So, according to CNBC, the rally today is due to two things. First, the typical dead cat bounce. Second, the SEC is thinking about changing accounting rules so they can inflate the value of certain assets:
The SEC and Financial Accounting Standards Board instead said banks should apply rules that require them to review their assets each quarter and report losses if values have declined, according to a proposal released today. A suspension isn’t being considered, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plan hasn’t been completed.
Congressmen, banking lobbyists and companies including American International Group Inc. have urged the SEC to place a moratorium on fair-value accounting, saying it forces firms to report losses that they never expect to incur. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and other proponents say a suspension would erode confidence that firms are owning up to losses.
“In the past couple of weeks, fair-value accounting has been under attack,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Dane Mott wrote in a report today. “Blaming fair-value accounting for the credit crisis is a lot like going to a doctor for a diagnosis and then blaming him for telling you that you are sick.”
Loosening accounting rules will be a winning strategy, I am sure.
Comrade Jake
Rock on.
Svensker
Um, am I hallucinating? Did Michael D. just have a post up that went away? And me with a snappy comment, and everything!
liberatemeiexinfernis
nice. this is the beginning of another bubble
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I saw it too. A rough paraphrase of it would (IMHO) be:
Shorter Michael D: “I don’t understand the distinction between the stock market and the credit market. The DOW is back up, so what is everybody worried about?”.
Or something like that. I was going to post links to the stories over at nakedcapitalism about LIBOR and TED putting 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, but then Michael’s post went away. Oh well.
t jasper parnell
Changing the accounting rules isn’t a strategy it’s a tactic.
Comrade Fedorovich Stuck
Might as well make the illegal legal. That’s been the operating mode anywho for this country at least the past eight years.
Michael D.
Sorry. Agree with me or not, I’m just getting used to the new way of doing things here. The post is back.
Stevenovitch
Yesterday in the other thread someone told me that there is only $300 billion dollars in mortgages at risk of defaulting, and that a large part of the problem was that banks are forced to write down their other mortgages as bad assets for some reason or other. This was given as a reason for why simply subsidizing the mortgage payments of people at risk of defaulting wouldn’t positively effect this crisis.
Is this what he was talking about?
Punchy
Also proposed for fixing mess: Allowing companies to count all dollar bills as $10s, all $10s as $100s, and any C-note on hand can be worth anything the company chooses.
Sadly, that still puts MorganStudly -$90.73 in the hole.
Comrade Napoleon
Just like everything else in the Bush world government. Just create your own reality and pretend away what you don’t like. Your company owns a widget that is really worth $100, but it would be great if your balance sheet carried it at $500? Just carry it at $500.
By the way, about a week ago I saw a car with one of those stick on magnet ribbons that ussually have “fight autism” or “support the troops” and slogans of that nature, but this one said something like “pretending won’t make it so”. I took it as commentary on the right.
t jasper parnell
So too is giving a huge pile of money to Henry “Hank” Paulson to buy a bunch of stuff without explaining why it will clear the clog in the credit market a strategy; it is a tactic. See here for an explanation of why the plan isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Ronin122
Stupid idea. Almost all money a company holds is electronic. Actually over 90% of all USA money is electronic.
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
I sure don’t understand this any more than most folks, but assuming this is truly about the lending markets being frozen, and assuming the freeze on lending really does impact payrolls, I’d expect the next two weeks to tell the tale. Tomorrow is payday. October 15th is payday.
Watch for stories, particularly local news stories, about businesses not being able to pay employees. I’m already hearing these stories on local talk radio.
Two weeks of massive payroll shortfalls would topple the dominoes.
liberal
A diarist at GOS proposed a reasonable stopgap solution:
(1) Make it $200B; at Paulson’s $50B/mo, that will last 4 months
(2) Don’t include e.g. the mortgage bankruptcy stuff; might be veto bait
(3) Add more oversight
(4) Strengthen the equity warrant provisions
Zifnab
Hey! I’ve got an idea! Rather than actually handing Paulson $700 billion, can we just tell everybody we did? We can even write IOU: Hank Paulson $700 billion on a sheet of paper and give it to him in some Congressional ceremony. Then, upon realizing that they’re all going to get bailouts, the Wall Street Titans will recover and the markets will spring back into place. Everyone will start trading again, secure in the confidence that Paulson has all the money he needs to bail them out.
Sure, none of the money will actually exist, but what’s important is that people think it does because we run on an economy built on faith anyway. How can this go wrong?
liberal
The stock market is really just a distraction. The real story is the credit markets themselves, not the stock market’s interpretation of the crisis in the credit markets.
Teak111
Some where, most likely hell, Ken Lay is smiling.
Can we say ENRON boys and girls?
The Grand Panjandrum
OT: Governor Palin just wrote another SNL sketch for Tina Fey. Sullivan has the video. The Beer Heiress must be sharing her stash.
Comrade Va Highlander
My father used to say that some people could fuck up an iron ball.
Watching these people trying to fix the markets, I see I owe the old man an apology.
4tehlulz
I propose that we give the Treasury as many 700 billion Zimbabwean dollars.
Why go through the trouble of wrecking our currency when we can save time by switching to one that’s already useless?
dslak
Shorter Sarah Palin: Watch me while I completely demolish McCain’s primary argument for voting for him.
Mike S
Actually, this is a somewhat decent idea. The problem is that they are valuing al loans the same. So even though there are tons of people making payments on time and won’gt default, their loans are treated the same as loans that are in default.
Of course this could lead to the banks lying about the default rates.
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
It’s gonna take a lot of beer to wash down all that fail.
jerry 101
As an auditor, I found the switch to fair value reporting to be distressing, and I think returning to the traditional approach is a better idea.
The traditional approach is that you value your assets at historic cost unless there is a clear reason to write the value down (known as impairment – such a situation might be that you invested in another company and now that company is bankrupt, thus the value of the investment is probably about $0). You can’t write values up, except when you sell an investment, which is when you record a realized gain. On certain investments, you can record unrealized gains and losses, but its not required for all investments. In addition, traditionally, you record fixed asset purchases and then depreciate them over time.
With the new rules that were passed, you have to carry everything at market value. Market values are often fuzzy, unless you’re dealing with something that has a ready market value, such as a stock or a mutual fund (you can find out how much its worth by looking it up on the internets).
Unfortunately, an investment in a privately held company may not be easy to value. Nor would an investment in a hedge fund. Nor would the value of a building.
So, you kind of make things up.
Which is an idea that banks and financial institutions LOVE when the market is a rising.
Of course, it SUCKS when the market falls. You can’t just totally pull the valuation out of your rear end. You have to substantiate it somehow.
Its just that the valuation is really unreliable when you get into investments that can’t be sold easily.
Historic cost measurements, on the other hand, are easy to measure (how much did you pay for this investment? Oh yeah, that’s the value. You worry about the change in value when you sell the investment).
Assets like buildings, equipment, vehicles, etc are carried at the purchase price and then depreciated over time.
Now, businesses will have to try to figure out what the market value for such holdings are.
So, here in Chicago, the Tribune Tower has been standing for something like 80 years. The book value of the Tower is really not a relevant measure anymore. The building is worth something far different than $0 (typically, buildings are depreciated over 35-ish years). The land that the building sits on is worth FAR more than what the Tribune paid for it 80 years ago, if only due to inflation.
But how much is it really worth? What is the fair market value of a prime piece of real estate in downtown Chicago? Well, the land is worth a lot. But, there is a really old building sitting on it. That building is not worth nearly as much as a similarly sized building that was built 2 years ago.
Oh, and the Trib Tower (if it’s not already a designated historic landmark) is subject to designation as an historic landmark, which means you can’t knock it down and put something else up.
So, great piece of land. But it’s occupied by an obsolete building that can’t be torn down. What’s the real fair market value for that?
So, let’s say you’re an investment bank. You’ve got an asset that generates cash flows (a mortgage backed security, for instance). It’s paying out. The payments did decline a bit due to some foreclosure problems, but it’s still generating income. It’s not going to generate the income you expected when you purchased it, but there’s something.
So, it has a value.
But, on the broader market, no one will buy these things. No one is selling these things. No one wants them.
That infers a value of $0. But there is a value in something that generates cash.
So, what’s the value?
You can’t go an compare it to the sales prices of similar securities. None have been sold. You can take the Net Present Value of the remaining cash flows, but fair value accounting says you can’t do that. Plus, given the problems with foreclosures, there’s no guarantee that such a calculation will be accurate anyway. You have to take the market value. Except there is no market.
So, you have to take something that is worth something because it spits money into your pocket every month, and say it has a value of $0. Because no one will buy it.
Of course, there’s also a lie in there. Someone out there will buy it.
But they may only pay pennies on the dollar, and the banks won’t sell that low. After all, it’s still generating most of the income it was supposed to, so why take a bath on selling it?
There’s a really bad conundrum here, and it’s been caused by changing a long-standing accounting principle that is easy to understand but a bit misleading and trying to replace it with a difficult to understand and potentially almost as misleading new principle.
Fair value accounting sucks. Historical value is the way to go.
Comrade The Moar You Know
Wholly off topic, there’s been some neat work going on in some other threads. A present for John:
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/nhcM_hx0zxw&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/nhcM_hx0zxw&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
Alan
Great idea! The same folks that gamed the system to practically bankruptcy will now be allowed to determine their own value … rather than the market. No, they won’t game this.
Alan
And BTW, Budweiser’s American Ale sucks big time.
Josh Huaco (formerly Comrade Josh Vondoktorpepper)
So we’re all capitalists again?
ThymeZone
This would be more useful if we had the names of the congressmen who are advancing this idea.
KRK
Sarah Palin apparently believes that she actually is Barack Obama.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
(John? Annette? Sorry, I broke this thread with a bigass table. I think that goes beyond testing the server.)
Annette
The Wolf: You’re… Jimmie, right? This is your house?
Jimmie: Sure is.
The Wolf: I’m Winston Wolfe. I solve problems.
Jimmie: Good, we got one.
The Wolf: So I heard. May I come in?
Jimmie: Uh, yeah, please do.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Annette is the Wolf. Right. Which means I’m going to get shot next time I go to the bathroom.
#crosses legs forever#
(Thanks, Annette!)
jake
Just move the decimal points and zeros around until everyone is happy.
FY 2007 Earnings $.000000000000001 :-(
FY 2007 Earnings $1000000000000000 :-)
No way am I screwing around with the tables.
gopher2b
Actually, I think its that totally reasonable Democratic woman from Ohio. It’s not a terrible idea if the reason the banks need to raise (cash) capital is because their balance sheets are messed up by the artifically low falling MBSs (and I do think they are artificially low).
Comrade Warren Terra
Can I just point out, off topic, that the new, stable Balloon Juice is totally out of control?
It was a lot easier to attempt to keep up when site issues meant that many comments (and commenters) went away, and the site wasn’t getting up to a thousand comments a day (Monday posts: 1048 comments, today’s posts: 546 comments thus far). Bring back WordPress Error!
Just kidding, mostly; but the comment volume has gotten so high you may need more threads …
Comrade The Moar You Know
Righty-ho. Computer goes in the fireplace, then. Hard drive in the wood chipper. Sell the house and move to a country Annette can’t get into.
And their addresses.
Cain
So what’s the new drinking game for the VP debates????? I’ve taken friday off so I can be comfortably hung over.
cain
Jon H
“Just move the decimal points and zeros around until everyone is happy.”
Like Zimbabwe, who knocked 8 zeros off their currency in August.
The People's Glorious Pantload of Studliness
She’s just flat-out delusional. She really thinks that bluster and down-home MILFiness trump substance, and that this campaign is a dry run of Palin/Christ ’12. The woman would seem to have nary an inkling that her 15 minutes are ticking fast away. When she referred to a “Palin/McCain” ticket a few weeks ago, that wasn’t words getting jumbled, that was an honest-to-FSM Freudian slip.
This is why I can’t go along with those who feel sorry for her being in so over her head. She sees her bugs as features, actual selling points, and she can’t wait for the day she leads the true believers to the Glorious People’s Theocratic Republic of Alaska (there’s a reason she risked her baby’s health to ensure he was born on Alaskan soil) while the rest of us writhe in agony as we baste in our sins.
Cain
That’s because we seem to be getting more Kos folks. John’s been showing up every freaking day on Kos. Jeezus. Can’t they get their own damn content?
cain
AkaDad
It’s clear that government regulations caused this. If we want to avoid this in the future, we need to eliminate all regulations.
t jasper parnell
Speaking of playing games, should John McCain become president we can expect this level of management expertise.
El Cid
All you Islamosexual Democrats just hate America and if it weren’t for your stupid rules about “math” and “accounting” and all this other gay sh*t, our American Patriot companies would not only not be in a mess, they could help us find the $700 billion dollars’ worth of housing that all the black people stole, and also we could have companies making as much money as they wanted to say, like, instead of losing money, GM could say, “Hey, we made a quintillion dollars,” and because you America-hating librul accounting geeks couldn’t stop them, no one could say it wasn’t true.
w vincentz
Wall St reminds me of Maple St.
That’s where a 10 year old kid set up a lemonade stand in expectations of making a fortune selling a refreshing beverage to the thirsty traffic that journeyed along Maple St. Those included Mrs Jones from four houses down the block, Mr Smith two more away, and Ol’ man Liebowitz who lived on the corner.
There wasn’t much traffic that hot summer day. The ice cubes melted in the pitcher of lemonade.
The 10 year old sat by his sidewalk business, waiting expectantly for his first customer.
Finally, a car drove up and stopped. Out stepped Ol’ man Liebowitz, the crakiest guy on Maple St.
“Want a nice cool glass of lemonade?”, the 10 year old asked.
“Sure would be nice”, the old guy replied. “How much?”
The 10 year old said, “Well, I’ve been sittin’ here all day in the hot sun, and I’m hoping for a profit. So, how about seven bucks?”
I’ve never seen that ol’ coot run so fast to get back into his car.
Josh Huaco
El Cid FTW!
JGabriel
liberal:
Sorry, but I really can’t see what good it does to give them the sweetener without the medicine.
If Bush/Paulson won’t accept a measure to fix the mortgage problems at the source, in such a way that can help the people who are about to lost their homes, then they don’t need the 200 (or 700) billion either.
.
LiberalTarian
But, John, they have played so straight with us all these years. NOT.
No, let’s not follow bad with more good. Make them accountable, make them show us there’s. But, in little increments, a kind of fiscal strip tease if you will. I can’t take all that honesty at one enormously Rubenesque time. Too many boobs, not enough feathers.
JGabriel
El Cid:
Gotta admit, I love (if by love we mean we “find ridiculously hypocritical and laughable”) the new meme of the “liberal accountant”.
Is there any profession considered more ‘conservative’ in the popular worldview than accounting?
.
Comrade Jake
At this point, there are only so many ways to describe the Palin choice:
<img src=”http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/funny-pictures-bird-cat-cage.jpg” alt=”the Palin pick”>
Svensker
Ditto with the commenters. And if we get any higher, we won’t even have threads.
Zifnab
That’s what I’m seeing, too. Why are we handing over $200 billion if everyone gets foreclosed on anyway? Remind me again of the purpose of this bailout. Is it designed to save Main Street folks from getting tossed out on the street, or just a measure for Wall Street to keep making a profit when no one else in the country has a penny to their names?
HyperIon
so where does mark to market fit in?
when i saw “the smartest guys in the room”, i first learned about this idea.
it was presented (in the movie) as a bad thing. help!
HyperIon
remember the old monty python skit about chartered accountants?
and yet me thinks that accountants are NOT being held…accountable.
what is a credit rating agency besides a bunch of accountants?
Tiparillo
Actually, according to this on Kos the DeFazio (D-OR) No BAILOUTS Act leads with a switch to “economic value accounting” which I assume is what our auditor friend is talking about above. The rest of the 5 part plan is described in the link.
BAILOUTS is an acronym in the title of the bill standing for “Bringing Accounting, Increased Liquidity, Oversight and Upholding Taxpayer Security”
Not My Fault
Drink whenever Palin uses an informalism.
“I’ll bring ’em to ya”
would be 2 drinks.
SGEW
Honestly, I’m thinking of abstaining from alcohol for the V.P. debate. My drinking game rules for the first Pres. debate was both too predictive and not predictive enough. Trashed me and my friends (how was I supposed to know that they’d actually talk about torture?! I was sure it wouldn’t be brought up, so it was an auto shot. Big mistake).
Instead, I shall be indulging in . . . other vices. Should be a hoot.
w vincentz
Drudge and themudflats have picked up the witness flipping story.
Looks like Hurricane Sarah has been a whole lot of wind and is headed somewhere else very soon.
Mark Oct 10 on your calendars. That’s when Banchflower’s report hits.
ninerdave
…and you expected different why?
KT
Jesus! That would be a death sentence!
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
You’ve obviously never heard of Herbert Kornfeld.
Cain
2 sips – russia
4 sips – foreign policy
2 sips – anything related to age
chug – gaffe by either party
remember to drink a moose head lager I hear that’s teh alaskan drink of choice cuz of the moose an all.
cain
SGEW
Admit it. You want us to die from alcohol poisoning.
Cain
Believe me if either one fucks up, you’re going to be chugging that beer. It’ll just be for different reasons :-)
cain
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
What happens when the fail is too big to fail?
I think I’ve stumbled across McCain’s campaign “strategy”. Sure, it’s impulsive — some might say misguided — but it’s daring.
Dennis - SGMM
You could get screwed up on water with that one. Palin habitually drops the ending “g” on every word she speaks.
AkaDad
I’ll be playing a non-drinking game with my friend, Mary Jane.
jrg
Can you liveblog Palin’s responses? The rest of us will need a translation.
Comrade The Moar You Know
It would surprise me somewhat. Making a super-pale pilsner like Bud does is actually very hard, and to make it consistently (you gotta give ’em that, every Budweiser tastes like every other Budweiser) is the mark of a truly fine brewer. I don’t like Budweiser but I give them a LOT of respect for doing what they do well and consistently. Plus it doesn’t have that weird additive that Miller has that makes me swell up and break out in hives.
I don’t expect bold and wonderful from Budweiser, but I do expect competence.
liberal
JGabriel wrote,
The medicine is the guvmint getting warrants.
t jasper parnell
Drink on “literally” and “new energy” and “John” or “John McCain” and pray that national health care covers liver transplants.
JGabriel
liberal:
The Fed is already empowered to make such deals, e.g. AIG.
.
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. — Abraham Lincoln
Cue Sarah Palin.
liberal
Zifnab wrote,
We can’t do anything about the people who are going to lose their homes. Too much money.
Also, apart from the fact that most of them are not blameless victims, I don’t see why foreclosure is such a terrible outcome. Many of these people presumably didn’t put anything down, and put very little into the house because they haven’t held it long.
Sh*t, now I’m starting to sound like ThymeZone (nooooooooooooo!): it’s to prevent the credit markets from freezing up. I won’t go into that because people already described it in another thread.
AkaDad
I will, but if my game gets intense, I might temporarily forget how to spell.
Comrade Jake
I’m not sure how much stock to put in that story. The one source would appear to be Jason Leopold, not the most reliable dude walking the Earth.
Martin
Well, /suspending/ mark-to-market is silly, if you ask me.
I think it’s a big part of the problem, but it’s also a really good system for a great many things. So, why not keep mark-to-market but in the case of something like a mortgage that has an inherent value so long as it isn’t in default, why not provide an alternate approach to valuation and let the holder choose between the two? When things are working well, they should largely match. When they aren’t (like now) and the values diverge, the holder has something they can fall back on.
That seems like the safer solution.
w vincentz
Ok…now that the Monday meltdown has been digested, I’m guessing that many missed the only stock that went up. I’ve actually stocked up on it, right in my cupboard.
CAMPBELL SOUP!
Warhol (RIP) would be soooo proud.
I’m opening a soup kitchen for the locals here.
Heck, with the “ends” from the deli, day olds from the bakery, and unpicked up pizzas from Sal’s pizza, we’ll be feastin’ like Wassillans. Bring yer own mooseheads. No budweiser permitted.
Wine is fine, especially the good ones from the Finger Lakes area.
Cheers!
Martin
Dead before the opening remarks are done.
t jasper parnell
Are you suggesting that she doesn’t read “all of them”? Just ’cause she is a serial liar doesn’t mean that everything she says is a lie.
Comrade The Moar You Know
<img src=”http://i526.photobucket.com/albums/cc342/arbiterusa/kornfeld.jpg”>
Letta opener of death, bitches!
liberal
JGabriel wrote,
AIG was wholesale seizure. The claim (which I don’t necessarily buy, but it’s plausible) is that some banks can be kept from completely going under by this backdoor equity injection. So it might be a cheaper way of dealing with things. Though it’s an empirical question whether the sector can be saved sans near-total nationalization.
(I do think that claims that we’d go into an irreversible depression are suspect, because I assume it’s within Constitutional limits to nationalize the entire sector. Though that would be a big mess.)
Furthermore, AFAICT the Fed is limited in what it can do. I’m guessing that they actually could just keep taking AIG-like actions, but they’ll run out of $$. At that point, without held from the Treasury, they could still do it by printing money, without statutory go-ahead from Congress. And I’d further suppose that doing it by floating debt as proposed has many advantages over inflating our way out of the problem.
But I’m out of my depth here.
Comrade Jake
Palin: the one-woman wrecking crew continues:
%lt;object width=”425″ height=”344″><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xRkWebP2Q0Y&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″>
If you haven’t seen the clip yet, Palin can’t name a single national newspaper. She just keeps repeating “all of them! All your newspapers are become mine!”
Unfuckingreal.
KRK
More from Palin vs. Couric. Palin can’t/won’t name a single news source:
Video at Think Progress.
4tehlulz
You’re going to regret allowing images, John.
El Cid
Hmmm. This may be in part the argument of Marcy Kaptur and Peter DeFazio. From the NO BAILOUTS ACT:
They both just did very, very well on Lou Dobbs. Especially Kaptur. Even Dobbs was impressed.
Martin
Ok, so we know that Palin hasn’t been briefed on what the acceptable papers are. I’m sure she can name half a dozen papers, she just doesn’t know if she’s allowed to.
This is turning out just swell.
Comrade Jake
It’d be more convincing if you left out that part. Just sayin’.
Comrade NonyNony
If they can pay under re-negotiated terms then it’s better to let them keep their houses. It keeps them in a house, it keeps the housing stock from inflating (and thereby pushing down prices for homes), and it means that the loan they have will get paid back (making it a good asset instead of a failed one).
The housing bubble is too big, and prices on homes will deflate, but there’s no need to make it worse than it needs to be. And if people can actually pay their loan back under different terms, it makes the most sense right now to let them. The need to “punish” people for making bad choices is kind of wrong-headed in this instance. The FDIC is right now taking this very tactic with loans that are held by banks in their conservatorship – turning bad mortgages into good one.
OTOH, if they can’t pay under a different set of more reasonable terms then you might as well foreclose – that’s part of the “prices are going to have to come down” part of the story. But you have to be sane about this – if you can get the money back from the loan – or even part of the money back – by converting it from some weird ARM loan and into a standard 30 year fixed rate loan then you should do it in this market – not doing so just makes things worse for no good reason.
m.croche
I hear that La Palin is aware of all internet traditions, too ….
4tehlulz
4tehlulz
derp! WordPress haet Photobucket!
El Cid
Comrade Jake: I don’t like Lou Dobbs, but I don’t exactly regret that a very progressive bill by two staunch Democrats just got heard by far, far more people than would read them on The Nation, or even Daily Kos. And even a right wing fop like Dobbs recognized the value of an actual progressive move by two leading Democrats. That’s something.
Cain
After watching that video excerpt, I feel like drinking now… good grief. Her problem is that she’s so absolutely controlled by her handlers she can’t say anything without it coming out like it’s stupid. When she does open her mouth it’s still a gaffe. She’s going to be in a world of hurt come Thursday. I don’t feel sorry for her, cuz it’s all entertainment.
The U.S.A – best reality tv evah!
cain
KRK
I hate the stupid cutesy names they come up with for Acts these days.
This is a perfect example. “No BAILOUTS Act: Bringing Accounting, Increased Liquidity, Oversight and Upholding Taxpayer Security”
First, it’s horrible English. Presumably the law is “bringing” all of the first three points, which means an “and” before “oversight,” while also “upholding” the last. Also, surely there’s already some kind of accounting happening, so “bringing accounting” is stupid. Maybe accountability?
Then, to be maximally stupid, the full name of the Act puts a “no” in front of the acronym containing all of those things that they’re “bringing” and “upholding.” Does this mean the Act will ensure that there will be NO bringing of accounting, NO bringing of increased liquidity, NO bringing of oversight, and NO upholding of taxpayer security.
Staffers should just STOP wasting time coming up with cutesy names. They SUCK at it.
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
It begins.
Obvious titles:
Head of State
President of Vice
Conservatively Liberal
Same here, but there is still the danger of overdosing. Yeah, I know that there is no toxicity level for it but in this case overdosing means oxygen deprivation. You won’t be able to take a breath of fresh air before the next rule violation forces you to take another hit. It will probably be like stacking up planes at an airport when the traffic is heavy. The debate will end, but you will still have a couple of hundred hits stacked up.
I expect that the smoke will be roiling from the windows and doors of the house that night, no matter what rules I set up. I hope the fire department doesn’t get called.
SGEW
I can (sort of) understand why she didn’t want to mention all those horrible liberal papers (such as NYT, Washington Post, etc.), but she couldn’t even name, say, USAToday?
I mean, sure I’ll give her a pass on not naming the Economist, but she couldn’t name drop a single god damned newspaper or magazine?!
If I didn’t know that she gave her RNC speech from a teleprompter, I might suspect that she actually couldn’t read.
(still waiting for the video clip where she can’t name a single SCOTUS case except for Roe).
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
She could’ve been totally base-friendly and rattled off Field & Stream, Guns & Ammo, Solder of Fortune. Is it that hard?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Someone’s gonna break this thread and there will be tears before bedtime …
Images work, but you have to replace those angle brackets. The opening bracket (“less than sign” should be & lt; and the closing angle bracket (“greater than sign”) should be & gt;
BUT — get rid of the space after the & in each of those codes.
<img src=”http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Icons/evmap.png” alt=”see?” />
The blockquote can also be hacked to allow multiple paragraphs by using either three periods (not one, not two) on each line in between the separate paragraphs, or you can stick a non-breaking space there using this code: & nbsp; (again, remove the space beween the ampersand and the rest of the code).
SoulCatcher
That’s an interesting fact.
Before I continue with my post I want to make a point clear: there is a crisis. It’s finally being explained well enough that there is a problem and it needs to be fixed.
Back to my post. The thing is…the people who have been arguing for the bailout have used the 777 point drop in the Stock Market as a club against people who oppose the original Paulson bailout or the modified one. I’m sure you have seen them on a number of sites in comments (Kos had a shitload of them last night): “You bailout opposers are too stupid/progressive/ideological/etc to realize that people’s retirement funds and 401Ks just took a beating cause of your opposition.” When people like Michael point out that the market gained around 500 points today, the response is that is what you said (please note I’m not saying that’s what your intent was) and that we have not yet felt the pain and that people like Michael are stupid or are enjoying the crash since “they stuck it to Wall Street”.
These Paulson or modified-Paulson bailout supporters then go on to repeat the same thing with a twist and then arrogantly tell us all that we should suck it up and take it up the ass OR ELSE!
They sound just like Bush when he was pushing the Iraq war or when Bush said “pardon the telecoms and give me more spying power in the new FISA bill or ELSE!”
One thing I will say: at least for me, I completely acknowledge there is a crisis, and we need to deal with it in the short term and the long term, but I’m fucking tired of living in fear of President failure and his merry band of fuckups, and having people who allegedly know better than us tell us that if we just take it up the ass, the GOP daddies will save us all.
I know this: if there is a crisis, you don’t FUCKING PANIC. You deal with it in a calm and rational way. I don’t fucking care if some shitheads are scared. Too bad for them. Give them some Depends and tell them to go suck their thumbs while the rest of us clean up their mess.
Sorry for the rant…this crap just pisses me off.
Soylent Green
Palin’s answer to Couric about what newspapers she reads reminds me of this bit from Woody Allen’s first movie, “Take the Money and Run” (1969).
Woody’s character has just been released from prison, gets a job interview, and attempts to lie his way into the job.
Interviewer: Name please.
Woody: John Q. Public. P-U-B-L-l-C.
Interviewer: Mr. Public, have you any experience working in an office before?
Woody: Yes, I have.
Interviewer: What kind of office was it?
Woody: Rectangular.
Interviewer: Have you any experience in running a high-speed digital electronic computer? [huge, costly 1969 version of a computer]
Woody: Yes, I have.
Interviewer: Where?
Woody: My aunt has one.
Interviewer: And what does your aunt do?
Woody: I can’t recall.
Comrade The Moar You Know
I will bet one million dollars “Cosmo” is where she gets her 99% of her news from, perhaps with a smidgeon of the National Enquirer thrown in for “hard facts”.
gbear
She didn’t want to say anything that would make John mad. John’s not very nice when he’s mad.
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
Soylent Green Says:
Ah, but Soylent… Note the copious white-space in your quotation. Palin’s ramblings would amount to two solid black paragraphs.
Comrade Jake
Dude, I’m surprised she didn’t name the Bible.
I do love Couric these days. She does know how to smell blood in the water. “Just one national magazine?”
AkaDad
To be fair, Palin thought Couric said Newsletters.
DougJ
Off topic, have you guys seen/read the latest Palin incomprehensible answer? I found a transcript but no footage yet for this one about whether or not global warming is man made:
DougJ
Happy to see you’ve all gone off topic with the Palin stuff too.
gbear
Palin is NEVER off topic.
SGEW
You mean that my drinking habits cannot be attributed to rising surface temperatures in the Gulf Coast?
I was sure my partner would buy that one. Oh well.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hey Nate, the deer I almost hit with my truck wants his stare back.
Comrade Jake
Ambinder’s post on the near-complete collapse of the GOP is worth a read, particularly for this gem:
<img src=”http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/mccain2.jpg” alt=”McCain on drugs”>
Comrade Glocksman
Meh, I’m pre-Kos.
In fact I first stumbled onto this blog because I confused ‘balloon juice’ with ‘hot air’ when tying in the URL and was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t read a Captain Ed bullshit screed as the lead post.
In fact, I’m another ‘reformed Republican’ just like John Cole.
Similarly, I’m in a state that traditionally is hostile to Democrats such as Obama.
Though the tightness of the polling here in Indiana gives me hope. :)
Scrutinizer
Wow. Palin is almost as stupid as the “let it crash” people.
DougJ
Crash here, crash now.
Comrade Glocksman
Some may be offended by this photoshop, but I concocted it in a +5 condition and I still think it fits perfectly WRT a commentary on the Republicans still fighting the sixties Culture war a la Nixonland in this election.
Just Some Fuckhead
I don’t think stupid can be measured linearly but if it could be there’s no way she’s that stupid. Didn’t she say the bailout was disappointing but necessary?
Scrutinizer
See?
Comrade Glocksman
Forgot to close the link
Scrutinizer
Umm? And?
Stevenovitch
Everything I’ve read/heard has left the impression that a large number of economists (you know, the people who have purportedly spent their whole life trying to understand how the economy works) have a) not yet been meaningfully consulted by our leadership in Washington during this crisis b) expressed extreme misgivings over the bailout plan. c) provided better alternatives to the bailout plan.
Interestingly enough, when ABC put what’s her expert in front of my face last night to tell me that my dog will be raped if I don’t support the bailout, they didn’t even bat an eye when they said that she works for a major investment firm. Of course Investors want to save their own asses and this bailout will probably do it but that doesn’t really tell me whether or not it’s good for the economy as a whole, or more specifically, me. Would it kill ABC to get an expert who doesn’t have a literally vested interest in making me believe in this bailout plan regardless of it’s good or bad for the public in general?
Scrutinizer
Man, I honestly couldn’t tell you what she said. Starts talking, I go into MEGO instantaneously. Except that it’s my ears, not my eyes.
Comrade Glocksman
McCain at RNC
Scrutinizer
OT: Judi Trott was hot.
Comrade Glocksman
Apparently the IMG tag works fine in preview, but fails miserably in the actual post.
tBone
You forgot “mavericky.” And I don’t think you understand the difference between tactics and strategy, whippersnapper.
Causing voters to be confused and/or disgusted enough to vote (for no discernible reason) for McCain is the strategy. Keeping an enormous cyclone of bullshit churning until the election is the tactic.
Comrade Jake
You need to read the economists who have experience with national politics. The ideal plan is likely one that has no shot of getting through the House. That’s the rub. That’s why Krugman described the bill as “not very good” but “good enough”.
SGEW
K-Lo, that infinite font of wisdom, defends Palin’s “All of ’em” line (h/t Sadly, No!):
And this is better?
And this is a good thing?
They want to lose.
SGEW
Don’t let the WIN be the enemy of “meh”: all you will get is FAIL.
ninerdave
RedState knows how to fix the financial crisis, send in Palin:
via Sully
I mean she reads all newspapers, so she has to know something.
Comrade Jake
Right. So what do you propose there, tough guy?
SGEW
Meh.
AkaDad
This made me LOL.
AkaDad
Hmmm. My picture didn’t show up.
Conservatively Liberal
I know it shouldn’t be funny, but for some reason it is. Why?
SGEW
[to make it clear, I was updating Voltaire into 1337]
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Comrade Glocksman, you can make the image tag work if you hand-edit it.
Change the opening bracket (“less than sign”) to & lt; and the closing angle bracket (“greater than sign”) to & gt; BUT make sure that you get rid of the space after the & in each one.
If you preview and see an image, it won’t work.
If you edit the code, and see standard HTML in preview, it should work.
AkaDad
One more time.
t jasper parnell
DougJ’s link has the video now.
Comrade Glocksman
I made it in the first 24 hours after Palin’s RNC speech and I felt that since the Nazis used the same tactics of questioning their opponents’ love of country that it was appropriate.
McCain’s no Nazi, but his campaign is using Nazi election tactics.
Maybe that’s why you found it darkly humorous?
DougJ
It was only sixteen years ago that Dan Quayle was nearly forced to resign for misspelling potato. How far our standards for VPs have fallen.
AkaDad
<img src=”http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd46/Patsfan55555/political-pictures-sarah-palin-john.jpg?t=1222822956″ alt=”LOLPalin” />
DougJ
DougJ’s link has the video now.
Sorry you have to watch the preview for “The Mentalist” to get to the good stuff.
Chris Johnson
She WILL not read any newspapers of any sort whatsoever, because they are tools of Satan. So it’s her church newsletter, and any local church-controlled papers in Alaska. She’s really insistent that this is representative of what all Americans do, and thus the correct answer.
God knows you shouldn’t sit around knowing MORE than regular folks. That would never do. You might make decisions on something you read in some newspaper rather than doing what God’s voice in your head tells you to do.
Don’t EVEN think I’m joking, more’s the pity. eek.
Scrutinizer
Comrade Jake @ 128
Yep yep. It would be almost impossible for a more liberal bipartisan bill to get through the House if this one didn’t. The Dems could drive through a more liberal plan, but then they would well and truly own it. Part of the reason that Pelosi (who’s gotten way more shit that she deserves in this, TZ) insisted on Republican support was that she didn’t want this plan to morph into a Dem plan and a Dem problem.
All the wanking over at the GOS about “now we can have a better plan” is ignoring political reality.
wasabi gasp
TheFountainHead
She reads like Johnny V from Short Circuit.
wasabi gasp
Rats! What’s the trick to get the images cooking?
JL
Rep. Culbertson from Texas is saying that the repubs plan was better but we are in a crisis. I disagree because the problem with the economy right now, is that banks are no longer lending to banks. It’s a credit problem. When banks don’t trust other banks balance sheets, that means we are all in deep trouble.
SGEW
AKADad, that’s the best PaLOLin I’ve seen yet.
Comrade Jake
If you watch the video carefully, around the time Katie gets into the question, you can see Palin raise her eyebrows. As in “OH SHIT”.
<img src=”http://www.thedeets.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/millionaire_idiot_fail.jpg” alt=”more Palin fail”>
Comrade Incertus
I don’t think they want to lose so much as they’re determined to see anything that happens as a net positive. I remember feeling the same way myself in 2004, when I was convinced that Kerry was going to pull it out. I went back recently and looked at some of my blog posts from then–damn, it was ugly.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
wasabi: see my image tutorial at comment 138. (I LOVE comment numbers!)
Here’s that global warming babble video that DougJ linked, with some random ad at the start.
<embed src=’http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf30can10cbsnews/rcpHolderCbs-3-4×3.swf’ FlashVars=’link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecbsnews%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Fwatch%2F%3Fid%3D4490713n&partner=cbssports&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&releaseURL=http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=whYHVKAxdexjBzXXLi1hhswWYRM89Fum&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl’ allowFullScreen=’true’ width=’425′ height=’324′ type=’application/x-shockwave-flash’ pluginspage=’http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer’></embed><br/><a href=’http://www.cbs.com’>Watch CBS Videos Online</a>
kommrade jakevich
And the Blood Countess gives a big Fuck You to:
Anchorage Alaska Journal of Commerce
Anchorage Anchorage Daily News
Anchorage Anchorage Press
Anchorage Petroleum News
Bethel Delta Discovery
Bethel Tundra Drums
Cordova Cordova Times
Delta Junction Delta News Web
Delta Junction Delta Wind
Dillingham Bristol Bay Times
Dutch Harbor Dutch Harbor Fisherman
Eagle River Alaska Star
Ester The Ester Republic
Fairbanks Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Fairbanks Sun Star
Girdwood Turnagain Times
Gustavus Fairweather Reporter
Haines Chilkat Valley News
Homer Homer News
Homer Homer Tribune
Juneau Capital City Weekly
Juneau Juneau Empire
Kenai Peninsula Clarion
Ketchikan Ketchikan Daily News
Ketchikan Local Paper
Ketchikan Sitnews
Kodiak Kodiak Daily Mirror
Kotzebue Arctic Sounder
Nome The Nome Nugget
Petersburg Petersburg Pilot
Seldovia Seldovia Gazette
Seward Seward Phoenix Log
Skagway Skagway News
Talkeetna Talkeetna Times
Thorne Bay Southeast Alaska’s Island News
Valdez Valdez Star
Wasilla Frontiersman
Wrangell Wrangell Sentinel
Conservatively Liberal
You nailed it. I know that they are not Nazis either but they can not deny that that tactic, along with some others they use, is just wrong. Questioning the patriotism of any fellow countryman should be off limits. People should be free to disagree (or agree) without being called on their love of their country.
When discourse devolves to the point that it has, people are divided and turned against one another.
Annette
Just breezing through and testing a couple of tweaks as we are T-2 days to the VP debate I have nightmares of the servers melting into puddles on the NOC floor.
Pay no attention to the geek behind the curtain.
Current stat:
[root@curry ~]# w
21:15:00 up 8 days, 9:17, 3 users, load average: 0.69, 0.90, 1.41
Queries per second: 37.12
Apache processes: 183
Test test for refresh table sort rate…
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
Mmmm…. News….
Scrutinizer
SGEW @ 137
W3 n33d 3c0n0mic h4xx0r?
colleeniem
Totally and completely OT, but I’m LIVID, and I need help from the smart, snarky people here.
Can someone tell me if the repubs had a veto-proof majority in the senate in May 2006? The house only needs a majority, right?
I’ll ‘splain a little bit.
I got a reprehensible email from a friend of mine, who has some good qualities, but is a 28% er. It contains a powerpoint presentation regarding who to blame for this financial crisis. While it didn’t cite the CRA act, it basically is partisan claptrap about St. John McCain the Saint, citing his Federal Housing Enterprise Reform Act as what could have prevented everything, (which got “scuttled by the dems”, natch) and also states Raines is as an Obama adviser. Here’s the sources, copied verbatim from the end of the document:
Congressional Record, 5/25/06
“Hannity & Colmes,” Fox News, 9/16-9/17/08
Herald Tribune, 4/18/08
New York Times, 9/13/03
http://www.govtrack.com, 9/17/08
Prof. Dennis Jantz, 2008
I would totally write this crap off, normally. I see this stuff has made some blog rounds after some “The” google use and I can’t find a scholarly article written by a “Professor Dennis Jantz.” I mean, it’s all bullshit, a real prof. would cite sources properly.
I’m mad and writing on screed on a weeknight, however, because it was sent by a senior fucking military officer (Colonel) to some corporal (the email chain is visible). That corporal forwarded it to others. It made it up to the mid level officers, who are using their government email to forward it to people like me (on my personal email, because I asked this friend not to send partisan shit like this to me at a .mil address).
I know this goes on a lot, but people are acting like it is legitimate.
This is against the fucking law, and if I were better at all these new fancy tools, I would link the whole powerpoint, so you could all see and be outraged.
I’m just debunking all I can and reading this person the g-d riot (Hatch) act in a reply email.
Also OT–so, do you think Anchorage Daily News will be upset with their non-plug by their governor? I’m sure they cover SOME national issues in a shallow depth. This won’t help Palin one bit :).
JGabriel
The Couric/Palin Interviews, Summarized:
.
wasabi gasp
< img src=”http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7716/acevedo20mccaince4.jpg” />
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
WIN.
Just Some Fuckhead
The alternative is ignoring plain old reality.
AkaDad
Agreed. I heart teh intertubes.
wasabi gasp
< img src=”http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7716/acevedo20mccaince4.jpg” />
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
(Sorry wasabi: each of the codes need that semi-colon at the end. It may have been hard to see. Check your preview: if it shows the correct angle brackets, then this hack worked.)
SGEW
Actually, upon further thought, I was using more LOLspeak than 1337, to be honest.
And, no. Ceiling cat can has no fix for our economiez. Basement cat now has our bukkit.
kthxbai
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
OR — if you copied and pasted anything with smart codes, it won’t work. You need to use straight quotation marks.
Just Some Fuckhead
<img src=”http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7716/acevedo20mccaince4.jpg”/>
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
ARGH — I meant, no smart quotes (slanty or curly), just the standard type-manually-in-the-box straight quotes.
Comrade The Moar You Know
<img src=”http://i526.photobucket.com/albums/cc342/arbiterusa/PowerMetal.jpg”>
Wasabi Gasp: here’s the code I used for this:
& lt;img src=”http://www.imagehostofyourchoice.com/PowerMetal.jpg”& gt;
Remove the spaces after the apostrophes, insert the location of your image (I liek Photobucket) and go to town.
wasabi gasp
Thanks, Comrade Mary.
But, I suck.
Just Some Fuckhead
<img src=http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7716/acevedo20mccaince4.jpg>
wasabi gasp
<img src=”http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7716/acevedo20mccaince4.jpg”>
Comrade Jake
Mary, you are one good egg for helping people out.
wasabi gasp
I suck less! Yay!
Just Some Fuckhead
Sorry Wasabi, just trying to learn; didn’t have my own image.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Anyone copying and pasting Moar’s code, DEFINITELY retype the quotation marks. Slanty or curly smartypants quotes will screw you every time. But yeah, as he said, remove the spaces after the ampersands (&) and you’re golden, which is also a metal.
wasabi gasp
Thank you, non-suckers!
SGEW
I do not like the direction this is going.
Comrade Jake
Thanks wasabi. You just gave me fucking nightmares for the rest of the week.
Stevenovitch
So… because we’ve established that a better plan isn’t a political reality, that means that the validity of the current plan is immaterial?
Krugman is sending mixed signals. Signal one: we need to do this. Signal two: this won’t work at all.
He does mention that he’s talking about the Paulson plan as originally sold, but I must have missed the part where the current plan isn’t just the Paulson plan plus some toothless oversight and meaningless “progressive” concessions. They are still planning on buying up bad assets right?
Given the choice between an uber-fucked economy and an uber-fucked economy plus an extra $700 billion in federal debt, I think I choose the former, at least in that case it’ll be feasible to get some social programs passed.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
AAAAAHHH! I regret helping you little jerks now.
Can’t sleep. POW will eat me.
TheFountainHead
i r testing imujiz.
<img src=”http://gedblog.com/wp-content/uploads/palinvp_bingo.png”>
Just Some Fuckhead
<script>msgbox(“This could really be abused.”)</script>
John McCan't
i think there should be a department of jesus & those people can run for “jesus” and the honor of dying on the cross for america’s sins. that would put a quick stop to this crap.
SGEW
I think that Krugman, et. al., are putting it more along the lines of a choice between an uber-fucked economy + $700bil versus a super-duper-ultra-mega-holy-cow-we’re-fucked economy.
If you’ll excuse the technical language
Scrutinizer
I’d give a million to see this.
(Wow. Kucinich and House Republicans on the same side.)
New plan: Lock myself in my room with my Faye Valentine/Annette Haven/Abigail Clayton/Kandi Barbour/Melissa Melendez/Siobhan Hunter collections and stay inside for the next couple of years.
TheFountainHead
i r fail.
<img src=”http://gedblog.com/wp-content/uploads/palinvp_bingo.png”>
gbear
& lt;img src=”http://www.ratemyeverything.net/image/1219/0/Bunny_with_a_Pancake_on_Its_Head.ashx”& gt;
Just Some Fuckhead
<font color=red>Testing
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Maddow’s show is surreal tonight. Both the Republican congressman who voted against the bailout and Dennis Kucinich made very similar arguments for their vote, and both expressed their support for raising the FDIC insurance limit as part of the solution. Their ideas diverged from there, but it was very odd to see Dennis Kucinich reach out to the Republicans in congress in a spirit of bipartisanship. Very odd.
gbear
OK, so I need to practice…
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
gbear, you just need to get rid of the space after each of the & at the beginning and end of the code.
TheFountainHead
This thread is like a Palin answer.
Just Some Fuckhead
<font color=red>Cool, all my shit is gonna be red now. Try to ignore me and I’ll change it to flashing. All yer dialogue are belong to me.
Stevenovitch
Not sure I read that post….
TheFountainHead
Sarah Palin: “I’m not going to blame all of man’s activities on climate change.”
Wait…..wha?
No, seriously folks. She said that.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
D’oh! TheFountainHead, you’ve got it: Palin doesn’t speak English, she speaks rebus.
(You’re using deprecated FONT tags, JSF. I shall now shun you.)
gbear
<img src=”http://www.ratemyeverything.net/image/1219/0/Bunny_with_a_Pancake_on_Its_Head.ashx”>
Comrade The Moar You Know
gbear – step one:
pull the spaces out after the apostrophes.
step two:
replace the quotation marks with ones you type in from your keyboard.
It should work then.
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
You gotta type “<”, not “& lt;”.
Cookie for anyone who knows how I did that.
gbear
sigh
Just Some Fuckhead
Would inline CSS make you love me again?
Stevenovitch
<img src=”http://www.ratemyeverything.net/image/1219/0/Bunny_with_a_Pancake_on_Its_Head.ashx”>
Scrutinizer
Listening to all this “Lower the expectations for Palin” crap in the media, I recall Toobin last night and Zawhatshisname, who both said that this isn’t a game, it’s not about lowering the bar. It’s about whether this woman is qualified to step into McCain’s place if he were elected and was incapacitated. Judging her on any other basis is wrong.
Although Ana Marie Cox just said “Maybe she could just be quiet Thursday night. It could be like the John Cage Memorial Debate.”
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
“<”, not “& lt;”
Chocolate chip, please and thank you.
(Now watch this not work).
Comrade The Moar You Know
Moar than one of us can play that game.
This works in preview, I’m gonna be pissed if it doesn’t work otherwise.
Comrade Jake
I think you’re reinforcing my point though. Krugman recognizes the practical political issues, but he’s still going to be critical of the plan. That’s why he’s written that it’s not very good.
People should feel free to criticize the plan all they want, but proposing alternatives without recognizing the political limitations is pissing in the wind. We are simply not likely to get a bill that makes lots of progressives happy. That doesn’t mean that such a bill wouldn’t be the best way to go here.
gbear
<img src=http://www.ratemyeverything.net/image/1219/0/Bunny_with_a_Pancake_on_Its_Head.ashx”>
Ash Can
FountainHead: Bingo, hell. That’s a VP debate drinking game in the making. Add the requirements to chug if either Biden or Ifill facepalm or LOL at anything Palin says, and to finish the bottle/case if Palin bursts into tears, and it’s good to go.
In other news, Fox News dipshit pulls “fair and balanced” out of ass, gets laughed at.
Just Some Fuckhead
Why is raising the FDIC insured limits part of their solution?? Because they know that not passing a comprehensive rescue package is going to lead to more and more bank failures. Not much of a solution.
JL
The republican culbertson wants to change an accounting rule that will hide the transperancy in banks balance sheets. That way banks will trust each other and the credit markets won’t freeze. He’s nuts!!!! The problem with Kucinich’s view is IMO we are in a credit crisis and just bailing out homeowners won’t help at this point.
JGabriel
The Fountainhead:
Yeah, I kind of boggled at that one too. In a way, that’s almost better than “Reducing taxes… has gotta be a part of any tax reductions.”
Almost.
.
Comrade The Moar You Know
shoulda known better:
<p><font color=blue>Moar than one can play that game.</font></p>
Scrutinizer
Preview is not your friend.
Stevenovitch
I see someone else is trying to abuse the javascript potential of this comment system. You guys should probably fix that….
gbear
<img src=”http://www.ratemyeverything.net/image/1219/0/Bunny_with_a_Pancake_on_Its_Head.ashx”>
gbear
Now I can die a happy man.
TheFountainHead
Shit, if that happens I’m stripping naked and taking the bottle out into the street to dance to Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky which will naturally be playing at full volume through my window.
Comrade Jake
I love this blog.
Annette
colleeniem @ 160
Found an instructor named Dennis Jantz at UNLV and also a comment on a DOE plan related to nuclear waste from a Dennis and Claudia Jantz in 2001 – in Nevada (see this).
Other than that, nothing on the purported author in the academic realm. Didn’t go through reading a whole lot of it, but I think this part is particularly amusing:
I seem to recall that both the House and Senate were R-leaning from 2003-2005. Yet another example of whoever dreams this stuff up shooting themselves in the foot.
Scrutinizer
Which is why the MUP is saying that we need to take care of the money part now, and work on the other provisions later. We have time to add bankruptcy relief, mortgage relief, and that stuff later. We need to address the questionably valued paper now. The problem isn’t going to wait on us to make up our minds and to chase down the “best bill”.
Just Some Fuckhead
Haha.. u did it Stevenovitch. Now yer in trouble.
Stevenovitch
yeah uh, that’s really dangerous. Should fix ASAP.
wasabi gasp
Sarah Palin’s resume is in Comic Sans.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
I saw a blank JS alert, then I saw a bunny with a pancake on its head. Dude, that’s evil.
Scrutinizer
The page better damn well shut up.
Comrade Jake
I just had a yellow-triangle with an exclamation point inside appear when loading this page. Which one of you fuckers pulled that off?
Just Some Fuckhead
I can see an application- when a troll shows up:
TROLL ALERT! DO NOT FEED!
Stevenovitch
sorry, just seeing if it works. By the by, you might want to log out of any web apps (g-mail) you use while loading this page.
TheFountainHead
Don’t know if this was already linked above, but this 30 second video of a Faux News reporter finding a “split decision” on the race in Eastern Pennsylvania is pretty amusing.
Scrutinizer
NoScript is my friend.
Comrade The Moar You Know
OK, that last was lame. This might be more interesting.
<p><span style=”text-decoration:blink”>BLINK TEST</span><p>
<p><font size=5 face>BIGGER.</font></p>
Scrutinizer
Blinking is teh lame.
wasabi gasp
My comment was supposed to be in Comic Sans as well.
sistermoon
User Penman, On Sarah Palin (from Daily Kos):
Just Some Fuckhead
Ned Flanders in a dress.
JGabriel
Comrade Jake:
Well, fine, let’s discuss the political implications.
1. No matter what, the Republicans are going to attack the Democrats – which they proved with the ad they started airing this morning blaming the D’s for a bill that hadn’t even passed.
2. No matter what, the Democrats are going to own the solution. Especially if Obama wins – but if McCain wins, he’ll spend his first term blaming everything he doesn’t do on the “Democrat Bailout Bill”.
3. If Obama wins, the Democrats will own the rescue – whether it succeeds or fails. Let’s make sure it succeeds.
4. That means, politicallly, passing a bill that is progressive, something along the lines that Roubini, Reich, Krugman, et. al., have been pushing. Maybe the HLOC/HOME type of program that Roubini suggests can wait until January, but the sooner the better and I’d rather see it go through now while we have the leverage.
5. The R’s won’t vote for that? Fuck’em. See 1 & 2 above. Push it through on D votes.
6. Paulson will hate it; Bush won’t sign it. Again, fuck’em. Again, see 1 & 2 above. The Dems will have to live with this no matter what. Let’s make sure it’s something we can live with. And if Bush/Paulson want the funds, if they don’t sign it, they’ll just be proving they didn’t need that much money in the first place.
So, I don’t see the need to beg Republicans for their support, or compromise with them when they’ll just vote against the bill anyway; they’ve already shown, as recently as this morning, that they are bad faith actors on this issue (as they are on all issues).
.
Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)
Palin interview in Alaska Frontiersman.
An email Q&A. Christ on a caribou. Even with an opportunity to edit and fine-tune, she can barely put a coherent thought together.
Pay special attention to the answers to questions 11, 12, and 13. Compare and contrast to all the rest of the answers. Guaranteed, these ones were written by McCain’s campaign lawyers.
Comrade Fedorovich Stuck
This kind of talk makes my little virtual heart go pitter patter. More please!
wasabi gasp
<font face=”Comic Sans MS”>Hello, Tacky</font>
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
It’s all fun and games until someone breaks out the blink tag.
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/T45r1bh0N1k&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/T45r1bh0N1k&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
Comrade The Moar You Know
<center style=”font-size: 60px; text-decoration: blink;”>
<div style=”color: red;”>BALLOON JUICE</div>
<div style=”color: orange;”>BALLOON JUICE </div>
<div style=”color: yellow;”>BALLOON JUICE</div>
<div style=”color: green;”>BALLOON JUICE</div>
<div style=”color: blue;”>BALLOON JUICE </div>
<div style=”color: indigo;”>BALLOON JUICE </div>
<div style=”color: purple;”>BALLOON JUICE</div>
</center>
I’ll stop now.
Conservatively Liberal
all ur intertubes r annette’s
Comrade NonyNony
NONONONONONO. No. Just. No.
The reason for the raise in the limits is because there’s a “silent” bank run going on right now. People with assets over 100K in the bank are removing them down to the insured limit. And this mostly means small business owners. There are a lot of small businesses out there, and they’re not keeping more than 100K in the banks right now. Raising the limits on an insured deposit would leave more capital in the bank, which would mean that they wouldn’t be as worried about clenching tightly to the capital they have, which would get them to lend it out again and keep the credit markets moving.
Add into that the fact that the FDIC is one of the few government entities that people still trust at the moment (probably mostly because they’ve been doing a yeoman’s job of making these bank rescues move smoothly and with a minimum of fuss for depositors), and you end up with a very good idea to inject some “trust” back into the system. And if you believe that a big part of the problem is a lack of trust (as many economists do) then you have a piece of a good solution here.
This is also the part of Peter DeFazio and the progressive caucus’s new proposal that they’re floating right now that I really like – let the buyout be administered by the FDIC – NOT TREASURY. People don’t trust Treasury right now. People trust the FDIC. If you want to get past the fact that Paulson poisoned the well by demanding the money be given to him with no accountability, one way to fix that is to remove him from the equation and put the FDIC in charge instead.
Comrade The Moar You Know
Aww, shit, I think I just raped the page width. Sorry guys.
Conservatively Liberal
Ahhh, the freedom of HTML expression. John and Annette are so good to us. ;)
BH-Buck
Gonna be hell to pay when John sees this mess.
colleeniem
Annette @ 224, you’re the best!
I found that same prof, from the writing department. I was thinking about writing the head of the department an email, to make sure their instructors are aware of proper citation, at the very least.
I should not be surprised that crap like is getting passed around my work circles, with no thought to its logic or merit, despite the illegality. It still makes me sad though.
Sigh.
Leo
You’re right, you did miss it. Krugman is drawing a distinction between the two plans based on one thing: equity warrants.
His argument is that merely buying toxic assets at their current values won’t alleviate the crisis; we need to inject capital into the crippled firms. If that’s the case, we will need to overpay for assets in order for the plan to work. But, of course, if we overpay we are essentially giving money away to Wall Street, and we should get something in return. That something is profit participation via preferred stock. So Krugman’s position since early on has been that the plan was acceptable (however imperfect) so long as it provided some avenue to make cash-for-equity deals. Paulson’s proposal didn’t include that, but the one that failed did.
Now you can agree or disagree with the argument, but try to fucking understand it first.
kommrade jakevich
This is a test…
Bite Me
TheFountainHead
Great, now I’m going to have nightmares about giant blinking balloons and orange juice.
Ash Can
Yes, FountainHead, I linked to that in the comment you commented on. ;) But not a problem — not only does that video bear repeating, but now I have “Spirit in the Sky” going through my head, complete with images of naked street-dancing. Too funny.
In still other news, one of Sarah Palin’s best friends is gay. She’s so cutting-edge, that gal…
kommrade jakevich
FECK!
Feck?
kommrade jakevich
SEIZURE
SEIZURE
SEIZURE
SEIZURE
SEIZURE
SEIZURE
SEIZURE
U had sum kode. And I stealded it.
kommrade jakevich
Fuck, what happened?
Grrrr.
TheFountainHead
Sorry about that, Ash Can, I’m better at posting indiscriminately than reading thoroughly. And just for fun, can we find a woman that Palin slept with at one of her six colleges? I mean, there’s gotta be at least one, right?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Hmm. I thought I had noticed that comment numbering was a little wobbly, but now I can see for sure that what colleeniem (@251) called Annette’s comment @224 actually shows up to me as comment 223. Is this to be expected while settling in, or is it one of those little vagaries we’ll have to live with?
KT
test
Annette
colleeniem @ 251
I doubt that Dennis Jantz is attached to this in any manner. Too bad it’s a little long for the folks at Snopes to go through. I wonder just which “Herald Tribune” that cite might be…
Party divisions here.
Comrade Jake
Sorry, but this is delusional at best. If you think the Dems know how to use any leverage they might have, you haven’t been paying attention.
Stevenovitch
I have been trying to understand it. Excuse me for not speaking economics, or understanding what the fuck an equity warrant is.
Scott H
@255
Oh, really, Sarah? What choice was it you made? Fans of Girls Gone Wild want to know…
Scrutinizer
No. No. No.
This bill is unpopular with the electorate as it is. The only way that Dems can hold their seats after voting for this bill is if we have a roughly 50-50 Dem-Rep split in votes for the bill. Anything less is a guaranteed loss of a majority in the House. Pelosi is trying to provide political cover for us by demanding Republican participation on a plan to fix a Republican fuckup. Yes, we could muscle a progressive plan through; and then we could kiss goodbye to getting anything done in the congress during Obama’s Presidency. Ir you be just like Clinton’s presidency after 1994.
You do not want to see that.
wasabi gasp
<img src=”http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3702/insectly9.gif”>
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
You gonna eat that, wasabi?
TheFountainHead
That bug is tracing the logic of a Sarah Palin answer.
Scrutinizer
I think that the title of this thread means something different from what all y’all think it means.
Scrutinizer
And now there’s a fucking bug on my fucking monitor.
gbear
Is that a bug or a feature?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
OK, gbear wins the thread.
Can we get a new one now, please? I promise not to break it.
ElBlot
We need to push for a Progressive alternate bill – I heard one was coming earlier but I have not seen it. Right now Wall Street is threatening us and we need to just walk away from the Bush-Paulson-Frank proposal.
JGabriel
Comrade Jake:
And they’ll never learn to use their leverage, or that it’s expected of them, until we demand it.
Yes, there are times when compromise is necessary and should be pursued. I don’t think I’m being impractical, naive, or delusional here; this is simply not one of those times. All efforts at compromise lead to the same outcome: a crap bill that the Dems get blamed for anyway.
There’s just no reason NOT to try for something better, especially given the way the R’s have telegraphed their bad intentions this time around.
.
Comrade Jake
We’re like fucking kids in the candy store here. When does the porn show up?
TheFountainHead
Now THAT deserves a rim-shot.
Comrade NonyNony
Ahem:
Found by using the nifty search string “define: equity warrant” on the Google.
But you’re excused for not speaking economics. Or more accurately, for not speaking High Finance. Which is kind of like High Elvish but more evil.
Annette
Sorry, that would be me removing comments with embedded nasty stuff that causes things like…javascript alerts. The resort after that renumbers the comments in the table associated with the post.
wasabi gasp
The first time I ever saw that thing I thought it was a gnat on my monitor.
I tried to shoo it away. {{{blush}}}
Stevenovitch
See, now it all makes perfect thanks. Thankssomuch. With google, we can all be VP.
/snark
Scrutinizer
Did anyone else find that vaguely erotic?
TheFountainHead
You don’t have too many hours logged with Sql do you?
Scrutinizer
Spun just like a Republican.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Ah, thanks, Annette.
Almost on topic: Dan Savage wants to be Sarah’s gay friend.
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/leq3ydk5Ug4&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/leq3ydk5Ug4&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
kommrade jakevich
wasabi gasp, if that had been a house centipede you’d owe me a new monitor and quite possibly a window.
And no, I’m not ashamed to say those fuckers make me leap sideways.
Scrutinizer
No, just Faye, and Annette, and Abigail, and…
Dennis - SGMM
I found that it worked in Preview early this afternoon and mentioned that in another thread. Having coded HTML in various plain text editors way back in the day and lived through the flaming JAVA skulls era as well I forsook the temptation to use the blink-weapon. Besides, it doesn’t work in Lynx – that’s how old I am.
BLINK TEST
Get off my lawn
Comrade NonyNony
There’s a summary proposal on Peter DeFazio’s web page over here. I’d like to hear what the experts think because this has a few things that I like (like the fact that it’s based on a program that has worked in the past, works to ensure that tax dollars spent out get repaid, and the FDIC administers the program instead of Treasury).
Comrade Jake
I totally agree with you buddy, I just don’t see it happening. The Dems represent a fairly diverse constituency, and there’s not enough that’s progressive to put the necessary pressure on them. I’m all for trying, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.
I’m not certain the Dems are going to get blamed for this, honestly. Most of the public has already decided that the situation is the GOP’s fault to begin with.
Nobody’s saying “don’t try for something better.” I’m just saying that the political reality doesn’t support it being successful. But sure, they should by all means try.
colleeniem
Annette, my arsenal is awesome now! Thanks again.
Comrade Fedorovich Stuck
Oh boy, the circus is in town
Waht’s this button do. Hee. Makes it big heehee
gbear
annette, can you add this feature?
<img src=”http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/listen_to_yourself.png”>
Scrutinizer
I go back to Linux 0.9, all command line stuff, no X; good times. Actually, I go back to IBM 360/70 and PDP 11 with RSTS-E (pre VMS). And card decks!
Puters aren’t as much fun as they used to be.
-Crotchety Old Guy
Stevenovitch
Were the javascript posts just removed or has the issue been fixed?
Leo
Sorry, Stevenovitch, that was unnecessary. I’m just really damned frustrated right now. Our political system is totally incapable of processing and responding to this mess in anything approaching a rational way, and it is driving me a bit crazy.
TheFountainHead
Heh. This is laminated and tacked to my wall.
<img src=”http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png”>
Scrutinizer
Hanging on my bulletin board right now too.
Annette
Comrade Fedorovich Stuck @ 242:
The full chain email is here.
kommrade jakevich
If this shit only works in IE I may have discovered something lamer than McPalin.
Comrade Jake
Ditto.
In other news, it appears that our National Debt is set to cross $10 Trillion tomorrow. Good times.
Dennis - SGMM
COBOL, PASCAL and FORTRAN. I’m a lousy typist so I must have ruined several trees worth of 80 column punch cards when I was starting out.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Tattooed on my — OK, not really.
JGabriel
The Fountinhead:
I actually use that one as my desktop wallpaper (centered).
.
Ash Can
FountainHead: No apologies necessary. Post away. :) As for Palin and her gal pals, if someone from the distinguished gov’s past were to appear with videos in hand for an October surprise, I would declare this presidential campaign officially cosmic.
gbear
For the five people who don’t know about it, here’s the link to the site with those cartoons. Worthy of a bookmark.
Martin
What would be the point? Either nothing would ever get posted here or everything would. I’m not really sure which, but I’m almost positive it would be one of those two outcomes.
Annette
gbear @ 293:
That would be something for John and the designer to decide to incorporate into the site as a whole.
Stevenovitch @ 295:
Removed, for now. The comment as is in this template doesn’t appear to sanitize anything, which is a major problem, but the code is royally…messed up (I do see a snippet of what appears to be a half-assed attempt, but I also need to dig backwards and see if this is actually used in the templating or just a red herring). It is something I’ll pass on to whoever is resdesigning, though, since malicious POSTs are no laughing matter even with all the fun everyone is having right now.
Comrade Fedorovich Stuck
Yea, wingnuts are latching on to Fannie an Freddy trying to lay cause for the meltdown on dems . I could be wrong, but I believe very few of the bad sub prime mortgages that are driving this catastrophe were done by Fan and Fred. The real culprit is systematic dereg. especially the Gramm law in 1999 throwing the door open for mischief by investment banks.
gbear
Tell that to MyIQ.
TheFountainHead
But didn’t Eric at RedState tell us just last year that Libruls had awesomesauce websites cause we’d hijacked all the computer programmers? (read: thinking peoples)
Scrutinizer
Dennis -SGMM @ 302
You know, I never did FORTRAN. I did PL/I, assembler for IBM 360/70 and the DEC (and later for the PC and the Mac), BASIC (of course), PASCAL, dabbled with ADA, C and C++. Lots of dBase (II, III, and IV), and something like Oracle that wasn’t Oracle. Dabbled with MySQL some. I’m not the compleat programmer, though, by any means. I kinda put all that down around 5 years ago. Nowadays it’s mostly routines in MATLAB and LabView, and the occasional C++, but just enough to run numerical analysis packages.
I miss playing with code, but I don’t really have time any more.
Still say that CPM was better than DOS, and IBM should picked that instead!
gbear
Does the name Rick Davis ever get mentioned in those discussions?
tBone
Dear God. Images, video, and blinky-text in borderless comments? BRING BACK WORDPRESS ERROR.
(Annette r0xxors, though.)
Comrade Fedorovich Stuck
POW
Scrutinizer
By the way, did you know that John McCain was a POW?
TheFountainHead
I think when historians look back at the turn of this century, they will determine that this country would not have survived without Jon Stewart.
TheFountainHead
Where did everyone go?
b. hussein canuckistani
I’m telling John what you people are doing to his blog. He’s gonna kick your asses.
TenguPhule
The stupid NEVER STOPS
How do you make a bad bill worse?
The stupid, it burns us all.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Was that covered in the original, or was this a hoped-for addition that didn’t make it?
wasabi gasp
<img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/2903207462_94722ba2a7.jpg?v=0″>
The Tongue Jut
wasabi gasp
The Tongue Jut
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
This thread looks like Risky Business: The Balloon Juice Edition.
Comrade Fedorovich Stuck
Well, that figures. The dems avoided one trap, but are now going to leap feet first into a new one. Enact a 700 bill taxpayer paid and cut taxes at same time. By doing so dems stamp their logo (Dumbass Democrats) on the bailout bill and also for adding the 700 bill plus lost AMT revenues to the budget deficit. I’m glad I’m no longer a democrat, even though I will vote for them next month. But then again, this is America, where all the leaders are below average, and money grows on trees.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Is Reid worth anything? Really? Can someone name one bold or correct thing he’s done since gaining office?
wasabi gasp
Reid seems like a wonderful guy to suck a bag of Werther’s Originals with.
Juan del Llano
Okay 267, now you did it: I just tried to blow that gnat off my screen, so help me God.
TheFountainHead
Can someone tell me what this American Carol movie is about? Is this the wingnut attempt at humor?
LongHairedWeirdo
Well, if I understand fair value accounting properly, you have to value something – like a bundle of mortgages sliced up into bonds – as what it will fetch in the marketplace. What can you sell it for?
The thing is, if, historically, the mortgages should return, say, 75 cents to the dollar (which is beyond terrible for mortgages!), but no one will buy them at over 25 cents on the dollar, then fair value accounting will cut their value by 66%.
I can’t defend that proposal. I don’t have enough information or understanding to defend it. But, eliminating that form of valuation might be appropriate (emphasis on the “might”).
A lot of the problem we’re facing is accounting based. There are rules saying you have to have so much in assets under certain circumstances, and if your assets are devalued, you need to raise additional capital to cover those requirements. Well, then, if we stop devaluing assets, we give people some breathing room.
Again, not defending this, just saying that, from my understanding of the situation, it might be a decent idea.
Comrade The Moar You Know
Somehow the Senate leadership has managed to make an appallingly stupid idea much, much worse.
This is probably the single most offensive thing I’ve ever heard come out of a politican’s mouth. It literally assumes that I and my fellow Americans have the intelligence of a dirty sponge.
That McCain, damn, he is an awesome leader. That is taking the fucking reins and crafting a solution that will stand as an example to all who come after.
I am horrified. Bi-partisan idiocy on this scale suddenly puts a lot of previously unthinkable electoral options on my table.
Conservatively Liberal
For those of you who like to watch a dead cat bounce, here is The Kitten Cannon.
Stevenovitch
wohoo, 1300+ feet. Beat that suckers.
protected static
Arbitrary scripts?
document.write(“Hello World!”)
RoonieRoo
1441 feet!
protected static
…and, if I’d been paying attention to the thread, I’d see that’s already been tried, somewhere above the pastry-laden bunny.
wasabi gasp
1,529 ft.
Stevenovitch
<style>ol li{border: 1px solid black;}</style>
Yeah actually i’m surprised no one’s tried style tags yet.
Stevenovitch
… you’re all very welcome.
protected static
oooh… boxes…
Martin
1602!
Rick Taylor
I just found out a friend of mine has been called up for duty in Iraq. He’d gotten out of it a year ago, but evidently they are hard up for troops, and so he’d going to be gone for a year. He’s not happy about it. He has a three year old daughter.
Thank you, Republicans, for misleading the country into such a long pointless war.
Stevenovitch
1602? crap… I am… defeated.
protected static
How about arbitrary elements?
I can hz buttin?
Stevenovitch
<input type=”button” value=”Click me” onclick=”alert(‘Seriously, make sure youve cleared your cookies before coming to balloon juice untill this stuff gets fixed’);”>
protected static
Nope, no buttons…
Rick, how dare you interrupt our geekery with even the slightest hint of reality?
(Seriously though… that sucks. My brother-in-law has been deployed six times now (USAF); he’s missed half of his daughter’s life in six-month chunks. My sister told him if he went again, he was coming back to an empty house…)
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Comment Borders!
Of a sort, I guess.
TenguPhule
“This pile of shit is worth billions! Trust me!”
Fair value accounting was enacted to prevent shitty people from pretending their shit was gold.
protected static
Man. Evidently, my kung foo is weak sauce tonight. Damn you, Stevenovitch.
wasabi gasp
<span style=”margin-left:-50px”>outside the box<span>
Stevenovitch
<style>ol li{border: 1px solid black;margin-top: 3px;}</style>
Stevenovitch
<style>ol li{border: 1px solid black;margin-top:3px;padding:3px;}</style>
It’s style by consensus really.
Conservatively Liberal
2744. Shoot low, go for the distance. About 4/5ths power. :)
Stevenovitch
25ft. Go for lowest. (I can move me some goal posts too)
ThymeZone
Kevin Drum, probably the most laid back blogmeister in the world.
John says that he reads some blogs daily to “check himself.” Drum is a guy I read to check myself.
When Kevin Drum tells you that a truck is coming at you, you need to pay attention.
OriGuy
I feel so confined.
I like all the shiny new buttons, but I wish there were one labeled “Symbols” that would pop up a window like the Character Set accessory so that I could just click on the symbol I want to insert. I wouldn’t have to type the HTML codes to get ♥♣♠♦.
Maybe if I close my eyes and click the CODE button….
wasabi gasp
<H1 style=”margin:-900px 0 0 120px”>Tilt<H1>
Stevenovitch
<style>#comment-1053079{display:none;}</style>
rude…
kilo
Somebody had to do it….
< img src=”http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/9/30/128673142220304835.jpg’ ” alt=”All ur newz sources…” />
kilo
Hmm, it seems that fixing things has broken the fix for images… one more try!
Wow, preview is very shiny with teh imagez now! Nice work Annette et. al.
Blue Raven
174 & 175:
“But you nominate one little mayor…”
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
No more picatures? Well, I’ve never been an astronaut, but I think I understand the challenges of HTML:
<img src=”https://balloon-juice.com/images/hotair.gif” />
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Yeah, I think it still works. Do you score assists?
<img src=”http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/9/30/128673142220304835.jpg” />
And the code:
<img src=”http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/9/30/128673142220304835.jpg” />
kilo
Ok, images work in preview, but not inline… perhaps that’s busted?
At any rate, all ur newz sourcez are belong to Sarah.
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Damn those quote marks. This should be a more accurate rendition, I think:
<img src="http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/9/30/128673142220304835.jpg" />
kilo
Hmmph, yet another computer application whereby the semicolon becomes the nemesis of all mankind.
An assist to Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака @ 363 above. Your +/- for the season is on the way up. Cheers!
Common Sense
Why is this the only thread with borders?
iluvsummr
Testing images and embedded video:
<img src=”http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/K/I/2/mccain-palin-incontinence.jpg” alt=”mccain-palin-img”>
iluvsummr
OK no embedded video.
Товарищ НеинтереснаяСобака
Because Stevenovitch is a naughty boy…
Stevenovitch
Yes, but I use my powers for good.
iluvsummr
Makes it easier to round up and deport the snark.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
In Florida that’s illegal. Lemonade stands are not allowed to be set up without a business license.
I used to live there and this story was huge when it happened.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
TZ I think we had better go back for Sashimi and Saki at our favorite fish place soon, as I fear we may never get the chance again, at least for a while.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Saki? Hmmm, I meant Sake. LMAO
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I am happy to have the borders again, they keep things organized for me. ;)
RichardfromHB
URGENT ACTION NEEDED
Sen Maj Leader Harry Reed is planning on bringing back the inadequate give away that was defeated in the house. It’s going to be voted on Wednesday or Thurs. He needs to be told by email, fax, phone that it is not good enough. his contact info is:
528 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327
Toll Free for Nevadans:
1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343)
The core concept proposed by Bush is flawed. Call some hearings and ask some economists. Google Sweden 1992 banking crisis. They had good success promptly steering their financial institutions back to safety. Learn the lessons, write it for the Democratic base, and own it. The “compromise” tweeking that was done to the Bush proposal resulted in a toothless and weak 100 page bill that tried to bury and hide its weakness from the voters. Rather than condescendingly claiming that the American people didn’t understand (Cf, McSame of Obama at first debate), or that the leadership didn’t explain it well enough, the reality is that public outrage finally made the Republicans blink, to borrow from Palin. If they vote in favor of bailing out the bad actors, they lose votes from constituents in five weeks at the next election. That is their only moral hazard. The bill that failed would not have prevented one of the 10K daily foreclosures, could have been filibustered until Bush spent all $700B, would only have made some parachutes non-tax-deductible, merely required a report “suggesting” how the taxpayer will be paid back, and allowed the same bunch of lobbyists to set prices for their trash that the taxpayers would pay. As a final insult, instead of providing more confidence through transparency, the failed bill would allow Paulson to suspend the mark-to-market rule. This is intellectual dishonesty that will further erode confidence in our banking system. Do a better job on all these issues and allow bankruptcy judges to implement the rewriting of loans, or face the wrath of the voters. I think many voters would accept a temporary governmental equity position in the banking sector as long as the bad guys aren’t seen as maintaining their ability to subvert the programs and continue to rip off the system. Don’t pull another FISA cave.
AnneLaurie
You’re not the only one. I’ve been saying Newt Gingrich was the Boomer Dick Nixon since approximately 1989, and it’s about time for a “new Newt” to rise from the shadows like a malarial miasma from a fetid swamp. However, I think watching the C-Plus Augustus crash & burn has convinced Gingrich that you can’t actually run a working government via temper tantrum — anybody else here old enough to remember the crushing electoral rout that resulted when the Newt-led Rethug majority shut down the federal government because Clinton wouldn’t let him ride in the *front* of Air Force One? You can, however, create a very profitable Permanent(ly B*tching) Minority that will ensure the hardest of the hardcore True Believers a very nice living & lots of face time on television, as long as you don’t mind embarrassing everyone around you by acting like a nap-deprived three-year-old as you demand ridiculous perqs and prerogatives for your little claque before anything useful can be done for the remaining 85% of the American population. The Boomers are all about “niche marketing”, and I see this as the start of Gingrich’s campaign to drive out the (remaining) reality-based members of the Grand Old Party. His goal would be not so much to win the presidency in 2012 (or ever) as to access all the funding, media, and other goodies available to a Serious Candidate… even a Serious Candidate who’s managed to drive his party’s membership down into the range of Bush’s current approval ratings.
Kamishna ya Watu Xenos
Fannie and Freddie bought a lot of paper they should not have, but they did not buy the absolute garbage that was then repackaged and diced up a half-dozen ways, ‘insured’ and then marketed around the world. That is the stuff that has crashed the international banking system, not the Fannie and Freddie paper. So you are right – this is misinformation from professional liars.
Scrutinizer
Jesus, there needs to be some serious pushback against this “the Democrats caused this because of forcing the banks to make loans to people who couldn’t afford houses.”
slip
Cite this, for starters.
Comrade Jake
Is that really gaining traction anywhere beside the right-wing echo chamber?
We’re renting a place these days that doesn’t have cable, so I only get the major networks (via rabbit-ears). So I’ve been judging events through the basis of what the major networks report in the morning. I’m not saying it’s a solid way to look at things, but it has been interesting (Palin’s getting creamed).
There’s been no sign of this “Dems give loans to people who can’t afford it” BS, though, so far as I can tell.
JL
By blaming the minorites the repubs are trying to appeal to their base. At the same time they are pointing out that Obama is black.
PC
hmmm
and Rick James, bitch!
Bob In Pacifica
The fix is in.
Money changes everything, as Tom Davis once opined. And money changes votes. The brave Repubs will justify their switch and the money will pass into the hands of the speculators. Again.
Just saying.
Not My Fault
Could someone explain what the hell the senate is up to?
If the bailout is truly our one and only hope, (I don’t even play an economist on the internet, so I don’t know) then the democrats should whip the vote and do it themselves.
The senate approach looks more like the democrats asking the republicans “would you like a blow job with that ass fucking you are giving us?”
bago
Yaaay! Comment Borders!
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Test.
<pre>
</pre>
Joshua
By definition, the “market value” is the amount of money you can get if you sold it. Mark to market accounting makes sense – if you hold an asset, and it goes down in value, its worth less, and you’ve taken a loss. That MIGHT change, but until it does, you’re in the hole. Changing that so companies can write down whatever mythical value they “think” it holds is insane, and it is iirc what got us into this Enron mess – Enron would say this asset or that asset is actually worth a lot because it is gonna be making bank in X years, so lets put it on the books as profit now.
With mortgage securities its just as insane. These people are clearly thinking they can “unlock” the value of these things if they could price it at what it is worth, rather than the fire-sale prices they would get for it today. But what is it worth? The worth of it is dependent on what cash flows they will be getting from the payment of mortgage loans, BUT NOBODY KNOWS WHO IS GONNA PAY. Foreclosures are off the wall and home prices keep sinking. Any attempt to guess this right now is an estimate with a very very high degree of uncertainty. And let’s be real, do you trust the same people that made this mess to give conservative estimates about their price? Hell no, they will do nothing of the sort.
D. Mason
this is just a test
<img src=”http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/9/30/128673142220304835.jpg” alt=”example” />
Phoenician in a time of Romans
Congressmen, banking lobbyists and companies including American International Group Inc. have urged the SEC to place a moratorium on fair-value accounting, saying it forces firms to report losses that they never expect to incur. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and other proponents say a suspension would erode confidence that firms are owning up to losses.
Let me translate
“Sure, those eggs have been in the fridge for a week or two after their expiry date. But they’re probably still good, and I fully expect to scramble them up over the weekend. Therefore you shouldn’t write them off. You’re still coming over for lunch, right?”
Annette
Test
Stupid screwy tag placements…