Year: 2008

2nd Debate Live Blogging

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Town hall formats, and questions are lame.

So far, it’s clear that McCain is doing a pretty good impression of Bob Dole in 1976.

Not sure if this is good or bad….It’s clear that Barack Obama cannot be the “angry black man”, so he’s basically ignoring the attacks.

McCain saying that Obama’s tax policy is, “Like nailing jello to the wall,” false.

Obama says that McCain wants to cut taxes on Wall Street CEOs, True.

….
McCain says, “Lets have a commission,” on Social Security…That’s kicking it down the road…Obama should say that McCain wanted to put Social Security money in the hands of those Wall Street CEOs, which is true, but my money is on him not doing this.
……..
Now, McCain is invoking Lieberman as a part of his bipartisan cred….Yeah, right…

Mentioning how nuclear will fix everything….Says that it’s clean, but won’t mention nuclear waste, and won’t mention that it takes about 15 years to build a new nuke plant…

Obama brings up McCain’s record voting against alternative energy over the past 23 years.

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Brokaw is a clueless MoFo, asked if funding for alternative energy should be like a “Manhattan Project”, or “In a thousand garages, like Silicon Valley.”

Silicon Valley was created by military spending.

…….
Obama on health care, mentions that McCain will tax your health benefit, good. Not calling it a tax increase on working Americans, not so great.

Ohhh….Mr. “I don’t use email” McCain is talking about how putting records online will save costs….snork.

He is now accusing that Obama will be fining struggling parents who can’t afford insurance, and raises myth of, “gold plated” insurance…Like you have as a senator?
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Obama talks about his dying mother spending the last months of her life fighting with insurance. Nails McCain about voting against MHIP.

Mentions McCain’s idea of eliminating state regulations is like banks moving to Delaware.
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Foreign policy: McCain does love that Iraq war, don’t he.
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Final analysis: Obama in a decision.

McCain spent too much time saying, “Hey you kids, get off of my lawn.”

So NOW Republicans Want an Aggressive FEC

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We all know about Obama’s small donors.

He’s collected hundreds of millions of dollars that way, and the Republicans won’t stand for it:

The Republican National Committee plans to file a complaint on Monday against Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign raising questions about the legitimacy of its small contributions and donations from overseas.

….

But such donations do not have to be itemized in reporting to the election commission unless the donor’s total contributions exceed $200. The lack of information on such donors has been highlighted by watchdog groups as potentially troublesome. The groups have also praised the campaign of Senator John McCain for offering on its Web site a tool that allows a search of all of its donors, including those who gave less than $200.

So Barack Obama is following the law, and the ‘Phants don’t like it, because he raises too much money.

Rolling Stone on McCain

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John Sidney McCain III must be walking funny (funnier?) after Rolling Stone got through with him, because they just cut him a new asshole, and from reading the article, it’s clear that if they were using the Jarvis Bung Dropper* (see picture), then they must have used the jumbo extra large model.

This article looks in detail at every aspect of John McCain’s life, and finds that the truth is much less than heroic.

They absolutely eviscerate his claims of service and heroism, and they don’t even have to go into the rumor that he caused the Forrestal fire.

*Full disclosure, I actually worked for Jarvis Products Corporation in the early 1990s, and actually worked on issues with the blade for the larger models of the bung dropper, which goes from chickens all the way up to bulls.†
†Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can’t hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as “technical hit man”, where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.

GMAC Unable to Resell $2.7 Billion In Loans

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This situation is not getting better:

GMAC $2.7bn loan sale failure

GMAC yesterday failed to sell a $2.7bn portfolio of loans as conditions across the credit markets continued to deteriorate.

It put the loans, which are part of GMAC’s commercial finance business, on the block as part of previously announced plans to shed non-core assets, said a spokeswoman. It withdrew the sale due to “market conditions”.

GMAC is majority owned by investors led by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. General Motors holds a 49 per cent stake

U.S. Senate Votes to Make Nonproliferation a Joke

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To quote Crooks and Liars on the U.S. Senate voting 86 to 13 to approve the nuclear arms deal with India.

Needless to say, this is one of the few diplomatic accomplishments of this administration, wiping their ass on the non-proliferation regime studiously created over the past 40 years so that US nuclear companies can make a few bucks.

This makes the single most dangerous issue in the world, fully militarized nuclear warheads on delivery systems in Pakistan and India even worse.

I’d say “mission accomplished”, but Condoleeza “The Worst Secretary of State Ever” Rice has managed to screw up even this. She visited India after the Senate’s approval, and could not sign it because of unspecified bureaucratic issues.

I guess someone forgot to pay the service contract on the State Department copying machines.

Special Prosecutor in US Attorney Gate a Coverup

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Here is an interesting tidbit on Mukasey assigning a special prosecutor to look at the US Attorney firing scandal: “

Because of the litany of public corruption cases Dannehy, 47, has prosecuted, she has a reputation as a pitbull, say attorneys. But in actuality, they say, she’s merely meticulous, hard-working and dedicated to her job. To that end, lawyers involved in cases with her know she sometimes calls meetings on Sunday evenings. And given Mukasey’s request for a report in 60 days, Nora might well log some weekend work between now and Thanksgiving

Enough time so that nothing comes out before the election, but not enough to send it to the next administration, clever, Mukasey, clever.

I have to believe that Mukasey’s actions have gone beyond mere hypocrisy. He is actively obstructing justice, and needs to be criminally investigated too.

H/T Emptywheel

Menage à Bank

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Well, it looks like Citi and Wells are going after it hammer and tongs over who gets wachovia.

First, Citi got a NY state judge to grant an injunction against Wells proceeding, and then Wachovia went to Federal Court to overturn that, and he
vacated the lower court ruling, as did a New York state appellate court.

Basically, Citi was going to pay $1/share, and getting money from the FDIC, and Wells is offering $7/share with no FDIC involvement.

Not sure what Citi’s motive is, but they seem to be eager to spend this money, for reasons that are unclear to me, particularly since they have lost money in the past few quarters.

Overheard on Stellar Parthenon

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Thanks to JR for this teachable moment

I have a British coworker. We were discussing the election and he just shook his head. “Explain this Palin woman to me,” more of a rhetorical WTF than an actual request but I obliged him.

“What we are looking at is the first chav presidency.”

He looked suitably horrified. “But what about the current bloke?”

“Ok, second chav presidency.”

“Bugger.”

Heh.

It Appears that I Have Been Invited to Join the Illuminati

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So I get the following in my email

Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 06:59:11 -0500 (CDT)
From: Toby #### #####@roundtablegroup.com
To: me
Subject: Armored Vehicles Consulting Opportunities from Round Table Group

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Best Regards,
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Vice President of Operations
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#############
##############
Washington DC
202-###-####

RTG: The Inc. Magazine 2003, ’04, ’05, ’07 & ’08 Winner — fastest growing U.S. private companies”

To discontinue future correspondence from RTG, please let us know.

So I Google them, to see if they are on the level.

It appears that they are a repository of expert witnesses for court testimony, but I also find links on the first page tying them to the Illuminati.

Delving further, it appears that in the early 20th century, Cecil Rhodes was involved in a eponymous group in the early 20th century, and if you Google “Round Table Group” and Rhodes, it appears that this older group is:

  • Part of a worldwide conspiracy to create one world government
  • A Plan to create a theocracy.
  • Or the reason that pop music sucks these days.

I guess I’ve made it in the world.

Palin Aids to Testify in Troopergate

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In light to judge saying that the investigation was legal, and the subpoenas binding, 7 members of Palin’s staff have agreed to testify to the State Senate investigator, Steve Branchflower.

When all is said and done, this entire bit was stupid. With only minor effort, they could have put off any meaningful report until after the election, and the report will likely be inconclusive anyway.

For some reason, however, they chose to create about 6 weeks of coverup stories.