Enjoy

Looks good enough - and isn't good enough just fine?
Why not the real Dr Laura for veep? - "Dump your silly selfish 'feminist' whining."

eya DR!

Submitted by Sunshine Jim on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 11:46pm.

welcome back to snark central!

how the season going?

you buying that vessel?

______________

Hi Jim:

Tx. for the kind word a welcome.

Vessel done been bought. Picked up a 37-foot wooden troller w/'luminum rigging (poles, mast) built in '46 @ Tacoma Boat Works in Port Angeles, WA (if mem'ry serves) in late-August. Immediately puttered north a Sitka to Cross Sound till the closure on Sept. 20th to try my hand at wranglin' me some a them slab cohos. Abundance were down but size were great (averaged 10 pounds dressed) 'n we gotta good price.

Manys the time I wanted to pick yer brain 'bout trollers in yer neck a the woods. Original plan were to pore over Vancouver Island and parts thereabouts and pick up one a them beautiful Canuckistanian boats they 'ppears to be givin' away (relatively speakin', a-course), but I walked into a purty good deal, take it all around, so I jumped onnit.

John Deere 6068 purrs like a kitten 'n ain't hard on diesel. Thought 'bout gettin' a fiberglass boat (to spare myself the yearly maintenance, a-course), but bein' the romantical fool that I is, I couldn't bring myself to buy a fishin' boat w/o a soul.

How'z'bout you? How you been? When were you trollin' again? Were it in Oregon, if mem'ry serves?

(You prolly know already, but the entire West Coast -- WA, OR 'n CA -- got shut down this year.)

>>Elect McCain Fields!

I like the `Gunsmoke' tab right beside the `Maverick' tab.

I'm surprised there is no `Death Valley Days' tab in honor or Ronald Reagan.

then this morning after not seeing you since the last pop-in I erased it... >:/

I didn't re-read it to remember what it was...Now neither of us will ever know what I said...what an EFFIN tragedy..! (heh)

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 11:46pm.

did you catch today's show? ...

In seattle the library limits us to one hour aday. Regardless...

they automatically log you out after 60 minutes. no if, ands or buts.

______________

No. Wisht I did. Partly cuz I b'lieves I read you were onnit. Will try to catch it sometime when it ain't rainin' (as if that's like to happen anytime soon; sposed to blow 50 knots Friday) so's I can bring my wifi 'puter from the boat where I ain't got wifi to the li'bry we I does so's I can slip the one-hour-or-off-w/yer-head li'bry yoke.

As a general rule, I do loves me some librarians, but scarcity of resources must needs makes fascists of even the best of us.

-there's no way you could ever possibly be less relevant than you are around here ;)-

in the front row at a stand-up show...it's funny....Richard Jeni upset a friend of mine so bad once...really reinforced his fears.. but again...I thought it was funny...

Back on this plane?
Treebu & I both sent replies by the email "reply" thing. Hope you got 'em.

"Til morning startles us with its alarm sounds . . . .

I received one from you this morning..will peek again now :)

This morning my alarm was two girls laughing at me when I asked them where Lincoln Park was...in my dream I was lost in Chicago...

Sleep well you two'z

>>must needs makes fascists of even the best of us.

What?

Fascism in ALASKA!?!

you should write the governor!

Submitted by Alice on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 12:08am.

I had something funny for you, dr...then this morning after not seeing you since the last pop-in I erased it... >:/

I didn't re-read it to remember what it was...Now neither of us will ever know what I said...what an EFFIN tragedy..! (heh)

_______________

Alas, I fell victim to the merciless character assassins at the public library once again.

Neither Pinochet nor GeeDub nor even Saddam never disappeared no body w/greater computer-like efficiency 'n precision than them wunnerful kind-hearted lib'ry folks.

(p.s. Why must you pique my innerest when I can't even peek at your interest. It don't seem fair.)

>>Richard Jeni upset a friend of mine so bad once...really reinforced his fears

yeah, the front row isn't for the self conscientious.

Guys tend to have abrasive senses of humor. and most women don't always get it. especially when they are the butt of the joke.

I'm glad you called.

Silverman fart ringtones were previously patented by some Brazilian chick. Hers comes with a scratch and sniff pad. How are you planning on topping that?

I hear that! But alas (yerself) I didn't listen to my second, (and much brighter) voice that said, "Noooooo, at least read it before you bag it woman!"... :)

Soooo....

Didja meet any cool people on your last outing away from the blog?

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 12:20am.

>>must needs makes fascists of even the best of us.

What?

Fascism in ALASKA!?!

you should write the governor!

_________________

Should it really surprise you?

The governor of Alaska lies brary, brary well, thank you scary much.

and he was a ham to begin with..I never understood that....he was a fireman...(a notably brave fireman) and still...Jeni really messed with his head...:)

>>How are you planning on topping that?

there is no topping that.

>>The governor of Alaska lies brary, brary well, thank you scary much.

god, you knocked that one out of the park.

-It don't seem fair-

Submitted by Alice on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 12:28am.

I hear that! But alas (yerself) I didn't listen to my second, (and much brighter) voice that said, "Noooooo, at least read it before you bag it woman!"... :)

Soooo....

Didja meet any cool people on your last outing away from the blog?

____________

Alas, Alice, yes I is met a number a cool peoples (AK commercial fisherpeoples is fulla quirky eccentrics 'n peoples of broad sperience), but I regrets to sez I ain't got time to try yer patience w/the accountin' of it.

Gonna turn into a innernet pumpkin 'gain here purty soon.

'Sides, you ain't tolt me what yer doin' yet these days. (If you wanna, 'course -- I'll catch it on the flip.)

>>Jeni really messed with his head.

there's something about having a thousand or more people laughing at you...really screws with the self-confidence.

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 12:32am.

>>The governor of Alaska lies brary, brary well, thank you scary much.

god, you knocked that one out of the park.

______________

No higher compliment may be bestowed than one granted by a fellow punnoisseur.

tell me the accountin' next time then..and me too..

Jeez man..I hope you can rest knowing you told the whole world that you really do know where the g's go..! ;)

Though it did hurt my feelings when you blogged about my feet or shoes or something way back when..I loved those red tennies...and if you knew what I did on that vacation...omg...shoes woulda been last on your list of complaints of me... *super grin*

>>like sands inna hourglass ...

oh, yeah? if you can quote tv shows's openings, so can I!!!

The Invaders: alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now, David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow, he must convince a disbelieving world, that the nightmare has already begun...

how'dya like them apples?

or else I'll fall over...

>>No higher compliment may be bestowed than one granted by a fellow punnoisseur.

I may lead the league in plate appearances, but you are leading in slugging percentage.

Crank leads in average, tho.

I read that the 'aliens' will be here, Alabama to be precise, on Oct 14th or 15th or something..So...we have that going for us.. (hee)

I think...

>>I read that the 'aliens' will be here,

I once had a housemate in the mid 80s who was from Alaska, her family fished...

she called the Russian fishing boats Klingons...I wonder if they still do that up there?

or, maybe it didn't last much longer that Star Trek: Next Generation

What new blogs?

big footed women blog?

red tennis shoe blog?

what?

Spock and Kirk?

Are you a trekkie?

>>It began with a closed deserted diner

huh?

isn't that a bit redundant?

I mean, of course the deserted diner is closed.

I remember when that show was new...some the kids at school were talking about how the aliens were going to take over the next day...

I'd never seen the show and assumed they were serious.

to my credit, I didn't believe it. but still...

only 1/2 hour 'till:

10:30pm - 11:00pm, COMEDY (60)
Sarah Silverman Program : "High, It's Sarah"

After Sarah smokes pot for the first time, she leaves herself a message that begs her to take her rambling, under-the-influence ideas seriously.

under blog posts on mvslive and maronvseder and sedervmaron etc etc..! It's screwing with my blog brain! This blog slows and there are kajillions of guests suddenly over there...everything is askew....and jumbly! How long was the show today? I don't even know if it was live I was watching!

And my feet and shoes! 2005, Hollywood..one photo of me and a person with a mattress to live on ..You made the meanest comment to me about my shoes or feet - god you don't remember? I still remember being unkind to people from 4th grade...My friend who is 81 remembers being unkind from her childhood years....

Ok sorry..it's not a blame thing...no biggie....

>>Klingons were around that long?

you never watched the 1/2 dozen spin-off series? or saw the movies?

Klingons in all the series, most the movies...

had Wa, Or and cal licences.

watched it go from 9 months a year to zip this year.

love old wood boats. built a few and repaired many.

fished a bunch of em.

>>And my feet and shoes! 2005, Hollywood..one photo of me and a person with a mattress to live on .

I refuse to remember those dark days and the horrible, horrible things I said to you.

Sorry. I was really pissed off. don't remember why.

tank...science fiction was an interest in (coincidentally) the 4th grade...I liked a guy named John Christopher from the UK I read one of his books and I wrote him a letter and he wrote back and that was all she wrote in Sci Fi for me...except that first Star Trek... I liked to see that when I was a kid..the repeats after school...

I had no idea about the Klingons..I might have even been confusing them with those fuzzy tribbels..I don't know...no I know..I think..

....

>>How long was the show today? I don't even know if it was live I was watching!

about an hour. the show seems to pick up at the beginning regardless when you start it.

bu the great thing is it is in the library as soon as the show starts.

and it will loop when the live show ends.

I didn't have any problems with the stream. maybe one or two little hiccups.

the chat worked fine for me too.

It is a little disappointing there were less than 600 viewers for the live show.

but I am sure it will pick up.

Biden not being in favor of making marriage a human thing and not a gender thing..since...as cat chew mentioned..it shouldn't be there to begin with..but it is there..and the p and vp candidates are against it...but she should have brought up..and the third parties should have jumped on it...They are here and queer and we should have been used to it before we were not used to it...dammit...that is all kinds of wrong and will look s stupid as no rights for blacks and women in the future - as if it doesn't already now -

except that like the blog..I prefer to see it live....I wonder why that is...

Palin has no feelings.

not as any human being would understand them, anyway.

she's a calculating, cold, sociopath.

?

True or not true?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah,_Plain_and_Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a children's book written by Patricia MacLachlan, and the winner of the 1986 Newbery Medal. The book explores themes of loneliness and abandonment.

The novel is set in the midwestern United States (Kansas) during the late 19th century. Jacob Witting, a widowed farmer who is still saddened by the death of his wife several years earlier, giving birth to Caleb, finds that the task of taking care of his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb, is too difficult to handle alone. He writes an ad in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Sarah, from Maine, answers his ad and travels out to become his wife. But Sarah grows homesick - the prairie grass didn't substitute for the Maine sea shore. When Sarah leaves for a trip into town, the kids wonder if she would come back. And she did. She had brought back colored pencils so she could show them the beautiful colors and views of Maine and gorgeous sea shore. She, Anna, Caleb, and Jacob have a lot of good times that lead to Caleb loving Sarah even more, but Anna thinks that she will replace her mother. In the end Sarah and Jacob get married.

someone should write a parody...I never read this book, so I wouldn't do a good job...

wish i could rescue him and his cats.

his whole neighborhood is full of rats and his neighbors try to kill all the hood cats...

sigh.

n?

*

Do a book you do know then...

*

SJ...when it comes to NC I have logged many hours... why do you think I helped refer him back to you? I listen to him too...there's a whole psycho thing with some people and cats...I experience it here too..but where he is it's magnified...This is a rough time for the faint of heart...

The novel is set in the Eastern United States (Washington DC) during the early 21st century. John McCain, a state Senator who is still saddened by the death of his presidential bid several years earlier, finds that the task of taking care of his presidential bid and two children, Ann Coulter and Joe Lieberman, is too difficult to handle alone. He writes an ad in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Sarah, from Alaska, answers his ad and travels out to become his running mate. But Sarah grows homesick - the beltway politics didn't substitute for the Alaska sea shore. When Sarah leaves for a trip into town, the kids wonder if she would come back. And she did. She had brought back slurs about colored people so she could show them the way to run a smear filled campaign. She, Ann, Joe, and John have a lot of good times that lead to McCain loving Sarah even more, but Anna thinks that she will replace Dick Cheney. In the end Sarah and John lose the election.

>>see how the blog is like a therapy sessio

I don't think you'd believe this if you ever did any therapy.

therapy is a lot more than just talking and listening.

We have two mice now..Katmandu brought a baby one in the other night..I just saw both mice together..I thought P was lying when he said that the little one survived...It's funny when I have my shower and the terrarium is steamed up...

-wish i could rescue him and his cats.-

Yes.

There isn't a person in the fucking world I would pay for therapy...not even gandhi...

I pay for massages, when I can afford it...and a haircut every 3-5 years....

See now you are just trying to hurt the blog... ;)

>>There isn't a person in the fucking world I would pay for therapy...not even gandhi...

I see you are in deep, deep denial. ;)

love you.

best i can do from here.

animal compassion. click to give food for them:

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces;jsessionid=0C3...

>>See now you are just trying to hurt the blog.

trying to hurt the blog...with laughter!

not Cheney's kid's, McCain's...

Geez..!

HAHA!

You know in that third party debate at Vanderbilt the other night..I listened to the Pacifist Party guy....I suppose by party name alone, they trump peace and freedom? Just like with Code Pink, Move On, etc etc..Sometimes I wish that all the 3ps would just get together...Some person in my P&F group made some dumb ass comment about Cindy Sheehan creating another political party....

oops...

for turning me on to that car show site!

That's good enough...there's nothing we can do here either but for things like that too...The Animal Control can come to any of our houses and fine anyone with more than four animals at their home..but there must be more to it than that since people have goats and horses and the like...

I hate Animal Control here..and the Humane Society too..our HS isn't even part of the real HSUS..it's part of the Sheriff's Dept..

heh!

you cracked Sarah up with that phone call.

Maron does'nt like 'funny' competition.

Sam should have dreadlocked his unerarm hair to show through his shirt hole.

>>Sometimes I wish that all the 3ps would just get together...

or what if they just took part in the Democratic party, which could really use the fresh blood and new ideas...

hopefully I won't remember it in the morning.. ;)

Kevin copyright could really use our good thoughts and intentions right now...he too is seeking employment....if anyone is thinking of leaving the country...let's all just move to So Cal and live in that tent city with Kevin...when money becomes just paper we will have each other...

XOOX

No headache now...just off to sharpen my teeth while I sleep...
Nite Chubbs and SJ.. and Blog
£o♡e £o♡e £o♡e
♪-♥-♫-♥-♪-♥-♫-♥

Sweet fancy moses!

You made Sarah Silverman laugh!?

I gotta hear that tomorrow...

*

zzzzzzzzzz

got the munchies.

talking to DR made me remember

making pickled salmon and drinking tall budwiesers...

>>Maron does'nt like 'funny' competition.

He's still pretty close to finalizing his divorce, he may not be back to 100% yet.

I didn't show him up, far, far from it.

Besides, he's a real pro and someone like me won't be any threat.

I think it is more likely offended at a haole like me saying, "you guys make Jew jokes funny again."

it is one thing for people to make fun of their own, quite another for an `outsider...

pooped out, time for a snoozarino.

love y'all!

>>You made Sarah Silverman laugh!?

kinda, sorta...

but she liked my idea...and I liked when she took notes about my idea for a rap version of `give the jew girl toys'. I suggested Sam and Marc provide a beat using the farty sounds (more like a bronx cheer) like the rappers do...She pretended to take notes, ` fart-fart-fart, fa-art, fart-fart-fart, fa-art,...

and that made my day.

Imagine that, a real famous person going along with my joke.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/rumsfeld-updated-armys-continuity-...

[excerpt]

The Bush administration put COG plans into operation for the first time in U.S. history in the hours directly following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They have never been rescinded.

Their implementation involves a rotating staff of 75-150 senior government officials and others from every Cabinet department in two “secure, undisclosed locations” on the East Coast. However, key congressional representatives have been kept out of the loop and House and Senate leaders have said they were not informed the “shadow government” had “gone live.”

So secretive are Bush administration plans that Peter DeFazio (D-OR), a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, was denied access in 2007 to the classified version of the COG plans contained in top secret Presidential Decision Directive annexes. This too, is unprecedented.

While the Bush administration admitted that COG was activated in 2001, their disclosure came only after The Washington Post broke the story based on confidential administration sources troubled by the scope of the program and its secretive implementation.

Since the late 1980s, Rumsfeld was a habitué of COG exercises along with Vice President Dick Cheney. Indeed early COG drills had been organized by the right-wing Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). As investigative journalist Andrew Cockburn revealed in his definitive political biography of the former Defense Secretary:

This highly secret program was known as Project 908, and among the individuals earmarked to take power when disaster struck was Donald Rumsfeld. … There, for several days, he would be immured in artificial caverns, staring at electronic displays streaming data of disaster and confusion, sleeping on cots and subsisting on the most austere rations. …

Insofar as the COG games gave the illusion of reality, they taught Rumsfeld and his fellow players some dangerous lessons, particularly when the fall of the Soviet Union induced some changes in the usual scenarios. Although the exercises continued, still budgeted at over $200 million in the Clinton era, the vanished Soviets were now customarily replaced by terrorists. The terrorism envisaged however, was almost always state-sponsored. …

There were other changes, too. In earlier times the specialists selected to run the “shadow government” had been drawn from across the political spectrum, Democrats and Republicans alike. But now, down in the bunkers, Rumsfeld found himself in politically congenial company, the players’ roster being filled almost exclusively with Republican hawks. (Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy, New York: Scribner, 2007, pp. 85-86, 88)

[end excerpt]

>>let's all just move to So Cal and live in that tent city with Kevin

what? seriously? Kevin is now homeless?

Shit...that sucks.

once homeless it can be really hard to get back on your feet.

It is nearly impossible to save enough for an apartment.

and really hard to get a decent job.

There was a news story on TV about the homeless camp down the road last week.

I saw a couple people from my temp agency living there...

How are you supposed to come up with a couple grand for an apartment working for 9 bucks an hour.

I wish I had thought of this before the call.,,

a new intro for her song...

I say Jew, you say toys!

JEW!

TOYS!

JEW!

TOYS!

I say Jew, you say toys!

JEW!

TOYS!

JEW!

TOYS!

anyone catch tonight's Daily show?

they did a bit about McCain wandering around the stage during the debate.

they did a voice over of McCain saying, "has anyone seen my dog? he's a little guy...here Puddles...here, Puddles."

I just about busted a gut.

Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy
By PETER S. GOODMAN
“Not only have individual financial institutions become less vulnerable to shocks from underlying risk factors, but also the financial system as a whole has become more resilient.” — Alan Greenspan in 2004

George Soros, the prominent financier, avoids using the financial contracts known as derivatives “because we don’t really understand how they work.” Felix G. Rohatyn, the investment banker who saved New York from financial catastrophe in the 1970s, described derivatives as potential “hydrogen bombs.”

And Warren E. Buffett presciently observed five years ago that derivatives were “financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.”

One prominent financial figure, however, has long thought otherwise. And his views held the greatest sway in debates about the regulation and use of derivatives — exotic contracts that promised to protect investors from losses, thereby stimulating riskier practices that led to the financial crisis. For more than a decade, the former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has fiercely objected whenever derivatives have come under scrutiny in Congress or on Wall Street. “What we have found over the years in the marketplace is that derivatives have been an extraordinarily useful vehicle to transfer risk from those who shouldn’t be taking it to those who are willing to and are capable of doing so,” Mr. Greenspan told the Senate Banking Committee in 2003. “We think it would be a mistake” to more deeply regulate the contracts, he added.

Today, with the world caught in an economic tempest that Mr. Greenspan recently described as “the type of wrenching financial crisis that comes along only once in a century,” his faith in derivatives remains unshaken.

The problem is not that the contracts failed, he says. Rather, the people using them got greedy. A lack of integrity spawned the crisis, he argued in a speech a week ago at Georgetown University, intimating that those peddling derivatives were not as reliable as “the pharmacist who fills the prescription ordered by our physician.”

But others hold a starkly different view of how global markets unwound, and the role that Mr. Greenspan played in setting up this unrest.

“Clearly, derivatives are a centerpiece of the crisis, and he was the leading proponent of the deregulation of derivatives,” said Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and an expert on financial regulation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/economy/09greenspan.html?th&e...

U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banks
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and MARK LANDLER
The Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many U.S. banks to try to restore confidence, according to government officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/economy/09econ.html?th&emc=th

they're back.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it was lending billions of additional funds to cash-strapped American International Group Inc.

Under the program, the New York Federal Reserve Bank will provide $37.8 billion in additional cash to certain domestic life insurance subsidiaries of AIGAnalyst in return for investment-grade, fixed-income securities.

AIG already has an $85 billion line of credit with the Fed. As of last week, AIG had used $60 billion of this loan, according to Fed data.

This new program will allow AIG to replenish liquidity, the Fed said. At the same time, the securities will provide enhanced protection to U.S. taxpayers, the central bank said.

===

when do the war crimes trials start?

Retailers’ Sales Fall Sharply at Both High End and Low
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Retail analysts and executives said they had not seen such a rapid slowdown in consumer spending since the nation’s last deep recession, in the early 1980s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/09retail.html?th&emc=th

Saved by the Deficit?
By ROBERT B. REICH
Berkeley, Calif.

BOTH presidential candidates have been criticized for failing — at Tuesday’s debate and previously — to name any promises or plans they’re going to have to scrap because of the bailout and the failing economy. That criticism is unwarranted. The assumption that we are about to have a rerun of 1993 — when Bill Clinton, newly installed as president, was forced to jettison much of his agenda because of a surging budget deficit — may well be mistaken.

At first glance, January 2009 is starting to look a lot like January 1993. Then, the federal deficit was running at roughly $300 billion a year, or about 5 percent of gross domestic product, way too high for comfort. By contrast, the deficit for the 2009 fiscal year is now projected to be $410 billion, or about 3.3 percent of gross domestic product. That’s not too worrying. But if the Treasury shovels out the full $700 billion of bailout money next year, the deficit could balloon to more than 6 percent of gross domestic product, the highest since 1983. And if the nation plunges into a deeper recession, with tax revenues dropping and domestic product shrinking, the deficit will be even larger as a proportion of the economy.

Yet all is not what it seems. First, the $700 billion bailout is less like an additional government expense than a temporary loan or investment. The Treasury will take on Wall Street’s bad debts — mostly mortgage-backed securities for which there’s no market right now — and will raise the $700 billion by issuing additional government debt, much of it to global lenders and foreign governments. As America’s housing stock regains value, as we all hope it will, bad debts become better debts, and the Treasury will be able to resell the securities for at least as much as it paid, if not for a profit. And if there is a shortfall, the bailout bill allows the president to impose a fee on Wall Street to fill it.

Another difference is that in 1993, the nation was emerging from a recession. Although jobs were slow to return, factory orders were up and the economy was growing. This meant growing demand for private capital. Under these circumstances, the deficit Bill Clinton inherited threatened to overheat the economy. He had no choice but to trim it, a point that the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, was not reluctant to emphasize. Unless President Clinton cut the deficit and abandoned much of his agenda, interest rates would rise and the economic recovery would be anemic.

Next year, however, is likely to be quite different. All economic indicators are now pointing toward a deepening recession. Unemployment is already high, and the trend is not encouraging. Factory orders are down. Worried about their jobs and rising costs of fuel, food and health insurance, middle-class Americans are unable or unwilling to spend on much other than necessities.

Under these circumstances, deficit spending is not unwelcome. Indeed, as spender of last resort, the government will probably have to run deficits to keep the economy going anywhere near capacity, a lesson the nation learned when mobilization for World War II finally lifted us out of the Great Depression.

Finally, not all deficits are equal. As every family knows, going into debt in order to send a child to college is fundamentally different from going into debt to take an ocean cruise. Deficits that finance investments in the nation’s future are not the same as deficits that maintain the current standard of living.

Moreover, without adequate public investment, the vast majority of Americans will be condemned to a lower standard of living for themselves and their children. The top 1 percent now takes home about 20 percent of total national income. As recently as 1980, it took home 8 percent. Although the economy has grown considerably since 1980, the middle class’s share has shrunk. That’s a problem not just because it strikes so many as being unfair, but also because it’s starting to limit the capacity of most Americans to buy the goods and services we produce without going deep into debt. The last time the top 1 percent took home 20 percent of national income, not incidentally, was 1928.

Perhaps it should not be surprising, then, that the Wall Street bailout has generated so much anger among middle-class Americans. Let’s not compound the problem by needlessly letting it prevent the government from spending what it must to lift the prospects of Main Street.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/opinion/09reich.html?ref=opinion&pagew...

Insurance Exchange Is a Good Idea
By Ezekiel Emanuel

In this installment of Health Care Watch, Stuart M. Butler and Ezekiel Emanuel talk about what the candidates are saying about insurance companies. Go to Mr. Butler’s post.
Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist, is the chairman of the department of bioethics at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. He is the author of “Health Care, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America.”(Full biography.)

Americans loathe health insurance companies. We all have our stories. When my family moved to Chicago, our new insurer sent back all doctor’s bills the first year marking them: “pre-existing condition.” This for my children’s strep throat and ear infections — acute infections that could hardly be “pre-existing” conditions.

This dread of insurance companies makes it worthwhile to examine how John McCain and Barack Obama handle them.
If you don’t like health insurance companies, Mr. McCain’s plan is not for you. It is likely to lead to higher costs, less protections and more paperwork. Mr. McCain wants to move people out of employer-based insurance by: eliminating the tax exclusion for employer-based coverage (making insurance provided by employers taxed as income, which it is not today); providing a tax credit to all Americans for purchasing health insurance; and allowing health insurers to sell nationwide, so a person living in New Jersey could buy insurance from a company in Nevada not subject to New Jersey laws. Why? Because like the banking industry, Mr. McCain wants to open up the health insurance market to “more vigorous nationwide competition.”

This approach suffers from three major defects: 1.) insurers charge in relation to a person’s health, so those who are sick could pay $20,000 or $30,000 a year; 2.) these policies typically cover less than employer-based insurance and usually have higher deductibles and co-pays; and 3) the insurer’s administrative costs in the individual market are substantially higher because, when the sales are to each individual separately, there is more underwriting and no economies of scale.

One way to solve these problems is to have “insurance exchange” in which a variety of insurers would offer the same benefits at a fixed price and have to take all comers, while being paid more if they enrolled sicker patients (risk adjustment). This keeps prices down by reducing administrative costs. Doubtless, Mr. McCain’s savvy policy advisers understand this option. It seems they rejected it because it conflicts with their ideology of less government oversight and regulation.

Barack Obama’s plan adopts this insurance exchange idea; creates a public national health plan open to all Americans with benefits based on what members of Congress get; protects people by requiring insurance companies to enroll anyone and charge the same premium for all people and gives subsidies to poor people to buy health insurance.

Most health policy makers think this exchange is a good idea. According to consultants with McKinsey and Company, if used for everyone, exchanges could save $70 billion or more. The guaranteed enrollment and community rating also protect people, especially sick people

Read more here:

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/insurance-exchange-is-...

I heard on TV that the AIG people have another expensive seminar scheduled. Similar to the last one at the Health Spa. I think it was brought up at or shortly after Waxman's committee meeting.

CHICAGO–Residents of foreclosed properties in Chicago and other parts of
Cook County don't have to worry about deputies forcing them out. Sheriff
Tom Dart says that starting Thursday his office won't take part in
evictions.

Dart says he's concerned that many of the people being evicted are
renters who were unaware that their landlords have been failing to pay
their mortgages. He says his deputies have no way of knowing whether
they're removing someone who has defaulted on a loan or someone who has
been faithfully paying rent.

Dart says he thinks he's the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area
to stop such evictions during the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

Dart says the number of mortgage foreclosures in Cook County has
skyrocketed and will probably keep rising.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

I Survived The Georgian War.

Here's What I Saw. By Lira Tskhovrebova I know this because I was in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, on Aug. 7 when Georgian troops marched into the city and killed my friends and neighbors.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20974.htm

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on C-Span and viewable on YouTube, that individual members of the House were threatened with martial law within a week if they did not pass the bailout bill:

"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."

If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.

I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot David Antoon for clarification:

"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"

"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal orders."

"But these orders are now legal?'"

"Correct."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"

"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"

"Nothing."

"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"

"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."

"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"

"They'd probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested, detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright shows that deserters -- reservists who refused to go back to Iraq -- got longer sentences than war criminals."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20975.htm

"Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody." - Franklin Pierce Adams (American Journalist, Columnist and Translator, (1881-1960)

Can you contact Kevin? We will need a way if we are going to be helpful.

Democrat Rick Noriega will debate incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn on Thursday, October 9, 2008. The League of Women Voters of the Houston Area Education Fund and Houston PBS have sponsored the debate and it will air across Texas via your local PBS station. - D.Ortez

starts 8 Central.

my rt newsfeed had a small item that said equities trading in iceland had been suspended. turns out the story is a lot bigger than that:

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Iceland's government seized control of Kaupthing Bank hf, the nation's biggest bank, completing the takeover of a banking industry that has collapsed under the weight of its foreign debt.

Iceland is guaranteeing Kaupthing's domestic deposits and taking control of banks in an attempt to provide a ``functioning domestic banking system,'' the country's Financial Supervisory Authority said in a statement on its Web site today.

The banks are saddled with about $61 billion of debt, 12 times the size of the economy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The government is seeking a loan from Russia and may ask for aid from the International Monetary Fund to help guarantee deposits. The central bank ditched an attempt to fix the krona yesterday as the currency went into freefall.

``This looks like a total collapse,'' said Thomas Haugaard Jensen, an economist at Svenska Handelsbanken AB in Copenhagen. ``It'll take several years before the economy can start to return to growth.''

NYT article here - voter suppression already - swing states.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&th&emc=...

Rothenberg: Republican blood
bath looms on horizon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's obvious to all that the national landscape -- and the presidential map -- shifted dramatically in the Democrats’ favor during the financial crisis."

http://rothenbergpoliticalreport.blogspot.com/2008/10/for-republicans-an...

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 12:23am.
>>Richard Jeni upset a friend of mine so bad once...really reinforced his fears

yeah, the front row isn't for the self conscientious.
------
In the early Nineties my brother and I were in Tampa, Florida (I think?) with an evening to kill, so we went to a small stand-up club.

It was really small. There might have been fifty patrons seated at round cocktail tables the size of a large pizzas.

My brother and I arrived at the last minute and seated ourselves at the table in front of the microphone...the table that everyone else avoided. My brother had long hair and a full beard and I had a long ponytail affixed high on the back of my head.

Within seconds after the first act began, my brother was welcomed as Jesus...attending the show with his good bud Steven Seagal.

The joke opportunities that arise from Jesus and Seagal hangin' together kept the comic going for several minutes.

Petraeus: There's value in
talking to the enemy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus said on Wednesday that negotiations with some members of the Taliban could provide a way to reduce violence in sections of Afghanistan gripped by an intensifying insurgency.

Atlanta display has
Obama surrounded by blood

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since putting up the display Monday in suburban Atlanta, drivers have slowed down to take pictures and some residents have begun to worry about what the bloody skeleton actually means. 'Is it death or what?," one asked.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/17667317/detail.html

Todd Palin campaigned years for firing trooper
SWORN STATEMENT: He says he wanted to protect his family.

By BILL WHITE
bwhite@adn.com

Published: October 8th, 2008 09:53 PM
Last Modified: October 8th, 2008 02:31 AM

Todd Palin talked with over a dozen state officials, many of them repeatedly, in his crusade to get a state trooper fired whom he considered to be a bad cop, a dishonest person and a threat to the Palin family, according to his sworn statement given Wednesday to a legislative investigator.

The 25-page statement from Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, in response to questions submitted by the investigator, shows that Todd Palin's efforts started before his wife became governor and accelerated during the first 19 months of her administration.

Todd Palin was waging the campaign against his ex-brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, who had divorced the governor's sister in 2006 and who is involved in an ongoing custody fight.

Two investigations -- one by the Legislature and one by the state personnel board -- are under way over whether Gov. Palin or members of her administration abused their powers in pushing for Wooten's firing, and whether their efforts resulted in the governor's dismissal of her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, in July.

The Legislature ordered its investigation in late July, and until this week Todd Palin and officials of the governor's administration resisted subpoenas to tell what they know about Troopergate. Palin's statement Wednesday comes after a state judge last week refused to invalidate the subpoenas. The Daily News obtained the statement from Thomas Van Flein, an attorney for Todd and Sarah Palin.

In his statement, Palin is unapologetic about his efforts to get Wooten fired, but he says he doesn't think those efforts had anything to do with Monegan's dismissal. He said his understanding is that Monegan lost his job due to a "dispute with the governor and her staff over budget issues and failure to fill trooper vacancies."

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/550229.html

McCain changes homeowner plan

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made an overnight change in the homeowner bailout he proposed at Tuesday’s presidential debate, making it more generous to financial institutions and more costly for taxpayers.

McCain's staff says it was always meant that way.

When McCain sprung his surprise idea at the start of the debate in Nashville, his campaign posted details online of his American Homeownership Resurgence Plan, which would direct the government to buy up bad home mortgages, allowing strapped people to keep their property.

The document posted and e-mailed by the McCain campaign on Tuesday night says at the end of its first full paragraph: “Lenders in these cases must recognize the loss that they’ve already suffered.”

So the government would buy the mortgages at a discounted rate, reflecting the declining value of the mortgage paper.

But when McCain reissued the document on Wednesday, that sentence was missing, to the dismay of many conservatives.

That would mean the U.S. would pay face value for the troubled documents, which was the main reason Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) gave for opposing the plan.

A McCain campaign official explained the change: “That language was mistakenly included in the initial draft and it’s been corrected. It doesn’t reflect the intentions of the initiative, which necessitated the correction and the removal of the sentence. A simple mistake.”

Obama Campaign Economic Policy Director Jason Furman said in the campaign statement opposing McCain's plan: "John McCain wants the government to massively overpay for mortgages in a plan that would guarantee taxpayers lose money, and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don’t recover. The biggest beneficiaries of this plan will be the same financial institutions that got us into this mess, some of whom even committed fraud."

The McCain campaign estimates in both documents that the plan would cost about $300 billion.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14414.html

HuffPo: Obama Camp Working On Transition, McCain Putting It Off
The Huffington Post reports that the Obama campaign has a fully-functioning transition effort in place should he win the election, and has obtained a copy of an ethics code that places limits on the ability of former lobbyists to serve on his team, and forbids current lobbyists entirely. By contrast, the McCain campaign has barely begun a transition t all, in contrast to virtually all other non-incumbent presidential nominees in the past who have prepared for the possibility of winning.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/obama-mccain-transition-e_n_132...

Poll: Obama Way Up In Pennsylvania
A new Strategic Vision (R) poll of Pennsylvania gives Barack Obama a huge lead of 54%-40% in this perennial swing state. This state only narrowly voted for John Kerry in 2004, but it's looking more and more like it's off the table now, thanks to the economic crisis.

http://strategicvision.biz/political/pa_poll_100908.htm

Slap
Obama on McCain's trash-talk when he's not around ...

"I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that he wasn't willing to say it to my face. But I guess we've got one last debate. So presumably, if he ends up feeling that he needs to, he will raise it during the debate."
--Josh Marshall

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5985237&page=1

Combat Brigade Ready for US Operations
October 09, 2008
The Gazette, Colorado Springs,Colo.

If U.S. Northern Command needs troops to respond to a national emergency, commanders now have 4,000 Soldiers on alert to answer the call.

Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., which was created after the Sept. 11 attacks to coordinate the military response to everything from the aftermath of hurricanes to nuclear fallout, has relied primarily on part-time National Guard troops.

That changed last week with the Army announcing full combat brigade will be on alert for the next year, ready to roll out nationwide.

Despite conspiracy theories that this could be a first step toward martial law in the U.S., there won't be tanks on Main Street or active-duty troops putting down demonstrations. That is barred by federal law banning the military from being used on U.S. soil for domestic law enforcement.

http://www.military.com/news/article/combat-brigade-ready-for-us-operati...

nothing like impending Martial Law to spiff up your day...

"W" and his buddies...

Assholes, bloody criminals, treasonous perverts.

hope Bugliosi finds a good district attorney.

AIG . . . plans to hold another gathering for brokers next week.

The event, at the Ritz-Carlton in California's Half Moon Bay, aims to "motivate and educate" about 150 independent agents who sell AIG coverage to high-end clients, said spokesman Nicholas Ashooh.

. . .

AIG considered buying advertisements to explain its position, only to be told by public relations consultant George Sard that it would be "a really bad idea."

"To spend the taxpayer's money on an expensive ad campaign to apologize for how you used taxpayer money leaves you open to further attacks," Sard wrote in an e-mail to Ashooh.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/10/09/aig_plans_to_host_mee...

McCain is hurting Senate and House Republican candidates
Joe Sudbay (DC) · 10/09/2008 08:14:00 AM ET · Link
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There's a lot of very good information in an article in today's New York Times about the status of House and Senate races. There's a lot of very good news for Democrats.

For me, the best tidbit is the admission that the Republicans running for Senate and House are being damaged by their nominee. Republicans are already a damaged brand because of their loyalty to George Bush. In a campaign, this kind of talk about the nominee spreads quickly and becomes pervasive. It damages morale, fundraising and volunteer efforts. For all the talk about how John McCain is their hero, just watch Republicans start to ditch McCain over the next few days and weeks. Republican candidates are in survival mode and McCain will be the first one thrown overboard by his fel