Recent Comments:

All true, but let's not overlook the fact that we have a candidate who knows how to run for office. Much as I heart Gore now, that can't be said of him or Kerry. The turning tide is at least as much due to a great Dem candidate as to McCain/Palin's grotesquery. Which will make victory many orders of magnitude sweeter.

I think that once freed of political ambition Clinton has the potential to be a great justice. But would she get past the fiercest filibuster this country has ever witnessed?

People want answers and some idea that the people running for office have some clue as to what to do to make things all better again...

My question is why in the hell is this only desired by so many Americans in elections where things have become so fucked up that you need a candidate to ride in like the cavalry and save the day???

Maybe if we, as voters, demanded this standard in every damned election we might not have to wait for things to become almost unbearable in the country before we demand competence in our leaders.

Maybe if the citizens and our corporate media didn't treat the whole democratic process as some kind of macro version of reality TV we wouldn't be in such a fucked up place all the time.  We have certainly gotten what we deserve in the first couple of elections of the new millenium.  Here's to hoping we have learned a very hard lesson from our collective vapidity and lack of seriousness about the consequences of our choices.  Elections matter.

Rumors of their demise were greatly exaggerated.  Or something like that.

The Giants are going down.  Ok, it's only the third quarter so there's still time for the Browns to blow it...but still.

I'm actually half expecting Obama to nominate Clinton (Hillary) to the Supreme Court.

It would be a brilliant political move, she'd be no worse than any other centrist who Obama's actually likely to nominate (better than many, in fact) and it would effectively neutralize the Clintons as a political force within the Democratic Party for the rest of our lives.  And it would likely be an offer she couldn't really refuse.

As an added benefit, it would drive the wingnuts crazy.  I'm not normally big on "do something because it pisses off a wingnut", but if it's a side benefit and not the ultimate goal, I can roll with it.

She'll be back.

Too many of the wingnuts will spend the next couple of years praying for Sarah Palin to run so that she can put an end to the "unbearable Obama Socialism multi-culty era" and get back to good ol' screwing 95% of us over.

Like Gingrich, Rove, and even Dubya, she'll be around gosh darnit you betcha.

And so will Bill and Hillary.

What, you don't think they'll be after Obama's job in 2012?  

Anyone here really willing to bet against the ambition of Hillary or Sister Sarah in four years, knowing Obama's going to be up to his neck in quicksand and us right there along with him, looking for somebody to throw America a rope?

I'm not.

The Allmans are still alive?

Palin's a diversion.  When this election is over, she'll go back to her hole in Bumf*ck Alaska, and have the pride of being a footnote in history.  She will never be a thug presidential candidate.  Wall Street can't stand her, and she won't get enough money to run.  Huckabee can out-Fundie her on the stump, plus he can play the banjo.  I don't know what Ms Palin's instrument was when she was running for Miss Alaska, probably the spoons or sump'in.

The RNC got its millions of dollars loan from Wachovia (even when normal workers are losing their homes and cars due to the credit squeeze).  

So... is the RNC going to invest that money into McCain's failed campaign or buy ads trying to shore up a handful of states where the Republican incumbent is suddenly in the Siege Perilous?  They will vote with the pocketbook.  

• If they protect a half dozen seats in Congress, that would mean their internal polling shows McCain going down like a concrete block and taking large numbers of incumbents with him to the bottom of the briny deep.  In order to preserve the Grand Old Party, they'll try to keep as many seats as possible.  

• If they buy ads supporting McCain, that means they still think he has some sort of chance.  McCain could have attracted the money if he had a new theme or strong message.  Why should they spend the money on ads that are proven not to work?  Bad investment!  If there is anything Republicans know, it is how to invest.

It couldn't happen to more deserving people.

Palin needs to meet another head of state and a REAL kingmaker to further her ambitions to rule Alaska as an independent country.

Mr Harabis came up with the idea of the kingdom a little more than a decade ago. "We have many of the features of a real country - a flag, a currency, a university, a state limousine and even a passport," he explains proudly. No matter that the Jurovalsar currency cannot be used anywhere; or that the only degree offered at the university is the Faculty of Distilling's course in making and drinking slivovica (plum brandy). The state limousine is a bright yellow, Communist-era Trabant, with a plastic body and two-stroke engine; and the passport is by no means a legal travel document, although Mr Harabis claims that he once used it to get into Alaska from Canada.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coup-in-fantasy-kingdom-inside-czech-republic-959310. html

I hope the same about Obama, but he has advisers like Tony Lake, so we have to assume he's getting plenty of bad advice.

Jeff

So...do you suppose Palin doesn't give a damn what Mac sez?  Is she just running for 2012?  Is anyone in charge over there?

But we're Too Big To Fail!  If they don't bail us out, we all sink, and if they remain tied to the dollar at those hideous exchange rates as the dollar plummets over the next few months due to the massive liquidity trap we've laid for ourselves, we all sink too!

I mean it's not like we've spent the last eight years under an administration full of idiots who have never heard of the law of unintended consequences, right?

No, not really.  But it made the traders on Wall Street happy.  For today anyway.

ZOMG! I'm green with envy.

A little cold water on the high fiving.

Newsflash: All that money, $2.546 bn, came from the US Feds -

it was a currency swap -
The feds allowed the world central banks to flood the world markets with $$, offering swaps in unlimited amounts...an infinite supply. The Feds' cursor is working 24/7. From where do USD$ originate?

Bloomberg Link:

The Federal Reserve led an unprecedented push by central banks to flood the financial system with as many dollars as banks want, backing up government efforts to revive confidence and helping to reduce money-market rates.

The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank will offer European banks unlimited dollar funds with maturities of seven, 28 and 84 days at fixed interest rates against ``appropriate collateral,'' the Washington-based Fed said today. Previously, the Fed had capped at $380 billion the currency it would swap with the three central banks.

A currency Swap

is a foreign exchange agreement between two parties to exchange a given amount of one currency for another and, after a specified period of time, to give back the original amounts swapped. Currency swaps can be negotiated for a variety of maturities of up to 30 years.

Unlike a back-to-back loan, a currency swap is not considered to be a loan by United States accounting laws and thus it is not reflected on a company's balance sheet. A swap is considered to be a foreign exchange transaction (short leg) plus an obligation to close the swap (far leg) being a forward contract.

Today was the day for creating miracles. A loan becomes a swap. The same old off-balance sheet techniques that brought us to this financial meltdown.

Gold at $2,000 an ounce will be a good bargain buy.

Get prepared for what is being framed as hyper-inflation Zimbabwe style.

Now they're playing One Way Out...

so....does this actually "fix" anything?