the real Bigfoot

Yes man

Happy birthday, Jon Anderson. Thank you.

graded on the curve?

It seems that McCain's newest campaign blurb is that he has "been tested, and Barack Obama has not."

That's true, he has been tested.

Unfortunately, he came in fifth from the bottom of his class.

best commercial ever!

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

but it's not geography!

From Brian Williams' interview with Sarah Palin and John McCain:


WILLIAMS: Who is a member of the elite?

PALIN: Oh, I guess just people who think that they're better than anyone else. And-- John McCain and I are so committed to serving every American. Hard-working, middle-class Americans who are so desiring of this economy getting put back on the right track. And winning these wars. And America's starting to reach her potential. And that is opportunity and hope provided everyone equally. So anyone who thinks that they are-- I guess-- better than anyone else, that's-- that's my definition of elitism.

WILLIAMS: So it's not education? It's not income-based? It's--

PALIN: Anyone who thinks that they're better than someone else.

WILLIAMS: --a state of mind? It's not geography?

PALIN: 'Course not.

WILLIAMS: Senator?

MCCAIN: I-- I know where a lot of 'em live. (LAUGH)

WILLIAMS: Where's that?

MCCAIN: Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there. I know the town.



It must be nice to be that un-self-aware and insulated from your own stupidity.

It's not geography, but I know where they live.

Do these people ever listen to themselves?

and now, a musical interlude

Well, some kind of interlude, anyway...

tote that line

Orrin Hatch (R-Deranged) just told Noron O'Donnell that the US automakers are in big trouble and needed their stealthy twenty-five billion dollar bailout because they have been forced to knuckle under to "the unions" because of liberals in government and thus couldn't compete with the Asian and European manufacturers.

Yeah, that's it.

It has nothing to do with the fact that they have been building Expeditions, Escalades, Hemi-powered soccer wagons, and Hummers like gas was going to be twenty-seven cents a gallon at the full-service pump far into the infinite future and they did absolutely no research and development into more fuel-efficient transportation and alternative energy sources because of the looming depletion and rising costs of petroleum resources. Not related at all.

Much like the way the Democrats caused the financial crash by forcing multi-billion dollar companies to give home loans to deadbeat dark people, not because Wall Street wrote its own laws for the last eight years and then lied like mad about how safe and profitable their shell game was in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the stockholders and public.


Brace yourselves, if you think the campaign was dirty and despicable just wait until the republicans get back into full impeachment mode next year. It's what they do best.

keep the hands where we can see them, boys

Twilight Zone

David Shuster, discussing Sarah Palin's "wardrobegate" problem with republican shill Brad Blakeman on MSNBC just now, literally laughed out loud at Blakeman's efforts to equate the republican party buying Moosetoe Barbie's hundred and fifty thousand dollar campaign wardrobe to Barack Obama using his campaign plane to fly to Hawaii to visit his dying grandmother.

Laughed out loud.

There might be some hope for our country after all.

Barbiecued

News broke this weekend that the republican party has spent a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to outfit Sarah Palin with a wardrobe worthy of a gold-plated hockey mom. The rank and file republicans are mightily upset over this turn of events, but it seems to me they shouldn't be surprised.

Everyone knows that buying your Moosetoe Barbie is the cheap part. It's the clothes, the Corvette, the RV, the Dream House, and all the other extras that really cost the money.

what the Pfuck, indeed

Right-wing nazi-momma Nancy Pfotenhauer was just on this evening's episode of "Hardball," trying to explain the well-dressed Sarah Palin's constitutionally ignorant explanation of the Vice-President's job as "running the Senate."

Pfotenhauer evaded the question, changed the subject, and glistened with progressively more and more pflop sweat as Chris Matthews hewed her to the question at hand over and over again and continually corrected her pfalsehoods and talking points.

But that wasn't the most amusing part.

In an interview well under ten minutes in length, Pfotenhauer sounded like a spoiled pfourteen year-old girl, grunting "uh" time after time in the exact manner of an overindulged child being told that no, she wasn't going to be getting a new BMW pfor her birthday.

Thirty-six times that I personally counted, and probably less than the total times, Pfotenhauer gasped in amazement over being challenged on her talking point recitations. By the end of the segment, her indignant outrage was barely controlled, and her botoxed and painted-on rictus of a smile had slowly tautened into a pfrozen snarl as she "thanked" Matthews and said goodnight. It was truly pfantastic and incredibly pfunny.


The times, they are a-changin.'

the rules changed

I watched Friday's appearance by soon-to-be-former Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann on Chris Matthews' "Hardball" in real time with absolute amazement at the scene that unfolded before my eyes.

Bachmann, for whom I have had a long personal revulsion as a result of her support for teaching religious dogma in schools instead of the scientific fact of evolution, has suffered dramatically since her nine-minute, McCarthyesque rant against Barack Obama's "anti-Americanism," even to the point of having her previously unthreatening opponent in the coming elections suddenly having over a million dollars of new contributions in a few days and rising dramatically in the polls, and she was also informed by the NRCC today that they were withdrawing financial support for her Minnesota campaign today. She has been backpedalling furiously since she appeared on MSNBC on Friday, but her political career has suffered the worst implosion since the submarine Thresher sank in 1963.

Her main strategy for getting out of the hole she dug herself into on Friday is claiming that she had never seen "Hardball" before, and didn't realize that Chris Matthews was going to set a "trap" for her by letting her speak uninterrupted and even offering her the chance to walk back her accusations while she was spouting them. Bachmann said "I just didn’t recognize — I never watched the Chris Matthews show before. I should have before I went on. I didn’t recognize that he would lay a trap the way that he did."


In a way, she's got a point.

Think about it. Ever since President Clinton was in office, the cable television news has been a place where the right wing could go to say anything they wanted about other Americans - as long as they were "liberals" or "democrats." The Clintons were accused of murdering people and running drug cartels, Gore was called a liar despite all evidence pointing to the falsity of that claim, Kerry was accused of shooting himself for a Purple Heart, and the list of hits goes on and on and on.

On virtually every political cable television news show for the last fifteen years, republicans would sit down with the interviewer, and they would spew a barrage of slanderous vomit about their own countrymen, labeling liberals as treasonous and complicit in a plot to destroy the United States of America, and were never challenged on that point.

As a matter of fact, more often than not, they were not only not challenged, but were actually encouraged to go farther and farther by their hosts. To this day, it's a staple of the FOX "news" channel. Right-wing authoritarian sits down with Sean Hannity and screeches out a diatribe against "libruls." Hannity asks a question that is just an invitation for the guest to ramp up the invective, and the guest is delighted to cooperate. Hannity throws in a few verbal co-signs, ("you're so right") and invites a further escalation of the rhetoric. After a few rounds of this game, both of them climax, shake each other's sweaty, sticky hand, and after a commercial break, the next guest appears to perform the same dance. Rinse and repeat.

So, if you watch the video of Bachmann's bout with Tweety, you'll realize that he is asking her the same exact kind of questions that hitherto had been tacit invitations to move up a rung on the invective ladder.


It really sucks when the rules get changed on you in the middle of the game, doesn't it? Believe me, we former anti-americans know it does.

times ARE tough

Here's an interesting phenomenon illustrating the drastic downturn of the economy and the lack of financial wellness of the American people.

I stopped at a local grocery store today for a single-item purchase, and paid with a five-dollar bill, getting a dollar and fifty-six cents back in change. Among the fifty-six cents was a 1934 quarter, the real, silver money that I grew up with. I can't remember the last time that I saw one in everyday life, and here, out of the blue, one is back in circulation. Or, at least was back in circulation.

Of course, that could change again if McCain wins and everything goes completely out of control.

BREAKING NEWS - why you can't trust Palin!

SHE'S A MOOSELIM!

come for the aliens, stay for the anal probes

Sarah Palin is campaigning in Roswell, New Mexico today.


Write your own punch line, I'm tired.

Or what.

Is this a great country?

The walls come tumbling down...

Bush Aides Say Religious Hiring Doesn’t Bar Aid

By CHARLIE SAVAGE, New York Times
Published: October 17, 2008
WASHINGTON — In a newly disclosed legal memorandum, the Bush administration says it can bypass laws that forbid giving taxpayer money to religious groups that hire only staff members who share their faith.

The administration, which has sought to lower barriers between church and state through its religion-based initiative offices, made the claim in a 2007 Justice Department memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel. It was quietly posted on the department’s Web site this week.

Click here to continue the article

Reference for the coming days...

Steal This Book

I gotcher mandate swingin'

October surprise?

http://www.gregpalast.com/rolling-stone-its-already-stolen/

since you mention it

"I haven't had this much fun since my last interrogation." - John McCain, on the David Letterman show last night.


Well, now that you bring it up, I'm curious. Would that have been the interrogation where you agreed to make propaganda videos for our nation's enemies during wartime? That's still a court-martial offense that carries the possibility of a death penalty, right?

Oh, and while we're on this Letterman thing, you really need to correct yourself. You told Dave that you "screwed up," but that's not really what happened. What happened was that you "lied." There's still a bit of a difference between the two out here in flyover country.

red-state herring

Last night, John McCain once again trotted out the tired old wrong-whinge plaint of "when did Barack Obama ever stand up to his party leadership?"

When is some Democrat going to stand up and say "he doesn't need to, because the Democratic party isn't a bunch of anti-American loony toons who are hell-bent on plundering the U.S. Treasury, destroying the government, and shredding the Constitution."

taxpayer's t-shirt

"I spent a trillion dollars and all I got was this lousy stock market!"

heh

"Joe the plumber"

Apparently, Joe isn't just a randomly chosen representative of the average American. Ladies and gentleman, the real Joe the plumber:

http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/10/15/joe-the-plumber-wurzelbacher-related-to-charles-keating-oops/

fuck you, John McCain

I was already irritated by John McCain's previous disdainful references to "a three million-dollar overhead projector for a planetarium in Chicago" and his latest reference to his obvious stand against education and scientific literacy just pushed me right over the edge. He has yet to elaborate on what it is that he is railing against, and is using an intentionally loaded turn of phrase to deceptively label what the very first planetarium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, Chicago's Adler Planetarium, the hit of the 1939 World's Fair, was seeking to acquire.

The very phrase "overhead projector" shows what an ignorant man McCain is. What a sneeringly sarcastic way of describing a planetarium projector, or "star machine." I have no personal knowledge of what Adler was hoping to acquire, but at that price I'd be willing to bet that they were hoping to upgrade to one of the new high-end digital planetarium projectors that is capable of filling a thirty or forty-meter dome with realistic sky, including stars, planets, Sun, Moon, constellations, celestial coordinates, cardinal points, full-motion video, and that has a photo database of thousands of astronomical objects and much more. And all of this is what the Luddite candidate of the jesus-lovers dismisses with a supercilious and arrogant mislabeling in order to try to make cheap political points, even as he simultaneously rails against the state of education in this country.

Fuck John McCain. He graduated fifth from the bottom of his class at Annapolis and he, like George W. Bush, wears his ignorance as a badge of honor. We already know what it results in when you elect an idiot to the presidency. Let's not do it again.

How do they find us....?

More: http://gallery.me.com/molliefrancis#100112

Got room for one more??

post-debate question

So, is it reasonable to assume that John McCain doesn't want any women to vote for him?

pre-debate question

Did John McCain call in and cancel yet?


And in keeping with the day, another link:
http://www.palinaspresident.com/

Bye Bye Byron

Since it seems I'm just passing on links today, here's the funniest thing I've seen online in a long time. Matt Taibbi crushes right-whinger Byron York in a live chat debate, and York shows himself for the little prison-bitch he truly is. Four stars, a must-see.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/10/matt_taibbi_and_byron_york_but.html

holy (bull)shit

I just saw Sarah Palin on television, speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire. Every other word was "prayer," "blessed," or "god."

Apparently, the right whingers have no actual plans, so they are running the last few weeks on a platform of sanctimony.

Good luck with that.

that's my kind of October surprise!

Dick Cheney has canceled his meetings and events today because he is suffering yet another bout of atrial fibrillation. I sincerely hope that "suffering" is not just a vanilla adjective.


And, if you think this sentiment is over the top, fuck you. I want this sorry excuse for a man to die in agony, and the sooner the better.

Here's one reason why:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/14/AR2008101403331.html

no commentary needed

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/14/opinion/20081014_OPCHART.html

what's the matter with Kansas?

Possibly, not as much as there used to be. Here's the efforts of a current Kansas University journalism class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g3pvgCyavs

silver linin'

There is one really good thing about John McCain's (owners) choosing Sarah Palin for his running mate.

Her career as a politician has been destroyed forever. There is no way that the country as a whole will get fasco-conservative again soon enough to put her in high office. She may even have trouble staying governor of Alaska if Obama wins, it sounds like enough people up there are pissed at her doubletalk and blatant lying that they may start digging harder into what she's been up to the last few years. With this new house of hers being built the same time and by the same people that her multi-million dollar sports complex, and only a mile away, she may be following Ted Stevens to the courtroom dock.

With any luck.

I'll let Skippy take it

Here's the tragic story of the mysterious death of Lori Klausutis, Joe Scarborough's intern who was found dead in his office:

http://xnerg.blogspot.com/2006/07/scarborough-country-of-dead.html

man-o'-Krug!

As the yin to Scarborough's yang, congratulations to the brilliant and eloquent Paul Krugman for winning the Nobel Prize in Economics!

Of course, the honor of winning still bears the taint of that internet-inventing, earth-tone wearing Al Gore. Thank goodness the grownups took charge and he hasn't been in the White House screwing things up for the last seven years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7667190.stm

wanker of the day

Whiny-ass titty baby Joe Scarborough was on television this morning defending the McCain campaign's violent and eliminationist rhetoric (rhetoric that torques up their already over-wound supporters into shouting things like "traitor" and "terrorist" and "kill him" at McCain's and Palin's appearances) by trying to make the point that he was called all kinds of horrible things by liberals during his political career.


It's all so unfair. I mean, only one girl gets found dead of a broken skull in your office under mysterious and still inadequately-explained circumstances after which you hastily leave public service with no particular justification, and you're branded for the rest of your life and called nasty names.

damned liberal movie theatres

Last week, for their debut, "An American Carol," the republitard fantasy comedy that was going to prove once and for all how humorous conservatives are, beat Bill Maher's "Religulous" with $3.7 million at the box office to Maher's $3.2 million. This week, their second week in theatres, it was "Religulous" in the lead, with grosses of $2.2 million to $1.5 million for a grand total of $5.4 million to $4.7 million, advantage "Religulous." That, by the way, is with "An American Carol" in a little over fifteen hundred theatres and "Religulous" on slightly fewer than five hundred screens.


Sadly, conservatives don't understand that there's a big difference between being funny and just getting laughed at.

Funny but not...

see Sarah Palin pictures

p.p.s.

Although you can tell by the heading box at the top of the blog that I am not a believer, I will say this much - if there actually is a god, he really really really wants Barack Obama to win. This week Obama hit the trifecta. The right's prized financial house of cards has collapsed like the Twin Towers, taking Bush's "legacy" along with it, McCain has been reminded of what being hanged by thumbs is like and forced to renounce himself before his rabid base, and Palin now knows how it feels to be an Alaskan wolf being chased by a "hunter" in a helicopter. This is as delicious as chocolate-covered Avril Lavigne.

It's all over but the cleanup.

p.s.

It seems to me that right about now a truly honorable man would deselect his running mate, suspend his campaign for real, and cede the election to Barack Obama. Your move, McCain...

and your little dog, too!

Also in the news, the report regarding Sarah Palin's "Troopergate" scandal was released today and states that Sarah Palin did indeed abuse her power as governor to illegally fire the Alaskan Public Safety Officer in revenge for his not firing a State Trooper with whom she had a family dispute. As luck would have it, there is also a photo of her being given the news by one of her advisors, the obviously frightened man on the left.

I dunna how she's holdin' togetherrr, kiptin

In an incredible turn of events, John McCain has been forced to explain to his supporters that Barack Obama is "a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements." The moment was caught on film by a photographer at the rally.

who needs Viagra?

Yet another preacher has been caught red-handed, so to speak, in possession of child pornography. The whole sordid story is here:
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20081009/NEWS05/810091445


What really gets me is this part:
"The Rev. Mr. Parks said he used the pictures of preteens and teenagers to excite him for his wife because he suffers from erectile dysfunction."

Say what? He suffers from erectile dysfunction and he was only oh-so-nobly doing this for his poor wife, it's not that he really liked it. That's interesting, isn't it?


I never realized that child pornography had therapeutic qualities.

not just old, stupid too

John McCain keeps saying that his campaign shouldn't be counted out yet because he came back basically against the odds to get the nomination from his party.

He still hasn't figured out that he didn't win.

Ron Paul wasn't owned by the big-money boys, and that just won't work.
Rudy Giuliani was a cross-dressing ferret that had learned how to say "9/11."
Mike Huckabee appealed to the religious nuts, but he took the preaching a bit too far.
Fred Thompson was busy trying to get his new trophy wife to sleep with him between naps.
Mitt Romney looked like Reagan, but he was magic Mormon underpants under a tailored suit.

The republicans wanted somebody other than McCain, but all of the other choices completely blew their opportunities, which should have been a walk for at least three of them, because they weren't beholden enough to the real powers behind the party.

The other guys lost, McCain by being willing to sell his soul to be president, not because he vanquished the competition.

He's the nominee by default.

um, yay?

The Dow only lost 128 points today!

gotta wonder

So, does anybody know what the financial status of the Carlyle Group is right now? Are they crashing like the rest of the market or are they buying stocks furiously? That would go a long way towards explaining who the culprits in this debacle are. This bout of buying an hour before the markets close for the weekend says that somebody knows something, or at least thinks they do.

Suivez l'argent.

I'll say

I just watch Georgie's little chat this morning. He said that the United States is using "a wide range of tools" to try to stanch the financial crash.

He's right.


Paulson, Bernanke, and all of the other scumbags who are scrambling furiously to lock the barn now that the horses are gone are definitely tools.

twenty-five days

I was wrong. I don't think I've ever been so happy to say that.

George W. Bush doesn't have three and a half months to continue to fuck up the planet. He has agreed to turn the reins of power over to the winner of the presidential elections after the votes have been counted. He'll still be officially the president until Inauguration Day, but he will not act as president, the winning candidate will.

Read it for yourself and notice how much that queasy feeling in your stomach quiets down, this is the best news this country has had in eight long years.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hTd3qvgQlBCxKb-cwDglA9A9SJTAD93N2A601

prophetic?

What if?

• What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
  
• What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
  
• What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do' to?
  
• What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?
  
• What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
  
• What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
  
• What if Obama were a member of the 'Keating 5'?
  
• What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
  
• What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
  

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

we're all third world now

Prediction: if the U.S. stock market takes the ten percent dump that is likely today, Bush will shut down Wall Street for an indeterminate time and end up exacerbating the problem. And he still has over three months to fuck things up more.

Welcome to the future. Friday is Soylent Red day.

must-read

This information needs to be disseminated to every voter in the United States of America. Do your part to keep this viper away from the White House before it's too late.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/index.html


"Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin’s campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.

Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution’s language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as 'Black Helicopter Steve,' to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. 'Every time I showed up her door was open,' said Chryson. 'And that policy continued when she became governor.'"

Dow 8,000!

Word is that our glorious leader will again address the country tomorrow so that we may bask in his greatness and manly grasp of ponderous matters facing all of us.

I'm thinking that's good for another six or seven hundred-point drop on the market.

heckuva job, dubya

The Dow just lost another 678 points, closing at 8579. On October 9, 2007, exactly one year ago, the Dow was at a high of 14,165. Since then it has lost more than 5000 points. That is a loss of nearly forty percent in one year.

Well over one-third of the wealth of America has disappeared in this final year of the Bush catastrophe, and most of it has been transferred into the pockets of his wealthy patrons and cronies. The United States is in the most perilous position it has ever been, and yes, I mean including the Depression, the Cold War and World War II.



Too bad nobody's given him a sloppy blow job in the Oval Office so we could do something about it.

mcmentality

spinsurance policy

It appears that the deservedly-maligned AIG is sending this mea culpa out to the A-list blogs. No, that's not this one. But, as posted by Atrios, here is what their corporate line is now:


Earlier today, AIG announced an important policy change - one that we wanted to be sure you knew about.

A short time ago, our Chairman and CEO Ed Liddy said that he has ordered the immediate cancellation of all outside meetings, conferences, and recognition events across AIG, except those that are required by law or that are deemed absolutely critical to sustain our ongoing business needs.

Given AIG's commitment to our customers, business partners, regulators, and American taxpayers, coupled with the new and very different challenges our company now faces, we take these responsibilities extremely seriously. Their trust is critical to our success. We recognize the need to be sensitive about all company expenditures.

As we move forward, we will continue our focus our efforts to pay back the $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as quickly as possible.

We appreciate your blog's efforts to share this information with your readers.

Best,
AIG Blog Relations


I wonder if they composed that while they were getting three-dollar-a-minute massages?

October 9th, One Zillion B.C.

...temper..temper...

Letter to Ms Kathleen Parker, Washington Post

October 4, 2008
Ms. Kathleen Parker
C/O Washington Post Writers Group
1150 15th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20071-9200



Dear Ms. Parker,
When I read your article a short time ago regarding Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications, I was relieved and impressed that a biased columnist of either side (Right/Left) had the courage to cross the line and speak honestly. Saturday morning, I read with disappointment your post-debate article in which you sing the praises of Ms. Palin’s debating skills and end by somewhat questioning her capabilities as President. In the same stream of though, you also question whether or not Barack Obama is qualified, as if the two are currently on par.


Let’s start with one basic premise. Debating is part skill, part show, and in this case it’s all about getting votes. No more, no less. A Presidential or Vice Presidential debate is an artificial environment that in no way can predict how a person will govern, or even if that person is capable of doing so. For a true picture, one has to look at the track record, unscripted situations, and important characteristics of a leader. In that regard you were right in your original article and the debate should not have changed your mind. In fact, Sarah Palin’s avoidance of questions she did not want to answer, and her insistence on talking about things she wanted to talk about, should reinforce the notion that she is grossly unqualified for the job. In an interview on Fox, she said she was annoyed by Katie Couric in that Ms. Couric did not allow her to talk about what she wanted to address (namely, anti-Obama talking points), instead insisting on “gotcha” questions. Curiously, these are the very same questions that were asked of Joe Biden.

There are many list of what it takes to be a good leader, but I’ll point out a couple of items that I think are important.

Competence. This embodies many things, including experience, knowledge, judgment. Focusing on knowledge, it is obvious that Governor Palin has little depth in any of the key areas important to the top two positions in the country. She knows nothing about the Supreme Court. She felt that Dick Cheney’s worst offense was shooting a fellow hunter. She has yet to put together a cohesive sentence on the current economic crisis. She honestly believes that living close to Russia somehow qualifies her as a foreign policy expert. Is it too much to ask that a Vice President actually know something about the job? Even more so than the lack of specific knowledge, Governor Palin has shown no interest in actually acquiring that knowledge. She could not cite a single newspaper or magazine from which she gains information. In fact, she dismisses in depth understanding of government as a failing of “Washington Insiders”. Can name one other profession in which understanding of the job is a liability?

Seriousness. In this regard I’m not talking about lack of humor, I’m talking about recognizing that we have serious problems and we need serious, real solutions. When Governor Palin plays to the audience in a debate, shouting out to third-graders and Joe six-pack, she relinquishes all claims to seriousness and as a result all claims to credibility. Again, we’re seeing the difference between debating to gain votes and demonstrating a true capability to lead the nation. Can you imagine a VP Palin visiting the Prime Minister of Iraq or the President of Russia and engaging in a real conversation of joint or conflicting interests. Those situations call for credibility, they call for focus, they call for presence, and nothing about her appeal to Joe six-pack plays to those needs. In fact, were she to act with them as she did in the debate, there’s no possibility they would take her seriously.

Context. In order to affect real change it’s critical to understand the current situation, it’s obvious points and the nuances. Governor Palin has shown little if any interest in understanding anything about how Washington works. In fact, she mocks the system and shows contempt for virtually everyone who operate within it. The “I’m not from Washington” line works well with some voters, but will have quite the opposite impact in real life. Would you hire a writer who not only has no “big league” writing experience and who considers that experience a handicap? If you were CEO of a major company, would you hire someone who knows nothing about how your company works, doesn’t care to know, dismisses all that work there, but says she is going to fix things?

Ms. Parker, our country is heading in the wrong direction. A recent poll indicates that only 9% of Americans are satisfied with how things are going. In one of my favorite movies “An American President”, the incumbent says “We have serious problems, and we need serious people”. Sarah Palin is not one of those people. She may be qualified as president of the debate team, but not as President or Vice President of the United States. You recognized that early on and as an intelligent person I would imagine you still recognize it. You did yourself and your readers a disservice by backtracking on your earlier evaluation. There was not, and there still is not, any question regarding Governor Palin’s qualifications, and even asking the question, as you did in your latest article, has no place in today’s discourse.

somebody read my mind!

Palin Land

I'll say it

McCain was high. Amped on amphetamines or cooked on cocaine. His quavering gasps for breath, shaky voice, rushed delivery, and nervous, birdlike pacing are a dead giveway. I'll bet we don't hear from him for a couple of days because it's going to take that long for him to come down and get back up again.

For a man of honor, he sure is a scoundrel.

No introduction needed...

Question number One

OMG! McCain is a deer in the headlights!

no shit

George W. Bush, today, after blaming the economic collapse of the United States on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
"The tendency in politics is to try to blame somebody else."


Yeah, we know.

Statesman Joe Six Pack

on cue

just in time

Press lockdown A La Mode....

CLEARWATER, FL -- Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasn't permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park to talk to Sarah Palin supporters.

remainder of story here

You forgot one...

They're missing another choice on the poll:

"We gave 850 billion dollars to Wal*Street leaders to bail their asses out, gave them management duties for the hen house, and we have to let them keep their golden handshakes, since they were already negotiated."

Charles Keating - spread the word

deposit refund?

Is it too late to get our eight hundred fifty billion back? It doesn't seem to have had any better results than NOT giving it away last week did.

gone to ground

It's too bad the country had to enter this crisis without an executive branch. Whatever did happen to that "dubya" dude, anyway? He living in France these days? I'll bet we could use somebody with his Harvard Business School financial acumen about now...

gotta love it

While the economy melts down further and government dithers while the rich suck the rest of America's money out of the moribund stock market, what movie is Turner Classic Movies showing?

"The Fountainhead."

Yes, Ayn's pimp-slapping of second-handers is the perfect backdrop to the real catastrophe in which we have been placed.


Some countries never learn...

holy fuck

It sure is a good thing we taxpayers ponied up a trillion dollars to avert a catastrophic financial meltdown, isn't it? If I was Obama, I'd be seriously thinking about bowing out and letting the republicans deal with their own mess.

Space-off the race...

Well, when you have no money left for any "social programs" I guess this is one way of dealing with it:

One Way Up: U.S. Space Plan Relies on Russia

is Sarahuana norml?

Here's a couple of questions I'd like the republican vice-presidential candidate to answer:

Would you support extending Alaska's marijuana laws to the rest of the states? If not, why have you not tried to change the laws in Alaska? Have you, your husband, your children, other family members, friends, or your future son-in-law done things that would mean jail terms in many other states?


Possession of one ounce or less of marijuana in the privacy of the home is legal. The status of possessing an amount between one ounce and four ounces is unclear, pending clarification by the courts. Possession of 4 ounces or more of marijuana is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

Possession of less than 25 plants is protected under the Alaska Constitution’s right to privacy (See Ravin v. Alaska). Possession of 25 or more marijuana plants is “Misconduct involving a controlled substance in the fourth degree” and is punishable by a fine of up to $50,000 or five years in prison.

Any possession within 500 feet of school grounds or a recreation center or possession on any school bus is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

Sale, delivery or manufactureof marijuana of less than one ounce is a misdemeanor and is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. For amounts of one ounce or greater, the crime is a felony which can be punished with a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

It is an affirmative defense to possession, manufacture or delivery that the offender is a patient or caregiver who is registered with the state for medical use of marijuana.

Maintaining any structure or dwelling, including vehicles, to use for keeping and distributing marijuana, is a felony offense and punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

what, no card?

Four years ago today, this blog was born. Some people read it, some of them like it, some of them don't. Regardless of where you sit on that continuum, this is a place where I speak my mind and try to figure out what is going on in the universe.

So far I haven't, but keep reading, you never know...

confidence booster

I've been waiting for this weekend for a couple of months now. I have been thinking for that long that the big showdown this weekend would give us a good idea of where the country really is and would be a highly accurate predictor of the results of the coming presidential election.

The answer is, it really looks like Obama will win. On what am I basing this, you ask?


Box office results.

You see, this weekend, the Bill Maher film "Religulous" opened. So did the "conservative comedy" called "An American Carol" (or the alternate title, "Michael Moore is Fat!") The weekend results are in, and here's the takes for the films:

"An American Carol" opened in 1639 theatres across the country. It grossed $3,810,000, or $2,325 per screen.

"Religulous" opened in only 502 theatres, but grossed $3,500,000 for an average of $6,972 per screen.


Americans are voting with their entertainment dollars, and the right lost to two of their most despised figures, Michael Moore and Bill Maher.

We might have a chance after all!

the real McCain

Just a taste:

"There's a distance between the two men that belies their shared experience in North Vietnam — call it an honor gap. Like many American POWs, McCain broke down under torture and offered a "confession" to his North Vietnamese captors. Dramesi, in contrast, attempted two daring escapes. For the second he was brutalized for a month with daily torture sessions that nearly killed him. His partner in the escape, Lt. Col. Ed Atterberry, didn't survive the mistreatment. But Dramesi never said a disloyal word, and for his heroism was awarded two Air Force Crosses, one of the service's highest distinctions."


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

squirt update

energizing the base, indeed

It is truly entertaining to watch right-wing men fall all over themselves in their fawning and pie-eyed mooning for Miss Half-baked Alaska, Para Sailin.

There has been a lot already written about Rich Lowry's "she winked at me" paean to her, and even Pat Buchanan seems to have felt a distantly-remembered puffiness in his nethers after her performance (literally) in the vice-presidential debate. His schoolboy excitement conjures up images of Pat, nattily attired in his finest thick tweed sport coat, a crooked bow tie, gardenia in his lapel, and slightly run-down saddle shoes, reeking of Vitalis and Old Spice, and holding a lovely beau-kay of posies awkwardly out to her from the shade of her front porch as tiny beads of flop sweat break out on his brow.

From his yearning soliloquy to her on Hardball today, it's easy to imagine Pat's dessicated endocrine system coughing a couple of leftover flakes of dried testosterone into his blood once more for old times' sake as he pledges his eternal boyish love to her forever and ever.

Even John McCain has to be making Cindy face the nervous uncertainty that all trophy wives feel and realizing how many glowing photo ops could result from the spectacle of the recently-divorced President and Vice-President celebrating their run for a second term together as they get married to each other in the White House Rose Garden on a lovely June afternoon.

All indications are that the right-wing male fascination for Eskimo Barbie appears to be located primarily in their loins.

Sarah Pailin is really moving the polls after all.



Or at least, giving them a puffy.

tic moose toe

Everybody has been making a bunch of noise over a curious kind of squinting showing up in John McCain's left eye lately, and even medical doctors have been weighing in on various blogs with Fristian video diagnoses of dire concerns like miniature strokes and cancerous nerve tissue. Seems to me the explanation is a lot more simple.

He's simply being coy and adorable.

Just like his running mate. The videos tell the tale:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haIAN02tlLM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCunBErZZJE

karma's a bitch

O.J. is guilty!

happy Sputnik Day

Fifty-one years of space exploration. Seems like only yesterday.

Really, it seems like only yesterday.

they can't be trusted

"And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you (directed to Joe Biden) want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also."


The two vice-presidential candidates were given and agreed to the terms of the debate in advance. At the first opportunity, Sarah Palin was parasailin' away from the contract that she signed to participate. In other words, never make a deal with a republican, because they will turn on a dime and do what they want to anyway. These people can not be negotiated with, they do not deal in good faith and honest intentions. It's not just a few, it's all of them.

and have a better tomorrow

As one who has never become and does not desire becoming a parent, I have never been particularly moved by children. Nor has the Obama camp's message of "hope" ever been a big motivator for me in this election, I just want good, honest governance that acts in the spirit and the letter of the law and the Constitution of the United States.

However, in my morning blog perusals, I visited www.oliverwillis.com and saw this picture.

It made me cry.

Here, in the eyes of one ordinary American girl, is the embodiment of what Barack Obama means to millions of people in the United States of America. The look of ecstatic wonder on the face of one too young to be jaded, too young to have stopped hoping, and too young to have checked out of society, explains without a single word why his campaign has been able to accomplish what it has and may be able to defeat the authoritarian horde that has grasped the reins of power for far too long.

The radiance of her eyes tells of a love of the possibilities of the future, a future that is finally open to her and to millions of ordinary Americans who have been long disenfranchised and cast aside and told that they have no place at the table, that their lives will be mundane existences of service to an uncaring ruling class, and that if they know what's good for them they will stay in their place.

It is the look that citizens everywhere are starting to display, the look of of promise, the look that says "I, too, matter, and I too can share in the dream of freedom and the promise of equality" even after generations of forced subservience and helplessness.

It is the look of tomorrow.

Give this good man the chance to run our country. He will not disappoint us, and he may be able to counteract the decades of bad faith, fear, and usurpation of the principles upon which this country was founded.

This is the face of hope. It is the face of pride. It is the face of yearning. It is the face of wonderment. It is the face of the dream. It is the face of the future. It is the face of every positive thing that this nation has ever stood for.

It is our face.

it's aliiiive!

Must be Groundhog Day.

After a couple of weeks of being missing in action and holding stealth press conferences at six in the morning, our Asshole-in-Chief has finally sobered up a bit and stumbled into the daylight to take credit for saving the country.

Only thirty-one days left.


Time's a wasting, you Oswald wanna-be's.

best line of the night

Chris Matthews on Para Sailin at the debate:

"She came across as a contestant, not as a candidate."


Ouch.

bold liar

It amazes me how someone who is one of only fifty governors, an even more exclusive club than the Senate, and who has a family income over two hundred thousand dollars a year can proclaim themselves to be middle class with a straight face.

first impressions

Palin spent the entire time evading questions and filibustering.
She unabashedly read prepared answers and statements verbatim.
She spit out numerous deliberate soundbites and campaign slogans.
Her thoughts were incoherent and her statements were random assemblies of sentence fragments.


No wonder the crackers love her. It's amusing to watch Pat Buchanan and the other usual suspects rave about her performance. Looks like the bar she had to cross to please the right was to not drool on herself or rip a cheek-rattling fart while on stage.

going nucular

She fucking said "nucular" again.

Once again, I'd like an administration who has at least as high an IQ, and as much education (or more, preferably), common sense, and as complete a grasp of current affairs and REALITY, as I. I know I'm above normal, but for Pete's sake...NUCULAR?

Eye-rack! Nucular! You Betcha!

Thanks, I feel better now.

hero, my ass

So John McCain "knows how to win a war." Judging by his previous participation in one, apparently it's by getting shot down, captured, spending five years making propaganda tapes for your captors, and then leaving a thousand of your compatriots behind to die when you come back to the United States and start living the high life while you shack up with your millionaire trophy mistress.

Fuck John McCain.

choose life - save the planet

I just saw the first bumblebee I have seen in the last couple of years. When the world's plants start to die off, the plunging stock market is going to seem like a stubbed toe in comparison. We really don't have any time left to try to reverse the slow death of our planet. Voting matters. Elections have consequences.

there is justice sometimes

Lt. Michael W. Pigott, of the New York City Police Department, was found yesterday in a police locker room dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

You may not recognize his name, but you know him by his deed.

Pigott is the policeman who ordered his officers to taser a naked, deranged man they had cornered on a second-story ledge in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The man, who had harmed nobody and threatened only himself, fell headfirst to the sidewalk upon being tasered and died immediately at the scene, as his understandably distraught mother looked on.


Pigott put the "pig" in policeman. Good fucking riddance.

economic pornography

Can we prosecute under pornography laws? I find no other way to describe this than OBSCENE!

WaMu CEO could get $13.65 million for 18 days work

cut it the fuck out already

All of the blowhards in the Senate are now giving their faux Academy Award speeches thanking each other for being such great people and exemplary achievers for what is now being called the "economic rescue package" in order to disguise the fact that it is nothing more than an enormous welfare bill for the richest one percent of the American populace. They are painting it as an unpredictable crisis that just descended on the country and that if not for their heroism, would have plunged the entire nation into bankruptcy through no fault of their own. Of course, their self-congratulatory celebration could once again evaporate in the House of Representatives, just like it did last week.

Instead of being given the opportunity to preen and congratulate themselves on television, they should all be thankful that they aren't being tarred and feathered for permitting our laws to be sidestepped and changed to suit their corporate masters, and bringing this situation on the rest of us in the first place. If they had any brains at all, they would slink home quietly and just shut the hell up.


It is up to us to remember which ones brought us to this place and to remove them from office, one by one, until we have a country we can be proud of, a government we can trust, the restoration of the rule of law, and true government of, by, and for the people. This should not be looked at as the end of a crisis, it should be the beginning of a rebirth.

watch them like a hawk

Florida: 51 - 43
Ohio: 50 - 42
Pennsylvania: 54 - 39

...for Obama.


This could hardly be any more unbelievable. These three states are incredibly important in the electoral calculus of our time. It means one thing for sure:

The republicans are going to have to do more than cheat by electronic vote-rigging this time.

Friday cat-blogging (Wednesday edition)

It was August 1st when I decided to ground the Freeloader and turn him into an exclusively indoors kitty instead of the only indoor-outdoor cat in the house. I really expected him to rebel and try to sneak out, but much to my surprise, after only two months inside (not counting his time on the enclosed catio) he has turned from a supercilious and aloof tomcat into the clingiest and most kittenish adult cat I have ever seen. He follows me around, and wherever I am in the house, within a few minutes he has tracked me down to see what I'm doing and to curl up and take a nap next to me. Last night he actually cuddled up with me in bed for the first time since he's been here, almost two years now. Of course, there is a bit of a down side. I'm finding it really difficult to get serious things accomplished because he has to insert himself into everything any more.

Literally.

but he's fat!

And mean! Here's the right kind of plan, quoted in full:

Friends,

The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!
Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

I would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: There... is... no... free... lunch. And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there will be no handouts from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going to try to rush their version of a "bailout" bill to a vote. They must be stopped. We did it on Monday with the House, and we can do it again today with the Senate.

It is clear, though, that we cannot simply keep protesting without proposing exactly what it is we think Congress should do. So, after consulting with a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here is my proposal, now known as "Mike's Rescue Plan." It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are:

1. APPOINT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money is expended, Congress must commit, by resolution, to criminally prosecute anyone who had anything to do with the attempted sacking of our economy. This means that anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse must go to jail. This Congress must call for a Special Prosecutor who will vigorously go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in the future.

2. THE RICH MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT. They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the middle class are going to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht purchase.
If they truly need the $700 billion they say they need, well, here is an easy way they can raise it:
a) Every couple who makes over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer who makes over $500,000 a year will pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years. (It's the Senator Sanders plan. He's like Colonel Sanders, only he's out to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich will still be paying less income tax than when Carter was president. This will raise a total of $300 billion. b) Like nearly every other democracy, charge a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction. This will raise more than $200 billion in a year. c) Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders will forgo receiving a dividend check for one quarter and instead this money will go the treasury to help pay for the bailout. d) 25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax. Federal corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in the 1950s. If we raise the corporate income tax back to the level of the 1950s, that gives us an extra $500 billion.
All of this combined should be enough to end the calamity. The rich will get to keep their mansions and their servants, and our United States government ("COUNTRY FIRST!") will have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools.

3. BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME. There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now. That is what is at the heart of this problem. So instead of giving the money to the banks as a gift, pay down each of these mortgages by $100,000. Force the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner can pay on its current value. To insure that this help does no go to speculators and those who have tried to make money by flipping houses, this bailout is only for people's primary residence. And in return for the $100K paydown on the existing mortgage, the government gets to share in the holding of the mortgage so that it can get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150 billion, not $700 billion. And let's set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are not "bad risks." They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we all want and most of us still get: a home to call their own. But during the Bush years, millions of them lost the decent paying jobs they had. Six million fell into poverty. Seven million lost their health insurance. And every one of them saw their real wages go down by $2,000. Those who dare to look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ashamed. We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home that they own.

4. IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GETS ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A "BAILOUT," THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry, that's how it's done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank "owns" that house until I pay it all back -- with interest. Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you a safe risk -- and necessary for the good of the country -- then you can get a loan, but we will own you. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.

5. ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD. This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the henhouse. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here's what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:
"In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets. "We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom. "I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality."
This bill must be repealed. Bill Clinton can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they're done with that, they can restore the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any "bailout" must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.

6. IF IT'S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT'S TOO BIG TO EXIST. Allowing the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire economy. No one or two companies should have this kind of power. The so-called "economic Pearl Harbor" can't happen when you have hundreds -- thousands -- of institutions where people have their money. When you have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we don't face a national disaster. If you have three separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can't call all the shots (I know... What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a strong and free press!). Laws must be enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot to the eye, the giant falls and dies. And no institution should be allowed to set up money schemes that no one can understand. If you can't explain it in two sentences, you shouldn't be taking anyone's money.

7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF "PARACHUTE" OTHER THAN THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it's only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an outrage. We have created the mess we're in by letting the people at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. This has to stop. Not only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should be fired before the company receives any help.

8. STRENGTHEN THE FDIC AND MAKE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE'S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct yesterday to propose expanding FDIC protection of people's savings in their banks to $250,000. But this same sort of government insurance must be given to our nation's pension funds. People should never have to worry about whether or not the money they've put away for their old age will be there. This will mean strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees' funds -- or perhaps it means that the companies will have to turn over those funds and their management to the government. People's private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it's time to consider not having one's retirement invested in the casino known as the stock market. Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about ending up destitute.

9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off the TV! We are not in the Second Great Depression. The sky is not falling. Pundits and politicians are lying to us so fast and furious it's hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I, yesterday, wrote to you and repeated what I heard on the news, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history. Well, that's true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the '80s, 3,000 banks closed, but America didn't go out of business. These institutions have always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest in calming things down and getting back into the Jacuzzi.
As crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan this week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. Life has gone on. Not a single person has lost any of their money if it's in a bank or a treasury note or a CD. And the most amazing thing is that the American public hasn't bought the scare campaign. The citizens didn't blink, and instead told Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn't the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can only say 'Saddam has da bomb' so many times before the people realize you're a lying sack of shite. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply can't take it any longer.

10. CREATE A NATIONAL BANK, A "PEOPLE'S BANK." If we really are itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don't we give it to ourselves? Now that we own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a people's bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And now that we own AIG, the country's largest insurance company, let's take the next step and provide health insurance for everyone. Medicare for all. It will save us so much money in the long run. And we won't be 12th on the life expectancy list. We'll be able to have a longer life, enjoying our government-protected pension, and living to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused so much misery are let out of prison so that we can help reacclimate them to civilian life -- a life with one nice home and a gas-free car that was invented with help from the People's Bank.

Yours,
Michael Moore