Editor Posts

When Bush Talks the Market Slides

Beau Friedlander — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:58:23 -0400

Mr. President, I'm guessing ten years from now when you're sitting restlessly at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting talking about how you wrecked this country because you never did a twelfth step, you're going to realize the errors of these past two weeks.

Every time you show that rat face of yours on the teevee the market goes boom. You notice that yet? I feel like playing futures when I see you--that is, were there any future to play. Seriously, the market correction is not going to listen to you, Mr. President. It's sick of getting kicked around by you, lied to by you, kissed on the forehead, patted on the ass, and kicked out of bed--and it's not ever going to listen to you again.

Frankly sir, the market is terrified of you. And can you blame it? You never paid any real attention to it. You only ever knew it was there when you wanted something, humping the leg of commercial paper and mortgage-backed failure. Mr President, this is the market you deserved. And I'm glad you got it.

There are two hours till we know what the damage of the day has been. It may be 8000 is the bottom. Maybe we scrape that and end even on the day. If that happens, next week may be better for those rich enough to enjoy the spoils of the stock market.

For those who are not rich enough, Monday will only bring financial insecurity and a gnawing feeling about the job, the mortgage, and the very near future (forget our very Cratchit Christmas).

Obama Live!

Tim Einenkel — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:10:26 -0400

Free video streaming by Ustream

Morning Roundup: Around the Web in with Dust in Your Hair

Beau Friedlander — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:50:15 -0400

MyDD's Jerome Armstrong gets the latest Zogby out and Obama's pulling away from the Smack-talk Express.

Asia tanked over night: The MSCI World Index is having its worst week since 1970.

The good news: gas prices are falling. Heh. Yeah.

The Washington Times provides more evidence of Barack Hussein Obama's Muslimness.

The jig is up for Sarah Palin. The New York Times reveals that the governor lied about the trooper she got fired and made more than three dozen phone calls to make sure the deed was done.

Ex-Finnish prez Martii Ahtisaari wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Shock treatment: The Christian Science Monitor reports on a scientist who is using electrified strips of metal to clean fouled NYC waterways and clear the way for long extinct mollusks.

Agence France-Presse reports that tens of thousands of voter registrations were denied in key states.

Nico Pitney at Huffington Post reports Frank Keating called Obama "a man of the street." This is considered pretty damned racist among us "thin-skinned" liberals.

Snowjob: The McCain/Palin Terror Ties

Beau Friedlander — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:06:32 -0400

Earlier today the McCain released a new web ad. We won't run the name of it here. It's about Senator Barack Obama's "murky" ties to a grassroots activist. The activist in question was once a terrorist. When? Before Obama was out of shortpants. What else does McCain/Palin have? Nada.

We're not linking to the ad. Easy clicks are not as valuable as the truth, and since there's no semblance of the truth in McCain's new ad, we're not going there. It's better just to talk about it. We do provide video below, but it shows you the truth--Palin's quotes about her own terrorist ties. While Obama does not have any ties to terrorists, both McCain and Palin do, and unlike this tenuous nonsense about Ayers, their links are recent.

How do we know this? Well, it's pretty simple. While the McCain camp got busy sinking to new lows (think monster truck rally), progressive journalists have been busily working out the ins and out of the terrorist ties on the Republican ticket. The results are shocking.

Salon's David Talbot poked around the Alaska Independence Party and struck gold. "AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. 'She’s Alaskan to the bone … she sounds just like Joe Vogler'.”

So who is Joe Vogler? He's the group's founder, and he makes Bill Ayers sound like a civics teacher. “My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”

Palin supports Vogler. Vogler is supported but the Iranian government. I'd call that a tie. (Quite a distinction from the more recent "Bomb Iran" diddy set to the Beach Boys classic.) And before you dismiss the allegation as pie-eyed propaganda, this comes from Salon:

Morning Roundup: Around the Web in 80.34 Seconds

Beau Friedlander — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:08:42 -0400

Most horrifying video ever: Daily Kos's ves man has video of the dittoheads outside a Palin rally. Did you know that Obama has the blood line to kill you, and that he's a
one-man terror cell! It's true!!! I saw it on TV...er, on teevee on the
Internets.

Yeah, baby! Check out Palindrome: the auto-Palin-speech-o-matic!!!

The Washington Post wishes us all a very Merry Grinchmas.

Jazz from Hell bought a copy of Chief Executive Magazine which claims 70% of CEOs are afraid of Obama presidency.

Long live the blue chip stock: Bloomberg reports stock futures rise on IBM forecast.

In keeping with Senator Obama's call for swift punishment to those AIG execs who ordered last week's $440K "junket," the Fed today announced an additional $37.8 billion in "liquidity" will go to AIG.

The Los Angeles Times looks at the bleak market picture and answers the question: Can a bull market be far away? The answer: Yes. Yes it can. Very far, indeed.

The Washington Times wants you to remember that welfare is bad, m'kay? Lots of people need help with heating oil this year.

McCain: Beneath Contempt

Beau Friedlander — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:50:43 -0400

A lot of verbiage has been spilled over McCain's "that one" comment. Less time has been devoted to what happened after the debate. Face time for the candidates was skewed. At first I was shocked, could there be such severe Obama bias on the part of MSNBC? It seemed like the camera never left the Illinois senator. The reason only materialized a bit later as Air America's Rachel Maddow explained the senator from Arizona had left in fairly short order with wife Cindy in tow.

Senator McCain's temper is both fabled and well documented. It is hard to imagine after all these years that he can calmly accept defeat. It is easy to imagine based on what we know of his impetuous, self-seeking nature that a poor performance in the debate would make him want to lash out or take cover, and it seems he chose the latter course of action. With age comes wisdom. (I'm sure that Scotch on the rocks he had right afterwards hit the spot.)

It was big news last night on the blogs when McCain made eye contact with Obama. That in itself is very telling. The fact is simple: John McCain has projected a sense that he finds Obama somehow beneath contempt, and that it's somehow demeaning to compete with him. Many think there is a racial component at work here, and I don't doubt it (though I also don't see it per se). That said, first and foremost we're dealing with a giant ego being thwarted.

Regarding the race question, I can't speak for Senator McCain, but his behavior does seem to suggest something more than mere competion. Again it doesn't have to be race. Regardless, there is an icy demeanor that is misplaced. Senator Obama is a colleague. He is an accomplished man. You'd never know it. McCain barely countenances him at all, and when he does it is clear that the senator from Illinois only figures as an obstacle, and an affront to McCain's dream job.