Happy Jewish New Year-

___

.♡. - .☮.

champagne?

Thanks for the reminder. I just checked the trailer. I'm not sure what's most disturbing: watching the chat about how cool torture is, or just seeing James Cromwell as Bush Sr.

That'll do, pig.

http://wthefilm.com/

I don't know about the movie `W'... I'm certainly not going to run out and pay good money for it.

I'm not a big fan of Stone's. I really doubt if he's going to tell us any great truths with this film.

In fact, I'd bet he's going to glaze over most of W's evil, leaving the viewer with the belief that W may have been flawed, but he was a good man who wanted the best for all americans.

In other words, he'll pretend to be controversial while ruffling as few feathers as possible.

i noticed you scored the domain maronvseder.com
i like that branding better than mvslive. rolls off the tongue better. plus we're used to it.
Dug this from the archives

---------------------------------------
i'm not beyond shameless self-promotion. visit punditfight.com to see Sam battle it out with the rest of the pundits. left and right!

Safe journey, Sam . . .

All my best to you and yours . . . :-).

One movie I want to hate is `American Carol' by Zucker.

you can't get 3 seconds into the trailer without realizing it's a rightwing smear piece. The kind of brainwashing that Rush delivers daily -- completely misrepresenting the left, then ridiculing that parody.

but...it is a Zucker film...and the cast...

Well, I'll still resist it...even if it does look (slightly) better than `Team America'...

Which is sad... if he wants to tear into "the left" he obviously can't do it without creating an outrageously off-base straw man. No big loss though. The name Zucker hasn't meant a damn since Police Squad.

As for Stone, i can't say i've had much respect for how he fudges facts on historical themes. I prefer to just ignore him now. Although i liked The Doors. I have no idea how accurate any of that was, but i enjoyed it.

I was lookin for Seder.. ;)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

;)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

true. loosely translated the shirt says looking for a japanese girlfriend

http://spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=30

Mr. Musk, 37, founded SpaceX in 2002 after selling the online payment company he helped found, PayPal, to eBay for $1.5 billion.

For power, the rocket relies on Merlin, a gas generator cycle kerosene engine developed by SpaceX from an injector system used in the Apollo Moon program's lunar module landing engine. Merlin provides 125,000 pounds of thrust at sea level.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Prices vary, as each new prime tests the limits of the technology necessary to print these high-resolution posters.

The digits are very clear, but unless you have very, very good eyesight, you will need one of our watchmaker's loupes or an equivalent magnifier to read the digits.

http://www.mersenne.org/
.
In mathematics, a Mersenne number is a positive integer that is one less than a power of two:

M_n=(2^n)-1

Some definitions of Mersenne numbers require that the exponent n be prime.
.
Mersenne primes are named after the 17th century French mathematician Marin Mersenne. These numbers are expressed as 2P-1 or two to the power of “P” minus one. P itself is in fact a prime number. For the newest prime number, P is 43,112,609 and the prime number is written as 2^43,112,609 − 1

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

It's too early or too late to make my brain hurt.. ;)

Cool rocket vid though.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

McFeeble is crazy angry!

How can a question from a voter to someone that is running for office be a "Gotcha" question?

The video of Palin and grampa with Katie Couric. I can't believe McCain said that! And Palin, like a good little girl, parroted him. The look on Couric's face was one of total amazement!

A "gotcha" question from a voter asked of Palin! That's just crazy! This whole world is crazy!

The more he screws up the more power he steals

Excerpt:

As Bush attempts to stabilize his crashing economy, we are witness to the final chapter of a period of
perverse and dishonest leadership that has used its own crises to justify the expansion of its own power.
This little boy came to office on promises of modesty -- who championed a "humble nation," scorned nation
building and promised a more limited role for government in the lives of its citizens. Then he presided over a
six-year attempt to tear down and rebuild the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and now has embarked on the
most profound expansion of the federal government's role in the private economy since the Depression.

In both cases, the pattern is the same. Ineptitude led to crisis; crisis then became the argument for the
radical expansion of executive power. The administration insisted that it exercise its new authority with
a minimum of scrutiny by Congress, the courts or the public...

These troubles are about more than a president who is unfaithful to his word. Bush has transformed the
balance of power in our government. We are seeing the erection of an imperial presidency, immune from
oversight when it fights terrorists and when it rescues banks."

Bush is immune from oversight because the wet-my-pants Democrats allow him to break the law.
If we could get rid of useless, enabler-dregs like Pelosi, Reid and Leahy we could get our country back.

batcop.com

Con't-LATimes

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

its dog whistle for the base.

i really hope biden throws caution to the wind this thursday and mops the floor with her.

and it should be no surprise that the bush response is too little too late and that underneath it all there is a design for his cronies to rob us blind. in new orleans it was prime real estate, in this situation, its cash.

In a Nutshell

In a Nutshell

The report describes Gonzales - who once dismissed the controversy as an "overblown personnel matter" - as "remarkably unengaged."

Gonzales claimed "an extraordinary lack of recollection about the entire removal process," the report found - unable, for example, to recall any details of a November 2006 meeting in his office where the list of the prosecutors to be fired was finalized.

McNulty, who as the department's second-ranking official supervised all of the U.S. attorneys, failed to challenge the method used for identifying those to be fired after he learned about the plan, the report concluded.

The report scored the Justice Department for following an ad hoc process in deciding which prosecutors were to be removed and for offering after-the-fact explanations that were often contrived.

Some of the harshest language concerned Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle D. Sampson, who oversaw the firings. The report said he had engaged in "misconduct" by making misleading statements to Congress and investigators, who questioned the credibility of his claims that he could not recall why certain attorneys were added to the list.
=

Welcom to the blog Nora R. Dannehy
Nora R. Dannehy - usdoj.gov
Ms. Dannehy is the 49th United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and the first woman to hold the position in the history of the Office, which was established in 1789.

==
1 degree of separation.
doj here
“The Report leaves some important questions unanswered and recommends that I appoint an attorney to assess the facts uncovered, to conduct further investigation as needed, and ultimately to determine whether any prosecutable offense was committed with regard to the removal of a U.S. Attorney or the testimony of any witness related to the U.S. Attorney removals. In the normal course, a report recommending further investigation would not be released until after the investigation and any resulting prosecution had been completed, for fear that disclosing publicly relevant facts and witness statements would hinder the investigation or prosecution. In this instance, the Offices of Inspector General and Professional Responsibility have made the judgment that the circumstances warrant a departure from this usual practice.
...
“The Justice Department has an obligation to the American people to pursue this case wherever the facts and the law require. This investigation would ordinarily be conducted under the supervision of either the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia or a Department component. However, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has been recused from the matter, and I have determined that, given the nature of the matter, it would be best overseen by an attorney outside Main Justice.

[now this is Irony ]
“This Report describes a disappointing episode in the history of the Department. What should not be lost in this are the efforts of the dedicated and hard-working employees of the Justice Department who are focused on what they do best, which is protecting our country and faithfully enforcing our laws."

Her very partisan comments yesterday. But they have yet to say that the republicans voted against the bill. If they wanted that bill, they would have voted for it in spite of Pelosi's speech.

The repubs were complaining that they weren't part of the bill but they got the insurance added to the bill. The parties were seperated into caucuses to get the votes from their members and Boehner and Blunt (there's the nasty "B"s again, like Bush, Berlusconi and Blain) said they weren't part of the forming of the bill.

What a beautiful morning it is today. I feel great, can't put my finger on just why... Oh well, guess I'll just enjoy it.

Good one,Dada !

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Palin says voter question is 'gotcha journalism'
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster

On Monday night, CBS' Katie Couric talked to John McCain and Sarah Palin about their apparent disagreement on attacking terrorists within Pakistan. Echoing the words of a voter who asked Palin a similar question, the VP candidate turned the question on end, equating questions from the public to "gotcha journalism."

Couric, referring to Palin's support for attacking Pakistan, which is similar to Democratic nominee Barack Obama, asked whether she and McCain are on the same page. During the first presidential debate, McCain chastised Obama for stating the plan out loud. Playing off his running-mate's seeming strategic slip, Couric asked McCain if she had made the right move.

"We had a great discussion with President Zardari as we talked about what it is that America can and should be doing together to make sure that the terrorists do not cross borders and do not ultimately put themselves in a position of attacking America again or her allies," said Palin. "And we will do what we have to do to secure the United States of America and her allies."

"Is that something you shouldn't say out loud, Sen. McCain?" asked Couric.

"Of course not," replied McCain. "But, look, I understand this day and age of 'gotcha' journalism. Is that a pizza place? In a conversation with someone who you didn't hear ... the question very well, you don't know the context of the conversation, grab a phrase. Gov. Palin and I agree that you don't announce that you're going to attack another country ..."

"Are you sorry you said it?" questioned Couric.

"... and the fact ..." trailed McCain.

"Governor?" asked Couric.

"Wait a minute," interrupted McCain. "Before you say, 'is she sorry she said it,' this was a 'gotcha' sound bite that, look ...

"It wasn't a 'gotcha,'" said Couric. "She was talking to a voter."

After some further wrangling, Palin finally capitulated to McCain's defense of her. "... this is all about 'gotcha' journalism," she said. "A lot of it is. But that's okay, too."

But while gaffes on journalistic styles may be the least of Palin's concerns at the moment, it may yet get worse for the Alaska Republican. According to Politico, CBS is holding back a clip of the VP candidate flummoxed when asked to name key Supreme Court decisions apart from Roe vs. Wade.

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

Video at link

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Palin_says_voter_question_gotcha_journalis...

Monday, September 29, 2008
SPOONAMORE REVEALS THE PLAN TO STEAL THE NEXT ELECTION
Here, in this shattering new interview, Stephen Spoonamore goes into harrowing detail about the Bush regime's election fraud, past, present and--if we don't spread the word right now--to come. Since he's the only whistle-blower out there who knows the perps themselves, and how they operate, we have to send this new piece far and wide.

Here Spoon tells us that McBush's team--i.e., Karl Rove and his henchpersons-- have their plan in place to steal this next election: by 51.2% of the popular vote, and three electoral votes.

He also talks about the major role played by the Christianist far right in the electronic rigging of the vote.

And he defines our electronic voting system as a major threat to US national security, calling for it to be junked ASAP, in favor of hand-counted paper ballots.

Since Spoon is a Republican and erstwhile McCain supporter, as well as a noted specialist in nosing out computer fraud, his testimony is essential--not only for its expertise, but, no less, for the impact that his views will surely have on those Republicans who have been loath to see what Bush & Co. has done to our election system.

That whole story's just about to break. In fact, tomorrow there will be a number of articles appearing, on a recent breakthrough in the lawsuit that Spoon's testimony has enabled, and on other aspects of that all-important case.

MCM

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/09/spoonamore-reveals-plan-to...

Courts Allow Early Voting Week in Ohio
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — In a defeat for Republican challenges, state and federal courts have cleared the way for a weeklong period in which new voters can register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day in Ohio.

The early voting begins Tuesday and runs through Oct. 6. The Ohio Supreme Court and a federal judge in Cleveland on Monday upheld the weeklong voting period. Later in the day, Judge George Smith of Federal District Court in Columbus declined to rule, deferring to the Ohio Supreme Court decision.

But Judge Smith ruled that counties must allow party poll observers during early voting.

The disputed voting window results from an overlap between Tuesday’s beginning of absentee voting 35 days before Election Day, and the Oct. 6 end of voter registration.

The decisions were a victory for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat whom Republicans had accused of interpreting state law to benefit her party.

The early voting window became a partisan battle in this swing state where President Bush narrowly clinched re-election in 2004.

In a 4-to-3 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court said Ms. Brunner was correct in ruling that voters do not need to be registered for at least 30 days before receiving an absentee ballot, as Republicans had argued.

Although both the campaign of the Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, and the Republican National Committee have urged supporters in Ohio to use the early voting, Republican-backed lawsuits were filed against it.

Earlier Monday, Judge James S. Gwin of Federal District Court in Cleveland issued a temporary restraining order forcing Madison County to follow Ms. Brunner’s instructions. The county had said that on the advice of its county prosecutor it was not going to allow same-day voting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/us/politics/30ohio.html?_r=1&oref=slog...

is that sign for real or is it photoshopped? are they really having street theatre down on wall street?

Zakaria on Palin: she doesn't even understand the question
Chris in Paris · 9/30/2008 06:01:00 AM ET · Link

Here's the link to the video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/29/intv.tsr.zakaria.on...

I wouldn't put it past the New Yorkers to post that sign.

Will the GOP allow taxpayers to lose another few trillion in retirement?
Chris in Paris · 9/30/2008 05:02:00 AM ET · Link

I never realized what a bunch of delicate flowers the Republicans were. Apparently a few wilted under the heat of the Democrats and were quite satisfied with dragging down the retirement plans of the entire US because they suffered a little boo-boo to their egos. It's hard to imagine that they are in chaos with such self-centered actions yesterday. The real problem with vote yesterday was cowardice. Representatives in swing districts voted against the bailout because they feared losing their reelection campaign due to the unpopular vote. The end result was what Rob and John detailed below, a massive $1.1 trillion loss in the market.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/swing-district-congressmen-doomed...

The problem is understandable because who really likes the idea of their hard earned cash (and future) going to prop up the mistakes of Wall Street who rubbed our collective noses in their high flying lifestyle? I have no sympathy for Wall Street - not even a drop - and quite frankly, I hope they rot in hell for eternity. However, I do care about retirement plans. I do care about money being available in banks and money being available for friends and family who do the right thing and want to purchase a house. I do give a damn about retirees like my mother who is living on money packed away over forty years of scrimping and saving. I do care about businesses - small businesses, especially - that employ friends, family, myself and who are looking for responsible loans to grow and hire people. I also care about business around the world who buy goods and sell goods based on the success or failure of the US economy. At the moment and thanks to the cowardice of the Republican leadership, all of this is being damaged because the Republicans want to make a point similar to a three year old having a temper tantrum.

The original Paulson plan was clearly unacceptable. It was a giveaway without restrictions to Lord Paulson. Democrats added language that scaled back executive bonuses, added the checks and balances and gives taxpayers some of the financial upside, should upside ever happen. It is perfect? Of course not. Are there flaws? Sure. I wouldn't mind seeing more pain on Wall Street for the crowd that dragged us into this crisis and I hope that next year Congress revisits the tax code to address that. Adding common sense regulation and locking down the loopholes that enable Wall Street gamblers to pay less taxes than everyone else have to be modernized or would that be retro-ized, since much of that used to exist?

Regardless, the first point of interest is to make sure that the credit market starts to move again because today, it's locked up. Without the credit market - the legitimate credit market - lending money, the US (and world) economic system will shut down whether we like the bill or not. If anyone in the US thinks they can survive without any credit for their personal life or work life, they are sadly mistaken.

The GOP needs to figure out how bad off they want Americans on Main Street because at the moment, they seem happy to sacrifice everyone's future because they're too afraid of losing their comfortable lifestyle in Congress. Republicans may be hurting Wall Street but the impact will be much larger for everyone else unless they start to get serious about this problem.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/will-gop-allow-taxpayers-to-lose.html

Green energy and the business opportunity
Chris in Paris · 9/30/2008 02:23:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

Obama's plan to invest in renewable energy makes sense in so many ways. Obviously we need to improve the quality of our environment and lessen our dependence on oil. What I can't understand is the Republicans refusal to accept the business side of this issue. (Schwarzenegger is about the only Republican who does.) Warren Buffet is investing hundreds of millions into a Chinese company offering green car technology because that's where they are building them.

The world market is not only receptive to green technologies, they are building them. The Republicans want to fight a battle that is already over but the rest of the world is already moving in the direction of green business. Looking at how many hundreds of thousands of jobs we've lost this year (and more when the Friday report is out) this is where our investment dollars should go. The US can still raise capital and get a business started faster and easy than in most countries but if we keep fighting this due to loons such as Senator Inhofe, we will lose the moment and cede this opportunity to China and Europe. Now how silly would we have to be to pass on taking a leadership position and create new jobs?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26916857

i used the google and according to the Socialist Worker Online hundreds showed up at a wall street protest rally...

take me to your socialism!

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Online users

* mire

ok i'll talk to myself then

i like oliver stone's movies, not all of course, he made one about fidel castro, was ok (i've seen better representations of him) - the best was jfk imo, no, there were no historical inaccuracies in that one but after, he seemed to have veered off course and started to bullshit a little, i think this W will be in that category - and in any case, even if it were to get good review and all, i just won't go- haven't been able to watch the nightmare as it unfolded in real life, i'm definitely not inclined to indulge in some fictionalized documentary about this crappy man, i've had enough i think

but back to oliver stone, didn't he also make a good one about talk radio? the one which ends with the lefty talk show host being gunned down by a toothless right wing supremacist/christian fundy crazy? sometimes i wonder if the times (late seventies?) were ripe for that kind of craziness and it was probably the time when mike malloy went to the police station to request permit to carry deadly weapons, or the policemen there told him "you really should be ready, lock and loaded, man, in these times..."

best movie i saw about W was the obscure but excellent "The assassination of George W Bush" it got banned or something because it disappeared almost immediately as it came out. It was eery and scary, obvious fiction but very realisticly filmed - used real footage and the characters play themselves, it's a montage of real news footage manipulated to look realistic with the plot - the plot is also very believable, the consequences of the assassination, dick cheney becomes president and puts in place a total police state.... the film/documentary came out in 2004 or thereabouts, and the police state predicted in the movie came to be implemented anyway in real life even without the assassination, the torture and illegal wiretaps and all the stuff we've seen develop in the last few years

off to the gym now, with the laura flanders podcast to fire me up

the one lonely user is gone now (will be back)

the regular early birds! i see in the time that it took me to write my post some people woke up...

yup, breakfast at sj's this morning. hot coffee, fresh muffins and all that good stuff.

I was here, just getting coffee. I like the morning group here. Lots of good news and questions and answers.

I didn't see that movie mire. I wonder if there's a dvd out we could get. Oliver Stone, sometimes I like his movies, sometimes not.

McCain should share blame for the crisis

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So if McCain wanted credit for passage, should he share some of the blame for its defeat? Two thirds of half Republicans voted for its defeat...after a weekend of telephone call diplomacy from McCain."

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/mccains_share_of_th...

President Bush to make statement on financial rescue plan at 8:45 E.T. today

a self fulfilling prophecy. given that we've been told its out there, and that indeed the future looks grim, what bank is going to want to loan money given the increased risk that it might not get it back?

He is due on CNN and MSNBC. The media assigned him the reason for the failure yesterday, so he's out there doing damage control. He's losing more in the polls. I bet he went to Fox also. I don't watch so I'm not sure.

Actually no one listens to what Bush is even saying any more. And that's why he was able to push some stuff through that should not have been there.

But they will watch McFeeble. I imagine he will blame the Dems and Obama again.

Real.

So now it's a "rescue plan." Those poor bankers, stuck on the roof in the flood.

said they voted against the bill because it did not include the bankruptcy amendment.

Officials, lawmakers scramble to find new plan
'Doing nothing is not an option,' says House majority leader Steny Hoyer

WASHINGTON - Top congressional and White House officials, stunned when the House rejected a massive rescue plan for the nation's economy, scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial markets.

"Doing nothing is not an option," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said after seeing the $700 billion emergency package for the nation's financial systems fail 228-205 on Monday.

With the House not scheduled to meet again until Thursday, congressional leaders and Bush administration officials promptly sought to assess what types of changes could win over enough votes to guarantee success. President Bush planned to make a statement on the rescue plan at 8:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The outcome of Monday's vote fed a huge sell-off in the stock market, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average into its biggest single-day plunge, 777 points. The House vote and the market's terrified reaction shook Washington and New York centers of power — even overseas markets — but no immediate solution seemed at hand.

Intense lobbying
The bill's failure came despite furious personal lobbying by Bush and support from House leaders of both parties. But the legislation was highly unpopular with the public, ideological groups on the left and the right organized against it, and Bush no longer wielded the influence to leverage tough votes. Even pressure in favor of the bill from some of the biggest special interests in Washington, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors, could not sway enough votes.

The legislation the administration promoted would have allowed the government to buy bad mortgages and other deficient assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates of the plan believed it would help lift a major weight off the already sputtering national economy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26953481/

is on c-span now. She's talking about why she voted against the bill.

I have to do some research on ACORN because I know very little about it.

you will find that its a red herring. the conservatives keep tossing it out as something evil when it isn't.

one of the things that happened with the bailout is that boehner came out with a statement that said the bailout was loaded with pork for trial lawyers, unions, and acorn.

futures have been looking up all morning, setting up some form of a market bounce after yesterdays 777 point drop in the djia.

bushtard started speaking at 8:45 and the futures have turned on a dime and are headed lower. if only he could just stfu and go away.

Who is ACORN?

ACORN is the nation’s largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people with over 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities across the country. Since 1970, ACORN has been building community organizations that are committed to social and economic justice, and won victories on thousands of issues of concern to our members, through direct action, negotiation, legislative advocacy and voter participation. ACORN helps those who have historically been locked out become powerful players in our democratic system.

Community organizing: Each of the 1,200 local ACORN neighborhood chapters in 110 cities and 40 states brings neighbors together to work for stronger, safer and more just communities.

Issue campaigns: Each ACORN office carries out multiple issue campaigns. ACORN members across the country work to raise the minimum wage or enact living wage policies; eliminate predatory financial practices by mortgage lenders, payday lenders, and tax preparation companies; win the development of affordable housing and community benefits agreements; improve the quality of and funding for urban public schools; rebuild New Orleans; and pass a federal and state ACORN Working Families Agenda, including paid sick leave for all full time workers.

A recent study shows that our issue campaign victories have delivered approximately $15 billion in direct monetary benefits to our membership and constituency over the past 10 years.

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12342

Who We Are

National non-profit ACORN Housing has been providing free housing counseling to low and moderate income homebuyers since 1987. We have opened HUD-certified, Fannie Mae-approved housing counseling offices across the US, helping over 50,000 families to achieve homeownership.

ACORN Housing provides one-on-one mortgage loan counseling, first-time homebuyer classes, and helps clients obtain affordable mortgages through our unique lending partnerships.

We look at your savings and credit history to see if you qualify for a mortgage. We can help you with credit problems and to create a downpayment savings plan.

When you qualify, we can help arrange a mortgage with lower interest rates, lower down payments and lower settlement costs than what banks usually offer.

http://acornhousing.org/TEXT/wwa.php

Helps low income people to get homes.

That's why the repubs don't like it. Low income people don't deserve homes according to the repubs.

In decrying the lack of government regulation, Sarkozy joined a broad spectrum of European leaders and commentators who have interpreted the financial crisis as a death knell for the current financial markets and banking systems. Their comments sometimes have betrayed an "I told you so" sentiment, after years during which U.S. officials suggested that many of Europe's economic problems stemmed from an excess of regulation and government intervention.

..."Self-regulation to solve all problems, it's finished," Sarkozy said. "Laissez-faire, it's finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it's finished. . . . Self-regulation is sometimes insufficient. The market is sometimes wrong. Competition is sometimes ineffective or disloyal. It is necessary then for the state to intervene."

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, usually a stalwart ally of President Bush, also has derided the lack of regulation that, in her view, allowed the financial crisis to erupt in the United States and seep toward Europe. She and her deputies have repeatedly reminded the German public in recent days that the United States and Britain rejected her proposals last year for regulating international hedge funds and bond rating agencies.

"It was said for a long time, 'Let the markets take care of themselves,' " Merkel said during a visit to Austria on Saturday. Now, she added, "even America and Britain are saying, 'Yes, we need more transparency, we need better standards.' "

Germany's finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, said Thursday that the "Anglo-Saxon" capitalist system had run its course and that "new rules of the road" are needed, including greater global regulation of capital markets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR200809...

...beyond Europe, [Sarkozy] said, the leaders of all the world's major industrial powers should gather at a special summit before the end of the year and start to construct from scratch a new financial and monetary framework to replace the U.S.-dominated system set up at Bretton Woods, N.H., in 1944.

White House, lawmakers plan new bailout deal By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
32 minutes ago

Top congressional and White House officials, stunned when the House rejected a massive rescue plan for the nation's economy, scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial markets.

"Doing nothing is not an option," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said after seeing the $700 billion emergency package for the nation's financial systems fail 228-205 on Monday.

With the House not scheduled to meet again until Thursday, congressional leaders and Bush administration officials promptly sought to assess what types of changes could win over enough votes to guarantee success. President Bush planned to make a statement on the rescue plan at 8:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The outcome of Monday's vote fed a huge sell-off in the stock market, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average into its biggest single-day plunge, 777 points. The House vote and the market's terrified reaction shook Washington and New York centers of power — even overseas markets — but no immediate solution seemed at hand.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday said in a statement that lawmakers should not start from scratch as they weigh their next move.

From the campaign trail, the Illinois senator proposed that one change would be to raise from $100,000 to $250,000 the amount of federal deposit insurance for bank accounts. He said that such a move would be a boost for small businesses and would make the U.S. banking system more secure as well as restore public confidence in the nation's financial system.

Obama also said further inaction would be catastrophic for the economy and for American families.

The bill's failure came despite furious personal lobbying by Bush and support from House leaders of both parties. But the legislation was highly unpopular with the public, ideological groups on the left and the right organized against it, and Bush no longer wielded the influence to leverage tough votes. Even pressure in favor of the bill from some of the biggest special interests in Washington, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors, could not sway enough votes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/financial_meltdown&printer=1;_ylt=AqvdFdA7bIR...

The Higher Tire Swing
The Times looks at Tom Brokaw's role as peacemaker with the McCain campaign and his role in reassuring them they can get a fair shot from NBC News.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/arts/television/30brok.html?_r=1&hp=&p...

Over the last few weeks, the issues of John McCain's age and health have been pushed, with much resistance, back into the heart of the political discussion. Prompted in part by the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate, the topic crested with the release of a political advertisement calling attention to McCain's history of skin cancer and the need for more information about his medical records.

Cable news stations were too skittish to run the spot, produced by Brave New Films. CNN refused to air it, Fox's Bill O'Reilly called it shameful, and MSNBC, which initially aired the ad, reversed course and took it off the air.

All of which has come to the anger and befuddlement of Democrats as well as members of the medical community, both of whom ask a very basic question: what more important information is needed to elect a president other than his fitness for office?

"I don't see anything wrong with opening up the discussion," said Ronald Bronow, former chief of dermatology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "What we want to know is, what stage is this melanoma? Particularly with the prospect of the vice president becoming the president... If you are an objective physician, you have to be concerned about this."

With just weeks before election day, McCain's campaign says it has released all of the information needed to make a thorough assessment of his health, and then some. In late May, the Senator allowed the vetting of over 1,000 pages of his records that showed him in generally good condition despite having skin cancer six years ago. But the process was far from transparent.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's medical correspondent who was one of only a handful of reporters allowed into the review, summarized the problems to the Huffington Post:

"We were given three hours to go over 1,200 pages of records. That is a lot to go through. It was very sort of cloak and dagger and I'm sure they had their reasons. Given that I had my medical training, I was able to hone in on what it thought was important more quickly. But the pages weren't numbered, so I had no way of knowing what was missing... As a reporter I can only comment on what I saw but I can't say by any means that this was complete... As far as the secretiveness of it, what they said to us is that you can't take anything out of the room, but you could make notes. So it was a lot to go through in a short period of time."
Provided with only a scant review of the information, questions have begun to rise as to the danger of McCain's most recent bout with cancer. Bronow noted that there are two reports detailing the stage of McCain's latest (his fourth) bout with melanoma. One report put it at a stage 2a, which has a relatively high five-year survival rate; another put it at a stage 3b, which is much more dire in nature.

"As a dermatologist, if I hear about a stage three melanoma, I say 'My God this guy is walking on nails here," said Bronow. "There is that much difference between a stage 2 and a stage 3."

Asked to detail his notes, Gupta said the pathology report - which lists the size and other attributes of the cancer removed - indicated a stage 2a:

"It was 2 centimeters across, 0.22 centimeters deep, and not ulcerated, which gives him a 66 percent survival rate over ten years. Melanoma is a particularly aggressive cancer. Mainly because skin is the largest organ in the body it can spread to the lungs, liver and the brain... Most of the occurrences will occur right away. I am reassured by the fact that it has been eight years now and there hasn't been a reemergence of that melanoma."
And yet, the debate over the status of McCain's health is accompanied by a separate, equally significant argument: mainly, what level of medical disclosure should voters demand of presidential candidates? As Bronow noted, Barack Obama has given the public far less information on his health than McCain - a one-page report detailing the last 21 years of care he has received.

"Let's have the same thing for him," he said. "Let's have a complete disclosure of everything. It isn't just McCain."

And as Gupta argued, there is something sadly ironic with the fact that physicians and airline pilots are required to release medical records, but not the would-be president of the United States.

"[Former Senator] Paul Tsongas -- when he ran for office in 1992, he was a cancer survivor at that point, but said he had been cured," recalled Gupta. "We now know that had he been elected to a second term, he would have died in office. It was Tsongas who went to Clinton and said we should really have a requirement for the release of physical and mental medical records. Which, looking back now, is pretty remarkable."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/new-urgency-over-mccain-m_n_130...

Happe Talk

In reintroduction, Palin to do more interviews and "tell her story"

Tacitly acknowledging criticism that she's been diminished in part by an overly protective media shield, Sarah Palin will take a more forward-leaning approach and do additional interviews in the weeks ahead, a top aide said today.

"She's seen the reviews and heard the criticism, but she's a fighter," said this aide. "And now she's in a fighting mood."

Palin heads to McCain's cabin in Arizona today to prepare for her Thursday debate, and while she's there she'll do a round of conservative talk radio interviews.

"Talk radio is a convenient, powerful and effective outlet," said the aide.

Rush Limbaugh, who hosts the most popular radio show in the country, noted in an e-mail that he doesn't invite guests on and alluded to his rocky relationship with the top of the GOP ticket.

"The McCain camp doesn't trust me," Limbaugh said.

But asked if he'd welcome a call from Palin, the conservative talker said: "Of course."

The move to reintroduce Palin comes after much criticism for a stumbling interview she gave to CBS’ Katie Couric last week; increased conservative grousing about the campaign's decision to roll out the GOP vice presidential nominee through high-stakes and high-profile mainstream media interviews; and the suggestion by some observers that she even drop off the ticket.

Quite the contrary, Palin, her family and aides are determined to remind voters what they so liked about the governor in the first place.

After the debate and talk radio hits, the plan is to find a way to let Palin be Palin, moving her away from the pre-fab talking points and letting the down-home daughter of Wasilla be herself.

"She wants to tell her story more, and people around her do, too," added the source. "This is a governor very much on her toes, very much fed up with inaccuracies and fictions about her own life and career."

To this end, Palin was far more aggressive in another interview with Couric today, this aide said

Sitting with McCain for their first joint interview a week after the widely panned sit-down with Couric, Palin interjected when the CBS anchor brought up a report about the Wasilla Assembly of God, the governor's childhood church and one she still attends at times, seeking to pray gays away from homosexuality.

"Sarah Barracuda showed up today," the aide said, reprising the feisty former point guard's high school basketball nickname and one that has been largely forgotten since her post-convention cosseting.

"We're encouraging CBS to run entire thing," the aide said of today's session. "Run it end to end online."

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/In_reintroduction_Pali...

Monday, September 29,
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 7:04am.
Monday, September 29, 2008
SPOONAMORE REVEALS THE PLAN TO STEAL THE NEXT ELECTION
*******
For the post.. :)

I posted something yesterday about that from Brad Blog but,it wasn't this article..
I wanted what you just now posted..

I was trying to find my bookmark for Mark Crispinmiler..
But,I crashed before I could find it..

Thanks for saving me some work.. ;)
I kid..
Thanks again for what you do so well..Ya news hound you ! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Palin Facing A Lot Of Pressure For Debate
The New York Times reports today on the anxiety many conservatives are feeling about Sarah Palin, ahead of Thursday's debate. "I think she has pretty thoroughly -- and probably irretrievably -- proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States," said former Bush speechwriter David Frum. "If she doesn't perform well, then people see it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/us/politics/30palin.html?partner=rssus...

New Show tomorrow!

Oh and goodies! Lookie! Virginia has flipped and is bringing North Carolina and West Virginia with her!

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Maps showing the same states swinging left, but not quite there yet...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/

http://electoralmap.net/index.php

Electric 11 (3-0.0.4.7)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

red self-existing serpent ~ kin 225

DEFINE in order to SURVIVE,
MEASURING INSTINCT
seal the STORE of LIFE-FORCE
with the SELF-EXISTING tone of FORM.
guided by the power of BIRTH.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
◄ 12.19.15.12.17 ≈ uaxac caban ►

Media: Bush Is The ‘Picture Of A Beaten Dog’
In the wake of yesterday’s congressional meltdown over the bailout bill, President Bush gave a speech this morning, meant to reassure the public and the volatile financial markets. Just four minutes long, the address expressed disappointment in Congress and warned that “the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act.”

Bush’s speech is unlikely to have much of an effect. Immediately following the address, MSNBC turned to New York Magazine’s John Heilemann, who commented:

I don’t think that comforts anybody. I don’t think that moves a single vote. With due respect and sympathy for the man, that was the picture of a beaten dog. That was the picture of presidential impotence right there. He looked terrible like his bell had been rung. He looked drawn to me.

The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan added, “It strikes me lately, when the President talks about the economic crisis, that he seems like a commentator upon the crisis as opposed to the leader in the crisis. There is the sense that he is watching it saying we need to do something, as opposed to we will do something.” Watch Bush’s speech, followed by MSNBC’s commentary: at link

As the Washington Post writes today, yesterday’s failed bailout vote “marked the biggest legislative defeat of Bush’s tenure and underscored the vanishing influence of a president who could once bend a pliant Congress to his will on wars, taxes, surveillance and a host of other high-profile initiatives.”

Coinciding with these developments, Gallup has released a new poll today showing that Bush’s approval rating has dropped to the lowest point in his tenure:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/30/bush-beaten-dog/

“Sometime between Election Day and early December,” NBC News will make a final decision about who will permanently replace Tim Russert as the host of “Meet The Press,” the New York Times reports. Though the decision has yet to be finalized, the network is said to be “leaning toward an ensemble of hosts that would be led by Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director, and include David Gregory.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/arts/television/30brok.html?hp

Nearly 90 percent of Americans are concerned that the failure of the Wall Street bailout package “could lead to a more severe economic decline,” according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. In all, 45 percent supported the failed bill and 47 percent opposed it. 61 percent said that “there was insufficient assistance for the general public.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/30/AR200809...

Corinne Weber, a GOP county chairwoman in upstate New York, has resigned over a chain e-mail that she forwarded “to more than two dozen Republicans on Friday night that makes a veiled reference to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and suggests he is the Antichrist.” One county official pressing for Weber’s resignation said that the e-mail “didn’t reflect the views of the Republican Party.”

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080929/N...

Kyle Foggo, a former high-ranking CIA official, “pleaded guilty Monday to one felony corruption count, admitting that he had directed CIA contracts to companies operated by a longtime friend,” military contractor Brent Wilkes. Wilkes was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribing Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA) “who had previously pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is serving an eight-year sentence.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/washington/30inquire.html?ref=todayspa...

it looks the mark to market value of all that political capital is a big fat zero.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Suspend Again!
John McCain made the morning show rounds today. On Fox they were virtually begging him to "suspend" his campaign again in the wake of the bailout failure yesterday on the Hill. You know, since it worked out so well the first time. McCain's answer: He just might suspend again.
Video at link

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/220826.php

Buy and hold your lunch down, if possible.

Today's Gallup National Poll...
Just saw on MSNBC---

Obama--52
McCain- 40

An interesting frame into which Obama hopes to have his picture hung.

Our next President will inherit a financial shit storm.

The only thing left on the Presidents plate will be spending cuts.

Al Qaeda will undoubtedly test the new leader to find out if he is a pussy.

Oil will continue to be a drain on our economy.

The credit market crunch spell the end for the housing boom.

Left unchecked, Iran will no doubt explode an underground nuclear test during the next Presidents administraion.

When Obama started the change mantra, I bet he never dreamed these would be the changes he would face.

Huntington, WV (HNN) – A documentary by Michael Moore did not air Monday night, September 29, as scheduled on Comcast Public Access. In the words of Richard Bartram, who has been coordinating the evening two hour block, “only Comcast knows.”

Bartram stated that he disc of “Slacker Uprising” provided to Comcast “was perfectly within FCC language restrictions (four words were excised), I had a backup disc ready to air in the event there was technical problems with the original.”

This is not the first time Comcast has shown a “slacker” attitude toward the Public Access programming on Channel 20. “It happened on numerous occasions, once when “On the River’s Edge” was scheduled.”

http://www.huntingtonnews.net/local/080930-rutherford-localslackernotair...

let it bleed...

Ellen Camhi, chairwoman of the Stamford Democrats, said she does not pay attention when hometown U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman appears on television campaigning for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

"I try to avoid it when he's on," Camhi said. "I have enough problems with my blood pressure."

But Camhi does not support the efforts of some members of the state party's central committee to censure Lieberman for speaking at the Republican National Convention.

"I don't think it's worth doing," she said. "I feel just the same as they do. I feel betrayed. I feel angry. . . . But we don't need to be giving Joe some more attention. I'm sure he knows how everyone feels, and it's not going to change him."

Nevertheless, Camhi and every town committee chairman in Connecticut is being asked to circulate a resolution condemning the four-term senator's speech and urging him to resign from the party.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_10597388

He must atone for his sins on theis Jewish High Holiday. I hope he suffers for his actions.

Money market borrowing costs soar

By Jamie McGeever and Kirsten Donovan
8 minutes ago
LONDON (Reuters) - The cost of borrowing overnight dollars on global money markets soared on Tuesday despite central banks pumping billions into the banking system to prevent it seizing up further after U.S. lawmakers' rejection of a $700 billion financial rescue bill panicked markets.

The scramble for cash as banks sought to square their books over the end of the quarter saw the European Central Bank lend $30 billion dollars overnight at a huge rate of 11 percent -- more than five times the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target rate -- and call for bids for an additional $50 billion. Meanwhile, the London interbank offered rate (Libor) for overnight dollars jumped by a record 430 basis points to 6.87 percent, the highest in at least 7-1/2 years.

- snip -

But in part buoyed by the Irish government's decision to guarantee all bank deposits and speculation central banks could cut interest rates in concert soon, a collapse of European equities failed to materialize.

European shares erased initial losses to trade largely flat on the day (.FTEU3) (.FTSE) and U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street. "Money markets are more of a problem than stock markets. Perceived counterparty credit risk ... probably won't go away for a while," said Everett Brown, strategist at IDEAGlobal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080930/bs_nm/us_financial_centralbanks

RENO, Nevada (AFP) — The financial crisis convulsing Congress, Wall Street and the economy at large is a dramatic real-time test of presidential caliber -- and Barack Obama appears to be besting John McCain.

With the House of Representatives throwing out an enormous bailout bill, the latest polls have showed the Democrat Obama building a dominant lead over his Republican rival in the November 4 election.

"Pretty clearly if the question (for voters) is the economy, the answer is Obama," argued William Galston, a former White House adviser who analyzes presidential politics at Washington's Brookings Institution.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h1F9klaCXmE2eXgKPGIO3a2lU0eg

vix, a measure of market volatility / fear is at an all time high (to be fair it has fallen back a little today).

who knew that vix stood for vomit index...

i remember when they discovered the ruins. i thought it was so far down that there was no natural light.

Obama endorsement(First Dem in 72 years) questions Palin pick

Another early newspaper endorsement for Barack Obama, and this one is as much a critique of John McCain, particularly his judgment in picking Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Endorsing a Democrat for president for the first time in 72 years, the Stockton Record in California praised Obama as an inspirational leader.

"He has demonstrated time and again he can think on his feet. More importantly, he has demonstrated he will think things through, seek advice, and actually listen to it," the newspaper said in its Sunday editorial. "Obama is a gifted speaker. But in addition to his smarts and energy, possibly his greatest gift is his ability to inspire."

Of McCain, the editorial compared him unfavorably to President Bush, saying "He tends to shoot from the hip and go on gut instinct. The nation cannot go through four more years of literally and figuratively shooting now and asking questions later.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/obama_...

Yeah, I was gonna say: "Yay! We're Blue!"

First time I've ever seen.

"I should have loved a thunderbird instead [of a mojito]."

Kind of ot.

But you know--what makes people wear stupid hats and not know it? It seems like a fairly recessive gene, but if you've got it, you've got it.

did Acorn.

They always seemed like a really and truly no-bullshit and community responsive type org to me.

I have always admired them.

The Dems who voted for the giveaway did so mostly because they were scared by the threats of Wall Street, that if the rich didn't get their handout, the market would go nuts and then it's bye-bye stock-based pension and retirement funds.

And guess what? That's exactly what Wall Street did! The largest, single-day drop in the Dow in the history of the New York Stock exchange. The news anchors last night screamed it out: Americans just lost 1.2 trillion dollars in the stock market!! It's a financial Pearl Harbor! The sky is falling! Bird flu! Killer Bees!

Of course, sane people know that nobody "lost" anything yesterday, that stocks go up and down and this too shall pass because the rich will now buy low, hold, then sell off, then buy low again.

But for now, Wall Street and its propaganda arm (the networks and media it owns) will continue to try and scare the bejesus out of you. It will be harder to get a loan. Some people will lose their jobs. A weak nation of wimps won't last long under this torture. Or will we? Is this our line in the sand?

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=236

...the ball is in the Democrats' hands. The gun from Wall Street remains at their head. Before they make their next move, let me tell you what the media kept silent about while this bill was being debated:

1. The bailout bill had NO enforcement provisions for the so-called oversight group that was going to monitor Wall Street's spending of the $700 billion;

2. It had NO penalties, fines or imprisonment for any executive who might steal any of the people's money;

3. It did NOTHING to force banks and lenders to rewrite people's mortgages to avoid foreclosures -- this bill would not have stopped ONE foreclosure!;

4. It had NO teeth anywhere in the entire piece of legislation, using words like "suggested" when referring to the government being paid back for the bailout;

5. Over 200 economists wrote to Congress and said this bill might actually WORSEN the "financial crisis" and cause even MORE of a meltdown.

Put a fork in this slab of pork. It's over. Now it is time for our side to state very clearly the laws WE want passed. I will send you my proposals later today. We've bought ourselves less than 72 hours.

given the level of vitriol that the wingnuts throw at it, they must be doing something right. now you know why they hate community organizers.

does anybody else find it cynical that the republicans complain about what they call "pork" in the bailout bill (e.g. directing a percentage of the profits to acorn) when they are completing ignoring the presence of 700,000,000,000 in pork for wall street?

via Atrios via Golis via Streogum via t3hbrian via The Decemberists

Stocks in U.S. Rally on Speculation Rescue Plan to Pass; JPMorgan Advances U.S. stocks rose as growing expectations that lawmakers will salvage a $700 billion bank- rescue package helped the Standard & Poor's 500 Index recover almost a third of yesterday's 8.8 percent drop.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a5Px2jDw3nZ0&refer=n...

Libor Surges Most on Record as U.S. Congress Rejects $700 Billion Bailout The cost of borrowing in dollars overnight rose the most on record after the U.S. Congress rejected a $700 billion bank-rescue plan, putting an unprecedented squeeze on the global financial system.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a2r99gEsqU3k&refer=n...

Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fell 16.3% in July, Steepest Pace on Record House prices in 20 U.S. cities declined in July at the fastest pace on record, signaling the worst housing recession in a generation had yet to trough even before this month's credit crisis.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aEyKpTpk90C0&refer=n...

U.S. Heading for Deeper Economic Slump, With or Without Treasury Bailout The U.S. may face its longest recession in a quarter century no matter what action Congress takes on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion plan to rescue the battered banking industry.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ayyjXs25Y7oE&refer=n...

Hope your all well.

Crash - Crash - Crash Wall Street - NO BAIL-OUT YEAH!!!!

not sure, but it's the image that fit for the day.

The thing is, I bought it for $39k over the County Appraisal. Then, not long after I bought it, they raised the county appraisal value. It is now $49k higher than it was in 1997.

So my question is, if home prices are falling, why aren't real estate taxes falling in suit? And how much is my house really worth?

Being a domestic relations paralegal, I can, with much assuredness, tell you that there AIN'T NOBODY out there who knows how much my house is worth. Appraisal reports these days are a bitch, and a waste of money. I feel SORRY for divorcees who pay $400 for an appraisal that says their house is worth a price that no one is willing to pay.

They wind up getting screwed...coming and going, as it were.

With or Without Treasury Bailout The U.S. may face its longest recession in a quarter
century no matter what action Congress takes on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's
$700 billion plan to rescue the battered banking industry.

hope you are feeling good this a.m.!

No boss!

Hi smcgee!

"They wind up getting screwed...coming and going, as it were."

Isn't that always the case - WE are ALWAYS getting SCREWED

You've seen the way the market behaves recently, gains can disappear in minutes. It's a bi-polar rollercoaster.

Reminds me of my crazy ex-girlfriend.

Submitted by Annette on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 10:59am.
The thing is, I bought it for $39k over the County Appraisal. Then, not long after I bought it, they raised the county appraisal value. It is now $49k higher than it was in 1997.
------
I don't know how it works in your Kansas county but you are in the right business to find out.

In my county (maybe the entire state?), a property owner has X-number of days to appeal the official property assessment recorded by the County Assessor.

...and there is a whole lot of screaming going on now that house prices have fallen.

Now is the time to tell the Dems to put in as much protection as possible. If we are headed for a deeper recession anyway, why not put in the checks and balances we will need in the future.

Hello darling.... speaking of house appraisals - the house I'm going to purchase
got appraised 4 grand more than I'll be paying for it. Since I'm new to this -
I was kinda excited to find that out. But it could all be just smoke, mirrors, &
just another way for folks to "screw" us everyday folks. ???

should be the one that heads the "bail-out"
package talks? - they seem to really need A LOT of help.
My vote is in for toniD

I'd be taking my Real Estate Sales Contract and marching my tukus right down to the Tax Appraiser's office if I were you! Hey, $4k is $4k!

And I'm all for tonid. Go kick some bootay :-)

Rep Kaptor was on c-span this AM and she suggested alot of good things we need to include if we were to do the bail out. She voted against the bail out yesterday.

Much of the bill was to appease the repubs and all the protections seemed useless at best.

These Dems need a shaking! We are tired of the way they are doing things and I want them to take a stand for their constituents for a change.

People are reluctant to vote out an incumbent. Not me! If they are doing a bad job, get them out of there. That's why McCain is still in office after all these years. Arizonans seem to hate him, so why is he still a Senator?

Here is another truism that the "free market" clowns do not acknowledge.

When a sector or a "system" or a company is too large to allow to fail without everyone suffering far-reaching and dire consequences, the "free market" paradigm does not exist.

When the "free market" clowns admit to this truism, they open the door to an examination of their overly-simplistic foundational viewpoint of Capitalism.

In other words, if some institutions cannot be allowed to fail then one must ask if some types of money-making market enterprises cannot be allowed to succeed.

Given the above, government regulation must reign throughout the capitalistic system or the "free market" clowns are merely kidding themselves by claiming that no regulation is good except when it is.

is I have this voice in the back of my head that says "you're screwing yourself if you go tell them your house is worth less than they say it is"... because honestly, I have no idea what it's worth.

and too, if I sell, I might wind up with a seller who is willing to pay more if he/she sees that inflated county appraisal.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't... *sigh*

Wanna trade my Merrill Lynch account for the cash in your ceiling?

I'll trade ya! C'mon, you know you want to. :-)

He is speaking an whistling at the same time.

He's holding an economic round table in Des Moines

9/30: Hotline/Diageo Pres-Tracker: Obama 47%, McCain 41%

9/30: Res. 2000 Pres-Tracker: Obama 51%, McCain 41%

9/30: Rasmussen Pres-Tracker: Obama 51%, McCain 45%

9/29: Gallup Pres-Tracker: Obama 50%, McCain 42%

A judge has combined two suits which question the Alaska State legislature's"Troopergate" investigation. The new suit compiles that of five Republican lawmakers, who claim the independent investigation oversteps the Legislature's jurisdiction with a similar filing by the Attorney General. Vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is charged with abuse of powers in her firing of Walt Monegan, a former public safety commissioner who is said to have resisted pressure to lay off a state trooper, formerly married to Palin's sister. The first hearing is scheduled for Thursday. (Anchorage Daily News)

http://www.adn.com/troopergate/story/541179.html

local governments are going to be the last to acknowledge falling home prices. their budget depends on it.

around here, we are seeing more and more individuals suing the county auditor to get a lower appraisal as it feeds directly into paying lower real estate taxes. 20 percent is 20 percent.

More than 90 percent of nursing homes violate federal safety and health regulations investigators charged Monday, saying that the principal abuse was neglect and abuse of patients. The nation's nursing homes, which house more than 1.5 million people, must meet the standards to receive Medicaid and Medicare funding. (New York Times)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-nursing-homes-websep30,0,7159675....

Palin: 'Only Flag in My Office' Is Israeli

President Peres of Israel yesterday met for the first time with Governor Palin and with Senator McCain, who called the veteran Israeli statesman "my old friend." The warm handshake and exchange of broad smiles occurred during an international gathering known as the Clinton Global Initiative, hosted by President Clinton. "I wanted to meet you for many years," Ms. Palin told Mr. Peres, according to an aide to the president. "The only flag at my office is an Israeli flag," she was quoted as saying, "and I want you to know and I want Israelis to know that I am a friend."

Can anyone say - "Dumb Shit"?

Submitted by Annette on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 11:18am.
...Wanna trade my Merrill Lynch account for the cash in your ceiling?
-----
I spent the last of my investment cash this morning and I have only lost, on paper, $45 on it during one hour of ownership. Whoo-hoo! (Been down so long, $45 looks like up to me).

I have only a few hundred bucks in cash remaining in each of three accounts, so Bait is out of the buying business.

(Or I could buy several hundred shares of GM...naaaaw.)

Check yesterdays vote again!

Your struggle with free markets is all in your head.

You can't have a market without rules and regs.

The question is always what will the rule be and who will make them.

The Dems wanted this "renters to homeowner" thing for their voters.

The left coast wanted their dream of never ending profits on real estate.

Go out and try to get loan today with bad credit.

Has the credit market made new rules?

Who made them?

here seen a post from air-ono???? I haven't in a
quite awhile - but I myself have been vacant
every now & then.

just made a new pot of dark roast columbian, waffles and Bgurls peach jam! (sugar free and delicious)

anybody care for some?

good blogging this AM. my repub buds are scared shitless, turns out most of em are in hock to their eyeballs. a few in maxo denial. "i have faith in McCain/Palin"

DAMN! IT!

I was countin' on you, Crank!!! :-(

*sigh*

Well, okay, so the account was worth $4400 a year ago.
A week ago it was worth $3,250
Yesterday, it had fallen to $3,100.

Small potatoes to ya'll, but to me...well, not so much!

Al-Qaeda No. 2 May be Injured, Possibly Re-killed--But Still Cranking Out Videotapes

Al-Qaeda No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, was 'killed,' then wounded, then re-killed--but through all of his deaths and injuries, he is still able to produce videotapes. Whenever the GOP hits a bump in the road -- say, for example, the imminent implosion of Caribou Barbie -- al-Zawahri is reborn and healed and a busy little bee!

just made a new pot of dark roast columbian, waffles and Bgurls peach jam! (sugar free and delicious)

you know, you just know we're due for a terror alert.

Smcgee, that makes perfect sense. As Christians, the radicals see themselves as preparing the world for the endtimes, which they believe we are in now. And Israel is a central player and the chosen people. To align herself with Israel, she believes is aligning herself with God.

There are books you could read to understand her philosophy better - anything from David Jeremiah would do it.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=238918

"When you add to that the fact that Israel now is celebrating its 60th anniversary as a nation, and that Israel has to be in its own land for the end-time events to take place, I've never lived in such a time," the pastor exclaims. "And while it is...challenging it [also] is really exciting -- because you read the Bible in one hand and you read the newspaper in the other, and you see the prophecies of the Bible are absolutely correct."

LAHORE: Taliban hostilities show no sign of abating despite the deployment of 8,000 troops in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the army’s claim of killing 1,000 Taliban, according to The Times.

The newspaper said in a report on Saturday that a constant supply of fresh fighters from inside the country and across the border in Afghanistan is helping the Taliban to stay in the fight.

Bajaur Agency is a main operating base for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistani intelligence believes that Ayman al-Zawahri, the second-in-command of Al Qaeda, has been a visitor.

The report says the roots of the Marriott hotel attack and other incidents of violence across Pakistan, however, are to be found in Taliban strongholds such as Bajaur.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C09%5C28%5Cstory_28-...

I’m not holding my breath, but I would like to see the self-proclaimed conservative, small government, anti-regulation, free-market zealots step up and take responsibility for wrecking the American economy and bringing about the worst financial crisis since the Depression.

Even now, with the house on fire, the most extreme among them won’t pick up the fire hoses and try to put it out.

With the fate of the Bush administration’s desperate $700 billion bailout of the financial industry hanging in the balance, Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, stuck to his political playbook like a man covered in Krazy Glue. He pronounced himself “resolute” in his opposition to the bailout because to be otherwise would amount to a betrayal of party principles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30herbert.html?_r=1&oref=slogi...

work for the people - takes over where unions left off - helps people get jobs and housing, sign up for food stamps if needed, and in this latest case registers them to vote (which raises the republican ire), how dare they, they must be CHEATING

after the ACLU and Moveon, ACORN is probably the third most unfairly reviled civil society organization which tries to do some good and gets smeared because of it

i posted mine - you obviously have much more information, i was just shooting off the top of my head, i wasn't too much off base, but my post is certainly irrelevant after reading yours

The Other Bailout: Fed Pumps Out $630 Billion
Using its emergency loan program and another tool, the Fed is injecting $630 billion into the financial system, with one observer predicting a calming effect on markets but adding, "the Fed's balance sheet is about to explode.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9MTZEgukPLY&refer=h...

as well she should be.

The Fed's balance sheet is about to explode! Do we have any oversight on the Fed? Don't think so!

So we threw a childish temper tantrum and voted NO!

And yet even that ridiculous claim is just another lie...

RNC ad, was cut, sent out before package failed

The Republican National Committee's new advertisement critical of the the Wall Street "bailout" was produced and sent to television stations in key states before the package failed, officials at two stations said.

...

The ad, however, seems to assume that it can safely attack a successful plan. And the reason may be the timing: Though it started airing this morning, the spot was released to stations yesterday morning, ad executives at stations in Michigan and Pennsylvania said.

It doesn't look the same
as it usually does.

Whoah! Passes Vasconcelos and goes right back to the 19th century. That's helpful!!

Back home thier constituent are 4 to 1 against the bill.

In the back room Nancy begs for help.

On the floor Nancy puffs up and attacks.

Leadership?

What a joke!

smcgee43 is that a chimp or a lil' baby gorilla. Sure is cute. Your housemate?

Submitted by gloryoski on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 12:13pm.
----

Why I think you'd be a very fine leader.

A media meme seems to be taking shape today after yesterday's House vote on the bailout package: The McCain camp really, really stepped in it this time:

1) (How many years does McCain need to be in Congress before he learns how the place works -- and that you better accomplish your mission before declaring that you did so?) (ABC's The Note)

2) McCain invested more political capital than anyone else in a deal that went bad. . . .[A]fter the bailout bill fell apart, McCain was left with little room to argue he had helped the process. So, he fired a few partisan shots. (CQ)

3) All in all, McCain might have been better served by staying out of the mess and above the fray. If the congressional impasse leads to a credit crisis, "it's not going to be good for McCain," veteran Republican consultant John Feehery said. . . McCain has been routinely wrong-footed on the slumping U.S. economy throughout the campaign, starting last year when he said he was not as up on that subject as he would like to be. (AP)

4) [I]f McCain wanted credit for passage, should he share some of the blame for its defeat? Two thirds of half Republicans voted for its defeat...after a weekend of telephone call diplomacy from McCain. (The Atlantic)

5) As a study in his prospective leadership, the role of Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, has done him no political good. After suspending his campaign last week and vowing to work with Republicans until a resolution was in hand, Mr. McCain was campaigning in Ohio on Monday with his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, as the House vote commenced. There he implicitly took credit for the compromise bailout that Congressional leaders had negotiated over the weekend, even as it was going down to defeat . . . Even before the vote, House Republicans had trouble pointing to any contributions from Mr. McCain to their deliberations . . . (NYT)

6) The vote is a blow to John McCain, who had so dramatically "suspended" his campaign to return to DC and broker a deal. His campaign had explained his role as bringing to the table and coaxing along House Republicans, whose revolt now makes him look ineffectual. (National Review)

because i knew very little about it and because it is a beating boy for the rethugs. So I posted what I found so others would also know a bit about it.

I knew if the rethugs hated it, it must be a pretty good organization.

I wish one of the stations would talk more about ACORN and what it does. Most people know nothing about it and take for granted what the rethugs say about it.

just south of us is some of the most beautiful farmland in washington state. beauty summers, glorious autumns, rainy winters for snuggling up with a good book and watching your cats turn into five toed sloths, and pretty springs with massive fields of tulip blossoms.

Lying Watch Watch
McCain calls for new bipartisanship as his campaign releases new ad blaming Dems for financial meltdown.

--Josh Marshall

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/mccain_decries_l...

Shadegg: Pelosi's Speech Had Nothing to Do With Bailout Defeat
The House Republican leadership's explanation that they lost their caucus on the bailout because of Nancy Pelosi's floor speech was transparently false on it face, but Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) removed whatever doubt might have remained this morning on MSNBC:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/220911.php

Gonzalez introduced Nader to a cheering crowd that welcomed him with a standing ovation.

"Democrats and Republicans agree on most of the major issues," he said. "We should be allowed in the debate."

During his hour-long "Open the Debates" rally, Nader covered a range of topics from Monday's defeat in Congress of the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street to state Proposition 6, which would allow an additional $365 million to be spent on local law enforcement and criminal justice programs.

"Look at your state," Nader told the crowd. "They are not even campaigning here."

California spends more money on the prison system than on higher education, he said, and the worse part about it is that state residents will not have an opportunity to share their concerns with the presidential candidates because they are more interested in campaigning in swing states.

In 2000, Nader was on the ballot in the presidential race between Democrat Al Gore and now-President George W. Bush. Nader received 112,345 or 1.5 percent of the vote in California.

After hearing Nader speak on Monday, Charlotte Roach of Pacific Grove said she would no longer feel guilty about voting for Nader.

Over the years, Roach said she hated hearing negative comments about her choice to vote for Nader, but said Monday's speech reassured her of her voting choice.

"I hate when they make me feel guilty," she said. "But it is my constitutional privilege and if we want change it has to start with us."

And with the help of people like Roach, Nader said the current two-party system and corporate power structure can change.

"We can take over," he said. "Wake up Americans! Cut the crap and take over."

WASHINGTON — In a far-reaching critique of the way the Pentagon fights wars and buys weapons, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that the military must understand the limits of combat power and its leaders must be skeptical that technology can bring order to the violent battlefield.

Mr. Gates criticized the Pentagon bureaucracy for what he called a narrow commitment to buying new generations of conventional weapons, which he said kept it from rapidly developing equipment that would save lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. He cited two projects that he said were forced upon the procurement bureaucracy: systems to detect improvised bombs and heavily armored transports to protect troops.

Without citing his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, by name, Mr. Gates also cautioned against efforts at reorganizing the Pentagon around buzzwords like “transformation.” To underscore that point, he challenged those who advocate investing in smaller numbers of higher-technology weapons in a belief that war can be revolutionized, fought at long distance with American forces never getting bloodied.

“Be modest about what military force can accomplish, and what technology can accomplish,” Mr. Gates told an audience of midcareer military, Pentagon, State Department and intelligence officials at the National Defense University here.

“The advances in precision, sensor, information and satellite technology have led to extraordinary gains in what the U.S. military can do,” he said. “But also never neglect the psychological, cultural, political and human dimensions of warfare, which is inevitably tragic, inefficient and uncertain.”

Before his departure in late 2006 as defense secretary, Mr. Rumsfeld had, with the endorsement of the Bush White House, championed a so-called revolution in military affairs that said transformational war-fighting techniques — including new generations of precision weapons, radar-evading jets and advanced intelligence — would render warfare faster and cleaner.

The views culminated in a strategy for invading Iraq with fewer ground forces than some had advocated, a mistake remedied when President Bush ordered five extra combat brigades to Iraq last year. The invasion also relied on extensive air strikes to decapitate the Iraqi leadership and scatter the Iraqi military, in a strategy nicknamed “shock and awe.”

Mr. Gates urged his audience to “look askance at idealized, triumphalist or ethnocentric notions of future conflict that aspire to upend the immutable principles of war.” In particular, he said, do not base a war plan on a bet that “adversaries can be cowed, shocked or awed into submission, instead of being tracked down, hilltop by hilltop, house by house, block by bloody block.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/washington/30gates.html?ref=us

An essay from "This is it and other essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience" by Alan Watts. Written in 1960. Read it on scribd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmM-5eC7QU0

"If you are looking for vengeance, be sure to dig two graves."

-Chinese saying

I guess Maron and Seder must be loaded and don't want our stinking money. I bet if they do make us subscribe, we'll have to do it in euros.

http://fanciers.com/other-faqs/gaskins-bib.html

Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly void of matter. Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe's expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation. - Space.com

Poll: Obama Grabs The Lead In Florida
By Eric Kleefeld - September 30, 2008, 12:50PM
This could be big news. A new survey of Florida from Public Policy Polling (D) is giving Barack Obama the lead in Florida, where John McCain has led in virtually all the polls up to now.

The numbers: Obama 49%, McCain 46%, with a ±3.2% margin of error. Three weeks ago, PPP gave McCain a lead of 50%-45%, which was about in line with other polls from the time.

The economy seems to really be the source of Obama's surge here. An overwhelming 64% of voters rank the economy as the single biggest issue, and Obama has a 55%-40% lead among this group. Obama is also ahead 54%-43% among the 15% who say the Iraq War is the biggest issue, while McCain makes it close thanks to overwhelming leads among the smaller groups who list the traditional conservative issues of taxes, moral values and immigration.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/poll_obama_grabs...

toniD:

Mailing Rachel about this was on my to-do list, but I got distracted by some fried rice. Thanks for reminding me.

from reuters:

Fed's Lockhart says we are in midst of very stressed markets, potential for serious damage to economy.

Says credit and interbank markets remain quite strained, in U.S. and abroad. Says labor market conditions have weakened. Says weaker growth prospects abroad threaten recent U.S. export boom.

====

seriously, whats the point in reminding us that things suck because of 20 years of corrupt conservative policies?

>>seriously, whats the point in reminding us that things suck because of 20 years of corrupt conservative policies?

well, a lot of people haven't made the connection.

Why, I remember this one poor deluded fool, it seems like only yesterday, who was positive the this whole mess was sole the fault of the democratic majority in congress...

oh, wait...it was only yesterday.

absolutely brilliant Dan.

Happe Talk

the Motley Fool:
The best way to measure the health of the credit market is to look at Libor.

So what is Libor?

Libor stands for the ‘London Interbank Offered Rate’ and is the rate of interest at which banks borrow from each other in the London market....

Twenty-four hours ago you could borrow dollars overnight at an interest rate of 2.57%. But since the US rejection, that figure has soared to 6.88%. That’s an astonishing rise and shows how worried people are in the credit markets. Other interbank rates have also jumped although the rises aren’t as high.

High interbank rates matter because they mean that some banks can’t get cash to lend on to businesses and ordinary people. If businesses can’t borrow, some will fold and the economy will head into serious trouble.

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/your-money/2008/09/30/credit-market-carnage.a...

Rupert Cornwell: Stunning defeat of bill exposes failures of the US political system

Yesterday was not only a black Monday for markets. It was
the blackest of Mondays too for the US political system, saddled with a discredited president who has completely lost control of his own party and a Congress that responds to a national emergency with little except snarling partisanship.

The stunning defeat of the financial bailout bill has exposed the weakness of the system at its moment of maximum vulnerability, in the quasi-interregnum of the weeks immediately before and after a presidential election. Even so, had a similar crisis erupted at the same stage of the second term of Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan it is hard to imagine Congress staging a similar rebellion. For George W Bush, alas, it is a different story.

His lack of clout was first exposed last Thursday when the bailout summit he convened at the White House degenerated into a blazing row. But that humiliation paled beside yesterday's. The President went on TV at 7.30am to plead for the measure that had been thrashed out over the weekend, to no avail. Then he called two dozen recalcitrant House Republicans, begging them to hold their noses and do their patriotic duty – but again to no avail.

When the vote came, his own party voted almost two to one against the bill, more than cancelling out the 140-95 majority of Democrats who did hold their noses to support the wishes of a President most of them despise.

Thus did US politics enter the world of Alice Through the Looking Glass. A president who prided himself on being a champion of free markets was urging the biggest state intervention in the economy in more than 50 years.

con't

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/rupert...

not really. my mind is cluttered with lots of useless things. it goes back to the 60's when there was a lot of debate about the extent of free speech and it was a play on the right of a person to yell fire in a crowded theatre (does the greater good for society ever trump free speech rights for the individual)

I can see the moon from here...I WANNA RUN NASA!!!!

Hey guys, if ditzes are in the running for being President of the US, then maybe I got a shot?

Heh :-) (evil grin)

Is that this IS a bunch of theater. I stand by what I said damnit!
Happe Talk

House Republicans will get most of the blame
John Aravosis (DC) · 9/30/2008 11:35:00 AM ET · Link

Conservative writer David Brooks:
House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.

I’ve spoken with several House Republicans over the past few days and most admirably believe in free-market principles. What’s sad is that they still think it’s 1984. They still think the biggest threat comes from socialism and Walter Mondale liberalism. They seem not to have noticed how global capital flows have transformed our political economy....

The Congressional plan was nobody’s darling, but it was an effort to assert some authority. It was an effort to alter the psychology of the markets. People don’t trust the banks; the bankers don’t trust each other. It was an effort to address the crisis of authority in Washington. At least it might have stabilized the situation so fundamental reforms of the world’s financial architecture could be undertaken later.

But the 228 House members who voted no have exacerbated the global psychological free fall, and now we have a crisis of political authority on top of the crisis of financial authority.

The only thing now is to try again — to rescue the rescue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion...

I would think any pay plan for this program would be directed to AAR since it is their show. Probably through whatever passes for AAR premium now.

If they have any sense over there, it will be free to drive traffic to their web site, re-build the brand of the AAR, and expose the talent to an audience much larger than what is left of AAR carriage.

It seems that at least one independent witness in the Troopergate investigation has changed her tune once she was sworn under oath.

Murlene Wilkens, the private contractor hired to manage Workmens' Compensation claims for the State of Alaska at first released statements that no pressure was put on her in the case of Trooper Wooten, Sarah Palin's ex-brother-in-law.

From this story posted yesterday:

Palin Implicated By Witness in ‘Troopergate’ Probe, it appears that Wilkens' story under oath suddenly changed, and after seeing hard evidence, including sworn testimony of one of her own employees, she admits to denying Trooper Wooten's previously approved claim at the direct request of Sarah and Todd Palin.

...

Murlene Wilkes, the proprietor of Harbor Adjusting Services in Anchorage, had originally denied that she was pressured by Gov. Palin’s office to deny state trooper Mike Wooten’s claim for workers compensation benefits.

Although Wooten did receive worker's compensation benefits for about three months, his claim was suddenly denied and he was forced to hire a lawyer and appeal the issue...

LINK

Republican party was secretly opposing bailout bill BEFORE Pelosi spoke
John Aravosis (DC) · 9/30/2008 11:02:00 AM ET · Link

We now find out that the Republican party cut ads, and sent them to TV stations around the country, opposing the bailout bill even BEFORE Pelosi spoke before the vote yesterday. The Republican National Committee, the official "party," was planning on the bill passing, and then was going to attack Democrats who voted FOR the bill. Talk about calloused. So in fact, the Republican party was playing games, playing politics, with our economy. Did the RNC tell individual members of Congress that they were going to be running ads attacking anyone who voted for the bill? Is this why Republican members voted against the bill 2 to 1 (while Dems voted for the bill almost 2 to 1), sending Wall Street into a nose dive? And what about John McCain? What does it say about him when his own party is secretly undercutting the proposal that he claimed to "save the day" on?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/RNC_ad_was_cut_sent_out_befo...

I HEART ROSH HASHANAH!
Submitted by Annette on Tue, 09/30/2008 - 11:03am.

girls, blow your chauffeur 2day!

once a year, and he REALLY appreciates it.

and i'm sticking 2 it...

Here's some more...via BlueTexan...

John McCain’s Spectacular Two Weeks Of Epic Fail

It's been an absolutely brutal two weeks for McSame.

The problem seems to be that reality is in the tank for the Obama campaign.

Republicans have failed America and, as a result, America has failed the world...that shit's gotta change...

Gorbachev to form new Russian party

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will join forces with Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev to launch a new political party independent of the Kremlin, the billionaire businessman said on Tuesday.

Gorbachev, 77, won the 1990 Nobel peace prize for allowing the peaceful revolutions the previous year that brought democracy to Eastern Europe after decades of Soviet control.

Though hugely admired in the West, he is deeply unpopular at home for presiding over the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union that led to economic and political chaos. When he last ran for president, in 1996, he won just half a percent of the vote.

Gorbachev initiated plans for the new party, said Lebedev on his website http://alex-lebedev.livejournal.com/141495.html

More here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080930/wl_nm/us_russia_gorbachev_party

Nice goin', Johnhole. Wayda piss off South Philly!

THAT WAS TONY FREAKIN' LUKE'S, MAN!

The crowning achievement of South Philly Sandwich Glory.

I thot the bee-yotch would go to Geno's, where they ignore u unless u order in English.

McAddlehead's tone also STINKS of elitism. Questions from pizza-eating schmoos don't count?

The White House on Tuesday admitted they have inadequately explained the nature of the economic crisis and the need for a rescue plan, but the administration also said the complexity of the problem and the media, not President Bush, are to blame for the lack of clarity.

They said they will focus on persuading the public and members of Congress that the basic elements of their original plan remain the solution to the problem.

"Our communications challenge is explaining why the is at all relevant to Americans' ability to get an auto loan, or a small businesses' ability to maintain their payroll rate," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

The president has made several statements this week and last, including a prime-time address to the nation last Wednesday, in an attempt to sell his $700 billion plan to Congress and the public.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/30/wh-blames-media-bailout-bust

But no matter what the WH says....

Bush’s Approval Rating Drops to New Low of 27%

Decline of 4 points since financial crisis intensified
by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- According to a Sept. 26-27 USA Today/Gallup poll, just 27% of Americans approve of the job George W. Bush is doing as president, the lowest rating of his presidency.

The new personal low rating for Bush comes amid the financial crisis that has rocked Wall Street in recent weeks. Bush's approval rating has declined from 31% in the previous Gallup Poll, conducted before the crisis intensified with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the near-collapse of Merrill Lynch, and the federal government bailout of AIG. It is down 6 points from 33% just after the Republican National Convention early this month. Bush's previous low had been 28%, measured at several points earlier this year. (The most recent poll was conducted before the House of Representatives voted down a bill to address the problems on Monday.)

The timing of the decline strongly suggests that it is because of the financial crisis, and the government's largely unpopular response to it. In a separate question in the Sept. 26-27 poll, only 28% of Americans approved and 68% disapproved of Bush's response to the financial crisis -- the worst of six government leaders tested in the poll (although no leader received a majority positive response). While most Americans agreed that some type of government action is necessary to address the crisis, last week only a small minority seemed to favor passing a bill similar to the Bush administration's original proposal.

Republicans are mostly responsible for the further erosion in Bush's job rating. Sixty-four percent of Republicans approve of Bush, down from 71% in the prior poll. Independents' and Democrats' ratings are essentially the same as two weeks ago.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110806/Bushs-Approval-Rating-Drops-New-Low-27...

This, two weeks after he said that Spain was in Latin America.

McCain, talking about energy policy, stresses the importance of "ensuring that America is secure, and not dependent on oil from people like Hugo Chavez or other parts of the Middle East which is, we know, could be destabilized under certain sets of circumstances."

Hugo Chavez is the leader of Venezuela, a country located in South America.

So sayeth The Rude One

If the House vote against the $700-billion financial rescue proposal stands, Americans may be in for a test of free-market economics the likes of which the country hasn't seen since the early 1930s.

With the Treasury Department hobbled by the rejection of its plan, the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are the chief government institutions standing between the nation and the brutally Darwinian process that could unfold if the panicky financial markets are left to sort their problems out alone.

That's something the United States last experienced in the early 1930s, when Herbert Hoover was in the White House. Some conservatives believe that's still the best long-term solution to the problem, though none has gone so far as Hoover's Treasury secretary, Andrew Mellon, who said: "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. . . . It will purge the rottenness out of the system."

But House members and their supporters who insisted Monday that the government had no business staging a massive intervention in the financial marketplace were essentially making a modern-day argument for the laissez-faire economic policies of the Mellon era.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-bottom30-2008sep30,...

is on Cspan2 right giving a fasinating explanation of what the banks are up to.
http://freetube.110mb.com/

(this is a pretty good site for free TV)

Congressional Web Site Slammed By E-Mails
Bailout Bill Brought House Of Representatives' Site 3-4 Times More Traffic Than Normal

(CNET) The Web site for the House of Representatives has been overwhelmed this week by a deluge of visitors trying to e-mail their congressmen and download the financial bailout bill the House rejected Monday.

The site on Monday saw three to four times its normal traffic, according to Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House chief administrative officer. The traffic has slowed down the site and made it inaccessible to some, a problem that continued into Tuesday morning.

"It's extraordinary -- the highest level of Web traffic we've seen," Ventura said Tuesday. "This doesn't even compare to the release of the 9-11 Commission Report."

After the financial bailout bill was defeated in the House Monday, the number of people trying to download the bill diminished, he said, but the number of people using the House's standard e-mail form to contact congressmen continues to rise.

"We received millions of e-mails last night," Ventura said. "It was pretty staggering."

The House has implemented measures to limit the amount of e-mails flowing through to congressmen during high-traffic periods. If a person tries to e-mail his representative during one of those periods, he may receive a mechanized response indicating the system is overwhelmed and to try later. Ventura said the problem could last through the week.

"We had people working on it all night, and we still do," he said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/30/tech/cnettechnews/main4489722....

go under news for the cspan sites
http://freetube.110mb.com/

the guy who took us to dinner,
who promised if we just gave
money to the account he was going to manage,
that it would grow
and grow
and grow...
until when we were 60,
we'd be millionaires.

WHERE IN THE FUCK IS THAT GUY?

I wanna kick his ass.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced he wants the country to develop a nuclear programme with the help of Russia. He insists, as do the Iranians, that it would be for purely peaceful purposes.
...

WHO: Ralph Nader, Matt Gonzalez, and Cindy Sheehan

WHAT: Rally

WHEN: Tuesday September 30 at 2:30

WHERE: McKenna Theater in the Fine Arts Building of San Francisco State University.

On Tuesday September 30 at 2:30, consumer advocate and Presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Vice Presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez, and Cindy Sheehan, currently running for the House of Representatives in the eighth congressional district of California, will hold a rally in McKenna Theater in the Fine Arts Building at San Francisco State University.

The Nader/Gonzalez campaign will speak out against the unjust, restrictive, and undemocratic Commission on Presidential Debates. The CPD, a corporation headed since its inception by two former chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties, shuts third party candidates away from public view, maintaining a stranglehold on the two party system and stifling the political conversation in this country.

The Nader/Gonzalez ticket is encouraged by AB 1945, which has passed in both the Assembly and the Senate. If signed into law, the bill will make it illegal for insurance companies to cancel the medical coverage of their clients for accidental mistakes in their medical history. This loophole is currently sometimes used throughout the country in order to deny legitimate claims on the basis of medical history technicalities. The bill would require the insurance companies to prove that a client intentionally misrepresented their medical history.

Obama's Money Cartel
Pam Martens
May 5, 2008

...
Why is the "yes, we can" candidate in bed with this cartel? How can "we", the people, make change if Obama's money backers block our ability to be heard?

Seven of the Obama campaign's top 14 donors consisted of officers and employees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again with looting the public and newly implicated in originating and/or bundling fraudulently made mortgages. These latest frauds have left thousands of children in some of our largest minority communities coming home from school to see eviction notices and foreclosure signs nailed to their front doors. Those scars will last a lifetime.

These seven Wall Street firms are (in order of money given): Goldman Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. There is also a large hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, which is a major source of fee income to Wall Street. There are five large corporate law firms that are also registered lobbyists; and one is a corporate law firm that is no longer a registered lobbyist but does legal work for Wall Street. The cumulative total of these 14 contributors through February 1, 2008, was $2,872,128,
...

PPP Poll: Obama Takes Lead in Florida
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Florida shows Sen. Barack Obama taking the lead over Sen. John McCain, 49% to 46%.

Key findings: "64% of Floridians surveyed say the economy is their top issue, and Obama has a 55-40 lead with those voters. In a January PPP poll just 26% of voters in the state said they were most concerned with the economy. The events of the last few weeks seem in particular to have helped move independents into the Obama camp. Three weeks ago the candidates were tied, now Obama has a 48-40 advantage with those voters."

One more possible factor: "Sarah Palin's net favorability with Florida voters has dropped 12 points over the last three weeks."

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_Florida_930354.pdf

As a compliment to the VA, NC, WV post, upblog, I offer you this...

GA-Sen: Chambliss and Martin Neck-and-Neck in New SUSA Poll

SurveyUSA (9/28-29, likely voters, 9/14-16):

SSP currently rates this race as Likely Republican, but it definitely is worth watching.

via Kos

Palin Goes Silent
Jonathan Martin says the embarrassing unreleased clip from last week's Katie Couric interview with Gov. Sarah Palin is her response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

"After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases. There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence."

The clip is expected to be broadcast either Wednesday or Thursday.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/In_reintroduction_Pali...

Rudderless Republicans
First Read: "So who runs the Republican Party? Apparently nobody. Perhaps the most startling political development was the amazing lack of leadership on the GOP side of the aisle. Let's run down the list of Republican leaders who attempted to persuade skeptical House Republicans: President Bush, John McCain, Dick Cheney, and John Boehner... Bush's leadership and trust issues within his party has been evidenced for quite some time, and the icing on the Bush legacy cake is that fact that he could only convince FOUR Texas House Republicans to support his bill.

"And then there's John McCain, who last week decided to insert himself into the process and then (before the bailout failed) took credit for getting wavering House Republicans on board... Now McCain gets a double stomach punch: He's stuck being seen as supportive of this bailout (which isn't exactly popular with the conservative grassroots) and he gets to share in the blame for the defeat since he didn't have enough political capital to get this done (By the way, not a single member of the Arizona GOP delegation voted for this bill). Watching the McCain campaign deal with this yesterday, one could sense that they were fearful that they were going to look inept and take an even deeper political wound than they sustained last week."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/30/1468362.aspx

A Massive Failure of Leadership
Michael Scherer notes that our political system might be just as bankrupt as our financial system. It's today's must-read piece.

"Nearly every major political leader in America supported the $700 billion financial bailout bill. The President of the United States. The Vice President. The Treasury Secretary. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Democratic and Republican nominees for president. The Democratic and Republican leadership of the House and the Senate. All of them said the same thing. Vote yes."

"But a majority of those politicians anointed by the U.S. Constitution to reflect the will of the people voted no. This is a remarkable event, the culmination of a historic sense of betrayal that Americans have long felt for their representatives in Washington D.C. The nation's credit crisis exposed Monday a much deeper and more fundamental problem -- a political credibility crisis that now threatens to harm our nation further, should the markets freeze up and more companies begin to fail, as many experts predict."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1845655,00.html

It looks as look the progressive caucus in the house burned the midnight oil and came up with a far superior plan than the one being pushed by Bush, Paulson and tinkered with by Frank and Hoyer.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-04), an outspoken critic of the Bush/Paulson bailout, along with Rep. Kaptur (OH-09), Rep. Scott (VA-03), Rep. Cummings (MD-07), Rep. Doggett (TX-25), Rep. Holt (NJ-12), Rep. Edwards (MD-04) and Rep. Hirono (HI-02), will introduce legislation today to address the failures in the financial markets. DeFazio believes that the Paulson/Bush proposal is based on a flawed premise: if the American taxpayers spend $700 billion to buy Wall Street's toxic assets - a plan pundits are calling "trash for cash" - it will create liquidity in our financial markets and will somehow trickle-down to Main Street.
DeFazio's plan is not in any way based on the Paulson/Bush plan. Instead of throwing taxpayer dollars at the program and crossing our fingers that the plan work, the measure will direct the Administration to take five simple steps, suggested by noted economist and former head of the FDIC, William Isaac, to re-regulate the markets and move America towards a healthy financial future.
The legislation will be available at the press conference.

Who: Rep. DeFazio, Rep. Kaptur (OH-09), Rep. Scott (VA-03), Rep. Cummings (MD-07), Rep. Doggett (TX-25), Rep. Holt (NJ-12), Rep. Edwards (MD-04) and Rep. Hirono (HI-02)
What: Press Conference to introduce legislation to fix financial markets
Where: House Radio and TV Gallery
When: 3 pm TODAY

Regardless of what one may think of the details, it is exciting that forward thinking progressives such as these took the time to approach the crisis with new, innovative thinking. Instead of working from the 2 1/2 page piece of crap that was dropped on the Congress a week and a half ago.

Questions Raised Over McCain's Medical Records
The Huffington Post interviewed CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, "who was one of only a handful of reporters allowed into the review" of Sen. John McCain's medical records. He described the process as overly secretive and not very thorough.

Said Gupta: "We were given three hours to go over 1,200 pages of records. That is a lot to go through. It was very sort of cloak and dagger and I'm sure they had their reasons. Given that I had my medical training, I was able to hone in on what it thought was important more quickly. But the pages weren't numbered, so I had no way of knowing what was missing... As a reporter I can only comment on what I saw but I can't say by any means that this was complete... As far as the secretiveness of it, what they said to us is that you can't take anything out of the room, but you could make notes. So it was a lot to go through in a short period of time."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/new-urgency-over-mccain-m_n_130...

Stockpiles of toxic mercury kept by industry soon will be stored safely in the United States instead of ending up on the world market where it might pollute the environment.

Under bipartisan legislation Congress sent to President George W. Bush Monday for his expected signature, mercury exports would be banned in 2013 and the Energy Department would be required to store the heavy metal permanently.

The bill's chief sponsor, Sen. Barack Obama, introduced the bill in response to a 2005 [Chicago] Tribune series about mercury contamination in fish.

...

"We know that mercury can cause serious developmental problems in children and problems affecting vision, motor skills, blood pressure and fertility in adults," Obama said in a statement. "While the United States has improved its efforts to collect and contain mercury, this country remains one of the leading exporters of this dangerous product."

Under pressure from Obama and a handful of other senators, the Energy Department last year agreed to keep its own 1,300-ton stockpile of mercury off the market. The metal once was used to process material for hydrogen bombs.

GO!

tax records, medical records, psychological profiles...who gives a shit? drink BEER!

Just watched the progressive Dems on TV.

Lots of great ideas from them and I hope they can include them.

SurveyUSA: Obama Holds Double Digit Lead in New Jersey
A new SurveyUSA poll in New Jersey gives Sen. Barack Obama a ten point lead over Sen. John McCain, 52% to 42%.

Key findings: "Obama leads among most groups: men and women, young and old, well-educated and less-educated, rich and poor. Obama leads by double digits in North and South Jersey, and is effectively tied with McCain in Central Jersey."

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=945a6af5-5dc0-42e1-bd9...

PPP Poll: Obama Moves Ahead in North Carolina
A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Sen. Barack Obama has taken the lead over Sen. John McCain for the first time, 47% to 45%.

Key finding: "Over the last year there's been a strong relationship between the number of North Carolinians listing the economy as their biggest concern, and Obama's standing in the polls. In January when just 39% of voters said it was their biggest issue John McCain led by 14 points. In August with it up to 48% Obama trailed by just three. Last week with 58% listing it number one the race was tied, and now with the number up to a record 64% Obama has taken a small lead. He is up 55-38 among respondents citing the economy as their main concern."

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_NC_929.pdf

Also not helping McCain: A dramatic decline in approval of running mate Sarah Palin

http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2008/09/declining-popularity-of-...

Excellent News for Facebook!
Facebook hires former Alberto Gonzales chief of staff to be its new General Counsel.

--Josh Marshall

http://valleywag.com/5056365/facebook-hires-alberto-gonzaless-former

Death by plastic?
Via Mark Thoma, News N Economics has an interesting point.
So far, it’s been really hard to see any credit crunch on Main Street, as opposed to Wall Street: consumer and business borrowing has continued to grow steadily. But a closer look shows that consumer credit has shifted toward revolving loans — i.e., credit cards. Loosely, people haven’t been able to borrow against their houses, so they’ve hit the plastic.

And now, early warnings that credit card rates and limits are being hit. Plus anecdotal evidence that business loans are waning — e.g., McDonald’s telling franchisees that it won’t lend them money for store improvements.

This could be the beginning of another big downward leg for the economy.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/death-by-plastic/

John McCain's hypocrisy has reached a level that when he says anything about any subject, your automatic reaction should be to go back and see what he was saying the day before. And when it comes to blaming others for his failure of leadership on the bailout bill, McCain has raised the ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth to an art form.

Yesterday he managed, in the time it took to get the words out, to blame Barack Obama and the Democratic Party while saying it wasn't time to point fingers:

Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to affix the blame. It’s time to fix the problem.

And today, McCain said:

I am disappointed at the lack of resolve and bipartisan good will among members of both parties to fix this problem...I call on everyone in Washington to come together in a bipartisan way to address this crisis.

...and sixteen minutes later, McCain's campaign released an ad that blamed Obama and the Democrats for the financial meltdown. Sixteen minutes. Apparently McCain was calling on everyone except himself.

Report: McCain Campaign Threatened To Boycott Debate With NBC Moderator
By Greg Sargent - September 30, 2008, 2:55PM
I missed this yesterday, but it's really worth a quick mention. Buried in this New York Times piece about NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and his efforts to patch things up between his network and the McCain campaign is an extraordinary glimpse into the equal parts whining and behind-the-scenes ref-gaming the McCain camp has undertaken with some members of the media...

Mr. Brokaw said he had been told by a senior McCain aide, whom he did not name, that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential debates -- until his name was invoked.
"One of the things I was told by this person was that they were so irritated, they said, 'If it's an NBC moderator, for any of these debates, we won't go,' " Mr. Brokaw said. "My name came up, and they said, 'Oh, hell, we have to do it, because it's going to be Brokaw.' "

Mr. Brokaw will moderate the second debate, on Oct. 7, in Nashville.

A senior McCain adviser actually threatened that McCain might skip the next debate if NBC fielded one of the moderators? This, from the same candidate who hammered Barack Obama for not agreeing to six dozen town hall meetings or whatever it was McCain wanted? Another day, another snit...

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/report_mccain_ca...

Make It Stop

CBS torments me some more:

Gov. Palin at Monday’s event in Columbus, OH: I do look forward to Thursday night and debating Senator Joe Biden. We are going to talk about those new ideas, new energy for America. I'm looking forward to meet him too. I've never met him before. But, I've been hearing about his senate speeches since I was in like 2nd grade.

Katie Couric: You made a funny comment, you've said you have been listening to Joe Biden's speeches since you were in second grade.

Gov. Palin: It's been since like '72, yah.

Katie Couric: You have a 72-year-old running mate, is that kind of a risky thing to say, insinuating that Joe Biden's been around awhile?

Gov. Palin: Oh no, it's nothing negative at all. He's got a lot of experience and just stating the fact there, that we've been hearing his speeches for all these years. So he's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience based on many many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years.

-Atrios 14:48

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4490056n

In Addition

You have be incredibly ignorant about Social Security and the political debate which unfolded just a couple of short years ago to assert that McCain thinks "private accounts" should be "in addition to Social Security." Because, you know, we already have "private accounts" that are "in addition to Social Security." They're called IRAs and 401Ks.

-Atrios 10:46

http://mediamatters.org/items/200809290017

The 23/6 Retracting Sarah Palin-O-Tron

http://www.236.com/news/2008/09/30/the_236_retracting_sarah_palin_9205.p...

The McCain campaign might not be ready to "free Sarah Palin" just yet. After Sarah made a statement about attacking Al Qaeda in Pakistan that echoed Barack Obama's position, John McCain took it upon himself to retract her words with the following explanation:

"In all due respect, people going around and... sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and then all of a sudden that's--that's a person's position... This is a free country, but I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitive policy statement made by Governor Palin."

That there is some straight talk, John.

If these guys hope to set their Palin free, they're going to have to be better at retracting every word she says from now on. To help them out, we put together a handy "Retracting Sarah Palin-O-Tron" full of excuses and clarifications for any incomprehensibly stupid thing that might come out of Sarah's mouth. Give it a go after the jump...

http://www.236.com/news/2008/09/30/the_236_retracting_sarah_palin_9205.p...

( you have to visit the page to really get the humor. They have a generic retraction w/pull down menus for the specifics.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six Army brigades, a National Guard unit, and three military headquarters have been ordered to deploy to Iraq next summer in a move that would allow the U.S. to keep the number of troops largely steady there through much of next year.
The planned deployments involve about 26,000 troops and would maintain 14 combat brigades in Iraq from about February to early autumn. But the decisions do not rule out potential changes as military leaders assess the security there and eye more troop withdrawals.

Even as violence in Iraq has plunged in the past year, cautious Pentagon leaders have resisted insistent public and congressional calls for more rapid and hefty troop pullouts. Instead, top commanders insist the security situation remains fragile, and the improvements reversible.

President George W. Bush announced earlier this month that the U.S. will withdraw about 8,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by February, with about half leaving before the end of 2008. The number of combat brigades in Iraq will remain at the current 15 through January, when one will leave and not be replaced. Pentagon officials have suggested more reductions could be made by summer.

There are now about 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-09-30-iraq-troops_N.htm?csp...

Every penny ever put into SS is already spent.

No one has a dime in SS.

It's gone.

But because a few folks have 401Ks we should just allow the government to lose every penny we give them in SS?

You know if I had not started saving in my 20's I would not have the cash I do now.

And if I trusted the Government and Markets, I would have lost most of the money I have now.

Let the Govenment hold my savings?

I don't think so!

Others will become a sub-class of the poor.

The ones counting on SS will be competing for jobs a Walmart.

The folks under 40 are scheduled to carry the load.

They are to Finance the Baby-Boomers Social Security.

God have mercy on them.

All in favor of visiting a Kansas target range where every target has a picture of WarDog/McCainVoter's face on it, and perchance trying your hand at a bit 'o' shootin',
signify by saying 'aye'....

:-)

do you have like a magic eight ball that produces these posts or maybe a chatty kathy doll with a wireless adapter?

or is it just a script with a random number generator?

in insured deposit limit. re c-span

You know the folks have a legitimate bitch about the bailout.

The didn't know the credit crash was coming.

But the SS crash is going to be so big people can see it from here.

It's going to hard to feel sorry for folks when SS goes belly up.

Just How Many Baby Boomers Are There?

by John Haaga

(December 2002) "Way too many," say the 30-somethings waiting for a promotion behind layers of middle managers with seniority, or the Gen-Xers wondering when "oldies" radio stations will start playing music from the 1980s. But that answer is not precise enough for demographers.

Press accounts give various numbers, with 79 million a popular choice. There were actually 76 million births in the United States from 1946 to 1964, inclusive, the 19 years usually called the "baby boom." (By contrast, there were only 66 million births, in a larger U.S. population, during the 19 years following the baby boom, which included the baby bust of the 1970s.) Of the 76 million born, about 4 million had died by April 1, 2000 (when Census 2000 was taken), leaving some 72 million survivors.

Census 2000 counted 79.6 million U.S. residents born in the years 1946 to 1964, inclusive. That number is higher than the 76 million births because net immigration (the number of people coming into the United States from other countries, minus those moving the other way) more than outweighed the number of deaths. The flow of immigrants greatly increased after passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, just as the baby boom was ending.

So one can use either of these figures to approximate the number of baby boomers — the 72 million who grew up wearing Davy Crockett-style faux-raccoon hats, or the 79 million wearing parrot heads to Jimmy Buffett concerts now.

Gwen Ifill Breaks Ankle, But Still Plans To Meet 'Em In St. Louis

First On TVNewser: PBS' Gwen Ifill has broken her ankle after tripping and falling down stairs at her home last night, a NewsHour insider tells TVNewser. We're told Ifill had been walking up a staircase, carrying research related to her moderating duties at Thursday's Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis, when she took a wrong step.

We are also told the show will go on: Ifill is planning to travel to Missouri for the big event.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/politics/gwen_ifill_breaks_ankle_but...

Oh sure, that's gonna work.

For some of us SS is just icing.

We planned for ourselves and never expected to see it.

But a great many of those 80,000,000 have nothing.

They hoped to sell their house for cash and live on SS.

SS is a dirty trick.

Maybe folks will learn from this credit mess.

With the market up +485 today who knows what Congress will do.

Lots of free market folks out there say let it ride, do nothin.

That most likely will not be the case.

Neither McCain or Obama wants to do a bootstrap restart of the economy.

McWardog wants us to give up on the money we've paid into social security.

just walk away from it and let the neocons keep it.

not too long ago, the likes of McWardog were screaming that we must get rid of social security as we know it.

Put the money in the market! Put the money into Enron! Put the money in Lehreman Brothers! put the money into Wachovia! The market is GOD! Let the market decide!

I feel our government will be around long after those firms are gone....

Wait, they're already gone?

I think Pelosi wanted it to fail
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 2:49pm.
I really do. If her speech was partisan, she knew she killed the bill saying what she was saying. IMHO

Think about it. The repubs voted against the bill. It made McCain look the fool. There's time to put together a better bill and with the market falling like it did, the people may change their minds about the bill.

The bill can be redone making it stronger and more freindly to Main Street and if the repubs don't vote for it, they will be called on it.

Will the people learn from this finacial meltdown?

Yes. they are learning all that free market talk from all the Reaganites was nothing but bullshit..and learning not to trust Republicans.

Look at the polls.

Chubby -

You have no money in SS.

Every penny you have ever put in has already been spent.

In order for you to draw SS, the next generation must pay for your retirement and their ain't enough of them.

Your cash is already spent on the folks retired now.

You have no SS account!

You have no money.

None.

Gone.

Spent.

Zero Balance.

i just took a spam phone call from countrywide. being the generous people friendly company that they are they wanted to review my account and perhaps offer me lower monthly payments. i have a reasonable interest rate 30 year fixed and there is no way in hell that i would ever change it to a longer period, an arm, a balloon, an interest only or whatever.

so, it occurs to me, that something congress should do asap is declare a moratorium on "complex" mortgages. why keep digging the hole deeper and deeper. the real reason these products exist is to generate service income for the financial companies.

we need to return to 15 to 30 year fixed rate mortages with 10% or more down. they worked well for a long time.

McCain and Obama have the same bailout plans.

What poll would I look at?

stop lying wado. its well known that if they took the cap of fica contributions that social security solvency would quickly return. more importantly if they stopped the neocons from raiding the fund, there would be plenty of money there. remember al gores lockbox?

Knock knock knock

Hello, anyone home.

Under this system your money is already gone.

Guaranteed!

I have not lost a dime in this market.

I continue to make money on my investments.

With the economy going in the tank, you not only want to increase income taxes, increase capital gains taxes, and increase SS taxes.

God have mercy on President Obama!

He is going to be the first Black Depression President.

This is a Democrat Congress spending SS now.

Just like every Congress that came before it.

Lockbox?

Where you gonna invest it?

>>You have no money in SS.

That's not what they told me.

but who am I going to believe?

You, some part-time, blovated, spin-machine for the folks that want to bankrupt the US so they can `restructure'?

Or the government of the people, by the people and for the people?

Fuck the neocons ,they have a 45 day window to enjoy they shit & its all over for them & they know it. Soak it up fukkers....This is there time to buy up on the cheap everything they artificially inflated for the past 8 years to cover there ass post election.What you see now is the reality of things & its's a bitch.The reality of George Bush's fuckery of US economics.The slow detachment of the tentacles of neocon domination. Enjoy the next 45 days as we pound your ass into extinction.

And they told ya Fannie and Freddie were solvent too didn't they?

That's the point.

They are solvent right up to the point they go belly-up.

Then the shit hits the fan!

If only Obama was The Saviour.

Remember back to 2006?

Remember the hype about the new Democrat Congress?

How did that work out?

What have you learned from our new Congress?

>>What have you learned from our new Congress?

that nothing gets done when the republicans set a new record for filibusters...

NT

Zero Balance.

~-~-~

Yep. And you can thank George W. Bush for that one.

In 7 and a half years we went from balanced budget to largest. Deficit. EVER.

~-~-~

Another day. Another McCain Lie.

McCain Ad Distorts Obama, Day After Decrying Gotcha Journalism

John McCain is out with a new ad that accuses Barack Obama of making the same claim - "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" - that McCain himself was viciously criticized for just a week ago.

But the quote plucked by the McCain campaign is taken entirely out of context, just a day after the Arizona Republican himself decried "gotcha journalism" when it came to his running mate.

[H]ere is Obama's actual statement, which suggests exactly the opposite of what McCain alleges: mainly, that he believes the country must repair the economy's long-term structure.

[We need] a plan that would extend expiring unemployment benefits. For those Americans who have lost their jobs and have been working hard to find a new one, but haven't found one yet. That's part of the change we need. And then after this immediate problem, we've got the long-term fundamentals that will really make sure this economy grows. Change means tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses that deserve it. As President I am going to eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups.

Here is the full script of the ad, which the campaign says will be for the web.

ANNCR: Who's Barack Obama? First, Obama attacked McCain. Then said: BARACK OBAMA: "We've got the long term fundamentals that will really make sure this economy grows." ANNCR: Strong fundamentals? Is Obama saying McCain's right? Or is Obama saying his own attacks are shameless? Either way, Obama's a hypocrite.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/mccain-ad-distorts-obama_n_1306...

So, McWaDo's labia are furiously flapping their usual parade of 'tard lies, eh?

Social Security is fine and always has been, but you go ahead doggie, climb aboard that Republican Train to Nowhere. It's a classic and always entertaining!

Retirees are earning their benefits and the Trusts are humming along earning steadily each year like they always have. They are completely safe in their bubbles and the American Voter has made it clear that they want it to stay that way.

I love Republican scare tactics on Social Security from a few years back though. McWaDo is feeling nostalgic! I remember Chimpy's Whistle Stop Tour of the country trying to scare up support for privatizing it! LOL!

It looks like CHUMPY is doing his own "scarry" little Whistle Stop Tour of the SSS blog. Good luck with that, little guy! I'm rootin' for ya!

Can you imagine if Curious George would have succeeded!? His charred corpse would be hanging from the gates at 1600 Pennsylvania right now with pitchforks sticking out of it.

Well all I can do is wish you good luck with your new Congress and budget.

I predict you will be back in streets protesting by Christmas 2009.

If your not protesting the build up in Afghanistan, you will be protesting the new terrorist bills and lack of any health care plan.

Change?

The names change by the wheels just keep on turning.

Here:

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/3877#comment-263635

You mean the 50 50 split with droopy the douche lieberman & dickhead Cheney assfucking progress.We are about to see a real Dem congress in 45 days with a real 75 to 25 majority instead of some 50 50 bullshit with a war criminal that breaks tie votes...You dickhead!

Can you show me a link to that trust?

What was the return this year?

How much is in that trust?

What's your source on that?

What's the name of that trust?

"Now acceptance of gay marriage is mandatory!"

Fucking freaks...

I'm going to get such a thrill keeping gay marriage legal in this state...

If thats your opinion shut the fuck up & go post on Infowars.com

Again, you Fail the Test, McWaDo.

Chubby has you cold.

When confronted with a Debate Question, again, you fail to Command It.

Just like John. Just like Sarah.

What about those Record Republican Filibusters over the past two years, eh doggie? You have no Answer?

Remember the Nuclear Option on Judicial Appointments?!

Oh those were The Days weren't they!

LOL!!

You have made my day!

======================

Retirees are earning their benefits and the Trusts are humming along earning steadily each year like they always have. They are completely safe in their bubbles and the American Voter has made it clear that they want it to stay that way.

======================

Debate? Ya gotta be kidding!

Filibuster that!

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