Thursday - October 09, 2008

Well it’s about time!

New McCain ad out that finally shows some gumption, showing how close Obama is with terrorist Bill Ayers.

Now, you know the left is going to scream and cry. Oh, this is so tawdry! So below the belt! It just shows how desperate the ReThuglicans are to win at any cost!!  That doesn’t make this video any less true. Think about it. How many unrepentant terrorists do you know? How many have you ever hung around with, served on committees with, helped pass around money with? None for me. Ever. And to the best of my knowledge, none of them live anywhere near me either.

This ought to be a campaign ender for Obama. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. And there are a whole lot of dogs in this guy’s past.

MORE: here is a lot of data in an easy to understand picture ... flea tracks everywhere!

Yes, I know Sara made the same posts. Before me too. As did others. She’s doing a great job staying on top of McCain’s ads and all the Obama dirt. I’m slow at it because I’ve just about given up at this point.

   Wednesday - October 08, 2008

And around we go again

ACORN involved in fraudulent voter registrations!!!!!!!!!11111!!

Nevada state authorities are raiding the Las Vegas headquarters of an organization that works to get low-income people to vote.

A Nevada secretary of state’s office spokesman said Tuesday that investigators are looking for evidence of voter fraud at the office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.

No one was at the ACORN office when state agents arrived with a search warrant and began carting records and documents away.

Secretary of State spokesman Bob Walsh says ACORN is accused of submitting multiple voter registrations with false and duplicate names.

The raid comes two months after state and federal authorities formed a task force to pursue election-fraud allegations in Nevada.

ACORN investigation spreads to 10 states!

ACORN Dismantled, Leaders Indicted, Public Enraged!

Why does this group even still exist? They should have been shut down ages ago. And every single one of their registration forms thrown out. And they shouldn’t get a dime of public money. And anyone involved with the group, especially those who worked as Community Organizers and Staff Trainers, should be branded a criminal. Because I don’t buy that they aren’t aware of the dirty deeds of their underlings. Hell no. I believe they are fully aware of them, and instructed these people specifically to break the law and falsify voter registrations.

I remember how hard it was for me to register to vote. My goodness, what a task it was. Nobody sent me a form in the mail. Nobody showed up at my house with a van to give me a ride down to registration headquarters. Nobody even told me where the place was. It was awful. Really, it was. I had to dig around in the kitchen to find the phone book. Then I had to look up the number for the local Republican Party. Then I had to make a phone call and ask where I should go to register, and what hours the place was open. Since the location was on the other side of town, I had to decide whether to drive there, walk there, or take my bicycle. Pretty sure I had to take my birth certificate and my SocSec card. When I got there I actually had to speak to one or two people, and I think I even had to fill out some form and sign my name. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

I don’t think one cent of public money should be spent on voter registration. I don’t buy into this “historically disenfranchised” nonsense either. Not one bit. If you want to take part in voting, if you want to exercise your civil rights, then you have to make the effort. And every time you move from one home to another you should remember to move your registration as well. It’s the tiniest of social responsibilities. The tiniest. Ok, sure, there might be some folks lying in hospitals, or those fully disabled at home, who have finally decided to become voters. For those folks, there is a form you can fill out and mail in. All it costs you is the price of an envelope and a stamp. Less than a dollar.

These voter registration drives are a crock. All of them. Rife with fraud. All of them. There ought to be a registration cut off date 6 months before Election Day. Get your paperwork in the pipeline by then, or too bad ... no vote for you! ... this time. No exceptions. Six months should allow even the most inept government employees plenty of time to validate your data and issue you a voter ID with your picture on it. Sure, fine, State’s Rights. Ok. Let the states and the counties and the towns do whatever the hell they want for voter registration. But for Federal elections put a rigorous universal law into place, with coordinated cross checking between Social Security, the IRS, your employer, EquiFax, and all the state databases of who was born, who died, and who is a felon.

Would a Federal Voter ID be akin to a National ID card? Yes. That’s exactly what it is. But that’s creeping socialism!! No, sorry, it’s not. We are already way, way past that point. Do you really think that, if you aren’t in hiding somewhere off the grid, a la Ted Kaczynski, that the government can’t find you in under 24 hours? If you have a job they know where you live. If you get welfare they know where you live. The telephone companies cooperate with the government, so if you own a cell phone that has a calling plan they can locate you to within a meter or two in a matter of seconds. The government knows your name, your age, your sex, your race. They know where you live, where you work, what kind of a car you drive. I guarantee you they can access your credit card data, so they know what all your spending habits are. They even now how much money you put in what bank, and how often you hit the cash machine. Use one of those Shopper’s Club cards at your local grocer and the government can easily find out what you eat. They know who provides you with internet service, and it wouldn’t be too much effort for the government to find out all the sites you surf too. All they have to do is look at the logs on the server end of your ISP. The information is already there, and it never goes away. Same goes for your telephone usage. Every call, every number. Stored forever. You barely even have the illusion of privacy anymore. Let’s not kid ourselves. Ten years ago the ACLU did their pizza sketch to scare folks, but the capability was already in place then. It was only a matter of policy that the proper switches weren’t already thrown. No, let me rephrase that. It was only a matter of public policy that the government was willing to admit that the proper switches weren’t already thrown. And more public policy that they would act on the data once that had it.  What was true then is only more true now, especially since we’ve had that Patriot Act thing. So let’s admit reality, not bemoan a level of freedom that hasn’t existed for at least 25 years already anyway, and use the existing system for good for once.

The technology exists so that you, the voter, should be able to walk into any polling place in America on or before Election Day, show your ID, and vote. It doesn’t matter if you are in Pasadena California, the ballot for Oshkosh Wisconsin should come up. You cast your vote, and not only does Oshkosh immediately know it, no other polling place in America will let you vote for that election. Conceptually this is hardly any different from using your Visa card. Just two or three lines of code get added so that you can only use it once per election. That’s it.

Oh, but the system can be hacked! Perhaps it can. And hacking the election system can be made a capital offense too. And we could use some of that whiz-bang encryption that already exists to protect your online credit card shopping. Oh, I lost my card!! Tough shit. Not losing your card is part of being a responsible citizen. However, if you tell us that you lost it, say 30 days before the election, then you can get a new one issued. You’d have to supply all the ID and stuff again though. Come to think of it, you really don’t even need the card do you? Just tell the election worker your SSN. Up comes your picture and they verify that it’s you. Sure, a retinal scan or a thumbprint would be absolute proof, but let’s try to keep that info out of the government’s hands a little longer if we can. But some kind of ID would almost eliminate voter fraud, and would utterly eliminate the “raisin da-tree” for ACORN to exist. And that’s a big step forward.

Short Musings on another dull debate

McCain wants the government to pony up another $300 billion to buy up your high interest mortgage, then to reissue you a new mortgage at a lower rate.

It’s over folks. The Great Experiment In Democracy. Done. Kaput. The government will now be in control of the credit industry. All property will belong to the government; either held as collateral until you pay off the mortgage, owned outright as they already do for so many millions of acres out west, or taken back whenever they feel like it thanks to SCOTUS’s idiotic Kelo decision. If this isn’t outright Communism, it’s so close that it’s only missing the red flag.



Obama came right out and said that he feels health care (aka, health insurance) is a right. A RIGHT.

Horry Clap!! No denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, all policies somehow made “affordable” (which can only mean I’m going to be paying for a slice of yours if I earn more), penalties for employers if they don’t insure their employees, etc. So I guess the government is going to take over the health insurance industry as well as the credit industry. Why stop there? Why have Fed-Co become the one and only car insurance broker, with a one-plan fits all package? Why should you get ten times the cost coverage for your Porsche than I have for my Saturn? That’s not fair!, plus having a Porsche means you’re rich, so you ought to be penalized for that aspect too.



One or both of these candidates are in favor of putting caps on executive compensation. So one of the core concepts of the Free Market is on it’s death bed as well. Mediocrity, here we come.



Obama spent lots of time blaming Bush and McCain for the economy because it wasn’t regulated enough. And McCain ate that right up with a spoon because he agrees. WRONG!!! The whole idea of a FREE Market is that it is free: unregulated. As much as possible. Neither one of these guys wants to even mention the regulations that forced this whole mess to happen. If lending agencies weren’t forced to make suicidal loans to poor people in the first place (or have gone on a mad PC driven “equality” spree like Fannie and Freddie) none of this merde would have happened in the first place. Think of a bank. Think of a banker. What’s the image in your mind ... something like the Uncle Moneybags character from the Monopoly game? Do you really REALLY think this fellow is going to hand out unsecured high risk loans if he isn’t forced to? Hell no. Bankers are by nature arch Conservatives. Otherwise they’re out of business. Put your tuppence in the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank ... otherwise you’ll only get fat birds! - that’s the image of a proper banker we all learned as very small children.



Obama dragged out his “tax cuts for 95% of the people” meme again. Great idea, and it can work ... IF you cut government spending by around 75%. The government already loses money. It’s called Deficit Spending. That kind of behavior gets you and me arrested - it’s called passing a bad check - but it’s Ok for the feds. They’ll just borrow some more money from China or Saudi Arabia. What the hell, they’ve got all our money already, so they can afford to give us a little back. With interest of course. Cutting taxes for 95% of us? Utter bullshit. Total campaign season nonsense.



I fear for America. In “classic” terms - say, the worldview from a mid-60s perspective, McCain is a leftist Democrat, and Obama is somewhere to the left of Mussolini. Be afraid.

   Tuesday - October 07, 2008

ELECTION YEAR RAG ……..  STEVE GOODMAN

This might possibly be my only post today ....

I used to play Steve Goodman in my DJ years ....
Imagine getting paid to play this kind of thing.  LOVED it while it lasted.  And this is so spot on.

Goodman was a great talent and sadly died age 36 of Leukemia.  What an unfair loss.  The MIL is 93 and worthless and useless and keeps breathing day after day.  A talent like Steve Goodman dies at 36.  ???  Well anyway ... I hope you folks enjoy this.  I’m sure you’ll let me know if ya don’t.

   Saturday - October 04, 2008

Interactive map: How will Americans vote?

Check out the link below. I think you’ll like this.  There’s a drop down box too, with different categories where you can get state by state info including the percentage of minorities , electoral votes, illegal immigrants and so on.  It really is very interesting.
Go ahead. Check it out.

Interactive map: How will Americans vote?
John McCain and Barack Obama are running a tight race for the US presidency , according to polls, and are targeting key swing states that were close in the 2004 election.

Last Updated: 11:50AM BST 04 Sep 2008

Once again US voters are concerned about the economy, immigration and health care.

Click on our interactive map to see the regions and states where each issue is more likely to weigh heavily on voters’ minds.

http://tinyurl.com/6feppc

sorry the photo image isn’t good here, but it is enlarged and working fine at the site.

   Friday - October 03, 2008

Barack Obama is ‘aloof’ says British ambassador to US .

Revealed: UK ambassador’s verdict on Barack Obama
Posted By: Toby Harnden at Oct 2, 2008 at 21:10:29 [General]
Posted in: Foreign Correspondents

The following is the full text of a July 2008 letter sent by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, to Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, shortly before the visit of Senator Barack Obama, then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to London.

My news story about the leaked document is here.  http://tinyurl.com/49rtwk

BARACK OBAMA

This letter contains sensitive judgements. Please limit copying, and protect the contents carefully.

1. Ahead of Senator Obama’s visit to London next week, I thought it would be useful to give you a snapshot of his personality, politics and emerging policies.

Background and Personality

2. The key themes which are important in understanding Obama’s political makeup are the following:

- His struggle to understand his racial identity. His first book “Dreams from My Father” (1995) traces this struggle through Hawaii, New York, Chicago and Kenya. Raised by his white Kansas-born mother and her parents after his Kenyan father left, Obama made a conscious decision in the 1980s to choose his African-American identity – he worked as a community organiser in the poorest areas of Chicago, and went on to travel to Kenya to learn about his father. His decision after Harvard Law School to settle back in Chicago led to growing integration into the city’s black middle class culture and provided him with the political laboratory from which his career was launched;

- His personal makeup drives his view of politics. Obama talks of wanting to reach out to all Americans (“no red states or blue states, only the United States”). “I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible. It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story which has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many we are truly one.” The race issue is present in the campaign – the debate continues to rage over how much. Obama wanted to avoid it as much as possible until the Reverend Wright videos forced him to make his elegant speech on race in March and then, when this was clearly not enough for the latest Wright outburst, to disown him completely and leave his church;

- Star quality. Obama has always had it, at least since his arrival at Harvard. A friend in the progressive Chicago establishment said, “I honestly don’t remember what it was about him, but I was absolutely blown away. I said to several people that this guy, who is now 30 years old, is some day going to be President. He will be our first black President”. That was in the 1990s. His rise has been meteoric. He first came to the notice of the national political establishment when he won the Illinois Democratic primary for the US Senate in early 2004. But it was his mesmerising speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston which propelled him to stardom, at a low point for his party. He is the only black member of the Senate. He is already the most successful black elected politician in American history, to the discomfort of Jesse Jackson and others;

- The promise of post-partisanship. Throughout his career, from the time he won over the conservative board of the Harvard Law Review to today, Obama has succeeded in crossing traditional boundaries, and making a virtue of it. His political personality is much more difficult to define than McCain’s. His campaign has the features of a movement, but he has himself said that “without organisation, without policy, without plans”, movements will dissipate. He uses Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign as his example. More broadly, he is a mixture of idealism and progressive politics on the one hand and pragmatism and disciplined organization on the other. He resists pigeon-holing. People disagree about how sincere his post-partisanship is, and how successful his attempts to reach across the aisle would be, given his mixed record in the Senate;

- Obama is highly intelligent. Not just savvy – which most people at this level of American politics have to be. But intellectually smart; cerebral. His manner is frequently interrogative. He is a quick learner. He has the confidence to surround himself with bright people, and is said to listen carefully to and weight thir views. This can have its downsides – he can seem to sit on the fence, assiduously balancing pros and cons. He can talk too dispassionately for a national campaign about issues which touch people personally, eg his notorious San Francisco comments about small-town Pennsylvanians “clinging” to guns and religion. The charge of elitism leveled by both Clinton and McCain was rich coming from them, but not entirely unfair. Despite his blue-collar upbringing. Obama does betray a highly educated and upper middle class mindset;

- He is a supreme organiser and networker. Obama has 20 years’ experience of organising from the grassroots up. He has surrounded himself with experienced, creative campaign organisers, particularly David Axelrod and David Plouffe. He has broken all the financial records, especially for donations via the internet and from younger people. His campaign has been a brilliant combination of the strategic and emotional on the one hand (“change you can believe in”) and state-by-state organisation on the other. The latter, as much as the former, beat Hillary Clinton; and that remains in place against McCain;

- He is tough and competitive. That is of course the Chicago school. You don’t beat Clinton without being resilient (but, like her, his energy levels do dip and he can be uninspiring e.g. in debates). He loves basketball and poker. He demands loyalty.

- Ambition. Of course. He has talked at least since the 1980s about a shot at the Presidency. He plans each move carefully, and incrementally. The 1995 book was a very clever platform.

- Obama is cool. He looks cool, tall, slim. He is temperamentally cool (by any standards, not just in comparison with the more impetuous McCain). And maybe aloof, insensitive – see above. Friends like Tom Daschle told me that he demands calm and “no dramas” from those around him. That will, I think, be an important criterion for his choice of running mate;

- Luck. Obama has had his fair share, but also made his own. He was certainly lucky in having Democratic and Republican opponents for the US Senate in 2004 who were tarnished. He was lucky that Hillary Clinton had such a bad organisation in the primary campaign, and took so long to respond to Obama’s threat.

(This is a very long but interesting read. Therefore, see the link for the rest. There really is too much to post it all here)

http://tinyurl.com/4gubxs

   Sunday - September 28, 2008

This about sums it up

I found the link over at Sara’s Pal2Pal blog. Follow it. READ IT. Pass it on. Mention these points to every dumbocrat you know. Will it make any difference? No, but we have to try anyway.

I wish this was the last time I every needed to post about Obama. It won’t be. Anyway, here’s the link. And here is an excerpt:

The topic is the illness on the body politic which has been deepening for some time.

We are about to elect a man with no achievements on his resume, a Chicago Machine politician posing as a reformer. We will not elect the man who called the Surge right all along and who authored legislation to clean up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about four years ago, along with other GOP. It doesn’t occur to you that this legislation was blocked by Obama and other Democrats. Obama sued banks (see 9/27/08) to make them give people mortgages who could not afford them. “As a young attorney in the 1990s, Barack Obama represented ACORN in Washington in their successful efforts to expand Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) authority.” He looks in your eye and blames the crisis on the Republicans’ philosophy of liberty. CRA and ACORN caused the bad mortgages, but you will put him in the White House.

McCain whom you will not elect also is widely knowledgeable about national and international affairs. There is no sign of his competitor’s being in his league on that score, but you thought he looked smooth enough, even if oddly angry, at a debate with McCain, so you count them even on knowledge.

You believe that the GOP caused the current financial crisis by causing Wall Street “greed.” It doesn’t appear relevant to you that that the Democrats’ Community Reinvestment Act and their Fannie and Freddy caused the $2T in bad mortgages and the resultant housing bubble that would pop, exposing the rot.

   Friday - September 26, 2008

the Big Debate, Round 1

Is it just my imagination, or did somebody put a little anti-Grecian Formula in Obama’s hair? Just a little touch of gray at the sides. Just a little. To make him look more worldly, distinguished, and mature.
I did notice that McCain was wearing his less-yellow set of dentures. Good move John. Obama’s suit was so sharp it could cut you. McCain looked a little saggy baggy, but not too bad. McCain has learned to close his eyes, shake his head, and grin whenever he feels a Cheney Moment coming on. Good move again John. Obama can’t take criticism hardly at all. Did you see all the pissy faces he was making? He had that whole “damn cracker, there he go again” expression going on half the night.

I like how Obama kept agreeing with McCain, as if he was trying to leech into him the same way he made himself indistinguishable from Hillary during the primaries. But McCain wasn’t having it, and kept pointing out how BO was naive and unprepared. But that started to play against him after a while; I thought it was bad when McCain kept bringing up some Obama quote that was out of date. Not that the Big O hadn’t said what McCain said he did, just that BHO had long since reversed himself on whatever the position was. And without reminding us forcefully that he was pointing out a flip-flop, it just made McCain look a bit behind the times. OTOH, you need a fairly accurate watch to know what Ob’s current stance on anything is. Not quite the precision level of a John Kerry Positional Chronometer, but a good one nonetheless. Remember, the public is either stoned out or on major meds most of the time. We can’t remember anything past last week, if we’re lucky. Bring up a statement from a month ago and you just look misinformed, since everybody heard the Obaby say the opposite this morning.

Overall, I’d say McCain was the more assertive candidate. Although it’s so hard to tell, since his steady even plodding quiet tone that runs on and on forever without ever needing to inhale or even pause for a comma ought to be bottled and sold as over the counter sleep aids. Forget buying a bottle of SnoresMore, just put a CD of McCain speeches on and you’ll be out in a moment. ZZZzzzzz.

A few minutes after the debate the Dems released a statement that said that McCain was rooted in the past, while Obama was looking to the future. That’s lefty-speak for “our guy has no experience at all, and this is the only way we can respond to McCain’s relentless hammering about his 20 years of doing this, his 25 years of doing that, his 35 years of knowing Henry Kissinger and so on.”

I actually liked this format. It was actually a debate. Or nearly one. A big rambling discussion. The moderator just threw out a question and let them go at it. This beats the hell out of video questions from snowmen, and 3 minute soundbites that are no more than sloganeering. The “can you turn and look at your opponent and say that to his face” idea was just as juvenile as the “raise your hand if” thing from one of the middle GOP debates.

Overall, I’d say McCain was the winner. But it wasn’t a KO. It was a soft win, one you had to think about to realize. He could have hammered the dem’s part in creating this economic mess, starting with his own exoneration from the Keating 5, up through Clinton era PC lending policies rooted in dreamland, right through the Clintonistas like Gorelick screwing up Fannie and Freddie, the huge donations that have come from them to Obama, and how those former financial “wizzzards” (yes, 3 zees, since they’re all as inept as Rincewind, only without the world saving anti-heroism part) are now on Obama’s campaign staff. But that wasn’t McCain’s approach. He wasn’t there to point fingers, he was there to say we all need to work together to find a solution right now. It was Obama who wound up looking a bit churlish when he made his “another example of the failed policies of the Bush administration” remarks. McCain was above that. McCain could have really gone on the offensive several times, but he refrained from that. And really, isn’t that how a real leader, a unifier, ought to be?

Hey, I have a bracelet too you know. Duuuuuuh.

PS - Where the hell is Pokistan? Is that some funky place once visited by Jengjis Kaaaahn?

So, what do you think? Come on, it’s open mike night! Stand up, sound off.

   Thursday - September 25, 2008

Barack Obama today rejected a call from rival John McCain to call off tomorrow’s televised debate.

okay folks, what’s this all about?  Yeah I can read alright.  But don’t understand this.  It looks like McC is looking for a way to avoid a debate.  ???
That can’t be right, can it?

Since neither of these guys have yet to be elected, I honestly do not see what good would come of McCain’s suggestion to hold off the debate in the national interest.  Or, is it in his own interest?

I would think the debate might be in a national interest as are not many ppl interested to see how they do and what topics are covered?

I should also mention to American friends that the reports here are that rama-lama ding-dong is now enjoying a nine point lead in polls (if they mean anything) due to the banking disaster.  So I’m at a loss to understand.

Also ... if McC doesn’t wanna debate or is frightened for some odd reason, why can’t he sic the Sarahcuda on what’s his name?

Obama and McCain face off over holding televised debate as Republicans suspend campaign to focus on economy

By David Gardner and Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:50 AM on 25th September 2008

Barack Obama today rejected a call from rival John McCain to call off tomorrow’s televised presidential debate so they can tackle America’s crippling financial problems.

Mr McCain has suspended his election campaign to return to the US capital until a proposed government bail-out plan has been approved. He asked Mr Obama to postpone the crucial TV debate - an offer that was flatly rejected.

Mr Obama said it was “more important than ever” that the country hear from its next president and continued with his preparations for the prime-time debate at the University of Mississippi.

It was unclear last night if the debate would go ahead or not. Mr McCain said he would attend only if Congress reaches accord on a financial bailout package before then, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Mr Obama said he plans to be at the debate Friday, declining to take up the challenge. “Sen. McCain is running his campaign, I’m running mine,” he said.

The Commission on Presidential Debates released a statement saying it was going ahead with the debate, which pundits believe will help propel the winner firmly towards the White House.

Speaking in Florida, Mr Obama explained why he wanted to go ahead with the highly anticipated confrontation. His handling of the economic problems have helped propel him into a nine-point lead over Mr McCain, according to the latest polls.

The Illinois senator said he had no plans to suspend his campaign, while Mr McCain said he would stop all advertising, fundraising and other campaign events to return to Washington and work for a bipartisan solution.

http://tinyurl.com/3wsje9

It is also my understanding as reported here, that President Bush has put the GOP in a bind of sorts because his package (or Paulson’s) that the pres. agreed to, is seen to put 700 billion in place to bail out banks with no thought to all the ppl that will lose their homes.
So the donks are saying they won’t pass any bill unless the “little folks” are seen to. So it make them look good.
It’s seen as bailing out Wall Street (their friends in Wall St.) while giving no protection to the average person who willlose homes through foreclosure.

btw ... these are not the ppl who gambled or invested that are being referred to as losing their homes.

So ,,,, that’s what the reportage here is saying.  It’ll be the ppl’s taxes that will do the bailing, without the same benefits that the fat cats will get.

Caution ... do not shoot messenger as he’s reporting what he is hearing and some of what’s read.

   Tuesday - September 23, 2008

Pelosi the Socialist Speaks Out

The Party Is Over

That’s right. It’s over. San Fran Nan was in her faded glory today, laying down the new rules for all the comrades in the finance industry. Socialism has arrived with a heavy hand, and Nancy P was there to rub salt into the wounds as hard as she could while doing her end zone victory dance. The woman is a red. There can be no doubt about it at all.

“The party is over. The party is over for this compensation for CEOs who their golden parachute as they drive their companies into the ground. The party is over for the disparity in our country between the CEOs making almost immoral salaries and not being interested in lifting other people up. The party is over for financial institutions taking risks but at the same time privatizing any gains they may have while they nationalize the risks asking the taxpayers to pick up the tab. So we can’t even consider any legislation that the Republicans send us unless it ends, addresses, and reforms compensation for chief executives, officers; unless it has protection for the taxpayers, that’s our responsibility. Certainly we want to stabilize the market, but we want to do so at the same time as we protect the taxpayers. We want to insulate everyday Americans from the crisis on Wall Street. In order to do that we must have independent oversight. The party is over for this no regulation, no supervision, anything goes, so called free market which has taken us to this place. Clearly the Bush economic policies have failed. Do we need any further evidence?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn’t “no regulation, no supervision, anything goes” the basic definition of a “so-called” free market? So part of the Pelosi Fix will include a Ben ‘n Jerry’s salary cap for all the Big Bosses. And lots of Big Brother oversight and rules and regulations. Financial institutions take risks. That’s what they are there for. It’s called investing. And, please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this bailout the government’s idea? Or did the big houses come to Uncle Sugar, hat in hand on bended knee?

Yes, I think these guys are paid way too much. By about 4 extra zeros on their paychecks. And I think the guys who trash a company and then bail with millions ought to be shot. And I think these incentive payments to executives is way out of proportion. But that’s what goes on in private business. It isn’t any of the governments business. So, while I might ordinarily agree with Ms. Pelosi on these items, I’m going to call her out and label her the nearest thing there is next to a communist. Because she WON’T stop playing the blame game on this. Lizzen up beyotch: you are ALL to blame. You. Reid. Bush. Wall Street. Washington. Fix the mess. Fix it now. Don’t add a single bacon slice worth of pork to the package. Not a dollar. And then resign in disgrace. Seppuku comes to mind, but I’m not sure you had any honor to lose in the first place, so that’s too easy an out for all of you. You ALL let this happen, made it happen, watched it happen ... and played partisan politics and blocked a myriad of bills for YEARS that would have stopped or at least mitigated this disaster. So sod off. You’re Fired^tm. Now go away. Leave now, and never come back!

   Monday - September 22, 2008

Please sir, it wasn’t me sir, it was those Americans who got us into trouble.

The reference in the heading re. it was those Americans, appeared in the hard cover edition of The Telegraph.
But not in the online version.  So I put it there.

Mr. Brown apparently is in some trouble within his own party and the public in general on many issues.
Be interesting to see when and even if, the electorate return the conservs. (Tory Party) to office.  And will it make much difference?

Chris and Lyndon are two who don’t think so.

Labour party conference: Andrew Gimson’s sketch

Gordon Brown sounded like a schoolboy who has failed his exams but has devised a preposterous story which shows that but for one or two unfortunate events which are not his fault he would have come top of the class.


By Andrew Gimson in Manchester

Andrew Marr, who was interviewing the Prime Minister, sounded like a fair-minded head teacher who was trying to get Brown to admit that it has “not been a good year” and that getting record low marks constitutes a crisis.

But Marr started by posing some questions about economics, which for many years was Brown’s strongest subject. Brown said the Americans had let him down very badly with his economics: “A great deal of irresponsibility...has come out of America.”

(My very Brit wife had a comment on this statement which was.  “And he was where exactly, while things were happening here?  On the sidelines most likely saying, givememine,givememine,givememine, “ with regard to the market money tree.  She is quite cynical about politicians generally and believes nothing Labour says. Ever. )

But help is at hand for these reckless people: “I’m going to New York on Wednesday.” This is wonderful news for the Americans, but Marr ventured to doubt whether Brown will be able to do anything, whereupon Brown admitted: “It’s not easy. These are testing times.”

The ominous observation that “these are testing times” was one to which Brown returned again and again as he sought to persuade us that nothing which has gone wrong is anything to do with him. He also informed us that “the world has changed” and “politics in this new digital age...is going to be quite difficult”.

But Brown’s problem is surely that the world has not changed anything like enough: there is still, we find, a business cycle, which mocks his claim to have abolished boom and bust. Brown himself volunteered at one point that “these are cyclical things”.

As the interview proceeded, a forlorn and pleading note entered this errant schoolboy’s voice, as if he knew his excuses were not passing muster. He promised Marr, “I always want to do better and I will do better”. As in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, so in Gordon Brown’s Schooldays a high moral tone is conveyed for the benefit of the youth of today. If there is a latter-day Flashman in this tale, his name is David Cameron.

(Have any of you folks read the Flashman series, by Geo.McDonald Fraser?  Great reading but “Flashman” was not an honorable man and so this isn’t exactly high priase for Mr. Cameron either.  BTW ... if you enjoy history even a little, the Flashman series is a must. And it’s fun too. Flashman of course is a fictional character.  But the way the late Mr. Fraser wrote the series and used his notes at the end of all the books, some professional historians started quoting Flashy as though he were real.)

Brown portrayed himself as a man of the people: “I’m a pretty ordinary guy that managed through an ordinary school to get to university.” The Prime Minister even gave us once more his school’s motto, which is surely a pretty odd thing for a 57-year-old man to do, even if “I will try my utmost” is an admirable sentiment. This was perhaps designed to remind us that Brown did not go to Eton, and his motto is not “Floreat Etona”, but somehow it seemed to suggest that when Brown comes under pressure, he falls back on the dispiriting pieties of his youth.

This is one of Brown’s great weaknesses: his inability to cheer people up. In hard times, a leader has to convince people that tough though things are, if we all pull together we shall win through to happier days.

Brown knows this, but although he can be very good with audiences who he knows already like him, on the wider public stage he comes out with awful leaden formulae, as when he told Marr: “We’re a team and we’re facing difficult world conditions.”

Even for Brown loyalists, the effect of actually listening to his public performances is to induce feelings of despondence rather than hope. It is easy, at this conference, to find dogged declarations of support for the Prime Minister, but when did we last hear anyone express unforced enthusiasm for his leadership?

Marr wondered if Brown was “absolutely sure you’re the right man for the job”, and Brown naturally insisted he is. But by this stage of the interview, one had the feeling that if Marr had said, “You’re in denial”, Brown would have retorted “No I’m not”.

Brown was subjected to one last insult, when Marr asked if he would still be here at Christmas. “Yes of course,” the Prime Minister replied. So that’s all right then: Brown is going to try harder this term and it will not all be over by Christmas.

http://tinyurl.com/53h9vg

   Friday - September 19, 2008

Give this Kid an “A”

I found this link over at Smallest Minority. I did not write it! But if I was 25 years younger and a product of the modern education system, I probably would have.

Waiting For Vizzini

If left to themselves in that heinous process, these ever-so-free individuals would treat each other like plastered shit, sell their sisters, rape their pets, slam you in the face with a shovel and definitely steal your jam. Because the very idea of private property establishes an earthly analogue of original sin. It breed selfishness, and egotism and envy.

The answer was of course obvious. The current society is a failed product and needs to be replaced by a better one. A natural community of men (and other prettier men with breasts and no facial hair). This will be a new perfect society that will help us all to retain out natural goodness (and jam) by eliminating the unnatural competition through doing away of private property (like shovels).

It has LOST references. It alludes to the wisdom that all the questions about life are answered in The Princess Bride. And it mocks on the fwench. A lot! How can you not love it? Find 15 minutes and go read it. Because of China.

   Thursday - September 18, 2008

More Vids

It seems a video kind of day here. So here is Lyn Forester De Rothschild, pwning Wolf Blitzer but good. I saw her on F&F this morning too. Nice lady. My guess is the feminazis will be after her next.

Common sense and unruffable elegance. I like this woman.  (but if could, I’d suggest she not use the “there’s no question” line. She meant the opposite, I’m sure.)

   Wednesday - September 17, 2008

Sarah Palin: You Brits will never get her.  (From an American writer for London paper)

I rather like what this fellow had to say and so am sharing with you folks back home.
Sorry ‘bout the longish link at the bottom. Some things just aren’t working well today.

Sarah Palin: You Brits will never get her

By Irwin Stelzer
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/09/2008

The American election campaign has made life better for those of us living here and identified as non-enemies of President Bush or, even worse, one of the “neo-cons” David Cameron went all the way to Islamabad to denounce.

It is not that our British friends have fallen in love with George Bush, or adopted a more tolerant attitude towards those of us who think the world might be a more dangerous place if America were to retreat into reliance on the United Nations to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

No, it is that Brits with any interest in America, which means most of you, are so distracted by the campaign that they don’t have time to share with us their latest reason for Bush bashing, or to tell us at dinner parties that 9/11 wouldn’t have happened if the Jews hadn’t been so ghastly to the Arabs, or to accuse us of over-heating the globe.

Now, there is only time for, “Tell us about the elections? Is it really possible that Obama won’t win?” That’s the easiest question. Yes, it is possible that Barack Obama’s rhetoric will not succeed in fooling enough of the people enough of the time to gain him the keys to the White House.

He claims to be a bipartisan healer, but has never voted against his Democratic leadership in the Senate. He claims to love America, but spent 20 years as a disciple of a pastor who urged his congregation to “God damn America”, rather than call on God to bless it.

He is a man whose list of ways young people might serve their country definitely does not include enlistment in the military.

No matter. In Britain, as in the rest of Europe, Barack Obama is seen as the second coming, at least of John F Kennedy, if not of that other fellow.

Tall, articulate, handsome, with a stylish wife and engaging children (paraded on stage at the Democratic convention before 80,000 fans and tens of millions of television viewers, but, says the candidate, “off limits” to reporters). Better still, he is black but, as Charles Moore reminded us last week, borrowing from Colin Powell, “not that black”.

There is, we have found, no use laying out such facts before Brits who want to see Obama in the White House.

It is, however, productive to discuss Sarah Palin, John McCain’s choice for vice-president. The first question goes something like this: “My God, does she really believe in God, just like those jihadists we are supposed to be fighting?”

Well, yes and no: yes, she is deeply religious, but no, she is not about to engage in a holy war against Islam, or even against Europe’s secularists. Nor is she about to denude the nation’s libraries of books with which she disagrees, or bar the teaching of Darwinism in schools, even though she thinks there should be a place to advise students that there is another point of view as to the origin of man.

Should she want to do just that, our founding fathers had the sense to reserve power over education to local communities and the states.

Next question: “She shoots moose and wolves, poses with the sort of weapons favoured by Vladimir Putin and drug lords, and seems to have no objections to the proliferation of arsenals in the homes of Americans. Doesn’t that worry you?”

Not very much. The second amendment to our constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms, a right affirmed only recently by the Supreme Court in a decision Obama says he supports.

Also, we have long known, as Britain is now learning, that laws do not keep guns out of the hands of the bad guys; they only disarm law-abiding citizens and reduce their ability to defend themselves. Surveys in prisons show that burglars fear two things: trained guard dogs and armed potential victims.

Many Americans find it encouraging that the McCain-Palin ticket includes a man willing to defend his country and a woman willing to defend her home.

Then there is abortion: “Won’t she deny women the right to choose?” Well, no. Sarah Palin is opposed to abortion - witness her “hillbilly fecundity”, as Mark Steyn describes liberals’ reaction to her five children, her willingness to bear a Down’s syndrome baby, and support for her unwed daughter’s decision to carry her baby to term. But Governor Palin has shown no inclination to impose her view on others.

In the end, the Supreme Court will remain the arbiter of the battle between “pro-life” and “pro-choice” Americans. Which perhaps is unfortunate: were the electorates in several states given an opportunity to pronounce on the issue, the minority might be more willing to accept the verdict than it is when eight men and one woman in black robes opine.

What many foreigners might be missing is that Palin’s supporters don’t much care what she thinks about babies, guns and Jesus. They seem to care only that she is what one British friend described as “a real person”.

Fortunately for the American electorate, there is nothing much that the British commentariat can do to prevent its worst nightmare from becoming a reality: Sarah Palin sworn in as President of the United States, dining with the Queen at a state banquet.

So sit back and enjoy the show. It is far more entertaining, and certainly more democratic, than waiting for the defenestration of a prime minister by a cabal of his colleagues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/17/do1705.xml

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