Fee Fi Fo Frum...

Great story in the WaPo on McCain and Republican party today. Article is written by David Frum, the once star speech writer of Bush who coined the phrase 'Axis of Evil'.

Frum says McCain's sorry campaign threatens to bring down the entire Republican Party. Apparently, it is reverberating down the ballot and putting a lot of U.S. Rep, Senate and statehouse seats at risk -- even those that were thought safe. Frum is warning against the Palin part of the party, the only ones energized, fretting that it will kill the Repubs chances of holding onto congressional seats. Here's a sample from the story:

"The themes and messages that are galvanizing the crowds for Palin are bleeding Sens. John Sununu in New Hampshire, Gordon Smith in Oregon, Norm Coleman in Minnesota and Susan Collins in Maine. The Palin approach might have been expected to work better in more traditionally conservative states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, but they have not worked well enough to compensate for the weak Republican economic message at a moment of global financial crisis."

Frum says Obama will win and that Republicans should just acknowledge it and starting warning against one-party rule and power. (Apparently, it was okay when that one-party rule was Republican.) He also seems to be warning that the more moderate voices in the party will have to have a Come To Jesus Meeting with the Shitte Baptists wing-nuts if they are going to rebuild. I would pay to have a ticket to that meeting as I see some good entertainment value there.

Find Frum's story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302081.html?nav=rss_print/outlook

Can you say "adavan"?

Back in the blog-saddle with more observations about this crazy campaign season. I am worried on many fronts this beautiful Sunday (have just phoned in a refill for my adavan prescription): the impending financial meltdown, McSame and Pit-Bull Palin's nasty stump speeches, Obama's safety and security and the burn on the roof of my mouth from a steamy Hot Pocket. Not necessarily in that order.

Melting down like Hot Velveeta.
I went to my bank yesterday to cash a check. As I stood in line, I tried to imagine what a financial "meltdown" would look like. Is it putting your ATM card in the machine and getting poopie back instead of cash? Is it walking down Main Street and watching all the shops shutter windows and put out signs that say "Closed due to Meltdown." These signs are going in place of other signs that used to say "Meltdown Markdowns --80% off!"

I came out of this reverie when I began to notice that everyone in line was making withdrawals. No one was panicked or even stressed. They were just quietly, silently making a run on the bank. After cashing my check, I too made a sizable withdrawal. And that, I fear, is what is going on in every bank in every community. It's the "well, what if..." scenario. As in well, what if the close all the banks and freeze you out of making withdrawals, then what? Even though deposits are insured, what if the gov. decides to dole it out to you slowly because of the meltdown? Okay, can you say a-d-a-v-a-n?

McNasty and the Dirty Dog.
I really never thought they would stoop as low as they have. Okay, Sarah Palin is an amateur, so maybe I'm not surprised by her. But we really do expect more from Mr. Country First. McCain's big question of the week was not, "How will we fix this financial mess?" but "Who is the real Barrack Obama?" McCain-Palin (McPain) are actually trying to turn this race into one about Obama's character. Can you believe it? Here's a guy who dumped his first wife after she was in an accident and still in the hospital recovering; and here's a woman who abused her power in Alaska to try and settle a family score, and THEY are talking character?

I don't think this will work with the Independent voters, but watching these two get down in the gutter in their stump speeches this past week has been unsettling. Palin has especially pumped up the violent rhetoric by saying Obama is "pallin' around with terrorists" and that he is "not a man who sees America the way you and I see America." Also at a Palin rally, a Florida sheriff in full black uniform (scary) used Obama's full name "Barrack Hussein Obama" as he went into a rant about him.

It sounds like Joe McCarthy is alive and well -- just substitute the word "communist" with "terrorist."

Another thought: these violent rallies sound best in their original language. That would be German. As in Nazi Germany.

Obama, please wear a helmet.
I want Barrack Obama to start wearing a bullet-proof vest and a motorcycle helmet when he goes out now because since Flailin' Palin and McShame have been out there stirring up the angry masses, it has spread like a cancer. We already know that people in the crowds were shouting "Kill him!" in reference to Obama. And I'm afraid with all the panic in the air right now, some nut out there just might think he should take a shot at Obama. I just saw a story from Time.com that said the head of the Virginia GOP party is telling campaign workers to compare Obama to Osama. Here's an excerpt:

He (state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick) climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.

These extremists Republicans are out there stoking the fires and pouring gas on the flames at a time when there is a great deal of angst and panic in the air about what shoe is going to drop next in this economy. When some psychopathic, gun-loving redneck loses his job next week and begins to think Obama might be to blame, the "Kill him" rhetoric could take on a life of its own.

Okay, my Hot Pocket has cooled, and I need to eat a bite. But mainly, I have a drug-store errand to do.
Later.

McCain and his too-tight Depends

McCain's Depends were a little too tight on Friday night.  As a result, Grandpa Cranky-Pants was a little too angry overall.  

Of course he had a lot to be angry about.  His ploy on Wednesday to "suspend" his campaign was  sub-prime bullshit, and he stepped in the pile of it.  His surrogates and political ads stayed on TV.  None of his campaign offices were closed. And he gave a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York and met with Bono (Bono - the celebrity).  

He HAD to pull this stunt to say, "Hey look at the shiny thing over here.  Don't look at Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric.  Don't read about my campaign manager being on the payroll of Freddie Mac. Don't look at the polls that have me dropping like a stone. Look at me, I'm being a Maverick!"   

Instead of staying in D.C. until a bailout agreement was hammed out, McCranky's advisors said he had no choice but to show up at the debate.  So, he was pissed and left to direct his anger at Russia, Iran and all the other foreign bad guys -- and, of course, Obama. I loved his snide remarks about how Obama didn't "understand" how foreign policy works.  I only wish Obama would have been more aggressive in his answers.   Unfortunately, Obama now has to walk this fine line between responding and not looking like a scary, black man that might frighten Joe and Jane Six-pack out there in Peoria.

In the end, the polls picked up on how angry McSame was and seemed to agree that Obama was the winner of the debate.  Can America be wising up?  

Let's not get crazy here.

Congress is screwing us

Just read that Nancy Pelosi said a deal is near on the bailout.  

Of course it is.  The Senators and Congressmen/women are saving their own arses.  

According to Bloomberg.com, 56 members of Congress had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or Bear Sterns.  (Their source is the Center for Responsive Politics.) 

Some of the big names:  Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of AIG stock.  John Kerry's wife Teresa Heinz had more than $2-million of AIG stock at the end of 2007 where shares were worth $58.30.  And these are Democrats.

Rep. Robin Hayes, a South Carolina Republican, had Congress' biggest AIG stake.  His stock was worth between $2.8 million and $11.5  million.  

They've been yanking our chain all week just to make it look good for them.   

So bend over and take it like a man, woman, sheep, whatever.

“We did this to protect the taxpayer” and other funny stuff.

As I listen to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, along with Bush, Bernake and various senators and congressmen talk about the financial crisis on TV, I am struck by how they all use the same terms, as if they have a list of talking points:

It’s “toxic debt” and a plan needs to be passed “quick and clean.” And, “It is necessary to act and act now, or face catastrophe.” And my personal favorite from Paulson: “We did this to protect the taxpayer.”

I really had to laugh over that last one. Because if you believe this “plan” is going to protect anyone except the Wall Street titans and the government that works for them, then I have some sub-prime B.S. I’d like to sell you, too.

Don’t know about you but I get a queasy feeling when the Bush Admin. pushes hard to sell something on the Sunday morning talk shows. You remember: Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and let’s hope the smoking gun doesn’t come in the form of a mushroom cloud. Or how about this one: The U.S. government doesn’t torture. (We just send people off to those countries that do.)

Barney Frank (Dem. From Mass.) added more flavor on CBS’ Face the Nation: "What they told us was the contagion here and the depression in the market was such that you were going to see a shutdown of the lending businesses not just on Wall Street but for all Americans."

A shut down of credit? In America?! That is major pants-pooping material!

The other thing I find frightening about this Brazilian-dollar bail out is that apparently the “assets” will be managed by the very people who got us into this mess in the first place.

Writing in his column at Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald calls what is happening a crime. He brings up some profound points:

“What is more intrinsically corrupt than allowing people to engage in high-reward/no-risk capitalism -- where they reap tens of millions of dollars and more every year while their reckless gambles are paying off, only to then have the Government shift their losses to the citizenry at large once their schemes collapse? We've retroactively created a win-only system where the wealthiest corporations and their shareholders are free to gamble for as long as they win and then force others who have no upside to pay for their losses. 

 Watching Wall St. erupt with an orgy of celebration on Friday after it became clear the Government (i.e., you) would pay for their disaster was literally nauseating, as the very people who wreaked this havoc are now being rewarded. 

More amazingly, they're free to walk away without having to disgorge their gains; at worst, they're just ‘forced’ to walk away without any further stake in the gamble. How can these bailouts not at least be categorically conditioned on the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains from those who are responsible? … Why should those who so fantastically profited from these schemes they couldn't support walk away with their gains?

This is ‘redistribution of wealth’ and ‘government takeover of industry’ on the grandest scale imaginable -- the buzz-phrases that have been thrown around for decades to represent all that is evil and bad in the world. That's all this is; it's not an "investment" by the Government in any real sense but just a magical transfer of losses away from those who are responsible for these losses to those who aren't.” 

Funny stuff, huh?

The Mattress is Our Friend

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Mother of God! Close the money market, and start stuffing the mattress.

Just read in the NY Times that in some of the money market accounts like the Reserve Primary Fund (the very people who invented the MMF) one dollar is now only worth .97. In Wall Street lingo, this fund "broke the buck," which never happens in what is supposed to be a safe place to put your money. The fund has stopped all withdrawals for seven days. And you thought it was your money.

Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Fannie & Freddie, WaMu and soon to be Morgan Stanley -- all road kill on the freeway of the free market. In this year of firsts, we have just witnessed another chapter for the history books: Basically this Republican government has nationalized our economy. They out-Roosevelted Roosevelt. It's socialism for the wealthy, and the free market for the rest of us. I hope I can get a piece of this bailout action for my upside down mortgage, car loan and credit card. Where do I sign up?

Can you believe it? All those brokers and traders at the aforementioned firms were watching the value of their companies crash before their very eyes, squirming in the starch of their shirts, when some guy walks in and says the nine most welcomed words in the English language:

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.

(If you know that famous Ronald Reagan quote from the 1980s, you will appreciate the irony.)

And what of the media and our Prez candidates? How are they handling these "what the hell just happened to my 401k" moments? CNBC and the dear, old print media are actually doing a great job of staying on top of developments and explaining things the best they can. Problem is, no one really knows what or how bad this is. Yet, in the middle of this economic crisis -- probably the worst since the 1930s -- the broadcast and cable media is still obsessed with the polls between Obama and McCain. Go figure.

As for the candidates, McSame wants to fire the chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission, except that -- oops -- a president doesn't have the power to do that. Presidents nominate and the Senate confirms the SEC chair. As a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission, this person (Chris Cox) cannot be removed by the president.

McPain said he opposed a federal bail out of AIG a couple of days ago (economy's fundamentals were "strong," he said); then he changed his mind after the government change its mind. So he was against it before he was for it. Joe Biden called Johnny Mc's ideas The Bridge to Nowhere. tee hee.

We will await Obama's "new ideas" on how to fix this mess on Friday in Florida. Obama has a real opportunity here to steal the show and crush McSame. Let's hope he steps up to the plate.

Meanwhile Sarah McPalin can still see Russia from her house, and it's looking better everyday.

One of the blogs I read today asked if capitalism was dead now. A week ago, who thought we would actually pause to think about that? The answer is probably "no" but still, don't buy any stocks right now -- unless it's in a mattress company.

The Conventions - brought to you by...

Feelings about the conventions: to me both felt like one big awful infomercial-propaganda show brought to you by (insert corporate name here). Thankfully, our long national nightmare-mini-series of DNC and RNC is over, and the blow-hard pundits can return to their respective corporate media posts where everyone talks and no one listens.

Don't know if you listen to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now (the only real journalism left in this country except for Bill Moyers), but besides being arrested at the RNC (Amy, you're my hero), she did a behind-the-scenes report on who the corporate sponsors were and who had the fancy sky boxes and parties. Apparently AT&T was one of the largest sponsors at both conventions. Maybe they had a "Thanks for the Immunity" party for their part in spying on the American people illegally. Journalist Matt Cooper (formerly of Time) in his blog at portfolio.com even goes so far as to call it the Corporate Conventions and said so many corporations were represented at the DNC and RNC that you'd think you were at a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Also: Captain Morgan's Rum mascot was there as the official "pourer" at both conventions. Captain Morgan, by the way, is putting the party back into politics. And if he doesn't, Larry Craig will.

As for Sara Palin (aka, Caribou Barbie), what a pathetic display of cynicism by McCain and his dark master, Karl Rove. Apparently Rove convinced McCain he must pander to the right wing of the Repubs (aka, the shiite Baptists) to get them to turn out for him in this election. So McCain abides by Satan Rove's desires and picks an anti-choice, anti-gay, gun-toting, Baby Jesus-loving Pentecostal. It's the right wing's same, old, tired agenda. I call it the 4 Gs: Guns, God, Gays and Gynecology.

Stay tuned. The party's just getting started.