.

Actually, been in Tempe for the game (great fun but the watering holes ran out of Jack Daniels!).

And have to head back west tomorrow….

Wedding is Nov 1, dress is a 8, I’m a six. ( The Coco Chanel theory of dress size)…if you think Lauren is from good will I would not want to trade closets!

Are you one of those overall, tube top and tatoo chicks?

Glad to be back.

By demwit

September 23, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

So.., this is now Bill Clintons fault?

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this

poor weather girl…..stuck in the 80’s.

By Swami Dave

September 23, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this

So Ms Godzilla……

For those who “think”, does knowing the author(s) (and their associations)automatically qualify or disqualify the content of one’s ideas?

One would assume that those who can indeed “think” could critically evaluate what was said or recognize the agenda of those who wrote it.

Oh well……back to grind of denying the global warming scam and renting office space to legal American business / political entities….:)

-Swami Dave

By AJC/DNC Management

September 23, 2008 2:12 PM | Link to this

By JAY BOOKMAN September 23, 2008 1:28 PM Management, the CRA has been in effect since 1977. That’s 31 years ago.

Actually, Klinton did not use the CRA to call lenders “racists” until 1994.

Nice explanation of how the government had nothing to do with this, now please explain how Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought up all of the bad debt that they did and further exacerbated what CRA had already started.

They made high risk, sub prime mortgages all the rage.

And if what you say is true, I cannot research it right now, then why all of the years of whining from the drive by media about low income blacks being the majority of subprime mortgages?

Something doesn’t quite add up.

By hillbilly ragger

September 23, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this

Golly, looks like putting a Bible-literalist End-Timer on the ticket’s working wonders for McCain in Florida these days.

And FL early voting starts next Friday. Good times!

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this

PNAC association….yep….it tarnishes one.

By Bosch

September 23, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this

hillbilly ragger,

He’s moving up in many of the battleground states. Yeap, like I said this weekend, the nation has woke up with Palin, seen her without her makeup, and realized last night was just a drunk thing.

By sunshine and thunder

September 23, 2008 2:27 PM | Link to this

At least those who think back up their posts with evidence.

Godziller screams and beats her fists on the keyboard.

Now that’s thinking left nut style.

By DebbieDoRight

September 23, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this

By Bosch: And I’m glad someone brought up Carly Fiornia. How does that happen? And guess who she is advising?

Please. Must we go there? Do we HAVE to go through the other guys garbage can to see who HIS advisors are? Does Phil Grahmm ring a bell?

By Shawnee: “But the bill didn’t become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on the matter.”

Shawnee. In 2005 the House, Senate and Commander in Chief were all REPUBLICAN dominated. BAsically that means that there were more Republicans than Democrats so the Republicans held the POWER. If the republicans wanted a bill passed, (as they did with the wire tap bill), they wrote it, agreed on it and passed it in the house and senate. then the president signed it. Much as you’d like to, you really can’t blame the dems. There’s a little thing called History that totally messes up your theory .

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 2:30 PM | Link to this

poor, poor, pitiful weather girl…..

By sunshine and thunder

September 23, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this

For all the left nuts who are declaring the end of capitalism - and enjoying the idea immensely - you can find all the evidence you need that lending is quite robust in our economy. This link may be hard to read for some of you government school graduates but give it a try.

By Swami Dave

September 23, 2008 2:37 PM | Link to this

Wow…..

When McCain actually wins this election, the show of bitterness, bile, and vitrol from the liberal kook wing is going to be historic. It will rival either of their recent losses (‘00 or ‘04).

I can only imagine the ballyhoo that would have resulted had an national Republican made a similar comparison to Senator Clinton referring to her as if she is the ugly regret after a one-night stand.

All of this from the wing of the Democratic Party who claim to support women and their opportunities.

-Swami Dave

By Dusty

September 23, 2008 2:37 PM | Link to this

Dear sunshine and thunder 2:27

Please be patient with Mrs. Godzie. When you are trying to squeeze into a size 6 dress when you are a size er….bigger, it makes one snippy.

Mz. Godzie is so happy that one of her ten children is getting married. So don’t rain on her sunshine. We surely do not wish for that size 6 to shrink!! What would Lauren think??? You got that didn’t you? ?Coco Chanel! Lauren! But no GoodWill. Awwww…

By Copyleft

September 23, 2008 2:43 PM | Link to this

Yes, we do support women’s opportunities… and Sarah Palin obviously opposes them.

Why shouldn’t we snicker at such a loser VP choice?

By sunshine and thunder

September 23, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Mrs. Godziller wrote:

poor, poor, pitiful weather girl…..

That’s it? That’s your debate? You were too easy.

NEXT

By getalife

September 23, 2008 2:47 PM | Link to this

sunshine once again spews forth his genius and talks down to others. Just another delusional wingnut.

Toil, toil, boil, boil, crusty sees no gop trouble.

Just for laughs and do not obfuscate to them liberals, do our friends on the right agree with Senator Bunning?

By Copyleft

September 23, 2008 2:50 PM | Link to this

S+T: Thanks for the reminder that we need a LOT more government oversight, regulation, and accountability over our banks and lenders.

Everything Reagan and the Republicans fought so hard against has now become the only sensible path… as, indeed, it always was.

By N-GA

September 23, 2008 2:52 PM | Link to this

Jay,

What do you think of Bush’s final speech to the UN General Assembly?

I’m not sure what I enjoyed more…hearing him say that the world needs the United Nations more than ever, or just knowing that this was the last time he would address them.

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 2:55 PM | Link to this

Dusty

The Chanel theory is that a size larger is a little roomier (wedding dinner and all)…and thereby more comfortable and attractive. I’m pretty sure that once you are up around size 18 it doesn’t make much difference. A tent is a tent.

Perhaps you won’t want to dress up a bit when your son takes a bride….in our family we think it’s the way it should be done.

Also, rain on the wedding day is a traditional sign of good luck.
Something all young couples could use, so thanks for the thought.

Dusty, always so gracious.

By hillbilly ragger

September 23, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this

Bosch @ 2.24, to be honest I’d almost written off FL, figured OH and possibly VA would be the real battleground. Iowa’s been a pleasant surprise, about as solid as can be.

But if McCain’s struggling to cling to FL, he’s probably seriously screwn.

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this

poor weathergirl….you don’t get it.

I don’t think your comments worthy of debate.

I have been easier….but I’m too old for that now!

By TeaTime

September 23, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this

Bookman quotes Molly Ivuns, and Moolie Evins is fine, but there are other great thinkers who looked at capitalism’s fundemental flaw other than Polly Egor.

Bookman should have quoted Marx. Who said, “Capitalistis vill legalize their own plunder of the masses, and outlaw the due process of fair distribution. “

Marx was so right on, man. Marx was a groove, baby. Listen to this: “Capitalism cant work without warring pirates.”

Wow, what a prophet about profit, eh?

Marx went on to say that “If Adam and Eve were gay, then none of this mess would have happened. The snake would have been repulsed by the sight of two partnerless homos trying to figure out what. “..ew, what’s that? Gross! Disgusting. Get away….”

But then Marx predicted everything that’s happened when he pointed out that Religion is the Electorate of the Masses.

wow, how did he know about the evangelical right?

Marx was Nostradomas, man.

By Dusty

September 23, 2008 3:03 PM | Link to this

Copyleft@2:43

Referring to Palin, you wrote: Why shouldn’t we snicker at such a loser VP choice?

PLease…you are making us laugh at YOUR ignorance. Palin rose from PTA president to mayor to Governor of Alaska with 90% approval from the citizens of Alaska. That done while she and her husband managed a fine family.

Sarah Palin is the living example for women. She, in person, SHOWS women how to use an “opportunity”. Fortunately, she is also blessed with the attributes of a leader.

If you want to “knock” Republicans,at least be honest.

By getalife

September 23, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

Speaking of the coward Palin:

“NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, on Tuesday banned reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew.

CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought.”

She lost the corporate media like McLiar.

By Bosch

September 23, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

hillbilly ragger,

He’s dropped about 3 points since last week. McCain is still just a little bit ahead, but give it another few days.

I think we need to send Jimmy Carter down there to to watch over things.

By sunshine and thunder

September 23, 2008 3:12 PM | Link to this

Mrs Godziller wrote:

I have been easier….but I’m too old for that now!

That’s funny. It has always been my experience that with age comes wisdom.

“If you’re not a liberal by the time you’re twenty you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re forty you have no brain”.

Winston Churchill

By "The Corporal"

September 23, 2008 3:13 PM | Link to this

HEY JAY

First last week: Asked whether he’s disappointed with the tone of the campaign, including the ad that Couric characterized as “making fun of John McCain’s inability to use a computer,” Biden said “I thought that was terrible by the way. “I didn’t know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we would have never done it”

And now today: Obama on Biden’s Initial Opposition to AIG Bailout: “Joe Should Have Waited”

What’s going on Jay? Trouble in paradise? Is Hillary suiting up?

By AmVet

September 23, 2008 3:14 PM | Link to this

N-GA, would that be the irrelevant United Nations that the Rouge Cowboy, “Go it Alone”, Chickenhawk Cabal absolutely loathed back in the days of “mushroom clouds as smoking guns”?

In retrospect, even the die-hard BushCo apologists should hang their ostrich heads in shame…

By Paul

September 23, 2008 3:15 PM | Link to this

N-GA 1:08

I rather liked ‘unabled’ - I paused for a while, visualizing the word in context. It’s a neat word - you should keep it. And as usual, you distilled to the salient points.

Nader seems to have a good take on this matter.

hillybilly ragger

I was surprised at Molly Ivins - jihad - 1998 ‘cause that’s when we were still sending FBI teams to the ‘crime scenes’ and ‘jihad’ was rather an amusing philosophy by a bunch of guys in the desert with no landing craft with which to invade America.

Your 2:13 – enough of the religious ridicule, okay? Next we’re going to hear from the “Biden and Catholics are cannibals (crowd) because they think every Sunday they eat flesh and drink blood..” not to mention the Obama’s a fundamentalist (crowd) that thinks eons after they die their scattered atoms are going to materialize and they’ll wander around someplace glad they’re not with the group God is torturing.

You see the point, I’m sure -

fearless fosdick - Midori

the “Biden drop out’ was a question to getalife, who posted earlier. Somehow, Midori, I don’t think getalife persuses wingnut (or is it moonbat? I can never keep these stereotype slurs straight) sites.

Bosch - RW-(the original)

It’s gonna be a heckuva Heroes season -

But darn, that room with all the stolen stuff - that little wall shelf with all the gold bars on it - like that little shelf will support all that weight? Give me a break!

Oops, sorry. Missed the big picture for the little discrepancies. Kinda like here…

By fearless fosdik

September 23, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this

Don’t know much about history Don’t know much biology Don’t know much about a science book Don’t know much about the French I took

— Sam Cooke, Wonderful World, 1959

Sounds more like John McCain/Sarah Palin!

By GMAN

September 23, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this

What a wonderful day to be alive…

http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/wato/

By Midori

September 23, 2008 3:17 PM | Link to this

Sarah Palin is the living example for women. She, in person, SHOWS women how to use an “opportunity”.

yeah, but only those who have been raped and can fork over the $1K for a rape kit.

By sunshine and thunder

September 23, 2008 3:19 PM | Link to this

getalife wrote

sunshine once again spews forth his genius and talks down to others. Just another delusional wingnut.

I’m glad you can so readily recognize that someone is indeed “talking down” to you even though your comments are so unremarkable that I don’t even remember talking to you at all.

Left nuts occupy a humble station in life and should be talked down to.

Much like the press that ony reports on the great deeds of others but can never claim great deeds of their own.

The pen is mightier than the sword until you get into a fight. LOL.

By SLang

September 23, 2008 3:20 PM | Link to this

Bookman quotes Molly Ivuns, and Moolie Evins is fine, but there are other great thinkers who looked at capitalism’s fundemental flaw other than Polly Egor.

Bookman should have quoted Marx. Who said, “Capitalistis vill legalize their own plunder of the masses, and outlaw the due process of fair distribution. “

Marx was so right on, man. Marx was a groove, baby. Listen to this: “Capitalism cant work without warring pirates.”

Wow, what a prophet about profit, eh?

Marx went on to say that “If Adam and Eve were gay, then none of this mess would have happened. The snake would have been repulsed by the sight of two partnerless homos trying to figure out what. “..ew, what’s that? Gross! Disgusting. Get away….”

But then Marx predicted everything that’s happened when he pointed out that Religion is the Electorate of the Masses.

wow, how did he know about the evangelical right?

Marx was Nostradomas, man.

By Dusty

September 23, 2008 3:20 PM | Link to this

Oh Mz Godzie,

You always make me laugh..”comments not worthy of debate”etc.etc.etc. Oh gee!! I’m sure Sunshine and thunder is trembling..

Anyway, been the whole nine yards with weddings …two of mine already wedded with beautiful ceremonies and me in my blue satin for the last one. Lauren would have loved me..all slim and trim…my daughter beaming in a family heirloom wedding dress. The church aglow with candles and flowers. My son’s wedding was fun with him nervous in “tails” and his bride a calm beauty. Ah yes, weddings are delightful. Hope you enjoy the day.

PS: I drove through Tempe on the way to catch a plane after my work in the Navajo Nation. A nice drive from Ganado but I made it in right on time. Arizona is one of my favorite states.

See ya later…

By Midori

September 23, 2008 3:22 PM | Link to this

Paul,

I’ll bet you’re pretty cute - even for a wingnut :)

By LH

September 23, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this

Journalists Given 40 Seconds With Palin

The most frightening aspect of this is that Palin was a reporter, albeit a pseudo reporter (talking head on a local TV news show). The woman studied journalism in college and has a degree in journalism. Nonetheless, throughout her campaign, she has dodged the press.

Why not embrace the opportunity to talk to the press, which is the vehicle by which to reach the voting public?

If Palin is afraid of the press, I am frightened of her. She needs to stop playing at being a candidate and actually be one.

By Anarchy4Monarchs

September 23, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this

Sunshine and Thunder easily won that exchange with the board double crosser, wipemysnatch. I hate it when a clown is either incompetent or he’s a double crosser, that is, he poses left but writes stupidly so that readers will think the left is stupid.

Like, if I wanted to make the right look bad, I’d say, “we have to fight them over there, so we dont have to fight them over here”, or I’d say, “911 changed everything”, and of course, no matter what I’d say, I’d preface it with “Duhhh”.

Get lost, Sniffmycrack. Get lost.

By Kim

September 23, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this

Dusty @ 3:03, I don’t read these comments often, so I don’t “know” you; I can only HOPE your remark is Colbert-esque (satire).

By Frederick Douglass

September 23, 2008 3:32 PM | Link to this

Molly Ivins, what a visionary. I wonder if Sarah Palin is capabable of anything approximating such forethought—-nah, what the h@## am I thinking?

By Mrs. Godzilla

September 23, 2008 3:33 PM | Link to this

Dusty….It was not my intention to make the weathergirl tremble. That’s not real productive.

I assume it’s safe to say you didn’t get that tiny blue satin dress at goodwill then?

Glad your family had a nice time.

By Tom

September 23, 2008 3:34 PM | Link to this

Palin meeting with heads of state. Pathetic. Disgusting. Outrageous. America deserves to go down the drain. But at least 50% of its citizens do not.

By Dusty

September 23, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this

Midori,3:17

You ought to know that anyone coming to a hospital ER cannot be turned away without treatment. If a woman was raped, do you think they would turn her away saying you can’t pay. Rediculous!

True, they would bill the woman for all expenses in hopes that she or her insurance would pay for medical service. If not, they probably draw it from “indigent funds”. HOSPITALS HAVE TO PAY FOR ANY SUPPLIES THEY USE. They hope that patients can repay them. Many cannot. That is why hospitals such as Grady are going broke. So many get so much FREE.

Rape kits are expensive. Don’t be stupid. Either the patient or the hospital is going to PAY FOR MEDICAL SUPPLIES USED.

This is just more lousy liberal twists to a business procedure for medical care.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 23, 2008 3:42 PM | Link to this

My goodness, listen to these moron liberals natter on about strong and smart while their dimwits wreak havoc across the land of intelligence:

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed,” Hair Plugs told Couric. “He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’”

As Reason’s Jesse Walker footnotes it: “And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, ‘Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?’”

Duh.

By Tom

September 23, 2008 3:44 PM | Link to this

Anarchy: Nice words. You’re a real class act. Whatever your politics, you’re a great example of today’s breed of a Proud Murcun. Praise Geeesussah!!

By ms scarlet

September 23, 2008 3:45 PM | Link to this

This weekend we had the most glorious wedding for my cavalier son, and his bride at the academy.

As the radiant couple emerged from the chapel .. his classmates crossed their swords overhead and the beaming couple ducked underneath, and rushed to the Bently parked in front.

Of course I was the Scarlet in this play, dressed in my size 5; 36-30-33 pink satin gown!

I blush to think of how many cadets asked me out to the O-club for drinks!

Sooooo there DUSTY!!!!

By Fashion Faux News

September 23, 2008 3:46 PM | Link to this

Dusty’s two weddings were obviously gay marriages. Nobody would believe that a mind like Dusty’s could raise two normal kids. No way. She doesn’t respect truth and that lie will out, my friends, and the turmoil inside those two poor children, abused by parental neglect of anything decent or compassionate must have twisted their souls and I’ll never believe a happy ending could come of it.

ISAIDNEVER!!

You’re rotten, you’re just no good, you’re rotten and no good, Dustoon, and you belong behind bars.

and besides, blue satin after labor day would deserve waterboarding at Gitmo, and that’s only if we let the chinese we learned it from do it.

disgrace

By AJC/DNC Management

September 23, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this

I think I’ll stick with what Investor’s Business Daily has to say:

The reason for this is simple: Fannie and Freddie became massive providers both of reliable votes among grateful low-income homeowners, and of massive giving to the Democratic Party by grateful investment bankers, both at the two government-sponsored enterprises and on Wall Street.

It all started, innocently enough, in 1994 with President Clinton’s rewrite of the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act.

Ostensibly intended to help deserving minority families afford homes — a noble idea — it instead led to a reckless surge in mortgage lending that has pushed our financial system to the brink of chaos.

By Midori

September 23, 2008 3:48 PM | Link to this

Don’t be stupid.

You really need to follow your own advice.

By AmVet

September 23, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this

Of course, Sarah Quayle Palin is imminently unqualified for the White House.

That is not even arguable.

And explains why she avoids, at all costs, speaking to the press, while she desperately tries to figure out on which continent one can find Darfur.

And after this horrific Bush administration, it is clear why Americans are rightfully concerned about another obvious light-weight trying to get in WAY over her head.

(BTW, as is the case with the junior Senator from Illinois, IMHO. And yes I realize that Obama and Palin are at least at the opposing ends of the intellect spectrum.)

But I sense/hope McCain has little use for her dogma or “quaint” ideas about banning books, etc.

And is hoping like h&ll his health holds out for at least four more years AND that he can keep her busy pretending to be a good mom, whist trying to keep her trailer trash kids from getting knocked up again, busted in meth deals, etc….

She LOOKS good and for many of the less cogent, style is more important than substance. So if she can just parrot what she has to, he’ll not worry.

So, I believe he avoided political suicide by NOT picking an obvious Bush-lite lunkhead like Flip-flopping Mitt, Fat Fred or one of the other neo-con chickenhawks.

He’s still in it, and unless “Who?” really shiites the bed badly, she really doesn’t help or hurt him THAT much with the independents who are going to decide this election…

By Jan

September 23, 2008 3:50 PM | Link to this

In addition, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas is on a jihad against the Community Reinvestment Act, which is designed to make more loans available to low-income borrowers.

This, Jay, is your problem. Banks pressured into making unqualified loans. Everyone “deserves” to own a home? What happened to the days when you HAD to save up a 10% deposit? Proving yourself worthy of a mortgage.

And what about those highly regulated govt entities Freddie and Fannie? How are they doing?

By AJC/DNC Management

September 23, 2008 3:50 PM | Link to this

It emerged that Clinton aide Raines, who took Fannie Mae’s helm as CEO in 1999, took in nearly $100 million by the time he left in 2005. Others, including former Clinton Justice Department official Gorelick, took $75 million from the Fannie-Freddie piggy bank.

Raines who advises Oblahma now and Gorelick notable liar.

By Bud Wiser

September 23, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this

Karl Marx is also reputed to have written that… “Capitalism will fail when finally the people see that they are being bought with their own money…”

I’m not sure if that applies to the current economic crisis, but handing over a blank checkbook to bail out greedy and unethical corporations sure doesn’t make sense to me.

I may just put a huge flat screen TV in all of the rooms, including the garage, all closets and bathrooms, stop paying all of my bills in protest, and demand that the government bail me out, then demand they give me 20 million or so to assure the public that I won’t do it again.

Wait a minute….I’m just an average joe taxpayer, so they’ll probably just seize all of my assets and throw me in jail instead. Wonder why that would apply to me but not the Finance industry, or Wall Street for that matter? Probably because I don’t grease the skids (bribes, under the table payoffs, campaign contributions, etc, etc) like the pros. Just ask Chris Dodd C-Conn; just ask Barack Obama D-Ill; both got hundreds of thousands of dollars from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, presumably to be silent.

The more serious accusation that could be made against Dodd and Obama would be that they knew exactly what they were doing, took the cash, and just keep quiet so the cash would keep coming as long as their inaction did. Hmmmmmm

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid

By Fashion Faux News

September 23, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this

What R U saying, Amwet? That it’s a shame Barbara Bush didn’t raise George to be a nicer girl?

I guess I agree.

Now I’m frightened.

By Fashion Faux News

September 23, 2008 4:03 PM | Link to this

People! We are bailing out FOREIGN banks 2. Saudi banks? Sunni rats?

No thanks. That explain why there’s such a rush. The truth is so horrible about who we’re giving all this money too.

Would IRONY alone dictate that it’s all going to the saudis who are already part of the “biggest transfer of wealth” in our history via oil?

The sunnis in saudi are the sucker-punchers.

REVOLUTION!!!!

By SayNo2McCain

September 23, 2008 4:03 PM | Link to this

Great Article Jay.

The sad thing is that most on this blog do not realize that their are multiple groups of people loosing their homes. It’s not just those with bad credit, single mothers and minorities……there are families that have two incomes, husband/wife and non-minorities loosing there homes, as well. There are young, old and middle age people in this mess - not only that, but there are lots of second homes in foreclosure as well.

The conservatives on this blog like to paint a one sided picture, but there are always two sides to a coin.

There is nothing wrong with lending money to people with (insufficient credit) but the problem was that there was HUGE amounts of FRAUD going on behind the scenes. I believe that almost everything should be REGULATED by someone.

I don’t understand what people have against regulation, unless you are the group about to com