Happy Holidays to you all.

Happy Holidays to all of you and have a great New Year.

Come on, it's perfect!

I don't think it's good to have people disrespecting the Office of the President of the United States or the Holder Thereof.

Shoe throwing included.

Thus this shoe tossing guy should do some jail time, but not be injured, beaten or tortured He should pay a fine and be released.

However, revising history will never work for Bush now.

Because, face it, this shoe tossing is the perfect capper to The Bush Administration and all it's ills. Beyond being picture perfect, it's almost exactly what we all wanted to do.

We all really, really wanted to give this guy the boot didn't we?

This guy did if for us.

Now you too can join it, just by going here.

Now that the hangover's mostly gone . . .

Ah!

That was quite satisfying. Quite.

The various recounts, runoffs and squeakers also promise to make it's aftermath tooth suckingly and gum smackingly good too.

Oh! Oh yes, then there's the delightful business of the Republican's burning each other alive.

Just in time for the Holiday Season too.

"Wing nuts roasting on a open fire .
Fascists hanging from the trees . . ."

Well, this one's going to be obvious.

Get out and VOTE!

Don't let anything or anybody stop you from making your vote count.

Vote! And take as many people to the polls to vote with you as you can.

Vote! It's just that simple and just that important.

VOTE!

Friday's Child

Why isn't the mainstream media focusing on this domestic terrorist?



Could it be they're in the pockets of rich people who really profit from right wing extremists? Hay, just asking.

Now, let's talk about election fraud around the country, real election fraud.

New Mexico
"ACLU Calls for Criminal Investigation of Bernalillo County Clerk's Office, GOP" (Somehow, just somehow, the County Clerk's office seems to have given the GOP voter registration info in violation of the law. Golly Gosh, Golly!)
Link:

Ohio
"New Voters Under Siege: Ohio Exemplifies National Voting Rights" (Boy, you know they'd just love to steal Ohio-again.) Link:

Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican and McCain-Palin campaign co-chair, did not have the legal authority to bring a suit demanding the state's election board re-certify thousands of registrations before Election Day if they did not match other government databases.

Nevada
In Nevada, Secretary of State Ross Miller has rejected an assertion by the state's Republican Party Chair Sue Lowden that voters should not be able to correct voter registration information at polling places.
Link:


Pennsylvania
On the database matching issue, the Pennsylvania Republican Party has also filed a suit seeking to have 'no-match' registrations treated differently.

North Carolina
McCain/Palin Supporters Slash Tires and Heckle Early Voters in North Carolina.

Link:

Link to video:

There's a chuckle's load of states out there that the GOP has to mess with this time around. After what they've done to the country since St. Reagan is it any wonder? Soon they'll have to try to suppress the vote in Indiana.

Here's some general roundups on their skulduggery hither and yon.

Solon:



For our closing offering, I was going to offer this bit of chum from one of the GOP's Army of Thugs mocking Obama's visit to "Grandma."


However, a Peach of a Possibility is much sweeter . . .
"Obama Winning Georgia?" Georgia!
(Link? Link found at the end like all good sweets. Don't rush! You have to watch the Zombie first!)




Now, eat a Peach.


Good night.

A Sunday Message about Forgiveness and Love.

Dear Friends:

I wanted to save this for today. Sunday's my faith's worship day. We are reminded of God's mercy and forgiveness towards those who sin. We are asked to consider before we throw the first stone.

However . . . ?

What of the sin of stone throwing? What of gross hypocritical stone throwers?

People like, say, Sarah Palin?



Screw em!


She's GUILTY! Guilty as sin! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! GUILTY!!



She's landed herself a BIG STINKER, yet, she's still psychotically lying about it.
Link:

Oh, by the way, she's guilty.

More on "Funny Money." No, Virginia, it wasn't poor people who caused this mess.

Greetings!

Well, Blessed Leader spoke to us yesterday telling us he's directly involved and hard at work solving our economic problems. I wonder how little the markets would have fallen had he not spoken?

Let's look some more at why we're really in this fix. (HINT: Nineteen Twenties Economics.)

From Alternet:
"The Woman Who Could Have Prevented This Financial Mess Was Silenced by Greenspan, Rubin and Summers" by Katrina vanden Heuvel
Link:

Our Heros, eh? Well, these boys just love swashbuckling around with other people's money-most notably ours.

Then there's derivatives. Those things, under differing names, had a role in the market crash of Nineteen Twenty Nine, so FDR and the Democrats wisely regulated them.

The GOP hated this, so when new types of derivatives where invented, they pushed to make them totally deregulated! Free Market Fundamentalism! YAY!

Let's look at the massive poop they've heaped upon us.

From "Fortune"
"The $55 Trillion Question" by Nicholas Varchaver and Katie Benner
Will Credit Default Swaps be the Next Financial Crisis? (As if it were separate from this one!)
Link:

Jolly huh?


Then there's this from the Wall Street Journal:
"The GOP Peddles Economic Snake Oil
Suddenly Republicans are against market values?"
by Thomas Frank
Link:

Well, have a good day anyway, and remember we already have FDR's model we can modernize to help us out of this.

Voluntary Regulation a failure. What a shocker!

Hello there!

Well, it looks like Obama's cruising towards a comfortable win along with the Democrats in general.

Good! It's time we buried the Greedy Oligarchy Party for a couple of centuries.

Let's go see what some other people have to say about things, shall we?

The "Magic of Voluntary Regulation!" (The GOP solution to, well, just everything!)

"SEC Chief: Voluntary Regulation A Failure."
Link and Link and

"Voluntary regulation was the genius idea of a Republican administration and a Republican congress. Just remember that."
Link and . . .

Just one more link
"Shocker! Voluntary Regulation by Financial Industry Doesn't Work!"

Let's bury this idea forever, shall we? What sane person says out loud that the only neighborhood in the world that doesn't need policing is the business beat? That the only people in the world who don't cheat, steal or act venally are businesspeople?

"America's Most Wanted" anyone?

FDR established a regulatory system that worked for nearly seventy years. Then, Reagan came in and the GOP era of Grand Theft Taxpayers began; culminating right now.

It's "Mourning in America" truly.

We do know how to fix the economy. We've done it before. We, being Democrats, of course. Remember, forever, Republicans cause th ese things, Democrats fix these things.

Well, now I'm going to go back to watching my money evaporate.

Hay! I think our waitress just winked at us!

Debate thoughts.

It's started.

Obama isn't going for the kill!

McCain, so far, is doing all the work of battering himself!

Obama, so far, will not tag McCain for his actual votes!

Dear Lord! What is wrong with this man!

He's missing chances to tag McCain with his own record time after time.

The opening five minutes were Obama's best chance to gut him.

Now it's the damn earmarks "issue."

OK, I see the problem. Obama just doesn't realize yet that he's not debating in the Senate.

Finally! One tag! He tagged McCain with his voting record one time on . . . what was that. Darn! It's gone, and will have to wait for the replay's.

At least McCain is sounding like a broken record of Hoover.

Ah, well, now McCain is just lying and rambling!

He mentioned Palin! That's wonderful.

Obama doesn't tag McCain with the fact that Iraq's Prime Minister and Bush agreed on a Timetable for us to leave.

McCain's doing a long warm and fuzzy, "Grampa's was in the War you know, political commercial. That's his stock answer.

Once it got going, there were some good shots from Obama and he scored some points. He was also very "Presidential" while McCain looked like a surly grump looking to start fights everywhere.

It's over!

No knock outs. Thus, McCain loses.

Now the media will gently take McCain apart.

Chris Matthews is an idiot! He focus's only on the atmospherics. So does Andrea (Greenspan) Mitchell.

Pat Buchanan is just totally useless. McCain could have expired on the stage and Buchanan would say "McCain decisively won over the Reagan Democrats" by the impact and noise of his fall-especially in Pennsylvania."

Everybody is saying that McCain won! This is totally on the atmospherics! The barroom brawl aspects.

(You can guess by now which cable channel I'm watching.)

They credit McCain's repetition, lying, rudeness and rambling as effective!

Even Harold Ford Jr. is saying McCain won! Arrgh!

Now, let's see if the media is completely wrong and will cover themselves.

Me? It's clear to me. I think Obama wins on the trickle down and after a while, it will be remembered as a big win for Obama.

Now the media is completely changing it's tune! Of course Obama won.

Chris Matthews has totally changed his "mind" within a couple of minutes.

Now that the first polls are in, he's seemingly "always" said Obama won. Mirabile dictu, now that's what they all seem to be saying they said. Except Buchanan, but he was for Stephen Douglas in those debates.

(And, then again, there's always the rematch.)

And, tomorrow, the heavy polls continue. . .but for right before bed . . . it's Olbermann to the rescue!

Debate Night: John McCain decides he can come out and play with the big kids.

Howdy Folks:

Well, well, John McCain single handedly sunk the recovery plan that the Democrats had wrested from Bush and his cronies.

Of course, it's utterly awful that we have to do this at all. However, Progressives warned about the consequences of lax regulation before regulations became lax. Sorry, that's the "I told you so."

Under the Democratic plan, at least, we-the taxpayers-would actually own the things we had to buy from the idiots, crooks and weasels who played in the deregulated cesspool free market fundamentalist GOP policies fostered.

But now, the wonderful GOP congressfolks have come up with the idea that instead of buying them-with the possibility of selling them later at a profit-we, the same taxpayers, should insure them, so that if they sell for more, we don't get more and if they sell for less we lose and if they don't sell at all we lose! Brilliant, no?

Not only that, but the very same idiots, crooks and weasles would be the very same ones we'd have to deal with again! Thus they'd have made billions on the upside and would be able to make billions more on the downside!

Included with the GOP "plan" were even more tax breaks for Corporate America and even more deregulation. Deregulation!

You gotta love these people.

I don't think the American people are going to fall for it this time. They know that insuring the risk of bad assets is what got us into this and that actually owning the assetts is better as housing and other solid assetts eventually will always rise in value.

Republicans have gotten used to fooling Americans with gimmics and false issues like Sarah Palin and Gay marriage.

This should not be called a "bailout" but a "buyout" of these things. Provisions should be put in so that no fat cats benefit from this to the greatest degree possible.

Also, an steel clad commitment to a return to a real strong regulatory system with reinactment of some of the New Deal regulations that kept the system safe for sixty years must be put into the heart of any deal.

However, when even George F. Will says John McCain isn't fit to be President, you know that the Fat Lady is warming up in the wings.

Then again, I'm disappointed in Obama's performance so far. He needs to go for the kill.

We are just minutes before the first debate, and there's, let's be real, there's just so much there to kill with.

Never having run for chess club council, I alone can come up with several fatal hammering series of questions on any number of topics. Delivered with gusto, Obama should be able to cook him and serve him up.

I saw the Witch Doctor, he told me what to do!

Sarah Palin getting blessed by Witch Hunting "Pastor" to rule over us and overturn separation of church and state, crush other religions and the rest of the whack job agenda.

Emergency? White House admits to planning bailout for MONTHS. (MONTHS!!!!)

by lgcap
Tue Sep 23, 2008 at 09:54:15 AM PDT

"The administration admits they are railroading congress, again. . . "

. . ."[White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony] Fratto said it would be "unthinkable" for Congress not to pass legislation this week, asserting the result would be a "very, very serious situation" for the U.S. economy.

. . . Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough."

They knew for MONTHS!

Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle

By William Greider

September 19, 2008

"If Wall Street gets away with this, it will represent an historic swindle of the American public--all sugar for the villains, lasting pain and damage for the victims."

Link to full article:

The Middle Class Must Not Be Forced to Bail Out Wall Street Greed

By Senator Bernie Sanders:

"For years, as a member of the House Banking Committee and now as a member of the Senate Budget Committee, I have heard the Bush administration tell us how "robust" our economy was and how strong the "fundamentals" were. That was until a few days ago. Now, we are being told that if Congress does not act immediately and approve the $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposal these "free marketers" have just written up, there will be an unprecedented economic meltdown in the United States and an unraveling of the global economy."

More here:

Socialism for the guys who caused the problem.

Howdy Folks,

First, thank you for all your patience while my family mourned the death of our Mother. My intermittent visits to this blog will now re-commence.
--------------------

Here's some random clips as we see the GOP's vaunted philosophy of "hands off" when it comes to poor people, drowning cities and even war's they start, evaporate-as usual-as they rush in to bail out rich people.

(I'm not so good at this blogging yet so if I didn't credit you correctly, let me know and I'll fix or remove it. If the pictures are yours and you want them down or credit, let me know about that too.)

---------

Opportunities

Yglesias meekly suggests that maybe in the course of spending hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up after the Masters of the Universe, we could spend a nickel or two to help poor people.

I'm not optimistic. I know how Democrats react when GOP Daddies in nice suits sit them down and explain What Needs To Be Done. See FISA bullshit, Iraq war, etc...

------

Feldstein

I hadn't realized Martin Feldstein was on the AIG Board of Directors. It seems he no longer teaches the Harvard intro economics course, which is a shame because it would be an excellent platform to explain his new love of socialism.

----------
"Former Palin colleague says VP candidate is only interested in helping herself, cronies" The Salt Lake Tribune. (That's in deep RED Utah.)

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10503452

------------------
From Bartcop

McCain Advisor Helped cause Crash
Gramm de-regulated what they now say needs regulating

Link

Excerpt:
As the news broke of the Lehman Brothers meltdown and the rest of the latest financial crisis,
John McCain, speaking at a campaign rally in Florida on Monday, angrily declared, "We will never
put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. This is a failure."
And in a statement, McCain called for greater "transparency and accountability" on Wall Street.

If McCain wants to hold someone accountable for the failure in transparency and accountability
that led to the current calamity, he should turn to his good friend and adviser, Phil Gramm.

As Mother Jones reported in June, eight years ago, Gramm, then a Republican senator chairing
the Senate banking committee, slipped a 262-page bill into a gargantuan, must-pass spending measure.

Gramm's legislation, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists, essentially removed
newfangled financial products called swaps from any regulation.

----------------

Ain't Socialism for the rich and corporations grand? Just ask Mussolini!

Palin (Michael) for President!

How can you resist something like this?

Where I've been.

There was a death in my immediate family. I will return when I can.

Sincerely,

Old Pinko

Now that we're composed, Russert assessed.

When enough time passes after a good person dies, a more thorough discussion of his professional legacy can begin.

How the Russert test failed America

Comment

By Linda Hirshman

June 19, 2008

Link

Excerpt:
"You'll pardon me if I don't jump on the pyre the media is building for Tim Russert, who died of a heart attack June 13. You'd never know it from the keening all over television, but as Dick Cheney's press aide testified during the Scooter Libby trial, Russert's show was the place the Bushies loved the most for "getting their message out." Especially during the homicidal and suicidal Iraq war. And especially for the Vice President, who was architect of the Administration's foreign policy."

Russert was among the Worst
by Gene Lyons

June 25, 2008

Link

Excerpt:
Like Paris Hilton, many D. C. courtierjournalists are famous largely for being famous.

Tim Russert dead at 58

Tim Russert of NBC has died at 58 of a heart attack. Mourning is going on across the nation and around the world.

My condolences to his family and loved ones.

Chris the screamer screams..

Damn!

Chris "The Screamer" Matthews asked the same awfully stupid question over and over again ju on "Flaccid Ball" his show on MSGOP.

He asked if the Democrats and Obama are attacking McCain on his age by saying he's "confused, out of touch, lost his bearings" and other comments about his idiotic statements about Iraq and economic and most other issues.

The poor guy from the Democrat's replied reasonably, over and over and over again, to the effect that McCain's statements-even if made by a 22 year old-would merit the same exact language.

As usual Hissy Matthews screamed the same idiocy higher and higher as if a sex change operation were being preformed right under the table!

I swear one day he's going to scream so loud and high pitched that he'll turn into Ann Coulter right then and there!


Poof

How the Bush "Administration" will end.

How, sadly, the Bush Administration will end.

At midnight on January 19, 2009, George Bush will pardon hundreds of thousands of people up to and including Vice President Dick Cheney.

George Bush will then resign from office thus making Dick Cheney.

Dick Cheney will then pardon George W. Bush.

None of this will be told to the American people until after the inauguration of the next President, if ever, depending on who gets elected.

George Bush, guilty of murder?

Like, this is something that will happen or that we didn't already know?

Jolly!

Voted one of the most populat on youtube.

Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths

By Avram Goldstein

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said.

Link

Of course, they could always get drunk and do coke like Glorious Leader . . .

The Great GOP double standard at work again.

The Great GOP double standard is at work again. Sexual indiscretions? Impeachment calls ring out across the land. Lying the world into war, killing hundreds of thousands? Another vacation in Crawford.

Spitzer’s Shame Is Wall Street’s Gain By Robert Scheer

"Tell me again: Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex?"

Read more here.

Link

The machine gun of capitalism

"The machine gun of capitalism
Dead soldiers, peak oil and mind-boggling profits; praise Jesus, the machine's still working" by Mark Morford

="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/02/06/notes020608.DTL">

Were I've been.

Hello!

I had planned to come back after the long holiday season and begin to post whenever I could.

At the end of the holidays though, we found out that my elderly mom-who is also moving from state to state-has breast cancer. It is very treatable, but the process of finding that out and managing all the other details of both her move and treatment in two locales is still going on.

I'm hoping to be here more often though.

In the meantime, if you've ever thought that Chris Matthews was was a rotten journalist, he is. His disgusting bias against Mrs. Clinton is baldly evident along with his gutter minded boorishness towards women in general.

Media Matters for America has this . . .

"More than six years ago, long before Hillary Clinton began running for president, the Philadelphia Inquirer magazine reported that, according to an MSNBC colleague, Matthews had said of Clinton: "I hate her. I hate her. All that she stands for.""

Go here,

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801110014

Later,

Old Pinko