Thinking Right

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 8:08 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. I have strong ambivalent thoughts on The Horndog. There is no denying his significant political expertise, and I think “genius” is probably not a misplaced noun. If only he did not suffer that typical leftist hubris, “Quod libet Jovi non libet bovi,” in the worst sense of the saying. Well maybe not the worst - I do not suggest he ever had relations with a cow. No Hillary jokes. Although backing into that way, it does sound like a malicious commentary on the 2008 campaign, doesn’t it?

Jim, I think your “small banks” note correctly analyzes the cause of the failure of The Plan. More on the failure of The Plan below, as our host’s notes were drafted last night before The Plan failed.

No apology necessary here. I have always liked standardized tests.

Jim’s note on “studies” is equally applicable to “polls.” Our leftist friends two days ago were so effusive about Obama’s 9 point lead, which reversed yesterday to a McCain 2 point lead. Folks, the election is a dead heat now, and always has been. But Zogby hit it right yesterday – if Obama does not close the sale and soon, it will be a McCain blow-out. While true disaster favors radical change, mere instability favors the comfortable old shoe.

Actually I think that is a good reason to fly with famous people. I wish to go quietly, anonymously. When I was young I wanted everyone to know my name, to remember my works. Now that I have a brain, I appreciate the virtues of privacy, the value of making my friends look good, of clinging to my family.

The EPA has served a useful purpose and it is now time to sunset the agency, thank them for a job well done, and wish each employee well in his future endeavors off the government teat.

Obviously the Mental Health Practitioners Association has paid off enough powerful democrats to get its hooks into the workers’s funds. Or maybe the lunacrats are taking it in trade.

Although I live closer to Athens that I do to Hartsfield, I have visited the former only once. Don’t build the rail for my sake, and don’t expect revenues from me.

Yesterday, on the blog, a few of us were contemplating the possibility that Sarah might pop in tonight in lieu of John. Barry’s campaign would never recover.

I thought about making a joke about party endorsements of their incumbents. But I wish we had run someone against our RINO senator.

This has been a good week for jbmlaw Prognostication Services, Inc. Last Friday @ 9:20 we cautioned our genial host: “Let’s not make dumb investments there, Jim – there are still some sucker plays in financials. I wouldn’t bet the house on either Citibank or WAMU.” Score #1.

Then @ 8:40 yesterday we told the world:

• …As I suggested to fellow blogster getalife a couple of days ago, the Paulson Plan (“the Plan,” to remove personalities hereafter) seemingly has made unusual bedfellows. The conservatives, especially the House conservatives, seem to be nearly unanimous in their opposition to the Plan. The democrats are seemingly willing to support the Plan – in the spirit of bipartisanship, I will not disparage their motives for doing so.

• … Lest there be any doubt on the matter, if John McCain says he opposes whatever resolution is negotiated, the resolution will fail. The democrats will run for the hills – they lack any principles to stand on, and will cower without cover from McCain - and it will be every man for himself.

• To a great extent, Obama is getting a free pass here. Nobody really cares what he thinks, and he is not a player in the resolution. Thus he can stay cloistered, practicing saying whatever he does not know on foreign policy, so he can look slick Friday night. His usual vote, “present.”

• Yes, I do think McCain is grandstanding on the issue, but he is the decision-maker here – he has a right to grandstand. This is his baby, whatever happens.

It now occurs to me that my two forecasts are related. The only reason for The Plan is that Citibank, too big to fail, has failed. It is the only single failure that could cause the ripples that everyone is talking about. (Well that’s not true – Bank of America would too, but it is not in bad shape.) Jbmlaw forecast, on failure of The Plan – a conservatorship, a la IndyMac Bank, but obviously much larger. Wonder if the government would want to retain a financial genius/attorney for an obscene rate to make the thousands of ad hoc decisions necessary? There is so much we do not know, however – what is the possibility that Citibank is integrally involved in our espionage services around the world?

By Just Nasty and Mean

September 26, 2008 8:13 AM | Link to this

G’Mornin Jim, et al,

Is it true if Obla-bla-ma is elected he will select his buddies:

—Pentagon and Capital Hill bomber and admitted terrorists Bill Ayers as Sec. of Homeland Defense

—$90m ex-Fannie Mae CEO and Obla-bla-ma financial advisor and party hack Jim Johnson as Sec. of Commerce

—Radical Jeremiah Wright as National Chaplin

—Convicted slumlord and Obla-bla-ma business associate Tony Rezco, Sec. of Housing and Urban Development

—World-renowned racist and anti-Semite Louis Farrahkan as Sec. of State, by the 1m man march participant, Obla-bla-ma.

—, ex Fannie Mae multimillionaire CEO and accounting scammer and Obla-bla-ma advisor Franklin Raines as Sec. of Treasury

Where could you find a more experienced team so familiar with Obla-bla-ma’s history, values and character?

Has anyone (mainstream media—for instance) bothered to ask why such a ”colorful” cast of characters and associates tends to congregate around Obla-bla-ma? Is it because he is such a “clean liver—from Chicago machine politics?** Somehow, I doubt it.

There is little to no doubt the Clintons would be more than happy to see Obla-bla-ma lose. Remember, Obla-bla-ma tried to stigmatize Bill Clinton as racists, just as he is doing now with McCain. Every time McCain criticizes Obla-bla-ma, like his close associations with ex-CEO multimillionaires for Fannie and Freddie, it’s RACISM! If Obla-bla-ma is elected, expect 4 more years of the same.

For some insane reason, the politicians always feel the taxpayers should take on the ENTIRE burden of all problems. Why not have the Feds take on only HALF, or some other proportion and let the bankers carry some of their own mistakes?

Many teachers are more preoccupied with union activities, minimizing their work effort, and when they can retire than teaching our kids. Unionization of government employees—at all levels—-should be banned. That way we could fire the do-nothings that can’t teach.

Regards the jet crash: My question is: Who is successful enough to afford a private jet for some DJ job in California? DJs must get paid A LOT MORE than I ever suspected!

My question regarding the local gas situation is: Who decides which station gets gas? Is it a bidding war—or who is well connected? Lest we forget, Georgia is now paying more for gas than anyone in the nation partly because of the way the state of Ga. taxes on the dollar vs: the gallon. The more you buy, the higher the taxes. The DOT got a $100m windfall with this rise in gas prices. Thanks, Sonny and the legislature! Nice job, you sneaky, thieving sons of bltches.

MOST Georgians don’t go to Athens from Atlanta…Nor to Lovejoy (for crying out loud)! If we are hell-bent to build a rail system, why not build one where A LOT of Georgian’s will use it? Huh?

I cannot imagine a far-left liberal winning the Senate race against Saxby Chambliss. After all, why would Democrats want to take a chance on a new face? Chambliss is a bigger spender/taxer than most democrats. And if you like agricultural price support, acreage controls (disguised as soil conservation), farm subsidies and Ethanol—all showing up as MUCH higher prices at the grocery store—-YOU should LOVE USELESS (er.. Chambliss).

Have a good weekend, everybody!

By Cherokee

September 26, 2008 8:29 AM | Link to this

Brevity genetlemen. Always strive for brevity.

Interesting comments about Sarah’s popularity, Jim, given the fact that she’s the least popular of the four of them. Charming? Yeah. Ready to be President? Not at all.

By Redneck Convert

September 26, 2008 8:33 AM | Link to this

Well, looks like Wooten done scribbled another day’s worth of political stuff. Everybody’s out to convince the average dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers voter to vote one way or the other.

Anyhow, Sister Dusty done voted early. She said so yesterday. So give it a rest, Wooten. Write about something besides the election.

By GMAN

September 26, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this

John McCain afraid to debate Barack Obama?

You bet! The “New Millennium” coward knows that he will have to explain how he differs from George Bush, and that my friend will be his further unraveling. If his differences aren’t significant (which they aren’t) the American people will see that he represents four more years of the same mismanagement of the public trust. His choice for VP has been exposed as window dressing and nothing more. Mr. Magoo is in a quandry. If he doesn’t show for tonights debate, he’s exposed. If he does show for tonight’s debate, he’s exposed. This evening is going to be GOOD!

Bush/McCain - Gambling with your children’s futures!

By GayGrayGeek

September 26, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this

Cherokee @ 8:29 - “Brevity” and “The Esquire” go together about as well as “Sons Of The Confederacy” and “Obama”. Or “NARAL” and “Palin”.

By Commander Guy

September 26, 2008 8:52 AM | Link to this

Yes, Wooten, McCain is a chickenSh!t for trying to dodge this debate. He pulls this silly “campaing suspension” stunt, and all you can do is rub your thighs and swoon over his maverickiness, ignoring all the while the elephant in the room…this is a guy who has no intellectual depth, a hair trigger temper, and a record of opportunistic lying that would make have embarrassed even Richard Nixon. Oh, and his poll numbers are sinking faster than your IRA.

McCain knows to the core of his soiled undies that in an open debate with Obama, he will suffer a fate worse than the broken bones of the Hanoi Hilton. He will be revealed as an empty shell of naked ambition, a petty tempered lying sack of total dishonesty that has characterized his entire public service. The guy showed some real courage 40 years ago. Bravo. Ever since, he has been a cheapjack grifter and bagman for hire. Pitiful.

Maybe he will hide behind Palin’s skirts and send her out tonight. It just might work…the woman is so hopelessly out of her depth that the entire Obama campaign and most of the press corp will die of laughter. Or horror. It just might be his best hope.

Coward. Chickensh!t McCain.

By JLK

September 26, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this

Don’t hide from the people and ask for our vote. Don’t scurry around behind the scenes telling us you’re “too busy” to put your face in prime time and talk to us about what the corporate media has spent a solid week whipping everyone into panic mode about, and then ask us to TRUST you.

We’ve had more than enough of “Daddy is handling a crisis, so shut up, sit down, and don’t ask questions, or you’ll get spanked” in the last eight years. OVER it! If you can’t speak honestly and coherently about the issues any time, any place, then don’t ask for my vote!

By Commander Guy

September 26, 2008 8:58 AM | Link to this

McCain To Accept Early Release, Throws Palin to the Wolves

API/UPS, Sept 26 - Confronted with the prospect of suffering a landslide beatdown and unrelenting bi+chslapping at the hands of Barack Obama in the general election campaign, Sen John McCain (R-Scaredsn!t!stan) accepted an offer today from his campaign captors to be released from any further campaign events, effectively throwing the election to “the enemy”.

Reminded that the Code of Honor demands that VP candidates be released before the head of the ticket, McCain snapped, “F~+K that noise. Get me the he|| out of here. I’ve taken all I can bear. For the love of Jesus, I’m an old man.” Then he broke down weeping and wimpered, “Do what you want to the girl, just leave me alone.”

Close aides, who could not bring themselves to look the broken down ex-maverick in the eyes, told of the moment when McCain realized during debate preparations that he would surely suffer more severely at the hands of the more prepared and competent Obama than he did during his famed stay at the Hanoi Hilton, which hindsight has shown was the one truly admirable act in his long, dismal lifetime of lying, cheating, and pretending to be something he is not.

“He realized that debating Obama was going force him to destroy every last shred of dignity and self-delusion he had left, just trying to keep up. He said more than once, ‘Jesus, the gooks did their own work. They didn’t make me break my own bones. What is this Obama anyway? Some kind of booogety boogety witch doctor from the Congo’.” Then the former Navy pilot wet himself in terror.

Reaction from conservative pundits was nearly unanimous in their recognition that this was a doomed candidacy from day one, and that it was best for the nation that McCain be put out of his misery in private, rather than belabor his defenestration before a rapt television audience. Alone in dissent, Atlanta-based columnist Jim Wooten declared this development a “bold stroke” and expressed “confidence that this would mark the turning point in McCain’s comeback and eventual victory”.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this

Dear GGG @ 8:51, or like “rational” and “GGG.”

By bearcasey

September 26, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

It’s time to remove Vietnam era politicians from power. And send fiinancial CEO’s to Gitmo.

By GayGrayGeek

September 26, 2008 9:09 AM | Link to this

Esquire @ 8:59 - Ad hominem as the first return volley. I must have struck a little too close to home, I take it.

And here I thought I was throwing you a slow-pitch softball with the NARAL and Palin stuff.

By Ga Values

September 26, 2008 9:09 AM | Link to this

Ex-board member attacks Jekyll plan Athens Banner-Herald | Story updated at 10:31 pm on 9/25/2008

BRUNSWICK - A Republican who the governor removed from the Jekyll Island Authority Board lambasted plans to redevelop the Georgia island, saying the proposed deal would be a giveaway to a politically connected developer.

Ed Boshears, a St. Simons Island attorney and former state senator, was removed from the board that governs Jekyll Island this week by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Boshears had been the board’s most vocal critic of its plan to partner with a private developer for a $352 million makeover of the state-owned island.

In a scathing statement Wednesday after he was removed from the board, Boshears called for an independent investigation of the deal with developer Linger Longer of Greensboro and for the state to delay signing any contracts.

Boshears said the board chose Linger Longer, owned by the family of Republican fundraiser Mercer Reynolds, in hopes of future political payoffs for the GOP.

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

September 26, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this

Georgia’s senior senator is still dogged for his support of a controversial immigration bill that would have opened the door to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens. And who doesn’t remember him posing for photos with liberal icon Ted Kennedy to show his support for the bill? Of course, he later backed away from the measure, but the damage was done. His credibility never would be the same among the anti-immigration crowd.

Then there’s Chambliss’ son, who has been a lobbyist for the commodities trading industry at a time when Dad happened to be chairman or ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee - the committee with jurisdiction over commodities trading.

Chambliss is one of the few statewide elected officials in America who still is willingly joined at the hip to President Bush. Even in Georgia, Bush now has hit bottom in his approval rating.

Despite his unfailingly loyal service to the Bush administration, Chambliss has little bacon to show for his efforts. Georgia lost multiple military installations during the last round of base closings, which occurred on his watch. We appear likely to fail in efforts to land several major federal projects, including the national biodefense facility the University of Georgia has pursued doggedly.

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

September 26, 2008 9:16 AM | Link to this

Where Saxby Chambliss gets his money::

Agri Business—-$1,368,000 Banks, Insurance, Real Estate—-$1,332,000 Lawyers & Individual Lobbyist——$641,000 Misc Business —-$679,000 Other ——$606,000..

The Agi Business got a gift of $20 billion waste from Saxby’s Farm Bill. The Banks, Real Estate & Lawyers just got a $2 TRILLION gift from the Bail Out the Banks act which Saxby & Johnny support. Not a bad return on your money… McCain COUNTRY FIRST,,Saxby LOBBYIST FIRST TO HELL WITH GEORGIA.

By CJ

September 26, 2008 9:17 AM | Link to this

John McBush can’t seem to handle more than one topic at a time. Why doesn’t he have confidence in the 48 other Senators to take care of this economy issue on-site in DC rather than thinking he’s the Savior to the situation. Looks like progress stopped as soon as he arrived!

I’m sorry, but I expect a President to be able to hop on his jet and manage multiple tasks in a day. Why can’t he? Oh wait - because he doesn’t have the answers voters need to hear during the debate! That’s an inconvenient truth!

By findog

September 26, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this

Jim, Why is Metro-Atlanta encircled with a boutique gas zone? Was it an unfunded mandate of the federal government?

No Jim it was the state that decided that instead of expanding the emission test standard beyond the immediate vicinity of I-285 that they would play chemist. What we need relief from is Governor Sonny [no pain] Perdue and his giant band-aid projects.

When I moved to Hall County from Marietta in the late 90’s it was because: 1 – they were a smart growth community, 2 – they were north of the natural smog barrier that runs from Cumming – Buford – Lawrenceville, 3 – the proposed northern arc would allow make my commute bearable. When I showed up at the tag office my first year I handed them my tag receipt, drivers license, and emission test results; the nice lady informed me we don’t need that up here.

Instead of doing something about air quality like expanding emission testing throughout north Georgia, or improving commutes through infrastructure improvements we choose the least effective approach – boutique gasoline!

By Stan

September 26, 2008 9:20 AM | Link to this

Ragnar, Love the current name. I gather from your postings here that you are a lawyer? That would make sense Lawyer/Pirate go well together. That reminds me…I really need to reat that again. That book always motivates me.

I’ll just allot my time to you as you say what I wish I had the words to say.

By Shawny

September 26, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this

If this doesn’t chap your arse, then you are unAmerican.

Uber-left NYT op-ed guy, and economist Paul Krugman agrees that there needs to be a bank bailout to avoid disaster. That the cost is less to do it than not to do it. I am no expert, but I do know it is a complicated matter and very delicate.

So, it will cost taxpayers and future taxpayers, and that should make you angry, which ever side of the fence you are on regarding the bailout.

Here is the part that makes me even more angry. Top earmark getter in the house, in the current spending bill and in previous ones, is John Murtha. He is at it again, pulling down big bucks for ridiculous crap. A quote in the NYT today has him saying that the earmarks are just a tiny fraction of “what the administration wants to bail out those rich guys in New York”.

Now lets analyze that a minute. So, if a huge expense is needed (perhaps), then that makes it ok to pile on and spend even more, right Murtha? What gives him the right to spend our money like that?!? And of course, as a dem he has to get in a Bush shot in the statement. It is the ‘administration’ that wants the bailout. Are there no democrats in favor of it? Doesn’t it have to pass a democratic house and senate first?

Murtha for president (of Siberia).

By Ray

September 26, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this

Say what you will about Slick Willy but he is a master at what he does. “Primary Colors” is the best movie on politics ever filmed and should be a primer on how the system is run today. Saying something nice about someone probably gets you more respect from those who oppose you than all of the negativity that those around you can muster. We are in a very indecent mode when it comes to those we oppose in todays politics and this polarization keeps us from getting things done, takes away decency from our decisions and does not serve the electorate. It does, however, get politicians re-elected.

By findog

September 26, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this

Commander @8:52 Silly stunt is the mainstay of our modern political discourse. Following in the established pattern of debate I now DEMAND you issue an apology to Senator McCain, all of the suspended mavericks, and the bladder control challenged of our great nation. SHAME

JLK @8:55 It has been only seven years, eight months, and six days; and it has taken most of that time to repair the damage inflicted by BILL CLINTON!

bearcasey @9:08 On behalf of veterans I wish you would stipulate the era’s politicians that had priorities other than our struggle with dominos during the Vietnam police action.

CJ @9:17 I thought it might have been a math error but given the senility of the upper house your forty-eight might be accurate.

By Commander Guy

September 26, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this

Abulance chaser jbm loves to show off his smarts with cribbed latin quotations and references to characters from so-called “literature” (though most sane people mature out of their Randian infatuation about the same time they realize that there are not really any Hobbits).

But if any character fits this week’s madness, it would be Ragnar, a man skilled in both accountancy and theft…much like Kommissar Paulson, who like jbm’s nom de puante has embraced the ethos of take from the poor and give to the rich.

But to bring jbm’s love for latin together with his admiration for poorly written uber-mensch porn: he derides Clinton for his Quod libet Jovi non libet bovi (though some would argue that ‘licet’ is more appropriate), yet he constantly cheers the modern GOP who have made that their mission statement. Lying, torture, cheating, stealing, pederasty, adultery, shooting people in the face…it’s okay if you’re a Republican.

And thus is the ambulance chaser revealed as a garden variety hypocrite with an ‘ox’ to grind.

By John McC

September 26, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this

I have just three words for you: Drill baby, drill! Stop stalling!

By r

September 26, 2008 9:53 AM | Link to this

Good morning,Fine bunch of stuf to pore over this morning.Love Fridays.

Clinton is THE politician.As a side note of interest,he said that McCain is sincere in his motive for postponing the Obama debate.Good for Bill.

Faulty test? Faulty teachers?Faulty students?So far the test has been exonerated.

Commuter rail?No.Another thing for taxpayers to subsidize.

No gas shortage where I live.

Someone has to endorse Saxby.Why not the Republicans?

Finddog—I didn’t ignore you yesterday,I had to go do retirement things.Reagan’s slam was interparty and he had to back down.We’ll see if McCain backs down tonight or stays the course.

I understand that Paulson was practicing proposing to Pelosi yesterday.Oh! Exalted one!I kneel before you and beg for your acceptance.Is this guy for real?

I read that Mrs. Palin did not do well with Couric.

By Maniac is accurate

September 26, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this

Well, if they hire that financial genius/attorney, I’d fetch the coffee and keep the pencils sharpened. Also, for an obscene fee of course. I can take out the trash, too.

By Mid-South Philosopher

September 26, 2008 9:59 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim and others.

Am I correct that the entire American economy is dominated by the Corporatists?

Where are the patriotic financial giants? Where are the true honest capitalists?

It is quite obvious that this Republican President and this Democratic Congress know as much about dealing with this crisis as Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows about ceremonial circumcision!

The real captains of finance (if there are any of them left) need to step-up and save this economy. It will require sacrifice. But it is clear that the politicians are defunct.

By Left Nuts

September 26, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this

*George Bush has been in office for 7 years and 8 months. The first six years the economy was fine, and moving at a stable predictable rate.

A little over one year ago: • Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high; • The Dollar was strong; • Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon; • The unemployment rate was 4.5%; • Most businesses were thriving in our country; • The DOW JONES hit a record high of 14,000+, and American’s were buying new cars, taking cruises, buying second homes and vacations houses, we were living large!…; • The USA was still respected and recognized for our global commitment!; • The Dollar was strong, and the world wanted to invest in the good old USA ; • Many did not agree with our tactics, but the world saw a unified America , never seen since world war II.

But American’s wanted ‘CHANGE’! So; in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress & yep; we got ‘CHANGE’ all right.

In the PAST YEAR and some months: • Consumer confidence has plummeted; • Gasoline got to over $5 a gallon, and we have not seen the end yet!; • Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase)and rising; • Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION & prices are still dropping; • 1% of American homes are in foreclosure, more to come; • As I write, THE DOW is probing another low at 11,508; • $2..5 TRILLION DOLLARS have evaporated from our investment portfolios; • The Dollar is at our history’s weakest margins; • The current US Congress (Led by Nancy Pelosi & Joe Biden) made it a partisan agenda to stall, block, and fight any project of law that could help the incumbent party in any way! • Congress has since received the LOWEST public approval record in history! Lower than that of their one and only nemesis which they have set out to destroy with rhetoric and lack of support; Our President.

YEP, IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED FOR CHANGE!…AND WE SURE GOT IT!!!….Only in America can our own government institution (Laden by the self serving scum of our society) bring us down to our knees as our Congress has in 18 months!

NOW OBAMA, SAYS HE’S REALLY GOING TO GIVE US CHANGE!!…. • Increase Income Taxes; • Increase Capital Gains Taxes; • Reinstate the Inheritance Taxes to higher levels; • Withdraw our forces from Iraq (Possibly reversing our hard won victory); • Nationalize Healthcare (Now I know I’ve heard this before? Yep, good old’ Michael Moore!) neither have a clue, it just sounds good!; • Reduce Military spending (Clinton set us back 10 years; this clown will have us asking the UN to protect our interests by the time he gets through!); • Wants to ‘Dialogue’ and ‘Understand’ our worst enemies, and does not want to seem insensitive by wearing our flag; • Obama fails to see the need to protect infant life; even after live birth! • He is going to achieve all this by crossing ‘Party Lines’!!! An inexperienced Democrat President, with a failed Democratic Congress in power at the same time? Why would he need to cross any lines? Obama must think that we are all really stupid! • Obama denies his Muslim origins by calling himself a Christian, yet writes in his own book; The Audacity of Hope: ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’

JUST HOW MUCH MORE ‘CHANGE’ DO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND???….. Are we blind or just as dumb as he thinks we are? Mostly Stupid!!

*

By ron

September 26, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this

Commander Guy,

Your nursery school teacher called and wants her scissors, paste and newspaper returned.

By Commander Guy

September 26, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this

Nuts

Judging by the coherence and logic of your post, I vote for your final sentence.

Thanks, though, for giving us insight into the lower order of intelligence it takes to be a Republican. jbm wraps his up in a nice wrapper, but yours is naked in its stupidity.

Please don’t forget to breathe.

By CommunistAJC

September 26, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this

This mess is ALL DEMOCRATS FAULT.

The New York Times: Please read the DATE!

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES Published: September 30, 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

”Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990’s by reducing down payment requirements,” said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and chief executive officer. ”Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.”

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

Under Fannie Mae’s pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 — a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990’s. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

You can not make this stuff up folks! The blame goes to……..Bill Clinton and the Democrat party. Hello Landslide!

By getalife

September 26, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

Today’s market losses are due to McCain and his stunt.

By Ga Values

September 26, 2008 10:18 AM | Link to this

CONSERVATIVE editorial of the day

By DAVID BROOKS Published: September 25, 2008 I’ve been covering John McCain steadily for a decade. A few years ago, I worked on a book, which I foolishly never completed, on the U.S. Senate with McCain as the central character. So when I step back and think of McCain, even in the heat of this campaign, I still think of him first in the real world of governing, not in the show-business world of the election. I think first of the personal qualities. He was an unfailingly candid man. When other politicians described a meeting, they always ended up the heroes of the story. But McCain would always describe the meeting straight, emphasizing his own failings with more vigor than his accomplishments.

He is, for a politician, a humble man. The most important legacy of his prisoner-of-war days is that he witnessed others behaving more heroically than he did. This experience has given him a basic honesty when appraising himself.

His mood darkened as the Iraq war deteriorated, but his accomplishments mounted. I don’t think any senator had as impressive a few years as McCain did during this span of time.

He lobbied relentlessly for a change of strategy in Iraq, holding off the tide that would have had us accept defeat and leave Iraq to its genocide. He negotiated a complicated immigration bill with Ted Kennedy. He helped organize the Gang of 14 and helped save the Senate from polarized Armageddon over judicial nominations.

He voted against opportunist bills like the pork-laden energy package and the prescription drug plan. He led a crusade against Jack Abramoff and the sleaze-meisters in his own party and exposed corrupt Pentagon contracts.

I could fill this column with his accomplishments during this period, and not even mention the insights. At a defense conference in Munich, I saw him diagnose and confront Russian hegemony. Week after week, I saw him dissent from G.O.P. colleagues as their party lost its way.

Some people who cover the campaign seem to have no knowledge of anything but the campaign, but I can’t get these events — which were real and required the constant application of judgment, honor and courage — out of my head.

Do I wish he was running a different campaign? Yes.

It’s not that he has changed his political personality that bothers me. I’ve come to accept that in this media-circus environment, you simply cannot run for president as a candid, normal person.

Nor is it, primarily, the dishonest ads he is running. My friends in the Obama cheering section get huffy about them, while filtering from their consciousness all the dishonest ads Obama has run — the demagogic DHL ad, the insulting computer ad, the cynical Rush Limbaugh ad, the misleading Social Security ad and so on. If one candidate has sunk lower than the other at this point, I’ve lost track.

No, what disappoints me about the McCain campaign is it has no central argument. I had hoped that he would create a grand narrative explaining how the United States is fundamentally unprepared for the 21st century and how McCain’s worldview is different.

McCain has not made that sort of all-encompassing argument, so his proposals don’t add up to more than the sum of their parts. Without a groundbreaking argument about why he is different, he’s had to rely on tactical gimmicks to stay afloat. He has no frame to organize his response when financial and other crises pop up.

He has no overarching argument in part because of his Senate training and the tendency to take issues on one at a time — in part, because of the foolish decision to run a traditional right-left campaign against Obama and, in part, because McCain has never really resolved the contradiction between the Barry Goldwater and Teddy Roosevelt sides of his worldview. One day he’s a small-government Western conservative; the next he’s a Bull Moose progressive. The two don’t add up — as we’ve seen in his uneven reaction to the financial crisis.

Nonetheless, when people try to tell me that the McCain on the campaign trail is the real McCain and the one who came before was fake, I just say, baloney. I saw him. A half-century of evidence is there.

If McCain is elected, he will retain his instinct for the hard challenge. With that Greatest Generation style of his, he will run the least partisan administration in recent times. He is not a sophisticated conceptual thinker, but he is a good judge of character. He is not an organized administrator, but he has become a practiced legislative craftsman. He is, above all — and this is completely impossible to convey in the midst of a campaign — a serious man prone to serious things.

Amid the stupidity of this season, it seemed worth stepping back to recall the fundamentals — about McCain today and Obama on some other day in the near future.

By Left Nuts

September 26, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal…

In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac…

This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform…

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole…

Sure does sound like Sen. McCain knew what he was talking about in 2006 Too bad the New Congress of Change was clueless!

By Churchill

September 26, 2008 10:23 AM | Link to this

Jim you left Palin out

DOROTHY SAMUELS Published: September 25, 2008 Even in tough budget times, there are lines that cannot be crossed. So I was startled by this tidbit reported recently by The Associated Press: When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the small town began billing sexual-assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams.

Go to The Board » Ms. Palin owes voters an explanation. What was the thinking behind cutting the measly few thousand dollars needed to cover the yearly cost of swabs, specimen containers and medical tests? Whose dumb idea was it to make assault victims and their insurance companies pay instead? Unfortunately, her campaign is shielding the candidate from the press, so Americans may still be waiting for answers on Election Day.

The rape-kit controversy is a troubling matter. The insult to rape victims is obvious. So is the sexism inherent in singling them out to foot the bill for investigating their own case. And the main result of billing rape victims is to protect their attackers by discouraging women from reporting sexual assaults.

That’s why when Senator Joseph Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, drafted the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, he included provisions to make states ineligible for federal grant money if they charged rape victims for exams and the kits containing the medical supplies needed to conduct them. (Senator John McCain, Ms. Palin’s running mate, voted against Mr. Biden’s initiative, and his name has not been among the long list of co-sponsors each time the act has been renewed.)

That’s also why, when news of Wasilla’s practice of billing rape victims got around, Alaska’s State Legislature approved a bill in 2000 to stop it.

“We would never bill the victim of a burglary for fingerprinting and photographing the crime scene, or for the cost of gathering other evidence,” said Alaska’s then-governor, Tony Knowles. “Nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies.”

If Ms. Palin ever spoke out about the issue, one way or another, no record has surfaced. Her campaign would not answer questions about when she learned of the policy, strongly supported by the police chief: whether she saw it in the budget and if not, whether she learned of it before or after the State Legislature outlawed the practice.

All the campaign would do was provide a press release pronouncing: “Prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault is a priority for Gov. Palin.”

Eric Croft, a former Democratic state lawmaker who sponsored the corrective legislation, believes that Wasilla’s mayor knew what was going on. (She does seem to have paid heed to every other detail of town life, including what books were on the library’s shelves.)

The local hospital did the billing, but it was the town that set the policy, Mr. Croft noted. That policy was reflected in budget documents that Ms. Palin signed.

Mr. Croft further noted that right after his measure became law, Wasilla’s local paper reported that Ms. Palin’s handpicked police chief, Charlie Fannon, acknowledged the practice of billing to collect evidence for sexual-assault cases. He complained that the state was requiring the town to spend $5,000 to $14,000 a year to cover the costs. “I just don’t want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer,” the chief explained.

“I can’t imagine any police chief, big city or small, who would take on the entire State Legislature on a bill that passed unanimously and not mention to their mayor that they’re doing this,” Mr. Croft said. Even if he didn’t inform her, the newspaper article would have been hard for her to miss.

In the absence of answers, speculation is bubbling in the blogosphere that Wasilla’s policy of billing rape victims may have something to do with Ms. Palin’s extreme opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape. Sexual-assault victims are typically offered an emergency contraception pill, which some people in the anti-choice camp wrongly equate with abortion.

My hunch is that it was the result of outmoded attitudes and boneheaded budget cutting. Still, Ms. Palin has been governor for under two years, and she’s running for vice president largely on her experience as mayor of tiny Wasilla — a far superior credential, she’s told us, to being a community organizer. On the rape kits, as on other issues, she owes voters a direct answer.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 10:23 AM | Link to this

Well, another nice day outside. Wooten is doing a good job. I would have liked a little more trash about Obama’s VP choice to offset Bookman’s continued attacks on Palin. But we take what we get.

Yes, RedNeck Convert, I did vote WEDNESDAY for McCain just like I said. Proud to press the key for McCain.

Cammander Guy is POFO or so it would seem. Someone running wild this morning. That’s usually PoFo.

Now that we have heard from Bo CHambliss, LOBBYIST maybe we will also hear from Joe Biden’s son, THE LOBBYIST.

JLK and CJ don’t want McCain in Washington to do the job he was elected to do. We have a crisis and MxcCain is THERE where he ought to be. Debating does not help solve a problem.

Ragnar, glad you are a banker lawyer, or a lawyer banker. Helps to have someone know what they are talking about.

By getalife

September 26, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this

But it is only 50 points.

Keep calling wingnuts. You have your reps running scared for their political lives.

Too funny.

By findog

September 26, 2008 10:29 AM | Link to this

Left Nuts @10:05

The first year of the seven plus reign was the last recession therefore your entire litany of complaints that the slim majority created in November 2006 election could possibly direct the entrenched executive establishment is faulty to the core. I do believe that many a marginal GOP candidate will plead with their constituents that they should be returned to DC to counteract Obama with the citation of Clinton’s last six years at the helm of a divided government the last time we were close to a balanced budget. Now of course the Pelosi-Reid congress could have pulled a vintage 1995 Gingrich governmental shutdown in a staring match over priorities but what would that have accomplished?

You might check how the value of the dollar sank due to the ever increasing deficit under President Bush as causation for the economic turndown and sky rocketing commodity prices; but then you would have to accept that two wars and huge tax cuts do not work. Kind of like President Reagan’s tax cuts and astronomical increases in military spending of the 1980’s did a similar number to the value of a dollar. But then it would be difficult to blame tat on liberals wouldn’t it?

By @@

September 26, 2008 10:29 AM | Link to this

And there you have the difference, Jim, between a Bill Clinton and a BaaaaaRack-em-up OBlahMa. Bill’s teleprompter is wired to his brain. OBlahMa’s is wired to a bush somewhere. From behind it he spouts “I’m a shakin’ it boss…..I’m a shakin’ it” — Cool Hand Loop.

Small banks lining to bail from the plane? Predictable. Democrats and Bush rushing to push taxpayers from the plane without a parachute? Unacceptable to me. Never enter into a contract without reading the fine print.

I must confess — I was never a worry for my parents, but my peers at school? that was a different story altogether. The boys were my favorite targets. Many a time, I had to write 500 “I will nots………..” Being an artist at heart, I would focus on how best to display my work. When given an assignment, do it to the best of your ability.

Gosh Jim, haven’t you heard? celebrities transcend hard working Americans. Liberals transport them daily.

The EPA should get ahead of the storm? Surely you gest. Our politicians should have been ahead of this financial storm but they weren’t. Why should the EPA be any different?

Four home visits this week. Our students who travel long distances have parents who’ve had difficulty finding gas to transport their kids. Home visits reveal a lot about a child’s behavior. We’ll be ahead of their game once the gas crunch subsides.

Must share another story. One of my neighbors, a — brace yourself, it’s a shocker, a black conservative, vowed he would never vote for McCain. He called the other night to talk about the government bailout plan with my husband. Upon hearing that McCain had suspended his campaign to go back to Washington, he said……..”That’s one mule I don’t mind getting behind.” Love that guy!!!! Now if I can just convince him that he MUST vote democrat in our Clayton County elections. It’s a matter of having no choice.

By lwwmm7

September 26, 2008 10:31 AM | Link to this

By getalife

September 26, 2008 10:35 AM | Link to this

Jim, crusty and Sarah are on the same level:

“McCain Camp insiders say Palin “clueless” Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”

Ah man, that is rich.

McCain has horrible judgement and did not even talk to her to figure out she is amoron.

He should dump her like his ex wife.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this

Georgia Values,10:18

Most of the time I like David Brooks, just like most of the time I like McCain. But Brooks seems to shy a bit from the truth. He found the honest and ethical McCain and now he wants to be a bit doubtful of his own findings.

McCain’s character has not changed and never will. I like men with character. They hold the world against men who have none.

So, thanks, GA Values, but let us read Brooks in the news columns, not on a blog. Too long. This is Wooten’s editorial piece. Let him editorialize and the rest of us give our opinions.

By Mrs Churchill

September 26, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this

Much better Palin than John Churchill’s

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/09/sarahpalinmiss_usa.html

By JLK

September 26, 2008 10:41 AM | Link to this

Dusty, you dolt. McCain is not on any of the committees that have jurisdiction over the “financial crisis.” Therefore, he’s not ALLOWED to take charge of this particular situation the way he wants you to think he is doing. I know you appreciate abuse of power, but there are OTHER elected officials in the legislature who have jobs to do as well. Are you suggesting that THEY not do the jobs THEY were elected to do?

Face it: McCain doesn’t want to speak publicly on this issue with any depth, lest someone bring up that his decades-long anti-regulatory stance is at least partially responsible. Hence the, “I don’t have time to answer questions, so just TRUST ME and I’ll decide what’s best” position. Yawwwwn! Different day, McSAME ol’ McBull——.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 10:47 AM | Link to this

Dear GGG @ 9:09, with all due respect my volley was ad hominem for ad hominem. If you ever post anything substantial, I would be pleased to show you a slam.

Dear Ga Values @ 9:09, a good conservative does not normally hold up third parties for humiliation. “A Republican who the governor removed from the Jekyll Island Authority…” Whom, whom, whom. Otherwise an interesting note. Moral: get the government out of the business.

Dear Stan @ 9:20, thanks.

Dear commander @ 9:47, guilty as charged.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this

Dear getalife @ 10:35, you left out Reagan. Remember, all of us conservatives are “dumb” in the leftist calculus.

By Left Nuts

September 26, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a “We Deserve It Dividend.”

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.. So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family? Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved. Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads Put away money for college - it’ll be there. Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs. Buy a new car - create jobs. Invest in the market - capital drives growth. Pay for your parent’s medical insurance - health care improves. Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces. If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 (“vote buy”) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it. Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General. Sell off the real estate. Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.” But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party! How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, My plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

September 26, 2008 11:07 AM | Link to this

Dusty

I am a very close friend of Senator Biden’s son. As you know he repesents a big bank, I picked up several boxes of unmarked $100 bills from him this morning, banks have so much more money than the ETHANOL industry. They really pay more for a vote. Can you believe that the voters let us get away with this?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this

Dear Maniac @ 9:56, after re-reading my opening post, I probably need to pay you an obscene fee to constrain my coffee consumption.

By Shawny

September 26, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this

yep, that slick willie is the ultimate politician. I hold politicians in as high a regard as trial lawyers, just slightly above pond scum.

And Willie has teflon better than any mafia don. Nice how he got ABC to shelve the movie Path to 9/11. Too many implications to his ‘legacy’ and pointing to Sandy the Socks guy.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 11:20 AM | Link to this

And another thing about that nice Sarah Palin that I like and that makes me think I’m just like her, sort of exactly even though it is a stretch. Whenever she talks, it just seems like she starts up sentences up with no idea where she might end up. I like that myself and try to do that myself all the time myself when I think I can start a sentence and end up somewhere I myself might never before have been before.

Oh, and pooey pooey on the fake Dusty @ 10:38. Everyone knows I don’t read the New York Times, even that nice jewboy David Brooks. They’re all jews there, you know. You can look it up.

By Uncanny Valley

September 26, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this

Palin/McCain 08: It’s a good thing that politics makes strange bedfellows. That’s how they’ll find the sleeper cells

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this

Dear Maniac @ 11:20, you are going to hell you know. Funniest post of the day.

By @@

September 26, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this

Sorry to go off target Jim, but this was just too funny not to share. It speaks to the public’s lack of insight into government’s shenanigans.

Short attention spans have replaced hyperactivity as the malady of the moment. Children are reading less, and fewer boys than girls read for pleasure. As a result, publishers resort to shock appeal to get boys to read, offering them toilet-humor titles such as “The Day My Butt Went Psycho” or “Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger,” with a “hero” who seeks the riddle of the foul wind as though it were the holy grail.

Send me to the “principle’s” office pleeeeeze!!!!

I will not make fun of Johnny Q.

I will not make fun of Johnny Q.

I will not make fun of Johnny………………….

YES I CAN!!!!!!!!!!

By getalife

September 26, 2008 11:43 AM | Link to this

Well, his stunt backfired.

McCain has been all over the place on the bailout.

Does anybody know his position now?

I guess we will find out tonight.

By Carol

September 26, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this

Sorry to disagree with you Jim, but the reason McCain did so well with the Saddle Back thing was because he was smart enough to not show up in time so that he knew the question before they were asked him and he answered before the question were fully asked. Everyone is not as stupid as you seem to think. He listened to the questions as they were asked Obama.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this

OK ID THIEF @11:20 Not real Dusty

I must be real popular with some liberals here. This is the FIFTH time they have pulled their cute act since yesteday morning.

By the way, David Brooks is on Lehrer News Hour every Friday night (PBS) in case you libs are interested.

By Shrugging Atlas

September 26, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this

And to think - a bit of regulation here, a touch less laissez-faire capitalism there, and this whole fiasco could have been avoided.

But John McCain and his merry band of deregulators just couldn’t stop themselves. McCain has championed “greed is good” deregulation at every turn during his 26 years in Washington, and he continued to champion it right up to the brink of disaster last week.

Of course he has good reason to put his head in the sand, because the senator is up to his neck in this crisis. Here’s just one example: in 1999 his good friend and economic guru Phil Gramm was responsible for overturning the Glass-Steagall Act that prevented banks from running wild. Last month McCain put Gramm in the sin bin after he called America a “nation of whiners,” but don’t be fooled - he’s now back on McCain’s team. Word is that if elected, McCain will make Gramm Secretary of the Treasury.

Phill Gramm also happens to be vice chairman of the U.S. division of UBS, the giant Swiss bank. He also lobbies for UBS.

As Josh Marshall noted last week:

The New York Times reports this evening that “foreign banks, which were initially excluded from the (Wall Street bailout) plan, lobbied successfully over the weekend to be able to sell the toxic American mortgage debt owned by their American units to the Treasury, getting the same treatment as United States banks.”

The Times further reports that two of the biggest foreign banks in need of such relief are Barclays and UBS. In fact, my understanding is that UBS is more on the line here than any other foreign bank.

Isn’t that a happy coincidence?

And yet, somehow, John McCain now wants you to believe that, guided by Phil Gramm’s steady, principled hand, he is the only person capable of cleaning up this hot mess and rescuing us from financial ruin. Never mind that McCain has spent his entire career as a staunch deregulator, never mind that his most important economic adviser bears a great deal of responsiblity for the current crisis and is now trying to profit from it, never mind that his campaign staff is lousy with lobbyists for the financial industry - including his campaign manager Rick Davis, who according to Fannie Mae’s former Senior Vice President for Government and Industry Relations…

…was paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several hundred thousand dollars early in this decade to head up an organization to lobby in their behalf called The Homeownership Alliance. …

I worked in government relations for Fannie Mae for more than 20 years, leading the group for most of those years. When I see photographs of Sen. McCain’s staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me.

And never mind McCain’s plan for Social Security…

Wall Street turmoil left John McCain scrambling to explain why the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remained strong. It also left him defending his support for privately investing Social Security money in the same markets that had tanked earlier in the week.

Or his plan for healthcare…

JOHN McCAIN, SEPTEMBER 2008: Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

Never mind all that. John McCain is suddenly a reformer who will bring change to Washington!

Yes, it seems that McCain has stopped running against Barack Obama and started running against reality. Even USA Today called him “erratic” last week. Check it out:

Monday: Speaking at a rally in Jacksonville, McCain declares that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Coming as the Dow plunges more than 500 points and Lehman Bros. goes belly up, this makes McCain sound somewhat out of touch.

Tuesday: McCain explains that he meant to say American workers are fundamentally sound, and the economy itself is in “crisis.” But, he adds, this crisis does not warrant bailing out insurance giant American International Group, which should be allowed to fail. McCain adviser Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, unhelpfully opines that no one on either presidential ticket would be capable of running a company such as H-P.

Wednesday: After the government takes over AIG, McCain says the rescue was regrettable, but unavoidable.

Thursday: McCain, who over the years has described himself as a deregulator, recasts himself as a pro-regulation, anti-Wall Street populist.

With his poll numbers tanking McCain decided that decisive action was required, so he checked his gut and decided to announce that as president he would fire the head of the SEC. A bold move! Just one problem - the president can’t fire the head of the SEC. Oh, plus, the head of the SEC already announced that he was quitting. Ages ago.

And still this didn’t stop McCain, who repeated his demands the following day. At least, I think he did - for some reason he started talking about the FEC instead of the SEC. I know this is confusing but come on dude, you’re running for president.

Bleeding-heart liberal George Will immediately nailed McCain for his nonsense proposal.

Conservative columnist George Will practically boiled out of his trademark bow tie Thursday night, lashing out at Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s call for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox’s resignation.

(snip)

Will took a call from Cox shortly before taking the stage Thursday and was visibly perturbed when he hung up his phone.

“This is why some thoughtful conservatives have grave doubts about his ability to be president,” Will said.

Ouch. Meanwhile those ultra-lefties on the Wall Street Journal editorial board had a few things to say to Sen. McCain too…

Was Mr. Cox dishonest? No. He merely changed some minor rules, and didn’t change others, on short-selling. String him up! Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It’s also un-Presidential.

By Uncanny Valley

September 26, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this

As opposed to Dusty, who when she starts a sentence, everyone has to duck for all the pea soup, bile and vitriol that she spews.

Dusty, you belong behind bars.

Grading Wooten: Clinton was successful in politics because he knew that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. (no wait, he didn’t know that, that’s why he was successful with interns, okay, i get it now, liberals are scum).

Who wouldn’t have gotten in Buddy Holly’s plane? The guy was a genius. It would have been a honor. Like getting into Mozart’s carriage. I wouldn’t have minded a bit if it fell down a canyon. “Mozart died in a freak stagecoach accident today. With him was PoFo, who was keeled instantly when Mozart’s violin went clean up his keester.” I’m honored, St. Pete.

The bailout window? The apology window? Where’s the overused-phrase complaint window?

The bailout is for foreign owned banks, you know. They’re holding a big bag of American bad debt too. Can you say Saudi Royal Family?

Bush is talking to america as the Saudi puppet, again, like he done after 911.

Why cant any of you see that?

IASKEDWHYANYOFYOUCANTSEETHAT!!!!

By ButtHead

September 26, 2008 11:53 AM | Link to this

Hi Pals,

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend .

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend .

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family? Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved. Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads Put away money for college – it’ll be there Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs. Buy a new car – create jobs Invest in the market – capital drives growth Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18 + including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let American General go back to being American General. Sell off the real estate. Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party !

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

Birk

T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it’s either good for a laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

By Uncanny Valley

September 26, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this

Palin/McCain 08: It’s a good thing that politics makes strange bedfellows. That’s how they’ll find the sleeper cells

By Frost

September 26, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this

Suddenly Bill is a good person coz he did not say anything bad about Palin……

Did uall watch the Couric-Palin interview? What comedy….Trailer trash indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She went thru 5 community colleges be4 getting an associate degree….what a dunder head…..VP my azz!!

By getalife

September 26, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this

That old coot Byrd and Reid introduced a 56 billion second economic stimulus package since w’s has failed. Bans oil shale drilling.

Too funny.

By getalife

September 26, 2008 12:03 PM | Link to this

That old coot Byrd and Reid introduced a 56 billion second economic stimulus package since w’s has failed. Bans oil shale drilling.

Too funny.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 12:06 PM | Link to this

Theres that fake Dusty @ 11:20 pretending to be me again and making people think I watch stupid liberal PBS at all, much less that jewy jewboy Lehrer and its another good reason why my candidate that I already voted for should not attend that debate tonight since it is Lehrer who will be there in the tank for that black guy who is really a Muslim hey I see some lint in my bellybutton.

By Uncanny Valley

September 26, 2008 12:14 PM | Link to this

Anyone read bookman today? What is wrong with that child?

He talks about Old Yeller dying if we dont clap for Tinkerbell, and everything sucks, and Timmy’s in the well, and I dont know what else. Unreadable tripe of the worst sort.

He’s just another, “we’ll have to wait and see what happens” pundit.

I guess we’ll have to wait till they count the votes to see who won., duhhhh. *

• in November, we hold the election and they’ll count the electoral votes then and the person who has the most electoral votes will win, but because it hasn’t happened yet, it’s september, remember, then we have to wait and see, and when we find out who won, we’ll know who’s president. **

* duhhhhh**

.

.

Pffftzztsz*

.

.

**bwa

By Disgusted

September 26, 2008 12:21 PM | Link to this

I’m praying for a quick defeat of the legislation requiring inclusion of mental health coverage in group policies. Otherwise, half the people on this blog will be in psychiatrists’ offices and Wooten’s blog will need to shut down.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 12:23 PM | Link to this

Uh, what I meant to say before was that it is perfectly right that John McCain do the debating tonight to keep that Lehrer and the black guy from taking advantage of the trick the black guy tried to pull to keep McCain from debating in the first place by pretending to suspend his campaign. So any words that mean that not debating was better for McCain than debating is which is what he wanted to do all along and had to fight for his right was written by someone using my ID ILLEEGALLY and I will contact the AJC and sue maybe Ragnar can take my case.

Silly liberals. Im going outside now. Any posts from “Dusty” between now and 4 p.m. are fake because I won’t be here Ill be outside becoming an expert in the Georgian conflict because I live in a place called Georgia and that is just like experience in foreign policy.

By misterearl

September 26, 2008 12:28 PM | Link to this

What Tyler said

Sarah Palin designer eyewear - $300

Book of blonde jokes - $4.95

Payoff to Sean Hannity from RNC - $52,500

One Way air fare to Wasilla from DC - $578

Transcript of the next Palin interview - Priceless

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 12:33 PM | Link to this

Wow another cutie!! ID THIEF @12:06 Not real Dusty

This guy is one persistent liberal. You think I should get one of those TV lawyers who can always get compensation for something?

Ah, I’ve got it. I’ll sue because our THIEF is a pain in the neck. Get the money ready, honey, I’ve got the law after you.

Ragnar, did you say Maniac was posting at 11:20? Hmmm. Who is the Maniac??

Uncanny Velley@11:52 YOur uncanny valley is a hole in the ground. Try to dig out. A breath of fresh air would do you good.

Oh well, back to politics. McCain and Palin, already the winners!!!

By Clint

September 26, 2008 12:36 PM | Link to this

And so imposter-hero McShame pulls another cheap sham out of the GOP litter box of shame. Always the same lack of courage and ethics. To hell with the interests of the country, getting elected to power is ALL that matters. All that is necessary now for the repulsive McClown-Palin act is to add the…snakes. And the Repunks have plenty of those, we know. They oughta stretch McClown out on a rack and let the masses hear him speak of his lifetime of lies and failures. Then present all with a copy of “Naval Archives” for required reading. Watch tonight! His handlers will have prepared McShame with a few loud outbursts that appear to make him sound “In control.” He’s all so predictable.

Oh yeah. It’s good to see Dustmite and the rest of the “Little Wee-wee Gang” still here puking forth their Nazi putridity.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this

I told you ID THIEF @12:23 that the law was after you. Those TV lawyers never fail, so they say. Run, baby, run. Oh I forgot. You are a liberal. Cut’n’run, baby, they are coming to get you.

(Jim Wooten, do you have any insecticide I could borrow for blogging purposes?)

By findog

September 26, 2008 12:40 PM | Link to this

Shawny @11:11

Pond scum is a necessary natural cleanser of water too rich in nutrients. Properly cultivated pond scum could possibly reduce the neurotoxins our water supply has been polluted by the, “there must be a pill for everything,” crowd. You sir owe pond scum everywhere an apology…

By Bob

September 26, 2008 12:45 PM | Link to this

Always see McCain with his dwarf at his side. Is it possible that McShame and Lieberman are secret…lovers???

By Just Nasty and Mean

September 26, 2008 12:47 PM | Link to this

I am calling out all you bed-wetting name-calling liberals that slammed McCain for not debating…..

WELL…now he IS going to debate.

And that begs the question: How come Obla-bla-ma didn’t accept McCain’s challenge to debate in 10 town hall meetings nationwide—to take questions DIRECTLY from the people? HUH???

And why did Obla-bla-ma take 3 days off to prepare for the debate when McCain went about the country’s business multitasking the financial crisis?

The answer is easy! McCain *already knows his positions and the answers because they are part of his core belief. They aren’t some memorized positions to be developed by staffers and regurgitated so Obla-bla-ma won’t ‘get crossways with the democrap’s fractionated ragtag base of single-issue voters.

*Proof again that Obla-bla-ma is truly an empty suit of vapor and hype. *

By Devastator

September 26, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this

Barack is moving ahead with plans for Friday’s debate.

The election is less than 40 days away, and the American people deserve to hear directly from the candidates about how they intend to lead our country.

You’re invited to join a Debate Watch Party in your community and discuss the issues that are most important to you and your family, friends, and neighbors.

Find a Debate Watch Party in your area and RSVP today.

These parties will allow you to to get to know folks in your community, and continue building this campaign from the bottom up by reaching out to even more supporters using our Neighbor to Neighbor tool.

If you can’t attend a party, you can still use our Neighbor to Neighbor tool to reach out to swing voters in a crucial battleground state who need to hear from you.

It’s an extremely powerful way to build support for Barack.

Whether you can attend a Debate Watch Party or not, it’s a great way to connect with fellow voters.

Get your list of potential supporters right now and start making phone calls today.

Neighbor to Neighbor gives you everything you need to get started.

As Barack prepares for the presidential debate, we’ll be preparing, too — by laying the groundwork for victory on Election Day.

Let’s get to work.

Thanks,

Jon

By Stan

September 26, 2008 12:53 PM | Link to this

Good question, Bob (12:45). Lots of furtive glances seen between the 2 of them. Tho there might be a bit of inconvenience - I think Lieberman is precluded from eating pork.

By findog

September 26, 2008 12:54 PM | Link to this

The solution is not possible, simply not possible. The conservatives want deregulation and the liberals want the government to help the less fortunate. The bills that are created carry a bit of each extreme. No one who will not go to heck can stand up and say any one bill did just: 1 – open the market to less qualified barrowers, or 2 – deregulated some portion of the industry. To lower the collateral requirements for the business community the standards for sub-prime mortgages were created. Our two candidates stand up and say they authored a bill, which if even true was one sided and a mere exercise in futility. Further the half-truth squads are in slingshot hyper-drive at each other’s glass houses. So I would recommend you pull out your Y2K survivalist supply guide and prepare for a long cold winter…

By Uncanny Valley

September 26, 2008 12:59 PM | Link to this

The Black Knight got down on one knee and pleaded with the SnowWitch to support his bailout plan. She scoffed. She would not support foreign bank bailout for the round heads in the land of the petroleum jelly.

The Black Knight knelt for his crusaders, who would be without hearth if the bailout plan failed.

The SnowWitch scoffed loudly and left the room, disappearing as if into thin air.

By Clint

September 26, 2008 1:03 PM | Link to this

Funny. Obama is a proven, solid Intellectual. And that very word has always, always, always terrified every Republicant who ever lived. It rips away at the wall of ignorance that surrounds them and strikes fear into their unbalanced hearts and minds. Some things just never change. Like most insects, they cannot tolerate the light of day.

By findog

September 26, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this

ButtHead @11:53 It’s math genius’ like you who got us into this mess: 85,000,000,000 / 200,000,000 = 85,000 / 200 = 850 / 2 = 425 What would I do with $425, pay for your remedial math education classes

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

September 26, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this

Daddy’s statement on the mess, don’t you like the way he can LIE & smile at the same time::

Saxby’s Statement September 25th, 2008 by Erick · 16 Comments Saxby is out with a statement on the bailout. It does not involve bipartisan energy schemes, so that’s a start. You can read it below the fold.s the conversations in Washington continue over how to address our nation’s financial crisis, and as the details of the problems in our financial sector are revealed daily, I am convinced that something must be done and done soon.

But I want to be clear about congressional action: we must act because inaction will do serious harm to American families, farms, and small businesses as well as community banks and other lenders, and we must do our dead level best to make the right decisions, because action for the sake of expediency could put our nation at further risk.

Since last Thursday I have talked to numerous bankers, economists, academicians, as well as business leaders and owners who have told me that doing nothing would lead to irreparable harm to our economy. And I have heard from and talked to hundreds of Georgia taxpayers. Everyone is concerned about doing the right thing. Georgians are furious at the current situation and for good reason.

I am angry and upset that the oversight supposed to be afforded by the regulatory bodies was not provided the way it should have been. The American taxpayers should never find themselves in this situation again, and that is why there must be confidence that what Congress passes will work – not for Wall Street but for Main Street.

Before I give my support and work to pass legislation, it will have to have strong safeguards, accountable oversight, provisions that those who abused the system and the public trust will be punished, salary controls for the managers of the companies the taxpayers assist, and a commitment that any revenue earned by the treasury on this effort will be used 100% to retire the debt and not one penny used to expand government. I will fight any legislation that proposes to use one cent of these funds for pork barrel projects. Furthermore, I want to make sure that if fraud or other illegal acts took place that the people responsible are tried and punished. And while much of the focus has been on assisting larger banks and lenders, I am working to make sure that neighborhood banks and lenders are protected too. I intend to see that every single American has access to his or her money right now and forever and that Americans who need credit have it available to them.

As the Senate debate unfolds, any proposed legislation must protect the citizens and taxpayers of Main Street, their savings, their retirement funds, their small businesses, their careers, their homes, and economic well being. This financial debacle on Wall Street must not be allowed to infect Main Street anymore than it already has.

We have to clean up this mess and keep America on track. We must be certain that those responsible do not profit from this legislation and, where appropriate, necessary compensation policy be instituted. There will be no Golden Parachutes for executives in any plan I support. And civil and criminal penalties should be levied and pursued when and where appropriate.

During these next critical hours and days, I will carefully review the details of whatever package emerges, and I will fight for Georgians in this process. I will have my say. I am prepared to work through the weekend and into October and beyond – I will not vote for just any proposal – I will work for and vote for the proposal that I truly believe is in the best interest of Georgians and Americans, and I pledge to work on this as long as it takes to get the job done right.

By Tom

September 26, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this

McCain: “I’m not going to debate.”

Wooten: Brilliant, moving statesmanship from the Greatest American Hero.

McCain: “OK, forget what I said earlier. I’m going to the debate after all.”

Wooten (and his acolytes): Brilliant, moving statesmanship.

By Uncanny Valley

September 26, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this

Palin/McCain 08: It’s a good thing that politics makes strange befellows, otherwise how could Palin/McCain find the sleeper cells?

By Political Foreskin

September 26, 2008 1:24 PM | Link to this

Palin/McCain 08: It’s a good thing that politics makes strange befellows, otherwise how could Palin/McCain find the sleeper cells?

BTW: I take umbrage to Mid South’s 9:59

By jm

September 26, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this

It is nice to see that Mr. Wooten is commenting on the strong decisive leadership that President Bush is providing. After all, his is still president, isn’t he?

By Peter

September 26, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this

Good question Jim……..John McCain afraid to debate Barack Obama?

Let’s see how it gores tonight…….. I wonder how “Tired” he will look with all his freaking out this week ?

John McLost went about the “Countries Business” …

HA HA HA……you mean the photo ops……….?

Poor Dusty……she won’t watch PBS, probably doesn’t read NPR, and probably not the New York Times, or the Washington Post……Gosh that would be like getting different points of view and getting educated……

What a concept !

They are Liberal ……. HA HA HA…..

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 1:28 PM | Link to this

Dear Dusty @ 12:33, it’s just HIDT doing his schtick. Sorta like Church Lady. You should see him do me – you cannot tell him from me when he plans his work. I know he has a bunch of identities, but I know only a couple. He frustrates our friend Glenn. I think he impersonates @@ occasionally too. But he is one of us, he is a libertarian conservative sort, just has an irrepressible sense of humor. A kinder, gentler PoFo.

Dear Leftists, was I right about McCain’s control of the legislation or not? By killing the legislation, he just secured the election. Obama is suddenly Bush III, and McCain is the fellow who blocked the bailout.

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 1:32 PM | Link to this

well, your boy let you down, caved on the debate; updated expression: “LIKE A PALIN IN THE HEADLIGHTS”

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

September 26, 2008 1:37 PM | Link to this

Raghead, that is the most convoluted b****** I’ve seen on hear in five minutes. You are a high-functioning moron! On second thought, your functioning isn’t really that high. McSwine and that idiot Palin are defeated!

By ron

September 26, 2008 1:37 PM | Link to this

Commander,Back there at 10:11 there is a post credited to ron that ron didn’t write.Whoever wrote the 10:11 post,please desist.I can get into enough trouble without anyone’s help.

McCain caved and is now flopping around like a fish out of water.As far as I’m concerned going to the debate after saying you’re not going is a stupid move.

Dusty—I find Jim Lehrer among the better of the newscasters.Ever hear him talk to Shields and Brooks? If not,enlighten yourself.At times it gets pretty interesting.

By Chris

September 26, 2008 1:41 PM | Link to this

GMAN - you are the biggest idiot of all the liberal idiots I’ve heard. You are calling McCain a coward! WHAT!? You must live on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere! McCain is the guy who was a prisoner of war and when his captives found out who his father was they gave him the option to leave early. He declined, so he can stay with his fellow soldier. For 5 1/2 years he got his asskicked and lived among rats and other god-forsaking things all around him. That’s called a hero a person that puts others before himself. You are a typical left wing dipsh*t! Go jump off a bridge and take Obama with you. I have more foreign policy experience than Obama. Obama is going to get pummeled tonight and I’m going to love every minute of it. Also, Biden is the least favorite person in this election. Watch a news channel other than CNN/NBC for once you fa@! Obama showed his a* by not stopping his campaign when McCain did. It just shows that he puts himself before the country. He will destroy this country, if he was ever elected. Thank God he will never ever ever ever ever be elected President. He’s a loser and all his followers are world class losers that will all burn in hell! McCain is our President so move on to the top of your trees…hippies!

By tcoach

September 26, 2008 1:42 PM | Link to this

Someone want to explain how a lady is being prosecuted with homicide, because she kicked a lady in the stomach and caused her baby to die. The pregnant lady was only 19 months, below the cut off date for abortions. So I ask why is this considered homicide yet the mother can willfully terminate the pregnancy and that is OK.

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 1:43 PM | Link to this

I would imagine that the GOP ticket can count on carrying the comedy writers bloc. Also, I would expect that Vladimir Putin will think long and hard indeed before rearing his (ugly) head over Alaskan airspace! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel safer already.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 1:51 PM | Link to this

Oh, Ron, if I had known that Lehrer had Brook Shields on his show, I certainly would have watched shes just the cutest thing and I know she is just like me the same way Sarah is just like me. Except Brook Shields sometimes uses lots of words and I think she thinks she is better than me, the little snark.

Isn’t it cute the way the fake Dusty @ 12:33 and 12:38 gets all flusterated whenever I tell everyone that she or he or whatever he or she is is a big old poopy who is faking to be just like me like Sarah like Brook Shields but is really just a jealous and ugly liberal with hairy legs and armpits who smells bad.

But I think Ragnar is wrong about who the real fake Dusty really is.

By AnonyMoose

September 26, 2008 1:51 PM | Link to this

“The thought of his [John McCain] being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”

• U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (Republican - Mississippi)

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

Sorry, Ragnar 1:28**

I don’t find ID Thieves too entertaining. He is not one of “me” and I don’t think his/her copycat stuff is supporting conservatism.

Perhaps he/she should use your ID more than mine since you seem to enjoy it.

mike yerocsci @1:32

You got the updated expression all wrong. It is LIKE A LIBERAL IN THE TAILIGHTS. AWAYS BEHIND

By Tom

September 26, 2008 1:53 PM | Link to this

Ragweed Hammerhead @ 1:28 is exactly right. McCain “just secured the election.”

Of Barack Obama.

By Churchill

September 26, 2008 1:56 PM | Link to this

The news that John McCain will debate Barack Obama tonight in Mississippi is a concession by the Arizona senator that his attempt to score a quick political victory on legislation to bail out the financial sector did not pan out as he had hoped.

McCain suspended his presidential campaign with much fanfare on Wednesday, insisting that the crisis in financial markets and the seeming stalemate on Capitol Hill required that politics be set aside for the good of the country.

But, over the intervening 24 hours, McCain saw what at first looked like a brilliant political gambit turn into a nightmare, as an apparent done deal to save the financial industry devolved into a partisan shouting match at the White House that left congressional negotiators back at square one.

Seeking to put the best possible face on the situation, the McCain campaign released a statement — the full text of which is available after the jump — that read in part:

“Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations…The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.”

The statement also sought to cast the breakdown of negotiations on the bill as a “familiar spectacle” in Washington where the needs of regular Americans were sacrificed at the altar of partisanship. McCain’s campaign also accused Obama of “political posturing” rather than the post-partisan approach that the Illinois senator has put at the heart of his presidential campaign.

Spin aside, McCain blinked in what had become a high stakes staring contest between he and Obama.

In the immediate aftermath of McCain’s campaign suspension and call for the postponement of tonight’s debate in Mississippi, Obama held an impromptu press conference in which he insisted he would still attend the debate and took a not-so-subtle shot at McCain by arguing that presidents must be able to multi-task.

As yesterday wore on and the prospects of a deal being announced became more remote, Obama and his campaign stood firm on their original plan to fly to Mississippi today to make final preparations for the debate.

With the likelihood of a full deal emerging any time before tonight, the McCain campaign and its surrogates began hedging his promise to stay in Washington until a compromise was reached.

“What’s more important than anything, that when we go to Mississippi tonight, both candidates can say that the Congress is working, back in business, that we have an outline or proposal that will protect the taxpayer and save the country from financial Pearl Harbor, as Warren Buffett called it,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key McCain surrogate, said during an interview on The Today Show this morning.

That statement, and McCain’s subsequent decision to go to the debate is his campaign’s attempt to make lemonade out of lemons.

Expect McCain to draw heavily on his experiences over the last few days in tonight’s debate, casting himself as someone willing to put aside partisanship for the good of the country and Obama as nothing more than a partisan warrior.

Make no mistake: It’s been a very difficult last 72 hours for McCain’s campaign. But, if he can outperform expectations in tonight’s debate all of the sturm und drang of the last three days will likely be forgotten overnight.

The stakes simply couldn’t be any higher.

By AnonyMoose

September 26, 2008 2:01 PM | Link to this

When McCain is being referred to as a drama queen on the news, his supporters have to be getting worried. Not to mention that fiasco of an interview Palin had with Couric.

By getalife

September 26, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this

“Conservative Columnist: Palin Should Drop OutReport: McCain Aides Complain That Palin Is “Clueless”House GOP Aides: McCain “Not Familiar With The Details” Of Bailout.”

Amazing incompetence.

They make w shine.

Vote early and fire the gop

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this

Ron @1:37

I watch Lehrer News Hour every Monday though Friday if possible. David Brooks and Mark Shields are pretty good. Mark is too liberal for me and David Brooks is beginning to lean a bit left too. Maybe going to work for NYT was not good for him. But he tries to be fair.

Remember the former guy (can’t think of his name) who went to work for Wall Street Journal? He was stronger in his convictions which I liked a little better.

That is what I like about McCain. Strong convictions. I don’t believe his politics overpower his character. As to Obama..WHAT convictions? Who knows??

By hotlanta

September 26, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

SHHHHH what is that I hear. That is silence from all of those white women who were yelling and screaming in support of Palin saying that she is one of US. Now that she has been on these interviews that are saying SHE is dumb not us. They had high hopes for her to get in Washington and represent women rights, blah, blah, blah. Now you can’t find any of them. Hey PUMA. Come out, come out whereever you are.

By hotlanta

September 26, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

SHHHHH what is that I hear. That is silence from all of those white women who were yelling and screaming in support of Palin saying that she is one of US. Now that she has been on these interviews that are saying SHE is dumb not us. They had high hopes for her to get in Washington and represent women rights, blah, blah, blah. Now you can’t find any of them. Hey PUMA. Come out, come out whereever you are.

By hotlanta

September 26, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

SHHHHH what is that I hear. That is silence from all of those white women who were yelling and screaming in support of Palin saying that she is one of US. Now that she has been on these interviews that are saying SHE is dumb not us. They had high hopes for her to get in Washington and represent women rights, blah, blah, blah. Now you can’t find any of them. Hey PUMA. Come out, come out whereever you are.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

September 26, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

Dear Dusty @ 1:52, I was wrong, it is not HIDT. It’s PoFo.

By ron

September 26, 2008 2:07 PM | Link to this

seventeen days before bank regulators siezed Washington Mutual and gave it to Morgan,a new CEO

By ron

September 26, 2008 2:07 PM | Link to this

seventeen days before bank regulators siezed Washington Mutual and gave it to Morgan,a new CEO

By ron

September 26, 2008 2:07 PM | Link to this

seventeen days before bank regulators siezed Washington Mutual and gave it to Morgan,a new CEO

By ron

September 26, 2008 2:08 PM | Link to this

seventeen days before bank regulators siezed Washington Mutual and gave it to Morgan,a new CEO

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 2:09 PM | Link to this

Getalife the ol’ Cajun coot

Tries to wrestle up a few lies.

Palin is here to stay ‘cause she’s good for America.

I have already VOTED FOR McCAIN/PALIN early on. Get with the WINNING TEAM!!!

By "Charles", The Original

September 26, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this

“When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

When I was a child, I used to watch World Championship Wrestling. I knew that Jack Brisco was afraid to wrestle the great Malenko. And there is a reason why. The great Malenko would use dirty tricks and on occasions would burn his opponents with fire. He was a dreadful opponent.

As a sophomore in high school, I discovered that professional wrestling was all about theater, a staged event, performance. They were all deceiving the people, Jack Brisco, The great Malenko, Mr. Wrestling, thunderbolt Patterson, etc. But for the wrestlers, it was a job. It was all fun and games. But learning the truth was a great disappointment because I really liked wrestling. I had put a portion of my young heart and mind into it.

My grandmother loved wrestling and she thought the action was real too. One Saturday about noon, just as wrestling was about to be televised, I went to grandma’s house to give her the disappointing news. And like clock work, grandma was sitting in her favorite rocking chair watching a match. Having completed my salutation, I said, I hate to tell you this grandma but wrestling isn’t real. She said, “boy sit down. This is a good one.” But I was disappointed and determined. That’s not real grandma, I said. All of the wrestlers know each other and are putting on a show for the people; it’s not real. Grandma turned and looked at me with a stern face saying, “well if you think that’s not real, you get your little behind in the ring and see what happens to you.” And just as she had finished her scolding, by coincidence, a spectator in the wrestling audience told one of the camera men that the matches are staged. And just as the camera and microphone could capture his image and complaint, one of the wrestlers raced toward the spectator, scolded the man, slapped him, picked him up, and tossed him several rows in the crowd. And after observing that spectacle, Grandma shouted, “hot ole mighty knows!”

Here we go again. It’s over to Jim Wooten’s audience to break the disappointing news. John McCain isn’t afraid to debate Barack Obama. It’s all about theater. There is not a dimes worth of difference between the two candidates and parties. The candidates and parties are familiar with each other and are putting on a show for the people. In fact, they are the same coin with opposite sides. A dime is a dime regardless of the side being exposed and owned by the same person. Both parties and candidates have the same objectives. Each man is controlled by the New World Crowd. So why should one be afraid to debate the other?

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this

Ragnar@ 2:05

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

By Commander Guy

September 26, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this

McCain Agrees to Debate After Palin Threatens to “Gut Him Like a Moose”

API/UPS/FedEx, Sep 26 — Just one day after drawing a line in the sand with his own freely flowing urine, Sen John McCain has relented and will participate in the first Presidential debate tonight in Oxford, Mississippi, demonstrating again the dexterity and flexibility that has allowed him to claim all sides of every issue for most of the past 26 years.

McCain’s limber principles and cursory acquaintance with consistency has allowed him to declare that he would indeed debate despite earlier declaring that it would be worong to debate until a workable Wall Street bailout deal was complete. Negotiations on the deal cratered as soon as Sen McCain arrived at the Capitol building, with all hope of bipartisan agreement melting under the kleig lights of his outsized ego.

Despite the bailout collapse, Sen McCain was persuaded to re-accept the debate challenge by VP nominee Sarah Palin, who according to sources close to McCain, threatened to “gut” the one-time POW “like a moose” if he “puszsied out” on her.

“Damn you, old man,” Palin was heard to shriek in a vocal tone that caused several laptop hard drives to fail, “I’m out there busting my hump every day to get your shriveled a$$ elected. If you think I’m gonna eat a sh!t sandwich served up by Katie Couric while you hide like a damned five year old from the playground bully, you got another thing coming!!! Now get up and change your diaper, you smell like creeping death.”

McCain, who is known to fear the spectre of Blackazoid Obama more than the hooded figure of Death itself, has discovered a force even more compelling — the fear of Sarah Palin.

One longtime McCain confidante fearfully spoke off the record. “You have no idea what this woman is capable of,” the aide whispered, looking furtively over her shoulder in case one of Palin’s minions from Hell might be listening. “There are bodies everywhere, cut into little pieces while they were still alive. That nutjob Muthee from Kenya demands the blood of his enemies to perform his unholy rituals, and Sarah knows that she has to dance with who brought her this far. She fears Muthee as much as McCain fears her. And don’t even get me started on Todd…” At that, the aide began to tremble and scurried away.

Another McCain aide, openly disgusted with the turn the campaign has taken, was far less guarded in his remarks.

“It’s horrible, really, to see the way she treats him, as though she were a nurse in an especially awful old age home. She sees McCain as a weakness and liability and taunts him without mercy. The old man sh!ts himself just thinking about what she will do after inauguration.” At that moment, the free-talking aide began making a gurgling noise in his throat and fell to the ground stone dead.

Attempts to speak with other McCain staffers were met with wimpers of “please, go away, please, they can’t see me talking to you” and other cries of desparation.

Palin spokesperson Todd Palin, flicking his tongue delicately across his exposed teeth and struggling mightily to tame two sharp lumps protruding from his forehead, merely tossed his head and laughed daemonically when questioned about this development, telling reporters “just wait. You just wait.”

By GMAN

September 26, 2008 2:21 PM | Link to this

Chris, being a POW in the 60’s doesn’t make you brave in the 21st century. John “Mr. Magoo” McCain is the “New Millennium” coward!

Now, get back on that corner and make me my money and don’t come back until the WaffleHouse closes! And don’t forget to take that vaseline with you!

Bush/McCain - Gambling with your children’s future

By ron

September 26, 2008 2:22 PM | Link to this

I have no idea what just happened.Aren’t computers wonderful things?

To continue,The 17 day wonder CEO that was hired by Washington Mutual and sbsequently fired by Morgan walked away with $20 million.Not bad for 17 days on the job.These are the people we’re being asked to bail out?I think it’s high time we allowed the whole financial mess to sink down to a quaking pile of dog sh*t.

McCain probably just handed the election to Obama.How you feel now?He’s flopping around like a fish out of water.

By BS Aplenty

September 26, 2008 2:35 PM | Link to this

*Anony Moose @ above

You’re being downright silly about the Palin interview with Couric. Nobody outside Obama fantasy-HQ believes that “seeing Russia” qualifies as foreign policy experience. Maybe being a community organizer on the southside of Chicago qualifies as foreign policy experience at Obama fantasy-HQ. OK, now I follow your logic.

Palin comes across as real and genial. Palin’s great strength is that she’s got the same likeable personality that Ronald Regan had. That’s an excellent trait for someone who may deal with foreign leaders. She’ll be an excellent VP and/or President if needed.

By BS Aplenty

September 26, 2008 2:35 PM | Link to this

*Anony Moose @ above

You’re being downright silly about the Palin interview with Couric. Nobody outside Obama fantasy-HQ believes that “seeing Russia” qualifies as foreign policy experience. Maybe being a community organizer on the southside of Chicago qualifies as foreign policy experience at Obama fantasy-HQ. OK, now I follow your logic.

Palin comes across as real and genial. Palin’s great strength is that she’s got the same likeable personality that Ronald Regan had. That’s an excellent trait for someone who may deal with foreign leaders. She’ll be an excellent VP and/or President if needed.

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 2:42 PM | Link to this

Did the dems manage to slip the hot gov some mushrooms? Bizarre! And what does it say about McCain’s judgement and values? I’ll bet he’s ruing the day now. He’d rather lose an election than a war, yet he’s willing to place a far-right airhead a heartbeat from the oval office? Looks like his pandering backfired like his grandstanding on crisis. Now he’s forced to cave on debate. From what I understand, all this is orchestrated by a certain Rove protege in his camp—McCain decided if you can’t beat Rovian sleaze then join it!

By @@

September 26, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Dusty & Ragnar:

Although the jabs can sometimes bring on his uglier self (which strangely, I enjoy) I’ve stopped trying to “pinpoint” PoliFore.

Miscommunication is, as Ragnar would say, “His schtick”.

I view him as a toy. Sometimes he’s entertaining, at other times his wheels are off. When I’m feeling really creative, I like to drag him across the “carpet” to inflict a pain that “burns”.

I s n ‘ t t h a t r i g h t P o l i F o r e ? ? ?

Did I mention he’s blind as a bat? He’s special.

By 2 thump or not 2 thump

September 26, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Quite honestly Jim (and though you have obviously distorted the question that was asked of Obama, and it was the question of when life begins), Obama answered the question 100% truthfully.

The fact of the matter is..it IS above all of our paygrades because only God knows when life truly begins, whether it be conception or at some point during gestation. In fact, if you know anything about the Bible in many instances it alludes to the fact that God knew us before we were ever conceived. So then, does life actually begins before conception?? So it is in fact above anyone’s paygrade to answer the question honestly.

Only people who think themselves to be “high and mighty” and so-called “moral” Christians so arrogantly lay claim to their ability to determine such fact. Get a grip you hypocrites!

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 2:45 PM | Link to this

PoFo,2:16

have you given up SNOW WITCH and taken up COMMANDER GUY? Sounds like it.

What do tha docs call your multiple personality syndrome?

GMAN 2:21

You said exactly the same thing yesterday. I see you are still pimping. Do us a favor and get another job or something new at least. Thank you.

Ron,2:22

McCain is not flip flopping. He covered the crisis and is now back to the child play. Obama is ready with his ‘prompter and McCain is ready with his character. I’ll take NcCain, anytime.

No, I don’t like the CEO story you mentioned. Crazy! I don’t believe they can get away with that one. Somebody is overdoing the crooked stuff.

By AnonyMoose

September 26, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this

BS Aplenty, your name fits you perfectly.

I never suggested in my post that it is necessary to have had foreign policy experience to be qualified to be VP or President. Perhaps you are projecting your own doubts about her qualifications?

What I find troubling about her performance in the Couric interview was an inability to go beyond repetitive bullet point answers to every question. When asked about McCain’s efforts at reform, even I could have answered that he had been a leader on campaign finance and immigration reform. Why couldn’t Palin? When asked about how being near Russia makes her qualified to be President, wouldn’t a more mature and intelligent answer to have been that foreign policy experience is not required for the job? She could have explained that many presidents and vice presidents have not had foreign policy experience and have done a fine job in office. Instead she went off into some rather incoherent statement about Russians coming into US airspace and how Alaska is where that happens. Ok, fine, but how does that give her foreign policy experience? International flights fly over me every day but that doesn’t mean I’ve been to every country those planes are bound for.

Do you really want someone negotiationg with Iran and Russia who is likeable? Personally, I want an intellectual heavyweight with an attitude.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 2:50 PM | Link to this

BS Aplenty @2:35

Very good post about Palin. I agree with you about Palin’s good qualities. That is what scares liberals and makes them spin and sputter.

Almost three o’clock. See ya’ later.

By Commander Guy

September 26, 2008 2:54 PM | Link to this

Not PoFo. A spirited poster, but he lacks my ranges and chops. That guy is not qualified to lick my nutsack.

Ragnar thinks he knows me. He doesn’t have a clue.

Dusty thinks she knows….something…but is not sure what. That poor blind squirrel couldn’t find a nut if my scrotum was resting on her chin.

@@ likes it a little rough, apparently.

But here’s my nickjack guess…BS Aplenty is really Captain Freedom. Who else could write such gibberish?

By Yuckabilly Schtix

September 26, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this

Learn the true identity of political foreskin at http://www.politicalforeskinisrickmoreanus.edu

By GMAN

September 26, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this

Dustybutt, I see you’re still trying to leave my stable and start working the corner for the GOP (Grand Old Pimps). Well, take your sorry A55 on but leave my money and the Sarah Palin wig on the nightstand!

Bush/McCain - Gambling with your children’s future!

By BS Aplenty

September 26, 2008 3:03 PM | Link to this

Moose

I just can’t quite get my arms around Obama being an intellectual heavyweight. Not when he voluntarily drinks the kook-aid for twenty years at TUCC.

Kinda sounds like a slow learner to me.

By BS Aplenty

September 26, 2008 3:03 PM | Link to this

Moose

I just can’t quite get my arms around Obama being an intellectual heavyweight. Not when he voluntarily drinks the kook-aid for twenty years at TUCC.

Kinda sounds like a slow learner to me.

By Maniac is accurate

September 26, 2008 3:09 PM | Link to this

For the record. I’ve not nicked a name other than Redneck Convert in quite awhile. He seems not to mind. I’m a reformed Dusty jacker for months now.

By Dusty

September 26, 2008 3:10 PM | Link to this

Well, I was leaving but poor old Commander guy showed up like a dirtbag out of the lower vulgarities of life.

The best thing you could do for us, CG, is take your chops and fry ‘em. Maybe the dogs would accept them. Other wise, your stuff is not even gibberish, just pure garbage from a goner.

Bye again for sure…

By BS Aplenty

September 26, 2008 3:11 PM | Link to this

Commander Guy

Not likely, lickspittle. THE Captain wishes he could write like me and I wish I were half as funny as he (is sometimes).

By AnonyMoose

September 26, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this

BS Aplenty, all along all we have heard from conservatives is that Amuricans don’t want or need an intellectual like Obama leading the nation. They need someone they can identify with. Now, you say he isn’t an intellectual. I guess it is kinda like when McCain said that Obama has never done anything in Congress, and then blamed Obama for everything bad that has happened in Congress. It’s ok to disagree with people, but geez guys, get your story straight and stick with it!

By diamond

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

Just for you, Ragnar, a program:

Bad Brad Yuckabilly Schtix Peyton Walters apolitical nutsac Atlas has ‘roids Barbershop Fartet Batchamamakoodles Brewy McSuds Beau L. Chevik copytheft Communist China Commrade (formerly Uncle) Sam Cracker McSnacker Crickets chirp, until the wind picks up Deva’s Tater Devastator’s former social studies teacher

Well, that’s enough for now. Have a good day everybody.

By Maniac is accurate

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

Just for you, Ragnar, a program:

Bad Brad Yuckabilly Schtix Peyton Walters apolitical nutsac Atlas has ‘roids Barbershop Fartet Batchamamakoodles Brewy McSuds Beau L. Chevik copytheft Communist China Commrade (formerly Uncle) Sam Cracker McSnacker Crickets chirp, until the wind picks up Deva’s Tater Devastator’s former social studies teacher

Well, that’s enough for now. Have a good day everybody.

By @@

September 26, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this

I love Captain Freedom’s posts.

He comes.

He sees.

He conquers.

@@ likes it a little rough, apparently.

Sure thing Mr. Lame

How unfortunate for you I didn’t have a key on my board to give you a little “ticky” above the “e” in lame.

I’ll have to leave you at plain old Lame.

By Devastator

September 26, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this

It’s a good thing McChicken decided to grow a pair. Now he can take his whippin’ like a man.

Obama/Biden in 08 baby!!!!!

By Devastator

September 26, 2008 3:43 PM | Link to this

Hooray for McChicken:

WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain agreed to attend the first presidential debate Friday night even though Congress doesn’t have a bailout deal, reversing an earlier decision to delay the event until Washington had taken action to address the crisis.

With less than 10 hours until the debate was scheduled to start, the McCain campaign announced that the Arizona senator would travel to the University of Mississippi. The campaign said that afterward McCain would return to Washington to continue working on the financial crisis.

Obama had always planned to attend the debate and was aboard his plane preparing to take off when McCain’s announcement was made. McCain quickly moved to his own private aircraft and headed South with his wife and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his wife, Judith, on board.

The action contradicted the position McCain had taken Wednesday, when he announced, “I’m directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the Commission on Presidential Debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.”

McCain had also said he would suspend all campaign activities, but in reality the campaign just shifted to Washington while the work of trying to win the election went on.

McCain had taken a gamble with the move, trying to appear above politics and as a leader on an issue that had overshadowed the presidential campaign and given him trouble. But Democratic rival Barack Obama had not bowed to McCain’s challenge, and instead questioned why the Republican nominee couldn’t handle two things at once — the debate and involvement in the bailout negotiations.

An Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll out Friday just before McCain’s announcement showed the public overwhelmingly wanted the candidates to debate, 60 percent to 22 percent, with the rest undecided.

By Maniac is accurate

September 26, 2008 3:43 PM | Link to this

Middle school let out already? How’s it going devastated?

By ghost rider

September 26, 2008 3:44 PM | Link to this

Us democrats and yes patriots are not the only ones in town who know a big monte scam when we see it, or for that matter notice what a joke Sarah Palin is!

A Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, an early supporter of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, said Friday recent interviews have shown the Alaska governor is “out of her league” and should leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party.

If she lasts into October I can hardly wait to see the Biden/Palin debate!

By Devastator

September 26, 2008 3:55 PM | Link to this

Maniac,

Yes, middle school is out. As a responsible principal, I had to expel your son again. He refused to stay in the special ed class.

By Bad Brad

September 26, 2008 3:58 PM | Link to this

Keep it up fuzzball about Palin. She’s going up a guy who says when the stock market crashed in ‘29 FDR (who wasn’t president) got on TV (which didn’t exist) to explain what happened. Yeah, your boy is primed. Whoo hoo. Boy, that Palin must be shaking in her high heels.

She’s going to kick his arse up one side of the street and down the other.

By Maniac is accurate

September 26, 2008 4:07 PM | Link to this

Good job. Didn’t know you had it in you.

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

September 26, 2008 4:09 PM | Link to this

Mike, the interview with Palin, by Katie Couric, was quite illuminating. Those Ruskies and their flying machines buzzing over Alaska, scaring the moose and Palin like that. Reprehensible! And trapped on the other side by that monster Canada. Awful! that moron wouldn’t know foreign policy if it fell on her!

By hotlanta

September 26, 2008 4:21 PM | Link to this

Hey Wooten. Just heard that Palin has gone jogging. I wouldn’t go too far if I was her because some PUMA members might be in the bushes to jum on her as she passes.

By hotlanta

September 26, 2008 4:21 PM | Link to this

Hey Wooten. Just heard that Palin has gone jogging. I wouldn’t go too far if I was her because some PUMA members might be in the bushes to jum on her as she passes.

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 4:24 PM | Link to this

**I will assume that one thing 9 out of 10 of us should be able to agree on is that W, under the mgmt of Dick, Rove, Rummy, Wolfowitz etc., easily qualifies as the worst president for us, the people, in US history, bar none. What some don’t realize is that the mission IS accomplished!—they have transferred already, let’s just say, the first $1,000,000,000,000 or so to their military industrial clients and masters (about whom even Eisenhower tried to warn us), and have stirred up enough mayhem to keep them sucking our blood indefinitely. This was absolutely necessary at the conclusion of the cold war, and I repeat, the mission has been accomplished. The same Reagan crowd which came back to finish the job under W worked closely with bin Laden in anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and couldn’t spend enough on bombs and chemicals for Saddam to create a bloodbath with Iran. Meanwhile Ollie N. was organizing death squads to go in and rape and murder women and children in Mayan villages in Guatemala to maintain the tiny white oligarchy, all in the name of killing commies for Christ, of course. Yes, sweet ol’ Ronnie was surrounded by the murderous scum of the earth, and I don‘t think he had a clue, even pre-dementia. He, like W, was just a useful idiot. Read about the most decorated marine of all, Gen. Smedley Butler, all you chicken hawks out there.

Kudos to the gentleman who so eloquently penned the wrestling post—intelligent man. We truly are a nation of sheep led by wolves.**

By findog

September 26, 2008 4:25 PM | Link to this

Maniac @3:09

Are you aware of the recidivism rate for name jacker’s? I am not sure you can be let loose in society after a mere few months. However considering your insightful addition to the blog we will keep you in the “need to read” mental column…

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 4:31 PM | Link to this

**I will assume that one thing 9 out of 10 of us should be able to agree on is that W, under the mgmt of Dick, Rove, Rummy, Wolfowitz etc., easily qualifies as the worst president for us, the people, in US history, bar none. What some don’t realize is that the mission IS accomplished!—they have transferred already, let’s just say, the first $1,000,000,000,000 or so to their military industrial clients and masters (about whom even Eisenhower tried to warn us), and have stirred up enough mayhem to keep them sucking our blood indefinitely. This was absolutely necessary at the conclusion of the cold war, and I repeat, the mission has been accomplished. The same Reagan crowd which came back to finish the job under W worked closely with bin Laden in anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and couldn’t spend enough on bombs and chemicals for Saddam to create a bloodbath with Iran. Meanwhile Ollie N. was organizing death squads to go in and rape and murder women and children in Mayan villages in Guatemala to maintain the tiny white oligarchy, all in the name of killing commies for Christ, of course. Yes, sweet ol’ Ronnie was surrounded by the murderous scum of the earth, and I don‘t think he had a clue, even pre-dementia. He, like W, was just a useful idiot. Read about the most decorated marine of all, Gen. Smedley Butler, all you chicken hawks out there.

Kudos to the gentleman who so eloquently penned the wrestling post—intelligent man. We truly are a nation of sheep led by wolves.**

By AmVet

September 26, 2008 4:32 PM | Link to this

@@, use the character map.

è

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By Maniac is accurate

September 26, 2008 4:34 PM | Link to this

It’s a one-day-at-a-time struggle. First you have to admit you are powerless over the urge to namejack. Then there’s rehab, meetings every day, coffee, cigarettes. It’s hell, but it’s the better way.

By Shanna

September 26, 2008 4:38 PM | Link to this

PALIN SHOULD STEP DOWN, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR SAYS

Posted: 03:27 PM ET

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Palin was in New York City Thursday. (CNN) – Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, an early supporter of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, said Friday recent interviews have shown the Alaska governor is “out of her league” and should leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party.

The criticism in Parker’s Friday column is the latest in a recent string of negative assessments toward the McCain-Palin candidacy from prominent conservatives.

It was fun while it lasted,” Parker writes. “Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who is clearly out of her league.”

Palin’s interview with Couric drew criticism when the Alaska governor was unable to provide an example of when John McCain had pushed for more regulation of Wall Street during his Senate career. Palin also took heat for defending her foreign policy credentials by suggesting Russian leaders enter Alaska airspace when they come to America. Palin was also criticized last week for appearing not to know what the Bush Doctrine is during an interview with Charlie Gibson.

“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself,” Parker also writes. “If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.”

Parker, who praised McCain’s “keen judgment” for picking Palin earlier this month and wrote the Alaska governor is a “perfect storm of God, Mom and apple pie,” now says Palin should step down from the ticket.

“Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves,” Parker writes. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first. Do it for your country.”

Parker’s comments follow those by prominent conservatives David Brooks, George Will, and David Frum who have all publicly questioned Palin’s readiness to be vice president.

“Sarah Palin has many virtues,” Brooks wrote in a recent column. “If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 4:39 PM | Link to this

I will assume that one thing 9 out of 10 of us should be able to agree on is that W, under the mgmt of Dick, Rove, Rummy, Wolfowitz etc., easily qualifies as the worst president for us, the people, in US history, bar none. What some don’t realize is that the mission IS accomplished!—they have transferred already, let’s just say, the first $1,000,000,000,000 or so to their military industrial clients and masters (about whom even Eisenhower tried to warn us), and have stirred up enough mayhem to keep them sucking our blood indefinitely. This was absolutely necessary at the conclusion of the cold war, and I repeat, the mission has been accomplished. The same Reagan crowd which came back to finish the job under W worked closely with bin Laden in anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and couldn’t spend enough on bombs and chemicals for Saddam to create a bloodbath with Iran. Meanwhile Ollie N. was organizing death squads to go in and rape and murder women and children in Mayan villages in Guatemala to maintain the tiny white oligarchy, all in the name of killing commies for Christ, of course. Yes, sweet ol’ Ronnie was surrounded by the murderous scum of the earth, and I don‘t think he had a clue, even pre-dementia. He, like W, was just a useful idiot. Read about the most decorated marine of all, Gen. Smedley Butler, all you chicken hawks out there.

Kudos to the gentleman who so eloquently penned the wrestling post—intelligent man.

By findog

September 26, 2008 4:41 PM | Link to this

And who is your sponsor? Are you text messaging them everyday? But for the grace of God there go I on another’s handle…

By Maniac is accurate

September 26, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this

Frank Caliendo.

By Captain Freedom

September 26, 2008 4:49 PM | Link to this

THE Captain returns from his double super secret mission to save the economy, and having successfully almost achieved His stated goal, is now back to share with His legions the fruits of his experience via the Internet tubes.

First off, let THE Captain say that nothing could be farther from the truth than to say that Johnny Maverick distracted the assembled grandees from their stated purpose of funding a massive bailout of the guys who ran the no longer in existence investment banks onto the rocks. Because aside from a smattering of applause from some Capitol tourists who were shocked to see that the Johnny Maverick they see on TV was actually a remnant of a flesh and blood human being (and not some poorly programmed animatronic reject from an unfinished Golden Girls theatrical release), nobody there paid him any attention whatsoever.

In fact, Our Leader told St John to “wipe that damn smirk off your face, gimpy, or I’ll have Laura cut off Cindy’s Xanax supply” every time he had a chance; Our Leader seemed to revel in humiliating St John, much like a dog trainer enjoys smearing a dog’s nose in its own feces. Other than that, everyone except Lieberman and Lindsay Graham avoided the old guy like a tranny with crabs.

Now this was quite the shocker to THE Captain, who had long assumed that Johnny Maverick drew the same level of blind adoration in DC as he does from folks like Wooten and Dusty. Imagine His surprise when THE Captain saw GOP senators and reps scurry like cockroaches in the light whenever the McCain posse rolled through the hallways. Consider, if you will, THE Captain’s shock at hearing the sniggers of derision and at seeing Sam Brownback walking like Frankenstein’s monster as he mocked McCain’s rictus-like arm waving. It was as if scales had fallen from THE Captain’s eyes.

And this led THE Captain to begin to question his faith in St John of Hanoi to serve as a suitable successor for Our Leader and as placeholder in The House of Bush until such time as the Dauphins Jeb and Neil can take their rightful places. THE Captain, needing spiritual succor, fell to bended knee in the Senate men’s room, and once He finished off Larry Craig, got down to some serious prayifying.

Dear Lord saith THE Capatin. Prithee give THE Captain strength to know thine will, and give unto Him a sign that thee approves of Johnny Maverick to googla bandoweena positron knick knack paddywhack ongla partito quod licet bovi.

Amen. (THE Captain says amen extra loud so people know He has been praying super duper hard. He also scrinches his eyes real tight while He prays to show how hard He is prayin. It also helps block out the sight of Larry Craig coming back for more.)

And thus lo and verily came upon THE Captain a sticky spray of faith and understanding. Knowing full well that Our Leader’s greatest gift lay in scaring the bejeebers out of Our Sinful Nation so that he might impose the Will of Cheney, THE Captain saw that St John is indeed the Man of the Hour. For while he lacks the subtle gift of finding just that pressure point that will make America dirty Our Knickers and playing it like a cheap violin, St John has that rare gift of combustive and irrational volatility and shallow intellect that should scare the living cr@p out of any human being within shouting range. And thus shall We be kept in the warm, loving embrace of the Fatherland that will protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Even from Ourselves.

So saith THE Captain, and it is very true.

By @@

September 26, 2008 4:53 PM | Link to this

AmVet:

@@, use the character map.

That would’ve spoiled my fun now, wouldn’t it?

I had the character “mop” down just fine.

By Captain Freedom

September 26, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this

A brief Captain Kudo to BS Aplenty. It is true that THE Captain often aspires to your writerly skill level, especially on those occasions when He wishes people to believe Him an incoherent buffoon. THE Captain finds the BS Aplenty style is perfect for this mission of camoflage, though He is certainly unable to match the BS knack for spittle flecked prose that would make even Newt Gingrich ashamed.

By Agent Smith, Secret Service

September 26, 2008 5:03 PM | Link to this

Craptain Freedumb, did you inform Sen. Craig of your HIV-positive status? He says you did not and that could mean a felony charge against you. Detective Snodgrass of the DC police is here to speak with you. Step this way, sir.

By @@

September 26, 2008 5:08 PM | Link to this

Thanks for weighing in Captain. You remind me of another poster from some time back.

Mildly perverse, highly intellectual, very entertaining with an independent streak from which he couldn’t be pried.

Rolled in like a thundercloud pouring forth a deluge.

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 5:08 PM | Link to this

“…that rare gift of combustive and irrational volatility and shallow intellect…” [not to mention superhuman intransigence and unshakable resolve once locked into his irreversible gut decisions]—excellent, cappy, the whole post!

By catlady

September 26, 2008 5:17 PM | Link to this

What would the lack of a bailout mean for the common person? (Common person: No mortgage (either paid off or a renter), no debt, no line of credit or chargecards, no stocks and bonds, no IRA) Can someone tell me that?

By Commander Guy

September 26, 2008 5:37 PM | Link to this

A question for constitutional scholars:

If McCain has suffered as stroke, or is in the advanced stages of metastatic melanoma, and were to die or become incapacitated before the election, who would run in his place? Is Palin automatic?

If he should win, and die before the inauguration, who would become president?

I ask because there is visible evidence that something is wrong with guy. Not his behavior, which has always been too weird to provide a useful baseline, but his actual deteriorating physical condition should be addressed and fast.

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 5:49 PM | Link to this

i would expect that pelosi would serve interim, then veep would be sworn in and subsequently assume presidency — scary thought (who would stand behind the throne to call shots, todd?) if i’m wrong, correct me.

By Stop Pretending!

September 26, 2008 5:51 PM | Link to this

I appreciate what the soldier McCain went through in Vietnam. But this is the U.S., not Vietnam and with all due respect, Sen. McCain is a coward now. Why? Because he allowed the Republican party to put out the rumor four years that he had an illegitimate black child and ruined his chances for the White House then. He basically came back and said, “thank, you republicans can I have another”. He allowed his party to choose his running mate for this election. Don’t be deceived that he made such an “brilliant” move on his own. He wanted Lieberman, but the party said no. Now he has to watch this woman on television say that because she can see Russia from the area it makes her familiar with foreign policy. He is allowing them to make a complete fool of him through this election. Mitt Romney’s speech at the convention was not supporting McCain, it was preparing himself to run again in four years. I would call him a maverick if he had choosen the running mate he wanted and if he ran his campaign as a true referendum for change. I don’t know if I would have voted for him, but I would have at least respected him.

By mike yerocsci

September 26, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this

let me correct myself—bush would serve out, then maybe pelosi would assume office long enough to swear in the beauty queen… hell i don’t know, barrack’s the constitutional law prof

By Stone

September 26, 2008 6:21 PM | Link to this

@@ thanks for remembering me! I’m flattered.

By Harris

September 26, 2008 6:27 PM | Link to this

Who is this Mike Yerosci idiot and why does he keep pressing the botton that says please wait? If he can’t figure that out, why should anything he has to say be pondered?

By Captain Freedom

September 26, 2008 7:26 PM | Link to this

THE Captain returns from his double super secret mission to save the economy, and having successfully almost achieved His stated goal, is now back to share with His legions the fruits of his experience via the Internet tubes.

First off, let THE Captain say that nothing could be farther from the truth than to say that Johnny Maverick distracted the assembled grandees from their stated purpose of funding a massive bailout of the guys who ran the no longer in existence investment banks onto the rocks. Because aside from a smattering of applause from some Capitol tourists who were shocked to see that the Johnny Maverick they see on TV was actually a remnant of a flesh and blood human being (and not some poorly programmed animatronic reject from an unfinished Golden Girls theatrical release), nobody there paid him any attention whatsoever.

In fact, Our Leader told St John to “wipe that damn smirk off your face, gimpy, or I’ll have Laura cut off Cindy’s Xanax supply” every time he had a chance; Our Leader seemed to revel in humiliating St John, much like a dog trainer enjoys smearing a dog’s nose in its own feces. Other than that, everyone except Lieberman and Lindsay Graham avoided the old guy like a tranny with crabs.

Now this was quite the shocker to THE Captain, who had long assumed that Johnny Maverick drew the same level of blind adoration in DC as he does from folks like Wooten and Dusty. Imagine His surprise when THE Captain saw GOP senators and reps scurry like cockroaches in the light whenever the McCain posse rolled through the hallways. Consider, if you will, THE Captain’s shock at hearing the sniggers of derision and at seeing Sam Brownback walking like Frankenstein’s monster as he mocked McCain’s rictus-like arm waving. It was as if scales had fallen from THE Captain’s eyes.

And this led THE Captain to begin to question his faith in St John of Hanoi to serve as a suitable successor for Our Leader and as placeholder in The House of Bush until such time as the Dauphins Jeb and Neil can take their rightful places. THE Captain, needing spiritual succor, fell to bended knee in the Senate men’s room, and once He finished off Larry Craig, got down to some serious prayifying.

Dear Lord saith THE Capatin. Prithee give THE Captain strength to know thine will, and give unto Him a sign that thee approves of Johnny Maverick to googla bandoweena positron knick knack paddywhack ongla partito quod licet bovi.

Amen. (THE Captain says amen extra loud so people know He has been praying super duper hard. He also scrinches his eyes real tight while He prays to show how hard He is prayin. It also helps block out the sight of Larry Craig coming back for more.)

And thus lo and verily came upon THE Captain a sticky spray of faith and understanding. Knowing full well that Our Leader’s greatest gift lay in scaring the bejeebers out of Our Sinful Nation so that he might impose the Will of Cheney, THE Captain saw that St John is indeed the Man of the Hour. For while he lacks the subtle gift of finding just that pressure point that will make America dirty Our Knickers and playing it like a cheap violin, St John has that rare gift of combustive and irrational volatility and shallow intellect that should scare the living cr@p out of any human being within shouting range. And thus shall We be kept in the warm, loving embrace of the Fatherland that will protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Even from Ourselves.

So saith THE Captain, and it is very true.

By Do the Math

September 29, 2008 11:13 AM | Link to this

Jim, your article doesn’t make any sense.

Why should Republican representatives vote for this bill? It goes against everything that is conservative. Or do you mean that Democrats should vote and pass the bill to save the banks and then Repulicans can use this vote against the Dems in November elections?

The government oversight is definately needed but to buy unwanted assets sight unseen (bundled with intentional complexity) is the worst deal in history and should not be accepted.

Sure the banks need to be propped up, but tax payers must know what we are buying.