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Believe it or not, nothing I am interested in, which is odd. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts are huge, of course, and a bad thing. I think getting KO and Matthews out of the seat is a good thing, but the thing is they will just throw some fool in there who pretends to be neutral then recites GOP talking points, so I am not sure that is preferable to Matthews and KO.
At any rate, I am sure something will motivate me later.
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[…] Stung by criticisms that Keith Olbermann is too liberal, MSNBC declares Keith and Tweety will not anchor the political coverage, but David Gregory, a reliable repeater of RNC talking points, will do it himself. Atrios has a good description of Olbermann’s so-called liberalism: “I’ll just add, for the hundredth time, that Keith Olbermann’s expressed ‘liberalism’ is almost entirely limited to a dislike and distrust of the Bush administration, a view shared by 70% of the public, and a concern for civil liberties and executive power abuse. On top of that he has a somewhat liberal ’sensibility,’ but his show covers little of the broader ‘liberal agenda.’ But he makes Tom Brokaw uncomfortable so, you know.” So the Republicans aren’t happy with a news anchor who doesn’t disagree with 70% of the public, and NBC accommodates them with someone who treats weirdo right-wing Republican hackery as if it makes sense. (John Cole was prescient, but that wasn’t hard.) You could call them on (212) 664-4444 or fax them on (212) 664-4426 to tell them this is outrageous right-wing bias on their part, of course. But there are other reasons why they won’t pay attention. (Write or phone anyway, just because.) […]
jake
Have you been reading the Washington Post’s excerpts of The War Within?
Woodward will be taking questions at 1 ET.
greynoldsct00
I read that the fool that they are putting in place of KO and Tweety is David Gregory…
smiley
It’s David Gregory. He’s up to the task.
greynoldsct00
I agree, I find him to be pretty even-handed
The Moar You Know
God help the next president, whoever it is. The Treasury has decided to bet the farm and is putting the US taxpayers on the line as the bagholders.
wasabi gasp
David Gregory has more words than a sentence could ever need.
smiley
I was being sarcastic. I find him a fool who pretends to be neutral then recites GOP talking points. He’s a master of conventional wisdom.
oh really
Man, we’re a few months from Armageddon and the Rapture and John can’t find anything that interests him.
Sounds like clinical depression.
How about the finer points of moose hunting?
Billy K
He’s a master of making himself look Maverick-y. Remember when he was pissing off W in Press Conferences for a while, asking some unapproved questions? Looks like it wasn’t that he actually cared, he just like the spotlight it gave him..
He’s a hack.
Also, why is it MSNBC is not allowed to have someone with an opinion (read: Liberal) anchor a broadcast, but it’s perfectly OK for Fox?
wasabi gasp
You think Bush is gonna step up today and tell everybody they’re all homeowners now?
Laura W
Throwing Joe Blow out of his big fat three-hour-plus seat would be even better.
One of the many great things about Maddow getting her own show is that she will no longer be forced to slum with Joe and Pat on panel shows. (Specifically, Gregory’s.) Joe is infinitely more boorish and infuriating toward other people on air than Tweety and KO ever were, or could be. And they are often right, unlike Joe.
Switching to CNN: What on earth is Rick Sanchez’s major malfunction? The guy is too cute by 90 and a half, and clearly suffers from delusions of relevancy and wit. My skin hurts whenever I hear him blather. He’s like a horrible B-rate comic on coke.
Sam Hutcheson
On the MSNBC changes, I don’t think it’s really a political move. I think there are two factors that made them pull that plug. First, MSNBC still ranked dead last in viewership. Bottom lines don’t get ignored even at “liberal biased” MSNBC. Second, you don’t get much less professional than Matthews and Olberman sniping at each other on air. That’s just bush league. It’s a firing offense in and of itself.
Laura W
Glad you brought up Rick Sanchez.
I admit to not quite yet grokking The Twitter, but his last few shows allow the viewer to watch him Twitter (it’s a verb too, right?) on air, LIVE!
Rick S: “What R U seeing out UR window now in Key West?”
That is some riveting shit.
CT
What Laura W said.
Sanchez is fingernails on a chalkboard, only the chalkboard is my brain. I can’t even put my finger on why-its not any one thing-I just find the entirety of his being repulsive.
dewberry
Matthews–he gives bloviators a bad name. Can’t say I’m sorry to see him go; he made no sense have the time anyway and you can’t really say he was on our side. He struck me as someone who just said whatever idea popped into his head and then believed it with the force of a thousand blowdryers.
And as far as KO, he seems to be a guy you’d hate to have as your boss or probably even be in the same room with when the camera’s off. But, up to now he’s been the only one to actually call bullshit ever.
kid bitzer
i gotta disagree, john.
the significance of olbermann’s getting the can is that the rove/mccain administration just proved, once again, that it can and will use putin-esque strong-arm tactics to punish any media outlet that speaks up against it.
and msnbc just proved, once again, that the gutless media has still not grown enough spine to fight back.
much of the current dysfunction–dsyfunction that you care about–stems from the utter cravenness of the press.
this episode shows that the rot is unchecked, and will spread even more widely during the new rove restoration.
it really matters.
Batrack
Great e-mail response to fight the smears:
Dear friend,
I received your email with the attachment about Sarah Palin. While this report might be scary and threatening to some, to me it sounds like the same the kind of trash written about Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and even Barack Obama. However, since the Clintons are no longer in the race we can leave them out. But what I wonder is why it’s okay to say that Palin is a fundamentalist Christian but not okay to ask why Obama spent twenty years in the pews of Jeremiah Wright’s intolerant church? And why is it okay to allege that Palin wants to destroy Alaska’s wildlife but not okay to ask if Obama plans to support Hamas instead of Israel? And people can can accuse Palin of racism based on rumor and hearsay but not hold Obama accountable for playing the race card, quoting Malcolm X and accusing good people, particularly the Clintons, of racism. While I may not agree with Palin’s politics, I am unmoved by the smear campaign launched against her. Please do not send me any more political emails. While this e-mail goes to great lengths to appear to be politically correct and to be doing me a favor, it’s actually savaging someone’s reputation based on shoddy evidence or outright lies. After forty years of voting for the Democratic candidate for president, I want you to know that these sexist and hateful lies against Sarah Palin you forwarded go against the reason I am a Democrat. Therefore, under no circumstance will I be voting for Obama.
Best Regards
Incertus
Well, there’s always the startup of the Large Hadron Collider to worry about, I guess.
As far as Rick Sanchez is concerned, it doesn’t get any better than when he had himself tasered on live tv. That was a whole lot of awesome.
strawmanmunny
If McCain wins this election, I will have to do some soul searching. For the last eight years, I hung on to the thought that people would come around and see this adminstration and the Republican party for what I saw.
Totally inept and constantly belittling,lying and just plain out there. However, if McCain wins, I am going to have to realize that is what a majority of Americans want.
They evidently LOVE the macho BS and the belittling of other Americans. They evidently don’t mind the lying as long as their leaders recite to them just how great this country is and how we can blow everyone else up. They don’t care that we will have the same economic and foreign policy of the last eight years, as long as a black man and his hippy friends don’t get in the White House.
I was disheartened after the ’04 election, I think I will just give up on my country after the ’08 one. Truly, I can not believe that one woman, which no one even cares to find out about, can change this election. Can America be so superficial?
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Add Rachael Maddow to the club, even one-upping KO Friday night when she called McCain out on lying.
Somerby’s blood pressure may have actually dropped…
Balconesfault
What’s bad – the bailouts, or the ideology that got us here once again?
It’s about time people accept one simple fact. If Government is going to guarantee something – it needs to be involved in managing, or at least heavily regulating it.
There are lots of smart people out there who will always be looking to make money by buying something on Uncle Sam’s tab, selling it on E-Bay, and then spinning the gains out in multiple directions so Uncle Sam can’t do cost recovery when the bill comes due.
In other words – if you’re going to be a Big Government, take it seriously, and don’t just keep being a Big Government as a matter of last resort (when it’s least efficient to accomplish).
Crusty Dem
Beautiful northwest morning. Plus in two days Comcast will finally hook up my Internet (no more iPhone posting).
On a side note, anybody know how to open up a foreign bank account? I’m thinking Switzerland, Germany, or England; somewhere safe from the deletrious effects of big shitpile. I’m not putting my house-selling profits in the US market right now..
Brian J
As I said on a Steve Benen post, I suspect this move by MSNBC was PR more than anything else. Is there a huge difference between being an analyst and an anchor, aside from a few more minutes of air time? I haven’t done any studies of the format, but each time I turn on those channels during a special night, it seems to be the same for all channels. They have one or two main people, and then go to some round table-style discussion. If Matthews and Olbermann are still going to be featured as prominently or nearly as prominently on air, it’s not going to be a huge difference.
Brachiator
Well, there are new iPods and other Apple products coming Tuesday.
I think this means that when Armageddon and the Rapture comes, you’ll be able to download it on iTunes.
Tsulagi
It’s the ownership society they were talking about. Just another byproduct of success.
Chris Johnson
OK, I’m missing something. The government got Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews fired? Say what? I want to follow Olbermann even more now, perhaps on Youtube, and what the heck did Tweety ever do besides go off on a guy for not knowing what Chamberlain did that’s called ‘appeasement’?
I think it’s actually a bad sign when they start having ‘Saturday Night Massacres’ because it’s a sign that things are coming apart at the seams and desperation is setting in.
Bad for the Bush junta, I mean. Break in the clouds, for us.
SGEW
The Apocalypse will be podcast.
greynoldsct00
Still beats Tweety, IMO
Crusty Dem
oh, and don’t worry about the LHC, Incertus, unless Hawking is off by a factor of 10^9, any small black hole will decay long before it can acquire more mass.
Sorry.
Church Lady
Both Olbermann and Matthews deserved to be dismissed from anchor positions during election coverage. MSNBC made the right call.
Opining on their own shows is appropriate. Opining as a panel member hired for opinion commentary (as Rachel Maddow, Pat Buchanan, Eugene Robinson, et al did) is appropriate. Soliciting opinion from a guest is appropriate. Offering opinion, while sitting in the anchor chair, is not.
The egos run amok is also disturbing. Watching Keith wrangling with others on the MSNBC crew made me embarrassed for him and for them. Keith has a history of contentious relations with co-workers and management during previous stints with ESPN (where is was said that he didn’t just burn bridges, he napalmed them) and Fox Sports. I used to love him. Now, I find him almost unbearable to watch. His head is now so large that it barely fits on my television screen.
I hope David Gregory is up to the job. If not, I’ll just surf back and forth between CNN and Fox during the debates.
Dennis - SGMM
Odd, innit, that the mention of Universal Health Care causes most Republicans to go into screaming fits about “socialized medicine” but, they can’t wait to sign on to socialized mortgage lending.
Andrew
Not bailing them out is worse.
Estimates show that even with the taxpayer bailout, F and F have still been a net gain for American taxpayers because they saved so much money on mortgages with them.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Famous last words: “Forgot to carry the one…”
The Moar You Know
It’s not the foreign bank that makes it safe, it’s having those monies in a non-US currency. That has some legal issues that you would probably need to see a tax lawyer about, assuming you want to keep everything on the up-and-up.
Did anyone notice that the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout was on the same day (September 7th) as the first of the government bailouts, that of Chrysler Motors, back in 1979? Does someone in Treasury have a sick sense of humor?
Brian J
“Well, there are new iPods and other Apple products coming Tuesday.”
After I’ve bought my iPhone and started becoming more interested in technology issues and news, I’ve been convinced I should have been a computer science major in college. Then I could have done something like creating only a tenth as big as Facebook or YouTube, sold it for millions of dollars, and then started to live off the interest before turning thirty. Or I could have tried to work for Apple. I went into the Apple store the other day. I needed something better to protect my phone, and after being in there for less than 15 minutes, I was $55 poorer. And don’t think I wasn’t impressed that my receipt was e-mailed to me within minutes of me walking out the door.
The Moar You Know
A surefire way to get both sides of the debate, the ultra-conservative and the Neanderthal.
bootlegger
The Rapture is coming?! Cool! Does anyone know if there is a website taking bets on who will be raptured? It’s going to be so awesome when those people finally disappear.
Blue Buddha
How about the finer points of shooting wolves from planes?
Brian J
“Did anyone notice that the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout was on the same day (September 7th) as the first of the government bailouts, that of Chrysler Motors, back in 1979? Does someone in Treasury have a sick sense of humor?”
My brother’s friend and I were talking about this yesterday. I think he said that this was really arranged on Friday night, after the markets had closed, so as to limit any potential fallout.
liberal
The Moar You Know wrote,
I could be wrong, but my impression from the 1040 is that this is the case when you have a foreign bank account.
There are vehicles that allow you to get exposure to foreign currencies w/o having a bank account. (Not that I think the bank account thing is a bad idea.)
I’ve used BEGBX (disclosure: I have no conflict of interest here, just own the fund) as a way to hedge against the dollar. It basically invests in European government bond funds, but has the not-so-common property of not hedging back into dollars.
I don’t think it’s great—it’s not clear to me that it’s been as good as a pure Euro play would have been in the few years—but for me it feels somewhat reassuring.
I guess you could also pick a country and a bank therein you think is safe, and get a CD.
SGEW
We’re all burned out from the ridiculousness of the campaign season. Over-sensitized, like when you spend too much time rubbing . . . well, you know.
There are a good half-dozen news items today that would be quite noteworthy in a “normal” news cycle (Woodward’s bombshell, two “petrodictators having a li’l boat practice as the new cold war gets underway, the Mae and Mac collapse, Hurricane Ike, the Anthrax investigation, the cross-border strike in Pakistan and the outrage over previous strikes in Afghanistan, etc. etc. etc.), but it all seems so . . . quotidian after the past week of super-silly season.
Politics is bad for your brain. I blame the media.
liberal
Church Lady wrote,
Yes—those neutral, unbiased MSM journalists never opine from the anchor chair.
[/sarcasm]
liberal
Billy K wrote,
Yeah.
Kinda like Mike Allen, who IIRC was working for the Washington Post at the time. He clobbered Bush by asking why Bush insisted on testifying before some Congressional committee with Cheney (as opposed to alone—and of course also not under oath, with no record of the testimony allowed, etc).
Now (he’s at the Politico) he seems like your generic right-wing pr*ck.
mark
Can someone ask Palin to sign a pledge that if she’s not raptured in X years, we can have the country back?
Also, is anyone up there investing in refuge hotels?
chopper
that’s what scares me – who honestly thinks that a government that doesn’t believe in oversight is going to do a good job overseeing a corporation that went under because it didn’t believe in oversight?
Kali's Little Sister
I worked briefly for a guy who had been a Pentacostal preacher. Example: I walked back to my office after stepping out for a quick word with a colleague. He was standing at my office door, looking inside, mouth open, looking worried. When I walked up behind him he yelped and let out a big sigh of relief. He said that since I appeared to be so suddenly absent, with computer on and a file open, he immediately thought of the rapture.
Whenever I see Palin I think of that hopeless nutjob. It makes it so much harder to be apathetic.
SGEW
“The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then gets elected and proves it.” -P.J. O’Rourke
charlotte
I’m sick of sleeping with Sarah. She keeps me up all night and is just way too loud. She’s pretty but some of her habits are starting to annoy me. I think I may want to see other people. Maybe if I screw up my courage, I can break up with her tomorrow night over dinner. Or maybe next week would be better. Maybe Mom can give me some advice on how to tackle this. I owe Mom a call anyway …
KO and CM suck as anchors. They’ll be around and will continue opining and that’s fine–that’s what they’re there for, burning with the light of a thousand suns–or blowdriers, like the rascal said. I’m hoping that MSNBC is looking not only to raise its ratings but also to cover its ass now that Rachel Maddow is coming on board … And not a moment too late. Rachel’s the one I want to blow the lid off. Over and over again.
I wish I could drink myself into oblivion and wake up — or not — on November 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th. Does that make me a bad pistol packing mother?
Ecks
How about this for a wake up call then. New byline for advertising:
“Sarah Palin wants to force America’s women to have rapists babies.”
It’s shocking, would get PLENTY of free airplay from “journalists,” (they’re not pro right wing (outside fox), they’re pro gaudy, and the right wing is just better at giving them gaudy), and has the unusual benefit of being true.
ksmiami
But when the rapture comes, don’t we get all their shit?
Laura W
I am so stealing that line.
Kali's Little Sister
Oh. And Wonkette has an ugly reminder of David Gregory dancing with the Beast. I would share if I knew how (does that make me sound Republican?)
I can’t vouch for the vid as I opted not to watch it. I use my eyes for reading and stuff, so, couldn’t risk it.
SGEW
Oh, and as long as I’m quote mining, here’s the (apocraphyl?) exchange between Adlai Stevenson and a supporter that’s been worrying me recently:
Supporter: “Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!”
Stevenson: “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!”
Laura W
Word.
I said as much in a previous thread and promised to move to BC, as in Vancouver. Unlike 04, I may follow thru this time. Now when some guy drops by and calls you a “DRA-MA Mama” or another offers to send you money so you can send him a postcard a day as proof of your feelings and/or move out of the country, you just tell them that you believe what you said with the force of a thousand blowdryers.
Church Lady
Re Fannie and Freddie: From what I’ve read about the way the deal has been structured (Time and Post), it doesn’t appear that taxpayers will be completely on the hook. It’s the common shareholder’s who are going to get completly hosed. If I was a retiree, and was heavily invested in either one, I’d be crying right now.
Dreggas
They should be pissed as well, the ones who are protected in this gov’t take over are shareholders like banks in China, Japan and elsewhere who have been basically funding the debt we have including the shitpile that is Fannie/Freddie.
liberal
bootlegger wrote,
Well, there’s that awesome last page in the Onion’s Our Dumb Century which has Jesus appearing at the top of a golden staircase, and all the Christian Right folks walking up to heaven. I think Falwell is quoted as saying “there will be a shared hatred of gays,” and someone else (Buchanan?) says “So long, suckers!”
On a more serious note, if McThug gets elected, we might all be raptured if he gets us in a shooting war with Russia.
dj spellchecka
My Palin “frame”
She’ll be Tina to John’s Mel as they recreate “Mad Mac: Beyond Palindrome.”
she’s the glamorous, feisty frontier mayor who rules her post apocalyptic community with an iron fist while he fights the endless war for oil….
i need a photoshop of this…
rusty
liberal
OK, here’s the Onion bit.
The Moar You Know
I don’t know what part of “the federal government is explicitly standing behind” the 5 trillion dollars of debt that FNM/FRE hold doesn’t put taxpayers 100% on the hook. I guess we really are all part of Bush’s “ownership society” now – you and I and everyone else here just bought a bunch of crap debt, debt I wouldn’t have bought at 25 cents on the dollar.
Heckuva job, Paulson.
Although you are correct that the common shareholders are going to be completely wiped how. Funny how nobody is backing the little guy, isn’t it?
liberal
Church Lady wrote,
Right, but I thought the much bigger issue is whether bondholders will be made whole. (Bigger in terms of amount of money.)
Uncle Sam could still genuflect to the idol of “Too Big To Fail,” and yet at least force bondholders to take a small haircut.
Jeff
Can someone help me explain to my relatives that just because we have not been attacked in the US in the past seven years, does not mean the Bush administration has been doing a good job and we are safer now.
Also, if Obama is elected, Israel will not be destroyed.
Laura W
Speaking of the Rapture and Alan Ball, who else here is replaying one of the best 6FU opening sequences on endless brain loop?
The fundamental goofball lady in her car listening to gospel music who witnesses a truckload of blow-up dolls break free and take to the heavens? I miss 6FU desperately, and as soon as I get myself The DVD player, I’m getting the final season from eBay.
I really, REALLY, am not overly-fond of Sarah’s voice.
Has much the same effect on my nervous system as Rick Sanchez’s. And McInsane’s. I probably need B-6, like my acupuncturist said. All that Ketel One must surely be depleting it.
MobiusKlein
Sorry, The Rapture has already happened, and all the true Christians were taken up.
tBone
On the one hand, I applaud KO and Tweety being booted from the anchor desk. Their on-air behavior was incredibly unprofessional and embarrassing.
On the other hand, it’s infuriating that the “liberal” media is so quick to go ass-up when the righties start squealing. Brit Hume has been sucking Republican cock and regurgitating the resultant talking points for years on Fox, but it would be beyond the pale to ever suggest that he should be removed from his anchor position. Charlie Gibson? Why, he’s that nice man from Good Morning America. How could you ever accuse him of being a faithful GOP parrot? Wolf Blitzer? Hey, he’s got a cool name, leave him alone.
In a functional media landscape, none of the assholes listed above would ever be anchoring major news shows. But they are, and if there’s one liberal counterpart to them? Roll out the fainting couches and grab the smelling salts.
If al-Queda was smart, they’d forget about terrorist attacks and just start pumping funding into more talk radio and 24-hour cable news networks. It would be a much quicker and cheaper way of destroying America.
KRK
A bit of advice for young folks not familiar with early 1980s rapturology:
Your safest location will be a bar where the TV’s on.
liberal
Jeff wrote,
I think the best explanations are:
(1) The idea of the post hoc fallacy,
(2) That 9-11 was a one-off exploitation of a very peculiar flaw that cannot be repeated (see uggabugga.blogspot.com for more)
Oh, that one is easy: “any country that targets Israel with WMDs will be turned quickly to a very large, radioactive parking lot.”
SGEW
Classic. Truly classic.
liberal
The Moar You Know wrote,
Yeah, that puts it better than I did.
Xenos
I have been researching real estate in Europe – Germany has kept itself out of the shitpile by maintining lending standards, while France, Spain, the Netherlands and Britain are deep in it. Who knows what will happen to the Euro when Spain and France need a weak currency to inflate themselves out of their shitpile and the Germans tell them to get stuffed. Should be interesting.
Incertus
I’m not worried. I figure that if they’re wrong, I’ll blink out of existence so quickly I won’t have time to notice it.
Notorious P.A.T.
What about those polls that show McCain taking a lead? When I red about that I literally became physically ill.
Joshau Norton
That’s OK. Palin will explain to John “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout no economics” McCain. As soon as her handlers explain it to her, that is. Right now she doesn’t know what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do – or how they’re funded.
GSD
This nation is sleepwalking and cheerleading to Armageddon.
McCain has proven to be a malleable cipher of the far right.
Palin is the Manchurian Candidate for the Hagee/Dobson set.
The media, after watching Amy Goodman getting thrown in the clink and after watching what happened to Joe and Val Wilson are buckling under?
This is the equivalent of that that tank round that whacked out a few reporters in the early days of the Iraq war.
Hell, Bush wanted to target Al Jazeera’s offices.
This game is over. Voter caging, the Pelosi collapse, the Bush/Rove DOJ.
Welcome to The New World Order.
-GSD
liberal
SGEW wrote,
OK, one last post: You know
Christ converts to Islam, right?
SGEW
This is actually a real tough one, for people who are unfamiliar with (or downright hostile to) basic logic. The “this necklace keeps tigers away” argument (aka the Lisa Simpson theorem) may help to point out the inherent fallacy in their “we’re safer now” mindset.
Problem here is that a lot of people think that negotiating with Palestine (or other “Arabs”) is automatically, de facto, dangerous to Israel. You will have to convince them that diplomacy>sabre rattling for Israel’s long-term interest.
Unless they’re Rapturists, who want Israel to be destroyed, but only after the Temple Mont is rebuilt. Those people should be slyly disenfranchised: tell them to vote on Wednesday.
Darkness
On a side note, anybody know how to open up a foreign bank account?
Having been through this, I can tell you what we did. We walked into banks in Germany and Netherlands (which supposedly has looser banking laws) no one would give us an account. Post 911 real banking laws against laundering were finally put in place. And long f*cking overdue too, so we only complained a little. Any Swiss would happily give us an account, but without our paychecks getting deposited they would not give us an atm card that would work outside switzerland. See, they didn’t care what you did with the account, but because the ATM system has some slack in it, they could potentially end up out $500 or so. The only bank that would do for us what we wanted was the swiss post bank postfinance.ch.
Joshau Norton
That would only be a convincing argument if the Bush Administration didn’t take over until 9/12.
And how safe would we be be if we allowed his Dubai and Arab friends to take over our ports like he wanted? Nothing like giving the terrorists a safe haven and a cover to infiltrate the country at its most vulnerable points.
SGEW
I recommend reading Josh Marshall’s and Nate Silver’s take on it.
Four words, two concepts: Ground Game/Electoral College
Jeff
They are actually died in the wool liberals who have never voted for a Republican. They all voted for Kerry 4 years ago. It is just McCain is a “maverick” and one relative actually told me Obama is unpatriotic and a racist. It’s enough to make me scream. At least they are in-laws.
SGEW
Ooh, yes. Forgot about that one. My all time fave:
Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs. ‘Oh Shit’ Says Humanity.”
Gay Veteran
You don’t think the taxpayers will be stuck with the bill of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? ROFLOL, try $300 BILLION:
U.S. Takeover of Fannie, Freddie Offers
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aWg_UqhhCrYU&refer=home
what the hell, just put in on Bush’s Chinese Express credit card. I don’t have kids who will have to pay the tab, so who cares.
SGEW
Huh. Y’know, this raises an interesting question. Do the “Log Cabin Republicans” have a secret agenda? Some crazy anti-breeder plot to destroy the world while getting rich in their lifetime, because they won’t have kids anyway? (What’s wrong with adoption, anyway? And “baby in a vat” should be possible within the next few decades)
It’s fucked up, but it might be the only thing that makes sense.
Xenos
These are secured loans, and even if the processing costs are a nightmare of accounting and legal fees, I doubt the remaining value of the security (the houses) will go to zero. Not everywhere will be Detroit.
I hope.
chopper
totally. apparently she thinks both were already taxpayer-funded. sheesh, what an idiot.
srv
For foreign currencies, look at the FX* funds, like FXE (Euros). Euro has fallen quite a bit in the last month, wouldn’t expect much of an uptick soon. Yen is going up.
I would look at Czech Crowns (krona) – I thought they’d already switched to the Euro, but haven’t. People back from there say the Crown has increased so much, the locals expect to get a better deal (and EU’ers are investing heavily with such a good buy). Strategically, I’m betting the US and EU powers-that-be will do whatever is economically required to pull Poland, Czech, and Slovakia closer sooner than later, lest the bear lord too much over their economies.
The Moar You Know
I’m seeing a lot of this recently. People are actually buying it. They think McCain really is an anti-Bush “maverick” and therefore a far safer bet than Obama, who is “unpatriotic” (black) and “racist” (unapologetically black).
Said it before and I’ll say it again; I hope this nation gets the government it needs, rather than the government it deserves.
Joshau Norton
Nothing. But the bigot wankers empty the pews every election by putting some anti-gay item du jour on a local ballot. This year it’s about denying gays the opportunity to adopt since the anti-marriage movement has run its course in states that will support it.
Xenos
It has been
yearsdecades since I read Heinlein. Whatever happened to his future history where the American Ayatollahs took over? I vaguely remember that it was not pretty.Kali's Little Sister
Still confused. Why is maverick – a guy out on his own, going his own way – the right credentials to galvanize, influence and lead 300 million diverse people?
Hell, I’ll concede him the maverick title if he wants it. That is exactly how everyone else in the world saw Bush. Maverick = Same.
The Moar You Know
It won’t be zero, but think about what we’ve already seen in Southern California. My house here in San Diego has taken a 25% hit in two years, and I live in one of the least affected areas. Some zip codes here are looking at 40+ % losses from the peak – and we’re not done declining by a longshot.
50 cents on the dollar is a 2.5 trillion dollar liability. This country cannot afford that, period, unless we hyperinflate the dollar.
Kali's Little Sister
crap. I’ll concede the maverick title to him.
Friends don’t let friends blog angry.
Punchy
This feels like 2004 Kerry redux. I sense the same result, alas.
jibeaux
Well, as long as we’re on THAT…
SGEW
Additionally, he is Arab/Muslim/Liberationist. Do not underestimate the religious factor here! A vast swathe of Americans really, truly believe that we are in an “invisible war” with Islam and other “false faiths” (not to mention Atheism!).
Even if they don’t actually think that he’s a straight-out (or “secret”) Muslim, any little doubt or implication that he’s of a “different” faith lights up red flags in their minds.
I myself, naturally, blame faith in general for this. Faith + Politics = Fail.
Martin
Of course it was. The markets have turned ‘knee jerk’ into an actual science. You put it out there on Friday so the markets have time to process the information and not feel as though they need to buy/sell/explode in the next 4 seconds lest they wind up bankrupt.
People can only discover and process information so quickly and dumping a major piece of information without building in that time is, frankly, irresponsible.
SGEW
Yeah, but public sentiment seems to be much less homophobic on the issue of adoption (for some reason). It’s not as much of a barn-burning, GOTV tactic for the fundamentalists as the whole marriage thing.
jibeaux
To paraphrase Chris Rock, whatever happened to stupid? Don’t we have people who are dumber than a stump anymore?
:)
Alan
As a Republican, all she’ll need to know is FM and FM are innovative dumping grounds for bad loans schemed up by Investment Banks on Wall Street. It’s where government bears the load of bad debt. Very much like a nonprofit insurance company set up by the State of Florida becomes the dumping ground for risky policies leaving the gravy for the private for profit companies. Or when for profit insurance companies see their profits dissolve away due to pesky old people using too many prescription drugs. The government sets up a prescription drug benefit to bear the load. Republican Economics is all about preserving corporate profits while finding innovative ways for government to take on the risk. After all, the corporate risk takers are the ones who employ America.
Martin
Countries with mavericks at the helm are called ‘rogue nations’. It would be prudent for people to consider that.
srv
Man, am I glad nobody listened to this kook 5 years ago.
handy
This feels like 2004 Kerry redux. I sense the same result, alas.
Which would make an Obama victory all the more remarkable should he be able to pull it off.
John S.
Dolphin spokesman says, “Thanks for all the fish.”
Tsulagi
I’d go with that.
MSNBC is simply engaging in a little friendly preemptive assupery. They saw patriot righties and McCain were mad and called CNN names when one of their reporters, Campbell Brown, dared to question a McCain spokesperson about the depth of Palin’s command experience as titular Commander Gal of the AKNG. Butthurt, McCain then took his ball and cancelled a scheduled interview with CNN.
It’s all about the balls.
SGEW
Bizzarely, this is part of Obama’s plan. Check out th’ electoral calculus: he has to hold on to the Kerry states (i.e., the national, big media market game) while picking up a few Gore states (mid-west) and only one or two new ones (VA, CO, IA, whatever).
If Obama wins the Kerry and Gore states (and he’s a gonna do, I believe), McCain has to will all of the remaining swing states. Which he most likely cannot do (check out this thread on Obsidian Wings to get a glimpse of how the legendary yet mostly-invisible “ground game” is going).
Win.
[Though, of course, this may lead to Obama winning the electoral and McCain winning the popular, or the 269-269 tie perfect storm, or a combination thereof. New Constitutional Convention, anyone?]
Martin
Correct. There’s no prize for winning the polls. If you want to be President, win the election instead.
tBone
And, incidentally, John McCain didn’t have a ball to play with for 5 1/2 years. He couldn’t even play with his own balls due to his injuries. Because he was a POW, see, which you might not know because the lieberal media never mentions it. Also, he’s a maverick – and the lieberal media doesn’t want you to know that either.
Now that Olbermann and Matthews got slapped down, maybe MSNBC will finally engage in some fair and balanced coverage of McCain’s epic mavericky heroicness.
Adrienne
It’s fine. Don’t overreact to it. National tracking polls don’t mean shit. They may help with predicting the popular vote, but the popular vote doesn’t mean shit either. If it did, we’d probably be coming to the end of eight Gore years and 16 years of Democratic rule. Hell, we might be damn near energy independent.
My hypothesis, which is based on where McCain’s numbers are coming from, is that this McCain bump is coming largely from already safe Republican base states where he moved people who are Republicans anyway – mostly evangelicals in the south – but were holding themselves out as independents/undecideds because they didn’t trust or particularly like McCain.
Let’s remember that the evangelical nutjob wing of the Republican party were downright hostile to McCain. The convention and the pick of fellow evangelical nutjob Gov. Palin as VP only served to shore up the base in states where McCain probably would have won anyway, but was underperforming compared to Obama – states like Alaska, Georgia, South Carolina, etc.
This hypothesis is born out of the fact that the recent polls out of true battleground states don’t show much movement to McCain. I also take issue with many of these polls coming out that don’t have crosstabs or release their weighting. I mean, McCain up by 3-5% is somewhat believable given the conventional convention bounce in addition to the truncated schedule which I believe seriously cut into Obama’s potential conventional bounce. But, McCain up by 10%? Pure bullshit. I want to see party id breakdown, racial breakdown, and regional breakdowns on these polls or I can’t take even begin to take them seriously.
Also, Obama didn’t have a chance to ride his bounce out to the end whereas McCain will. McCain’s poll numbers are still rising on the Monday following his convention because his numbers have not yet been diluted. Compare this to Obama, where by the Monday following his convention, his numbers were being diluted by the Palin hail mary pass on Friday, Hurricane Gustav over the weekend, and the start of the RNC on Monday.
I believe that the numbers will normalize and re-base themselves over the next week or two, then we’ll have the first debate where I hope Obama just eviscerates McCain. All in all, the poll numbers right now don’t bother me at all and they shouldn’t bother you. Calm down, take a breather, and prepare for the fight of your life for the next two months. Damn the polls, rest up and prepare for the smears, the shady 527 ads, the sleazy attempts to “swiftboat” Obama, the re-ignition of the culture wars, and all the other venom that WILL come from the other side.
This election will be epic and couldn’t be more important for the very heart and soul of this country. Be ready to bite, scratch, claw, punch, counterpunch, and kick. It ain’t gonna be pretty because politics ain’t bean bag.
jibeaux
I want Obama to sweep both the Electoral College and the popular vote of course, but should he lose the popular vote it would still have a certain sweet revenge taste to it….mmmm…
Just going to blogwhore a little bit, I do a primarily family blog that sometimes goes a tiny bit berserk. You guys might like it, also it is linkalicious, and if you have any suggestions for additions you can put ’em in the comments.
SGEW
Hey, I just realized I haven’t thought about Gov. Palin in, like, hours. But here she comes with a statement that shows that she’s “laughably ignorant” on economic matters. Oh, that Sarah! Always hogging the limelight.
Also, this Palin For President video is exactly what I’ve been waiting for ever since the first moment I heard who McCain picked for his V.P.
Seriously. I can’t believe it took so long, frankly, but it was well worth the wait.
Brian J
\
It seems almost certain that Obama will pick up Iowa. Others might feel differently, but I think that New Mexico and New Hampshire will be in this category, too. Assuming he holds all of the Kerry states and adds Iowa and New Mexico, he’s at 264. Add Indiana, Missouri, Virginia, or Colorado, and he’s president. He could also lose all of those four states, but win Ohio or Florida, and he’s president.
The point is, he does have a lot of paths to victory. There’s no denying that.
SGEW
Not to mention the 5% strategy. To wit:
– Increase youth (18-29) turnout by 5% = win
– Increase African American turnout in the south by 5% = win
– Increase Latino turnout in the West and South West by 5% = win
– Decrease Evangelical turnout in swing states by 5% = win
Any one of those scenarios spells win, even without running the Kerry/Gore calculus.
The three-ring binders that Axelrod, Plouffe, and Obama put together for the national campaign are going to be in the Smithsonian behind leaded glass because of their radioactive awesomosity.
Dennis - SGMM
No one could have anticipated…
That the Big 3 US auto makers would clamor for $50B in low-interest loans to implement fuel saving technology. Just because they ignored the handwriting on the wall and (With the help of Congress) staved off any meaningful increases in fuel economy doesn’t mean that the taxpayers shouldn’t “loan” them more money. That those silly Japanese put money into researching hybrids while Detroit engaged in an arms race to build the biggest vehicles on the planet doesn’t mean that the gov shouldn’t underwrite Detroit’s next failure to get it right. Another free-market solution with its hand out to the taxpayer.
D-Chance.
Ah, the smell of desperation in the afternoon…
Wehhhhhhh ! Poor Glennidale.
This place needs a Friday night cheese blogging thread to accompany the whine that goes on all week long.
Dennis - SGMM
No one could have anticipated…
That the Big 3 US auto makers would clamor for $50B in low-interest loans to implement fuel saving technology. Just because they ignored the handwriting on the wall and (With the help of Congress) staved off any meaningful increases in fuel economy doesn’t mean that the taxpayers shouldn’t “loan” them more money. That those silly Japanese put money into researching hybrids while Detroit engaged in an arms race to build the biggest vehicles on the planet doesn’t mean that the gov shouldn’t underwrite Detroit’s next failure to get it right. Another free-market solution with its hand out to the taxpayer.
Alan
Jim Rogers: United States more communist than China
Dennis - SGMM
Apologies for the double post
Martin
You got that right. Again, anyone feeling down about any of this, go dig up Obama’s leaked spreadsheet from the primaries and compare it to the actual results. I tell you, these guys are from the future or something.
Church Lady
Fannie and Freddie are quasi-governmental entities. Although for profit, their assets (i.e. mortgages) were already implicitly backed by the government (read you, the taxpayer). With the bailout, those loans are now explicitly backed by the Treasury and the Treasury gets some control over both entities.
The risk in the Fannie/Freddie bailout is not because of subprimes – they never had any. Subprimes are loans that did not meet Fannie/Freddie underwriting standards. The risk lies in a continued free fall in home values. Part of the value of a home lies in the ability to sell it. That ability is somewhat controlled by the ability to borrow. Currently, Fannie and Freddie provide approximately 70% of mortgage loan financing. Without the bailout, Fannie and Freddie would fail, home lending would come to a screeching halt, other credit markets would be in complete chaos, and your home’s value would be in a freefall spiral down.
As I said earlier, barring the most calamitous of events, the taxpayers shouldn’t really be on the hook for very much. In reality, the government is making an investment, and on pretty damn good terms. In exchange for the bailout, the two entities will be issuing 1 billion in preferred stock to the Treasury, which will provide a 10% annual dividend. In addition, they will be issuing the Treasury stock warrants which will entitle the Treasury to purchase up to 80% of the shares of the outstanding common stock at less than $1 a share. They will also be allowed to increase their portfolios nominally (in order to keep the home loan market working) for the next year of so, but will be required to start reducing their portfolio 10% per year starting in 2010.
The ones to suffer will be the common stockholders – you know, the ones that cashed in for years, collecting dividends and seeing share value increase during the boom years, while never running a risk on the value of the underlying assets due to that implicit government guarantee.
Long explaination short – Fannie and Freddie are becoming FHA, which may not be such a bad thing.
jrg
I really, really hope not.
I will say that if we elect McCain and Palin, we deserve what we get – bigger deficits, no reproductive rights, censorship, no environmental protection, state-sanctioned religion, creationism masked as science education, more wars, a failed economy, and on and on.
I simply don’t understand this country anymore. A large segment of the population seems to believe that Palin’s pregnant daughter makes her a more attractive candidate, because that makes her somehow more like the rest of us, and a more capable leader.
It does not matter that the Obama campaign has not uttered a peep over Palin’s teen pregnancy issue. A large portion of Americans simply cannot make a distinction between the media and the Democratic party. They feel that Palin was somehow slighted by the mention of her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, and therefore will vote for her out of sympathy.
It’s no wonder this country is headed to the shitter – the majority of Americans are abysmally f*cking stupid. I simply cannot believe that with all the trouble this country is in, people still are not smart enough to vote on issues over B.S. identity politics. How much worse do things have to get before voters take their heads out of their asses?
Darkness
Michael Palin can’t run because he wasn’t born in the U.S., right? Everyone agrees with that. But . . . but . . . neither was John McCain! Aye!
Rome Again
Interesting link.
Right now, I think being swallowed up by a black hole would be a merciful ending compared with what the Republicans are doing to us.
Rome Again
Bullshit, I debunked this just the other day on another thread. I’ll find the link in a while.
You’re wrong.
Rome Again
Reposting this from the Whiners thread from Sept 6th:
Grumpy Code Monkey
Fixed.
Turnout is going to be the key here. Get turnout above 65% and Obama wins in a Reagan-style landslide.
Our politics and our country have been driven by a highly motivated political minority only because the majority let them get away with it.
YellowJournalism
I like to call that the Lifetime Network vote.
oh really
Neither do the American people. Just one more thing they can identify with. To millions of American voters being stupid or ignorant is proof that a candidate is one of them.
Cain
The polls worry me. If they worry you, then you should be getting out there and volunteering for Obama instead of sitting on your ass. TZ hasn’t been posting probably because a) the site being a real asshole b) he’s busy volunteering.
The only way we are going to win is by having a good ground game. We have no national media to help us, we have nothing. We’re going to have meet up the populace and defeat them person to person. Those of you in battle ground states really need to help.
Oregon is already heavily going Obama, we have stickers everywhere, and I haven’t seen a single McCain one here. Not a single one.
This is going to get more important because teh evanglicals smell blood on the water with Palin. The churches are going to start the GOTV and we need to counter and counter hard. So we really need to get our shit together.
Snarking or going on the attack in blogs are probably not going to help much. We are really in our own world. The press is going to kick our asses simply because they don’t care. If they cared they would have called on McCain and his lies, on Palin on her lies. It’s not going to happen, partially because Obama has been more defensive in his rhetoric. He needs to go after them hard. Relentlessly.
Also Obama’s “more of the same” messaging doesn’t really seem to stick. It lacks a certain resonance. Maybe because the message is the same. I don’t know.
Now let me hit submit, and I hope this site takes my post.
cain
Conservatively Liberal
The right likes to bitch about how the Commies want to take over the world and how we all should be scared shitless of people like that who have nukes. Same with the Muslims getting nukes and imposing their religion on the rest of the world (which, as I see it, is really no different than the goal of Christianity). Everyone is out to get them in one way or another. Nice distraction. From what you ask?
What about the rest of the world seeing our country as a nation being taken over by Christians who believe that god talks to them and tells them what they should do, and that the world has to end so Jeebus can return and they can all go to some warm and fuzzy place and be happy forever? Oh yeah, and that all of the non-believers will burn in hell for eternity (while they are partying their asses off in that warm and fuzzy place).
The Commies may want to take over the world (or not), the Muslims may want to impose their beliefs across the world (or not), but the Christians want to end it. They want Jeebus and God to kill everyone and sort them out. Bag and tag on a global scale.
Now who are we supposed to be more afraid of having nukes?
Adrienne
It feels NOTHING like Kerry 2004 redux. Kerry was playing defense in a LOT of the states Gore won which were either traditional swing states or actually Democratic base states. This is not true of Obama. There are only TWO Kerry states that are in the battleground column as far as I’m concerned – PA and Michigan. Compare this to Bush 2004 states that are in the battleground column – Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Missouri and Florida. If Obama wins all the Kerry states, plus Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico, that is the ball game folks. Hell, he could even lose Michigan (17 EVs) if he wins Virginia and Nevada. For the record, here’s my prediction/line in the sand:
Obama will win ALL Kerry states, for 252 EVs, PLUS: Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, AND Indiana (yes, I really do believe he will win Indiana) for a total of 297 EVs. A very comfortable win. Add in OH, which if they vote for Repubs again should fall off the face of the fucking earth and shut the hell up about their decline and whom I’m STILL unsure of, and it’s a fucking electoral slaughter at 317 EVs.
Bottom line: This is NOTHING like Kerry 2004 redux
TenguPhule
Where’s our guns with infinite ammo and power up crates?
Conservatively Liberal
Are you talking about God Mode ? You heathen!
I prefer the iddqd command from the old Doom days, Degreelessness Mode Off/On. Can we get noclip too?
:)
Rome Again
Good question. I certainly don’t trust the fundagelicals.
He tried to post earlier today but had trouble and wrote me saying: “BJ is hosed”.
dslak
For Church Lady et al, The Idiot’s Guide to Subprime.