Tuesday, September 30, 2008
skippy's tuesday nite music club
the gaslight anthem - the '59 sound
and we're going to reward behaviour
like this illustrated by northern trust?
with this bailout bandied about on capitol hill this week...this is the type of behaviour we are condoning only we can't sue to get our hard earned taxdollars back.
university of washington sues to end bank contractthink this financial "institution" should rename itself to northern "non trust" and star in a teevee show "northern non-disclsure" think of how many scholarships given out or facilities to be maintained on campus with $7.5 million that was lost.
...according to the lawsuit, northern trust loaned $750 million of the uw's money under a securities lending agreement that started in april. but when the uw learned of a $750,000 loss and tried to terminate the agreement via both e-mail and fax on sept. 17, the bank didn't comply, and the uw continued to amass rapidly escalating losses.
the next day, northern trust notified the uw that a recalculation showed a $5.3 million loss for the university.
the university's contract with northern trust stipulated that uw officials could terminate the lending agreement "at any time by written notice," bringing an end to lending.
...by sept. 23, the day before the lawsuit was filed, the uw was informed that the loss had grown to $7.5 million. the lawsuit alleges that also on that day, uw officials talked with their northern trust contacts and were told that the bank would continue to loan the university's securities, and that funds would not be returned as was requested by the uw. - seattle pi
with this bailout bandied about on capitol hill this week...this is the type of behaviour we are condoning only we can't sue to get our hard earned taxdollars back.
Labels: banking, financial markets
ya know...for a journalism major kinda gal
not able to name just one...little, eensy bitsy newspaper or magazine that she reads, renders palin completely incompetent to be veep. perhaps after stepping down from the ticket for the sake of the country, she should also send her diploma back to senator "wide stance's" state.
latte times, nytimes, san fracisco chron, wapo, sandy eggo union-trib, financial times, atlanta journal constitution,....pppssssttt...sarah...you might take note they don't have gasoline for their cars down there these days....nola/times picayune, houston chronicle, austin american statesman, seattle pi, boston globe, the oregonian, manchester union-leader, and locally since our local former pulizter prize winning newspaper was bought out by a union busting, community hating "multi-bazillionaire by divorce" chick, i don't read it anymore...i read the santa barbara independent. oh, i forgot matt taibii at the rolling stone.
hey...because i read more than palin, does that mean that i too can be a veep on someone's ticket?
some of the newspapers i have a daily or weekly propensity to read (and often link to)asked what newspapers and magazines she reads, palin - a journalism major in college - could not name one publication.
"i've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media," she said at first. couric responded, "what, specifically?"
"um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years." - huffington post
latte times, nytimes, san fracisco chron, wapo, sandy eggo union-trib, financial times, atlanta journal constitution,....pppssssttt...sarah...you might take note they don't have gasoline for their cars down there these days....nola/times picayune, houston chronicle, austin american statesman, seattle pi, boston globe, the oregonian, manchester union-leader, and locally since our local former pulizter prize winning newspaper was bought out by a union busting, community hating "multi-bazillionaire by divorce" chick, i don't read it anymore...i read the santa barbara independent. oh, i forgot matt taibii at the rolling stone.
hey...because i read more than palin, does that mean that i too can be a veep on someone's ticket?
Labels: local news, multi-millionaire media, palin
pelosi fumbles
and reid picks up the ball and makes a mad dash towards his own goal line. he doesn't notice he is getting help from the republicans.
and why on earth is the senate originating a spending bill?
and why on earth is the senate originating a spending bill?
Labels: bailout, bipartisanship, constitution, reid
quote of the day
an anonymous reviewer, over at ain't it cool news, on the new upcoming right-wing parody an american carol:
i laughed harder at munich
here's one idea for a response to the financial crisis
thanks to comrade the moar you know,
mad about crybaby repubbblicans
mad kane, that is!
on the street where you live
the campaign for america's future has a novel idea: why not invest in main street instead of wall street? go send this email to your congressjerk here:
dear congressjerk:
congress did the right thing by rejecting a bailout bill that did too much for wall street and too little for main street. don't cave in to wall street or white house pressure to ram through similarly flawed legislation. we need a new "new deal" that rescues main street and reigns in wall street.
i urge you to support legislation that rebuilds our economy from the bottom up. specifically, i urge you to:
invest in main street: on main street, jobs are disappearing, infrastructure is crumbling and local budgets are straining. a $200 billion economic rescue package for main street would generate clean american energy, extend unemployment benefits, aid states and localities to avoid debilitating cuts and modernize our crumbling infrastructure.
save the homeowners: defaulting mortgages are at the heart of the crisis. keeping deserving people in their homes is critical to shore up main street and wall street. the bankruptcy courts need to have the power to renegotiate mortgages and reduce foreclosures.
hold wall street accountable: instead of simply propping up reckless firms, we should establish a reconstruction finance corporation that can take over financial firms, sort out the solvent from the insolvent, close down some and merge others. we also need modern regulation that cracks down on the abuse. and taxpayers deserve preferred shares in any bank or investment house that we are forced to rescue.
thank you in advance for putting the interests of main street first.
send this email.
congress did the right thing by rejecting a bailout bill that did too much for wall street and too little for main street. don't cave in to wall street or white house pressure to ram through similarly flawed legislation. we need a new "new deal" that rescues main street and reigns in wall street.
i urge you to support legislation that rebuilds our economy from the bottom up. specifically, i urge you to:
invest in main street: on main street, jobs are disappearing, infrastructure is crumbling and local budgets are straining. a $200 billion economic rescue package for main street would generate clean american energy, extend unemployment benefits, aid states and localities to avoid debilitating cuts and modernize our crumbling infrastructure.
save the homeowners: defaulting mortgages are at the heart of the crisis. keeping deserving people in their homes is critical to shore up main street and wall street. the bankruptcy courts need to have the power to renegotiate mortgages and reduce foreclosures.
hold wall street accountable: instead of simply propping up reckless firms, we should establish a reconstruction finance corporation that can take over financial firms, sort out the solvent from the insolvent, close down some and merge others. we also need modern regulation that cracks down on the abuse. and taxpayers deserve preferred shares in any bank or investment house that we are forced to rescue.
thank you in advance for putting the interests of main street first.
say hello
to heada state.
veep debate....
let the verbal bloodbath begin.
....in recent days, gov. palin flubbed quasi-mock debates in new york city and philadelphia, some operatives said. finger-pointing began, and then intensified after her faltering interview with cbs anchorwoman katie couric.- wsj via excelsior1's kos diarybring caribou barbie on.
because for one thing she probably doesn't even listen to demon hunter
john mcmuffin's brilliant strategy to put maggie o'connell on his ticket was a sure fire way to attract all the young voters, especially christians, right? except, maybe not so much:
republican presidential contender john mccain still retains strong support from white evangelical protestants, but the 72-year-old arizona senator’s appeal fades with younger voters from this flock.
that is the findings of a survey that was just done for religion & ethics newsweekly by greenberg quinlan rosner…
mccain has solidified his support with this important component of the republican base with his choice of alaska governor sarah palin – a staunch conservative christian and mother of six — as his running mate.
but the survey found that while older white evangelical women were among palin’s most ardent supporters, women below 30 from that group were far less enthusiastic about her.
it found palin’s favorability rating among white evangelical women below 30 was only 46 percent; compared with 65 percent for white evangelical women over 30.
well, don't worry, mcmuffin, there's always plan b.
that is the findings of a survey that was just done for religion & ethics newsweekly by greenberg quinlan rosner…
mccain has solidified his support with this important component of the republican base with his choice of alaska governor sarah palin – a staunch conservative christian and mother of six — as his running mate.
but the survey found that while older white evangelical women were among palin’s most ardent supporters, women below 30 from that group were far less enthusiastic about her.
it found palin’s favorability rating among white evangelical women below 30 was only 46 percent; compared with 65 percent for white evangelical women over 30.
Monday, September 29, 2008
skippy's monday nite music club
talking heads - and she was
cute, chocolately...and
dangerous.
british confectioner cadbury has recalled all of its chinese-made candy products over fears that they may be contaminated with the chemical melamine, a company statement said monday.h/t bryan at why now?
...melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. some chinese dairy plants have added it to milk products to make it seem to have a higher protein level.- cnn
Labels: china, commercial, food, food safety, recalls
weapons of mass financial destruction
credit default swaps. haven't heard of them, bueller? bueller? let ben stein explain, a little, since your bank lost it's money, perhaps you can "win ben steins". (or at least pick his brain.)
betting on america defaulting. wow. how "patriotic" is that? i say follow the money. who is making oodles off of america's destruction? then concentrate on creating a bill that works from bottom up...not top pisses down variety.....the crisis occurred (to greatly oversimplify) because the financial system allowed entities to place bets on whether or not those mortgages would ever be paid. you didn't have to own a mortgage to make the bets. these bets, called credit default swaps, are complex. but in a nutshell, they allow someone to profit immensely - staggeringly - if large numbers of subprime mortgages are not paid off and go into default.
the profit can be wildly out of proportion to the real amount of defaults, because speculators can push down the price of instruments tied to the subprime mortgages far beyond what the real rates of loss have been. as i said, the profits here can be beyond imagining. (in fact, they can be so large that one might well wonder if the whole subprime fiasco was not set up just to allow speculators to profit wildly on its collapse...)
these credit default wwaps have been written (as insurance is written) as private contracts. there is nil government regulation of them. who writes these policies? banks. investment banks. insurance companies. they now owe the buyers of these credit default wwaps on junk mortgage debt trillions of dollars. it is this liability that is the bottomless pit of liability for the financial institutions of america.- ben stein at finance.yahoo.
Labels: financial markets, gambling, wall street
ask not for whom the poll tells, john mcmuffin...it tells for thee
you know things are bad when rasmussen, the only polling organization leaning so far to the right that it's only beat by faux news, and faux news, the only polling organization leaning so far to the right that it's only beat by rasmussen, shows obama gaining:
polltrack has, among other things, not only an electoral map based on today's polling, but one based projected on current momentum, as well as a wild-guess election day stab-in-the-dark.
polling this week in colorado, florida, ohio, pennsylvania, and virginia shows that barack obama has gained a net 3 to 5 percentage points in each state compared to the previous fox news/ rasmussen reports poll.
in pennsylvania, obama now leads by eight percentage points, 50% to 42%.
in virginia, it’s obama 50% and mccain 47%.
the candidates are within a single point of each other in colorado (obama 49%, mccain 48%), florida (obama 47%, mccain 47%), and ohio (mccain 48% obama 47%).
national polls and other state polling conducted by rasmussen reports indicate that obama gained ground before last friday night’s debate, probably as a result of the economic turmoil that has dominated the news. since the debate, the rasmussen reports daily presidential tracking poll shows little change in the national numbers.
regardless of the timing and the cause, however, the overriding trend from the past week is a shift in the battleground states that favors obama.
at this juncture, speaking of tracking polls, we'd like to direct your attention to polltrack, run by maurice berger, a good friend of our good buddy, jon swift (and any friend of a buddy of ours is a...we guess, a fruddy?)in pennsylvania, obama now leads by eight percentage points, 50% to 42%.
in virginia, it’s obama 50% and mccain 47%.
the candidates are within a single point of each other in colorado (obama 49%, mccain 48%), florida (obama 47%, mccain 47%), and ohio (mccain 48% obama 47%).
national polls and other state polling conducted by rasmussen reports indicate that obama gained ground before last friday night’s debate, probably as a result of the economic turmoil that has dominated the news. since the debate, the rasmussen reports daily presidential tracking poll shows little change in the national numbers.
regardless of the timing and the cause, however, the overriding trend from the past week is a shift in the battleground states that favors obama.
polltrack has, among other things, not only an electoral map based on today's polling, but one based projected on current momentum, as well as a wild-guess election day stab-in-the-dark.
the end of the u.s. financial system as larry kudlow knows it
larry kudlow, writing at the corner (to which we link only to get the memeorandum traffic) knows where to squarely place the blame for the failure of the bail out plan -- those darn negros and mexicans:
even worse, it's not because any congressjerks voted the way their constituents told them to; it's because minorities demand entitlements, like equity ownership thru warrants, those shiftless ne'er-do-wells. larry goes on:
poor larry. he'll have to get a real job.
addendum: we know we are picking a nit here (as opposed to kudlow, who would pick a ninny), but larry's got tense problems in his writings, too.
in the first paragraph quoted, after we take out the modifying phrases, larry tells us that "things...will all find itself" back in the bill. [emphasis, and snarky giggling, added.]
"all itself"? larry's identity issues are all itself problematic.
as this scenario goes, the house democrats need 218 votes, and they have to pick up a number of black and hispanic house members who jumped ship because the wall street provisions, in their view, were too benign. so things like the bankruptcy judges setting mortgage terms and rates, the acorn slush-fund spending, the union proxy for corporate boards, stricter limits on executive compensation, and much larger equity ownership of selling banks through warrants will all find itself back in the new bill. of course, this scenario will lose more republican votes. but insiders tell me president bush will take secretary paulson’s advice and sign that kind of legislation.
you read that right. no white democrats (or, for that matter, white repubbblians) are concerned about slush-funds, judicial oversight or exec pay. it's those darned colored people. even worse, it's not because any congressjerks voted the way their constituents told them to; it's because minorities demand entitlements, like equity ownership thru warrants, those shiftless ne'er-do-wells. larry goes on:
personally, if this scenario plays out, i would probably withdraw my support for the rescue mission and switch to plan b, which would center on the fdic and its bank-recapitalization powers. the bank-ownership issue, in particular, could lead to heavy nationalization of america’s financial system with a three-house democratic sweep in november.
i’m not forecasting, because i don’t know the next bill’s content. and while mccain’s polls are heading south, he could still win. but a three-house dem sweep to implement some off the very onerous provisions being talked about could set up the end of the u.s. financial system as we know it.
yes, the end of baseless speculation w/o consequence, the end of over-inflated ceo pay for under-performance, the end of main street propping up the party that wall street didn't invite everyone to.i’m not forecasting, because i don’t know the next bill’s content. and while mccain’s polls are heading south, he could still win. but a three-house dem sweep to implement some off the very onerous provisions being talked about could set up the end of the u.s. financial system as we know it.
poor larry. he'll have to get a real job.
addendum: we know we are picking a nit here (as opposed to kudlow, who would pick a ninny), but larry's got tense problems in his writings, too.
in the first paragraph quoted, after we take out the modifying phrases, larry tells us that "things...will all find itself" back in the bill. [emphasis, and snarky giggling, added.]
"all itself"? larry's identity issues are all itself problematic.
down jones -777 is bad
but awol would have to have a 2700 point down day on the dow to tie reagan's record for a percentage loss in a single day. what is this about republicans being better for the economy?
Labels: bailout, economy, republicans
repubbbs cut off economic nose to spite economic face, rest of body faces certain death
the house repubbbs, mistakenly believing the freemarket crap they've been fed for the past 20 years, have rejected the re-worked bailout plan. cnnmoney:
so?
the fate of the government's $700 billion financial bailout plan - a far-reaching attempt to stem a growing economic crisis - was thrown in doubt monday as the house rejected the controversial measure.
the next steps were unclear. the abrupt defeat left the bush administration and congressional leaders scrambling to put the bill up for another vote. a vote before wednesday is very unlikely.
and stock markets reacted violently. investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the dow jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short. the key stock reading was down nearly 600 points with about 15 minutes of trading left.
the measure, which is designed to get battered u.s. credit markets working normally again, needed 218 votes for passage. but it came up 13 votes short of that target, as the final vote was 228 to 205 against. about 60% of democrats and fewer than 33% of republicans voted for the measure.
the stock market wasn't pleased. wsj:the next steps were unclear. the abrupt defeat left the bush administration and congressional leaders scrambling to put the bill up for another vote. a vote before wednesday is very unlikely.
and stock markets reacted violently. investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the dow jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short. the key stock reading was down nearly 600 points with about 15 minutes of trading left.
the measure, which is designed to get battered u.s. credit markets working normally again, needed 218 votes for passage. but it came up 13 votes short of that target, as the final vote was 228 to 205 against. about 60% of democrats and fewer than 33% of republicans voted for the measure.
the dow jones industrial average plummeted 777.68 points, its biggest one-day drop in history. it ended down 7% at 10365.45, down 9.3% since since crisis erupted a few weeks ago on wall street following the meltdown of lehman brothers holdings. all 30 of the blue-chip indicator's components fell monday…
"there is a panic mentality afoot today," said bruce bittles, chief investment strategist at robert w. baird.
as ye repubbblicans reap, so shall ye repubbblicans sow."there is a panic mentality afoot today," said bruce bittles, chief investment strategist at robert w. baird.
so?
gallup-ing away
obama still leads:
the latest gallup poll daily tracking update, based on sept. 26-28 polling, shows barack obama with a 50% to 42% lead over john mccain, unchanged from the prior report.
the trend on the presidential horserace showed obama building momentum heading into friday's debate, moving from a tie earlier in the week to a five percentage point obama advantage through friday interviewing (most of which was conducted before the debate took place). the debate apparently has done nothing to halt or reverse that momentum. today's report includes two full days of interviewing following friday night's debate, both of which show obama with a healthy advantage over mccain. tuesday's report will provide the first fully post-debate three-day rolling average of voter preferences in the presidential election.
hi-ho silver, and away!
the trend on the presidential horserace showed obama building momentum heading into friday's debate, moving from a tie earlier in the week to a five percentage point obama advantage through friday interviewing (most of which was conducted before the debate took place). the debate apparently has done nothing to halt or reverse that momentum. today's report includes two full days of interviewing following friday night's debate, both of which show obama with a healthy advantage over mccain. tuesday's report will provide the first fully post-debate three-day rolling average of voter preferences in the presidential election.
"safeguards"
if a bank goes belly up then the golden parachutes are not worth the paper they are writte on. the bailout's "anti-profiteering protection" guarantees that the executives get their millions of dollar courtesy of working americans' taxes.
Labels: bailout, bipartisanship, greed
one has to wonder...
here's something i don't quite understand concerning the federal takeover of certain financial institutions. if you work for a bank and you're looking for fresh money to make new loans, why on earth would you deal with a corporation that calls itself "fannie mae"? okay, okay, it's really the federal national mortgage association, and fannie mae is just a cute little acronym (i suppose), with its own cute little logo, and people have called it that for convenience's sake for years. sort of like federal express paring itself down to fedex, which i can understand -- you want your packages to get to where they're going in a timely fashion, and saying "fedex" takes less than half the time it takes to say "federal express," so put one and one together and holy $#!+, aren't we clever?
but "fannie mae"? that sounds like the name of a fried chicken chain, not a government-sponsored enterprise. "here's your $300,000 loan. what are your two sides?" "a roll of breath mints and a bottle of aspirin."
and freddie mac is even worse. that's supposed to be an acronym for federal home loan mortgage corporation. let's compare the two. fhlmc. freddie mac. hmmm... well, if i mash the "h" and the "l" together after smoking a foot-long joint, i can laugh all the way to the bank foreclosing on my home.yeah, i'm gonna put my trust in a financial outfit named freddie mac. i might have a freddie mac repair a car -- they sound like decent mechanics. but trusting one when it comes to money? sure, freddie, loan me $2,000 -- i want to put a hotel on park place.
by the way, folks, have you ever wondered that if people were calling the federal national mortgage association the fnma instead of fannie mae, and the federal home loan mortgage corporation the fhlmc instead of freddie mac, we might not be dealing with a $700 billion bailout right now? because fannie mae and freddie mac are not people just like you and me with hopes, dreams, and spirits. they're soulless corporations with bottom lines -- lines which, as far as taxpayers are concerned, may as well be bottomless.
perhaps we ought to start looking at and treating corporations that way...
but "fannie mae"? that sounds like the name of a fried chicken chain, not a government-sponsored enterprise. "here's your $300,000 loan. what are your two sides?" "a roll of breath mints and a bottle of aspirin."
and freddie mac is even worse. that's supposed to be an acronym for federal home loan mortgage corporation. let's compare the two. fhlmc. freddie mac. hmmm... well, if i mash the "h" and the "l" together after smoking a foot-long joint, i can laugh all the way to the bank foreclosing on my home.yeah, i'm gonna put my trust in a financial outfit named freddie mac. i might have a freddie mac repair a car -- they sound like decent mechanics. but trusting one when it comes to money? sure, freddie, loan me $2,000 -- i want to put a hotel on park place.
by the way, folks, have you ever wondered that if people were calling the federal national mortgage association the fnma instead of fannie mae, and the federal home loan mortgage corporation the fhlmc instead of freddie mac, we might not be dealing with a $700 billion bailout right now? because fannie mae and freddie mac are not people just like you and me with hopes, dreams, and spirits. they're soulless corporations with bottom lines -- lines which, as far as taxpayers are concerned, may as well be bottomless.
perhaps we ought to start looking at and treating corporations that way...
Labels: bailout, corporations, corruption, snark
this is insane...
looks like it's my bank's turn now:
i think my next bank will be in the shape of a small pig...
wachovia stock lost more than half its value in pre-market trading monday as investors mulled the fate of the bank, including a potential merger with one of its peers -- citigroup or wells fargo...
i think my next bank will be in the shape of a small pig...
Sunday, September 28, 2008
skippy's sunday nite music club
here's a gem for fans of motown...
joan osborne & the funk bros. - what becomes of the broken hearted
the funk brothers were the house band of session musicians that were heard on most all of the early detroit motown records. this video, with the amazing joan osborne joining the band, is from the great documentary about the musicians who made up the funk brothers, called standing in the shadow of motown.
joan osborne & the funk bros. - what becomes of the broken hearted
the funk brothers were the house band of session musicians that were heard on most all of the early detroit motown records. this video, with the amazing joan osborne joining the band, is from the great documentary about the musicians who made up the funk brothers, called standing in the shadow of motown.
recall elections anyone?
not all states have recall provisions. states that do may not have provisions for recalling u.s. senators and representatives. this bailout being perpetrated by congress is worthy of recall. we need make elected officials think at least once about this bailout.
bailouts r us
say hello
to rod 2.0.
we get letters
from our inbox:
hi again, skippy
i wanted to follow up on the couple of emails i sent to you over the past 2 weeks. my organization, international medical corps, was nominated to be one of the top 25 in american express' members projects, "saving the lives of malnourished children" and is in the running to receive up to $1.5 million to help feed hungry children.
there is only 1 day left in the voting and international medical corps is currently number 5 in the top 5 american express members projects. if we fall out of the top 5 we will receive no funding, so every vote counts. i wanted to make one last plea for you to post on skippy the bush kangaroo because it would really help our mission. i just added some new videos and blogger widgets to our social media press release here:
http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us/
please let me know if you can post and please vote for "saving the lives of malnourished children." thank you so much.
chessia
--chessia kelley, international medical corps
ckelley@imcworldwide.org
http://imcworldwide.org
i wanted to follow up on the couple of emails i sent to you over the past 2 weeks. my organization, international medical corps, was nominated to be one of the top 25 in american express' members projects, "saving the lives of malnourished children" and is in the running to receive up to $1.5 million to help feed hungry children.
there is only 1 day left in the voting and international medical corps is currently number 5 in the top 5 american express members projects. if we fall out of the top 5 we will receive no funding, so every vote counts. i wanted to make one last plea for you to post on skippy the bush kangaroo because it would really help our mission. i just added some new videos and blogger widgets to our social media press release here:
http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us/
please let me know if you can post and please vote for "saving the lives of malnourished children." thank you so much.
chessia
--chessia kelley, international medical corps
ckelley@imcworldwide.org
http://imcworldwide.org
huh?
from the detroit free press :
The bailout plan that Congress has been crafting over the weekend is a result of bipartisan work that has incorporated safeguards for taxpayers and restrictions against profiteering by executives benefiting from the bailout.we are about to buy crapped on toilet paper for $700 billion. how could the bill keep executives from profiteering?
Labels: bailout, bipartisanship, things that make you go hmmmm
hope the governor watched snl this week
only this time with the sound on....
oh, and sarah, thanks for the little invitation you sent me to "accept alaska's free travel guide and visit us soon." sure it was basically it was a postage-paid questionaire for www.triptoalaska.com, but it sure looked like it was coming from the govenor's office, including a picture and "signature" of you. i find the wording a little confusing though...
oh, and sarah, thanks for the little invitation you sent me to "accept alaska's free travel guide and visit us soon." sure it was basically it was a postage-paid questionaire for www.triptoalaska.com, but it sure looked like it was coming from the govenor's office, including a picture and "signature" of you. i find the wording a little confusing though...
"alaska is different from every other destination in the world. every day offers an unforgettable memory: a mother moose and calf, glaciers and mountains, unique native cultures, our russian legacy and gold rush days."russian legacy? russian? i thought you had your eyes on putin's head rising up and not in the marketing gig for the state's being part of the russian tribe.
the results are in: obama won the debate
who cares what the pundits say, the real judges have decided -- obama won the first debate handily:
here at skippy international, we are of the opinion that, tho it seemed like a tie (ie, no tko's on either side), the fact that obama looked far more presidential than what people who listened to mcmuffin's "he's not ready" ads had expected, plus the fact that mcmuffin is supposedly the "expert" on foreign policy and should have knocked it out of the park but didn't, gives obama the winning touchdown.
if we may mix sports metaphors.
a new usa today/gallup poll shows 46% of people who watched friday night's presidential debate say democrat barack obama did a better job than republican john mccain; 34% said mccain did better.
obama scored even better -- 52%-35% -- when debate-watchers were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country's problems…
the poll suggested the debate was to some extent a wash for mccain: 21% of those who watched say it gave them a more favorable view of him, 21% say less favorable and 56% say it didn't change their opinion much.
three in 10 said their opinion of obama became more favorable after seeing the debate, compared to 14% who said less favorable and 54% who said it didn't make much difference.
sorry, david! too bad, modo! the people that actually vote thought obama wins!obama scored even better -- 52%-35% -- when debate-watchers were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country's problems…
the poll suggested the debate was to some extent a wash for mccain: 21% of those who watched say it gave them a more favorable view of him, 21% say less favorable and 56% say it didn't change their opinion much.
three in 10 said their opinion of obama became more favorable after seeing the debate, compared to 14% who said less favorable and 54% who said it didn't make much difference.
here at skippy international, we are of the opinion that, tho it seemed like a tie (ie, no tko's on either side), the fact that obama looked far more presidential than what people who listened to mcmuffin's "he's not ready" ads had expected, plus the fact that mcmuffin is supposedly the "expert" on foreign policy and should have knocked it out of the park but didn't, gives obama the winning touchdown.
if we may mix sports metaphors.
just so there's no misunderstanding...
i haven't suddenly become promiscuous just because i'm now out of the closet. that's not my style, and it never has been. i'm not as stupid as i might sound.
when i wrote that i haven't had to deal with hiv or aids yet and hope that i never do, i suppose i was engaging in a bit of wishful thinking. i'm not one to play around, but i am beginning to test the waters of the gay community, to get to know other gay people in my area. it's been a while since i made any friends, truth be told -- nearly all of the friends i have i left behind when i moved from massachusetts to virginia ten years ago. so i'm looking forward to making some new ones. it's been too long.
right now, i don't know anyone suffering from hiv or aids. but sooner or later, i will. and i already know it's gonna break my heart to see what they're going through.
there you have it.
til further on...
when i wrote that i haven't had to deal with hiv or aids yet and hope that i never do, i suppose i was engaging in a bit of wishful thinking. i'm not one to play around, but i am beginning to test the waters of the gay community, to get to know other gay people in my area. it's been a while since i made any friends, truth be told -- nearly all of the friends i have i left behind when i moved from massachusetts to virginia ten years ago. so i'm looking forward to making some new ones. it's been too long.
right now, i don't know anyone suffering from hiv or aids. but sooner or later, i will. and i already know it's gonna break my heart to see what they're going through.
there you have it.
til further on...
Labels: life
sunday morning youtubery...
"istanbul (not constantinople)" by they might be giants:
this one was inspired by this culture ghost post.
enjoy...
Labels: music
Saturday, September 27, 2008
skippy's saturday nite music club
modest mouse - dashboard
uncivil liberties
i wrote nancy pelosi.
You idiot! Bush has rolled you again. My children and my grandchildren will curse your name forever for saddling them with Bush's latest $700 billion grab. How dare you call yourself a Democrat? FDR and Truman would be ashamed of you.i found no reason to be polite about being mugged by awol and his henchman democrats.
Labels: action alert, bipartisanship, pelosi, robber barons
question of the day...
if john mccain can't look barack obama in the eye during a debate, then how can he be trusted to deal with the leaders of other countries in a time of crisis?
just curious...
just curious...
Labels: questions
a modest proposal
here's an idea...instead of giving $700 billion of our money to wall street investment bankers, what if we give everybody in the us who has a mortgage a million bucks, with the condition that they spend it on said mortgage?
that would (a) take care of the bad mortgage debt, (b) infuse much-needed capital into the economy, and (c) make way more sense.
too simplistic, you say? what does naomi klein, author of shock doctrine, say?
that would (a) take care of the bad mortgage debt, (b) infuse much-needed capital into the economy, and (c) make way more sense.
too simplistic, you say? what does naomi klein, author of shock doctrine, say?
klein: but i think that it’s important to stress that this is money that could be used for actively preventing foreclosures. they could be using this money - a fraction of it - to keep people in their homes. they could be stimulating and rebuilding the fundamentals of the economy by investing in infrastructure, public works projects, a green-style new deal - all of the investments that are so desperately needed. new technology, investing in the real economy and getting away from this casino economy. and because they want to throw all this money at wall street, that is money that will not be available for those real investments.
go see john amato's interview w/naomi over at crooks&liars.
one of my favorite newman movies
shooting craps with americas future
nice to know that mccain has a little gambling problem.
the moment the car stopped at mccain’s hotel in downtown new orleans, he set out at his usual fast clip for harrah’s, across the street. mccain is an avid gambler. wes gullett, a close friend who worked for mccain for years, told me that they used to play craps in las vegas in fourteen-hour stints, standing at the tables from 10 a.m. to midnight. “craps is addictive,” mccain remarked, and he headed for the fifteen-dollar-minimum-bet tables. at the most obvious level, the game is incredibly simple—players rotate turns throwing the dice, and you either win or lose depending on what number comes up. but mccain’s betting formula makes it much more complicated. “uh-oh!” he cried, as a player accidentally threw the dice off the table. “this is a very, very superstitious game,” he said. when his turn came to throw the dice, he picked them up and blew on them first. he had placed chips on the number 5, so (envisioning a combination of 2 and 3) he called, “michael jordan! michael jordan!” - the new yorker 2005
a lifelong gambler, mr. mccain takes risks, both on and off the craps table. he was throwing dice that night not long after his failed 2000 presidential bid, in which he was skewered by the republican party's evangelical base, opponents of gambling. mr. mccain was betting at a casino he oversaw as a member of the senate indian affairs committee, and he was doing so with the lobbyist who represents that casino, according to three associates of mr. mccain. - nytimes 2008mccain as president? america can't afford to take that bet.
Labels: gambling, lobbyists, mccain, social security
commentary magazine spin vs. commentary magazine facts
noah pollack, in commentary magazine, bemoans cnn's sneaky trick of using weighted polls:
irrespective and regardless (or is that "irregardless and respective"?) of the fact that no poll is an accurate reflection of anything, and completely ignoring the question of whether the exact same number of democrats and repubbblicans vote in any election, we'd like to point something out to mr. pollack.
not only is he "far from being a polling expert," but he's also apparently far from being a reading expert. the very second paragraph of the cnn piece states very clearly:
he goes on to complain about cnn's conclusion that the debate ended in a tie, which was, in essence, a win for obama. now, a case can be made that the headline touting a poll showing a win is different (and disengenuous) from an editorial opinion stating same.
but mr. pollack relinquishes his authority on what an article says, or purports to say, if he can't even read it correctly.
the caveat came clearly in the first part of cnn's piece before any poll details, not "buried, way down at the bottom of the story."
hopefully mr. pollack will learn that remedial reading classes are not anything to be ashamed of.
cnn’s poll of debate viewers blares a puzzling headline: “round 1 in debate goes to obama, poll says.”
but the poll itself actually doesn’t say that. this is blatant editorializing on the part of cnn. the first problem is the numbers:
the cnn/opinion research corp. survey is not a measurement of the views of all americans, since only people who watched the debate were questioned and the audience included more democrats than republicans.
but the poll itself actually doesn’t say that. this is blatant editorializing on the part of cnn. the first problem is the numbers:
fifty-one percent of those polled thought obama did the better job in friday night’s debate, while 38 percent said john mccain did better.
buried way, way down at the bottom of the story — hopefully, one surmises, past the point where anyone would read — is the following:the cnn/opinion research corp. survey is not a measurement of the views of all americans, since only people who watched the debate were questioned and the audience included more democrats than republicans.
the results may be favoring obama simply because more democrats than republicans tuned in to the debate. of the debate-watchers questioned in this poll, 41 percent of the respondents identified themselves as democrats, 27 percent as republicans and 30 percent as independents.
i’m far from being a polling expert, but this is obviously a slanted poll. a 14-point split between republican and democrat respondents? and what percentage of those “independents” were leaners for obama?irrespective and regardless (or is that "irregardless and respective"?) of the fact that no poll is an accurate reflection of anything, and completely ignoring the question of whether the exact same number of democrats and repubbblicans vote in any election, we'd like to point something out to mr. pollack.
not only is he "far from being a polling expert," but he's also apparently far from being a reading expert. the very second paragraph of the cnn piece states very clearly:
the cnn/opinion research corp. survey is not a measurement of the views of all americans, since only people who watched the debate were questioned and the audience included more democrats than republicans.
yes, a caveat disclaiming the very weighted prejudice that mr. pollack is whining about. and this can be found immediately preceding the quote that mr. pollack pulled out of the article to make his point, all the good that it did him.he goes on to complain about cnn's conclusion that the debate ended in a tie, which was, in essence, a win for obama. now, a case can be made that the headline touting a poll showing a win is different (and disengenuous) from an editorial opinion stating same.
but mr. pollack relinquishes his authority on what an article says, or purports to say, if he can't even read it correctly.
the caveat came clearly in the first part of cnn's piece before any poll details, not "buried, way down at the bottom of the story."
hopefully mr. pollack will learn that remedial reading classes are not anything to be ashamed of.
come on down!
our good buddy alicia morgan of last left turn b4 hooterville alerts us to the fact that her new book the price of right is now available on amazon!
it's not the computer per se, it's the nut on the keyboard
we wish this were true.
skroo the presidential debates...
i'm voting for barack obama, and nothing john mccain says between now and election day is going to change my mind. mccain needs to be hospitalized and sedated anyway -- somebody get that man out of public view already. now then...
this is one of the things i've been reading lately:
"circles" is a comic book about six gay anthropomorphic animals who all live in the same house. it takes its name and subtitle from a harry chapin song. it's the only comic book i've even bothered with since cerebus came to an end four years ago. it's very good. my personal favorite character is marty, the skunk -- he's got a heart of gold, and i love that. but the real heart of the comic is paulie, the mixed breed of dog. he's the patriarch of the house. everybody loves paulie. he's also hiv positive, and he got that way because of one careless act -- "circles" resonates with a lot of readers, some of whom have had to deal with the horrors of hiv and aids. me, i haven't had to go through any of that. yet. and i hope i never have to.
anyway, that's some of what i've been reading.
til further on...
this is one of the things i've been reading lately:
"circles" is a comic book about six gay anthropomorphic animals who all live in the same house. it takes its name and subtitle from a harry chapin song. it's the only comic book i've even bothered with since cerebus came to an end four years ago. it's very good. my personal favorite character is marty, the skunk -- he's got a heart of gold, and i love that. but the real heart of the comic is paulie, the mixed breed of dog. he's the patriarch of the house. everybody loves paulie. he's also hiv positive, and he got that way because of one careless act -- "circles" resonates with a lot of readers, some of whom have had to deal with the horrors of hiv and aids. me, i haven't had to go through any of that. yet. and i hope i never have to.
anyway, that's some of what i've been reading.
til further on...
Labels: books
our hearts are breaking today....
paul newman
january 26, 1925 - september 26, 2008
"paul had an abiding belief in the role that luck plays in one's life, and its randomness. he was quick to acknowledge the good fortune he had in his own life, beginning with being born in america, and was acutely aware of how unlucky so many others were. true to his character, he quietly devoted himself to helping offset this imbalance.
"an exceptional example is the legacy of newman's own. what started as something of a joke in the basement of his home, turned into a highly-respected, multi-million dollar a year food company. and true to form, he shared this good fortune by donating all the profits and royalties he earned to thousands of charities around the world, a total which now exceeds $250 million.
"while his philanthropic interests and donations were wide-ranging, he was especially committed to the thousands of children with life-threatening conditions served by the hole in the wall camps, which he helped start over 20 years ago. he saw the camps as places where kids could escape the fear, pain and isolation of their conditions, kick back, and raise a little hell. today, there are 11 camps around the world, with additional programs in africa and vietnam. through the camps, well over 135,000 children have had the chance to experience what childhood was meant to be.
"in paul's words: "i wanted to acknowledge luck; the chance and benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others, who might not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it." -from a statement released by robert forrester, newman's own vice-president
bless you paul and your amazing heartfelt performances and generosity of spirit.
namaste.
bless you paul and your amazing heartfelt performances and generosity of spirit.
namaste.
Labels: entertainment, passings, paul newman
Friday, September 26, 2008
skippy's frieday nite music club
the vienna philharmonic - overture, la gazza ladra by gioacchino rossini
when most people think of the great rossini overtures, naturally the william tell or the marriage of figaro will come to mind. but our personal favorite is the thieving magpie, which is as exciting as the william tell, but a bit more comical in execution. rossini did a wonderful job of evoking a big black bird coniving to find some food or trick some poor sucker out of his treat, or, in this case, a silver spoon.
here maestro claudio abbado flawlessly conducts the vienna philharmonic in the 1991 new year's concert.
addendum: minstrel boy and batocchio have both expressed fondness for claudio abbado as a conductor, so for them, and anyone else who loves expressive baton-wielding, we remind everyone of our previous skippy's late nite music club episode wherein we presented herr abbado & the vienna philharmonic doing rossini's william tell overture.
master debaters
via the group news blog, a clear majority of independent voters polled say obama won the first debate:
cbs news
forty percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought barack obama was the winner. twenty-two percent thought john mccain won. thirty-eight percent saw it as a draw.
forty-six percent of uncommitted voters said their opinion of obama got better tonight.
sixty-eight percent of uncommitted voters think obama would make the right decisions about the economy. forty-one percent think mccain would.
forty percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought barack obama was the winner. twenty-two percent thought john mccain won. thirty-eight percent saw it as a draw.
forty-six percent of uncommitted voters said their opinion of obama got better tonight.
sixty-eight percent of uncommitted voters think obama would make the right decisions about the economy. forty-one percent think mccain would.
um...
he go ego
vagabond scholar sez, "mcmuffin: aretha franklin w/o the talent."
the debate is on off on!
mcmuffin needs some visine, because he blinked:
the news that john mccain will debate barack obama tonight in mississippi is a concession by the arizona senator that his attempt to score a quick political victory on legislation to bail out the financial sector did not pan out as he had hoped.
mccain suspended his presidential campaign with much fanfare on wednesday, insisting that the crisis in financial markets and the seeming stalemate on capitol hill required that politics be set aside for the good of the country.
but, over the intervening 24 hours, mccain saw what at first looked like a brilliant political gambit turn into a nightmare, as an apparent done deal to save the financial industry devolved into a partisan shouting match at the white house that left congressional negotiators back at square one.
worse, he might need an umbrella to avoid all those tomatoes being thrown at him from the audience, because everyone at ole miss hates him:mccain suspended his presidential campaign with much fanfare on wednesday, insisting that the crisis in financial markets and the seeming stalemate on capitol hill required that politics be set aside for the good of the country.
but, over the intervening 24 hours, mccain saw what at first looked like a brilliant political gambit turn into a nightmare, as an apparent done deal to save the financial industry devolved into a partisan shouting match at the white house that left congressional negotiators back at square one.
one side effect of mccain's debate gambit is, i'm told, that everyone at ole miss now hates him. it will make for a very hostile audience tonight among those students and faculty attending. he might have to apologize for creating the uncertainty or make some explanation up front, which is never ideal.
of course, we realize the last quote from nro is only conjecture w/o actual solid evidence, as the nro is wont to do. that's ok, we only included the link to get traffic from memeorandum anyway.
walk like a man
some in blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase, have some advice for the democrats:
back away democrats, back away...so walk away, and remind voters that things fell apart when mccain entered the picture. - the left coaster
the democrats need to just walk away from the table, now. they need to throw up their hands and say, “we’re done here. until you people can act like adults and negotiate in good faith, we’ve got no time for you. you have presented something to us as a grave national concern and made it into a political stunt. suit yourselves. we’re going on recess.” - i am trex
attn: democrats walk away. just let the whole shitpile collapse. it is not your fault. and honestly, i doubt doing anything will matter, anyway. the house republicans came out, and their play is clear: we will not use taxpayer money to bail out wall street. we want to protect the taxpayers.” in other words, they do not give a shit. walk away. just walk away. balloon juice
to which we would add, ditto!
time for another king crimson fix...
"dinosaur"!
when i finally broke down and began posting youtube clips along with the rest of blogtopia last year, this was the song i picked to be my first. this is one of my favorites -- and i had the pleasure of seeing king crimson perform it live, too. nowadays, it seems like it ought to be wall street's official theme song.
enjoy...
(inspired by bartkid...)
somebody haul john mccain to the nearest hospital...
this isn't funny anymore (and people think i'm unstable):
seriously, what the hell is wrong with that man?
...in less than 48 hours, mccain went from "i'm far too patriotic to debate unless there is a deal that is done -- there's no deal until there's a deal" to "i'm going to debate even though there's no deal." is there any other way to describe that other than, as spencer ackerman put it, a "humiliating failure"? the new york times's patrick healy today inanely ponders whether "in a time of crisis, is obama too cool?" (didn't rudy giuliani become the greatest man ever in history because of his post-9/11 coolness?) but surely excessive stoicism is vastly preferable to the sort of unstable, flailing panic that mccain has exhibited this week, where he issues a definitive, emphatic pledge which, less than 2 days later, is completely abandoned with little real explanation...
seriously, what the hell is wrong with that man?
Labels: mccain
three card monte
mish's global economic trend analysis is one of the economic blogs we like to keep track of in times of financial stress, like this week.
and mish's opinion of the current bail out fiasco is mainly: it's a scam...
and mish's opinion of the current bail out fiasco is mainly: it's a scam...
this past week has been noting short of amazing. president bush appeared before the nation stressing a sense of urgency. paulson and fed chairman bernanke have done the same thing before congress. inquiring minds are asking "why the rush?"
the answer is simple: if people see the actual details of the proposal they will understand it is a bad deal for the taxpayer and a great deal for wall street.
it is the very same mad rush to judgment that kicked of the war in iraq. does anyone remember talk of "mushroom clouds"? does anyone remember dick cheney saying "we know where they are"? this week we see the same action from paulson and bernanke.
the only difference is the message this time is about "financial mushroom clouds". the rush is needed because if anyone looked at the deal they could see taxpayers being left holding the bag.
tonight we see an unprecedented break in the ranks from current fed governor richard fisher who says bank rescue plan would worsen fiscal 'chasm'.
it is not often a fed governor tells the fed chairman to go to hell. but that is what happened just tonight.
former fed governor william poole has stated "these are grand ideas that cannot be executed. there will be one stumbling block after another. i am very leery of jumping in with emergency measures like this."…
bloomberg is reporting hundreds of economists urge congress not to rush on rescue plan…
click here to see the letter from economists to the speaker of the house of representatives and the president pro tempore of the senate. http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.cochrane/research/papers/mortgage_protest.htm
what is it that paulson knows that 190+ economists don't? after all paulson was telling us all how safe the us banking system was just a few weeks ago.
i will tell you what paulson knows: he knows the longer and closer the taxpayer looks at this bill the angrier the taxpayer will become…
sadly, i must tell you that house speaker pelosi is standing behind paulson and backing this absurd deal. see house speaker nancy pelosi sells out.
please let her know what you think. everyone in the country should email nancy pelosi: email nancy pelosi. if that email bounces, please try this one email nancy pelosi.
heck, please do both. let her know how you really feel about her sellout to corporate interests on the taxpayer's back. nancy pelosi is speaker of the house. she should take all of american voters interests in mind. she is failing to do so. let her know. after you email her please call her up. here is here phone number (202) 225-4965. you might also want to try her district number (415) 556-4862.
good idea.
the answer is simple: if people see the actual details of the proposal they will understand it is a bad deal for the taxpayer and a great deal for wall street.
it is the very same mad rush to judgment that kicked of the war in iraq. does anyone remember talk of "mushroom clouds"? does anyone remember dick cheney saying "we know where they are"? this week we see the same action from paulson and bernanke.
the only difference is the message this time is about "financial mushroom clouds". the rush is needed because if anyone looked at the deal they could see taxpayers being left holding the bag.
tonight we see an unprecedented break in the ranks from current fed governor richard fisher who says bank rescue plan would worsen fiscal 'chasm'.
it is not often a fed governor tells the fed chairman to go to hell. but that is what happened just tonight.
former fed governor william poole has stated "these are grand ideas that cannot be executed. there will be one stumbling block after another. i am very leery of jumping in with emergency measures like this."…
bloomberg is reporting hundreds of economists urge congress not to rush on rescue plan…
click here to see the letter from economists to the speaker of the house of representatives and the president pro tempore of the senate. http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.cochrane/research/papers/mortgage_protest.htm
what is it that paulson knows that 190+ economists don't? after all paulson was telling us all how safe the us banking system was just a few weeks ago.
i will tell you what paulson knows: he knows the longer and closer the taxpayer looks at this bill the angrier the taxpayer will become…
sadly, i must tell you that house speaker pelosi is standing behind paulson and backing this absurd deal. see house speaker nancy pelosi sells out.
please let her know what you think. everyone in the country should email nancy pelosi: email nancy pelosi. if that email bounces, please try this one email nancy pelosi.
heck, please do both. let her know how you really feel about her sellout to corporate interests on the taxpayer's back. nancy pelosi is speaker of the house. she should take all of american voters interests in mind. she is failing to do so. let her know. after you email her please call her up. here is here phone number (202) 225-4965. you might also want to try her district number (415) 556-4862.
toon time
the blue herald has the right wing cartoon watch #32
mad about mcmuffins missing the debate
mad kane, that is!
boohoo for wamu
my bank goes bellyup.
i think my next financial institution...bank o'mattress.
washington mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on thursday night, in what is by far the largest bank failure in american history.
...customers of wamu, based in seattle, are unlikely to be affected, although shareholders and some bondholders will be wiped out.- nytimes
the bailout also fulfills jpmorgan chief executive jamie dimon's long-held goal of becoming a retail bank force in the western united states. it comes four months after jpmorgan acquired the failing investment bank bear stearns cos at a fire-sale price through a government-financed transaction.
...jpmorgan has suffered less than many rivals from the credit crisis, but has been hurt. it said on thursday it has already taken $3 billion to $3.5 billion of write-downs this quarter on mortgages and leveraged loans. - reuters
banks are not to be trusted. this is not just the view of the public and policymakers, but that of the banks themselves. - ft.com via jerome a paris at the great orangey onewhat happens when jpmorganchasebearstearnswamu goes belly up for being too big with too much debt not so much money?
i think my next financial institution...bank o'mattress.
Labels: banking, financial markets
"left eye" mcain
could health problems be "rappin'" at john syndey's door?
peter over at the young turks thinks that there's something to it....
peter over at the young turks thinks that there's something to it....
it's being reported that mccain has a new make up artist that is apparantly attached to his hip. she is alwasy by his side and there to give a quick touch up whenever he needs one. mccain's campaign is paying tv-ready by makeup artist tifanie white, who's worked on so you think you can dance and american idol $5,583.43 for her services, according to the federal election commission. while this suddenly makes john edward's $400 haircut pale in comparison, it still leaves one scratching their heads for such an outrageous purchase.
so why is mccain paying for so much just for make up? the answer came to us during the conference when mccain made his statement that he was suspending his campaign. while i was surfing the net and doing my own thing, i had msnbc running in the background and they were recapping mccain's statement, and my older brother was walking by and he made a comment that caught my attention, "what the hell is wrong with that guy's eye?"
Labels: healthcare, mccain
Thursday, September 25, 2008
the hell with it (part two)...
(for the record, this was part one...)
why i'm even considering going through with what i'm about to tell you all, i don't know. but...
okay. politically, i gravitate toward the liberal, and to a lesser extent, the libertarian, waters. but on the behavioral level, i'm usually conservative as hell, if not downright puritan in my conduct. some examples: i have never understood why guys would get their ears pierced; i don't see why guys go ahead and get tattoos; and although i've said here and elsewhere that i'm a fageleh (that's yiddish for "fag", as near as i can tell), i don't feel compelled to engage in the "we're here we're queer" type of nonsense.
all the same... 1) i'm interested in getting at least one of my ears pierced; 2) i'm eager to have some sort of gay-related tattoo etched onto some part of my body; and 3) truth be told, ever since i started telling people i was a fageleh, i've been generally calmer in temperament and more comfortable in my own skin. (no, senoras and horsemen, i don't get it either. but it works, so it's all good.) for reasons beyond my ken, my behavioral conservatism is slowly disintegrating. it doesn't please me. but...
oh, screw it -- hello,frisco blogtopia!
i am such a homo...
why i'm even considering going through with what i'm about to tell you all, i don't know. but...
okay. politically, i gravitate toward the liberal, and to a lesser extent, the libertarian, waters. but on the behavioral level, i'm usually conservative as hell, if not downright puritan in my conduct. some examples: i have never understood why guys would get their ears pierced; i don't see why guys go ahead and get tattoos; and although i've said here and elsewhere that i'm a fageleh (that's yiddish for "fag", as near as i can tell), i don't feel compelled to engage in the "we're here we're queer" type of nonsense.
all the same... 1) i'm interested in getting at least one of my ears pierced; 2) i'm eager to have some sort of gay-related tattoo etched onto some part of my body; and 3) truth be told, ever since i started telling people i was a fageleh, i've been generally calmer in temperament and more comfortable in my own skin. (no, senoras and horsemen, i don't get it either. but it works, so it's all good.) for reasons beyond my ken, my behavioral conservatism is slowly disintegrating. it doesn't please me. but...
oh, screw it -- hello,
i am such a homo...
Labels: it is what it is, life
skippy's thursday nite music club
abbe may - costanza
cute song
if you put lipstick on a flying pig...
say hello
what?
if obama loses the election, the blame will belong to... bill clinton?!
wow. when was the last time that guy had a beejay?
yes, i voted for obama in my state's primary, and no, i have never been anything remotely resembling a bill clinton fan (or a hillary fan, for that matter). but that huffpo piece is really friggin' stupid...
(link via bartcop...)
given that we would never have had the odious george w. bush in the white house in the first place if it wasn't for your blowjobs, bill, it seems obvious that you owe it to the people of this country, and especially to the parents whose kids died in the iraq war that gore would never have started, and to all the parents whose kids would be killed in the warfest that would be a mccain/palin -- sorry, palin/mccain -- administration to do everything in your power to get barack obama elected.
but that's not what you're doing, bill, and it's not going unnoticed. we see your rage, bill, it's too huge to hide. we see that -- as chris rock so brilliantly pointed out -- it pains you to even speak obama's name. we see you petulantly rooting against him even as you go through the motions of doing the barest minimum on his behalf to avoid being blamed if he loses... {huffington post}
wow. when was the last time that guy had a beejay?
yes, i voted for obama in my state's primary, and no, i have never been anything remotely resembling a bill clinton fan (or a hillary fan, for that matter). but that huffpo piece is really friggin' stupid...
(link via bartcop...)
Labels: it is what it is, politics
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
psssst. corporate media and ol' miss
there are other candidates running for president, don'tcha know.
- alan keyes (wiley s. drake, sr. veep) - american independent
- cynthia mckinney (rosa clemente veep) - green party
- bob barr (wayne a. root veep) - libertarian
- ralph nader (matt gonzalez veep) - peace and freedom
Labels: debates
i can has cheezeburger book?
top reason not to blow off letterman
1 trillion here....25 billion there...and 25 billion down the road
corporate welfare run amok. and we're paying for it by selling out our country's future.
with congress preoccupied with the massive, $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry, general motors, ford, and chrysler have finally secured part one of their own federal rescue plan. a bill set to be passed by congress and signed by president bush as early as this weekend—separate from the controversial wall street bailout plan—includes $25 billion in loans for the beleaguered detroit automakers and several of their suppliers. "it seemed like a lot when we first started pushing this," says democratic sen. debbie stabenow of michigan, one of the bill's sponsors. "suddenly, it seems so small."so i can't get a renter's credit on my income tax return, but gm (getting billions of my tax money for bailing it out) get a $136 million tax break? give me a freakin' break.
...there's more aid coming. this year's $25 billion is just a down payment. the automakers now plan to ask the government for another $25 billion in loans next year. it's just spare change, after all. - usnews&world report
a city council committee gave tentative approval today to general motors corp. for a $136 million tax break so the company can build their chevy volt at the detroit/hamtramck assembly plant. - detroit newspigs at the trough. i'm sure that the vice presidential debates just might be cancelled so caribou barbie can go to detroit to look like she's knows anything about anything and talk about "hummers."
Labels: bailout, general motors, greed, palin, taxes, taxpayers
skippy's wednesday nite music club
phantom planet - do the panic
the sound is kind of funky at first in this video...but not in the actual song, which is quite good.
say hello
to bebop videos, a great blog dedicated to music videos from the old school...
a decent start, if you're still inclined to vote democratic...
the image of the day, by gary brookins of the richmond times-dispatch:
the moral of the story: karma's a bitch...
the moral of the story: karma's a bitch...
Labels: funny stuff, government, wall street
mad about mcmuffin's memory purge
mad kane, that is!
the great treasury heist of '08
paulson worked for nixon felon john ehrlichman. his plan to enrich his banker buddies with $700 billion of taxpayer money can best be described as ehrlichman's revenge.
the html, if you wish to post it on your blog, is:
<a href="http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1150.htm">ehrlichman's revenge</a>
the html, if you wish to post it on your blog, is:
<a href="http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1150.htm">ehrlichman's revenge</a>
Labels: bailout, corruption, nixon
another macaca moment for the gop
via think progress, a repubbblican in new mexico sticks his foot in his racist mouth:
and de baca has officially resigned.
and de baca has officially resigned.
what's a few billion among friends?
crooks&liars tells us that sen. chuck schumer asked the hard question: why $700 billion?
“one of you mentioned that you will use about $50 billion dollars a month. if that’s the case, and you’re certainly not going to use all $700 billion immediately, and as you can see there are a lot of questions about whether this will work, we understand you’ve done your best and you think this will work best, but it’s clear we’re in uncharted waters. but what about doing this in tranches? why couldn’t you ask us for $150 billion, and on january 15th or january 20th we would come back, we would assess how this worked and grant some more money if it’s really working?”
heck, we could use some of that $700 billion for the mortgage on skippy international headquarters!
the proposed bailout is undoubtedly an intensely complex matter that’s way above my pay grade, but giving paulson a blank check for a minimum of 3/4 of a trillion dollars (and quite likely more) just doesn’t make sense. it seems to me that the bush administration is trying to rip off the taxpayers one last time, hoping this market “shock” can provide them enough cover to actually make it happen. although it’s far from perfect, schumer’s idea of investing a smaller amount (if any) to get us to january — when a new president and a new congress take office — seems much more reasonable.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
skippy's tuesday nite music club
mm, mm, we're hungry!
dee dee sharp - mashed potato time
dee dee sharp - mashed potato time
why even vote for democrats
they cave in to everything.
wonder if they have ever seen our gentle neighbors in the channel, whose lives and welfare they just threw under the speedboat.
democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the atlantic and pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the white house and republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer. - sfgatespineless, cojonesfree brie eating, chardonnay swilling surrender monkeys.
wonder if they have ever seen our gentle neighbors in the channel, whose lives and welfare they just threw under the speedboat.
Labels: democrats, losers, offshore drilling, oil
from the your guess is as good as ours dept.
does anybody have any idea what this commericial is about?
what if there was a financial disaster and nobody came?
chris bowers at open left openly muses: there is no crisis --
things are getting a little suspicious about this "crisis."
and one of the commentors on chris's post reminds us of the hussman fund's point that most of the companies have bond holders which will hedge against most losses:- why did the bush administration suddenly declare a "crisis" during the final two weeks when congress would be in session during his presidency? is it maybe because, after the election, congress would know it wasn't dealing with bush anymore?
- if this is such a sudden crisis, why is it that the bush administration was drawing up the plan for this bill for months beforehand?
- why is it that congress is supposed to bail out many banks and firms that are actually quite successful and profitable right now, and not just those that are failing?
- why is paulson blatantly lying to congress about oversight?
- where did the $700 billion figure come from?
- why is paulson urging that debate on the matter be held after the legislation is passed?
the key is to recognize that for nearly all of the institutions currently at risk of failure, there exists a cushion of bondholder capital sufficient to absorb all probable losses, without any need for the public to bear the cost.
for example, consider morgan stanley's balance sheet as of 8/31/08. total assets were $988.8 billion, with shareholder equity (including junior subordinated debt) of $42.1 billion, for a gross leverage ratio of 23.5. however, the company also has approximately $200 billion in long-term debt to its bondholders, primarily consisting of senior debt with an average maturity of about 6 years. why on earth would congress put the u.s. public behind these bondholders?
the stockholders and bondholders of the company itself should be the first to bear losses, not the public. that is the essence of what a free and fair market, and a responsible government would enforce. the investors in the companies that produced the losses should be accountable for them, and the customers and counterparties should be protected.
for example, consider morgan stanley's balance sheet as of 8/31/08. total assets were $988.8 billion, with shareholder equity (including junior subordinated debt) of $42.1 billion, for a gross leverage ratio of 23.5. however, the company also has approximately $200 billion in long-term debt to its bondholders, primarily consisting of senior debt with an average maturity of about 6 years. why on earth would congress put the u.s. public behind these bondholders?
the stockholders and bondholders of the company itself should be the first to bear losses, not the public. that is the essence of what a free and fair market, and a responsible government would enforce. the investors in the companies that produced the losses should be accountable for them, and the customers and counterparties should be protected.
baby needs new shoes!
awol and his junta's decision to roll the dice with our money looks more and more like a sucker's bet. from yahoo:
According to research by economists at Merrill Lynch, after the Resolution Trust Corp. was established in 1989 to stop the savings and loan crisis, it took a year for the stock market to hit bottom, two years for the economy and three years for the housing market.
After Japan put a bailout plan in place, its stock market took another five years to recuperate, and by some measures, its economy still hasn't had a sustainable recovery, according to Merrill's chief North American economist, David Rosenberg.
Labels: corporations, corruption, financial markets
Monday, September 22, 2008
skippy's monday nite music club
gerard mcmann - cry little sister
the video is a compilation of scenes from the flick the lost boys, which introduced this song to the population at large. "gerard mcmann" is actually a pseudonym for gerald mcmahon and michael mainieri, who wrote it. mcmahon sung it.
thom hartmann issues a "conservative alert"
thom issues a conservative alert counting down to election day by naming some of the names of all the lobbyists working on mccain's campaign.
mccainsource.com
mccainsource.com
Labels: air america, lobbyists, mccain
mccain says if you're here illegally...welcome!
but only if you are irish.
there are 50,000 irish men and women who are in this country illegally at this time, who are hard-working people, who want to become citizens. and i want to assure you that we will enact comprehensive immigration reform, after they do certain things, obviously, give them a path to citizenship in this country as part of an overall immigration reform package. - think progress
Labels: immigration, mccain, youtube
revisiting a few other bailouts
citibank - january 2008 (bailed out by a saudi prince and the chinese)
businessweek revisits some bailouts too....some of the more recent include....
(you might not remember the prince, but murdoch and faux news certainly do...and rudy guiliani certainly does....by the way...the prince is saying "thanks but no thanks" in helping out flailing wall street companies this time.)prince al-waleed bin talal is poised to once again come to the rescue of citigroup inc.
this time, the saudi billionaire is expected to be joined by other investors, including the china development bank, people familiar with the matter said.
while it isn't clear how much prince alwaleed will invest, the chinese entity is expected to invest roughly $2 billion, one person said. prince alwaleed's total stake in citigroup is likely to remain below 5% in order to avoid regulatory scrutiny. however, given that citi has a stock-market value of $140 billion, even a 1% stake would end up being a significant sum of money. - wall street journal article via gata.org
businessweek revisits some bailouts too....some of the more recent include....
- fannie mae and freddie mac - sept. 7, 2008
- bear stearns - mar. 16, 2008
- mbia - dec. 10, 2007
- ubs - dec. 10, 2007
- e*trade financial - nov. 29, 2007
- citigroup - nov. 26, 2007
- countrywide financial - aug. 22, 2007
- goldman sachs hedge fund - aug. 13, 2007
cheney has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a european bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening dollar. so, while working class americans are loosing ground to inflation and rising energy costs, darth cheney will be enhancing his wealth in "old europe". as blackburn sagely notes, "not all bad news' is bad for everybody."
this should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the "bush economic plan" is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the public till. the whole deal is intended to shift the nation's wealth from one class to another. it's also clear that bush-cheney couldn't have carried this off without the tacit approval of the thieves at the federal reserve who engineered the low-interest rate boondoggle to put the american people to sleep while they picked their pockets.- counterpunch (2006)
things that make you go...hmmmmmm. i'll leave my tinfoil hat on for awhile.
Labels: aWol, bailout, cheney, corporations, corruption, economy
is this one on snopes?
from ripcoco (who found it at the all-spin zone), an email that sounds vaguely familiar, and yet strangely frightening, too:
addendum: how about sending them all emails w/one click?
your urgent assistance is required!
dear american:
i cordially correspond today to request you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
i am ministry of the treasury of the republic of america. my country has had crisis that has caused the need for urgently large transfer of funds of 800 billion usd. if you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
i am working with mr. phil gramm, lobbyist for ubs, who (god willing) will be my replacement as ministry of the treasury in january. as a former u.s. congressional leader and the architect of the palin / mccain financial doctrine, you may know him as the leader of the american banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. as such, you can be assured that this transaction is 100% safe.
this is a matter of great urgency. we need a blank check. we need the funds as quickly as possible. we cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. my family lawyer advised me that i should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. for this inconvenience you will be rewarded with grand fees of 1/1,000,000th of 1% of possible profits due to off shore laundering of skim funds due to reprinting of said funds.
please reply with mother's maiden name, routing and account numbers of all of your bank account, ira and college fund accounts and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. after i receive that information, i will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
yours faithfully,
minister of treasury paulson
melina reminds us to contact our congressjerks!dear american:
i cordially correspond today to request you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
i am ministry of the treasury of the republic of america. my country has had crisis that has caused the need for urgently large transfer of funds of 800 billion usd. if you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
i am working with mr. phil gramm, lobbyist for ubs, who (god willing) will be my replacement as ministry of the treasury in january. as a former u.s. congressional leader and the architect of the palin / mccain financial doctrine, you may know him as the leader of the american banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. as such, you can be assured that this transaction is 100% safe.
this is a matter of great urgency. we need a blank check. we need the funds as quickly as possible. we cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. my family lawyer advised me that i should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. for this inconvenience you will be rewarded with grand fees of 1/1,000,000th of 1% of possible profits due to off shore laundering of skim funds due to reprinting of said funds.
please reply with mother's maiden name, routing and account numbers of all of your bank account, ira and college fund accounts and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. after i receive that information, i will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
yours faithfully,
minister of treasury paulson
addendum: how about sending them all emails w/one click?
dead-eye dodd
ian welsh, who is not crazy, and does not deal in extreme and simplistic black-and-white prose, proves he is a nice, sane grey:
so there was "goldman" hank, holding a gun on the economy and staring congress down. "give me the 700 billion, or the economy gets it!" he threatened. for two days it looked like he was going to get away with it, 700 billion dollars to spend on the wall street gang, the boys who'd already shot the economy up so bad it was in danger of bleeding to death.
then marshal dodd came swinging through doors, shotgun in hand, and said "not so fast hank. put the gun down, and back away from the economy. we're going to do this my way."
for a moment calm reigned, then from off one side came a high pitched squeak, "you just put down that gun dodd," said bush as he leveled his blunderbuss "the veto" at dodd, "and you let my good friend hank walk away with the money or i'll use this gun." he swivelled and instead of aiming it at dodd, put its muzzle right against the economy's head. "i'll do it. don't think i won't! i've killed an economy before!"
hand still on the trigger, dodd glanced over at reid. the old man's fighting days, some said, were long gone. dodd hoped reid had one big fight left in him. if he didn't, the economy was done, and paulson would get away, scot-free.
yes, ian is a blogger for the masses, who works for the same pay that the everyday joe and jane blog for, eg, bupkiss. he is one of the writers of the people's wage.
then marshal dodd came swinging through doors, shotgun in hand, and said "not so fast hank. put the gun down, and back away from the economy. we're going to do this my way."
for a moment calm reigned, then from off one side came a high pitched squeak, "you just put down that gun dodd," said bush as he leveled his blunderbuss "the veto" at dodd, "and you let my good friend hank walk away with the money or i'll use this gun." he swivelled and instead of aiming it at dodd, put its muzzle right against the economy's head. "i'll do it. don't think i won't! i've killed an economy before!"
hand still on the trigger, dodd glanced over at reid. the old man's fighting days, some said, were long gone. dodd hoped reid had one big fight left in him. if he didn't, the economy was done, and paulson would get away, scot-free.
at least he admits it
the great and powerful kos, quoted at tmp discussing the great and powerful kos website:
if something stupid can be said, you can believe someone on daily kos has said it."
yeah, like, "we're not linking to skippy anymore."
seniors hobble over to obama, thanks to the economy
cnn's latest poll shows that the issue of the economy has helped barack "to the future" obama make some inroads w/seniors, and men, mainly because the repubbblicans are to blame for the whole mess:
in the new survey, released monday afternoon, 47 percent of registered voters questioned say republicans are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market, with 24 percent saying democrats are more responsible. one in five of those polled blame both parties equally, and 8 percent say neither party is to blame.
the poll also indicates that more americans think obama, the democratic presidential nominee, would do a better job handling an economic crisis than mccain, the republican presidential nominee. forty-nine percent of those questioned say obama would display good judgment in an economic crisis, 6 points higher than the number who said the same about mccain. and obama has a 10 point lead over mccain on the question of who would better handle the economy overall…
where did obama make his gains?
"in two core mccain constituencies: men, who now narrowly favor obama. and seniors, who have also flipped from mccain to obama," says cnn senior political analyst bill schneider.
when including only those people most likely to vote, the results are pretty much the same: among likely voters, obama has a 4 point lead, 51 percent to 47 percent.
the new cnn poll of polls also shows obama with a similar advantage — 49 percent for obama to 44 percent for john mccain.
"the economy has always been considered john mccain's achilles’ heel, and the cnn poll of polls started to show an obama edge in the middle of last week — just as the financial crisis began to hit home for many americans," said cnn polling director keating holland.
the poll also indicates that more americans think obama, the democratic presidential nominee, would do a better job handling an economic crisis than mccain, the republican presidential nominee. forty-nine percent of those questioned say obama would display good judgment in an economic crisis, 6 points higher than the number who said the same about mccain. and obama has a 10 point lead over mccain on the question of who would better handle the economy overall…
where did obama make his gains?
"in two core mccain constituencies: men, who now narrowly favor obama. and seniors, who have also flipped from mccain to obama," says cnn senior political analyst bill schneider.
when including only those people most likely to vote, the results are pretty much the same: among likely voters, obama has a 4 point lead, 51 percent to 47 percent.
the new cnn poll of polls also shows obama with a similar advantage — 49 percent for obama to 44 percent for john mccain.
"the economy has always been considered john mccain's achilles’ heel, and the cnn poll of polls started to show an obama edge in the middle of last week — just as the financial crisis began to hit home for many americans," said cnn polling director keating holland.
call your congressjerks today!
mish's global economic trend analysis has links to sentate phone numbers, as well as a list of senate fax numbers.
call your congressjerks today! tell them not to, under any circumstances, give paulson the blank check he's asking for.
mish explains why, and has a better plan. as he says, any plan is a better plan.
the economist's view agrees w/krugman, paulson's plan sucks!!!
call your congressjerks today! tell them not to, under any circumstances, give paulson the blank check he's asking for.
mish explains why, and has a better plan. as he says, any plan is a better plan.
the economist's view agrees w/krugman, paulson's plan sucks!!!
there's a reason it's called a "depression"
'cuz nobody's too happy about it. scott roberts @ the left coast blog on pennlive.com:
in his hugely influential book entitled a monetary history of the united states, nobel prize-winning economist milton friedman writes that the severity of the economic downturn known as the great depression was acerbated by a huge contraction of the money supply. friedman believed that the great depression was caused not by the crash of 1929, but by the inadequate governmental response that followed. he argued that in the absence of market liquidity, the solution is for the federal government to support existing financial institutions with massive injections of money until equilibrium returns to the marketplace.
in friedman's view, if the fed had provided emergency lending to key banks in 1929, smaller banks would not have failed and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did, devastating an already floundering american economy. the great depression that lasted almost a decade would have instead been a severe recession, lasting only a few years...
over the next six weeks, friedman's theories will be put to the test. will they save us from financial disaster?
to succeed, the paulson/bernanke bailout plan must overcome several significant hurdles.
after stabilizing the banking system by purchasing all the "toxic" sub-prime mortgages and removing them from the books of financial institutions, there will remain a massive surplus of housing on the market. until that surplus is whittled away, housing values will remain depressed, as will the fortunes of related industries like construction and building supplies.
with tighter mortgage requirements, there will be less people able to qualify for loans to buy the available homes. potential home buyers might choose to remain on the sidelines, waiting for the market to hit bottom. sluggish home sales are likely to continue to drag on the economy unless the paulson/bernanke plan is able to quickly get people buying houses again.
while we wait for the housing surplus to disappear, the national economy will continue to cool. more people will be laid-off. state and city governments will begin belt-tightening. confidence in the future is likely to remain elusive, discouraging consumers from making big purchases and businesses from expanding. the longer the economy cools, the deeper the slowdown.
finally, just like during the run-up to the great depression, other major world economies are struggling. today, international financial institutions that were heavily invested in aig, fannie may and freddie may, are trying to add up their losses. leading banks in europe, russia, china, and across asia are furiously struggling to ascertain how many sub-prime loans are in their portfolios. england and spain are wrestling with the economic impact of their own housing bubbles.
in friedman's view, if the fed had provided emergency lending to key banks in 1929, smaller banks would not have failed and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did, devastating an already floundering american economy. the great depression that lasted almost a decade would have instead been a severe recession, lasting only a few years...
over the next six weeks, friedman's theories will be put to the test. will they save us from financial disaster?
to succeed, the paulson/bernanke bailout plan must overcome several significant hurdles.
after stabilizing the banking system by purchasing all the "toxic" sub-prime mortgages and removing them from the books of financial institutions, there will remain a massive surplus of housing on the market. until that surplus is whittled away, housing values will remain depressed, as will the fortunes of related industries like construction and building supplies.
with tighter mortgage requirements, there will be less people able to qualify for loans to buy the available homes. potential home buyers might choose to remain on the sidelines, waiting for the market to hit bottom. sluggish home sales are likely to continue to drag on the economy unless the paulson/bernanke plan is able to quickly get people buying houses again.
while we wait for the housing surplus to disappear, the national economy will continue to cool. more people will be laid-off. state and city governments will begin belt-tightening. confidence in the future is likely to remain elusive, discouraging consumers from making big purchases and businesses from expanding. the longer the economy cools, the deeper the slowdown.
finally, just like during the run-up to the great depression, other major world economies are struggling. today, international financial institutions that were heavily invested in aig, fannie may and freddie may, are trying to add up their losses. leading banks in europe, russia, china, and across asia are furiously struggling to ascertain how many sub-prime loans are in their portfolios. england and spain are wrestling with the economic impact of their own housing bubbles.
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618 Rants and Raves
Agitprop
The Agonist
Allan's Perspective
Altercation
Alternate Brain
Alternet's Peek
All Things Democrat
American Airspace (Berube)
Amahchewahwah
American Politics Journal
And Yes, I Do Take It Personally
Andy Worthington
Ang's Weird Ideas
Annie's Annals Apostropher
Archy
Are You Effin' Kidding Me?
The Aristocrats
B12 Solipsism
Bad Attitudes
Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Balloon Juice
Balls And Walnuts
The Barefoot Bum
Bark Bark Woof Woof
The Barstool Chronicles
Bear Waller Hollar
The BRAD Blog
Beggars Can Be Choosers
Michael Berube
Big Brass Blog
Blast Off!
BlondeSense
Blue Gal
The Blue State
Bride of Acheron
Brilliant at Breakfast
The Broad View
Bring It On
Buddhist Jihad
Bunko Squad
Burned Over District
Buzzflash
Cannablog
Captain Dyke
Chapomatic
Chuck for
Coeruleus
Covert History
Coyote Mercury
The CultureGhost
Cynical Nation
D-Day
Dagblog
The Daily Background
Daisy's Dead Air
dKos Bloggers
Dashiell
Brad De Long
Deb's Quirky Web
The Dead Acorn
Democratic Veteran
Disguested in St. Louis
Distributorcap NY
Deep Confusion
Democratic Underground
Divided We Stand United We Fall
D.R. Scott's Pulp Culture
Drexel Democrats
Driftglass
Drinking Liberally in New Milford
Kevin Drum @ MoJo
Done With Mirrors
Drug War Rant
Kevin Drum
Down With Tyranny!
Eccentricity
Echidne of the Snakes
Electrolite
Ellen's Illinois 10th Congressional District Blog
Esoterically.net
Evil George's Personal Website
Evil Mommy
Ex Cathedra
Fallenmonk
Faux Real
Feministe
Fiat Lux
Fixer & Gordon
Fold to Combine
Folkbum's Rambles and Rants
Foreign Policy Watch
The Freewayblogger
Froth Slosh B'Gosh
Frieddogleg
The Funny Farm
The Galloping Beaver
Good Nonsense
The Garlic
GOPnot4me
The Great Endarkenment
Great Scat!
Grits for Breakfast
Group News Blog The Grumpy Forester The Gun Toting Liberal The Hackenblog by Ginger Mayerson
Happy Furry Puppy Story Time w/Norbizness
Harp and Sword
Bob Harris
Hartsongs
The Heretik
Hoot at the Dark
How Appealing
Howard-Empowered People
Humor Has It
HyerStandard
I Am TRex
I Don't Like You Either
Iddybud Journal
If I Ran the Zoo
I'm No One to Blog, But...
Immigration Orange
The Immoral Minority
The Impolitic
Incertus
Informed Comment
Instapundit
Internet Ronin
Instaputz
Interrobang's Internationale
Intrepid Liberal Journal
The Jaundiced Eye
Jelly Pizza
Jinky the Cat
Jobsanger
John's Blog
Jonestown
Just An Earth-Bound Misfit
Just Ain't Right
The Kenosha Kid's Blog
Kid Oakland
The Kitchen Sink Collective
Knoxviews
Last Left Turn Before Hooterville
Last One Speaks
Left Blogistan
Lawnorder
Left I on the News
Left in SF
Lean Left
Liberal Catnip
Liberal Common Sense
A Lie A Day
Like Sunday
Linkmeister
Lunaville
Mad Kane
Main St. USA
Man Eegee
Manifesto Joe's Texas Blues
Lance Mannion
Martini Revolution
Media Needle
Middle Earth Journal
Migra Matters
Mister Apologist
Mixter's Mix
Mo Rage
A Mockingbird's Medly
The Moderate Man
Moderate Voice
Modulator
Monkeyfister
Moue Magazine
My Left Wing
My Thinking Corner
My Two Cents
My View of It
The Needs of the Few
The Nefarious Lair of LGPPP, Inc.
Newsback
Newscoma
Newshoggers
Newsroom-L.Net
New Pairodimes
Nine Pearls
No Blood for Hubris
No More Apples
No Fish, No Nuts
No More Mister Nice Blog
North Shore Journal
Norwegianity
Notes From Underground
Objectivist v. Constuctivist v. Theist
Olio
OC Progressive
Ole Blue the Heretic
Only Sayin'
Onyx Lynx
The Opinion Mill
Orcinus
Ornery Bastard
Outta the Cornfield
Over the Cliff, Onto the Rocks
P!
Pacific Views
Patriot Daily
Patriside
Peace Tree Farm
Perception Managers
PhysioProf
Pissed on Politics
Play On!
Plucky Punk's Happyland
Plum Crazy
The Political Carnival
The Political Cat
Political Site of the Day
Political Critic
Politickybitch
Popehat
Progressive Blog Digest
Proof Through The Night
Pros Before Hos
prune juice media Pudentilla's Perspective
Pygalgia
Ranger Against War
Rants from the Rookery
Raw Dawg Buffalo
Reality Frame
Real's World
The Reef Ahead
Resident Bush
Rightwingsnarkle
RipCoco
Rodger A. Payne's Blog
Roger Ailes, Over and Out
Rook's Rant
Rubber Hose
Ruminate This
Rumproast
Sack of Monkeys in My Pocket
Scoobie Davis
Scriptoids
The Seminal
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shakesville
The Sideshow
Simply Left Behind
Sisyphus Shrugged
Skimble
Slacktivist
the S.N.A.F.U. principle
Snow Moon
Solarray
Southern Atlantis
Spiiderweb
The Spinning Goth
Spocko's Brain
Spontaneous Arising
Staring at Empty Pages
State of the Day
Staring at Empty Pages
Straight, Not Narrow
SteveAudio
Stinque
Stop the Press!
The Strange Death of Liberal America
Stump Lane
Survivor Left Blogistan
Jon Swift
Talking Dog
TerryFacePlace
Texas Liberal
They Gave Us A Republic... This Blog Will Self-Destruct in 5 Seconds
Tholos of Athena
Three Wise Men
To The Center
Tommyjournal
A Town Called Dobson
Joe Trippi
The Truth Laid Bear
Truth Serum
Two Ton Green Blog
Universal Health Upper Left
Unsolicited Opinion
The Van Der Galien Gazette
Vagabond Scholar
The Vanity Press
Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy
Vidiot Speak
Virgotext
Vodka Pundit
Waiting for Dorothy
Watching Those We Chose
Watergate Summer
Wampumblog
The Washington Monthly
Ian Welsh
Westminster Wisdom
West Virginia Blue
Wet Machine
Where's The Outrage?
Whiskey Fire
The Whole American Hog
Why Now?
The Wild Wild Left
William K. Wolfrum Chronicles
World-O-Crap
WriteChic Press
WTF Is It Now? - tblog
Xoverboard
Zaius Nation
Zen Comix
ZenYenta
Rest In Peace
Economy Blogs (Some Link To Us, Some Don't, But These Days It Pays To Be Informed)
- The Bonddad Blog
Calculated Risk
Clive Crook
Brad DeLong
Economist's View
Paul Krugman
Marginal Revolution
Megan McArdle
Mish's Trend Analysis
Naked Capitalism
Roubini's Global EconoMonitor
Brad Setser
Supply and Demand
Media Blogs (Some Link To Us, Some Don't)
- DC Media Girl
Hotline's Blogometer
LA Examiner
MediaBloodhound
Media Matters
Media Whores On Line
Meme-orandum
Nova M Radio
Press Think by Jay Rosen
Romenesko
Soundbitten
Sully Watch
Take Back the Media
TV Newser
Barry Eisler
Science, Technology and Medical Blogs, All Linking To Us
- Anxiety, Addiction and Depression Treatments
The Biomes Blog
A Blog Around the Clock
Coyote Crossing
Deltoid (Tim Lambert)
Mike the Mad Biologist(Mike)
Pharyngula, by PZ Myers
Respectful Insolence
Wetmachine
Social Blogs, All Linking To Us
- AMCGLTD
Cheek and Bluster
Celebrity Crash
The Daily Cookie
The Countess
Easy Bake Coven
Elayne Riggs
EroticaLee1
EroticaLee2
JC's Designs
Late Nite Mash
The McVlog
Milk River Blog
Miss C Recommends
The Morehead the Merrier
Mostly True Stories
Neargh
Pop Culture Gadabout
Scott's Tip of the Day
South Carolina
Hateful Blogs, One Of Which Links To Us And We Hate The Others
Humor Blogs, Some Of Which Link To Us, Some Don't (Go Figure)
- Ayn Clouter
GWBush04
Get Your War On
Ironic Times
The Onion
Scrapple Face
Opinions You Should Have
The White House.org
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