Bailing Out the Miscreants

I've been trying to formulate an opinion on the massive financial upheaval in US markets this week, but it hasn't been easy. On Monday and Tuesday came news of collapsing firms in the insurance and banking/brokerage industries. Then the guv'mint stepped in and rescued AIG...the very same government that for so long has shoved the idea of "free" markets down our throats. And now comes word of a $700 billion plan for the Treasury to buy up troubled mortgage holdings from banks.

The plan is huge in size, and is alarming in its lack of transparency:

The proposal was stunning for its stark simplicity: less than three pages, it would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, allowing the Treasury to buy and resell mortgage debt as it sees fit.

So the Treasury gets a blank check to buy troubled mortgages and mortgage-backed securities from the largest and most powerful financial institutions in the country...the very same institutions that lobbied for the repeal og Glass-Steagal, the creation of the securitized mortgage market, and almost total deregulation of financial markets. In other words, the very same firms that created this mess in the first place. And the free market idealogues like Bush, McCain, and the Grover Norquist types infesting Washington are looking more and more like complete idiots every day. Taking the hands of government off the marketplace didn't lead to freedom and prosperity for all...it led to disaster, while those who were already rich got away with even more money. Simply put, they were wrong.

The next question is how we're going to pay for all of this. That problem will likely fall to the next president...and it certainly means higher taxes, but for whom? If McCain is elected, my bet is on the middle class and poor shouldering the entire burden through fewer deductions, increasing use of regressive taxes, and perhaps even an increase in their tax rates. Under an Obama administration, I'm not sure what would happen, but I suspect the burden would fall more heavily on those who can afford it. Another option for footing this bill? Stop the Iraq war. From the article:

A $700 billion expenditure on distressed mortgage-related assets would be roughly what the country has spent in direct costs on the Iraq war and more than the Pentagon’s total yearly budget appropriation. It represents more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Can we afford to continue the pointless war of choice in Iraq with a financial crisis breathing down our necks? Should I have to pay $2000 for the mistakes of rich people and an administration I didn't elect? Or should we simply end this idiotic adventure in Mesopotamia, cut our considerable losses, impeach George W Bush, and focus on our own significant problems? The writing's on the wall, folks. We ignore it at our own peril.

Troopergate, Redux

By now you've heard the story of Troopergate. As governor, Sarah Palin fired Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner. Many say he was fired because he refused to fire Palin's ex brother-in-law. Palin claims that he was fired because of insubordination, for taking an unauthorized trip to Washington. Earlier this week, several Palin-connected witnesses refused to testify after being subpoenaed in the probe, risking contempt citations from the Republican-controlled legislature.

Today comes news that the Public Safety Commissioner in question had authorization to travel from Palin's Chief of Staff Mike Nizich. Another week, another set of lies from the McCain-Palin team.

McCain's Own Idiotic Reality

John McCain is a fucking idiot. I'll repeat that: John McCain is a fucking idiot. In yet another example of Republicans trying to create their own reality, McCain attacked Barack Obama for taking campaign contributions from employees of Fanne Mae and Freddie Mac. McCain must not even know who he's getting his money from...because he's taken more than twice as much from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employees as Obama. He's also taking money from many of the failing Wall Street firms that helped caused our current financial panic. Obama holds the overall advantage in raising money from individuals in the financial industries, but McCain's bundlers clearly show who pulls his strings.

Kettle, pot, black. Maverick? My ass...

Caribou Barbie Roundup

Some hillarious and downright worrisome stuff in the wind recently.


First up, Anne sent me this link recently.


Caribou Barbie comes with:

• Dead Caribou
• M-16
• Snowmobile
• Sexi Librarian Glasses

Matt found the Palin Baby Name Generator. If I'd been born to Sarah Palin, my name would be Commando Coalfire Palin. Sounds downright unelitist and fairly pseudo-patriotic.

And finally, Robert Haaland has a long list of everything wrong with MILFie McMooseBurger. Disturbing stuff.

Apocalypse 9/11 Redux

It’s that time of year again. All the TV stations had to run their 9/11 "tributes" yesterday, paying homage to what was our nation’s greatest intelligence failure, and the beginning of the greatest failure of leadership in our 232 year history. The corporate news stations ran nonstop footage from that day, making sure the horrible images of folks jumping to their death out of burning skyscrapers got prime billing. The History Channel ran nonstop memorials. Another station ran Cops™.

I found myself flipping channels trying to avoid the 9/11 shows. I know enough about it already, and I don’t need to be reminded. But at times (mostly during ads) I flipped back to the 9/11 news coverage. It’s like a giant car wreck on the side of the road; you can’t help but look. I was surprised at the sheer amount of disinformation put out by supposedly responsible "journalists." I can forgive more innocuous mistakes, like identifying the large twin-engine plane that hit the tower as a 727. But some of the more egregious errors (e.g. we’ve heard that a plane will hit the towers every 30 minutes) are unforgiveable. It wasn’t long after that when the major networks started incorporating flags into the logos they ran constantly on the screen. And the flags only got bigger as George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq. Do you really trust a network so easily swayed by jingoism to give you news?

Seven years ago, America had the sympathy of the world. A new president, albeit an unelected one, had the confidence of a shocked and horrified nation seeking justice...not vengeance, but justice. I grew up in a America that believed in justice...or so I was told. There was a fundamental fairness about Americans. That, combined with a can-do attitude and a gargantuan work ethic made us the most admired and prosperous people in the developed world. But I guess my peers, parents, and many others didn’t get the same education I did, because since those days America has impeached a President over a blowjob, put a complete dunce in the Oval Office, started several ill-advised and unnecessary wars of conquest, and has largely dismantled the middle class that once made it a great nation. It’s painful to think of what we’ve squandered.

Fucked up t-shirt seen today at O’Hare:
"Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms: it should be the name of a convenience store, not a government agency."

I hope Prophet Koresh and his cult members (including the ones he molested, then got killed) are gazing comfortably down from Heaven and are laughing at that.

T Boone Pickens...Retread

You might not have heard of T Boone Pickens before, but if you watch TV in this day & age, you've probably seen his ads on wind power and natural gas cars. He's also paid to get Prop 10 on the California ballot, which would mandate subsidies for natural gas vehicles.

If you've only seen the ads and the fluff news stories, you might think Pickens is a wealthy philanthropist who's trying to wean America off its dependence on foreign oil. But the truth is far from that. Pickens is a billionaire oil speculator who owns significant natural gas and wind power holdings, and he'd profit handsomely from passage of prop 10 and a widespread move to natural gas and wind power. He's also the money behing Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group founded to slander John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign.

Do we really want a rich right-wing corporate raider from the oil industry using his petro dollars to gain undue influence over US and state energy policy? Seems to me he's unfit for command.

Our So-Called Liberal Media

Sarah Palin is about to get another prime time hagiography, this time from ABC's right wing lapdog Charles Gibson. A made-for-TV moment will have Palin's son ship off to Iraq on September 11 while the rest of the family cries for the cameras. MSNBC has fired Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews from coverage of Election 2008 after the Republican Party and its protofascist operatives complained. All this while Rush Limbaugh, Joe Scarborough, and the Entire Fox network still have jobs. The rest of the corporate media has latched onto any national poll showing a tight presidential race, no matter how bad the poll's methodology or how irrelevant national polls are. In an era where even Karl Rove's own electoral map polls show McCain going down to a sizeable defeat, they expect us to believe that the race is a dead heat.

After 8 years of Republican incompetence, graft, and downright malicious governance, Barack Obama is in a position to win an electoral landslide of Reaganesque proportions (thanks to JoeP and Matt for that term). But the MSM doesn't make money by practicing good (or fair) journalism, covering stories accurately, or standing up to right wing bullies. Instead, the MSM makes money by selling ad space to some of the very corporations that have benefited most from Republican policies. And much of the MSM is in fact owned by the military-industrial complex. Westinghouse owns CBS...GE owns NBC. Disney owns ABC. And Rupert Murdoch owns Faux News and the Wall Street Journal. And even in the newsroom, you dance with the one what brung ya.

So please, shut the fuck up about the media. It's only as liberal as the conservative businesses that own it.