Weekend Watchdog

(...)After the debate, Republicans who had been bailing on Palin rushed back to the fold. They know her relentless ambition is the only hope for saving a ticket headed by a warrior who is out of juice and out of ideas. So what if she is preposterously unprepared to run the country in the midst of its greatest economic crisis in 70 years? She looks and sounds like a winner.

You can understand why they believe that. She has more testosterone than anyone else at the top of her party. McCain and his surrogates are forever blaming their travails on others, wailing about supposed sexist and journalistic biases around the clock. McCain even canceled an interview with Larry King, for heaven’s sake, in a fit of pique at a CNN anchor, Campbell Brown.

We are not a nation of whiners, as Phil Gramm would have it, but the G.O.P. is now the party of whiners. That rebranding became official when Republican House leaders moaned that a routine partisan speech by Nancy Pelosi had turned their members against the bailout bill. As the stock market fell nearly 778 points, Barney Frank taunted his G.O.P. peers with pitch-perfect mockery: “Somebody hurt my feelings, so I will punish the country!”

Talk about the world coming full circle. This is the same Democrat who had been slurred as “Barney Fag” in the mid-1990s by Dick Armey, a House leader of the government-bashing Gingrich revolution that helped lower us into this debacle. Now Frank was ridiculing the House G.O.P. as a bunch of sulking teenage girls. His wisecrack stung — and stuck.

Palin is an antidote to the whiny Republican image that Frank nailed. Alaska’s self-styled embodiment of Joe Sixpack is not a sulker, but a pistol-packing fighter. That’s why she draws the crowds and (as she puts it) “energy” that otherwise elude the angry McCain. But she is still the candidate for vice president, not president. Americans do not vote for vice president.

So how can a desperate G.O.P. save itself? As McCain continues to fade into incoherence and irrelevance, the last hope is that he’ll come up with some new game-changing stunt to match his initial pick of Palin or his ill-fated campaign “suspension.” Until Thursday night, more than a few Republicans were fantasizing that his final Hail Mary pass would be to ditch Palin so she can “spend more time” with her ever-growing family. But the debate reminded Republicans once again that it’s Palin, not McCain, who is their last hope for victory.

You have to wonder how long it will be before they plead with him to think of his health, get out of the way and pull the ultimate stunt of flipping the ticket. Palin, we can be certain, wouldn’t even blink.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05rich.html?_r=1&pagewanted=pr...

Prosperity Gospel: Be Careful What You Pray For

http://pranks.com/2008/10/04/prosperity-gospel-be-careful-what-you-pray-...

Foreclosures: Did God Want You to Get That Mortgage?
by David Van Biema
Time.com
October 3, 2008

Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? That’s what a scholar of the fast-growing brand of Pentecostal Christianity believes. While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, he realized that Prosperity’s central promise — that God will “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe “God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house.” The results, he says, “were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers.”

Others think he may be right. Says Anthea Butler, an expert in Pentecostalism at the University of Rochester in New York: “The pastor’s not gonna say, ‘Go down to Wachovia and get a loan,’ but I have heard, ‘Even if you have a poor credit rating, God can still bless you — if you put some faith out there [that is, make a big donation to the church], you’ll get that house or that car or that apartment.’ ” Adds J. Lee Grady, editor of the magazine Charisma: “It definitely goes on, that a preacher might say, ‘If you give this offering, God will give you a house.’ And if they did get the house, people did think that it was an answer to prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking policy.” If so, the situation offers a look at how a native-born faith built partially on American economic optimism entered into a toxic symbiosis with a pathological market.

Although a type of Pentecostalism, Prosperity theology adds a distinctive layer of supernatural positive thinking. Adherents will reap rewards if they prove their faith to God by contributing heavily to their churches, remaining mentally and verbally upbeat and concentrating on divine promises of worldly bounty supposedly strewn throughout the Bible. Critics call it a thinly disguised pastor-enrichment scam. Other experts, like Walton, note that for all its faults, the theology can empower people who have been taught to see themselves as financially or even culturally useless to feel they are “worthy of having more and doing more and being more.” In some cases the philosophy has matured with its practitioners, encouraging good financial habits and entrepreneurship.

But Walton suggests that a decade’s worth of ever easier credit acted like a drug in Prosperity’s bloodstream. “The economic boom ’90s and financial overextensions of the new millennium contributed to the success of the Prosperity message,” he wrote recently. And not positively. “Narratives of how ‘God blessed me with my first house despite my credit’ were common. Sermons declaring ‘It’s your season to overflow’ supplanted messages of economic sobriety,” and “little attention was paid to … the dangers of using one’s home equity as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and vacations.”

With the bubble burst, Walton and Butler assume that Prosperity congregants have taken a disproportionate hit, and they are curious as to how their churches will respond. Butler thinks some of the flashier ministries will shrink along with their congregants’ fortunes. Says Walton: “You would think that the current economic conditions would undercut their theology.” But he predicts they will persevere, since God’s earthly largesse is just as attractive when one is behind the economic eight ball.

A recent publicly posted testimony by a congregant at the Brownsville Assembly of God, near Pensacola, Fla., seems to confirm his intuition. Brownsville is not even a classic Prosperity congregation — it relies more on the anointing of its pastors than on Scriptural promises of God. But the believer’s note to his minister illustrates how magical thinking can prevail even after the mortgage blade has dropped. “Last Sunday,” it read, “You said if anyone needed a miracle to come up. So I did. I was receiving foreclosure papers, so I asked you to anoint a picture of my home and you did and your wife joined with you in prayer as I cried. I went home feeling something good was going to happen. On Friday the 5th of September I got a phone call from my mortgage company and they came up with a new payment for the next 3 months of only $200. My mortgage is usually $1,020. Praise God for his Mercy & Grace.”

And pray that the credit market doesn’t tighten any further.

thanks Toni

Todd Palin will talk to Troopergate investigator
Probe examining whether Alaska governor improperly fired commissioner

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin's husband is planning to speak to an investigator looking into abuse-of-power allegations against the governor, Todd Palin's lawyer said Saturday. He previously refused to testify under subpoena in a separate probe.

Attorney Thomas Van Flein said he asked the investigator, Anchorage attorney Timothy Petumenos, to reserve the third week of October to interview Todd Palin, but a date has not been set because he is waiting to hear back from Petumenos.

Todd Palin refused to testify under subpoena last month in a separate investigation by the Alaska Legislature. Petumenos is heading a parallel probe by the Alaska State Personnel Board into whether Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, acted improperly when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan this summer.

Both are looking into whether Palin, her husband and her aides pressured Monegan to fire a state trooper who was involved in a contentious divorce from Palin's sister and then fired Monegan when he wouldn't dismiss the trooper. Palin says Monegan was ousted over budget disagreements.

The McCain-Palin campaign has said that the Legislative Council's investigation is being manipulated to damage the governor before the Nov. 4 election. The investigator leading that probe, retired prosecutor Steven Branchflower, is due to release his findings Friday.

That release could be blocked by the Alaska Supreme Court, which will hear arguments next week in an emergency appeal by five Republican lawmakers trying to halt Branchflower's report. An Anchorage judge recently dismissed that lawsuit along with an attempt by several of the governor's aides to quash subpoenas issued for their testimony in the Legislature's investigation.

Todd Palin was not part of the attempt to quash the subpoenas, but the decision may affect whether he speaks to Branchflower. Van Flein said the Supreme Court's decision in the appeal next week is one of several factors that will go into deciding whether he does.

The two investigators could interview Todd Palin together or Branchflower could use Petumenos' interview in his own investigation, Van Flein said, though Branchflower is scheduled to end his probe at least a week before the planned interview.

"I've asked (Branchflower) to contact me so we can discuss things," Van Flein said.

Sarah Palin originally agreed to cooperate with the Legislature's investigation. But after she joined the GOP ticket, she said the probe had become tainted by politics and filed a complaint against herself with the personnel board, which she says has the proper authority to investigate ethics allegations against the governor.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27025562/

Hurry!

High-sterical!

Tina Fey is absolutely fantastic.

>>Tina Fey is absolutely fantastic.

and I have to wait 2 1/2 half hours...

When You've Lost The Fix And The Devil

Even they seemed to have noticed that maybe people really can't stand Republicans anymore.

With the party already struggling to generate enthusiasm for its brand, Republican strategists fear that an outpouring of public anger generated by Congress's struggle to pass a rescue package for the financial industry may contribute to a disaster at the polls for the GOP in November.

-Atrios 09:22

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR200810...

Branding his opponent as “erratic in a crisis,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is preempting plans by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to portray him as having sinister connections to controversial Chicagoans.

Obama officials call it political jujitsu – turning the attacks back on the attacker.

McCain officials had said early in the weekend that they plan to begin advertising after Tuesday’s debate that will tie Obama to convicted money launderer Tony Rezko and former Weathermen radical William Ayers.

But Obama isn’t waiting to respond. His campaign is going up Monday on national cable stations with a scathing ad saying: “Three quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject.

“Turn the page on the financial crisis by launching dishonorable, dishonest ‘assaults’ against Barack Obama. Struggling families can't turn the page on this economy, and we can't afford another president who is this out of touch.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14283.html

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday called Republican presidential candidate John McCain not a maverick but a "mimic" of President Bush.

Clinton made the remarks at a Human Rights Campaign dinner, where she was filling in for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's running mate, Joe Biden. Biden canceled his weekend campaign events because his wife's mother is ill. Clinton spoke by satellite from Los Angeles to a few thousand people who attended the national gay rights group event.

Clinton said Biden called and asked her to fill in for him because of the family emergency. Rather than sharing her thoughts, she said, "I want to share with you the eloquent remarks that Joe had prepared." ...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/04/clinton-calls-mccain-mimic-o...

SNL does another bit about the newser after the House past the bailout bill.

That's all I'm going to tell you so I won't spoil it for you.

Thanks..Form another West Coaster..

Hi..Toni.. :)

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

Springsteen rocks Obama rally in Philly; "I've spent 35 years writing about America..."

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Bruce Springsteen called the Bush presidency "a disaster" and said many Americans have "justifiably lost faith" in the American dream.

The legendary rocker interrupted a seven-song acoustic set at a voter-registration rally in Philadelphia on Saturday to praise Democrat Barack Obama and bemoan the crises facing the next president. Springsteen said that America remains a house of dreams for some, but that too many people have given up on the promise of fairness and equality.

"I've spent 35 years writing about America and its people and the meaning of the American promise - a promise handed down right here in this city," said the New Jersey rocker, whose songs often depict down-on-their-luck, working-class dreamers. "Our everyday citizens ... have justifiably lost faith in its meaning."

The rally, planned by the Obama campaign a week ago, drew tens of thousands of people to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Springsteen approached the campaign and asked to help out, an Obama aide said. The Philadelphia event came just days before Monday's voter registration deadline in Pennsylvania. "The Boss" also plans to perform at Obama gatherings in Ohio on Sunday and Michigan on Monday. On Oct. 16, he will join Billy Joel at an Obama fundraiser in New York City.

Springsteen cited the Iraq war, the recent economic turmoil and Hurricane Katrina as examples of the Bush administration's failures. He bookended the set with his rock classic "Promised Land" and Woody Guthrie's folk anthem, "This Land is My Land."...

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081004/D93K075O0.html

>>SNL does another bit about the newser after the House past the bailout bill.

so there is Palin/Biden skit and another skit too?

I don't wnat to be up all night, at what point is is safe to turn the tv off?

U.S. Sen. John Warner declines to endorse Jim Gilmore( might endorse Warner)

Retiring U.S. Sen. John Warner on Saturday voiced disappointment in fellow Republican Jim Gilmore’s efforts to succeed him this fall and declined to endorse him.

Instead, Warner suggested that he may wind up backing Democrat Mark Warner in the race. The two Warners are not related.

John Warner took exception to Gilmore’s strong condemnation of a $700 billion Wall Street rescue package that was passed by the House of Representatives on Friday and signed by President Bush.

“I’m disappointed that he spoke against the rescue package that’s vital to Virginia and vital to the nation,” John Warner said during a telephone news conference.

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/us-sen-john-warner-declines-endorse-jim-...

I doubt if I'll eveer get to sleep to night.

that `mega centemeter' mentioned in on of the last thread's post still puzzles me.

why put mega and centimeter together?

German bank announces collapse of 35 billion euro rescue

German bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) said Saturday that a planned 35-billion-euro (48-billion-dollar) rescue had fallen through after the banking consortium involved pulled out of the deal.

The rescue bid was the biggest in German history and came after HRE was sucked into the global financial turmoil through its inability to refinance debt, one of many high-profile European emergency cases in the past two weeks.
...
The biggest German Bank, Deutsche Bank, had reportedly evaluated that HRE would need 20 billion euros in fresh capital by the end of next week.

Deutsche Bank warned in addition that "by the end of the year, there will be a shortfall of up to 50 billion euros and even of 70 to 100 billion by the end of 2009," the newspaper said.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gnwGl7boOibV72BKczAraZk1KmEg

you know what?

I wouldn't think twice about giving those bastards the money...IF they leave the country and never come back!

No banks bail-out fund for Europe

Europe's biggest economies have agreed to work together to support financial institutions - but without forming a joint bail-out fund.
...
They agreed to seek a relaxation of the EU rules governing the amount of money individual states could borrow.

Mr Sarkozy announced a series of other measures - including unspecified action against the executives of failed banks.
...
Ahead of the meeting, Germany had made clear its opposition to any co-ordinated European bail-out plan. Mr Brown was also sceptical of the need for any Europe-wide plan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7648249.stm

Sarkozy had suggested a US-style bailout fund.

It's chock full tonight.

>>Sarkozy had suggested a US-style bailout fund.

and to their credit, Germany didn't reject it because it is socialism!

>>It's chock full tonight.

thanks, that's what I needed to know!

So we will be seeing you on the night shift tonight,aye ?

;)

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

funny how all these socialist idea like medicare, unemployment insurance, Social security are pretty darned popular with the average citizen...seems like only the ruling class doesn't like them...

>>So we will be seeing you on the night shift tonight,aye ?

more than likely. but I can't promise too much.

kinda burnt out already...seems like I've spent half the day cleaning up hairballs.

one of which had passed through a cat and stuck to his backside.

talk about a mess.

Dems suspicious of McCain pullout - Obama camp sticks to Mich. game plan

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Dems suspicious of McCain pullout
Obama camp sticks to Mich. game plan; some strategists wonder if GOP move is a trick.
Gordon Trowbridge and Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau

On the day after John McCain scratched Michigan from the battleground state list, Barack Obama's campaign said it would pretend the whole announcement never happened, Democrats wondered if it was all a trick, and Sarah Palin asked for a second chance to win over the state's voters.

"We're not going to be left flat-footed here," an Obama campaign source said Friday. The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said there has been no discussion within the campaign of moving staff to other states, as the McCain campaign said Thursday it will do. For now, Obama's television ads remain on the air, and the campaign will continue its aggressive field organizing efforts, including a voter registration drive before Michigan's Monday deadline.

That will be welcome news to Democratic insiders, who fretted Friday about the possibility of a McCain ruse to lull them into complacency and of fears the Obama campaign would let up on its efforts here.

"I was depressed," Democratic National Committee member Debbie Dingell said Friday of the hours after McCain's decision. "I knew immediately it meant both campaigns would be pulling out resources.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081004/POLITICS01/81...

Try Cat Ex-Lax next time.. ;)

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

on SNL tonight. The Killers.

I think they're in Indy band.

Kinda wierd.

My appologies if you like them!

Gallup Daily: Obama Maintains Significant Margin -- Lead is eight points, 50% to 42%
10 hours ago · PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 1-3 finds 50% of registered voters supporting Barack Obama, and 42% John McCain, for president.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110932/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Maintains-Significa...

you put on their paws & they lick off..

Dissolves hairballs..

brb....The stores calling..

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

Strickland mashes McCain on economy (radio address)

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, speaking for Democrat Barack Obama, ripped into Republican John McCain today on issue No. 1: jobs.

Citing Friday's job report that showed another 159,000 jobs cut during September, Strickland went after McCain for saying on Sept. 15, in the early days of the current Wall Street meltdown, that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

McCain has tried to explain that he was talking about American workers, but Strickland continued Obama's line of attack: "John McCain doesn’t seem to understand that this crisis isn’t two weeks old. Maybe he doesn’t realize that we’ve lost jobs every month this year. Maybe he doesn’t know that the average family’s income is down $2,000 in the Bush economy. Maybe because John McCain’s trying to remember how many homes he owns, he doesn’t understand that 7,000 families are losing their homes each day."

Strickland, who supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries, then proceeded to bash McCain's tax cut and healthcare proposals. "John McCain just doesn’t get it," he said. "He hasn’t said one thing he’d do to make his economy look any different than George Bush’s economy.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/strick...

New, controversial FBI guidelines go into effect

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Attorney General Michael Mukasey has signed new guidelines for FBI operations he said are designed to better protect the country from terrorist attacks, but that raise concern of some lawmakers and civil rights groups.

"These guidelines provide more uniform, clearer and simpler rules for the FBI operations ... are designed to allow the FBI to become, among other things, a more flexible and adept collector of intelligence," Mukasey and FBI director Robert Mueller said in a statement Friday.

"Since the 9/11 attacks, the FBI and the Department of Justice more broadly have set priorities for and reorganized their activities to prevent future terrorist acts against the American people," the statement said.

The new, revised regulations -- the original version met strong criticism from congressional committees last month, comprise 50 pages dealing with five areas of FBI investigation, including criminal, national security and foreign intelligence.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hP_LBcTEJD1GJG_ScYfk20kl0bPw

program. I cannot see straight and my hand is killing me from drawing on the computer. I have been so enjoying all of your posts. Nice to see your cats Chubbs. I know I wont be able to stay awake for snl. I guess I will just have to catch it in bits and pieces tomorrow.

My daughter in law is working for SEIU and Obama. She said that a bunch of people will be coming here from Michigan since McCain pulled out. I wonder what is really going on. Nevada is +4 for Obama.

Nothing like a repub tragedy to bring good news to the dems.

Happe Talk

>>The Killers(...)My appologies if you like them!

I hate to be prejudiced, but with a name like that I doubt it.

I've met killers, some of them aren't such bad people, unless you happen to be the one they are killing.

but a band that calls themselves Killers?

bad message.

I never did like when the word killer became synonymous with good...back in the 80s

no one needs hairball updates.

plus, it is an intrusion to my boys' privacy.

I'd hate for them to be turned down for a job or health insurance because someone read something I wrote about them on the blog.

>>you put on their paws & they lick off

I just found my tube today and have given it to both the boys.

Though pointing out McCrazies & Caribou Barbies

Stupidness is mostly like shooting fish in a Barrel !

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

"funny how all these socialist idea like medicare, unemployment insurance, Social security are pretty darned popular with the average citizen...seems like only the ruling class doesn't like them..."

"socialist" is a weapon.

a buzz word used to smash any idea challenging the fat cats lock on the economic system.

they have quite a few of them.

this is a scam easily traceable back to 1950, 1830, 1400, or 4000BC depending on what bunch of assholes you know about.

probably goes back to caveman societies. pretty much natural to certain societies and cultures.

there were exceptions, most of them killed off.

New, controversial FBI
new
Submitted by toniD on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 12:56am.
New, controversial FBI guidelines go into effect

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Attorney General Michael Mukasey has signed new guidelines for FBI operations he said are designed to better protect the country from terrorist attacks, but that raise concern of some lawmakers and civil rights groups.
*******
Why Can't These Moron's See That You Can Protect Our Country Without Tearing Up The Constitution !

Hell,If We Had Had Some Competent People Running The Show,

Instead Of Bushtard & Knucklehead Rice(I Know The USSR but,not much else), 9/11 Probably Would Have been Stopped !

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

Enjoy SNL

Obama's neighbor was a weatherman in the 60s who has paid his debt to society.

McCain wants to smear Obama because of his `association' with Ayers...

Malloy calls the Bush administration the Bush crime family...and there is more than a little bit of truth to that assumption. I don't need to go into it, you guys know all about it.

McCain has been an associate/member of the Bush cabal for at least the last 8 years.

which association is worse? Obama/Ayers or McCain/Bush.

Sleep well.. :)

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

Just Bring Up The Keating 5,over and,over again !

And,use this picture !

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

Nite ToniD

sleep tight!

I'm worried they will steal another election

>>I'm worried they will steal another election

it'll be a lot harder to get away with this time.

they'll have to steal more than Ohio and Florida, plus with McCain's poll numbers dropping like a rocks people will object more than the last 2 time times.

that's where it may get dicey. that's when those `secret' domestic Haliburton camps may get filled up if martial law is orfdered to protect the stolen election.

So much of what she is saying is happening, or has happened.

what are ya'll talking about?

There’s that word again: maverick. In Thursday’s vice-presidential debate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the Republican candidate, used it to describe herself and her running mate, Senator John McCain, no fewer than six times, at one point calling him “the consummate maverick.”

But to those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive. - NYT

>>The killers rock

never heard of them but I find the name alienating.

Ever known someone who's been murdered?

I've pretty much decided I do not want to support wanna-be murderers.

or people who glamorize murder.

or people who normalize murder.

From what I've found there are 2 kinds of murderers, those who regret they're actions, and those who don't give a fuck.

The ones who are remorseful are ashamed of the label.

the ones who don't give a fuck are proud of it.

Where do you suppose pretend murderer fits in?

Not the camps, but crowd control and using military units to get those silly protesters calmed down.....tasers and rubber bullets....

My son likes them for a song they did....something like I've got soul but I'm not a soldier....the music is good.

I do not want to support wanna-be murderers. -

What's in a name?

I put Coast to Coast on the radio..

Nothing but ReThugs whining about Obama and Ayers !

Obama's a Marxist crap..etc..

The Rethug's are getting Panicky !

Ian the host is deflecting as best as he can..

Saying,if you think that is the worst thing that is affecting our country you are wrong..

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

>>Nothing but ReThugs whining about Obama and Ayers !

You have a phone!

Call up and tell them about Keaton 5, then set them straight about Obama!

4 1/2 years of answering calls at reservations..

Kind of a OCD for me..Rather send smoke signals..

Maybe,I'll try and email him..

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

SNL is on.... :)

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

SNL

this is funny!

I'm not sure that isn't the real Sarah!

What a Nut Job !

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

it just gets better and better!

and also, too, the great Ronald Reagan.

That was great!

no doubt about it!

Tina Fey does such a good Palin.

with the big head Has to be related to our trolls !

Distracted by bubbles...

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

Whoa!

what was that Lawrence Welk thing?

talk about cutting edge satire!

walt about edgey!

Whao, they don't care whose feathers they ruffle!

not a particularly good Barney Frank...or Pelosi for that matter.

Could have been better..

Anne Hathaway is Hot,though.. :)

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

did not like the way they portayed Soros as a big gainer in the finacial meltdown.

wonder if there is any truth to it?

I guess when the Bush administration deregulates your industries and allows media consolidation, NBC has to give them something...

WTF was that dance sketch?

liked the short, tho...

I hope we aren't ruining the surprise for all the blog readers in Alaska and Hawaii...

Did come out with a bailout plan..

With alot more regulation & Wall St.paying alot more.

Did you see it ? I have it in my bookmarks someplace..

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

Aloha !
:)

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

Cool..Something different than the same old TV fare..

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

God, the Killers are lame.

No, Tonid, not Indie in any sense of the word I'm familiar with.

kinda mainstream pop...Faggy, and not in the good way...

I was hoping the only thing I wouldn't like about them would be the name.

Fernando, this is your idea of `rocking'?

well, you are still OK in my book.

Just some SNL weirdness that they always seem to add..

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

IMIO !

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

just in time for no one to afford it.

that was a good one.

>>There are alot of bad bands out there now

there always have been.

Someone must like them, they are on the TV.

lots of `world's heaviest man gets married' jokes.

sure is fun to say, tho

that was scary,

that pretty serious denial part really hit home...

I've been putting off getting the ultrasound of my liver my doctor wants me to have...

is the universe trying to tell me something?

I'm turning in MMR,

I'll catch the rest of the show from the other room.

catch you down the road.

of Bad bands out there..The mediocre ones get on TV and
are liked by somebody..
Remember KISS has sold millions of records/CD's..
It doean't mean they are any good,though..

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

Have a good one.. :)

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

The Citizens Alliance for National Health Insurance

HR676.org,Inc.

This bill will provide...

Affordable Single-Payer National Health Insurance for All !

www.hr676.org

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

- Pyramid schemes are the work of terror, sustaining terrorists.

try that the next time you get pulled over...

Limbaugh angry at his chosen candidate, McCain, who happened to mention he agreed with Al Gore on Climate Change.

McCain actually said ‘I have great respect for Al Gore.’ Ladies and gentlemen, please do not turn off your radio. Please don’t abandon me here. I should have given you ample warning if you hadn’t heard of this.

That’s right. He’s Al Davis. He has no clue.

He just literally has no idea. I do not think that Senator McCain is in the tank for Obama, but I would be hard-pressed to prove it. It’s very, very sad news, ladies and gentlemen.

USA Today characterizes Al Davis as an “out of touch old man”.

Free Democracy

from Big Picture

Federal Reserve Director on the CRA:

"Neither the CRA nor its implementing regulation gives specific criteria for rating the performance of depository institutions. Rather, the law indicates that the evaluation process should accommodate an institution's individual circumstances. Nor does the law require institutions to make high-risk loans that jeopardize their safety. To the contrary, the law makes it clear that an institution's CRA activities should be undertaken in a safe and sound manner." (emphasis added)

What about mergers or acquisitions -- did the CRA get in the way of that?

"Since 1988, there have been more than 13,500 applications for the formation, acquisition, or merger of bank holding companies or state-member banks reviewed by the Federal Reserve Board. Over this time, twenty-five applications have been denied, with eight of those failing to obtain Board approval involving unsatisfactory consumer protection or community reinvestment issues."

Wow, just 8 out of 13,500. That's less than one tenth of 1%.

What about the methods of forcing compliance?

"The CRA is one of several laws enacted to ensure that consumers and communities have access to financial services and products regardless of location or demographics. Congress sought to achieve that goal not by imposing rigid, prescriptive rules but by charging regulators to use flexible standards that could change, as needed, over time."

Gee, this doesn't sound too onerous; What was all the brouhaha about?

"The debate surrounding the passage of the CRA was contentious, with critics charging that the law would distort credit markets, create unnecessary regulatory burden, lead to unsound lending, and cause the governmental agencies charged with implementing the law to allocate credit. Partly in response to these concerns, the act adopted by Congress included little prescriptive detail."

What are the requirements of the CRA?

The CRA simply requires the Federal Reserve and the other federal financial supervisory agencies:

• to encourage federally insured depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of their entire communities, including low- and moderate-income areas, consistent with safe and sound operations;
• to assess their records of performance under the CRA during examinations; and
• to take those CRA records into account when evaluating proposals for expansion.

Hey, that sounds pretty flexible. What sort of discretion exists in applying the CRA:

The law gives the agencies considerable discretion and flexibility to fashion programs and procedures to carry out the purposes of the law, to issue implementing regulations that include measures of performance, and to modify those regulations in response to changing markets. This flexibility has contributed to CRA's relevance and adaptability through times of rapid economic and financial change, and widely differing economic circumstances among neighborhoods.

Wow, this stuff makes the wingnuts and gasbags look pretty foolish. What's your source for all this?

All quotes are come from the testimony of Sandra F. Braunstein, Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, before the Committee on Financial Services, or from the Federal Reserve website.

Politifact

Over one hundred statements by each candidate have been evaluated. Obama’s have been 73% Mostly True, while McCain’s were only 55% Mostly True.
Notes on the Graph

• The “Pants on Fire” designation means the statement “is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.”
• The Politifact evaluates the claims of candidates and categorizes the claim as True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False, and Pants on Fire. I grouped the categories True, Mostly True, and Half True into one category, Mostly True.

By Berkeley Breathed

Opus

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

i guess the problem i have with sites like this and factcheck is that i think they go overboard to appear to be fair, when in fact the republican talking points really are outright lies.

i just read their analysis on obama's tax cuts vs mcbush's tax cuts, and they really stretch to make the point that biden was barely true (25%) when a reasonable person would have said true (50%).

She's bored to cutter
This sang acquitter
The jaded aided
Hangs master jaded
Baby's barely melt
Fine know prince melt
Mean now's the time hewn
Is stout opportune
Love and peace at pang
Just like a tacked clang
Her spine got bays
Going out of last braise
Mind she's playing tuff
Cozmik searchlight huff
Rockets could not skipped
All she will mare nipped
Got the cottonwood
The time sneer sainthood
Gets down she said mien
A compass eighteen
Like the sound'" she tryst
Crying when she spare spiced
The words are consoled
On crying pit bold

here's another example where politifact gives the pants on fire rating to the planned parenthood ad about mcbush and palin charging rape victims for their forsenic exams.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/761/

The screen attributes the McCain allegation to a vote on Aug. 25, 1994, on a crime bill that included the Violence Against Women Act, which itself included a provision that required states to provide free forensic exams for rape victims.

Planned Parenthood's logic: Because McCain opposed that bill, he voted to let governments charge victims for their rape kits.

That's quite a stretch.

Indeed, McCain voted that day against a conference report on the crime bill, but he opposed it not because of the Violence Against Women provisions, but because it included extra spending that McCain considered unrelated to crime and it had a provision that would have banned so-called assault weapons.

===

so there reasoning is that because he voted against the violence against women act because it bundled in an assault weapon ban (a position which is heinous on its own) and not because it required free rape kits, he gets a free pass by their standards. that's just wrong.

do you understand mandevilles Fable of the Bees

it was referenced in some things i've been reading:

"a parable where a flourishing hive of bees is reduced to poverty and depopulation by an outbreak of virtue"

and I'm just not getting the point.

Do they supply a comment section ?

Give um hell ! :)

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

Video

evidently joe biden is quoted as saying:

"The president is brain-dead."
Joe Biden on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Politifact responds:

Irresponsible claim (and wrong medical diagnosis)

During a campaign stop in Iowa on July 4, the six-term senator declared, “This guy is brain-dead.”

It’s an extreme charge, since brain death is defined as “irreversible unconciousness with complete loss of brain function” (Encyclopedia of Death and Dying).

Needless to say, we find the charge ridiculous. There’s no evidence Biden performed the necessary medical tests to make such a diagnosis. We would have accepted the results of a cerebral blood flow study or proof that Biden had examined Bush to see if he had an oculocephalic reflex.

Indeed, even people who disagree with the president about Iraq and assorted other issues will acknowledge that the president has spontaneous respiration and is responding to stimuli.

its not readily apparent although i'm sure you could email them.

something i find interesting is the number of political emails that end up in my spam filter (where the decision that its spam is being made external to my system by time warner or some other company). i've often wondered if wingers subscribe to these things for the sole purpose of flagging them as spam.

I have TimeWarner too..

And,I get a ton of political email..Only a couple get flagged as spam..
Go look at your spam filter,maybe..

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

off the top of my head..

it made me think of how the blog looks when no one with a differing opinion is blogging...

or how thieves, war mongers, drinkers, smokers, drug takers, jerks, keep this country of ours 'in business'...

I have no idea, sorry...sure is an interesting read tho..I'm going to look at it more...thanks for bringing it up...

thats true. i run most of my political stuff thru a yahoo account, so i guess i wasn't fair to time warner.

cnn politics has a story on the palin smear of obama

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/04/palin-hits-obama-for-ter...

the comments (which are closed out) overwhelmingly show that either wingers don't read this stuff or nobody is buying the line of crap that mcbush is selling.

You know that house you couldn't buy? You bought it!

"If we gave you $10, what would you do for someone else?"
Chris in Paris · 10/05/2008 02:22:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

I love it. Citi, JP Morgan, Bank of America were probably ready to do something similar but then decided to change it from $10 and made it $10 million and then gave it to their executive team. Charity starts at home, they say.
All the people have to do is answer the credit union's question: "If we gave you $10, what would you do for someone else?"

Credit union staff will videotape people's answers for vignettes hosted by YouTube but accessed mainly through the credit union's Web site www.7principles.coop.

Then, from Oct. 14, through Oct. 19, the public can go to that Web site and vote for the best seven answers.

Seven, spokesman Andy Wright said, is an important number for the credit union because it symbolizes its core principles, including "giving back" to the community and giving members a voice in its direction.

The winner -- announced Oct. 20 -- will receive $1,000 from the credit union to give to the cause, person or group highlighted in the video. It will be online democracy for the common good.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/381606_money03.html

Politico: Obama to pre-empt McCain assault by launching ads calling McCain 'erratic'
John Aravosis (DC) · 10/04/2008 11:59:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

Ooooohhhhh.... maverick temper gonna go boom!
Branding his opponent as “erratic in a crisis,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is preempting plans by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to portray him as having sinister connections to controversial Chicagoans.

Obama officials call it political jujitsu – turning the attacks back on the attacker.

McCain officials had said early in the weekend that they plan to begin advertising after Tuesday’s debate that will tie Obama to convicted money launderer Tony Rezko and former Weathermen radical William Ayers.

But Obama isn’t waiting to respond. His campaign is going up Monday on national cable stations with a scathing ad saying: “Three quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject.

“Turn the page on the financial crisis by launching dishonorable, dishonest ‘assaults’ against Barack Obama. Struggling families can't turn the page on this economy, and we can't afford another president who is this out of touch.”

Then Obama says: “I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message.”
.....

“We think the McCain campaign made a huge error by telling the press that their strategy was to distract from the most important issue facing voters,” a senior Obama official said. “Every attack going forward will be easy to characterize for what it is – an attempt to distract from the Bush-McCain economic record."

This is rather brilliant by Obama. Every time McCain launches a negative ad, a negative attack, that has nothing to do with the economy, Obama can then see "see, I told you so - the man has no interest in talking about the economic crisis." This is going to be fun.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14283.html

http://www.johnmccainrecord.com/

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/vp-debate-open-palin-...

SiamBengals

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

Only a couple get flagged as spam..
Submitted by dan on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 6:45am.
thats true. i run most of my political stuff thru a yahoo account, so i guess i wasn't fair to time warner

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

The cubs are out of the playoffs. "Maybe next year?"

That's officially 100 years without a World Series game.

Chicago is mourning!

The White Sox still have a chance. But to be honest, they're not looking that great either.

:(

Working For The Clampdown
By Cernig Friday Oct 03, 2008 6:00pm

The ACLU notes that the FBI made public Friday its new rules for opening investigations which basically say "facts not required".

New FBI guidelines governing investigations were released today after being signed by Attorney General Michael Mukasey. The American Civil Liberties Union quickly blasted the Department of Justice and FBI for ignoring calls for more stringent protections of Americans' rights. The guidelines replace existing bureau guidelines for five types of investigations: general criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorders and demonstrations. The ACLU has been vocal in its disapproval of the overly broad guidelines, citing both the FBI's and DOJ's documented records of internal abuse.

The new guidelines reduce standards for beginning "assessments" (precursors to investigations), conducting surveillance and gathering evidence, meaning the threshold to beginning investigations across the board will be lowered. More troubling still, the guidelines allow a person's race or ethnic background to be used as a factor in opening an investigation, a move the ACLU believes may institute racial profiling as a matter of policy.

The police state arrives by small increments, not all at once. As arrests prior to the RNC in St. Paul prove, you can now be arrested for thought crimes.

Working for the clampdown.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/04/working-for-the-clampdown

Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama
By John Amato Friday Oct 03, 2008 5:00pm Attack of the Killer Voting Machine.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/10/04/homer-simpson-tries-to-vote-for...

Venezuelan President Chavez announces plan to swap old cars for free natural gas models

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ Give up your gas-guzzler and get a free car. That's President Hugo Chavez's offer to Venezuelans.

Chavez says he plans to start a program next year that will give away cars running on less-polluting natural gas to people who turn in old cars that consume "too much gasoline."

The socialist leader says he'll even throw in a year of free fuel — though that's a relatively minor bonus in oil-rich Venezuela, where gasoline goes for 12 cents a gallon.

Saturday's offer didn't say what sort of cars will be offered or how many will be given out.

Venezuela has signed accords with companies from more than a half-dozen countries to exploit its mostly untapped natural gas reserves —

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-lt-venezuela-free-ca...

GOP dread: Dems could
hit 60 Senate seats

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The possibility that Democrats will build a muscular, 60-seat Senate majority is looking increasing plausible, with new polls showing a powerful surge for the party’s candidates in Minnesota, Kentucky and other states.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14280.html

Obama takes big lead
in new Minnesota poll

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new Minneapolis Star Tribune poll shows an expansive lead for Barack Obama in Minnesota, a result that appears to shrink the electoral map even smaller still for John McCain.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/14284;_ylt=AmMd9o9A6Sm8fxjHvQt07fcDW7oF

Poll: Franken overtakes Coleman in Minnesota

http://wcco.com/politics/franken.takes.lead.2.832769.html

Newspaper poll shows
Obama up 7 points in Ohio

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Columbus Dispatch says Sunday that Obama leads 49 percent to 42 percent among likely voters in the important battleground state.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/presidential_poll_ohio;_ylt=AvjN3KBxxZ79i9wcT...

Columbus Dispatch

Amid growing concerns about the economy, Ohio Democrats are coming home to Sen. Barack Obama, giving him a 7-point advantage in a new Dispatch Poll as the volatile presidential campaign swings into its final month.

The Illinois senator's lead of 49 percent to 42 percent over Republican Sen. John McCain comes at an especially opportune time for Obama because thousands of Ohioans already are casting ballots in the state's first presidential election allowing any registered voter to vote absentee. The new setup takes away some of the heft from the adage "the only poll that counts is the one on Election Day."

Ohio is even more critical to McCain's campaign this year since he pulled out of Michigan last week. Not only has no Republican ever won the presidency without carrying the Buckeye State, McCain almost has to run the 2004 electoral table to win, carrying every single state President Bush won four years ago, including Ohio.........

Homer Simpson tries to vote!

Opus!

thanks gang, i needed those.

care for those around you.

works for me.

that last panel for Opus is a beaut.

http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/

The Commando's Prayer

Give me, my God, what you still have;
give me what no one asks for.
I do not ask for wealth, nor success,
nor even health.

People ask you so often, God, for all that,
that you cannot have any left.

Give me, my God, what you still have.
Give me what people refuse to accept from you.
I want insecurity and disquietude;
I want turmoil and brawl.

And if you should give them to me,
my God, once and for all,
let me be sure to have them always,
for I will not always
have the courage to ask for them.

—Corporal Zirnheld

Special Air Service

1942

you won't go here

but you should.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ijYVyhnn0

Last week the Columbus Dispatch plastered the front page with a gory picture of a burn victim. The rest of page one was spent on how bad the local electric monopoly is on maintaining it's system (following the big wind we had from Gustav), big blurb on the bailout, small blurb on Newman's passing and the rest on OSU's new/old Prez boosting pay. Page 2 is a "Speed Page" with highlights from the whole paper (for Republican's I guess). Page 3 was dedicated to McCain. First story on Obama? Page 18.

Don't get me started on the Editorial Page.

I called and cancelled letting them know precisely why.

They are not letting me down either. Regarding Kevin's post above, here's the final comment from the story that accompanied that graph:

Robert Neeley Sr., 73, of Fairfield in southwestern Ohio, retired from the U.S. Air Force, goes even further.

"I don't believe that he was actually born in the U.S. He has a lot of bad baggage."

___

The Columbus Disgust is not missed on my front porch.

Just got an email from my best bud who lives in Nashville. A friend of his, who happens to be a Democrat, got tapped by Gallop to be one of the folks who gets to ask the candidates a question and she's soliciting suggestions.

Got any?

___

This is a big lie, McCain has not pulled ads out in Michigan. He may have on a few stations that are not viewed by republicans but there are a lot of ads on Fox station 17 from Grand Rapids.
The republican party is also playing their own obnoxious ads full of lies.

The conservative media should stop repeating the big lie.

SJ..And,folks who love the Opus.. :)
I read the comments for the last Opus,on Salon..

I'm worried that Berkeley Breathed might be ending the Comic..

Someone commented that he is sick and will be ending Opus soon..

Berkeley Breathed is a genius..I really hope he's ok..

And,I hope Opus is not ending..It's my favorite comic..

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

Heather Wilson will be on Face the Nation. Just in case anyone wants to watch the unemployed circus clown before she's involuntarily committed to a state penitentiary.

Activist slaps Palin with lawsuit over private emails
Andrew McLemore

A Republican activist has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Sarah Palin in an attempt to access official correspondences sent with Palin's private e-mail accounts, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

The activist, Andree McLeod, filed the suit in Alaska Superior Court and publicized it with a press release that criticized the Republican vice presidential candidate.

"Rather than using her state e-mail account, throughout her two-year tenure as Governor of Alaska, defendant Sarah Palin, as a matter of routine, has used, and, on information and belief, continues to use, (at least) two private e-mail accounts... to conduct official business of the State of Alaska," the suit alleges.

McLeod received four boxes of redacted e-mails after filing an open record request that was initially rejected by the governor.

But Palin withheld 1,100 other e-mails from private accounts, claiming the information was subject to executive privilege.

The governor and her staff have no legal obligation to divulge policy deliberations to the public, but the presence of her husband Todd Palin, who has no formal role in her administration, belies concerns that the contents of the e-mails are strictly state business.

McLeod said she believes Palin and her staff nurtured a "culture of corruption" where no one in her administration was held accountable to rules of transparency in government.

"The extent of the use of these private e-mail accounts demonstrates the extent of deception that the governor is operating under," McLeod said. "The process is corrupt. The overall question now becomes, how did it become so broken that nobody could tell her, 'Don't do that.' That's why I'm going to the courts."

A subpoena has been issued for Sarah Palin and Todd Palin as part of an investigation into abuse-of-power allegations, the Associated Press reported.

Todd Palin said Saturday he is now planning to speak to an investigator after previously refusing to answer a subpoena against him.

His concession came shortly after a judge's decision Friday to toss a suit brought by Republican legislators who claimed the probe had been tainted by partisan politics in an attempt to damage Palin before the November election, the Associated Press reported.

Gov. Palin has been accused of pressuring Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan in an effort to fire a state trooper with whom Palin has a personal complaint. Palin fired Monegan early this summer.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Activist_slaps_Palin_with_lawsuit_over_100...

How about asking McCain about Keating 5.

Like, Sen. McCain, you were involved with the failure of the Savings & Loans problem, and the Keating 5 investigation, having been through that, why weren't you stronger in your concerns about Fannie and Freddie and the problem with the way banks and mortgage companies were handling loans? You said you had concerns and mentioned the problem with Fannie and Freddie but you didn't really raise any red flags. I would have been shouting it, if I were in your position.

McCain is not pulling out ads off Michigan TV
Submitted by acadie on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 9:53am.
-------

Fox is probably running his ads for free.

I am watching both spin shows this morning. Fox 17 at 9AM but since ABC 41 has its show at the same time I get it later on ABC 13 at 10AM. I recorded Meet the Press on NBC channel 8 at 9AM, they had a McCain ad. Channel 3 had one ad from McCain not long ago. As I checked on the other TV where I am recording Face The nation on Channel 3 from Kalamazoo I saw them playing a republican lie ad about an over 1 trillion dollar tax increase by Obama.
The nice thing about the recording is that I will be able to fast forward past the lying ads.

To say that the republicans are pulling out of Michigan is bullshit. All that is changed is that McCain will not show up in Michigan because each times he shows his face here his numbers are going down.

I forwarded it on. The participate is a woman around our age. She's still waiting for FedEx to deliver the package. All she knows at this point is she's going to be with Tom Brokaw from 9:30 AM until the debate is over.

This may be interesting. According to my friend she's a lifelong Democrat but still not sure if America is ready for one of "them". If that's truly her position, I hope she gets bumped.

___

if it ever bothered him that Ross Perot volunteered to pay for Carol McCain's reconstruction when he wouldn't.

JPMorgan blamed for Lehman collapse in court documents: report
AFP

US bank JPMorgan Chase stands accused of precipitating the collapse of American investment bank Lehman Brothers by freezing Lehman assets days before it filed for bankruptcy protection, the Sunday Times reported.

Citing documents filed with a New York bankruptcy court late last week, the newspaper said that Lehman creditors have accused JPMorgan of freezing 17 billion dollars (12.3 billion euros) in cash and securities on Friday, September 12. Lehman filed for bankruptcy the following Monday.

"The creditors' committee understands that LBHI (Lehman Brothers Holding Inc.) had at least 17 billion dollars in excess assets which were held at JPMC (JPMorgan Chase) on the Friday going into the weekend before its bankruptcy filing," the court documents reportedly allege.

"The creditors' committee further understands that, on September 12, 2008, JPMC refused to allow LBHI access to its excess assets and instead 'froze' LBHI's account.

"In freezing LBHI's assets, JPMC was purportedly holding all of LBHI's assets as a potential offset against any claims JPMC may have had against LBHI."

The documents continued to say that "as a result of JPMC's actions, LBHI suffered an immediate liquidity crisis, that could have been averted by any number of events, none of which transpired."

In a statement to the Sunday Times, JPMorgan described the allegations as "unfounded conjecture."

Lehman Brothers -- which was America's fourth-biggest investment bank -- was the biggest name in international finance to fall prey to the credit crunch when it collapsed last month, though several others have been nationalised, or required some other form of government intervention since.

Last week, lawmakers in Washington finally approved a 700-billion-dollar rescue package after much political wrangling, while European governments were forced to ride to the rescue of several major European banks.

Britain announced Monday the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley, coinciding with the 11.2-billion-euro bailout of banking and insurance group Fortis by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments.

A day later, Belgium, France and Luxembourg joined together to inject 6.4 billion euros into banking group Dexia and in Germany Hypo Real Estate was saved by a government-backed rescue move.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/JPMorgan_blamed_for_Lehman_collapse_1005200...

my head is spinning.

Another great Obama day...big gains and looking like a Franken victory is on the way too. Looks like McSame is going for the full charge on the hate ads and they're even trickling into the stump speeches. Yesterday Palin actually said Obama "pals" around with terrorists! Oh yeah, folks are going to LOVE that!

He still doesn't understand that the people he needs to win over at this point are NOT into two things: phoniness and negativity. And it looks like McCain intends to do just that!

McCain's orchestrating not only a landslide here, but an avalanche for Obama. And, it looks like Obama will bring a few more Senate seats with him. Minnesota, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi are about to turn, especially Minnesota and North Carolina.

John McCain and the Republicans have not picked up one single extra state from 2004 by ANY poll's measurement, even on the teevee.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/senate-polling-update-104.html

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Senate/Maps/Oct05-s.html

As I posted the other day, I'm helping the Dem's out with early voting. The Republicans are out there- not to distribute campaign literature- or assist voters. In fact,they are thy are there strictly to intimidate. They are taking pictures of cars, voters and license plates. Though the Board of Elections have rented a section of the parking lot for voters, the Republicans are watching to make sure cars are not parked too long. The buses that are escorting voters, the one with the out of town plates, are especially photographed. I kid you not here. An elderly voter was photograph with a walker-as she was being assisted to get on the bus. Th infraction here, the bus was parked a few feet over the masked taped line. However, the driver was merely trying to assisted her.

The manager of the building, which is Veterans Memorial in Columbus, Ohio constantly harassed us. Apparently, Matt (I weigh 500 pounds) Damschroeder, a Republican operative from the Board of Elections- was perched in a window in the building. This is the same man that removed voting machines in the black community and caused the 8 hour lines.

Harassed to exercise the fundamental right in a a so-called democracy, I be damn!

viv48

It seems to me Chase wants to become a Monopoly. They want to take over Wachovia, so they put an injunction on Wells Fargo from making a bid for the company. I guess they have only a little time to take over the banking system, I guess George Bush promised them something.

closed-head trauma - nearly all shift to a soft-voiced 'let's all be reasonable' tone... it's weird.

does anyone think that this is all-alarms-sounding damage-control?

It's Citibank that wants to take over Wachovia and they are fighting the Wells Fargo purchase of Wachovia.

Chase is the bank that took over Lehman Bros.

I know it's difficult to keep all these deals straight because they all stink, badly!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/05/palin-misquotes-albright_n_1319...

Misquote a famous Democratic woman whose quote you got from a fucking Starbucks coffee cup and use it to threaten women that if they don't support the Republican ticket, they will go to hell. Then say, hey, those aren't my words!

Lovely!

Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain

By FRANK RICH
Published: October 4, 2008
SARAH PALIN’S post-Couric/Fey comeback at last week’s vice presidential debate was a turning point in the campaign. But if she “won,” as her indulgent partisans and press claque would have it, the loser was not Joe Biden. It was her running mate. With a month to go, the 2008 election is now an Obama-Palin race — about “the future,” as Palin kept saying Thursday night — and the only person who doesn’t seem to know it is Mr. Past, poor old John McCain.

To understand the meaning of Palin’s “victory,” it must be seen in the context of two ominous developments that directly preceded it. Just hours before the debate began, the McCain campaign pulled out of Michigan. That state is ground zero for the collapsed Main Street economy and for so-called Reagan Democrats, those white working-class voters who keep being told by the right that Barack Obama is a Muslim who hung with bomb-throwing radicals during his childhood in the late 1960s.

McCain surrendered Michigan despite having outspent his opponent on television advertising and despite Obama’s twin local handicaps, an unpopular Democratic governor and a felonious, now former, black Democratic Detroit mayor. If McCain can’t make it there, can he make it anywhere in the Rust Belt?

Not without an economic message. McCain’s most persistent attempt, his self-righteous crusade against earmarks, collapsed with his poll numbers. Next to a $700 billion bailout package, his incessant promise to eliminate all Washington pork — by comparison, a puny grand total of $16.5 billion in the 2008 federal budget — doesn’t bring home the bacon. Nor can McCain reconcile his I-will-veto-government-waste mantra with his support, however tardy, of the bailout bill. That bill’s $150 billion in fresh pork includes a boondoggle inserted by the Congressman Don Young, an Alaskan Republican no less.

snip

It’s against this backdrop that Palin’s public pronouncements, culminating with her debate performance, have been so striking. The standard take has it that she’s either speaking utter ignorant gibberish (as to Couric) or reciting highly polished, campaign-written sound bites that she’s memorized (as at the convention and the debate). But there’s a steady unnerving undertone to Palin’s utterances, a consistent message of hubristic self-confidence and hyper-ambition. She wants to be president, she thinks she can be president, she thinks she will be president. And perhaps soon. She often sounds like someone who sees herself as half-a-heartbeat away from the presidency. Or who is seen that way by her own camp, the hard-right G.O.P. base that never liked McCain anyway and views him as, at best, a White House place holder.

snip

But the debate’s most telling passage arrived when Biden welled up in recounting his days as a single father after his first wife and one of his children were killed in a car crash. Palin’s perky response — she immediately started selling McCain as a “consummate maverick” again — was as emotionally disconnected as Michael Dukakis’s notoriously cerebral answer to the hypothetical 1988 debate question about his wife being “raped and murdered.” If, as some feel, Obama is cool, Palin is ice cold. She didn’t even acknowledge Biden’s devastating personal history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05rich.html?th&emc=th

Happe Talk

October 18th. As I may have indicated, we're in a swing county of a swing state, and the republicans (the ones who are engaged and paying attention) are really feeling threatened. These are people who fear and hate the mere possibility of change. They are being twisted into a place where life-as-it-is is barely tolerable; they can try to blame the Dems for any current crisis; but at the end of the day, in their gut, they understand that change is needed. Denial is breaking down.

and here's peggy noonan pulling out the fear/terrorism card.

also talks about McCain's medical problems in that article, quoting Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN, who said what he saw of his records looked okay but the pages weren't numbered and there wasn't much time. But Dr. Gupta said that he didn't see anything about his mental health.

Frank also mentioned in the article the problems that McCain has shown recently with confusion.

Read the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05rich.html?th&emc=th

Tom Davis Gives Up
By PETER BAKER
He was a star in the Republican Party. Now, like dozens of his G.O.P. colleagues, he’s quitting Congress, fed up with his party, his president and the process.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/magazine/05Davis-t.html?th&emc=th

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/5/938/65231/778/620619

I've been watching Late Edition on CNN. Linda Douglas is representing Obama & some Rethug witch is on for McCrazy. They are pushing the Ayers connection and when Wolf brought up Keating 5, the witch starts screaming "he was fully exonerated". Of course she kept interrupting Douglas, who was too polite to call her out on her lies, but the subject was broached, by Blitzer no less.

McCain's Brother Says N. Va. 'Communist Country'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain's brother made an apparent joke at a campaign rally this weekend that might not play well in parts of newly competitive Virginia.

Joe McCain, speaking at an event in support of his brother, called two Democratic-leaning areas in Northern Virginia ''communist country,'' according to a report on The Washington Post's Web site.

''I've lived here for at least 10 years and before that about every third duty I was in either Arlington or Alexandria, up in communist country,'' Joe McCain said at an event in Loudon County, Va.

Joe McCain then apologized, but the remark drew laughter at the event, according to the report. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-McCain-Brothers-Joke.html

I'm having fun looking up and learning more about The Fable of The Bees....thank you.

Minnesota Poll: Obama leaps ahead of McCain
The Democrat's lead in the state is tied to the economy, the debate and new party strength.

By BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune

Last update: October 5, 2008 - 8:39 AM

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has opened up a commanding lead in Minnesota over Republican John McCain, according to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.

The poll, conducted last week among 1,084 likely voters, found that 55 percent support Obama, while 37 percent back McCain.

That's a huge difference from the last Minnesota Poll, conducted in September, which showed the race dead even, with each candidate backed by 45 percent of likely voters. The new poll shows that Obama's surge in the state can be attributed to voters' belief in his ability to deal with the nation's worsening economy, his performance in the first presidential debate and an increase in the number of Minnesotans who call themselves Democrats.

Obama appears comfortably ahead among men, women, and voters of all ages and educational attainment.

The poll's findings come at a time when polls in several other battleground states and nationally are showing a sudden and significant shift to Obama. Gallup's daily national tracking poll released Friday showed Obama leading McCain by 7 percentage points.

Statewide polls conducted last week show Obama overtaking McCain in such key battleground states as Ohio, Virginia and Florida. In Florida, for example, the last four polls have shown Obama with leads of between three and eight percentage points; in the weeks prior, Obama trailed by as many as 10 points.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/30470234.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQ...

this is so bizzare.

she starts off calling herself a progressive with conservative views.

she then admits she's a latte sipping starbucks drinker

takes a quote out of context and rearranges it

and then challenges the media to make something of it as if she was doing a gotcha on them

that's good. i have always been challenged by literature, i'm not dumb, but for the most part i just don't get it.

so when he talks about virtue bringing down the bee hive, is he describing the effects of fundamentalism?

or is it that you can't have a prosperous society without corruption? and that when you root out corruption society falls.

read about the fable?

The poem attracted little attention. The 1714 work soon became famous/notorious, being understood as an attack on Christian virtues. What it actually means remains controversial down to the present day.

He did say:

What Country soever in the Universe is to be understood by the Bee-Hive represented here, it is evident from what is said of the Laws and Constitution of it, the Glory, Wealth, Power and Industry of its Inhabitants, that it must be a large, rich and warlike Nation, that is happily govern’d by a limited Monarchy. The Satyr therefore to be met with in the following Lines upon the several Professions and Callings, and almost every Degree and Station of People, was not made to injure and point to a particular Persons, but only to shew the Vileness of the Ingredients that all together compose the wholesome Mixture of a well-order’d Society; in order to extol the wonderful Power of Political Wisdom, by the help of which so beautiful a Machine is rais’d from the most contemptible Branches. For the main Design of the Fable, (as it is briefly explain’d in the Moral) is to shew the Impossibility of enjoying all the most elegant Comforts of Life that are to be met with in an industrious, wealthy and powerful Nation, and at the same time be bless’d with all the Virtue and Innocence that can be wish’d for in a Golden Age; from thence to expose the Unreasonableness and Folly of those, that desirous of being an opulent and flourishing People, and wonderfully greedy after all the Benefits they can receive as such, are yet always murmuring at and exclaiming against those Vices and Inconveniences, that from the Beginning of the World to this present Day, have been inseparable from all Kingdoms and States that ever were fam’d for Strength, Riches, and Politeness, at the same time.

CNN

The Statement: Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin said Saturday, October 4, that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is "someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
Get the facts!

The Facts: In making the charge at a fund-raising event in Englewood, Colorado, and a rally in Carson, California, Palin was referring at least in part to William Ayers, a 1960s radical. In both appearances, Palin cited a front-page article in Saturday's New York Times detailing the working relationship between Obama and Ayers.

In the 1960s, Ayers was a founding member of the radical Weather Underground group that carried out a string of bombings of federal buildings, including the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol, in protest against the Vietnam War. The now-defunct group was labeled a "domestic terrorist group" by the FBI, and Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn — also a Weather Underground member — spent 10 years as fugitives in the 1970s. Federal charges against them were dropped due to FBI misconduct in gathering evidence against them, and they resurfaced in 1980. Both Ayers and Dohrn ultimately became university professors in Chicago, with Ayers, 63, now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Obama's Chicago home is in the same neighborhood where Ayers and Dohrn live. Beginning in 1995, Ayers and Obama worked with the non-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge on a huge school improvement project. The Annenberg Challenge was for cities to compete for $50 million grants to improve public education. Ayers fought to bring the grant to Chicago, and Obama was recruited onto the board. Also from 1999 through 2001 both were board members on the Woods Fund, a charitable foundation that gave money to various causes, including the Trinity United Church that Obama attended and Northwestern University Law Schools' Children and Family Justice Center, where Dohrn worked.

CNN's review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told CNN that after meeting Obama through the Annenberg project, Ayers hosted a campaign event for him that same year when then-Illinois state Sen. Alice Palmer, who planned to run for Congress, introduced the young community organizer as her chosen successor. LaBolt also said the two have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Obama came to the U.S. Senate in 2005 and last met more than a year ago when they encountered each other on the street in their Hyde Park neighborhood.

The extent of Obama's relationship with Ayers came up during the Democratic presidential primaries earlier this year, and Obama explained it by saying, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood … the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago — when I was 8 years old — somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."

The New York Times article cited by Palin concluded that "the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers." Other publications, including the Washington Post, Time magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and The New Republic, have said that their reporting doesn't support the idea that Obama and Ayers had a close relationship.

The McCain campaign did not respond Saturday to a request for elaboration on Palin's use of the plural "terrorists."

Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.

about four years ago, when people started referring to the General Accounting Office (GAO)- which was created in 1921 - as "the General Accountability Office" it occurred to me that this was another CheneyCorps name-game. But it wasn't until today that I did some googling to figure out what the ploy might be covering. Read, and then RE-READ the last line...From the GAO's website:

Our Name
GAO's Name Change and Other Provisions of the GAO Human Capital Reform Act of 2004
Effective July 7, 2004, the GAO's legal name became the Government Accountability Office. The change, which better reflects the modern professional services organization GAO has become, is the most visible provision of the GAO Human Capital Reform Act of 2004, Pub. L. 108-271, 118 Stat. 811 (2004).

Besides the name change, the law

decouples GAO from the federal employee pay system,
establishes a compensation system that places greater emphasis on job performance while protecting the purchasing power of employees who are performing acceptably,
gives GAO permanent authority to offer voluntary early retirement opportunities and voluntary separation payments (buy-outs),
provides greater flexibility for reimbursing employees for relocation benefits,
allows certain employees and officers with less than three years of federal service to earn increased amounts of annual leave, and
authorizes an exchange program with private sector organizations.

is from a blog written by teresa lo, who talks about investing and the markets.

Ahmadinejad and The Fable of the Bees

Observations and Market Sentiment

on the latter there is a link that will take you to an amazon text

REPUBLICANS HATE AMERICA!
Submitted by edna ellen poe on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 11:27am

*******
Maybe you can write or call the Newspapers and TV Stations there and,let them know what's happening there..

Or,get the person who is running the show for you guys,supervisor..etc..to contact the Newspapers & TV..

Heck,I would.. :)

What those Rethugs are doing is BS..

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

ain't that the truth. we've got the same thing going on in cincinnati. it got coverage on the sunday front page but it was from the republican perspective.

they are certain college kids are going to come in and register to vote and then turn around and vote from home in november and nobody will ever catch them and and and

I'd like McCain to be asked
new
Submitted by Fernando on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 11:08am.
if it ever bothered him that Ross Perot volunteered to pay for Carol McCain's reconstruction when he wouldn't.

___

Thanks!

>>REPUBLICANS HATE AMERICA!

I hate to disagree, but I don't think the republicans hate America. They lust for it. They covet it. they jealously want America all to themselves.

no, they don't hate America...It's the Americans they hate.

Ifill: Palin ‘blew me off’ during the debate.
During the vice presidential debate on Thursday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she “may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear.” In fact, “On at least 10 occasions, Palin gave answers that were nonspecific, completely generic, pivoted away from the question at hand, or simply ignored it.” On NBC’s Meet The Press today, debate moderator Gwen Ifill said that Palin “more than ignored” her questions. “Blew me off i think is the technical term,” said Ifill. Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/05/palin-ifill/

Rep. Wilson: Any Criticism Of ‘American Policy’ Is Unpatriotic
Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) defended Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) new comments that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is “someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.” When host Bob Schieffer asked Wilson if she was therefore implying that Obama is “unpatriotic,” Wilson refused to disagree, noting that Obama has criticized “American policy”:

WILSON: Well, he has talked down about America. You know, we’ve always had this history of saying, “Well, you know, politics ends at the water’s edge.” It didn’t for Barack Obama. He’s been critical not only of the President but of American policy and hence has kind of a negative view of America in the world. That’s not unusual frankly among liberals in kind of post-Vietnam America, to say that America is the problem.

Watch it: at link

The Bush administration has been setting American policy for the past eight years. Therefore, any criticism of the Bush administration, according to Wilson, is unpatriotic. This category doesn’t just include Obama and other “post-Vietnam America” liberals, but also military officers, former Bush administration officials, the Supreme Court, and the majority of the American public who disapprove of Bush and his policies. Even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has tried to criticize Bush’s policies, in an effort to separate himself from the current administration.

Criticizing the Bush administration’s policies doesn’t mean that a person doesn’t believe America can be a “force for good,” as Wilson alleges. Instead, it recognizes that destructive policies over the past eight years have diminished America’s “exceptional” status. Countries around the world once held a predominantly positive view of the United States. Under Bush’s destructive policies, however, those views have plummeted.

Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/05/wilson-unpatriotic/#more-30264

I agree, CB. Repubs see this country as resources to grab and want to believe they too can get a chance to grab the brass ring.
Bill Gates is on with FZ on CNN and he talked about how the Inheretance Tax is justified (unless you give it to charity), that they made their fortunes BECAUSE they benefited from being Americans (education, courts,...)

had to deal with hypocrisy.

so do we.

the greedheads are worse than the 'Alien',

capable of taking out a million humans with one 'bite'.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/pri...

THEN IT'S NOT A HIT PIECE.

“Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth.
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.”

http://kidsinwar.org/

"McCain’s tax returns omit gambling winning and losses.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-miller/mccains-tax-returns-hide_b_1...

Palin’s returns don’t include those per diems.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/03/palins-tax-return-mystery_n_131...

What mavericks they are and how patriotic!"

...[decides against the post and potential ramifications]...

thing with Obama and McCain...that was scary...

>>You know I hate to start shit with you...

then don't

"Once again, there were duelling rallies here in Anchorage. The McCain-Palin rally was held in the just-completed Dena’ina Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. The Obama rally was held outside, just a couple blocks away, at the Delaney Park Strip.

One would think that the Republican rally celebrating the hometown girl, in her very very red state would have drawn a huge crowd, and that the Obama rally would be a few brave intrepid souls with a couple signs shivering by the side of the road. One would be wrong.

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/mccain-palin-rally-vs-obama-bid...

The Rethugs of Alaska ended up with a room full of chairs. There are nice pics."

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 2:50pm.

Morning, Chubbs... :)

the ol' 'Cone of Silence' bullshit.

...
Until

... So few in the vast Hive remain,
The hundredth Part they can't maintain

...And here they die or stand their Ground.

Moral

... vice is beneficial found,
When it's by Justice lopt and bound.

Or,
Bee careful what you wish for.

It was only after Mandeville took the poem and wrote definitive explanations that he roused the learned ones. Especially when he quite logically presented the case that wealth created and hoarded had no value. It was the act of creation of goods that put laborers to work and when they with their wages satisfied their wants and needs, caused civilization to advance.

http://www.geocities.com/jswortham/fable.html

now, there's a word I can't get behind.

sounds like a euphemism for 'ball scratching'.

Mad Dog Palin

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23318320/mad_dog_palin

The scariest thing about John McCain's running mate isn't how unqualified she is - it's what her candidacy says about America

MATT TAIBBI

Posted Oct 02, 2008 3:00 PM

I think I may have seen a cut up version, I'm not sure how long the original show was...I see now that is where Obama drew the line on 'one man and one woman'....

Ha! :)

a wolf kill in Alaska (or something like that) being to show a limb..?

invite-only red meat dope forums and town halls. i'd rather get blood drawn...and I HATE THAT.

undue emphasis on bloodstained snow, slaughter, subjugation of lesser creatures.

hateful way to channel any of your energies. bitch, ever hear of a supermarket?

you are killing me. You have a chance to kick this pińata around and you didn't take it?

Why Alice why?

Let me ask you then. Who do you think India would pick as President of the United States if the only two candidates were Barrack Obama & Estella La Riva?

on local CBS this morning "the gloves are off..." Palin attacking Obama and Mac releasing attack ads.
October surprise??

being to show a limb..?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX5wSxgbGuM

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

Final thought on `The Killers'...

turns out the band on last night's SNL was, in my estimation, a retro-80s pop band.

in that context the name is understandable.

the reason Gwen Ifill didn't ask much - I wonder what the deal was with the "Commission on Presidential Debates," a corporate funded organization that sets the rules and who will be allowed in the debates among those seeking the US Presidency.

They still suck ! :)

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

>>They still suck ! :)

suck?

of course they suck...

that was never in question.

Check my post above with video re Ifill...

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/3891#comment-265730

She was on Meet the Press this AM.

toni

Easy Tiger.. :)

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

Be suckin today ! :(

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

Obama clinches on Rove map Mike Allen
Sun Oct 5, 11:22 AM ET

With 30 days until Nov. 4, Karl Rove projects that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would get at least 273 electoral votes – three more than are needed to win – if the presidential election were held today.

But Rove warns that this race is “susceptible to rapid changes,” so no definite prediction is possible.

The remarkable forecast from the architect of the last two nationwide political victories underscores the straits that have rapidly enveloped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the banking and credit crisis spread.

Rove writes on Rove.com: “39 new state polls released in the first three days of October have given Barack Obama his first lead over the magic number of 270 since mid-July. Minnesota (10 EV) and New Hampshire (4 EV) both moved from toss-up to Obama, giving him 273 electoral votes to McCain’s 163, with 102 votes remaining as a toss-up.

“If the election were held today, Obama would win every state John Kerry won in 2004, while adding New Mexico (5 EV), Iowa (7 EV), and Colorado (9 EV) to his coalition. Remember, though, that these state polls are a lagging indicator and most do not include any surveying done after the vice-presidential debate on Thursday night.”

Rove cautioned on “Fox News Sunday”: “Remember, the campaign ebbs and flows. What we're seeing here is a result of the focus of the American people, voters, on the economic problems that have dominated the news the last several weeks. What's happened then is a shift to Obama.

“Just remember, 17 days ago in the electoral college, McCain led 227 to 216. Fifteen days ago, on the eve of the news on the bailout, he led 216-215.This race is susceptible to rapid changes and we're likely to see, in the remaining four weeks, more changes.”

On “Meet the Press” on Sunday, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd said Obama is still one state away from solidifying the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the White House. Colorado, Virginia or Florida would put it away for Obama if the election were held today, Todd said.

“Even if it’s Nevada [making the total] 269, it sends it to the House, where Democrats have an advantage,” Todd said. “As it stands today, John McCain would have to run the table. Now, good news for him: They’re all states that voted Republican four years ago.

“However, he’s behind right now a little bit in Ohio. There’s a dispute of who’s ahead or who’s behind in Florida but it feel as if Obama’s a little bit ahead in Florida. Obama’s a little bit ahead in Colorado. And it’s a dead even race in Virginia. Dead even in Nevada. And even Missouri, which we almost put in tossup this week, is getting very close, where McCain just has a very narrow lead.”

Todd said a landslide could be 364 electoral votes – “the high-water mark.” In 1980, Ronald Reagan got 489. In 1988, George H.W. Bush got 426. “The McCain folks now have to hold everything … to keep this thing competitive,” Todd said.

Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who was the architect of McCain’s 2000 campaign said on “Meet the Press”: “It’s McCain’s barn that’s on fire. … Thirty days out, I think McCain can win. But the fact is, [if the] election were held today, he’d lose. And I think he’s on a losing path.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081005/pl_politico/14294

ever go away???????!!!!!! He should be in jail, not on tv.

Bears just won! At least one Chicago Team is winning!!!!

But then, it's the beginning of the season. sigh!

mmrules;

them eagles blew dead dogs for lunch at the aspca 2day, too.

my mate is yelling about mass firings and his b.p. is 200/120 or thereabouts.

wouldn't recognize good music if you were given an instruction manual. Exactly how good is pop music supposed to be?

OOOh, I thought you meant the Distillers!! They rock. (but Killers are ok..)

Palin misquotes her Starbucks cup; Madeleine Albright explains the real quote to Palin
Joe Sudbay (DC) · 10/05/2008 03:29:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

Now we know why Sarah Palin doesn't read newspapers. She learns stuff from her Starbucks cup:
Palin regaled the cheering crowd with a story about how she was reading her Starbucks mocha cup yesterday, which featured a quotation from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“Now she said it, I didn’t,” Palin said of Albright. “She said, ‘There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.’”

The crowd roared its approval, but according to several sources, Albright actually said, “there’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.”

If Sarah is going to make a big deal about quoting her Starbucks cup, she should at least get the quote right. In fact, as CBS notes, she got the quote wrong.

Madeleine Albright wasn't amused. She wants Palin to know just how wrong she got it (no link, got it via email):
"Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women. The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden."

Someone would type this up and put it on Palin's next Starbucks mocha cup so she'll be sure to see it. Not that it would matter. Palin will say anything, even if it's patently false or blatantly wrong.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/04/politics/fromtheroad/entry450184...

:)

>>Bears just won! At least one Chicago Team is winning!!!!

In pro sports is there really such thing as winning or losing?

Winning is vastly over-rated.

The important thing...the only thing, really...is that everyone had a good time.

which is just about impossible when your teams loses, say, by a score of 44-6...

gas prices are coming down. i filled up with premium for 3.53 gallon. it was 4.19 a week ago. 87 grade is 3.33.

do the oil companies really believe that we are all 10 second toms (a character in the movie 50 first dates. he had no short term memory, so anything you told him was forgotten within 10 seconds)?

juxtaposition of clips: Palin/W

Not so long ago we thought that was astronomical.

at Talladega. I've never seen his car in the front

Didn't like the Killers either.

The lead singer, in my opinion, stunk!

is wonderful.

you started this, remember?

what recent music do you listen to?

Let's not pick on Fernando ....

just because his taste in music sucks. ;)

I'd hardly call that band representative of what I like. But what I absolutely do not like is listening to the same stuff over and over again from one year to the next. One year I only listened to lounge music just for something different.

Never Did No Wanderin' - The New Main Street Singers

Wanderin"
Never did no wanderin'

My mother was the cold North wind,
My daddy was the son, of a railroad man from west of hell,
Where the trains don't even run

Never heard the whistle of a lonesome freight,
Or the singing of it's driving wheel,
No I, never did not wanderin'
Never did no wanderin'
Never did no wanderin' after all

They say they highway's just one big road,
And it goes from here to there,
And they say you carry a heavy load,
When you're rolling down the line somewhere

Never seen the dance of the telephone poles,
As they go whizzin' by,
Never did no wanderin'
Never did no wanderin'
Never did no wanderin' after all

Never did no wanderin'..high!
Never did no wanderin'..low!

Now a sailor's life is a life for him,
But it never was for me,
And I never soared where the hawk may soar,
Or see what the hawk might see,

Never hiked to heaven on a mountain trail,
Never rode on a river's rage
Never did no wanderin'
Never did no wanderin'
Never did no wanderin' after all

Easy now!
Never did no wanderin'
Never did no wanderin
Never did no wanderin after all

No I never did no wanderin after all

but I like smooth Jazz. And I listen to the "Oldies" station on the radio. 60s, 70's and 80s. I like Reggae and SA Jazz also.

I can't get in to Hip Hop, Rap, Indy and whatever they are calling the music today.

>>One year I only listened to lounge music

in that case the Killers would be a step up.

depending on the lounge, of course.

What's up with the Niner's quarterback, O'Sullivan?

Wasn't `Sullivan' Irish enough for him?

hmmmm... Anita does it for me there.

Indy isn't a solidly defined genre.

Indy is short for `Independent', in this case, independent record lable.

So being an indy band isn't really saying much except they don't have a major record label.

correct me if I'm wrong?

how about Blossom Dearie?? She's fantastic

Lounge is better than alt-disco any day.

>>pffft

that wasn't lounge or alt-disco...(whatever alt-disco is...)

when I think of lounge music, I think of leisure suits...

the kind of stuff that is/was popular in Vegas lounges...Humperdink, Tony Bennet, Tony Orlando, stuff like that.

I think that was an adult contemporary/easy listening sound?

anyway, it was nice.

It is harder to classify music as I get older.

except, of course, the Killers, who are firmly in the genre of `oh-my-god-please-don't-force-me-to-listen-to-that,-my-cat's hacking-up-hairballs-is-more- ascetically-pleasing'.

;)

are very Duran Duran alt-disco. Don't get me wrong, I'll still listen to both Duran Duran and The Killers. But Jack Jackson is totally Lounge.

My daughter just sent me a picture of from the pig races at the state fair.

>>My daughter just sent me a picture of from the pig races at the state fair.

Post it?

Oosah.com is easy to use and free. an account hold 1 terra byte.

downside -- it is a beta release and the uploads sometimes take a while to show up in your account.

Salmonella sickens people in 12 states; USDA urges consumers to fully cook chicken dinners
By Associated Press
9:57 AM CDT, October 5, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The government is urging consumers to thoroughly cook frozen chicken dinners after 32 people in 12 states were sickened with salmonella poisoning.

The health warning by the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited frozen dishes in which the chicken is raw, but breaded or pre-browned, giving the appearance of being cooked. They include "chicken cordon bleu," ''chicken Kiev," or chicken breasts stuffed with cheese, vegetables or other items.

USDA said many of the people who became ill apparently did not follow the package's cooking instructions and microwaved the chicken dishes even though the instructions did not provide for it. Microwaving didn't heat the meals enough to kill the salmonella.

The department said consumers should cook chicken products to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service issued the warning Friday after Minnesota health officials found a link between the chicken dinners with salmonella illnesses reported in Minnesota and 11 other states. It did not name the states in its release, and did not immediately respond to a message left at its press office Saturday seeking that information.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight to 72 hours. It can be life-threatening, especially to those with weak immune systems such as infants and the elderly.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-salmonella-chicken...

enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r25-tGTQcIM

Virginia GOP Worried About McCain's Chances
According to Politico, Virginia Republicans "are warning that John McCain's prospects for winning a state that has been in the GOP column in every presidential election since 1964 could be in jeopardy."

"With Barack Obama treating the Old Dominion like a battleground state and reliable polls showing a margin-of-error race there, some are cautioning that McCain is making a critical mistake by allowing the Democratic nominee to outpace him in terms of visits and resources committed."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14285.html

He's hate to see this, I am sure...

VP Debate Pushed Undecided Voters to Obama
An Ipsos/McClatchy poll found that Gov. Sarah Palin's performance in last week's vice presidential debate actually hurt her running mate, Sen. John McCain, among undecided voters.

Before the debate, undecided voters were leaning 56% to 44% for McCain. The day after the debate, the numbers tilted 52% to 48% for Sen. Barack Obama.

Said pollster Clifford Young: "It's suggesting an overall tendency of undecideds toward Obama, so it is significant. We're catching an underlying trend that's going on."

The poll also found that Sen. Joe Biden won the debate, 54% to 46%.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53475.html

very nice. Back at ya...

24 laps to go at Talladega (on ABC).

yw

I still can't get enough of it nightbird.

it's addictive.

Democratic Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm cracked on Palin’s folksy style on Face the Nation: “I really believe, honestly, in Michigan we are hurtin’ so bad we don’t want to hear just you know by golly, aw shucks, doggone it."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14298.html

That was pop music?

I thought I knew what pop music was. I remember when "pop music" was universally accepted, well for the most part.

___
When pop was hot

I'm not old fashioned, I'm just back dated.

yes addictive..

Obama Allies Warn McCain Camp to Back off Attacks
Barack Obama ad calls John McCain 'erratic' as both campaigns step up personal attacks
By CHARLES BABINGTON
The Associated Press
ASHEVILLE, N.C.

Barack Obama's allies warn that John McCain's attacks on the Democrat's character will lead to the political equivalent of mutual assured destruction: fire your big weapon at your own peril.

Several Obama surrogates said his supporters may start reminding voters of McCain's ties to Charles Keating, a convicted savings and loan owner whose actions two decades ago triggered a Senate ethics investigation that involved McCain as one of the "Keating Five."

The warnings of massive retaliation came as McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, took on the role of attacker and said that Obama sees America as so imperfect "that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She was referring to an early Obama supporter, 1960s radical Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground whose members were blamed for several bombings when Obama was a child.

Obama has denounced Ayer's radical views and activities. But he's not above questioning McCain's character with loaded words.

On Sunday Obama unveiled a TV ad on the economy that paints McCain was "erratic in a crisis." Some see that as a reminder of McCain's age, 72.

Democrats were well-synchronized Sunday, using the word "erratic" and Keating's name in nearly-matching sentences across the talk show circuit.

"This is going to be a month, I think, of character assassination," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., an Obama supporter, said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Indeed, McCain adviser Greg Strimple predicted "a very aggressive last 30 days" of the campaign.

"We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obama's aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans," he said in a recent conference call with reporters.

Obama, too, alluded to harsher tactics in a speech Sunday to thousands of people in Asheville, N.C.

McCain and his aides, Obama said, "are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up. It's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time."

Noting the nation's serious economic problems, Obama said: "Yet instead of addressing these crises, Senator McCain's campaign has announced that they plan to turn the page on the discussion about our economy and spend the final weeks of this campaign launching Swiftboat-style attacks on me."

Obama has denounced Ayers' radical views and activities. However, Ayers hosted a small gathering for Obama in 1995, early in his political career. Obama and Ayers live in the same Chicago neighborhood and served on a charity board together, but there is no evidence they have palled around.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago Democrat and Obama supporter, warned against McCain's strategy.

"If we are going to go down this road, you know, Barack Obama was eight years old, somehow responsible for Bill Ayers," he said. "At 58, John McCain was associating with Charles Keating."

"If we really want to talk who is associating with who, we will," Emanuel said. "The American people will lose in that transaction."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=5957911

Right Here

to the rest at home - --farewell, bloggeratti

Gail Collins and Bob Herbert both unloaded on Sarah Palin in today's New York Times.

An excerpt from the Collins article:

When she was asked to respond to Joe Biden’s critique of the McCain health care plan, she announced: “I would like to respond about the tax increases,” cheerfully ignoring the fact that tax increases had never been mentioned.

After the recent Katie Couric unpleasantness, Palin told the viewers that this time they were getting a chance to hear her “answer these tough questions without the filter.” And, indeed, her answers were murky in the extreme. She railed repeatedly about government regulations getting in the way of the private sector, then announced that the financial rescue plan “has got to include that massive oversight that Americans are expecting and deserving.” She said that she didn’t want to discuss what caused global warming, only how to ease its impact.

She appeared to agree with Dick Cheney’s manic theory that the vice president is a member of both the executive and legislative branches, although it’s hard to tell since she began her answer this way: “Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president’s agenda in that position.”

When the moderator, Gwen Ifill, asked under what circumstances the candidates would consider bringing America’s nuclear weapons into play, Palin said: “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/opinion/04collins.html?ref=opinion

real lounge music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lHdOMtU5dY

if ony, then how fantastic?

Who would make a better President of the United States?

A: Sarah Palin

B: Lauren Kirchner

Republican Running for State Rep. Screams "White Trash" at me today....

This is the dude running for State Rep...

http://www.kernaghan2008.com/site /

I was getting ready to out this a.m and some dude sticks something on my front door and then goes over my railing to the next door.

Expecting to tell another pizza dude to quit loosening my railing, I instead find a guy putting up doorhangers for Kernaghan2008. So I ask the guy what affiliation is kernaghan, cause it's not on there.

This dude then stares hard at the Obama pin on my chest. "Republican," he tells me with a snarl.

I laugh and tell him good luck in this neighborhood...no wonder the guy didn't put Republican on his stuff.

That's when the dude starts sputtering. I'm still chuckling, and I turn around because my 5 year old daughter came out of my house. When I turn my back that's when dude starts speaking in an aggressive tone-he wants to know what I do in this neighborhood what 'associations' I belong to. When he started getting louder and more profane, I told him to get out of my neighborhood.

That's when he really lost it. He called me white trash. I put my kid behind me and told him again to get out. He went yelling down the street to his companions.

That's when I decided to treat the doorhangers like trash--I took 'em down on my street. No one gets to call me trash and then litter in my block. Dude comes back with a woman. He starts screaming at me and my kid, then decides to lunge at me, hitting me right above my Obama pin.

He seemed very shocked, as did the woman with him. "You touched me," I said.

He didn't deny it. Instead he decided to start screaming even more. The woman with him threatened to call the police....on me.

Go ahead I told her. My husband seeing all this came up to dude and told him to back off....dude asked if he was my husband and then told him to get control of his wife.

Then dude called me a bitch, and tried to express sympathy to my husband for having such a difficult woman. Speaking to hubby, again calling me a bitch and white trash. He tried goading hubby into a physical altercation, but hubby held his temper in check and convinced the woman with him to take dude away. She dragged him away, embarrassed and eyes downcast, saying Jim, come on, please. He left, still shouting. Only now he was shouting about how I didn't want to talk about real issues, and that I didn't want real change.

I picked up a doorhanger, intending to call the campaign and complain. No phone #. But then I looked at the candidate's pic. It was dude!!! Holy crap!

My 5 year old was very calm and asked me what white trash was. I told her that the color of people's skin was never an insult and that people aren't trash. I explained that dude was a Republican. Like Sarah Palin she asked?? Yep.

I read an article by Greenwald this week describing the rage and self-pity permeating the right. Yeah, got that.....

article from Glen Greenwald---

"The right's two-pronged religion of rage and self-pity

(updated below)
The Right in this country -- meaning the faction that followed George Bush for the last eight years -- long ago ceased being a movement of political ideas and is driven by two, and only two, extreme emotions: (1) intense, aggressive rage towards their revolving door of enemies, and (2) bottomless self-pity over how unfairly they're being treated. As their imminent defeat looks increasingly likely (potentially on a humiliating scale), these two impulses are in maximum overdrive, feeding off one another in endless self-perpetuation (the more they lose, the more victimized they feel, the more they rage against their enemies who oppress them, etc.)."

more at link
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwa...ion/index.html

Tony Stewart just won Talladega.

B: Lauren Kirchner
B: Lauren Kirchner
B: Lauren Kirchner
B: Lauren Kirchner
___

Sorry, I voted on a Diebold machine.

At Sarah Palin’s old church in Wasilla, they spoke in tongues. Maybe that’s where she picked it up.

___
Sarah’s Pompom Palaver

From CNN's Alexander Marquardt

WILMINGTON, Delaware (CNN) – Joe Biden's spokesman said the Delaware senator would be canceling campaign events Monday and Tuesday in the wake of his mother-in-law's death Sunday.

"Other details will follow, but we appreciate everyone's respect for the family's privacy during this difficult time," wrote Biden spokesman David Wade.

Bonnie Jacobs, Jill Biden's mother, had been sick for a long time and was living in a hospice.

Wade announced Saturday that Sunday and Monday's events were canceled after doctors told the family to stay close by. He said the family is now together at home in Wilmington.

The death comes the same day Biden's son Beau deploys with his National Guard unit to a mobilization station in Texas before a tour in Iraq.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/05/bidens-mother-in-law-die...

Because I had to leave....

SEGMENT 5

Genocide by Sanctions
(segment 12:58) read segment

Produced and directed by Gloria La Riva in 1998 (long before the current war in Iraq), this film features former Attorney General of the United States, Ramsey Clark, as he shows the terrible conditions the Iraqi’s were suffering from due to the first U.S. war on Iraq. UNICEF, the International Red Cross and other world organizations estimate around 5,000 children were dying every month in Iraq after that war and the imposition of sanctions placed on that country.

Over 1.5 million Iraqi’s died as a result of the sanctions alone. Ramsey Clark goes into the hospitals and talks with Iraqi doctors, who say many of these deaths could have been prevented if they had medicine to give to the children. The United States bombed out their way of life; their water treatment facilities, food delivery systems, sewage treatment facilities, electrical systems, their mass communication facilities and more. And American’s were lead to believe that this was a good thing.

This segment comes from the documentary ‘Genocide By Sanctions.’ Check out the Left Books web site for more info.

http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=-7557214168916914640

When reporters first asked McCain about Charles Keating, McCain called them 'liars'
John Aravosis (DC) · 10/05/2008 06:32:00 PM ET · Link

Let's not forget, John McCain was involved in the Keating Five scandal when he was 54 years old. Barack Obama is 47. That means McCain was 7 years OLDER than Obama when he had his Keating Five ethics scandal. That's not a youthful indiscretion. That's a man ten years from retirement age who's doing some pretty unethical things, showing that he has some pretty bad character flaws.

Joe and I will be exploring the Keating Five Scandal all week, and then some. John McCain likes to talk about his character. So let's talk about it. Remember, he was 54 years old when he got himself into this unethical mess.
When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. "You're a liar," McCain said when a Republic reporter asked him about the business relationship between his wife and Keating. "That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot," McCain said later in the same conversation. "You do understand English, don't you?" He also belittled reporters when they asked about his wife's ties to Keating. "It's up to you to find that out, kids." The paper ran the story.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/mccain/articles/2007/03/01/200703...

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/3895#comment-265820