Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

This blog will pay for itself.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2008 / Oh Really?

Oh Really?

by | 41 Comments

This post is in: ,

John McCain, apparently no longer convinced about the strength of the fundamentals of our economy, is on my tv telling me that the problem we are currently suffering started from a “culture of influence peddling” in Washington.

Really? Here is a game. Guess who this is and how he knows John McCain:

Then, for extra fun, count the lobbyists tied to John McCain’s campaign.

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  4. 4.

    kid bitzer

    i don’t recognize the photo, but the man’s face certainly radiates honesty and integrity.

    he looks like a fine, honest pillar of the community, and at least he doesn’t have long hair!

  5. 5.

    Napoleon

    Ah, that is a blast from the past. My brother keeps telling me Obama should be running ads 24/7 mentioning the Keating thing.

  7. 7.

    The Thinking Man's Mel Torme

    Again with the frameless specs. I also remember reading he’s a fundo-nut as well. Something of a pattern?

  9. 9.

    Eric U.

    My cousin worked for Keating. He has mentioned how sad it was to know Keating was rotting in jail. Of course, considering how few people went to jail, it might be unfair. Since the current situation is so much worse, how many people are going to jail now? Not holding my breath.

  10. 10.

    Bobzim

    If Obama doesn’t start explaining WHY Phil Gramm’s Commodity Futures Modernization Act was the real Ground Zero for this mess, not Fannie/Freddie, Republicans are going to stick this crap on Dems, and Obama is FUCKED!

    Today, Obama, TODAY!

  12. 12.

    SGEW

    For more “Oh Really?” news, check out:

    – Rush Limbaugh (Rush Limbaugh!) decrying racial animosity in a special editorial in todays Wall Street Journal. Ah, the WSJ. I remember when it was a legitimate newspaper. Now they print editorials by Rush Limbaugh. Complaining about racial prejudice. On the same day McCain releases this ad. Priceless.

    – Sarah Palin refuses to say whether the Office of the Vice Presidency is in the Executive branch or not. While her husband refuses to honor subpoenas. Cheney II, indeed.

    – Meanwhile, avoiding an “imminent meltdown of the U.S. financial system” may cost as much as $1,000,0000,000,000 (that’s a trillion dollars). Hey, pretty soon we’ll be talking about some serious money.

    News is stupid. I think I’ll be better off if I just look at LOLcats for the rest of the day.

  14. 14.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Just heard Bush’s speech on NPr, folloewed by an outline of the government’s “plan.”

    Among other things, Bush said (As accurately as I can remember) “There will be time later to debate the causes…”
    Um, George, we know the causes. There isn’t any debate.

    The gov’s plan is to buy up the bad assets with our money to “free up the financial system.” Seems to me that the financial system has been free enough.

    In the end it was the usual Republican mantra: “Mistakes were made now here’s the fuckin’ bill.”

  15. 15.

    JenJen

    Ahhh, Charles Keating. Just another Cincinnatian and uber-whacko.

    We here in the ‘Nati remember Keating not for the Keating Five, but for his starring role in The People vs. Larry Flynt. :-)

  16. 16.

    DrDave

    McCain was one of the Keating Five and was censured for exercising bad judgment but was not found to have acted improperly. He has been perpetually remorseful ever since. (When he wasn’t missing those great vacations the McCain family used to take with the Keating family, that is…)

    If Obama doesn’t start explaining WHY Phil Gramm’s Commodity Futures Modernization Act was the real Ground Zero for this mess, not Fannie/Freddie, Republicans are going to stick this crap on Dems, and Obama is FUCKED!

    I am not convinced that the average voter can wrap his head around the CFMA but he should be blaming the deregulation of the banking industry on Phil Gramm. The other complicating factor here is that the CFMA was co-authored by Obama’s good friend, Dick Lugar. And then there is the fact that Bill Clinton signed it into law…

  18. 18.

    Dennis - SGMM

    FRom Barry Ritholts’ The Big Picture blog:

    here’s your headlines of the day:

    (BN)

    *U.S. TREASURY TO INSURE GOOD WEATHER ALL WEEKEND

    *FEDERAL RESERVE TO INSURE PERSONAL HAPPINESS

    *U.S. TREASURY TO REPAIR TOM BRADY’S DAMAGED KNEE

    *CONGRESS TO GUARANTEE HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN

  20. 20.

    David

    I’m pretty sure that guy is a Manchurian who stole a shitload of money from the US Treasury on behalf of his socialist masters in China.

    Sort of like the Manchurians who are stealing $1,000,000,000,000 from the US Treasury now on behalf of China.

    The current crop of Manchurians talk like capitalists, but if you offer them sub-prime loans to buy or allow them to sell sub-prime loans, their brainwashing emerges and they start spouting stuff about the good of the financial system. Like all good commies, the sky is going to fall unless you bail them out. No bailouts for the rest of us, though, because we are the taxpaying proletariat and we need to be led by our communist Chinese masters. (All our tax money are belong to them.)

  23. 23.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    In addition to tying McCain to Bush, Obama also needs to be hammering the “President Palin McCain == Treasury Secretary Phil Gramm”.

    That should strike fear into at least a few fence-sitters.

  24. 24.

    Fulcanelli

    Ahh, Mr. Keating, I presume?

    Back during the S & L Debacle and subsequent bailout, our then Governor Bruce Sundlun shut down the credit unions here in RI and shortly after my aunt died. My uncle had over a quarter million dollars in his retirement kitty that was frozen due to this, and had to borrow the money to bury his wife of over 50 years.

    Those who forget the past and all that…

    Here’s a nice little synopsis of these messes then and now from James Moore at HuffPo for your dining and dancing pleasure. A Nation of Village Idiots.

    Be sure to try the veal and don’t forget to tip your waitress…

  25. 25.

    rawshark

    Good thing we raised the debt ceiling or we wouldn’t be bale to borrow the money to give to bail out the rich our financial system.

  26. 26.

    Napoleon

    Back during the S & L Debacle and subsequent bailout, our then Governor Bruce Sundlun shut down the credit unions here in RI and shortly after my aunt died.

    The Governor here in Ohio did the same thing and it was right when I had to pay for my upcoming semester for graduate school when I registered. The money I had saved for school by working, and the proceeds of a student loan, where frozen in an S&L. You can not imagine how POed I was. Luckley the school (CRWU in Cleveland) let me register without paying for school so long as I did when my funds were unfrozen.

  27. 27.

    Hedley Lamarr

    But you neglected to note that McCain appologized for his contacts with Keating. That fixed the issue and it is now “old news”, n’er to be mentioned again by pundits.

  29. 29.

    Mike in SLO

    Will this finally put and end to the “Reagan is a Hero” meme we’ve been subjected to for the past 30 years? This is the culmination of Reagonomics bared naked for the world to see how truly disgusting his legacy is. This band aid will make the forthcoming crash worse that we ever imagined.

    Maybe I will start buying gold!

  32. 32.

    Tim (The Other One)

    “There will be time later to debate the causes…”

    I think this falls under the “we’ll all be dead” category.

  33. 33.

    Barbara

    Once upon a time I worked for a company that worked for Keating. This is a small thing, but so telling: when he was in our offices, he treated every inch as if it were his own property. A senior person once went to the restroom and when she came back he was sitting in her office, making a phone call with his feet up on her desk, rifling through her papers.

    She was so pissed off it took all she had to direct her venom at the clown who Keating was supposed to be visiting, instead of at Keating himself.

  35. 35.

    Lewis Carroll

    Um, Farmer Hoggitt? And he knows McCain since he’s the one who McCain took to task for slaughtering Babe to provide Sarah her pork? Oh, the irony.

    Now, what do I win?

  38. 38.

    jrg

    If we’re going to socialize the losses for these clowns (while the gains are privatized), I’m starting to think we should go whole-hog socialist, for a couple of reasons:

    1) I’d rather be paying for some kid’s health care than some fund manager’s new Aston Martin.

    2) The mouth-breathers that make up the GOP base already think that the Dems are socialists, anyway.

    3) If people start taking class warfare seriously, I won’t have to listen to jackasses like Mitt Romney label people “elite” simply because they can read and form a complete sentence.

    The GOP is treading on some very dangerous territory with these bail-outs… They really need to consider what might happen if the “culture wars” they are inciting don’t turn out as planned. I like the “free market” as much as the next reasonably well paid tech worker, but this is not a free market, this is a giveaway to the people who need it the least.

  39. 39.

    ThymeZone

    Keating lives here in my town, I’ve stood next to him in line at the movie theater. He is much scarier looking in person than he is in that photograph.

    Of the Keating Five senators, McCain is the only one I know of who used Keating’s jet to fly down to the Bahamas and live it up at Keating’s beach house. He’s also the one who is reported to have leaked derogatory information about the other senators in the Five in order to minimize the attention on himself.

    McCain is your fully experienced Washington influence peddler and crook. If you want experience, McCain is your man.

Comments are closed.