tvashtarkatena

Palin's in a 3 day intensive preparation session for the debate. IMO, this will produce a stream of memorized soundbites that will have little to do with the question asked. If past performance is any indication, it'll be a 7th grade civics speech verses a guy who has played political hardball with the big boys for decades. If McCain's reasonable performance during debate 1 actually eroded his popularity, Thursday should torpedo it amidships.

Seems like the GOP is spinning Palin in a couple of ways. Blaming the "mainstream media" (of course)...what, for asking too many wealy hawd queschunz? and then there's the 'underestimation' theory: “Thanks to the mainstream media, quite a low expectation has been created for her performance,” said Ron Carey, chairman of Minnesota’s Republican Party. “The style of Sarah Palin is going to amaze people. She is going to be able to amaze people with the substance she is going to deliver.” And Mr. McCain’s aides disputed the expressions of concern and said that if anything, the barrage of criticism and the performance in the few television interviews she has done gave her a low bar to clear in the debate. “I seriously hope that people continue to underestimate the most popular governor in America and a woman who speaks to the heart of America’s economic angst,” said Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain. Naw...I think we've got Palin sussed just about right.

Well, there are qualifications and then there's populist appeal. Palin's work-your-way-up roots are more similar to Barack's than Quayle's. As with Barack, this is one of the keys to her popularity. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

BTW, has anyone notice that McCain has completely gone Obama crazy lately? He's copied Obama's 'change' message for his campaign slogan, and all he talks about now is Obama; very little about his own proposals. He's really reaching, too. Yesterday I heard him claim that he'd exhibited leadership because he stayed in Washington while Obama 'called in' during the crisis negotiations. Aside from this being a real stretch, John also failed to mention that, despite having waved a written copy of the bail out plan on front of the TV cameras on Monday , he claimed on Tue that he hadn't received a copy and so hadn't had a chance to read it (3 whole pages worth). He issued his remarks on the plan on Wed. OK, John, any time you wanna fucking delay the resolution of a national crisis for 2 days, you just let us know. It also seems that his injection into the negotiations (an initial deal was already struck before he ever got to Washington to 'show his leadership') did nothing but fuck things up. More than ever, McCain is revealing his true nature. He's basically a scamming, self aggrandizing asshole who has little to offer regarding economic policy; which is what this country needs most, of course. I'd say he's in a completely defensive position right now, and he's not playing rope-a-dope, either. It'll be very nice not to have to listen to his high pitched reaching, or his VP's nasal Wasinglish, or look at his wife Vampira anymore.

Muthee's not gonna like this at all....

Is Cindy going Goth on us?

What Pope said, for sure. The Cascades are for us, and we're for them.

America doesn't really make anything anymore. Furthermore, we are very quickly running out of resources...for good. The latter is a global problem, of course. What we may be seeing is the bursting of a national, and probably global, dot.com bubble. Our value isn't nearly as high as our perceived, hoped for speculative value was. The increasingly wealthy future that the world bet on will not be. It never was going to be: that dream depended on unlimited supplies of cheap energy and resources which don't exist. Nothing in, nothing out. This could have been a slower, transitionary process, but the Bush administration, with its eyes turned towards the past, its Imperial Projects, and back turned towards our crushing debt, greatly accelerated this outcome, loading our increasingly fragile system to the present point of catastrophic failure we may be witnessing right now. Their policies, adventures, and cocaine party spending and borrowing have literally broken the back of the American economy. What skills do we have as a people? We can move information around. OK. Can we eat information? One thing we no longer share in great abundance is belief. A huge percentage of Americans have gradually stopped believing in this country as they've seen its leadership make catastrophic mistake after catastrophic mistake. I wonder if we can get that belief back any time soon. Maybe; we've been on the ropes before.

I've got two words for The Shitbag: Land Slide. Or maybe that's one word.

I think Bush really wants the bailout. He doesn't want to leave office with yet one more hyper expensive debacle as his legacy, but, hey, sucks to be him at this point. And us. Ever since 911 Bush, a talentless nare-do-well by nature, has always wanted to make good by becoming the Man Who Saved Merika. But none of us can escape our true nature; he's certainly produced results true to form. Congress has exploded; with elections looming, its every man for himself. None of the reps give a shit about presidential politics at this point; they're getting so hammered by their own constituents over this thing that McCain and Obama may as well be running for Pan Galactic Viceroy for all they care. I'm not sure we'll have a bail out until after the elections, given the motivations and timing involved here. By then the market will probably do most of what it's going to do and we'll be busy burning our houses down for the insurance money, which probably won't be there, either. There will be little incentive to risk voting for a bail out at that point, perhaps.

I think the last explanation comes closest to the truth for the Repubs. Interestingly, it was many of the most progressive democrats that voted no along with them, for different reasons, of course; the way Bush/Paulson tried to ram a knee jerk package down everyone's throats being and the lack of trust of this oft used tactic being one, rewarding fat cats for bad behavior being another.

Agreed on the equity. Not sure they can do it without at least some of those Republicans, though. I'd also throw in language to allow the re-negotiation of primary home mortgage debt during bankruptcy to stem the tsunami of foreclosures. It's the only kind of debt that can't be re-negotiated at present. I'd also make the bailout incremental rather than one huge gulp from a fire hose.

Looks like Congress may have shot its wad; the pressure now is to retreat to their districts to campaign. It's easy to blame the House Republicans for this, but it was a bad bill, and 95 (I think) voted against it as well. It could have been a better bill, but the way it happened sucked...in typical Bush Administration fashion. First, the declaration of emergency and empassioned speech, which panicked the whole country, and presentation of a shitty, shoddy, gargantuan package. All this from a President who'd long ago lost the trust of both parties; and one whose probably lost the next presidency for his party; a lame duck joke at this point. Bush has always been a weakling trying to play the strong man; a tragic role and a recipe for failure. It's no wonder many House members on both sides of the isle balked, but overall this episode starkly illustrates just how much utterly useless our federal government has become. They squandered our wealth during times of plenty, and are now incapable of a competent response during a time of crisis.

Short-terminator

Sperminator

Bun-in-the-Ovenator

The Covenator

Sarah Barelycoulda; vice prezzydenchul candydate

I have trouble with word problems involving Venn diagrams.

Bone, If you need a little help with the wife, you don't have to resort to Craigslist. Just post a few nudies and there are plenty of your good friends right here who'd be willing to give your relationship that little push from behind it seems to need.

The new number of the beast.

Then there are some people who choose not to publish because they don't want to bother with writing and/or photography; they're just into the climbing itself. Not very mysterious, really.

It's interesting to note that the 'cowboy' period; the settling of the west, was one of the most socialist periods in our history. After all, most of the land was given away, and the mining, grazing, timber, and water rights practically given away as well. My mother and father lived through the Depression. It was a time of malnutrition, disease, fear, and, occasionally, violence. There is little good to say about it.

Dow is down 600. Jebus. Silver lining, although it may not be much at this point: Bye bye McCain.

50 to 42 in the Gallup Poll this morning. Ouch. Guess the country didn't think McCain did as well in the debate as I did. Happily. Look for more extreme squirrely behavior from the McCain campaign as he tries to claw his way back. The man is his own worst enemy.