September 2008
William M. Isaac - A Better Way to Aid Banks →
This is similar to the plan I pointed to earlier. The key here is using the FDIC to bolster consumer confidence in banks (as per the Obama recommendation for increasing insurance coverage to $250K) as well as to issue senior notes as capital to weaker banks. Isaac also recommends suspending fair-value accounting, which has been proposed before.
It looks like some Democrats in the House are going...
Bailout Fallout: What Should McCain and Obama Do... →
Great, I can’t wait:
“Many Republican strategists believe there is simply no way for McCain to win an economic-focused election by touting his own plans to turn things around. “Go totally negative and don’t let up until election day,” advised Ed Rogers, a longtime Republican strategist and lobbyist. “This election needs to be about Obama and what a liberal he...
Dear Hank and Ben: HERE IS THE SOLUTION →
Henry Blodget echoes fund manager John Hussman, who provides a very simple and insightful explanation of why the bailout plan was bad, in recommending that the government should provide capital directly to the financial industry in the form of “super-bonds” in an amount no greater than the debt to bondholders. These super-bonds would be used like capital, but in the case of bankruptcy...
John McCain hires Sarah Palin’s Kenyan Pastor to... →
Awesome!
Lacking a Good Frowny Face
Americans love politicians that feel their pain. We are desperate for that “connection.” We don’t vote for someone who knows how to craft policy, who can govern. We vote with the gut and pray they know how to read.
Clinton was the true pioneer, the first emo president. Against such power, G.H.W. Bush was toast. Four years later those silly Republicans threw old-man Dole into...
Has Anyone Done The Math? (Another Project)
(image: Michael Shaw on HuffPo)
Out here on the Illinois/Iowa border, we are inundated with McCain ads, nearly all of which fall into some sort of fear-mongering trend. Most show dark shadows and evil clouds and some bulljunk about how Obama is going to raise your taxes and how he’s got no experience at anything ever whatsoever none.
In any case, I’ve noticed something about these...
“When the details of this encounter fade, as they soon will, I think the debate...”
– James Fallows
Early Polls: Obama the Clear Winner
CBS poll of undecideds:
Winner? 39% Obama, 24% McCain, 37% draw Opinion of candidate improved? Obama: 46%, McCain: 32% Right decisions on the economy? 66% Obama, 42% McCain Right decisions on Iraq? 48% Obama, 56% McCain
CNN phone poll (500+ viewers) (from TV):
Winner? Obama 51%, McCain 38%
CNN online poll (unscientific, 80,500 respondents) (via UPI):
Winner? 67% Obama, 28% McCain
NBC...
James Fallows - To be serious about Palin and... →
James Fallows is inscrutable. This is an honest appraisal of Palin. A couple of choice passages:
After thirty years of meeting and interviewing politicians, I can think of exactly three people who sounded as uninformed and vacant as this. All are now out of office. One was a chronic drunk.
Or how about this:
I am not aware of any other current figure in national politics — by which I...
Pollster.com →
The new flash-based maps and graphs at Pollster are awesome.
David Brooks: Thinking About McCain →
Wow, what horseshit! David Brooks is basically saying to vote for the McCain of 1999 (except to also include that window where he was for the surge). Everything else, including the entire campaign: ignore it, and trust that “he will run the least partisan administration in recent times.” Um, what? This is the best the right can come up with? Pathetic.
“Shorter John McCain: I’d rather lose the economy than lose an election.”
– Tim Fernholz
NYT: Talks Implode During a Day of Chaos →
By now, everyone knows that the White House meeting was a bust. This NYT article is must-read stuff, though, for its details. What appears clear is that a bunch of recalcitrant conservatives decided to scuttle the deal at the last minute, introducing alternative CORE ideas at what should have been the meeting to close the deal. What did John McCain do at this meeting? Nothing.
From the article...
Man Falls to Death After Being Tasered →
My God. NYC police tasered a distraught man who was on a ledge, 10 feet off of the sidewalk, and he fell onto his head. The video is hard to watch. Sickening.
Liar's Poker
Jonathan Chait has a must-read article in the next issue of The New Republic that describes McCain’s pattern of lies lo these many months and attempts to explain some reasoning for it.
But what I found interesting was this central premise:
How could McCain—a man widely regarded, not so long ago, as one of the country’s most honor-bound politicians, and therefore an unusually...
“Democrats fear this morning that McCain is setting up a scenario in which he...”
– CQ Politics - Is McCain Preparing to Vote Against the Bailout Bill?
Bill Clinton: Don't 'Overly Parse' McCain Request... →
The NY Times may be in the tank for Obama, but at least good old Bill is in the tank for McCain.
“It’s the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or...”
– Barney Frank
“I think that it is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with...”
– Barack Obama
“You don’t suspend your campaign. This doesn’t smell right. This...”
– David Letterman, after finding out, in the middle of taping tonight’s show, that McCain was down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. McCain had called him earlier in the day to cancel his appearance so he could rush back to DC to deal with the economy. (Drudge)
“We forgave you for Monica, Bill, but we won’t forgive you for this.”
– Paul Slansky: A Note to Bill Clinton
“Bringing the presidential candidates and their press entourages back to Capitol...”
– Josh Marshall
Conspiracy Theory Alert: McCain the Saviour
If you read posts like this one on The Next Right, you’ll see there are a number of Republicans that want to treat the bailout like a political hot potato. As Patrick Ruffini puts it:
A bailout may be inevitable, but so to can be the political benefit for Congressional Republicans if played correctly.
Basically, what Ruffini and others are suggesting is that, since Dems have a majority...
The Fail of Television Remakes for Television
So I spent approximately 43 minutes early yesterday morning watching the new Knight Rider on Hulu. Wow. What an abomination. The acting is bad. The writing is horrendous. The editing is epileptic. But of course the special effects are OK and all the hot chicks get halfway naked or all the way naked or bend over in short skirts all the time.
Much like the Transformers movie was a shameless ad for...
The Ad I Want To See
Here is what I want to see: a comparison of the Obama and McCain tax plans as compared to compensation and golden parachutes of Wall Street executives compared to those of stockholders in those companies.
For example, Martin Sullivan, the CEO of AIG made $13.9 million in 2007 according to this interactive USA Today table. By my 5-second-back-of-the-envelope math, his taxes under McCain would go...
Chris Rock To Bill Clinton: 'Hillary Lost!' →
video of Chris Rock going off on Bill Clinton after Clinton’s bullshit punditry on Letterman last night
Dear American
A letter to Ezra:
Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am...
Andrew Sullivan: The Twelve Lies of Sarah Palin →
“In 2007, Wall Street’s five biggest firms— Bear Stearns, Goldman...”
– Jake Tapper
When Athiests Attack: Sarah Palin and Elitism →
Excortiating and spot on.
NYT: Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2... →
So Obama is the one in the tank for Fannie and Freddie, eh?
Google Pirate →
WatchBlack Cab Sessions: Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun (w/ a bit of California Girls thrown in for good measure)
