Quote of the Day

"Look, there's nothing wrong with wanting 'stuff'. Unfortunately, the government made it very easy for us to borrow money and get 'stuff' instead of work hard and save our money so that we can buy things that we can actually afford. And that's what we have to get back to in this country, we have to have a real economy. We just can't keep borrowing money from the rest of the world."
— Peter Schiff

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Seriously?

Is there a violin small enough to express my feelings about these jerks?

It’s the human toll that is frightening,” said State Rep. Livvy Floren, a friend of Mr. Fuld. “Dick Fuld has spent 39 years of his life doing this. It’s more than just money. They’re not going to be in the streets starving….I think the man worked 24/7. His family and Lehman are his life.”

A deeper analysis was offered by local Democrat Ned Lamont, who in one fell swoop compared Greenwich’s money woes to the Japan malaise, Asian tsunami and the New Orleans flood.

“It really is a financial tsunami, and it could go either way,” said the multimillionaire telecommunications mogul who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006. “It took Japan 20 years to recover from their buying binge. How long does it take us to work through excessive leverage? That could take years not months. This is our Katrina.”

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Love it!

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Goverment bailout and Corporate Welfare.

I don't want to minimize the great words of NY Nerd and simplify things into a neat bow. I know I can not do it justice so I will just say this.

I am against the bailout for hundred's of reasons mostly because from my chair itlooks like just another layer of government bureaucracy.

And we all know how much I am not a fan of big government.

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One more before my head explodes

Okay, after this I really have to get some work done but I had to share this - finally a commentary I can get behind (emphasis mine)...

The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.

Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines). Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.

In contrast, a bailout transfers enormous wealth from taxpayers to those who knowingly engaged in risky subprime lending. Thus, the bailout encourages companies to take large, imprudent risks and count on getting bailed out by government. This "moral hazard" generates enormous distortions in an economy's allocation of its financial resources.

Thoughtful advocates of the bailout might concede this perspective, but they argue that a bailout is necessary to prevent economic collapse. According to this view, lenders are not making loans, even for worthy projects, because they cannot get capital. This view has a grain of truth; if the bailout does not occur, more bankruptcies are possible and credit conditions may worsen for a time.

Talk of Armageddon, however, is ridiculous scare-mongering. If financial institutions cannot make productive loans, a profit opportunity exists for someone else. This might not happen instantly, but it will happen.

Further, the current credit freeze is likely due to Wall Street's hope of a bailout; bankers will not sell their lousy assets for 20 cents on the dollar if the government might pay 30, 50, or 80 cents.

The costs of the bailout, moreover, are almost certainly being understated. The administration's claim is that many mortgage assets are merely illiquid, not truly worthless, implying taxpayers will recoup much of their $700 billion.

If these assets are worth something, however, private parties should want to buy them, and they would do so if the owners would accept fair market value. Far more likely is that current owners have brushed under the rug how little their assets are worth.

Read the whole thing here (Yes, Chris, CNN - do it anyway)- well worth it.

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This is why I have been avoiding political discussion lately

My fucking blood pressure really can't take this.

I really thought I was an intelligent, fair-minded person who gave quite a bit of thought & reasoning to my opinions on the current financial situation. Imagine my surprise this morning as I read/see more and more op-eds and "expert" analysis telling me that really I'm not terribly bright but it's not my fault that I don't understand the immediate need to pass a poorly thought-out ill-conceived bill that will wind up costing me & people like me a lot of money in taxes while doing nothing to insure this will not happen again. It's really not my fault for not understanding - it's the fault of the Congress-people. And Paulson & Bernake. And President Bush. You see they just haven't "sold" it to me properly. They haven't "marketed" their ideas correctly. They haven't explained it in a way that a simpleton like me would understand it. Because seriously, I cannot be trusted to make decisions about something so important. That's why I send smart people to Congress - so they can do all that hard "thinking" stuff, leaving me more time for football, NASCAR, and cheetoes. Really if they would just do their job properly and explain it to me in a way I can understand it, I would be all about giving Paulson & Bernake carte blanche to use $780 billion in whatever way they see fit. (Let's not even go into how Paulson won't even BE Treasury Secretary if Obama is elected so in effect we're actually giving this cash to someone we don't even know yet. That must be one of the hard parts they haven't explained to me right yet.)

Let's take a look at what I mean:

The always popular, really smart folks at the Washington Post:

Congressional Neroes - Republicans and Democrats fiddle as the economy burns.

Hold on - what does "Neroes" mean? Is that a typo? Hang on while I go look it up on the interwebs... Ooooohhhh... I get it now... ha! How clever - I see what you did there!

We understand that angry constituents have been bombarding members of Congress with e-mails and phone calls protesting the bailout. ...

Given the poor marketing of a proposal whose advertised $700 billion price tag will probably never materialize in full, and given the fact that the rapidly developing credit crisis has not quite been felt on Main Street, we are not surprised at the angry correspondence from voters -- or, rather, from certain self-selected voters.

Oh geez - where oh where do I start? If only we could have "marketed" this proposal so that those stupid idiots on Main Street just let us do whatever we wanted without causing a stink, everything would have been fine. Oh but wait - it's not "voters" that are angry. It's "certain self-selected voters". I'm sorry, I didn't realize that to give my opinion on governmental matters that SOMEONE ELSE (presumably the guy who wrote this editorial?) had to SELECT me. I thought that just by voting I was able to self-select the person who would represent MY feelings/positions on these issues. God, I'm such a dolt. Thank Garp I have the Washington Times to explain this all to me.

Let's look at some more from the Washington Post, since they are so much smarter than I am. From a story by Dana Milbank:

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 778 points, the largest one-day point drop in history. And no wonder: In the Congress of the United States, the insane are now running the asylum.

Wow - that DOES sound bad Dana! Hooboy, 778 points? Yikes! The largest one-day point drop in history? Woweee - but, just one question Dana - isn't the Dow Jones overall points up pretty high? I mean, not the highest in history, but pretty up there right? So - and forgive me my basic public education math skills - wouldn't that mean that percentage-wise this probably isn't the worst day the market's ever had?

What's that you say, Wall Street Journal? A 7% decline? That's what? About the 17th worst percentage drop in Market history, I believe. Hmmm...well that's not good but certainly not even close to the worst day in Market History. Would you mind putting it into some historical perspective for me (but use small words please)?

On the original Black Monday in October 1987, the Dow lost 508 points in one day, or nearly 23% of its value, according to Stovall.

"Today, a percent decline of this magnitude would have forced the DJIA lower by 2,518 points, or more than three times what we experienced," he wrote. "Also, [Monday's] 8.8% (106 point) decline in the S&P 500 was the second-largest decline since 1950, but well below the 248.67 points that would have been required to equal the crash on Black Monday."

Okay, so I must REALLY be as stupid as they think I am, because I'm still not panicking. Excuse me, I have to go find some cheetoes.

More after the jump...

Interesting spin

So the usual suspects have all been pontificating on why the Bailout Bill failed to pass. (As you can see, even I weighed in on the subject in my own cynical way - see post below.) Depending on which biased news source you favor, one of two things happened:

A) Nancy Pelosi is an idiot who couldn't resist the opportunity to blame this whole mess on Bush/Republicans immediately before asking the very same Republicans to vote with her. (Fox News - paraphrased)

B) Nancy Pelosi is a very smart woman who delivered the votes she promised, but the Republicans didn't do their part. (NY Times/CNN - paraphrased)

Looking a little closer at the numbers tells me that it's a little from Column A and a little from Column B. The Dems voted 140 - 95 for the bill. So why are the NY Times, et al saying that Pelosi "delivered the Dems" votes? Aren't the Dems are a majority in Congress? I'll let Reason's Hit & Run blog explain:

Now, we "know" why the Republicans pissed on the bill (well, by a 2-to-1 margin, meaning 65 GOPpers voted for the bailout): Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave a rankly partisan speech that dried House Minority Leader John Boehner's teary eyes and steeled the will of the free-market ideologues to vote against a bill they know is bad for all sorts of reasons (more on that in a second).

But why didn't the Dems, who hold a freaking majority in the House, not pass the bill on a party-line vote? Did you get that above about the Dems? Pelosi delivered the votes, but just not enough of them. WTF? That's like a line from Pravda.

Actually, according to the morning yak shows, she gave passes to tons of congressfolks in "tough" re-election fights, and to various other folks who didn't like the bill.

This comment from the same blog-post gives exactly my reaction to this:

Let me get this straight. It is financial armagedon, the end of the world, 1933 all over again, yet you give your members in close districts passes to vote against the bill. Either Pelosi is lying when she says things are that bad, which since she lies about nearly everything is certainly possible, or she is more interested in power than the well being of the country.

I am starting to think maybe this whole thing is overblown. The problem is that it is impossible to tell the truth. The media is basically the ministry of truth for the Democratic Party and interesting in nothing beyond getting Obama elected, so they will never tell anything not calculated to achieve that end. You would like to think that Pelosi would do the right thing. But, Pelosi is probably one of the three of four dumbest people ever to hold office in this country. She is wrong about nearly everything. Is she wrong about the scope of the problem? Does she just not care? Her mind is so simple, yet so craven, I am not really sure how to read it.

Lest you get the idea that I believe it's a BAD thing that the bailout bill failed, let me just share some more of Reason's wisdom on why passing it would have been a terrible outcome:

In any case, here are two non-ideological reasons why it's great that this bailout went down the tubes faster than you can say "Bearstearnswachoviaaig":

1. This thing was The PATRIOT Act of the financial world. That is, it's a bill designed to address an enormously complicated situation that will have incredibly far-reaching implications probably for decades. Warren Buffet and others have invoked Pearl Harbor to conjure up the need for speed when it comes to the bailout. But this isn't war. Or terrorism. Or even a depression. We've got time to work through the details, which are all that matter. There isn't any need to pass virtually any bill in seven days, or even seven weeks, or even seven months. Especially important ones. That's one (of many) lessons of The PATRIOT Act experience.

2. This thing is gigantically unpopular with the American people. Polls show large majorities against the bailout, which suggests that, at the very least, the Hank Paulsons, George Bushes, Barney Franks, and Nancy Pelosis of the world have done a real crap job of selling the bill to people. At least since federal soldiers illegally kicked the Cherokees out of the Southeast, the government has had a credibility gap wider bigger than Lyndon Johnson's earlobes. That trend has, er, only accelerated under President Bush for reasons that don't need to be rehearsed here. And Pelosi, remember, came into office saying the Dems were going to be the party of fiscal responsibility—and then larded up a farm bill with more lard than a Golden Corral parking lot. This bailout came with a "Trust Us" sticker on it. And no one is willing to trust the government (a good thing, actually).

Oh and one last thing - a whole bunch of Reps voted "No" simply because that's what their constituents wanted. The American people "spoke" and said they did not want this. So why are so many talking heads from tv, newspapers, and bloggers, calling those Reps "cowards" for voting the way their constituents wanted them to? Isn't that what they are supposed to do? Represent US - the people that elected them? Isn't that why they are called REPRESENTATIVES? If I wanted someone to go to Washington and do my thinking for me, I would call them Mommies and Daddies, not Representatives. So bite me Matt Lauer and all your blow-dried friends.

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Well played Gentlemen...well played

Probably only funny to my fellow libertarians but...


(shrug) It made me smile.

So let's review the past week...

1) Paulson & Bernake want everyone to vote for their plan (which not so incidentally gives them more power than any two people should have over a country's finances).

2) Congress is a little reluctant considering that Paulson & Bernake were two of the dolts that have been steering this sinking ship already.

3) Paulson & Bernake see that their plan may not be floating. So they start carrying on like those Victorian women you always see fainting on the sofa because they are getting a bad case of the "vapors". "Oh no - if we don't do something the sun won't rise; crops will fail; chaos; anarchy; AAAAAAHHHH. I'm feeling faint" (Swoon...) And then the topper: "If we don't do something NOW, pass this bill (NOW!!!) there will be a huge economic crisis & the stock market will crash!"

4) So Congress starts running around in a panic (personally I picture them running around in circles - banging into each other - but that's just to amuse myself). "Oh no - we have to pass this bill NOW - or the Stock Market will crash!"

5) For a few days we hear these ominous speeches about how nothing in the world can save us from imminent financial doom unless they can get this bill written and passed NOW!!!! (Did I mention "NOW"?)

6) Finally Congress comes out of their offices, all proud of themselves that they managed to act like adults for a few hours & stop calling each other names long enough to write a stupid bill (forgive me - but isn't that what they get PAID for?). Yay - the US is saved from certain doom!!!

7) "But wait!!" the American people cry. "Let's take a moment to look at this bill - I mean $780 billion is not chump change." They start phoning their Congresscritters & sending emails. (Before email I bet being in Congress was much easier - I mean really, how many things are you THAT upset about that you'd be willing to take the time to write a letter, find an envelope, go to the post office, get a stamp & mail the damn thing? Seriously - by the time I got to "find an envelope" I'd just say "Fuck it!" and go eat a bowl of cereal.)

8) Meantime on Wall Street all the brokers & analysts & day traders (not to mention tv analysts) are "hopeful". Because Wall Street is nothing if not an emotionally driven mess. Forget fundamentals, forget spreadsheets, forget all that numbers nonsense. If the Wall Street people are feeling good (or in this case, hopeful), the Dow Jones goes up. If they are having a shitty day - something makes them worried or doubtful and frankly it could be anything - terrorism threats, government reports, no one is shopping, whatever - Dow Jones goes down. The Dow Jones is basically a giant thermometer taking Wall Street's collective emotional temperature. So here they are all happy & hopeful - we're going to be saved by this bill and everything will be great again. There will be bonuses this year! I will be able to close on that Condo on Water Street! Hooray! Up goes the Dow Jones.

9) Finally we get to the day of the vote - and Congress, after days of playing nice with each other cannot resist the urge to start the sniping and blaming and name-calling again. Uh-oh... And the calls & emails are still coming - surprisingly ordinary people are not nearly as happy over the notion that Johnny Wall Street will still be able to buy his condo on Water Street. Not when it means their taxes are going to go up. And not when it means that the government that gave birth to this mess are going to have even greater control of things. Oh and all those executives that headed up companies that made bone-headed idiotic decisions to lend money to people, who have never in their lives made any previous attempts to pay back any other loans, to buy houses much bigger than they need (to put in all of the great stuff they bought instead of paying back their loans) - yeah, those executives are going to be just fine. They are going to get all of their golden parachute packages & go off to run other companies into the ground. So the Congresscritters have a dilemma - do we pass this odious bill that everyone hates but they keep telling us we HAVE to pass NOW to save us from doom?

10) So over on Wall Street they start to get wind of the fact that this bill that HAS TO PASS NOW may not, in fact, pass now. And they fall into a great emotional depression. Which of course brings the Dow Jones waaaaay down with them.

11) Meanwhile back at Paulson & Bernake's lair, they are rubbing their hands together in glee because they have achieved check-mate. You see - if the bill passes, they win. If the bill doesn't pass, they win even more - because well they have successfully convinced Wall Street that it HAD TO PASS NOW or we are doomed!!!, and if this bill doesn't PASS NOW Wall Street (not having the capacity to actually think) will emotionally react to this perceived disaster as expected and drive the Dow Jones way down, thus fulfilling Messrs. Paulson & Bernake's prophecy that if the bill doesn't pass Wall Street will experience horrible repurcussions. And when that happens they can say "We told you so! Now you HAVE to listen to us - we were right!! So let's tweak that bill a little bit giving us a little more power, and take another vote."

I have to give it to them - it was a masterful plot. Too bad they can't come up with anything that smart to save the economy.

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Frankly I don't even see the marshmallow...

"It's like a big cowpie with a little bit of marshmallow inside and I don't want to eat the cowpie," said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.

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A Special Message from Barack Obama's Teleprompter

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I Got A Bracelet too.

It Would be nice if Obama knew his fucking name, this guy is such a fucking shithead.

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R.I.P Paul Newman.

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New John McCain Ad - "Debate"

Holy shit that was fast, well John McCain needs to hit the ground running while his bitch slap of Obama was memorable, he needs to pound it home that Obama is a fucktard that can't run the night shift at McDonald's much less be the President Of The United States.

Good work tonight John!.

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Best. Mall. Evar.

Shark fights in one of the world's biggest aquariums are threatening the opening celebrations of Dubai's flagship new mall.

Over ten per cent of the sharks in Dubai Aquarium's 10 million-litre tank have been killed in attacks that have marred the build-up to its grand opening on October 30.

Sand Tiger sharks have killed at least 40 smaller reef sharks and been aggressive towards divers working on final preparations in the giant tank.

The aquarium features a 270-degree acrylic walk-through tunnel designed to give shoppers close encounters with some of the most diverse marine life on the planet.

Hopefully they will not be witnessing the world's greatest shark fight.

Ha, speak for yourself, I would love to witness the greatest shark fight take place at this mall.

Dailymall.com.uk

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Police Union Shirt Pokes Fun At DNC Protesters

DENVER -- The Denver police union is selling T-shirts that poke fun at protesters at last month's Democratic National Convention, but the main target isn't laughing.

The back of the shirts reads, "We get up early to beat the crowds" and "2008 DNC," and has a caricature of a police officer holding a baton.

The front has the number 68 with a slash through it, a reference to the Recreate 68 Coalition, which organized several demonstrations during the convention.

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Biden, Obama helped keep 'Bridge to Nowhere' alive

DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) -- Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

CNN.com

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McCain "suspends" his campaign

John McCain has announced that he will suspend his campaign and return to Washington, D.C. to try to promote a legislative answer to the financial crisis. He has called on Barack Obama to do the same, and is also asking that Friday's debate be postponed.

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Geeks Love the New Google Phone.

Video here.

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Google Phone Debutes.

T-Mobile Tuesday unveiled the new G1 cell phone, its long-awaited, Google-powered answer to Apple's popular iPhone.
The G1, which has a lot of iPhone-like features, such as a touch-sensitive screen, Internet access and a music player, goes on sale on Oct. 22. It will cost $179 with a two-year T-Mobile contract - just below the iPhone's starting price of $199.

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Wil thre bee trets

I wil bee rite here Happy Stuff with treats.

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And they said it wouldn't last...

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

So what's for dinner honey?

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Biden Throws Obama Under The Bus.

"I thought that was terrible by the way," Biden said of the computer ad in an interview broadcast tonight on the CBS Evening News

Asked why it was aired, Biden said: "I didn't know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we would have never done it."

I'm Joe Biden and I approve this message.

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UC Berkeley - "Free speech Isn't um.. free"

Berkeley's infamous tree-sitters have been hit with a rude surprise since they came down to earth: Judges are socking them with thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees.

Ironically, much of the money - which could total more than $10,000 per sitter - is going straight to the University of California, the very institution the tree-sitters were protesting as they tried to save a grove of trees outside Memorial Stadium.

UC Berkeley estimates it spent more than $800,000 on police and other security measures during the 22 months sitters were up in the trees. The university spent $40,000 alone on the scaffolding that went up around the final tree during the last day of the protest this month.

Lawyers on both sides said the tree-sitters' chances of beating the contempt charges are slim.

"You were either up in the trees or not. What's to argue?"

"Who said free speech is always free?"

sfgate.com

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New John McCain Ad - "Chicago Machine"

I love it !

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Douchebag That Hacked Sarah Palin's Email Busted.

A person who identified himself as a witness tells 10 News that agents with the FBI served a federal search warrant at the Fort Sanders residence of David Kernell early Sunday morning. Kernell lives in the Commons apartment complex at 1115 Highland Ave.
David Kernell is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis.
A Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed there has been "investigatory activity" in Knoxville regarding the Palin case, but she said there are no publicly available search warrants, and no charges have been filed.
A separate law enforcement source confirmed to 10 News that a search warrant was served on Kernell's apartment.

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Cheeseburger... Cheeseburger.. Cheeseburger..

NY Nerd informed me she has a craving for Wendy's... So I give her this short video.

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It really is a wonder any of us grew up normally at all...

So today I was chatting with some of my fellow General Hospital watchers online and (as usual) we were mocking one of the storylines. You see there's this woman - Laura (of "Luke & Laura" fame) who has this weird Soap-Opera-only disease which puts her into this kind of permanent fog. She sits in a rocking chair in the mental institution and just stares into space. This has been going on for quite some time and the condition is supposedly permanent. But GH was fortunate enough to get the wonderful Genie Francis back for a couple of weeks during Sweeps to play Laura (a role she famously originated). So the current storyline has her daughter, Lulu, also in the mental institution (right across the hall from her as a matter of fact) because she's supposedly falling victim to the same made-up disease as her mother, Laura (I won't even go into why this is all kinds of stupid and ridiculous based on the explanation we were given of the made-up disease when it first came to light that Laura had it). Anyway, Lulu is losing her marbles because she feels guilty over killing her ex-boyfriend and sometime-stalker Logan with an ax. The whole storyline is even more ridiculous than it sounds & the only thing that would redeem it would be if Lulu winds up being executed for the murder & I never have to hear her yappy voice again. But I digress...

So there is Lulu in the nuthouse with her mom across the way - and lo and behold!! - Laura comes out of her fog (or whatever it's called) and comforts Lulu & tells her it's not her fault, etc. So this is great right? But wait - after a couple of days of this, a few of us noticed that Lulu was the only one who ever saw Laura awake. And Laura asked her to keep it a secret - until she knew for sure the waking up thing was permanent. Thus began an endless shuffle of people in and out of the nuthouse to see Lulu who somehow managed to "just miss" seeing Laura up and about.

So this brought up how traumatic the whole Snuffalufugus storyline was to all of us who grew up on the old school Sesame Street. (For those not born in the sixties/seventies, Big Bird used to be the only one who could see Snuffalufugus - everyone else would "just miss" him every single time and Big Bird would get all frustrated and mad that they didn't believe him.) I can't tell you how many times I would sit there holding my breath & hoping and praying that THIS time someone would see him & believe Big Bird. But it never happened. At least while I was watching. I'm told that somewhere in the mid-eighties they changed this up & everyone was friends with Snuff, but until then Big Bird was on his own.

So at some point during this discussion, someone mentioned that the OG Sesame Street was available on DVD now but - wait for it - they have a sticker on them saying that they are not appropriate for young children. Huh - what?

So I did a little research and it turns out this is true - among the many problems are Cookie Monster being obese & smoking a pipe during the Monsterpiece Theatre skits, the Snuffalufagus skits get children thinking that adults won't believe them if they tell them the truth, little Sally going home with Gordon to have cookies and milk - when he was a stranger (!), Oscar's apparently undiagnosed depression & anger issues, and heaven only knows what other kinds of trauma.

Just add this to the list of one more thing that our irresponsible parents inflicted on us in their abusive child-rearing ignorance. I don't know about you but my sister and I had a horrible childhood - We drank water from the hose; rode in the "way back" of station wagons - without seat belts; there were no child-proof caps on things in our house; there was lead paint in our apartment in the Bronx; we rode our bikes without helmets and skated without knee or elbow pads; we played dodgeball and SHIT did that ball hurt; we played outside and got FILTHY; we were sent outside to play in the morning and weren't allowed back in the house except to go to the bathroom or for lunch until mom called us for dinner; we played sports and our teams lost & we didn't get any trophies just for participating. Really it is amazing that we are all alive to talk about it.

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Don't look now but the government has now socialized pretty much everything BUT health care...

And Wall Street, basically having learned absolutely nothing, is having itself a party:

U.S. stocks surged in the biggest two-day global rally in history as the government moved to purge banks of bad assets and crack down on investors seeking to drive down shares of financial companies.

A small consolation, but at least some people are still thinking straight...

As the U.S. government takes stronger measures to stabilize financial markets, some former Federal Reserve officials, lawmakers and Wall Street executives are saying too much has already been done.

``Every time they intervene, they do more harm than good,'' said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital in Darien, Connecticut, a brokerage that manages $1 billion.

Critics of the rescues agree that government actions, such as those that prevented the failures of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc., can't postpone the inevitable worsening of housing and financial markets. They say the bailouts by the Fed and Treasury also encourage future reckless risk-taking by investors.

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AAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!

Yes it is my favorite time of the year - Talk Like a Pirate Day!

In honor of this very special day, here are some of my favorite pirate jokes...

Why did the pirate cross the road?

Because the road crossed him first, the mutinous scurvy sea dog! Arrr!







A man is walking along a pier, and he spots a pirate with a peg leg, a hook, and a patch over one eye.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” he said, “how is it that you came to have a peg leg?”

“Arrrr!” says the pirate, “Me ship came along side an enemy pirate ship. I fired me cannons, the other ship fired back. They struck the yard arm, an’ it came down and crushed me leg.”

“I see,” said the man. “How is it that you came ot have a hook for a hand?”

“Arrrr! says the pirate” When the enemy boarded me ship, I drew me rapier, and fought them off. During the battle, one of the enemy pirates sliced off me hand.”

“I see,” said the man. “And again, if you don’t mind my asking, how is it that you came to have an eye patch?”

“Arrrr!” says the pirate. “We pulled into port to unload some booty, and a seagull pooped in me eye.”

“What?” said the man. “Bird poop wouldn’t make you lose your eye.”

“Arrrr!” says the pirate. “ It would if it’s your first day with a new hook!”

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Town Hall - McCain / Palin

From Grand Rapids, MI.

Comes in at a little over 37 minutes, watch here.

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In 2004, SEC exempted five firms from required capital/debt ratio regulations.

They are:

Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

Ouch !

The SEC allowed five firms to more than double the leverage they were allowed to keep on their balance sheets and remove discounts that had been applied to the assets they had been required to keep to protect them from defaults.

NYSUN.com

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Group Posts E-Mail Hacked From Palin Account

Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail account was hacked, and some of its contents posted on the internet Wednesday.

The internet griefers known as Anonymous took credit for the intrusion, and screenshots of e-mail messages and photos belonging to the Alaska governor have been published by WikiLeaks.

wired.com

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Yemen - It's Topical.

WASHINGTON — A sophisticated bombing plot carried out against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen brings increased urgency to fears that Muslim extremists are gathering strength in that nation and could make it a headquarters for terrorism.

Andrew Dice Clay - "It's Topical"

Foxnews.com

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Protip for drunkards and whore lovers:

Remember to remove your Obama t-shirts and stickers before posing for your mug shots.

Thesmokinggun.com

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John McCain's New Ad. - "Enough is Enough"

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Metallica Fans - Do Not Download Their New CD.

Downloading copyrighted material is Illegal, Do not and I repeat Do Not Visit this site and download their new CD using the Bittorrent Protocol.

Metallica cancelled an interview with a Swedish publication after one of their journalist's admitted to illegally downloading the band's new album.

As a Metallica fan I WILL NOT tolerate fans downloading THE NEW CD DEATH MAGNETIC

In a review of 'Death Magnetic', which is currently number one in the UK, Jonn Jeppsson confessed to downloading a different version of the record – and said he preferred it to the official one.

More after the jump...

Galveston resident holed up in church - WITH HIS PET LION.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — More than 48 hours after Hurricane Ike swamped the Gulf Coast, rescuers flew for the first time Monday into areas cut off by the storm and found a scene of devastation, with whole subdivisions obliterated, and began evacuating survivors.
Of particular concern is a resident who collects exotic animals who is now holed up in a Baptist church with his pet lion. "We're not going in there," Jones said. "We know where he (the lion) is on the food chain."

As soon as that guy runs out of Heineken... that Lion and he are going to have words. And then one will have a snack.

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Lehman Files for $639B Bankruptcy

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early Monday morning and said it will slowly wind down its operations after being in business for 158 years.

At $639 billion, Lehman's is the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history--easily surpassing the Enron and WorldCom collapses combined.

Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York. The company's broker-dealer subsidiary and other parts of Lehman was not in the filing.

Foxnews.com

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Obama Got $126K from Fannie and Freddie

Barack Obama is the second biggest recipient of political money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the last ten years. And he’s only been in Washington for four.

OpenSecrets.org

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John McCain Is In A New York State Of Mind.

ALBANY - Barack Obama's once-commanding lead in New York has shrunk to just 5 points, a poll released Monday shows.

The Siena College poll shows Obama leading McCain 46% to 41%.

The five point margin is down from 18 points in June in a state considered among the most heavily Democrat in the nation.

NY Daily News.

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Obama's New Ad "Still"

Ok, In one fell swoop Obama has insulted:
- Women
- The Elderly
- The 20 percent of Americans that are not technically savvy
- The entire state of Florida.

Great Ad Douchebag.

"I think they spent months trying to figure out how they can position Obama as better qualified than McCain, and basically came up with the fact that Obama can type."

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Pakistan order to kill US invaders

This will not end well.

KEY corps commanders of Pakistan's 600,000-strong army issued orders last night to retaliate against "invading" US forces that enter the country to attack militant targets.

The move has plunged relations between Islamabad and Washington into deep crisis over how to deal with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban

The Australian.

More after the jump...

Hurricane Ike

Galveston, Texas is fucked.

More on this as video and pictures appear online.

Fox News Has Live Video.
KHOU, Houston has great video, the ocean crashing over the seawall is about 4:45 in

One good thing has come from Ike, It flattened Geraldo Rivera.

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YouTube Yanks Radical Islamist Videos.

I hate the term, "Slippery Slope" but I am torn on this. Myself personally, I like gratuitous violence and I know there are other sites that would gladly host these videos but the thought of Government intervention scares me.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), head of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent an open letter in May to Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, which owns YouTube, asking him to yank "videos produced by Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups" off the site.
At the time, Google said it had taken down about 80 clips that featured gratuitous violence and hate speech, but added that "there's nothing in our guidelines that says something produced by a certain group gets censored."

Now does this also include the removal of the hundreds of videos that show the United States Military blowing shit up and killing bad guys.

More after the jump...

09-11-01 (Opie and Anthony / Ron and Fez)

The Opie and Anthony Show Was live from 3pm to 6pm
The Ron And Fez Show Was live from 6pm to 10pm

More after the jump...

Sirius XM chief: regular radio "sucks"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Mel Karmazin, trying to shore up Wall Street support for Sirius XM Radio, told analysts that regular radio "sucks" as an investment while the company he heads deserves more respect because of its growth prospects.

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Coincidence?

From yesterday's Hi and Lois & Pearls Before Swine:

More after the jump...

Never use two words when one will do...

As usual, someone has found a much clever, MUCH shorter way of demonstrating my recent LENGTHY point regarding the deteriorating state of political discussion:

From The Volokh Conspiracy:

RED: I sure like apples.
BLUE: Apples? They're rotten. Oranges are better.
RED: Are you insane? Oranges are disasters.
BLUE: At least oranges aren't corrupt fruits that hate America.
RED: Yes they are, in fact Hitler liked oranges!
BLUE: WTF? Hitler was an apple.

(Do yourself a favor and read the whole thread - the comments are actually pretty funny in this one.)

More after the jump...

Now for something really important...

And cool!!!!

The Large Hadron Collider is finally scheduled to begin its first test tomorrow.

Scientists say the collider is finally ready for an attempt to circulate a beam of protons the whole way around the 17-mile tunnel. The test, which takes place Wednesday, is a major step toward seeing if the the immense experiment will provide new information about the way the universe works.

"It's really a generation that we've been looking forward to this moment, and the moments that will come after it in particular," said Bob Cousins, deputy to the scientific leader of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, one of six experiments inside the collider complex. "September 10 is a demarcation between finishing the construction and starting to turn it on, but the excitement will only continue to grow."

The collider consists of a particle accelerator buried more than 300 feet near Geneva, Switzerland. About $10 billion have gone into the accelerator's construction, the particle detectors and the computers, said Katie Yurkewicz, spokewoman for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is host to the collider.

In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions. It will operate at higher energies and intensities in the next year, and the experiments could generate enough data to make a discovery by 2009, experts say.

And this is what I really love about science - the scientists are all excited because they DON'T KNOW what they're going to find yet and they're all stoked to find out.

Since this is exploratory science, the collider may uncover surprises that contradict prevailing theories, but which are just as interesting, said Joseph Lykken, theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

"When Columbus sails west, he thought he was going to find something. He didn't find what he thought he was going to find, but he did find something interesting," said Lykken, who works on the Compact Muon Solenoid, one of six experiments inside the collider complex.

Real scientists don't have a pre-formed opinion or agenda on how an experiment will turn out. They just do the experiment and learn from whatever happens. It's all about data and facts and results - unlike religious superstition which is about taking your pet theory & trying to cherry-pick data & manipulate results to force it into supporting whatever you were going to believe anyway.

I'm excited to see what this will uncover - I think it's going to tell us a lot about the beginnings of our universe.

More after the jump...

Obama reveals one of the "57" states.

Not including Alaska and Hawaii, he gives you - "New Pennsylvania"

Here he is discussing his travel plans across our great 57 states.

More after the jump...

Know Your State Motto.

(H/T to NY Nerd sending this to my Inbox)
Alabama
Hell Yes, We Have Electricity.

Alaska
11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!

Arizona
Yes, But It's A Dry Heat.

Arkansas
Lituracy Ain't Everythang.

California
By 30, Our Women Have More
Plastic Than Your Honda

Colorado
If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother.

Connecticut
Like Massachusetts , only smaller

Delaware
We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water.

Florida
Ask Us About Our Grandkids
And Our Voting Skills

Georgia
We Put The Fun In Fundamentalist Extremism.

Hawaii
Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru
(Death To Mainland Scum, Leave Your Money)

Idaho
More Than Just Potatoes...
Well, Okay, We're Not, But The Potatoes Sure Are Real Good

Illinois
Please, Don't Pronounce the 'S'

Indiana
2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free

Iowa
We Do Amazing Things With Corn

Kansas
First Of The Rectangle States

Kentucky
Five Million People;
Fifteen Last Names

Louisiana
We're Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign.

Maine
We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster

Maryland
If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It

Massachusetts
Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's

Michigan
First Line Of Defense From The Canadians

Minnesota
10,000 Lakes... And 10 Zillion Mosquitoes

Mississippi
Come visit And Feel Better About Your Own State

Missouri
Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work

Montana
Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-wing
Crazies, and Honest Elections!

Nebraska
Ask About Our State Motto Contest

Nevada
Hookers and Poker!

New Hampshire
Go Away And Leave Us Alone

New Jersey
You Want A ##$%##! Motto?
I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right here!

New Mexico
Lizards Make Excellent Pets

New York
You Have The Right To Remain Silent,
You Have The Right To An Attorney...
And No Right To Self Defense!

North Carolina
Tobacco Is A Vegetable

North Dakota
We Really Are One Of The 50 States!

Ohio
At Least We're Not Michigan

Oklahoma
Like The Play, But No Singing

Oregon
If you're from California, go home

Pennsylvania
Cook With Coal

Rhode Island
We're Not REALLY An Island

South Carolina
Remember The Civil War?
Well, We Didn't Actually Surrender Yet

South Dakota
Closer Than North Dakota

Tennessee
Home of the Al Gore Invention Museum

Texas
Se Hable Ingles

Utah
Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus

Vermont
Too liberal for the Kennedy's

Virginia
Who Says Government Stiffs And
Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?

Washington
Our Governor can out-fraud your Governor!

West Virginia
One Big Happy Family...Really!

Wisconsin
Come Cut the Cheese!

Wyoming
Where Men Are Men... And The Sheep Are Scared
Home of Brokeback Mtn.

The District of Columbia
The Work-Free Drug Place !

More after the jump...

Thoughts on Sarah Palin.

Found on the Internets.

It's utterly amazing how one woman, from the farthest reaches of almost-nowhere, has completely and thoroughly mind-fucked the Democratic ticket and MSM at the same time. She just drank their milkshakes and pissed in their lunchboxes. I have never seen a more devastating pwnage of the left, since Reagan made the Democrats his bitch.

More after the jump...

WTF? Someone need to get laid.

The truth is, I would rather have them in the woods than on our streets protesting some dumb shit.

More after the jump...

38.9 Million Watch John McCain's Speech.

I wonder how much the numbers would have jumped up if he had a primetime slot.

Nielsen Media Research said a record 38.9 million TV viewers watched McCain accept the Republican nomination on Thursday, slightly more than the 38.3 million people who tuned in for Obama's speech last week.

McCain's tally was believed to be the biggest commercial TV audience ever for a single night of a U.S. political convention, Nielsen said.

Also Reuters has this tidbit.

The Republican convention in St. Paul also attracted more average viewers overall than the Democratic Party convention in Denver last week.

More after the jump...

Say Goodbye To Astroland, Coney Island.

Unable to come to terms with the landlord, Thor Equities, Astroland instead will close up shop. This Sunday will be the final day, says co-owner Carol Albert, whose lease ends in January. "My employees cannot live in a state of limbo any longer. It takes six months to pack up a three-acre amusement park that has been in operation for 46 years, so a Jan. 31 deadline means start packing yesterday. We are out of time," said her statement, printed in the New York Times. Albert and her husband sold the land to Thor Equities for $30 million in 2006, and later the company offered renderings of the mixed-use amusement park it planned to create, including shops and housing. The Alberts accuse Thor Equities of turning their backs on the amusement park in favor of creating retail and expensive residential projects.
I am somewhat sorry to see Astroland go the way of other urban amusement parks, but it was time.

Brownstoner.com

More after the jump...

For Chris...

On a lighter note...

More after the jump...

Back into the fray...

So I've been trying really hard to stay out of political discussions (read: debates, arguments, fracases, free-for-alls, etc.) because it's just getting ugly.

It happened four years ago and four years before that. Maybe it always happened around Presidential elections and I just wasn't paying that much attention before the last two. But I don't think so - I actually tie the increase in uncivil discourse on Presidential politics to the rise in internet use. The internet has made it possible for otherwise civil people to say things they would be ashamed to say to other people's faces. Think about this hypothetical: Let's say your neighbor is a pretty nice guy. He gives you tomatoes from his garden; he asks how you're feeling after you've been sick; he takes in your mail while you're on vacation; he keeps an eye on your kids while they're playing in front of the house. You're not best friends, but you get along fine. You talk about sports - and if he's a Yankee fan and you're a Met fan you do some of that faux trash-talk that guys love to engage in with each other. But neither of you takes it that seriously. Around election time he mentions in passing that he liked Obama's speech the other night. Inside you cringe because you are a longtime Republican who is supporting McCain & you just don't understand why this guy would support Obama. But chances are you just mumble something non-committal or, at worst, you say "Well he's not really my cup of tea." and change the subject. Because really is it worth getting into an argument with your neighbor over this? Or maybe you're a hardcore political guy so you try to explain why you like McCain - but I guarantee you that the words "Fucking liberals" or "Goddamn Socialists" or anything along those lines enters into the discussion. It's just a tepid chat about issues between neighbors and in fairly short order you change the topic to the upcoming weekend storm or the Giants' chances this year.

But then you go onto the internet - doesn't matter where exactly - blog, message board, news site, whatever. You sign in with your online name & you start saying shit that you would NEVER say to someone's face.

For someone like me who is shy & doesn't really do too well in face-to-face social situations, you make a lot of online "friends" over the course of the years you spend on the internet. And even though sometimes you have one thing in common (like in my case sci-fi or a certain television show) that brings you together as friends, you don't always share the same political views. And maybe on occasion a comment or two will slip from you or them that shows you are on opposite sides politically. And maybe you have a discussion about it - but for the most part it's fairly civilized because basically you are friends and overall you like each other so you overlook your differences. Because that's what people do.

Until the Presidential election gets close. And suddenly people become rabid dogs. They post stuff in their Live Journals or their blogs that is just plain insulting. And you wonder what happened to that friendship factor. It's sad to me how people that I like are now at each other's throats over politics. And these are people who liked each other a couple of months ago - but now they've labeled each other as the opposition & so they have to be enemies. Apparently there is no such thing as just plain old disagreeing with someone - because if you think differently than I do, you must be stupid. It's not possible that good people just see things differently than you do - if they don't see things your way than they are "evil" or "misguided". And I can't even count how many informative discussions I've seen derailed by being bogged down by minutae like grammar or tiny unimportant "facts" or ridiculous meaningless trivia. And both sides are guilty of this (and isn't it sad that I have to qualify almost everything these days by saying that because otherwise you get accused of being partisan & once again you get sidetracked down an unimportant path).

There are a lot of things that I find to be "gray" areas in life. And I don't fit into a neat little political box. I self-identify as a libertarian but there are things that they believe that I'm not entirely comfortable with either. I am always fascinated at people who fit so neatly into the Republican or Democratic box and cannot even begin to see that the other side has any valid points at all. Is everything really so black and white to everyone else? Am I the only one who finds that I can sometimes argue both sides of an issue with equal validity?

So mostly I've been avoiding discussing politics in my Live Journal and on this blog. My husband, Chris, as you can tell, is a hardcore Republican who is now in love with Sarah Palin. Once again I find myself seeing two sides to something. I agree with Ms. Palin's views on certain things and on others I have very deep problems with her. While I side with her small government, quasi-libertarian take on issues and I admire her willingness to take on the "politics as usual" politicians, I am having a LOT of trouble getting past her Anti-Choice, Anti-Gay, Pro-Christianity viewpoints. So I can see why both sides would like and dislike her.

I think that the name-calling and the hardcore party affiliating is detrimental to the country. People are so caught up in having their "side" win that they are losing track of the things that are important. And basically most people want the same things: A decent paying job, the ability to provide for themselves and their families, a safe place to live - those are universal desires. We just disagree on how best to get those things.

But having said all of that, there are certain things that have been annoying me about the election and I'd like to get them off my chest.

So here, without further ado, is:

"Crap that's bugging me"

First: a list of things I absolutely don't give a shit about & don't want to hear about anymore:

1) Who has more or the right "experience". Let's face it folks, being President is not exactly a regular job. Can anyone really be totally prepared for this kind of responsibility? And it's not like the President doesn't have access to specialized advisors & research on every single thing that might come up. The point is not how much experience someone has - it has to do with their overall point of view, values, and priorities. Because that is what will guide them in making their future decisions.

2) John McCain, POW. Yes, he's a hero. Yes, I feel sad every time I see that he can't raise his arms all the way. No, it has nothing to do with him being President.

3) Sarah Palin, Bad Mother. Yes her teenage daughter is going to have a baby. So are a gazillion other teenage girls in this country. Some of them have good parents. Some of them have bad parents. Some of them are Christians. Some of them are Atheists. Shit happens. You raise your kids the best way you know how & then they go and do what they will. And you hope that they find their way to adulthood & independence safely & happily. But having a kid that screws up doesn't make someone a bad parent or a bad person. If I hear one more person without kids getting self-righteous about this, I'm going to smack them. If I hear another person with small children or babies say "when my daughter is that age, it'll never happen because I will monitor her day & night & supervise her every breathing moment, blah, blah, blah..." I am going to laugh in their faces & hope that I get to see them again in 15 years. Because you are KIDDING yourself.

4) Sarah Palin, Hockey Mother. Umm, no - she's the Governor. She's not doing the hockey carpool. Not that that makes her a bad mother. She's a working mom who relies on her husband. Which is fine. But don't make it seem like she's the one doing the primary child care right now. She's not. Again - not a bad thing at all - but let's be honest about the situation. Speaking of this...

5) Sarah Palin, Uncaring Monster who has no business going to work while she has five kids and/or a special-needs child. Seriously - are we still doing this now? In 2008? And Dems - I especially wouldn't have expected this from you. You're supposed to be the party for women. And you are pushing back the women's movement forty years. Are we really still saying that a woman has to stay home if she has kids? That she can't have a career? Did you all get on John Edwards' case when he had a sick wife? Are you bitching at Barack because he's got two kids to raise? She has five kids, a supportive husband who is able to do the primary child care, a career that pays her enough to have household help & provide all kinds of medical care for her special needs kid. Sounds like she's way ahead of the game. Most working mothers I know would love to have that kind of situation.

6) "They only chose Sarah Palin because they think we're stupid enough to vote for ANY woman just because she's a woman." Ummm - so it's not possible that there are women who actually AGREE with Palin. They can't possibly be supporting her because they like, respect & agree with her? The only reason to vote for her would be because you're stupid enough to vote for a woman for the sake of being a woman. Again - this is just sexism & it's beneath you, Dems.

7) "McCain has fourteen houses & diamond furniture."/"Obama is an elitist that made a zillion dollars last year." If you think that either one of these guys is not a rich guy with no idea what it's like to eat spaghetti three days in a row because it's cheap, you are kidding yourself. Neither one of them has a clue what it's like to be in the Middle Class. They both have more money, more opportunities, more education, and much different economic concerns than you or I. So there is no point in arguing over this one people. It's a fucking tie. Okay?


And my last thought on this matter: McCain/Obama are so similar in their positions that it is RIDICULOUS that you are all arguing so fiercely.

More after the jump...

My Dream Job.

More after the jump...

LIVE BLOGGING OF MCCAIN'S SPEECH AT 10PM EST.

More after the jump...

Sarah Palin's RNC Speech.

More after the jump...

The good news, She didn't sleep with any of her students.

A teacher at Schallenberger Elementary School in San Jose is on leave pending further investigation into reports that she was "intoxicated while in a classroom," according to police and school officials.

According to police, when the teacher arrived at school Friday morning, her colleagues became concerned that she was inebriated. Her fellow teachers notified school officials, who in turn called San Jose police. Officers who interviewed the teacher did not detect any obvious smell of alcohol but noticed the woman had slurred speech and was stumbling. The woman was given a chemical test and registered more than twice the legal limit of .08, according to police.

Stay classy San Jose.

More after the jump...

Fred Thompson RNC Speech.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

More after the jump...

Wednesday Morning Poll

Sarah Palin
	Do her
	Not Do her
	I'm gay
pollcode.com free polls

More after the jump...

I wonder if this will reduce their property value.

21 years ago I arrived in New York City from Scotland to visit pb, now of Reclaimed Home fame, and was immediatedly fascinated by The Subway. I was an undergrad painting student at the time, and returned to Scotland to begin making full-size replicas of mosaic-ed station names, complete with grafitti and running-water staining.

Reclaimedhome.com

More after the jump...

MSNBC To Oberman: Um, go to New York and cover the hurricane.

You know because that's where the eye of the storm is.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann will not be covering the festivities in Minneapolis-St. Paul, at least for the time being.

Apparently, Olbermann has been sent to New York to cover the hurricane.

More after the jump...

Palin's Daughter Pregnant, Campaign Announces

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."

More after the jump...