"Suspend your campaign until you get control of it."

K.O. chews McKlan's ass but good.

QE2 bids farewell to America this week

Possibly of interest to some, and you know who you are...

LATimes

After leaving New York for the last time, the Queen Elizabeth 2, the world's best-known passenger ship, will eventually head to Dubai to become a floating hotel and museum.

A pipe and drum corps, flotilla of pleasure craft and other fanfare in New York will give Cunard Line's QE2 a nostalgic send-off for her 806th and final transatlantic crossing on Thursday (Oct. 16). Accompanying the ship on her six-night voyage to Southampton, England, will be her glamorous younger sister, 4-year-old Queen Mary 2.

For details on the QE2's New York farewell, visit the "Royal Rendezvous" page of Cunard's website.

Bon Voyage to a beautiful, classy old lady.

Finding the upside

Mark Morford (I swear, at first glance I thought the title was "More booze and coke". Oh hell yeah! Heh.). Many links.

What's the matter, patriot? Don't enjoy seeing your stock portfolio slashed in half for greed-obsessed reasons beyond your control? None too pleased with how much of your 401(k) account has burned to a crisp, like John McCain's ethical boundaries? Home worth a fraction of what you paid and the neighbors have all moved away as squads of homeless people now squat in the 350K tract-McMansion next door, staring a mite too hungrily at your dog?

Housewives! Have you taken to the online message boards recently, posting bleak, depressing notes of fear and uncertainty after your husband lost his job of 20 years and the kids are asking uncomfortable questions? Or maybe you're one of the super-wealthy, quaking in your Upper East Side Gucci riding boots over the collapse of your family fortune and self-esteem and who, pray who, will polish the fleet of Aston Martins?

Do you know this feeling? The sense that the bumbling, squinty-faced dude in the White House is about to step down, and this wrecked economy, this decimated nation, this toxic sickness will be his final parting gift, like some sort of nasty STD he and his cronies passed on to you, while you didn't even realize you were getting royally screwed?

(Side note to China: Those secret plans to invade America? Now is the time. We're totally helpless. You own most of our debt anyway. Can you bring extra iPods and some decent dim sum? Thank you.)

As for Republicans, well, they have good reason to smile, too, even if it's one of those creepy sidelong sneers akin to Dick Cheney eating a live cobra.

I'd pay good money to see that rasslin' match! And pity the cobra if it won and had to eat Cheney. Yuck.

Much more. Enjoy.

And just as an aside, speaking of Cheney - a word of praise and encouragement for a-fib. I hope it jolts that motherfucker right out of his socks and straight to Hell. That would really be an upside.

Roasting Krugman

Paul Krugman's colleagues are having a ball raking him over the coals - in the good way - so far - in response to his Nobel Prize. I'm enjoying it too.

From Mr. Krugman's own blog:

The truth comes out

Andy Borowitz knows!

From Borowitz:

Krugman Could Turn into Massive Douchebag, Colleagues Fear

At one point, one of his fellow economists asked him a question about credit default swaps, to which Mr. Krugman reportedly snapped, "Credit default swaps can suck my ass -- I'm Paul Fucking Krugman!"

Mr. Krugman could not be reached for comment and instead referred all questions to his publicist, Sherri Hefstein, whom he hired minutes after winning the Nobel.

According to Ms. Hefstein, Mr. Krugman plans to spend the next few months "building his brand" and will be adapting his book, International Economics: Theory and Policy, into a feature film to star George Clooney.

MoDo gets in on the act:

I'm not sending Paul Krugman Champagne.

He won the Nobel prize in economics this week, and while I’m sure that’s delightful for him, it has raised the bar to an impossible height for his fellow columnists at The Times. We used to strive for Pulitzers,or simply regional awards, or even just try to top each other on the paper’s most e-mailed list.

Now we’re supposed to compete for Nobels?

It’s a total disaster. Any minute, Krugman might swagger into the office wearing that big old 24-karat-gold-plated medal around his neck like a World Wrestling championship belt, talking about how beautiful Sweden is.

So I must aim higher. Much higher.

A Nobel in economics is out. I didn’t take economics in college because all the classes started at 8 a.m. Physics, chemistry and medicine are out. Literature? They’ve given up giving it to Americans. So it’s going to have to be the Nobel Peace Prize.

Go see how much 'higher' she aimed. She ain't gonna win no Nobel for it, but she did win a prize: Gordon's Combination Shoveling Shit Against The Tide And Why Bother Award. Heh.

McCain's unraveling began with Palin

Bob Shrum

As he lurches toward November, McCain’s Palin experience is the political equivalent of a lost college weekend—that wacky, self-indulgent party where you tied one on and spent the night with the wrong date. It’s fun for a moment. But then comes morning and a hangover and—oh no—the wrong person is still there.

You wake up with her head on your arm and chew your arm off to get away so you won't wake her.

Oh noes!!!!!!1

Angry black people!!!! Digby notices the Rethug blowhards aren't even trying to hide it anymore:

...

Wow. I've written quite a bit about the particular form of American racism that manifests itself in fear of the black mob but I haven't seen it expressed quite so starkly though in a couple of decades.

...

Running late; had to kick the Mrs. out at the airport. Don't worry, I slowed down to 20 mph before I made her jump. Heh ...

Off to work ...

Pallin' around ...

McCain does it:

A lobbyist for Saddam Hussein is the head of McCain’s "transition" team.

Mideast anti-Americanism doesn't apply to Harley-Davidsons

This video shows Mideast HOG (Harley Owners Group) members expounding on their choice of sled. One wonders if halal dietary restrictions ever come into play if you eat the thing in a crash...

Accompanying article at the LATimes

"My mind just clears," says Rakan Talal, a 26-year-old from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, who was among a small but fervent crew of hog fanatics converging on Lebanon the first weekend of October for the country's first Harley-Davidson tour. "I don't think about anything. Just the road and feeling the wind. Riding on two wheels is something else. Riding a bike makes it all feel better."

Yes it does. Some things are universal.

I have maintained for 30 years that if everybody rode motorcycles, there wouldn't be any more wars. Here's my Cold War scenario, which could be updated for any clime and place:

A US Army rider in Germany, eastbound, is broke down by the side of the road. While he's on his knees investigating the problem he glances a hundred yards up the road and sees a Russian rider, westbound, also broke down by the side of the road, also on his knees investigating his problem. In a moment frozen in time, the Russian is looking back at him.

Both soldiers have the same thought: well, I ain't gettin' anywhere with this broke down piece o' shit anyway. Might as well try something else.

Both men lock and load, get to their feet, and approach one another warily, weapons at the ready just in case. The American G.I. breaks the ice:

"Hey, Ivan, ya got a 530 master link? Fuckin' chain broke."

"Da. Iss your lucky day, Tovarisch. Trade you for a set of points. The People's Points are donkey waste. I think a set from one of your Tschevies will fit."

"Yeah, a Chevy six. Same kind this sled takes. Got 'em."

The deal is done. The soldiers team up and help each other make repairs. Along the way, bottles of vodka and bourbon are broken out and shared. Talk turns to thoughts of home, girls, good food, and how totally fucked the whole idea of war is.

After a longer time than necessary, the soldiers regrettably part and go their separate ways, now brothers of the road instead of enemies. Like they should be.

Ah, to dream...

"Nailin' Palin" due soon. Can I pre-order?

I will just throw this line from Raw Story out there:

Publisher Larry Flynt has announced that Hustler is releasing a porn film featuring a Sarah Palin lookalike and a tank full of stranded Russian soldiers.

The line "Ah, my little bublichki" popped into my head. Don't ask me why...

Many of our other favorite characters are parodied in the movie as well. Normally I wouldn't direct you to a Fixed News video, but don't miss the one at the link.

Update:

Stole this from The Exile. The devil made me do it...

Quote of the Day

Reggie at TVNewsLies on the bigoted hateful ignorance of McCain-Palin supporters at recent McKlan rallies:

But then again I remember that they hate us for our freedoms.

Teh stupid ...

It burns:

Stolen from Dr. Fez-head. Click pic to turn this guy into a bigger moron.

Indeed!

As Digby says, the banking mess and health care go hand-in-hand:

I was skeptical that health care would actually be tackled in a Democratic first term without a recession driving it and now, for obvious reasons, I think it may actually happen. Polls are showing that the economy and health care are the two top issues in the election.

The fact is that they are intertwined. The American system of employer based health care is falling apart. Big companies are being squeezed by retiree health benefits and small businesses are drowning in health care costs. And needless to say, being unemployed means saying goodbye to your health insurance (or COBRA costs that are obscene.) Add that to the huge number of underinsured and uninsured and you have the makings of a full fledged emergency. [my em]

...

Most certainly.

Big Healthcare and Big Pharma have been allowed to run as wild as the mortgage industry and it's time for them to be reined in as well. Health care shouldn't be an employer-based system. It should be a single-payer (government) affair, government keeping costs low by negotiating volume pricing with Pharma (as Canada and most European nations do). The day health care became a 'for-profit' industry (thank you President Reagan) foreshadowed whis crisis. It serves no one's interest when it costs $500 - $1000 just to walk into an emergency room (a lot of homes that are in foreclosure are there as a result of a health care issue that swamped the owners' finances). It serves no one's interest when people go bankrupt because of a health care issue.

It is time to do away with private health insurance and impose stricter regulation on the health care industry as a whole. The American middle class (and that includes small business) will never be able to regain its footing unless health care is addressed in the same breath as the financial crisis.

How cool ...

Is that? North Dakota is a "statistical tossup".

... This is yet another reliably Republican state that McCain can't lock down ...

Quote of the Day

The one and only Nucks:

According to the NYT, Bush has decided to drop North Korea off the Axis of Evil list.
I propose that President Obama replace it with the Republican Party immediately.

...

Amen, pal.

Just...Yeesh

Raw Story

If your fender says Change, don't park here.

A parking lot owner in Gibsonville, NC, decided supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama are no longer welcome to use his property, WFMY's Julia Bagg reported.

Lot owner Tim Henderson posted two identical signs that warned: 'no parking' for Obama supporters or people with Obama bumper stickers."

"I don't expect to go after anybody with a baseball bat," Henderson said. "I would grin at them and laugh and ask them if they could read English."

I, cur (pronounced 'sir'), would grin and ask if you can speak English with a fat lip and no teeth. What a fuckin' asshole.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Paulson Optimistic Economy Will Turn Around
Cites encouraging e-mail from Nigeria.

Americans Looking for New Start
Pile possessions on car roofs, head for California.

Oh fucking swell...

Record 90% Believe Country on Wrong Track
But only 40% intend to vote.

McCain Reveals Plan to Save Economy
Revive poll tax.

Watermelon Found to Have Viagra-Like Effects
Ask your doctor if watermelon is right for you.

Is it available in suppository form?

Much more. Enjoy.

Congrats!

NYTimes

STOCKHOLM, Oct 13 (Reuters) - American economist Paul Krugman won the 2008 Nobel prize for economics for bringing together analysis of trade patterns and where economic activity takes place, the prize committee said on Monday.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the prestigious 10 million crown ($1.4 million) prize recognised Krugman's formulation of a new theory to answer questions driving world-wide urbanisation.

"He has thereby integrated the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography," the committee said in its statement.

Yeah, what they said.

Congratulations, Mr. Krugman. For what it's worth, you also get my portion of the Alternate Brain Not-So-Nobel Prize for explaining that economics shit in terms I can almost understand.

Repugs in trouble

P.M. Carpenter

Republicans Have Bigger Problems than John McCain's Dying Campaign

Indeed! And thanks to them, so do the rest of us.

I'm a watchful admirer of journalistic understatements, and this weekend brought us these: "Republican leaders said Saturday that they were worried Mr. McCain was heading for defeat unless he brought stability to his presidential candidacy and … they were concerned that he and his advisers seemed to be adrift."

And that, my friends, was the equivalent of White Star Line saying on April 15, 1912, that one of their ships seemed to be in a spot of trouble.

I love cruise ship references! It's all Fixer's fault...

"Yet, as we know, Republicans are as addicted to Rovian junk as much as their supply-side product. Like most degenerate addicts, however, they believe a sudden, cold-turkey withdrawal from both self-destructive habits could prove fatal. The opposite, of course, is true -- in fact it's their only hope of survival. Whether they wise up and sober up is the only suspense left."

The choice Mr. Carpenter leaves out is one that us ex-drunks know about: they could just die and save us the fucking drama.

Channel Changer

From The American Prospect via Avedon.

For years, liberals thought they could catch up in media by playing by conservatives' rules. Rachel Maddow's success proves it's better to just change the game.

Maddow is not a Tim Russert or a Chris Matthews--an ostensibly nonpartisan interviewer who badgers politicians and policy-makers about contradictions in their records. Nor is she a Rush Limbaugh or a Glenn Beck--an attack dog who deals in calculated anger, bluster, and outrage. She's no mild-mannered liberal like Alan Colmes or a veteran observer like Wolf Blitzer or David Gregory. Maddow has broken the broadcasting mold. She has succeeded as an avowed liberal on television precisely because she is not a liberal version of conservatives like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Unlike so many progressive media figures who sought to replicate the on-air habits of the aggressive shock jocks of the right, she stumbled upon a workable style for the left. She is liberal without apology or embarrassment, bases her authority on a deep comprehension of policy rather than the culture warrior's claim to authenticity, and does it all with a light, even slightly mocking, touch. She proves that liberals can attract viewers on television when they actually act like, well, liberals.

If I liked Rachel any more than I do, there'd be a restraining order against me.

Much more. Also a bit on our loudmouth Mom, Randi Rhodes. Enjoy.

Payment is due ...

Via Avedon, Robert Parry with an informative article on our excesses over the last 30 years and how the bill has finally come due:

After a 28-year binge of drunken optimism and blind nationalism – often punctuated by chants of "USA, USA!" and "We’re No. 1!" – Americans are waking up with a painful hangover, facing a grim "morning in America," not the happy vision that Ronald Reagan famously sold them on.

As the United States begins to assess how the nation got into its trillion-dollar bailout mess, a true understanding must go back three decades or so when Reagan deployed his well-honed communications skills and the Republican Right mastered the dark arts of propaganda to get the American people to shed the annoying strictures of rationality.

...

As President, Reagan attacked the federal regulatory system and cut taxes so recklessly that his budget director, David Stockman, foresaw red ink "as far as the eye can see." Reagan also justified fattening the Pentagon’s budget by citing dire warnings that the Soviet Union was on the rise (despite CIA analysis at the time that it was in sharp decline).

To marginalize dissent, Reagan and his subordinates stoked anger toward anyone who challenged the era’s feel-good optimism. Skeptics were not just honorable critics, they were un-American defeatists or – in Jeane Kirkpatrick’s memorable attack line – they would "blame America first."

...

Ain't it the truth. And don't forget "tax and spend Democrats"; that was the one I heard a lot at the time. Thing is, when you realize why the Dems had to raise taxes (to pay for all the spending the previous Rethugs did), you realize how well the Rethugs did propaganda and controlled the media environment.

...

Significantly, too, Reagan credentialed a new generation of neocon intellectuals, who pioneered a concept called "perception management," the shaping of how Americans saw, understood – and were frightened by – threats from abroad.

Many honest reporters saw their careers damaged when they resisted the lies and distortions of the Reagan administration. Likewise, U.S. intelligence analysts were purged when they refused to bend to the propaganda demands from above. [See Robert Parry’s Lost History.]

...

The Republican version of 'fiscal conservatism' is: Don't Tax The Rich, Spend All You Can, Pass The Payments To The Next Generation.

Ladies and Gentlemen (and the rest of you too), true fiscal conservatism is very simple: Don't Spend What You Don't Have.

And an addendum for the next time credit becomes free again: A little rule I have that's served me well over the years. Use the equity in your home to increase the value of your home and nothing else. Do not, I repeat, do not use equity in your home to buy cars, go on vacation, buy gifts, have cosmetic surgery, or anything else that loses its value immediately after you buy it.

A corollary to that is: Do not take more than a third to half the equity out of your home. Home vaules (contrary to what we've seen over the past few years) do not always go up.

Off to Little Italy work ...

99 bottles of beer ...

Comrade E.B. Misfit:

... As of 1Pm Eastern Time, he [the Chimp] has 99 days left in his misbegotten presidency ...

Still seems too long ...

Sunday Zydeco Blogging

These guys are terrific!

Jeffrey Broussard and D'Jalma Garnier lead The Creole Cowboys in Boozoo Chavez's classic 'Dog Hill'. Live at the Louisiana Musician's Hurricane Relief Benefit Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet November 13, 2005

Thanks to PHubb.

Quote of the Day

Gail Collins:

... It’s only in retrospect that we can see that the keep-off-the-grass period was the McCain campaign’s golden era ...

Link thanks to Mr. Aravosis.

Gordon & Fixer work on a boat!

With subtitles!

Odo-may eaks-spay

MoDo has regressed to her Catholic school days. Us Cat'licks who took years of Latin may have a leg up on understanding her, but if you are not so, er, blessed, just read it real fast and you'll get the drift kinda subliminally.

Tamen Sara et Ioannes bury Obama, not praise him. Maverici, ut capiunt auxilium de friga-domina, hench-femina, Cynthia McCaina Birrabaronessa, (quae culpat Obamam periculandi suum filum in Babylonia), brazen-iter distractant mentes populares de minimissimis IV 0 I K.ibus, deminutione “Motorum Omnium,” et Depressione Magna II.0. Omnes de Georgio Busio Secundo colossale goofballo. “V” (because there’s no W. in Latin) etiam duxit per disastrum ad gymnasium.

More. Enjoy.

Weekend whorage

The next chapter of Birthright is up at The Practical Press, work is moving along on the house and I discuss the planning stages of a project.

And, for your Sunday morning listening:

Bond - Shine

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

A live performance in Stuttgart, '94. You know the song.

Yer doin' it wrong ....

As I said the other day:

...

If we're going to spend taxpayer money to soften the blow, the taxpayers have to have a stake in the outcome. If we're going to bail out a bank or an investment house, the taxpayer, in the persona of the U.S government, must have a controlling interest in said institution. There is no confidence in the bunch of infidels (and imbeciles) who have been running the show and that confidence won't return until investors know all are playing with the same rulebook, a rulebook (yet to be written) that doesn't allow for shady deals using questionable instruments, leveraged 100:1.

...

Dday today:

...

There was a ridiculous amount of news for a Friday night, the foremost being that President Paulson is finally giving in and doing what should have been done in the first place, purchasing an equity stake in failing banks. The problem is that he is still doing it wrong.

...

Coulda told you that 3 weeks ago from Europe:

...

Paulson said the government’s program would be designed to complement the efforts of banks to raise fresh capital from private sources. He said that the government’s stock purchases would be of nonvoting shares so that the government will not have power to run the companies.

Actually, we need the power to run the companies, or at least tell the bankers what to do, more specifically that they must lend to one another. They aren't the kind of shares that Warren Buffett got from Goldman Sachs. If this doesn't change bank behavior then it essentially will do nothing. A bank that refuses to lend is not a functional bank, and the government ought to take it over. As Krugman says, this is a half-Gordon - referring to Gordon Brown's recapitalization plan (not the part about suing Iceland).

Indeed. Taking non-voting shares as equity for our investment will do nothing to reign in, or dictate, the behavior of the banks just as any of the big companies you and I hold stock in could give shit less what we think. Ain't nothing gonna change until these companies are nationalized ... properly. That means removing the officers and board and putting government regulators in their place until the pieces of the business can be sold off, to the public's profit and benefit.

A complete auditing of the financials should also be done and any illegalities uncovered should be prosecuted. That would give people confidence. Anything less won't work.

Unfortunately, there will be a lot more pain before these idiots finally do get it.

Pilgrimage

Normally I would put a video like this over at Fixer & Gordon, but I think this one is beautifully done and will be enjoyable even for non-gearheads. Pretty scenery, a well-chosen song, and a sentiment that applies to all of us at one time or another.

A coupla observations:

Lane discipline is essential over there if you value the side of yer rig! Or yer life!

Riding a motorcycle is a more stable mode of transport than walking sometimes (2:22). Rebuttal: Think so, huh? (:32)

Watch for a blazing full-throttle 1000-yard three-car pass worthy of the F-Man hisself at 2:28!

From Trials Central:

The journey to the 2007 SSDT. Without doubt, some of the best scenery in the world en route to the best Trial in the world.

More on the Scottish Six Days Trial, Fort William, and Donnie Munro.

An Observation

I don't know how anyone who considers themselves to be a decent human being can possibly cast a vote for McCain/Palin on election day. It has simply gone too far. The scenes that I am seeing remind me more and more of scenes from Hitler's rise to power in the '20s and early '30s in Munich. It is, very simply, frightening.

JG.

Can I get a bigger clock?

Thank you, Mr. Bush:

The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.

...

Great thanks to George for the link.

Quote of the Day

"John McCain had to choose between losing this election or dishonor.

He chose dishonor.

He shall lose."

— Paul Abrams in "McCain, Media & Meltdown: A Witches' Brew for Election Violence" at HuffPo

Subprime ...

Stolen from our pal PC.

Bobo ...

Our pal Comrade PhysioProf deconstructs David Brooks:

...

"If Democrats weren’t such pointy-headed coastal-elite pantywaists, the Republican Party would never have become the refuge of deranged racist misogynist theocratic gibberers."

It was Clinton's fault, you know ...

Lone Pine on location

For a break from McCain-Palin lynch mobs rallies, here's a piece on one of my favorite Eastern Sierra/Owens Valley towns, with video.

One of the centers of the Line Pine Film Festival is the Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History, which will host notable Western authors this weekend, including Elmer Kelton and Dan O'Brien. The local high school will screen "Hi-Yo Silver!" and other classics. Other events include a "Wagon Train" celebration with many of the actors from the classic TV series; a tour of Alabama Hills, Ansel Adams' favorite locale in the area; and "Iron Man and Beyond," another tour focusing on the locations used in the Robert Downey Jr. blockbuster movie.

For the townies, it's quite a weekend. "Lone Pine really welcomes the filmmaking community, it's a big boon for us," Langley said, but he admits that for some of the residents, it's a bit much. "You either got to volunteer that weekend or get out of town."

The town is about a mile long and 1/4-mile wide, so that's easy. And you can do a little cow tipping on the way out.

McCain's Moronic Journey into Madness

In tracking the exotically gruesome vicissitudes of the McCain campaign, we can only conclude we've indeed entered Rod Serling territory. Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

They're no longer citizens of the real, political world. They are, instead, otherworldly cryptofreaks methodically stripping off their freakish masks. They're neither Republican nor conservative, neither populist nor passable demagogue.

At their heartland Nürnberg rallies (and I am not prone to such severe metaphors), where they incite chants for the murder of their fellow citizens, they're already unmasked. But even in the quiet of their proposal-plotting strategy room they catch egregious mistakes of accidental thoughtfulness and lunge for their instant reversal. Unmasked, and unhinged.

If this gaggle of lunacy comes in from the Zone on November 4 with any more than token, ultrapartisan support, it'll be a lasting disgrace to, and permanent stain on the name of, whatever's left of American democracy.

Amen, P.M.

First Bailout Results Known

Seeing The Forest

The National REPUBLICAN Congressional Committee has received $8 MILLION from Wachovia Bank.

Credit crunch? Unsecured loans impossible to find?

Chris Bowers at OpenLeft writes that,

in the short term, this is effectively an $8 million donation to the NRCC from Wachovia at a time when Wachovia is supposedly in dire straits, about to be bought out by other banks, and will receive money from the government via the bailout.

The Bush administration is about to start handing out taxpayer cash for bad debts, and suddenly the NRCC gets $8 million from Wachovia. Come on. How blatant can it be?

Repugs and their Masters don't give a shit how blatant it is. They're beyond accountability. IOKIYAR. Grrr...

Update:

LATimes

As ailing Wachovia Corp. waits to see whether it will be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. or Citigroup Inc. -- possibly with taxpayers paying the tab for hundreds of billions of dollars in bad loans -- some of the company's top brokers are preparing to depart Saturday for an all-expenses-paid cruise of the Greek Isles.

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

Yes, McCain is on drugs

So if you listen to McCain and say to yourself, "He's on drugs!", you're right. And not in the good way. I've posted on this before and I'm doing it again.

Americablog. Links at site.

An Ambien amnesia presidency

Oh swell. "I pushed the Red what?"

So what exactly is going on with John McCain's health? John posted yesterday about McCain's "energy" drink and mentioned that McCain was taking Ambien. McCain's Ambien drug use isn't new, it's been covered by ABC News here, but in the flurry of the Democratic primary, I missed it. Reading it yesterday for the first time, my jaw dropped.

Better late than never, dude.

While Ambien is a heavily advertised drug here in the US - $200 million annually in ad spending - it's extremely potent and has the potential to be addictive. That's why it's a D.E.A. Schedule IV controlled substance.

Fotinakes added that sleeping pills and other sedatives have been proven to be more potent in the elderly. In light of this, he said, "It may not be the best idea for the commander-in-chief to be under the influence when he or she may have to make a snap decision regarding national security in the middle of the night; Hillary's so-called telephone call at 3:00 a.m."

"The key is to use Ambien-like sleeping medications in moderation and don't mix them with other sedative drugs or alcohol," Fotinakes said. "Most importantly, avoid use in the event you have to consider escalation from Defcon 4 to Defcon 3."

Again, this isn't a joke. This is what Ambien does to some people. It makes them do things, while having no idea they're doing them. They tell you not to drive a car after having taken this drug. How is John McCain going to drive a country? To accept the former as fact, yet not worry about the latter, is illogical and dangerous.

And if John McCain won't be answering the phone from dusk until dawn, who will? Cindy (a-la Edith and Woodrow Wilson)? Sarah Palin? Who will really be in charge for the 1/3 of the Presidency McCain would sleep away?

Somebody even less qualified than he is, no doubt. If such is even possible, they'll find a way. Maybe they've found her.

That this hasn't been an enormous issue since the Palin appointment is shocking. It's why Presidential candidates let reporters see their medical records - so the country knows what to expect if the candidate becomes President. If all of this hasn't yet scared you into thinking that McCain's medical records need a REAL exploration, ponder this - do you think that terrorists or other national enemies might want to strike us while the President is incapacitated by his sleeping pills?

Scary. Please read the rest.

McCain Attended Fundraiser for Domestic Terrorist

BuzzFlash, links to Pensito Review

McCain attended a fundraiser sponsored by a hate group in 1993 in support of a woman who had shot a former Navy surgeon because he had performed legal abortions. At the fundraiser, McCain did not object when Marilyn Shannon, a leader of the hate group, praised the shooter as a "fine lady." The woman's sentencing judge called her a "terrorist." This year, Shannon was a McCain delegate at the GOP convention.

A comment:

It is lovely to see the crazies that endorse the Archie Bunker ticket.

These people would denounce Archie as a flaming Librul.

*Flew into Miami Beach, BOAC ...

Unlike the Chimp & Paulson, et al, the Brits have a pretty decent plan for shoring up the markets. Krugman wonders if the rest will get it:

...

Why do we need international cooperation? Because we have a globalized financial system in which a crisis that began with a bubble in Florida condos and California McMansions has caused monetary catastrophe in Iceland. We’re all in this together, and need a shared solution.

...

What should be done? The United States and Europe should just say "Yes, prime minister." The British plan isn’t perfect, but there’s widespread agreement among economists that it offers by far the best available template for a broader rescue effort.

...

While I'm no economist, nor anything resembling a money guy, I do have a little common sense. I'm also old enough to remember the crash of '87 and the dotcom bubble and the resulting failures. it seems to me, watching the market for the better part of 30 years, that markets don't like artificially inflated values on anything and try to correct themselves. Unfortunately, a lot of debt had been leveraged on loans for real estate that was/is woefully overvalued.

Sorry, but much as I love my home, much as I work to make it nicer and more comfortable for us, I know damn well it ain't worth a half-million. That's what it was 'worth' 2 years ago and my bank would gladly have given me a mortgage for that amount. The amount of people who are 'underwater' (their houses are now worth less than their mortgages) today is unbelievable, thanks to this wave of over-valuation. It's just like the Dotcom Days when everybody with a web page attracted capital like flies to one of Shayna's deposits in the back yard on a hot summer day. There was a correction then too and the herd was culled; only those with a reasonable, workable, business plan survived. Shit, Amazon just started showing a profit a couple years ago. The only internet business to show a profit from the get-go was the porn industry.

As I said a couple weeks ago:

...

Coming out of a bubble of over-inflated home prices (artificial) and inflated stock prices, I get the feeling that if nothing is done the market will stabilize in the 7000 - 9000 range, probably where it should be. The only reason action is so "imperative" is to relieve the fat cats of their losses without pain to them. It does nothing for us.

...

And I still stand by that. I don't think anything done so far (and at the rate the markets are approaching terminal velocity Earthward, it would bear that out) will make much of a difference until the markets are comfortable with home values first; thus establishing a value for all the pieces of Shitpile all these banks and mortgage brokers own. Until we know what exactly all of Shitpile is worth, we won't know how to go about paying for it.

Throwing money at the greedy idiots who perpetuated this mess, who propped up this artificial 'bubble' (because they had to prop it up or risk the bottom falling out) using dubious investment instruments and practices, will only prolong it.

If we're going to spend taxpayer money to soften the blow, the taxpayers have to have a stake in the outcome. If we're going to bail out a bank or an investment house, the taxpayer, in the persona of the U.S government, must have a controlling interest in said institution. There is no confidence in the bunch of infidels (and imbeciles) who have been running the show and that confidence won't return until investors know all are playing with the same rulebook, a rulebook (yet to be written) that doesn't allow for shady deals using questionable instruments, leveraged 100:1.

Until the 'Wild West' atmosphere on Wall St. is put to bed, none will have the confidence to hand their money over to this current generation of Gordon Gekkos and keeping them solvent with taxpayer funds (without strict management oversight) will only prolong the agony. Without real change and reform, no amount of cash will help.

And an addendum before I go to work: This is what the 'Bush Economy' will be known for. When the nation went to war, the people were told to shop, to live large on the (over-inflated) value of their homes. It will be known as a time of nearly free, unlimited credit for anyone who had their hand out. As the government has been run (record deficits, a war that's not even on the books), the American people have also been encouraged to engage in 'deficit spending'. I've said it many times; if I ran my personal finances the way the government did theirs, I'd be living out a refrigerator box under a bridge somewhere. It seems many of my fellow Americans did.

*Apologies to the Beatles.

Little dicks ...

The Rethugs haz them:

...

It's possible that Republican men, sexual inadequates that they are, really believe that women will vote for a woman just because she's a woman. They're unfamiliar with our true natures. Do they think vaginas call out to each other in the jungle night? I mean, I know men have their secret meetings at which they pledge to do manly things, like being irresponsible with their semen and postponing household repairs with glue and used matches. Guys will be guys, obviously.

...

Above link via the General:

...

It simply isn't true. We're just more efficient. We can't waste time on things like foreplay; we have important things to do like watching NASCAR and spying on our neighbors. So we get undressed, visualize a naked woman, a rifle,a goat, or something, and go to town for about 10 to 15 seconds. Then, we're done. Those of us who are multi-taskers might also spy on our neighbors and watch NASCAR while we're doing it, thus increasing our efficiency even more.

Of course, some of my fellow conservatives are not so sexually proficient. But it's still wrong to say they are inadequate. They're just ignorant. No one has ever sat them down to have "the air pressure talk." It's a difficult concept to master, air pressure. Anything under 10 psi causes your partner to become gelatin-like making it easy to fall off, mid-stroke. That distracts you from thinking about rifles.

...

Heh ... Okay, so maybe satire ain't dead.

Joe!

Say it to his face, bitch:

...

"All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube … John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him," Biden said this morning. "In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him."

...

Link thanks to UL.

Life On Mars

Tonight's the night! Go see some previews of this new show debuting tonight.

I want it to be a big hit so our pal deuddersun (Click it!) can keep working and I can keep getting my Social Security...

“The last week has severely damaged Republican candidates”

Noo Yalk Times

The economic upheaval is threatening to topple Republican Congressional candidates, putting more Senate and House seats within Democratic reach less than a month before the elections, lawmakers and campaign strategists say.

Top campaign officials for both parties, pollsters and independent experts say the intense focus on the economic turmoil and last week’s bailout vote have combined to rapidly expand a Democratic advantage in Congressional contests. Analysts now predict a Democratic surge on a scale that seemed unlikely just weeks ago, with even some Republicans in traditional strongholds fighting for their political careers, and Democratic leaders dreaming of ironclad majorities.

Democrats say they feel confidently ahead in five Senate races where they hope to pick up Republican seats, and they believe their candidates are running competitively in seven more.

In the House, Democrats say they could capture a dozen of the 26 Republican seats left open by retirements, and challengers are closing in on Republican incumbents in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New York and elsewhere.

It hurts me to say this, and you may fire at me at will for it, but THANK GOD FOR THE DEPRESSION if it gets the Repugs thrown out in significant numbers.

I think we stand a pretty good chance of getting through a depression before we get out from under the damage done in the last eight years. Even with a Democratic majority.

Heels

The Last Chance Democracy Cafe

Is it just me, or is there something a little weird, creepy even, about the McCain campaign’s obsession with Sarah Palin’s high heels?

”The heels are on, the gloves are off.”

Think about this for a moment: here we have a female candidate for vice president referring to wearing her heels — her high heels — as a way of expressing her intention, as a woman, of getting tough with a man. Does that strike anyone else as just a wee bit familiar? Putting you in mind, perhaps, of a certain outside the mainstream form of sexuality involving the use of whips, ropes and, yes, heels in the infliction of pain?

Is it possible that in this historic year of political firsts, we are now seeing yet another one — the first explicit use of S&M imagery by a major party candidate for national office?

Certainly, at a minimum, the reaction of many of Palin’s male right wing fans — hooting and hollering in ecstasy over the viciousness of her attacks — makes one wonder, whatever Palin’s intent, whether this isn’t how a good many of these dudes see her. I mean, let’s face it: there’s always been something more than a little odd about the extreme passion these same bozos feel towards vicious female “pundits” like Ann Coulter. (You can almost hear them panting: “She may not be that pretty, but, man, she makes it hurt so good!”)

I don’t know, but the whole thing is starting to feel more than a little creepy to me.

A little too creepy on many levels.

Here's an old one:

Masochist: "Ooh! Beat me! Beat me!"

Sadist: "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

The Repug base loves pain. They must. They keep voting for ying-yangs who are experts at inflicting it on them.

Of course then they blame it on Libruls.

McCain's Wife Says Obama Has Waged "The Dirtiest Campaign In U.S. History"

Tony Peyser

Cindy, Cindy, Cindy, Cindy
Poor dear ... you're hanging by threads:
You're not supposed to talk
To the press when you're off your meds.

Sometimes ...

You just gotta throw somebody a beatin'.

Responsibility ...

Pic stolen from our pal UL. Click pic to incrase the bailout.

Off to Napoli work ...

Yes, please ...

Roger Ailes the Good:

Could everyone please stop saying game changer?

That phrase is working my last nerve like people who use the phrase working my last nerve.

Thank you for your consideration.

Been there ...

Dude, politics aside, as a fellow GI who's dealt with PTSD, you gotta get some help. Steve Benen:

...

John McCain today referred to Americans as "my fellow prisoners." How odd.

...

Seriously.

Palin’s Kind of Patriotism

Tom Friedman, who sometimes Sees the Light:

Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But given the huge attention she is getting, you can’t just ignore what she has to say. And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”

"We all have to ... pay our fair share, but we must insist that our government be wise and honest in spending our money."

What an awful statement. Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.

I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.

As long as the rich get richer, I think she's fine with it.

I've been paying taxes since before McBimbo was born. I don't particularly like it, but it's the Federal equivalent of buying a lunch room pass from bullies - pay up or get beat up - to wit, cough it up or lose everything you've got and go to jail.

So how d'ya think all them back taxes you owe is gonna work out for ya, Moosebreath?

My taxes seldom go for very much that I would like them to but that's the way it is and I have no say in it. All I hope in return for myself is that the fire department will show up if I need them.

America's Cocktail Waitress

With apologies to all you gals out there serving drinks, stereotypes are almost always wrong, but occasionally useful. So, what's the difference between a cocktail waitress and a '55 Chevy? Not everyone's had a '55 Chevy.

Raw Story

However, CNN may now have found the ultimate Palin comparison -- a 1932 cartoon titled "Betty Boop for President," in which Betty winks broadly while singing, "Some of you have money, while some are poor, you know. If you send me to Washington, I'll just divide the dough, oh!"

No doubt Palin, who insisted at the debate that paying taxes is "not patriotic," would consider Boop's plans for income redistribution -- along with her promises that "we will get things for nothing, movies, cabarets and jazz!" -- to mark her as a wild-eyed radical and probable associate of the Weather Underground.

Go see the CNN video. The post led me to the one below as well as the title of this post. From Heptune:

Betty Boop's 36th cartoon is rich with political references. Leslie Cabarga gives the copyright date as November 4, 1932. We don't know how closely that date corresponds with the release date, when people would have actually seen it in the movie theater, but in November 1932 was the presidential election in which Franklin Roosevelt defeated the incumbent Herbert Hoover. Prohibition, which began in 1919, was still in place but was soon to end. The Depression was well underway following the stock market crash in 1929.

During the credits, we hear an instrumental version of the Civil War song, "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Then we join Betty Boop at a political rally, where she is addressing an enthusiastic crowd:

Bush, Press, Lies, Truth, Beat McCain Twice

MoDo's snark is coming in handy these days:

Some of John McCain’s friends, from the good old days when he talked straight, feared that his Greek tragedy would be that he would be defeated by George Bush twice: once in 2000, because of W.’s no-conscience campaigning, and again in 2008, because of W.’s no-brains governing.

Excellent! McLame's no-brains campaigning is helping as well.

John McCain has long been torn between wanting to succeed and serving a higher cause. Right now, the drive to succeed is trumping any loftier aspirations. He cynically picked a running mate with less care than theater directors give to picking a leading actor’s understudy. [...]

She left out 'in a high school play', but I forgive her.

Certainly, at some level, John McCain must be disgusted with himself for using the tactics perfected by the same crowd that used these tactics to derail him in 2000. He’s now curmudgeonly, even hostile, toward the press — the group he used to spend hours with every day and jokingly describe as his base.

They were fine until they belatedly started telling the truth about him. To the press's credit (everlasting shame to us), they held out as long as they could before it became so obvious what an asshole he is that even they couldn't ignore it any longer.

Palin Appeals to Mob Instincts During Her Rallies

Trish at Pensito Review, obviously a regular reader of the Brain, picked up on my Klan reference yesterday with a lovely photo in a post that closed with this:

What next? Dousing a big cross on the stage with gasoline, tossing on a match, and claiming Obama raped her?

The way you tell the average IQ of a mob is by dividing its actual average IQ by the number of people in it. McCain/Palin is working it like a rented mule.

KKK, Nazis, McCain/Palin. Everything this country is against. Or should be. Or was.

Update:

Also at Pensito:

Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi’s depiction of Sarah Palin at the GOP Convention as “Gidget addressing the Reichstag” is becoming more apt by the minute. Earlier, Trish wrote about Palin’s incitement of verbal violence at a rally in Clearwater, Fla., when a Republican voter in the crowd shouted, “Kill him,” apparently in reference to Barack Obama.

Now the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank says the anger among the GOP rank and file in Clearwater was also directed toward reporters covering the event generally, and an African American sound man in particular:

Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

Given the racist bent of their base, and leaving aside their constant lying about Barack Obama, his associations and his record, John McCain and Sarah Palin are playing with rhetorical fire.

As in "going down in flames"? Crash and burn? Well OK then!

Desperate and despicable. Ugly.

Heh ...

Mary:

Tonight's joke: What's the difference between a Lehman Brothers investment banker and a pigeon? A pigeon still can make a deposit on a Ferrari.

...

All the money guys I know are shitting their pants. One in particular, a freind of Mrs. F's from college, is in the middle of a huge remodel of his house (on the scale we're doing). Unfortunately, he has to pay for labor and he doesn't know if he'll have a job from week to week.

Off to the Sons of Italy work ...

Why I have little faith ...

In the common sense of the American public. Greenwald:

...

That Dick Morris is a buffoon is hardly news, but he was one of Bill Clinton's closest advisers and, for people who watch Fox News and read The New York Post, he's considered to be one of America's foremost political analysts ...

Don't know about Faux News, but I know a lot of people who read the New York Post.

So am I ...

Me thinks McLame put his foot in it big time:



Get yours here.

Quote of the Day

His Rudeness:

...

"You really think people give a fat rat's fuck about William Ayers and what he did 40 years ago? Goddamn, Johnny Maverick, you must be shitting yourself so much that Cindy's gotta change them Depends every hour or you'll smell like you're rotting from the inside. You know what it means when all you got to throw at a candidate is people he's met? It means you're fuckin' frightened, man, and it means that you've maxed out your bullshit card - no one's buyin' what you're sellin', Johnny Maverick; just send that worthless shit back to the Republican warehouse of lies next to trickle-down and WMDs and commie spies in Hollywood.

"So you can have your Muppet-sounding idiot VP bitch out there in front of crowds, talkin' smack about me and gettin' people to yell, 'Kill him,' and you can try to convince everyone I'm a terrorist. Fuck, talk about Tony Rezko and Reverend Wright. Drag those corpses up there and cut new holes in 'em to try to show you can fuck 'em different than others have. But you know and I know that you're desperate. Motherfucker, you tied yourself to Reagan and Bush and now that ideology is sinkin' like cement shoes on a mob snitch. Drown, motherfucker, drown.

...

I'm not watching the debate. I like this version better.

Great Googly Moogly!!!!!

McCain is beholden to a lot of folks. PC has a list of lobbyists (and who they work for) associated with McLame and the list is fucking extensive. Guess what? Your interests and mine ain't represented.

How cool ...

Is this? Being an Afriqueophile (you know what I mean), this really blows my skirt up. Seen in Nairobi, Kenya:

Pic stolen from Oliver Willis.

Update:

And in more cool Kenya news, it seems Jerome Corsi, the dirtbag 'author' and 'journalist' has received his comeuppance ... in Kenya:

The American author of a bestselling critical biography of Barack Obama containing the false allegation he was raised a Muslim has been detained in Kenya.

...

Police picked Corsi up from his hotel today because he did not have the temporary work permit needed to conduct business in Kenya, according to Carlos Maluta, a senior immigration official. "We still haven't decided what to do with him," he said.

...

Somehow, I really don't want to experience 'detainment' in Kenya. I think it's awful fitting for ol' Jerry:

...

Obama is a popular figure in Kenya, where his father was a government economist. Several of his extended family still live there.

...

Hmmm, I'll bet the Kenyans must take exception to what Corsi wrote about a native son.

...

The US press has accused Corsi of being anti-Islamic, anti-Catholic, anti-semitic and homophobic, and of exploiting racial prejudices in an attempt to ''scare white America".

...

Maybe Darkest Africa might put the fear of God into the lowlife white American. I love Karma.

Link thanks to Res at Ol' Fez-head's place.

There were better choices ...

Than Sarah Palin. Via Jill, RedDan at Fighting Liberals points out that there are Republican women who would be better at taking the 'Hillary vote' away from Barry than VP Barbie:

...

I consider my self a progressive feminist: women should have equal pay for equal work, are an integral part of the political, economic, business, family, social and cultural fabric of every part of every society. Women should be accorded the same treatment and respect as every and any other person out there. There are many, many conservative republican women out there who, while I might detest them for their political views and actions, have orders of magnitude more credibility and cachet than this bubbleheaded loser. Women like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Condoleezza Rice, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and so many others – they may be abhorrent politically, but hey – women have every right to be stupid and wrong as men, so why not, right?

On the Democratic side, we have women like Clinton, Sebelius, Granholm, Lee, and so many more across the spectrum from progressive to moderate to blue dog to whatever.

But Sarah Palin??

...

And had he chosen Snowe or Collins, I'd really be worried he might get the votes of women who admire Hillary. I'm married to one and I'll tell ya, I won't repeat what Mrs. F says when she hears Palin on the TV.

The Palins' Un-American Activities

Salon

Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran.

Oct. 7, 2008 | "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")

AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. "She's Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler."

Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue (my em).

That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.

The Republican ticket is working hard this week to make Barack Obama's tenuous connection to graying, '60s revolutionary Bill Ayers a major campaign issue. But the Palins' connection to anti-American extremism is much more central to their political biographies.

Imagine the uproar if Michelle Obama was revealed to have joined a black nationalist party whose founder preached armed secession from the United States and who enlisted the government of Iran in his cause? The Obama campaign would probably not have survived such an explosive revelation. Particularly if Barack Obama himself was videotaped giving the anti-American secessionists his wholehearted support just months ago.

Where's the outrage, Sarah Palin has been asking this week, in her attacks on Obama's fuzzy ties to Ayers? The question is more appropriate when applied to her own disturbing associations.

Note to Obama: use this.

Too bad the Alaska secesh didn't succeed. The Repugs would have been denied their white trash bimbo and we could have just invaded them and stolen their oil.

Good Gravy, Obama! Git This Here Ad On The Radio!

Christy Hardin Smith

Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley is playing in Virginia. The Obama campaign should get this on the airwaves all over Appalachia...now.

Ralph Stanley sounds cuter than a speckled pup under a red wagon. Just listen.

Folks here in WV, and also KY, PA, OH, TN, NC, MD, and VA would connect with this. Because Ralph Stanley isn't just a bluegrass legend, he sounds like "one of us."

Dr. Stanley's voice was used at this McCain-Palin rally as well:

"What do you mean?

We have to follow rules?"

You see, we were supposed to give them $700 bln with no strings attached:

Fears are mounting that many Wall Street banks and financial firms will refuse to participate in the US government's $700bn bail-out package, leaving global markets and world economies in a perilous state for months to come.

'There is a growing feeling that banks ... might instead decide to tough it out,' said Thomas Caldwell, chairman and CEO of Caldwell Financial, a $1bn-plus fund manager.

...

One of the least attractive elements is a section designed to curb executive pay at banks that participate in the bail-out package. These include limiting stock-related pay and banning 'golden parachutes' for executives.

'I think this hodge-podge of regulations and rules will be enough to put many [chief executives] off participating,' Caldwell said.

Sources close to Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch indicated the banks might choose not to participate in the bail-out as there is a growing view on Wall Street that the market may be bottoming out.

...

Good. Don't take the bailout money. Barry can do something for the good of the people with your share once he's elected.

Great thanks to our pal Montag for the link.

Pissing it away ...

One of the best ranters on the Tubes (that's because she's so smart); Athenae on what's been wasted over the past 8 years:

...

Eight years, they had. Eight years, bookended by wars and national tragedies and approval ratings of which George Washington could not boast. Two Supreme Court justices, both alike in loathesomeness, a Congress that bent over backwards and kissed its own ass for anything and everything the administration said it needed, I mean, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson are sitting around in the afterlife going, "Dude, could you just imagine what we could have done with this sitch?" and John Adams, puffing on a cigar, is going, "Dude, I KNOW. Where was this deference to a brother's every whim when I could have used it?" They had everything. They had everything they told people they would need in order to run the world right. They had everything, and they pissed it away.

...

On 12 September 2001, "everybody was an American". Could you imagine what someone like Bill Clinton, or Al Gore, could have done with all that goodwill?

[Mc]Trainspotting ...

My neighbor-to-the-north, Stephen makes some comparisons.

Pals ...

Maru:

John McCain has been "palling around" with Jew-hating, bigoted crackpots John Hagee and Rod Parsley, indicted felon G Gordon Liddy, noted tax-cheat/Jew-hater and secessionist Sarah Palin, drug-stealing plagiarist Cindy McCain, and George W Bush, under whose watch saw the Sept 11th attacks, Hurrican Katrina, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the current economic crisis. And wait, there's more:

...

And we should be worried about Obama "palling around" with a man who "turned himself in for his crimes, ready to go to be punished. It just so happened that the FBI fucked up the case against him, so he walked"?

Hardly Strictly

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, held the first weekend in October, in Baghdad By The Bay (the Repugs wish! They'd love to bomb it flat. Heh.) is a huge deal. I watched the PBS show (thanks, Wordsmith) about last year's festival just last night on KQED.

Here's the write-up in the EssEffChron about this past weekend's festival. Photos here.

When Elvis Costello launched "Friend of the Devil" during his performance Sunday at Lindley Meadow, the ghost of the Grateful Dead hovered over the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park.

A sea of people overflowed the shady gully into John F. Kennedy Drive and sang along. The Dead memorably played that same glen with the Jefferson Starship about a million years ago - in 1975 - but there is something of the Dead in the air anytime anybody plays music for free in the park.

"This is amazing," said Emmylou Harris, closing the festival, as always, as the sun went down and the crowd thinned out. "This is like the eighth wonder of the world."

Pretty good article, but it gets a little dicey:

There certainly is nothing remotely like the sprawling free concert anywhere else in the music world. The star of the show is Golden Gate Park itself, a world-class park second to none - not Central Park, Hyde Park, nor the Bois de Boulogne. The experience of listening to music on a beautiful day like Sunday in Golden Gate Park is incomparable.

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival has also isolated and identified a segment of American music that doesn't comfortably fit under convenient umbrellas such as "acoustic music" or "Americana," a phrase of recent currency that fortunately seems to be falling by the wayside. But any festival that can encompass the frenetic Gypsy punk-rock of Gogol Bordello, the unvarnished backwoods sound of Ralph Stanley, the mordant wit of songwriter Loudon Wainwright III and the electric rock improvisations of Tea Leaf Green has staked out a territory all its own.

If this festival depended on ticket sales, the programming would be entirely different. But because of Hellman's largess, Hardly Strictly booker Dawn Holliday can build a festival around an imaginary demographic of discerning, tasteful and adventuresome music fans willing to swim in the feeder streams of mainstream American music. It is a realm where Texas troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Nashville rebel Steve Earle loom large. Only in the world of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is Emmylou Harris a queen.

Now just a goddam minute here, you elitist ying-yang! Yeah, GGP is a nice park, but the star of the show? I don't think so.

"If this festival depended on ticket sales" and "an imaginary demographic...willing to swim in the feeder streams of mainstream American music" show you where this clown's head is at. Billed as 'Senior Pop Music', he's obviously addicted to the free booze and shrimp at the 'mainstream' music companies' promotion parties, which are all about the bottom line from record sales, which rip off the artists left and right. To my understanding, the performers make their living from concert ticket sales, which they don't have to do at Hardly Strictly because they get paid to be there.

As to "an imaginary demographic...willing to swim in the feeder streams of mainstream American music", boy did he get it wrong! It's actually "a very real demographic unwilling to swim in the muck of 'mainstream' American music". Dude, mainstream American music, i.e. 'gets played on the radio and sells millions of albums even though it has absolutely no redeeming social value', TOTALLY SUCKS! The music may be a little eclectic, even arcane, but it's a lot better than the pap offered to and sucked up by the masses.

Besides, 'feeder streams' are a lot cleaner than the muddy mainstream, and it's where we go to spawn. Heh. Mr. Selvin oughta try it...

The thing that really got me, though, was "Only in the world of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is Emmylou Harris a queen". Horsepuckey, you ignorant fuck! Ms. Harris not only is perhaps the best singer in a very broad genre a little to the left of the mainstream, she has sung with nearly anybody you can think of, well, not with Celine Dion so far, although you never know, the day is young, and has a body of work second to none.

Mr. Selvin, Emmylou is THE queen.

O be still my pounding heart! Click to emmyloubiggen

I guess they're short on help at the Chron. They shouldn't have had to let a guy write about alt music whose only experience has been skewed by the view as seen through the lens of big-money commercial mainstream swill. He just doesn't get it.

Note to the Chron: Don't send this guy to cover the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. Those folks'll cut him!

Please pardon my rant and go enjoy the article and photos anyway.

It's all right to torture but ...

Kinky sex is just like terrorism:

On Friday in Tampa, Florida, Paul F. Little was sentenced by a federal judge to 3 years and 10 months in a federal prison after being convicted of the grave and terrible crime of distributing pornography "over the Internet and through the mail" -- films featuring only consenting adults and distributed only to those consenting adults who chose to purchase them. Even though he lived and worked in California, the Bush DOJ dragged him to Tampa, Florida in order to try him under Tampa's "community standards," on the theory that his website used servers physically based in Central Florida and some of the films were sent to Tampa customers who purchased them.

...

Yeah, 'American values'. Let's waste more money prosecuting S & M freaks. We perscute porn producers and pot smokers, but the White House can shred the Constitution and commit war crimes and what do we get? Crickets ...

Failure ...

Pic stolen from our friend PC.

Moar at the link ...

Off to work (Christ, I been running around for a half hour already, trying to find all my shit I take to the shop with me - LED flashlight, Mechanix gloves, road call jacket, etc). Hadn't planned on having to use 'em again this quickly. So much for planning.

Saturday Sunday whorage

Spending every spare minute on the house and shit's moving along.

The next chapter of Birthright is up at The Practical Press.

And for your listening pleasure:

Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage

I believe ...

In the stupidity of the American voter:

...

That the Right believes in the fundamental stupidity of the American voter while simultaneously pretending to revere and speak for them them is reflected in their belief that they can successfully blame the financial crisis and the country's woes generally on Democrats, who -- while hardly covering themselves with glory -- haven't had any meaningful power in this country for as long as one can remember. Ponder how stupid you must think Americans are to believe that you can blame the financial crisis on the 2004 statements of House Democrats about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when that was a time when the GOP controlled all branches of the Government and nothing could have been more inconsequential than what Barney Frank or Maxine Waters, languishing in the minority in Tom DeLay's tyrannical House, said or did about anything.

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Sorry, Glenn, but these idiots elected the Chimp twice. They are stupid. Thankfully, after 8 years, shit's starting to sink in. It took a $700 bln hammer to do it but hey, whatever works ...

I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better

In my never-ending quest to bring you only the finest in music and history, here's one that combines 'em. A little historical perspective: this was before Vietnam was in the public consciousness, white kids discovered weed, color TV, the 'Summer of Love' and hippies, and titty bars. Go-Go dancing was hot stuff in those days. Ask yer Grandma, who is probably blushing furiously at the memory. This was in between the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and the sister dancing on the left and the mixed crowd was pretty cutting edge. It was prior to The Age Of Aquarius and social consciousness. Kids were just starting to think for themselves in matters other than music and dress instead of going along with their elders.

I missed it all. In '65 I wore my hair very short, dressed like all the other guys, didn't watch much TV, and the only go-go dancers, or girls of any kind for that matter, were in the bars in Jacksonville NC and didn't mix with the scum of the earth like me, as Marines were seen by the townies. I had some catchin' up to do after I got out. Heh.

This song is dedicated to George W. Bush, who missed it all as well and hasn't caught up yet and never will.

The Byrds 1.0

Wheels

Good song, excellent slide show. Look for a graphic representation of the McCain campaign/Repuglican't party at about 2:23. Heh.

Dedicated to all our moto bros out there.

The Flying Burrito Bros.

Thanks to harpohat.

Update:

If you like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Bros., go see this interesting video about Sneaky Pete Kleinow.

Quote of the Day

"I want my house back, I want my America back, and I want my country back."

— Bruce Springsteen





JG.