Conservatives are furious.  Here’s a good Politico piece on McCain’s latest plan to bail out homegamblers with our money.  Excerpt:

“Last night, he took that position on the housing issue of buying up everybody’s mortgage,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said on Fox News. “Conservatives are scratching their heads today and saying, ‘What happened?’”

“What on earth is that about?” Huckabee asked. “Then you got to ask, which houses? The condos in southern Florida, where people bought $500,000 homes as a second home and now can’t pay for them? Are we buying those, too?”

And in perhaps the only time in history I wanted to echo the words of Michelle Malkin:

Read the rest of this entry »

I am generally not one to delight in the misfortunes of others.  But schadenfreude has never been more at home in my heart than in the story of Denver’s own Gabriel Schwartz.  The obnoxious, self-impressed, clueless lawyer did an interview on the floor of the Republican National Convention… I don’t want to just  dislike him for his worldview (although I do) – which mostly revolves around bombing and plundering Iran.  I also dislike him because he’s such an assface.  Think I’m being harsh?  Watch the interview and tell me you don’t want to beat him with a stick:

I’m not the only one who has issues with this guy.  The day after he gave that interview, he met a woman in the bar of his Minneapolis hotel and invited her to his room.  Once they got upstairs, the woman asked him to get undressed while she prepared him a drink.  That drink made Gabriel a very sleepy boy.  (Is there a bomb joke here?)

When Gabriel “Iran, baby” Schwartz woke up, the woman was gone, as was more than $120,000 in money, jewelry and other Schwartzy bling.  After that righteous plundering, Gabriel said;

“as a single man, I was flattered by the attention of a beautiful woman who introduced herself to me. I used poor judgment.”

Poor judgment?  By the same Gabriel Schwartz I see in that interview?  No!

I can only assume she saw the interview, or had an equally maddening conversation with him in the bar that night.  Here’s what I wanna know: did she “plant a flag”?

Valleywag picked up a FriendFeed discussion between a few of us yesterday regarding the bailout bill within which Scoble blames “people like [me]” for the coming “breadlines”.  It rings a little hollow considering where I’ve been on all this and where he’s been (i.e. nowhere), but it brings a much more important issue to the fore.

To the thread in particular, I realize how acerbic my tone can be when discussing such things and try to be cognizant of that every time I write.  Sometimes my frustration – the result of a bit too much anguish about our national slumber – gets the best of me.  But Americans sat mostly silent as international and domestic crimes were perpetrated in their names and their economy was wrecked – choosing to glide along as if they had far more important things to think about.

Robert is right to describe the financial mess as the result of our collective idiocy.  The bill for one or two generations of stupidity has now come due and our remaining credit cards have been declined.  And for the moment, the social media characters participating in the specific tendril of web masturbation that is Robert’s “what to do” post have come up substantially empty.  So, I’ll see what I can come up with.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing else needs to be said.

I can’t help but notice some chilling similarities between the Bush Administration’s approach on the financial crisis and the Iraqi War Resolution.  I literally sat awake until almost 5:00 this morning fretting about this.
Let’s look at a few of them:

• We were told that calamity was imminent, and a failure to act and do exactly what Bush asked of us would result in a disaster;
• Congress was strongarmed into doing something big and something fast, without time for proper analysis;
• We were conned into spending hundreds of billions of our hard-earned dollars (much for the benefit of corporate malfeasants) – only to take a giant step backward;
• We handed legal immunity and absolute control to the very authorities who demanded the actions;
• We were lied to every step of the way.

And eventually the majority came around to see it as a colossal blunder.  So, I think Congress would serve itself and the People well if it took a much more measured approach to this, or even refused the bailout.  I know, I’m asking for cajones of steel here, but I can dream.

If this goes through, it will be the swindle of the century.

I’ll close with a few words from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That is fascism; ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”

How did we get here?  Is it too late to stop it?

Today on MSNBC, lonesome truth-telling libertarian patriot Congressman Ron Paul said that McCain is “not someone I could endorse, ever.”  Not surprising, of course – but nonetheless interesting to hear from a fellow candidate for the GOP nod.

Today on MSNBC, Carly Fiorina said that this weekend’s Saturday Night Live skit that portrayed Hillary Clinton as substantial and Sarah Palin as a moron was a “sexist” skit.  How in the hell is that sexism?  Ms. Fiorina – what credibility you had with me is out the window.  What this really does is illustrate the McCain campaign’s clumsy strategy of dismissing any criticism of Palin as “sexist”.

So, let’s talk about true sexism.

What is truly sexist is gender tokenism – you know, picking a female for your running mate whom, had she been male, would never even have been considered -  not even as a joke.  Now that‘s sexism.

You know what else is sexist, Ms. Fiorina?  Decrying anything that points out Palin’s weaknesses as “sexist” merely because it attacks a female.  Do women need special protection from criticism?  A sort of affirmative action for chicks?  A criticism-free zone for all those who have a vagina?  I mean, if you want to move our society away from real sexism, then let’s agree that men and women must stand on their merits and may be critiqued on their merits.  If you are an intellectual and geopolitical midget – as Governor Palin is – then it doesn’t matter if you are Samuel Palin or Sarah Palin.  The fact remains.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been avoiding saying much about this because it’s all so freaking hard to believe.  First, McCain stuns the world (and even his senior staff) by choosing a political nobody to be his running mate.  The gulps were loudest in the GOP, let me tell you.  Not a shred of foreign policy experience and not a moment on the national stage.  My first thought was that it was interesting, but made McCain look frightened.  As I dug deeper it became more ominous – surely he knew her?  Was familiar with her and her policy history?  Nope – he had met her once prior to offering her the gig.  But this weekend he told FOX News’ resident assface-in-chief Chris Wallace that Palin is his “soulmate.”  Seriously?  Am I dreaming this?

But I rub my eyes, and am awake to hear that his vetting team landed in Wasilla last night to check her out.  Wait - last night?  They’re vetting her now? – after the fact? So this is now looking more like what it really was – a rash, shoot from the hip act of confused desperation, and no one in the room to say, “Senator, sir, I understand your enthusiasm, but…”

McCain himself had said that his prerequisite for the VP slot was that it was someone who, “on day one,” would be ready to step in and serve as President.  Really, Senator McCain, this was the best person you could think of?  Are these the kinds of decisions you will make as a President? Read the rest of this entry »