McCain Out-Hoovers Hoover
Sure, the comparisons between Herbert Hoover and McCain were inevitable ever since McCain asserted "the fundamentals of the economy are strong."
But if you think about it, McCain’s about to do Hoover one better. After all, Hoover didn’t fuck up the response to a financial crisis until after he was President. McCain’s little photo op seems to have scuttled the Paulson deal, just as it was almost finalized.
Democrats complained of being “blindsided” by a new conservative
alternative to the plan first put forward by Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson. And the outcome casts doubt on the ability of Congress to move
quickly on the matter, even after leaders of House and Senate banking
committees reached a bipartisan agreement Thursday on the framework for
legislation authorizing the massive government intervention.It was McCain who urged President Bush to call the White House
meeting attended by House and Senate leaders as well as Obama, his
Democratic rival. But the candidates left without commenting to
reporters outside, and the whole sequence of events confirmed
Treasury’s fears about inserting presidential politics into what were
already difficult negotiations.[snip]
At the same time House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney
Frank (D-Mass.) said he feared McCain was undercutting Paulson by
appealing to conservatives in the House.“McCain and the House Republicans are undercutting the Paulson plan,
talking about a wholly different approach,” Frank said prior to the
meeting. “This is the presidential campaign of John McCain undermining
what Hank Paulson tells us is essential for the country.”
What is it that I saw on those signs, again? "Photo Op First"?
Mr. Bi-partisan scuttles the bi-partisan plan.
msnbc just ran a clip of mccain from his interview with brian williams tonight. he launched into his “gravest threat since wwii” schtick (bumping Georgia from its number one slot) and had to stop himself from saying he’d gladly “take a bullet” for his stand, changing it up to something like “take the consequences”.
as he stood there preening i kept picturing his parents’ cure for his hold-his-breath-until-he-passed-out tantrums: a quick dousing in ice cold water.
may obama and the dems find a metaphorical bucket of ice to apply direct to his kisser. monomaniacal asshat.
I just spoke to my colleague in Phoenix, born and bred in Provo, UT, a die-hard republican. He is just sick about the economy and he is fed up with McCain. When I mentioned Palin, he asked if I was taunting him.
He said he doesn’t know who he is voting for, but he knows it won’t be McCain. I followed with my opinion that the Republican Party is destroying itself, he agreed.
Which raises another issue. If McCain succeeds in destroying the Republican party with his Hail
MaryPalin pass and his piss-poor economic credentials and his bullshit “suspension of his campaign,” who in the hell will mount a credible opposition to the democrats? I know I don’t trust them when they are drunk on power. Our biggest hope is that Obama maintains a stable hand (as he has throughout the campaign) and pulls the republicans up by theirjock-boot-straps.McCain is doing as much damage to the Republican Party as Bush has done to the nation. And I am sick of it. At first I was gleeful. Now I am worried.
his running mate is doing fine at being the ruin at the party…quite a team these two
I envy you. I’ve had a rough week. I think I lost a friend. She keeps emailing me those emails about Obama being a flag-hating, muslim, baby-killer who consorts with 60s terrorist. I finally had it and told her she could vote stupid again but to quit wasting her time on me. I haven’t heard from her since. Then yesterday I went to my local Mormon family history center to work on a little genealogical research and got into a heated discussion. It wasn’t about the economy. No, they we’re unaware anything was amiss. They were fretting about the end of the world coming if Prop 8 doesn’t pass and the marriage records entry for “husband” and “wife” is replaced with “party 1″ and “party 2″. “If they have an unusual name,” one asked me “how will you know if it is the man or the woman?”
Yesterday, President Bush said something about this whole financial mess starting about 10 yrs ago. I imagine he wanted to anchor it in Pres Clinton’s administration. But I didn’t hear him mention why the Bush administration did nothing for 7 3/4 yrs to address the mess. I’m starting to have these LIHOPS/MIHOPS thoughts.
There were clues. Who knows, maybe there was a Wall Street intends to crash memo.
But I do remember this. Thomas Kontogiannis pled guilty to bribing Duke Cunningham in a secret plea that was replaced with a different plea after Carol Lam was removed. The second plea agreement said TommyK could get 10 yrs but AUSAs were gonna ask for probation for his co-operation. Now, at the time, the AUSAs knew that TommyK was a mortgage fraudster because it was in the FBI report. They looked the other way until TommyK’s nephew pulled a TommyK and exposed all the fraudstering in the court records. Even then, the AUSAs said that would just be some other court’s jurisdiction. They didn’t want to touch it, and probably wouldn’t have until one of the local papers caught TommyK vacationing in Greece after the judge had taken his passport.
TommyK had been writing fraudulent mortgages for years. He even dabbled in identity theft. His poo pile was only a small part of the whole shitpile. But obviously there are a lot of TommyK’s out there who knew the system was so broken they could get away with it. Why was the justice dept so lax? Intentional or just a slip up?
they knew what TommyK was doing, which means they knew what WaMu was doing. That in and of itself is more than enough knowledge to have gone and figured out the whole shitpile right there. They knew. Believe it or not, the Treasury Dept. (via SS) had an informant on leash that turned out to be a key principle in the biggest identity theft ring in the world, some of which were used in bogus mortgage scams, all of which the guy was still doing while under their supervision and control. They all knew.
And even though it’s they’re scam and they know about it, they blame “irresponsible homeowners”, both directly and indirectly.
That’s a dog whistle.
Yeah, I was wondering about that myself. Is “Willow” a girl or a boy? And what about “Piper”? Or “Track”? Or “Trig”? “Bristol” surely must be a boy…
My rage has finally boiled over. I, like most lefties and other normal people have been at a controlled simmer since at least when the Supremes stopped the vote count. From that farce onward we have endured the not reading PDB that screamed “let’s ignore and start a war with Iraq”. The Enron meltdown precursor to the current flame-throwing fiasco. The banana republic Justice Department being pealed, torture… you all know, the list that one runs out of fingers counting.
The absurdity of these times have me baffled. The shared gloom is felt by many, but the general discussion is a tragedy searching blame, ignoring the obvious. I know the Democratic stance of this era compares well with mealy-mouthed slugs afraid of their own shadow. But the Republican agenda is a verifiable, proven poison, toxic to all non-millionaire humans and other living things.
Which brings me to a freak of nature, the blue-collar Republican. My extended family and their social networks are full of them. Like military intelligence, the equation does not compute. Reeled in, strutting their stuff, oblivious to their own blinders they too sense the lurking panic to which we have become.
These fools are convinced, cock-sure they are the true patriots while we are branded as liberals because, like airheads we stand up for the Constitution and believe in…well, the rule of law.They congregate at water coolers and some churches. With conspiratorial emails they ask with genuine awe how could we ever elect someone named Hussein Obama. The unspoken is the n word. They grasp any of the hollow chum thrown out by the wingnut machine and spew it out as rote.
I express my utter disillusion if the Republicans (again…) get away with this election, to the point where I say I give up. I love it but I’m leaving. And these folks, these rotten peaches have the audacity to equal my rage. With grit in their goat, and a straight face they claim utter blasphemy, the end of all hope, civilization is doomed if this democrat gets elected.
I know professional Republicans are lying, thieving bastards that have no stench foul enough to turn their tide. But for their followers to steal my rage is the last straw.
For fuck sake!
things are deating up around here in norcal too.
The other day I was following a car with Palin stickers and as we approached a light I pulled into the right lane behind another car. As the light turned green I said to the palin driver,”How could you possibly vote for them theiv’in nazi,republican,fascists”?She completely lost it and started screaming,”it’s better than voting for those lying democrats”,not realizing that the guy in front of her was stopped,making a left turn.As she was screaming I pointed to the car in front of her just as she slammed into the rear of it.
Boy she was pissed
‘Cuz the Rs never lie, ya know.
An dear elder friend of mine used to say, “If the Lord hadn’t meant them to be sheered, he wouldn’t have made them sheep!”
You have to give the rethugs credit for recognizing the value of a group who have been programmed to believe in a fear driven mythology.
And boy did they learn the code from these folks. They’ve been slinging fear driven mythology one after another for 8 years. WMD’s anyone?
I really wonder if this whole “crisis” isn’t more fluff than stuff. I really think it’s just one more neocon scam for one last big score.
If you’re looking for some social-psychological insight into the phenomenon you describe, check out Bob Altemeyer’s free, online book The Authortarians. John Dean based much of his book Conservatives Without Conscience on Altemeyer’s work. At Dean’s suggestion, he wrote The Authortarians to bring together his decades of work on the subject in one place and in a form more accessible to the general readership. Dean, by contrast, had to connect the dots by wading through the jargon in Altemeyer’s scholarly papers.
He said he doesn’t know who he is voting for, but he knows it won’t be McCain. I followed with my opinion that the Republican Party is destroying itself, he agreed.
You know it’s bad when Gloria’s kid,Anderson,is hosting a panel discussing Bush’s speech and Anderson said that it reminded him of the speech he made in New Orleans after Katrina and that he seemed “distant”or removed from the moment to which someone else replied that Bush was an elevated moron
Just a glimpse of how fickle the msm is
They play the game as long as it’s only about slaughtering a bunch of Arabs but boy as soon as you get into his family’s pocket it’s all out war
That’s HIGH FUNTIONING MORON sorry
One good thing about Hoover – for almost fifty years, he made “trickle-down economics” a joke. I’m still, three decades later, flabbergasted that Reagan was able to revive that idiotic policy and meme without getting laughed off the national stage.
And McCain, of course, has always been a true believer. It’s one of the few things to which he’s been faithful.
.
I mentioned this at the lake, it seems to me mkkkain deliberately poison pilled this bill so he has an excuse not to debate
Perris:
That’s probably true, but it won’t work.
This isn’t a natural disaster or an act of war. It’s money. That means most people aren’t panicking about it. Sure, they’re angry, but not panicking.
And that means that cancelling out of other, equally important, events, like the presidential debates, strikes them as posturing, not as necessity.
McCain has seriously misread the public and misplayed his hand on this one.
.
I think it’s a combination of not being ready/being scared to debate Obama, plus needing money so presumably saving $$ by being off the air for a couple of days, plus likely trying to push the prez debate over into the veep slot so Mayor Mooseburger’s debate can conveniently be “postponed” and lost in scheduling.
Any one of those would be potentially a lethal blow to an already faltering campaign. With three at once, it may produce a perfect storm.
But we’re dealing with neocons here, so any skulduggery is possible.
He has money; the RNC is taking in fairly big sums, although not as big as Obama. In addition to all the money the RNC is taking in though, McCain just got $87 million as the public finance allotment. His ads are still running everywhere. It is not a money thing, and there has been no suspension; that is a scam phrase he is throwing around.
I’ve been against the bailout from the beginning. I’ve always thought from the standpoint of economics it made no sense. Having said that I’ve said in the past I always thought it was a 50-50 propsition as to whether or not we would even have an election. I’m beginning to think I may have been overly optimistic.
Why would Bush bring in McCain to scuttle the plan he went on national TV begging for only the night before? These guys don’t want a bailout they want a crisis and that is what they are manufacturing. When the shorts come back into the market the banks and insurance companies are going to get hammered, deepening ‘the crisis’.
The empire is unraveling right before our eyes and the fascists aren’t going to go away quietly. The Democrats better get ready.
My dream headline for tomorrow’s New York Times:
McCain Drops Turd in Punchbowl, Calls It Leadership
Well, if he was first, …
I wondered what that great big sucking sound was.
He’s just passing though some loose track enroute to the Republican Party’s 50-Car Train-Wreck.
McCain’s been in failing-adaptation ever since the Dems put on a pitch-perfect DNC in Denver.
He seems Mentally and Physically Exhausted, and in no condition to Debate tomorrow – if he somehow made himself show-up, he’d most likely give a Poor Performance.
Add on top of that, an Economy in Meltdown, his VP Candidate may need to be Withdrawn, his Campaign Manager may need to Step Down – and he’s in a nose-dive in the Polls, too.
I’d say the guy needs the weekend to sort-thru some issues with his Extra-Clanky Gypsy Wagon Campaign full of Elixirs, Potions, and Carnival Barkers…
David Shuster along with many others really beat up McCain tonight for his rash decisions the last week. The fire Cox comment,suspending the campaign, inflaming the situation in D.C. instead of calming. Everyone kept repeating how McCain had not read the original three page economic proposal put forward by Paulson last Thursday, let along any of the other proposals.
How the McCain campaign seemed to be “groveling around in the dark”
Another pundit asked (sorry I forget his name) “How can Sara hold the office of V.P. when it is more than likely she would not be able to find the office”
Michele Bernard (on Hardball) said that McCain’s decisions yesterday and today were “theatrics more than anything else”
Howard Fineman “instead of calming he (McCain) had inflamed the situation” in D.C.
And no one in DC would clue her in.
The town would be flooded all of a sudden with frantic Alaskans saying, “Quick, hide all the signs pointing to the airports.”
Chris Hayes from the Nation was on Countdown tonight. He was so clever and insightful about the McCain debacle. At one point he said that the McCain campaign has “wagered on the stupidity of the American voter”
Bingo
EW — have you seen this video? the text it covers and the case is familiar, but the timing is now far more disconcerting than it was in March.
Spitzer was going after WaMu for predatory lending practices when he was atty gen in NY.
I’m sure the Spitzer take down sent a message.
I had to listen to a long screed yesterday about how illegal immigrants were ruining our economy. Remembering Darryl Issa’s complaint that Carol Lam wasn’t prosecuting enough border cases? Every AUSA needs to keep the numbers up on that. I would love to see an analysis on whether spending all of the Justice Dept resources on border cases and letting the financial scammers run amuck was worth it.
Okay Boys,
We’re going to let your ideas speak for themselves.
You bullied Elliot.
Fine. That’s what your sort does and Elliot made the mistake of thinking you would not use the FBI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMo7T9t0Gzk
But this is going to be sent far and wide.
Why?
Because you are the ones who ruined the economy. You tied Elliot’s hands when he did the right thing and stood up to you. How’s that for your legacy?
Would the rest of you please pass this out to each teacher in every classroom in the United States?
Thanks
George just tells it like it is
“they’ll get it they will get it all” “the game is rigged”
“they do not give a fuck about you, they don’t give a fuck about you”
The Owners of this country “they own you”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dY4WlxO6i0
How outrageous would that be if the word got out that McCain had decided to send in Palin to debate Obama tomorrow night. Would really like to hear that one repeated in the MSM
This is a reply to ROTL at 25.
For those of us with English roots who are familiar with rhyming slang, Bristol is definitely female.
http://www.juancole.com/
Thursday, September 25, 2008
McCain Rushes Campaign to Nowhere
Mao Zedong announced the adage by which John McCain is clearly living now: “The enemy advances, we retreat. / The enemy camps, we harass. / The enemy tires, we attack.” Mao was describing not a conventional but a guerrilla war, and McCain is now unexpectedly playing the Filipino insurgents of 1899 to Obama’s America. Guerrilla wars are waged by the weak but wily. McCain has all but announced that his conventional campaign has crashed and burned. We do not know if the prepping for the debate was a disaster, or it turns out you really can’t let Palin be interviewed freely by normal people, or whether terror set in that a second great depression will turn the country starkly to the left for the foreseeable future.
John McCain, another Republican following that Great George Bush Tradition, a well staged Photo Op!
McCain out of debate in California
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..38;sc=1000
In the Year 2000.
thanks
I’m not hearing much panic from my fellow commuters yet, or from anyone at work. More like everyone is pissed off at the bailout lack-of-a-plan. (I can’t say that anyone expected anything from Shrub – he’s reached the point of being totally irrelevant to most of us.) Tomorrow, with the WaMu thing, may be more interesting, not that it’s exactly a surprise. They’ve been in trouble at least a year.
(Yesterday evening there was a pre-speech post at the Big Orange, with a poll asking if people were going to watch. The big winner: “I’d rather eat powdered glass than watch”.)
ot
Is Cheney back in his cave?
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20080919.html
Why Cheney Is Not Likely To Be Held Accountable
Those of us who follow these matters have long known – and I have written before – that it is Dick Cheney who is molding his hapless and naive president to his will, by effecting endless expansions of Presidential powers, and acting upon Cheney’s total disregard of the separation of powers.
Cheney does not seem to believe the Constitution applies to “real leaders,” who do whatever they believe they must do. Nor does he believe in the separation of powers. Indeed, Cheney absurdly claims he is himself part of the Legislative Branch because he is the presiding officer of the Senate – though, in practice, that position exists only to break tie votes. It has long been clear that Cheney has been corruptly bridging the constitutional separation of powers throughout the Bush/Cheney presidency.
If Armey is right, Dick Cheney has not only behaved improperly, but also criminally: In addition, when lying to Armey, Cheney clearly committed a “high crime or misdemeanor” in his blocking the Constitution’s checks and balances from stopping our march into Iraq. During the debates that took place during the Constitution’s ratification conventions, it was specifically stated that lying to Congress about matters of war would be an impeachable offense. Congress has also made it a crime.
Nonetheless, nothing is likely to happen to Cheney, for Congress is too busy dealing with the disastrous economy that he and Bush are leaving behind as they head for the door. No one seems inclined to hold Cheney responsible, and he appears totally unconcerned about the wrath of history. Yet in lying even to those in his own party, about reasons to go to war, he has sunk to a low level few have reached, and it is no hyperbole to call his actions treasonous to the structure and spirit of the Republic.
What’s the matter,haven’t you ever been lied to before?
The ultimate insult,trashing the place on the way out the door.I think a shrink would say that there’s a message in all this.I’m surprised he didn’t piss on the furniture.
Now everybody’s too busy to deal with him? bullshit!
They’ll all kiss and make up and pretend that nothing has happened.All the wrongs will be righted and clean up all the issues just in time for the next batch of bozos to do it all over again
How many very serious crimes have been swept under the rug as Paulson and Bernanke dropped this economic crisis that experts had been warning about for years. Subpoena’s ignored, false pre war intelligence, etc etc.
It makes me sick to my stomach when I hear members from both sides of the table say “time to move on, turn the page, that is history”. It is sickening.
————————————————————————–
Senator Schumer just told Senator McCain to “get out of town”. That his presence has only served to undermine the progress that they felt like they were making.
Am I supposed to be upset that McCain has derailed this bill? I want some explanation, out of the mouths of Democrats, why this has to be rushed through and precisely what the nature of the immediate threat is. I’m not alone in finding Paulson untrustworthy after his cocktail-napkin ransom note of a bill and his inartful lie about his bill’s forbidding of oversight?
I prefer this fought out in the open in the political arena where Obama can demolish McCain and we have a chance at winning the big issues and winning a landslide than having the Democratic Congress negotiate a “Bush-Pelosi” bill behind closed doors.
Am I missing something?
Dunno, but FWIW I just looked up the old SOTU’s to see how much time Junya gave the economy the past two years. Not much, as it turns out:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/was…..UNION.html
And, as bmaz says, they knew about this.
They turned a blind eye.
Looks like Elliott Spitzer knew about it all, as well – although I still don’t fully understand whether or not AIG remained one of his primary targets. The timing of his ‘outing’ only looks more suspicious over time, eh?
Yep, AIG was square in his sights when he got taken out. In fact, there are rumors (very unconfirmed) tha Hank Greenberg was partly behind the takedown of Spitzer.
Given some old NYT articles, it sure seems there’s a Greenberg link in there.
Greenberg… as in ‘Traurig’.
Jeebuz.
Naw, the Greenberg in Greenberg Traurig is Mel Greenberg from Miami and is not, to the best of my knowledge, related in any way to Maurice “Hank” Greenberg of AIG.
McCain really had nothing to do with derailing the Bailout. It was led by Sen. Richard Selby of Alabama. McCain is ignominiously puffing out his chest and taking credit for riding in there at a fast gallop and saving the day.
Selby stepped out of the meeting with a bunch of papers in his hand and spoke to reporters, saying that this (papers) is 5 pages of signatures of economists from all over the country who have signed this petition against the Paulson Plan. Frankly, I agree with Selby (who used to be a democrat). He states we must not rush into this, but study alternatives and correctly evaluate the situation. I really do not think it was possible to get hit with a matter of this magnitude and within 7 days come up with a good solution; especially since they don’t even know the value of what these toxic “assets” are!
As for McCain, poor old befuddled person, he believes his own bullshit. I think he really believes he was a great war hero (not according to his fellow pilots and POWs who were with him). He is well on the way to convincing himself that he really has saved the murikan people from this $700Billion debt. Articles I’ve read already are mocking him about his claims to that.
Are the Republicans who are running from the Bush policies over the last eighty years and the deregulation that brought this economic crisis the same Republicans standing against this bailout?
Chris Matthews has described it really well ” Many Republicans are taking their uniforms off and running away from the very situation that they created”
Unfortunately they’re doing like the Iraqi Army soldiers did when they took their uniforms in April and May of 2003: they’re going underground, taking their weapons with them, and morphing into an insurgency.
my first impression ???
mcsame is imitating J Edger Hoover ???
I thought that was Rudi ???
scary stuff …
We need to ask the question, “What’s the greatest power grab McCain and the GOP can take with this stunt by him?
is anybody else watchin the “university of spoiled children” struggle in corvalis ???
21 – 14 Oregon State
Poor ole’ SC! Go Beavers…!
bmaz, I knew that I had a bookmark related to your point about fraud… this one is corporate, but look at the correlations between the corporations we’re being asked to ’save’ and the ratios of identity theft on this NYT chart:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/…..ei=5087%0A
Chilling.
So WTF are the Dems doing to address identify theft in all this mess…?
Jeebuz.
usc
0 an 1 in the pac 10
whodathunkit
BOOMER SOONERS
wamu couldn’t make till friday at 5
linkage
WAPO article BAILOUT DEAL OFF, Repubs Revolt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..cmoduletmv
Sounds like McCain is acting the saving hero. ARGHHHHHHH
Bad link above at WAPO; correction:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..cmoduletmv
Isn’t it time to talk up the crony instincts of McCain. Isn’t Palin kind of a crony pick–a Gonzales, a Michael Brown, some one who will carry the water where ever McCain wants to take it. I am not sure if I can explain it and its not that I favor the bailout but something about his alliance with conservative congressional republicans suggests his need for crony loyalist.
Is it just me or did he scuttle the plans on purpose to get out of Friday’s debate? With all the attention on the economy, the debate moderators had stated that there would be a slight shift in focus on foreign affairs to include a few questions about the economy, and McBush has to know that is one of his weaknesses.
So he goes out there and says “I’m suspending my campaign and if no agreement is reached by Friday then I will stay out of the debates too.” Just as a deal looked imminent to resolve the crisis he came in and fucked it up. What a cocksmoker!
IrvineResident has an interesting comment in the “Video: Wall Street Bailout” thread at Calculated Risk:
Last week the market went up nearly 1000 points on the mere rumor of this plan. Today it went up 200 on rumors it was finished (there were literally new reports every two hours or so of how agreement had been reached, only to be denied.)
Traders are going to realize that injection of presidential politics and a third plan into this means nothing will get hammered out by Monday.
Odds of a horrific day in the markets tomorrow seem pretty good. Dems better be ready to blame McCain.
dana milbank is reporting that ted stevens had a homer simpson moment in court:
seriously
ted saays it’s all the misses’ fault
that’s the alaskan frontier values for you
at least he didn’t trade his wife for a gold mine or something like that …
I would like to extend my deepest sympathy and condolences to bmaz, upon learning that there will be no Major League Baseball Playoff games originating from a location within the Mountain Time Zone
take that, ya Heren stealin bastards …
(wink)
Now that will stir up the outrage
There have been reports of “150 economists” opposed to the consensus bailout plan. WaPo today
There’s no unified alternative. The WaPo states
Most of the dissenting “experts” quoted by the article, however, appear to be never-say-die tax-cutters with ties to the Bush admin. It’s my sense that the real agenda here is a call for the capital gains tax cut.
Is that behind the deadlock — another fucking rich man’s tax cut?
I
From McClatchy:
If there is a divide on this, it is interesting. Do we really want to give money to the very institutions which “raped the financial regulatory rules” and “trust” them and then give them tax payer money, they say “would” trickle down to us? NO.
A. Bunch. Of. Bull. Trickle down. Is.
Has then netroots come together on any “plan” or position? Hugh’s list?
I’m just finding “general” protest. No “meat” for taking specific action like we did on FISA.
klynn, I think the netroot’s position is that we can achieve great savings by pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan. That along with slashing the Pentagon’s budget, might yield something close to 700 billion. Ian Walsh’s coverage has really been good.
I’ve been following Ian. I agree from the different blogs I have read, your general summary of the netroots position is fair and yet it all appears scattered at the same time.
Nothing comes together as a unified netroots position, like we did on FISA wrt Strange Bedfellows. This is just as important.
I’ve read lots of opinions and lists, but no netroots-grassroots movement. That’s my point.
And, general protests of “no” to the bailout don’t cut it. If the netroots is going to state, “No!” then be ready to back-up the “No” with a specific plan. Critical opinion does not move the issue to functional closure without a plan backed with many voices, a movement, carrying specific policy solutions behind the critical opinion. If all are agreed that Ian’s statements are the foundation to a plan, lets organize it bigger.
Protests on economic policy are tricky.
The Shrub is speaking. Great moments in CNN chyrons, quoting Bush:
“This is hard work. Our proposal is a big proposal.”
“We also need to move quickly.”
And he’s done!!!! Easiest liveblog ever!
Outstanding! Teh skills of a court reporter! We have been looking for help for Marcy on the liveblogging duties; you’re hired!
Senator Durbin is stirring up the history of how our economy got here.
http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs…..8;Code=CS2
I just think they are following play by play the shock doctrine. They want us to panic, they want us to say “you smart people save us”. They are waiting for us to give up our rights and let them walk us right into oblivion.
Did anyone see Clinton on Larry King. I thought it was fascinating. Clinton was on t.v saying the exact opposite of Bushco. He said that this crisis is solveable. “Sure it’s a crises requiring that we make some important decisions, but the right decisions will save the economy.” He was so calm, so sure that this could be dealt with and the economy could be saved by restoring oversight, increasing taxes for the wealthy. He clearly was trying to stave off the panic.
I just think regardless of what you think of him…he gets it. He knows what game they are playing with us, right now.
We all need to make sure we aren’t giving into the panic. That we continue to act from rational thought…just as Obama appears to be doing.
I absolutely agree though, that the biggest part of this plan has to do with inciting panic, creating a crises. Making us more emotional and more willing to be led.
McSame is doing exactly what needs to be done on his chess board. Panic, distraction, and it works for 50% of the voters. They aren’t listening to the details. They don’t care about the same things that you and I do.
They want to make sure that poor undeserving people don’t get any of their money. They want to maintain their status. There is nothing you can say to stop them in their pro life, pro war (what a schizophrenic dichotomy) stance. Nothing. His next chess move is to take more and more control. It will be a power play and will not be about politics as usual he is desperate.
We are best when we know his next move…and stay several plays ahead of him. The dems finally are starting to take control of the message. The message is: Calm down, we have it under control, the laws of this land save us, the fundamentals of the contitution are sound. In order for the dems to win, they MUST control the panic.
They MUST be able to keep emotion mind at a minimum. If they can take control of the emotion…they will win the election.
Let’s hope – for the sake of the Rule of Law – that the Alaska Courts issue Arrest Warrants for the No-Shows today, and that the Alaska Lege calls for an Emergency Session of the Full Legislature.
Undermining the Rule of Law – particularly in An Abuse of Power Investigation – should be a Clarion Call to All Law-makers Who Love Freedom and Respect the Role of Equal Justice for All in Holding Together a Nation.
Lack of Action to Support the Rule of Law = Green-lighting Extremists to Ignore It
The Palins are The Test Case to Determine if “Beliefs” Trump the Rule of Law. Todd Palin doesn’t ‘believe’ the State Legislature has the ‘legitimate authority’ to conduct this investigation; Ergo those Subpoenas are Just Pieces of Paper.
What say you, Alaska?
Time’s a wastin’ – the Fabric of Our Society is Loosening by the Hour…
They would throw my ass in prison.
Wonder what would happen if the peasants started using the Rove/Meiers/Palin precedent of ignoring subpoenas?
What about “the Swedish Way”?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09…..ref=slogin