the defeatists!

Oh, while we wonder about Pakistan and worry about our financial system...

It appears that the SUUUURRRRRGGGGGEEE's military success is going to devolve into something that looks sort of like Sectarian Violence, only we trained and equipped both sides. Yup, that's us...chumps.

"But in Adhamiya and in some other areas of Iraq, the patrols, hailed by many as heroic for making the streets safer, have posed increasing problems. Commanders quarrel and jockey for power and territory. Finger-pointing and threats are common. Some residents complain that the men, not a few of them swaggering street toughs, use their power to intimidate people. Sometimes violence erupts.

"What you have is essentially armed factions, like mini-gangs, that operate in a certain set of checkpoints in certain territories,” said Lt. Erick Kuylman, a patrol commander in the First Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, which operates in Adhamiya. He said the Awakening Councils had met their original purpose, but he added, “They have outlived, I think, their service since then.”

Now I'm just the dumb Irish guy from Syracuse who had to join the Army to get his first pair of shoes, but doesn't this sound suspiciously like where we came in? Of course, our "allies" in the Global War on Terror are shooting at us and when did they say we could invade their airspace anyway? And, they're about to go into full civil war...blowing up hotels using enhanced weaponry, kidnapping the
Afghan Counsul General and, oh yeah, they have nukes. Guarded by the same geniuses that are shooting at our attempts to go in and bail them out in Wazirifuckistahn. Crusader AXE is worried about the Isrealis taking these guys out; India is a lot closer, and doesn't trust them as far as I'd trust Paulson and Bernenke with the national life savings. Yeah, this is gonna be great. And, we're sending Sarah Palin to meet with Karzai. We'll have video from Osama bin Laden chortling as they behead the top Afghan diplomat and our response is the ole hockey hooker herself. Ok, I don't think she's a hooker. The whore on that ticket has the front seat. So, little by little the clock is ticking away...

Excuse me sir, I have urgent business in the south, near Malwa Junction

Arrest the usual suspect! -- Saddam, Achmajinestarkravingasshole, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong Il! Idiots. Of course it's al Queida. The only thing that makes me wonder at all is the relatively low body count. They've been running the country through the security services from East Waziristan or some fucking place on the Northwest frontier, and Osama is tired of shitting behind rocks. Our foreign policy, the gift that keeps on delivering coal to good children and ponies to bad children around the world. However, boys and girls, Of course, this will make it all better  -- I wouldn't be surprised if the poor bastard listens to her for five minutes and runs screaming off a fucking cliff himself. 

Bailing out of the crashing plane? Or, bailing out the sinking ship?Or paying bail to get out of jail?

Bail-out has a couple of meanings, of course. John McCain who crashed more than a couple of airplanes may be confused, but let's stipulate that in this case, we are talking about bailing out institutions and individuals who probably should be in jail. The fact that the rubes bought the snake oil doesn't make the sellers any less duplicitous. And, I think we can all agree in principle that if there are purposes to government, they probably include protecting the buyers from the sellers. That, said, ever since I saw this morning's Piranha club, I've been thinking that at the end, we're going to end up owing the motherfuckers whom we have so graciously tried to help. And, that is absolutely absurd.

I felt something was really wrong when I decided that I was no longer going to read Fortune. I like Fortune in the same way I like Soldier of Fortune; it's just that I live more in the world of Fortune than that of Soldier of Fantasy these days, and I should be more interested in the Fortune 500 than in the muzzle velocity of the .50 Caliber Handgun.But, at some point I realized that all this crap about intellectual property and service industry meant that we were selling each other paper. I used to joke about my home town, that where once they made all sorts of marvelous things, today they are all either working at Walmart, MickeyD's or trying to sell each other mutual funds. It's not a joke, but it is funny. And for John McCain to try and say the fundamentals of America -- our workers -- are strong is both funny and a joke. Again, Walmart, MickeyD's and mutual funds. He selects someone as VP who is a supposed expert on natural resources and the exploitation of such. Extractive industries -- mining, pertroleum, piplelines, fishing, logging -- are reasonable fundamentals for a second world country or a third world country. At this point, the best thing I can say about the Republican ticket is that I kind of like Todd Palin. He reminds me of my brother-in-law, Murph, who carries a lunch bucket and worries about how he's going to pay the student loans for his kids and take care of the family.

This is how silly we are. I want a new car. The only one I really like is the Pontiac G8 GT Model. Ok, it's made in Australia. How silly is that? They brought back the GTO and made it in Australia. We didn't go along with it, so they went to this one. So, even in muscle cars, we have to go elsewhere. I drive a 2006 Charger SXT. I used to say I can feel the German in it back when Chrysler was a subsidiary of Daimler. Well, I still can, but the Charger was an iconic Muscle Car. Which, the Germans brought back for us. Absurd.

What we've been really good at the last few decades is allowing the wealthy to become wealthier through the manufacture of virtual paper. Derivatives, credit derivatives,  stock-instruments, etc. are paper. When I took Finance for my MBA, and when I taught it both here and in China, there are formulas for valuing a stock. Lots of them. But, basically, the price of the stock should have some relation to the earnings. Ever since the Greenspan ascendency, however, the brokerage houses and the stock issuing companies have been absolutely uninterested in earnings or divedends. The stock value should be reflected in the stock price. It's not. Stocks, not unlike tulip bulbs, have become valued in their own right. Executives are judged, not by the profit they make or their handling of crisis or their execution of strategy; they are judged based on the stock price.

Obviously, I think this is fucking insane; a form of hypercaptialism that is delusional. Or rather, that is a more reformed type of Kleptocracy. So, what is to be done? (And yes, I'm thinking about Lenin...)

I was reading Politico this morning and one of their features is called The Arena where a variety of commentators weigh in on issues of importance. I'd just finished reading the volumes on this in the Times, and scrolled through a Reuters piece on Paulson's eagerness to get the deal done.  Interestingly, Reuters described two key questions remaining:

Two key questions, however, remained unanswered even after Paulson appeared on four national television talk shows. What price will the United States pay for these toxic debts, which spawned a global credit crisis. When will it start buying them? (AXE emphasis) Paulson painted the proposed intervention into private markets as a necessary evil, arguing the consequences of inaction would be so dire that the large burden taxpayers would shoulder would be worth it. This is not something that we wanted to do. This was something that was very necessary," Paulson said... We did this to protect the taxpayer." (Bullshit. AXE emphasis.)

What I found interesting about this morning's Arena was a sort of universal unstated agreement that the bail-out should really be considered a "buy-out." I don't have any great grief with public-private entities and I don't have any issue with nationalizing things that are virtual monopolies. In fact, virtual monopolies should be either nationalized or government-private partnerships to prevent piratical plundering by the plutocrats. So, I'm not opposed to the government taking over the financial institutions so long as the ultimate benefit is to the tax-payer, not the plutocratic bureaucratic hybrid this course of action  creates. Robert Reich's piece was the most detailed from a policy perspective. To summarize: " We have to do this, so ok, but there are conditions. Or, fuck it, we'll pick up the pieces in the morning."  He has five recommendations. I am going to send a note to my Senators later advocating that they push for just these sorts of guarantees...

1. The government (i.e. taxpayers) gets an equity stake in every Wall Street financial company proportional to the amount of bad debt that company shoves onto the public. So when and if Wall Street shares rise, taxpayers are rewarded for accepting so much risk. (AXE Comment - that is how capitalism works. If I buy up your debt, I get a stake. If not fuck you, why should I buy bad debt? And, if I have an equity stake, which in Finance is generally referred to as stock, and I have a lot of your stock, you work for me.)

2. Wall Street executives and directors of Wall Street firms relinquish their current stock options and this year’s other forms of compensation, and agree to future compensation linked to a rolling five-year average of firm profitability. Why should taxpayers feather their already amply-feathered nests? ( AXE Comment -- for every Bill Gates who grows value and is rewarded with stock options that are 10 BS artists like Ken Lay. Screw it. Stock options should be made illegal. Compensation in firms where the US taxpayer has an equity stake must be limited to something reasonable. I consider the Government Senior Executive Service salaries a place to start. And, bonuses should be tied to performance, which is not the goddamn stock price, but retirement of bad debt and increased profitability, defined as a positive move on the balence sheet. )

3. All Wall Street executives immediately cease making campaign contributions to any candidate for public office in this election cycle or next, all Wall Street PACs be closed, and Wall Street lobbyists curtail their activities unless specifically asked for information by policymakers. Why should taxpayers finance Wall Street’s outsized political power – especially when that power is being exercised to get favorable terms from taxpayers?(AXE emphasis and comment --Since these guys are going to be something like quasi-civil service, the civil service rules on political donations and politics should apply. And, as has not been the case for the past eight years, rigorously enforced with violatiors losing jobs, paying fines and if they leaned on anyone, going to jail. In Guantanamo.)

4.  Wall Street firms agree to comply with new regulations over disclosure, capital requirements, conflicts of interest, and market manipulation. The regulations will emerge in ninety days from a bi-partisan working group, to be convened immediately. After all, inadequate regulation and lack of oversight got us into this mess. (AXE comment -- Yes, yes, hell yes! But, the same thing should apply to all industries and fields, not just the ones that we have a piece of...although, since government should provide infrastructure, one could argue that the taxpayer has an intrinsic stake in all firms, including those that are privately held. Actually, I do argue that point...but then, I'm some sort of Leveller-Anarchistic-Jefferson-Jackson-Lincoln-FDR fan. )

5. Wall Street agrees to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify the terms of primary mortgages, so homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes. Why should distressed homeowners lose their homes when Wall Streeters receive taxpayer money that helps them keep their fancy ones? (AXE Comment -- Mo, because it doesn't begin to go far enough. The reason that mortgage rates vary is because of risk. The factors that determine the price of a loan include, but are not limited to, the cost of the capital and the risk involved in loaning it. We have a marvelous structure used in the GI Bill where loans are insured. Banks and mortgage companies hate GI loans because they are limited in what they can charge in terms of add-ons, and the risk is limited. All mortgagees should be offered to convert their loan to a federally insured rate equal to the GI Bill rate plus a premium based on a percentage of their credit score. Since the higher the credit score, the lower the risk, the premium should be the inverse of the percentage. (Math!) In other words, if my credit score is 750 and we decide on a credit premium of 1% of credit score, my premium would be 1 divided by 750 or .13%. If the cost of capital amounts to 6%, the insurance will cost me an additional .13 or 6.13%. Fixed.  If the credit score is 500, the premium is 1/500, or.2%, or 6.2%. It's affordable, and makes sense.)

 

One last AXE suggestion -- derivatives and their ilk should be banned as should selling short, selling long, flipping and so on. If you can't accurately explain a financial instrument to a high school graduate working on a factory floor, or in Mickey D's which is more likely in our debased state, it should be illegal.

And, to make me really happy, Phil Gramm  should be torn apart by horses and eaten by pigs. That's probably negotiable. But, as someone wrote somewhere, it's a consumation devoutly to be wished...

Rules? Play your cards right, and in two weeks you can be screwing the lesbian out of Lindsey Lohan...

Hey, Crusader AXE here, or as he is known by his dreaded uberfrau wanna be surrogate mother  who's younger than he is, AXE Diesel Palin, with insight. (Seriously, the generator came up with that one based on the name I got stuck with at Baptism, Ebenezer Guinness FitzGuiness Tulamore)

Bill Maher catches the whole zeitgeist with this one, pointing out that the most tragic political prisoner in America to day is Motherfuckin Redneck Levi whatever his name is. Maher indicated that HBO has purchased the rights to www.freelevi.com and if you visit, you can buy a piss yellow t-shirt with Free Levi on it to help him get a fresh start outside of that "frozen methlab you call a town."  Not sure at what he's going to get a start at, but as Bill points out, given the way this kid is, well, the baby is far better off in "that Mormon conclave they call a house."

And then, there's this...Palin believes that the earth is about 7000 years old and that she's expecting Jesus... maybe for a potluck?

"I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere   of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."(Probably at a Grateful Dead concert someplace as part of the lightshow after she quaffed down a pill or two while she wandering peripateticly  in search of someone who would give her a degree in something... AXE Emphasis)

Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. "She looked in my eyes and said, 'Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.'" ( Well, she's probably right. If she goes to, oh, El Paso, I'm sure Jesus will come up to her and offer to clean her windshield...which probably means something odd in Alaska...AXE emphasis.)

Ok. I feel a lot better with her in a national leadership role...we'll have a VP who clearly did a lot of acid as a teenager and, given her somewhat frenetic appearance and speaking style, probably does some crystal on the side just to keep her edge up...

 

Where are those dudes from Miami Vice? Where was the old shot across the bows!

While I believe that if people want to take drugs, it's their problem, I despise drug dealers.  In my days with the tribe, I publicly advocated something like a "bounty" on dealers. Shoot a meth dealer on rez, get a free lunch at the Casino and some free slot play. While a popular idea with some of the elders and the Chief of Police, it didn't get very far. While we're rescuing the various banking houses, this would be a good time to pardon everybody in the calaboose for possession charges, give them a grand to get back on their feet, and toss 'em out. Then, legalize the shit, test it for purity and tax it like cigarettes. Be a steady income stream out of it. Close down the DEA and have them merge with BATF and the SEC.

While I may be confused by this, the news that drug runners were bringing in seven tons of cocaine is kind of interesting, especially since in the Coast Guard Video, we see the bad guys forget to use the one reason you would use a sub to do this -- they stayed on the surface. I have no idea what the Captain Nemo like tube on the back of the thing was for -- turbo, maybe? But if this was a diesel electric sub, being stuck on the surface could be due to some heavy mismanagement of air and battery supply. However, I like to think that the scum were too stoned to remember the dive sequence...

However, as I read further, I discovered that these silly things aren't really submarines in the "AhhoogahAAAhhhhoogah!Dive!Dive!Dive!" sense.

The drug subs, also known as narco-subs, are homemade and 25 to 65 feet long. They generally can carry 3 to 5 tons of cocaine and are designed solely for smuggling drugs, Navy officials said.While the semi-submersibles cannot dive, the boats are dangerous to capture, putting boarding parties at particular risk, because they have valves that allow smugglers to abandon and sink the vessel quickly, Navy officials said.The use of the subs has grown in recent years. Relatively few are captured as smugglers often scuttle them when detected.

I know the Navy boarded a couple of Nazi subs in WWII, but I don't think the Coast Guard did. So hurray for them...hey, we could use the taxes from the dope to pay for the bailout.

Like Viagra for a Dead Narrative

These numbers mirror a skewed culture. The best and the brightest should think again. Barack Obama put the issue this way at Wesleyan University in May: beware of the “poverty of ambition” in a culture of “the big house and the nice suits.”

College seniors might start by reading “A New Bank to Save Our Infrastructure” in the current edition of The New York Review of Books, an impassioned plea from Felix Rohatyn (who knows something of financial rescues) and Everett Ehrlich for the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, or N.I.B.

Its aim, at a time when the Chinese are investing $200 billion in railways and building 97 new airports, would be to use public and private capital to give coherence to a vast program of public works. “This can improve productivity, fight unemployment and raise our standard of living,” Rohatyn told me.

It’s absurd that earmarks — the self-interested budgetary foibles of senators and representatives — should dictate the progressive dilapidation of America. How can the commonwealth thrive when its bridges sag, its levees cede, its public transport creaks?

So, young minds, sign up for the N.I.B.! Before doing so, read Nick Taylor’s stirring “American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the W.P.A.: When F.D.R. Put the Nation to Work.” It shows how the Works Progress Administration, a linchpin of Roosevelt’s New Deal, put millions of unemployed to work on dams, airports and the like. It’s a book about how imaginative political leadership can rally a nation in crisis.

[. . .]

Yes, the death of the old is also the birth of the new. In my end is my beginning. It’s time for the best and the brightest to step forth and rediscover the public sphere.

Apparently all of America requires a Bridge to Nowhere.  Do the Chinese really need 97 airports?  Do they need more railway?  Heck, the Soviets had infrastructure.  What do we need infrastructure for?  Dude, I'll carry no water for either T. Boone Pickens (for real, that's his fucking name?) or James Howard Kunstler.  The former a pipe-dreamer who wants to getrichbitch!; the latter a critic who I appreciate somewhat, but a doctor whose prescription I wouldn't want filled. 

It just so happens that Mr.Fundamental resides, at present, in the Infrastructure World.  The Infratainment World.  Lemmetellya, most days I blog this computer until it's smoking and crying for me to go home.  This job is boring.  It's soul depriving.  It's killing me slowly each and every day.  I deal with idiots.  I deal with regulatory bodies and their agents and their hours.  (8-4, wtf?)  Now ask around.  Take a look around.  Who is entirely happy where they are?  Who doesn't have problems or issues or boredom and frustration with their job?  That's the whole society deal, man.  Everybody works.  Work sucks.  Whatareyagonnadoaboutit?  Find something to do that you can tolerate.  If you think you can do something better, then go do that.  People go after those jobs and that money so they don't have to do this job for this money.  Duh. 

But wait.  Now you're telling me I could be a millionaire?  I now suddenly find myself in the driver's seat to an entirely new and upcoming field of work?  My salary might double?  The best and the brightest are suddenly going to show up in suits and ties and solve our infrastructure problems?  They want to design the culvert I'm working on?  They want to conduct the plan review I've got scheduled for tomorrow?  For me?  Please, step in, I'll leave quietly through the back door.  Just wait until they discover the joys of pavement design.  Wait until they have to write a spec, or sit in front of a CAD screen all day, or walk a regulator through your project because they're a liberal arts major and you're the one with the solid science and math background, or worse, someone from PennDOT with a notable East Asian accent who is "just doing his job" as he spews out 15 more comments about your project that you niether noticed nor cared about because, well, it's not your job to care about all of those things, it is in fact his.  Do you think we're going to grease the regulatory wheels and allow the country to fire off road, sewer, water, and bridge repairs?  Is our streets and bridges crumbling?  (wink)  Do you think there's not corruption at every level in China, or here in America?  Are you bloody fucking high?  Just shut up and admit that you only wish to apply your vision of what needs to be done in order to "make America right" and "set it straight."  Whatthefucksuchathingmightlooklikeisnomatter,apparently,toqueefslikethis.  You'd make a fine planner, sir, "visionary" I suppose, but a shitty fucking engineer.      

The type of organizing this nitwit is calling for would require a severe American Depression.  No, scratch that, it would a require severe American Depression motivation.  Dude, take a look around.  (It might be funny to imply, at this point in the post, the "canary in the mineshaft" of America's most recent nationalizations.  Harhar.  You can buy twobuckchuck at Trader Joe's.)  This shit was built on the cheap as strongly as possible for as little as possible.  America!'s infrastructure is a shamble because it was built that way.  It was built to last 50 years, and we're getting there.  And when a bridge collapses, we'll rebuild it.  When a road fails, we'll fix it.  It's easier that way.  It's also less time consuming, less wasteful, and cheaper.  Also, this is how the world works.  When something major comes along, we fix it.  The majority of my projects are band-aids, yo.  What do you want to do about it?  Make the world right?  Get America on the right track?  Good luck, man, I've got some things to do.  Don't stay too late, ok?  Think of the, no, wait, think of your own children for once.  Much better. 

Dude whether I'm in a car or on a bike or in a commuter train I'm still just a fucking drone buzzing to and from work and home.  We could abandon half the roads and bridges in America and focus our attention on the rest and probably keep them in better shape because of it.

h/t: Capn Capitulation 

This, my friends, is the fundamental that is strong

Rock and Roll.

It's so sad when satire need only tell the truth...

Wonkette summarizes the financial/economic meltdown very well indeed.

If you own a house, it’s now worth negative nothing. If you’re a renter, your landlord is probably already in foreclosure and you will soon be homeless. Got some investments, maybe a 401k or whatever? You really don’t even want to look. Got one of those fancy jobs with benefits and health care and such? You will soon be unemployed, living in a Hobo Jungle down by the railroad tracks in the darkness on the edge of town.

I always wondered about the title Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. It's from Ecclesiastes, which is a fine place to read ashes and despair. Still, the study of grinding poverty in the face of a souless economic   system and it's incredible illustrations belie the title. Thanks to Wonkette, I now know what it means in the context of a failed economic system -- "So, let's blame these assholes."

Spending the cookie jar...

This is one of those moments when you really have to look at reality and say what the hell is going on here. If I understand this correctly, and I think I do, Merrill Lynch Price Fenner and Bean or whatever they're called these days has been selling itself like a $2 Crack Whore with limited success. Seems nobody's in the market for rags. Lehman is just about tits up, and the Fed is jumping in to fix them. Meanwhile, AIG has supposedly told the people it had been trying to scrape some cash from to forget it, they're going to depend on the Federal Reserve. That's interesting, because last time I looked, the FED didn't do a lot for insurance companies. So, we'll see how this plays out.

However, before IOZ gets his piece up to point out that these moves effectively nationalizes a lot of the banking, mortgage, lending and investment industry, he's right. And, that better scare people a lot. Although most of the uninitiated liberal arts graduates may not know this, and a lot of businessmen are confused by it, finance and accounting are separate disciplines. Finance is really about taking and hedging risk; accounting is about counting. One looks at what can be, the other at what is. Helluva difference. For a long time, the Fed has been in the hands of the financiers, excited by things like the Laffler Curve and Ayn Rand. Both equally ridiculous. The basic function underlying banking is counting and double entry bookkeeping. If the numbers don't add up, the numbers don't add up. If they do, they do. No matter how hard you try, assets have to equal liabilities and retained value. If not, you're screwed.

Now, there are some fairly radical -- actually, extraordinarily radical -- acts that could flow from this clusterfuck. As we all know, McCain isn't good with numbers and doesn't understand the economy, arithmetic or much of anything else. Palin is obviously confused on where the money comes from or where it goes or how to count it. Obama is a lawyer and a legislator with experience in a big state's Senate. Biden is from Delaware, the home of the corporate soul in this country. We used to look to the Democrats for grand visions and Republicans for fiscal sense. We are now going to be forced to look at everything with a different lens.

Most of us are not going to be hurt by the Merrill/Lehman/AIG debacle. However, the collateral damage of this nuclear meltdown will be amazing. I'm thinking about turning all the IRAs and 401Ks and pocket change in AXE Manor into doubloons. In the long run, unless the world craters, my investments are pretty safe. Problem is, in the long run, I'll be dead.

I was driving past the local Dodge dealership when I noticed a used Vette for $299 down. I got interested, and stopped. They pounced on me, but when I learned that the car had 70Kplus on it, I didn't even ask for the price. I looked at a couple of new Chargers, and was told that the cost out the door would be sticker minus $3k plus title, tax and license. Kid who was trying to sell me something I didn't really want and already have said that, "Well, you can't be sure how long the rebates will last." "Yeah, sure. Until the economy turns around." While there will be increased "specials," anyone who's been engaged in speculation --and basically, the car companies and anyone who builds an inventory in the hopes of selling it are speculating -- look for a lot of unemployment. Companies will not be able to borrow money to expand or to cover costs while waiting for receivables -- payments -- to come in. Homebuilders, for example, live on speculation. Not going to be possible to get the construction loans at an affordable rate, if at all. Consumer goods in general once you get beyond necessities will suffer. Things are going to hurt. And, not just here -- in fact, we're sorta insulated even today. But, it sucks right now to be an entrepreneur in China, seeking cash to start a clothing store for pets in Guanzhou, or the operator of a Bed and Breakfast in Surrey.

New Defeatist Rule: When an organization can fuck up little things, it can do a number on fucking up the big things!!!!

Air Force told to establish control of nuclear arsenal... Or, as poet-philosopher Denis Leary would put it...WWW.Whatthefuckisthematterwiththesepeoplecom!!!

Ok, there are few things that make me wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Thoughts like, oh, waking up next to Sarah Palin...driving a Yaris...finding all my guitars replaced with ukuleles. You get the idea. However, one thing that does get to me is the thought of criminal incompetence around nuclear weapons. . Among the other things I used to do back when I dressed like a tree, slept on rocks, ate out of a plastic bag and such was teach young lieutenants about nuclear weapons. I know a log about nuclear weapons...Now we used to subsidize demilitarization of the goddamn things for Russia, but that program wents tits up on, oh, January 20, 2001. So, yeah, some guy named Yakov could have been selling shit to al Quieda for a long fucking time, and we'd have no clue. But, our own stuff was safe, secure, controlled and guarded. Well, turns out that it probably wasn't. You know, Gates fired the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force over this not so long ago. Do ya think the other idiots in that organization didn't get the fucking memo?  Did these fucking people think this was a goddamn training film?

Last Great Traffic Jam...Tore down, almost level with the ground...

One of those pattern things I get into...Traffic to Blind Faith covering the Stones

To some more Blind Faith stuff only not so much so and post heroin for Eric

To my favorite Chicago Blues shuffle with the Bluesbreakers...

To this, the turning point in my musical tastes, long ago...chickachickwha? Although the acoustic version from long ago was a helluva lot better...

To this which is incredible in that it happened...,p>

To this...with one of my favorite unknown bands, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals!!" Covering Junior Parker, Junior Wells, Elvis Presley and Paul Butterfield...

Rita looked offended but she got out of the way...

We've a bizarre problem at our outpost for Ginormous. We had a server that worked perfectly well; so, the next level in the hierarchy said "Change the server! We'll fix it up for you and it will be wonderful..." If by wonderful we mean full of wonder, well, it is...it wonders what to do with commands beginning http://www. and erases the www. in bookmarks. Of course, it also times out repeatedly. Now, when the AXE ran a nonprofit that depended on donated computers, this was understandable. Intolerable, unacceptable and stupid, but when you turn to someone with a degree in elementary ed and social work to be your IT director, you get what you deserve. However, we may be in the WAR business, but we're not in the rocks and clubs business. We're a technology company...Since I've missed Obermann and Maddow and being doing insane hours this week, I was kept in touch by the one functioning part of my server, my Gmail account, where my brothers kinda regaled me with what's going on.

So, given that I vacillate between hope and despair a lot, I was sort of under the impression that Sarah Palin had won both the Playgirl of the Year competition and been elected unanimously to the Baseball Hall of Fame and the College of Cardinals. That Joe Biden had swallowed a teleprompter and was now parroting the speeches of William Jennings Bryant in Cajun dialect...Cher, I zay to youse, youse will nat cruceefeey menskind on a crossagold...That John McCain had gotten his pilot license restored and was landing on Aircraft carriers doing that weird smile thing in a flight suit equipped with a visible codpiece and chicken hawks and chick hawks were in full swoon while Barrack Obama had decided to ride in a tank a la Mike Dukakis.

But then, thank god, this evening I found this...Imagine if Alan Keyes,who questions  John McCain's relationship with God, became President?  Not only does he question McCain's relationship with God, he questions the relationship of people like Robertson and Dobson with God because of their endorsement of McCain.

After listening to John McCain's acceptance speech I found myself more concerned than ever for the spiritual welfare of the supposed moral leaders who are willing to support him. They will understand my concern if they are willing to give more than superficial thought to the tenor of his speech when it comes to what many of them profess to be the most important issue in human life – the relationship with Almighty God.

OK, let's review the bidding. Obama is in a bind with the right wingnut religious types and the redneck religious types and the redneck a-religious types and the Hillaristas who would rather have Roe v. Wade along with the entire Bill of Rights overturned than have a vagina-challenged pair ascend to the White House in part because of the generally nuttiness of the crowd, and because of the Revernd Wright deal. Who appears to be a horney old sanctimonious Elmer Gantry type, by the way. Maybe this example of the ultimate wingnut religious batshit acid trip, who makes Clarence Thomas seem serene and centered and reflective instead of seathingly stupid and angry at himself and all who look and act like him, maybe this guy will siphon off some of the wingnut support for Mad Mac and the Governatoress...

Maybe the World Net Daily Cristic Cabal could run Keyes with this chick, whoever the hell she is as a third, fourth or even fifth party candidate. I'm sure Ron Paul would gladly endorse them...After all, anyone who can avoid restraints and anti-psychotics after this sort of screed is as worthy of Palinization as the divine Sarah, and with Keyes as a running mate, there's no possibility of her being elected. Remember Alan Keyes, the guy who went up against Obama for the Illinois Senate despite living and working and writing and mentally masturbating almost to the point of but not completely to orgasm in Maryland? How do you top that? Like this...

Sarah Palin's intoxicating performance at the Republican National Convention did wonders to mask John McCain's toxic presence – and, in particular, the collectivist, fascistic philosophy that permeated his address. When it comes to sacrifice for the state, McCain gives Obama a run for his money.

Only Bobby Dylan can relate...

Why Do I Even Bother?

Barack Obama apparently knows where he can get us some fucking toe.

Messiah Elect Barack Obama today:

Obama accuses Republicans of 'Swift Boat Politics'

Who does he think he is, Bill Clinton?  He is not even remotely believable.  Above the fray?  Are you kidding me?  Are you fucking high?  American politics is as it is today because it's exactly what most Americans want.  Or, to cop the parlance of our time, because it's what is in our best interest.  Furthermore, Swift Boat Politics WORKED, you moron.  Come on dude, catch up, take the emeffing training wheels off.  The race isn't won in the parking lot, the ballgame ain't won in the dugout or in batting practice.  Americans aren't sickened by politics, or by politics as usual.  They're accustomed to it.  Americans politics is because it freaking works, and works exactly this way.  Why do you think we're a "Two-Party" monopolicracy?

Obama thinks he can raise, or rise above, the level of discourse by not mentioning a damned thing.  He dips his toes into the pool with the Pig Comment, and then quickly withdraws when the egg splatters.  These nonsensical and illogical tactics are used, Radley, because they fucking work.  Your disgust and disdain mean nothing to these people.  Sink to the level you wish to inherit, BarryO, because it's what you are, and because it does in fact make you a Presidential Candidate.  Dear Dems: the Republicans are going to skin you motherfucking water-walking freaks alive.  I have zero faith in American's abilities to recognize anything deeper than flavor; that is, to recognize anything inherent in the system that is immediately or irredeemably flawed, no matter how many blogs I read, or no matter how much better *I* come to understand the charade.  Live the charade, man, be the charade.  Right now you're barely farse.  This is the basics, this is kids stuff.  This is like explaining gravity to a 4 year old: shit is always going to fall to the Earth.  (Culture Ghost can you get me a Fisher-Price Barack Obama: My First Presidential Election.) 

In other news, Ron Paul has decided to hang up his career as a politician:

"I've come to the conclusion, after having spent many years in politics, is that our presidential elections turn out to be more of a charade than anything else, and I think that is true today. It is a charade," he said.

"I have no doubt that the majority is on our side," Paul added, citing public opinion polls. "We represent the majority of the American people."

Paul said that he had received a call from the McCain campaign Tuesday asking for his endorsement. Paul's response: "I don't like the idea of getting 2 to 3 million people [Paul supporters] angry at me."

Politics is anything but, cannot and will not ever be about CHANGE.  You want change?  Go to Iraq and take some fucking notes. 

It's like they think they can pedal the bike without using the fucking chain.  Christ.

This isn’t Uzboinkistan or some banana republic. It’s Texas, damn it!

Should I find myself on trial for murder, it would be a comfort to know that the Judge and Prosecutor were getting it on in the Judge's Chambers. I would trust, as any gentleman would trust, that because of the entanglement, they would be doing amazingly acrobatic things to each other...err, to make certain that I got the fairest possible deal because, goddamnit, that's the way it's supposed to be. Or, not.

Now, although I'm a native of upstate New York and have lived all over the world, I look on Texas as a second home. The politics are insane, of course, but even the nuttiest of the people are generally friendly and it's a fascinating study in one way in which the country could have been. And, the barbecue is good, Blue Bell Ice Cream is incredible, kolaches are wonderful and the music is amazing. However, there are instances like this that make you just shake your head...

Of course, nothing stops the time in Kingsville, Texas in the early 70s when a couple of lawyers got made at each other and started shooting at each other...I seem to recall that they were partners, but I'm not sure....

What I find most telling is that the Court of Appeals did not throw out the conviction because of judicial misconduct. They stayed the execution because they didn't like the jury instructions...can't question the virtue of a lady or a judge, especially a judge who used to sit on the very bench which was now questioning her judicial, uh, err, instructions.

UPDATE...err LATEDATE from Texas Monthly

I believe that Hood is guilty and that just about any court in the land would have found him so. But one of the cornerstones of our system is impartiality. In order for the system to be fair, the judge can’t (literally) be intimate with one side. It violates all kinds of rules, from common sense to the ABA Code of Judicial Conduct, which says that, “A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Especially, you might add, when a man’s life is at stake.

This isn’t Uzboinkistan or some banana republic. It’s Texas, damn it, and we have rules. Somebody here or at some higher court is going to have to give Hood another trial. And this time, do it right...

In George Bush's America and Texas, rules are for rulers...or some goddamn twaddle.

Context, of course, is EVERYTHING!!

Or, maybe not. Maybe not indeed...this timelessly timely entry says a lot about a couple of classes of rat-bastards that abound in all cultures at all times.

The reasons for this political hypocrisy are like a disease. Most ...suffer from it. Their aim is to maintain their reputation in the public eye. This way they ensure that they remain in power: using such slogans like a repeated note is the best way of winning more votes in the next election, which will allow them to remain in the political game.

You know, the circle of Defeatists and cohorts range from the utterly exasperated and fed-up to the marginally hopeful. I have found that my own combination of hopeful exasperation and fed-up to here challenged in this environment. For example, after an ass-kissing of stupendous proportion with Obama, Obermann then implies that Charlie Gibson on CBS will toss softballs at Palin. SHEEEIT, Keith, you didn't toss softballs, you put the fucking ball on a tee and hit it for him. Of course, O'Reilly did everything he could to make Obama look like an idiot, and succeeded in making himself look like an idiot.

About ten years ago, at the height of the Lewinsky nonsense, I was volunteering in a community based mediation service. My mentor and the Deputy ED was a guy named Bruce Berquist who had a fairly fascinating resume, including a stint as headmaster of a private school in Worcester about the time I was suckling the teats of Mother Philosophy at the Catholic West Point. We compared notes on Worcester diners, agreeing that the best was the Miss Worcester.

Anyway, at one point Bruce announced that as an educated man with high blood pressure and at his advanced age, he was no longer interested in the news. It was too stupid. He advised his wife and friends to not talk about it with him. If something really important like the Apocoylapse or the Red Sox, Celts and Patriots all winning the championships in the same twelve month period, he was willing to be informed. Othewise, his interests were art, history -- pre-1900 -- cultural antropology and music. He was eventually worn down but he said that the quality of life really went up. So, instead of reading Friedman, Rich, IOZ and so on, the alternative would be to read Yeats, The Federalist Papers, Heidigger and the Two Volume Life of Elvis.

I'm considering it really hard...now I have to go to a meeting. Then, I will come back and listen to Steve Earle. Very loud...

"Piffle crack eat monkey snow. Really."

As a one-time student radical long haired hippy freak anarchist type, I was stunned when I first heard Michael Dukakis referred to as a "radical-liberal." Ok, I was in the Army, bolstering the reserves with some Regular Army Attitude, and this was in College Station, the veritable buckle-on-the-conservative bible belt, the net of vipers including Phil Graham when he claimed to be a Democrat, Joe Barton and at the time, Jackie Sherrill. But, Dukakis? Radical? Really? The fact that people parroted it back was disturbing; the fact that they were basically nice folks and pretty intelligent for the most part was really worrisome.

Ok, well, it got worse. The Republicans delight in displays of what my southern friends call "tacky," like the stunts of waving American Flags at the State of the Union Speech (Gingrich), putting banners on the sail of Aircraft Carriers (Bush, Rove, et al); embracing Jerry Falwell (McCain); embracing Bush (McCain); claiming to have done things that they didn't do and not to have done things that they obviously did. (all of 'em, on both sides and all planes. But, the Republic-rats really take it to extremes.) And, they get away with with. As Dennis Leary said so eloquently once, "W.W.W. WHAT THE FUCK!.com?"

The AXE has run out of patience with Sarah Palin; she's gone from somewhat appealing to being a shrill voiced rabid wolverine in very little time indeed. The thing that got to me was that fucking Airplane not sold on EBAY and not sold for a Profit. Total bullshit -- hell, given the aviation record of small planes in Alaska, I'd rather have flown Alaska Air anyway as opposed to my own not particularly cool econo-execujet. But, after Mad Mac crowed about it, she takes it up. Come on, lady. Be intellectually honest enough to admit that you weren't able to sell it on e-Bay but sold it through a broker, losing some money up front but with savings down the line. Or, shut up about it. $2.7 MIL is a rounding error in most state and a lot of city budgets.

So, my frustration with the open dishonesty and hypocrisy has worn me down. Until this evening, when I read this column by Leonard Pitts. He expresses the same frustration more eloquently than I can. Of course, given that he's a working journalist and I'm a semi-crazed guy calling himself Crusader AXE, that's the way it should be. Regardless, he starts with my personal least-favorite Republican dweeb, Mittens Android Romney the Hologram, and dissects hims quickly and painfully. And, then finishes with this -- and, I recommend the dissection. Still, since the few people who read The Defeatists not looking for porn or recipes for adding height or pictures of Nazi clowns probably don't want to visit a lot of links, I feel this is not a spoiler so much as a summation.

More to the point, say either (Liberal or Democrat...AXE) and all thinking ceases, so much so that a representative of the ideology that has controlled most of Washington most of the last 12 years can say with a straight face that his ideology needs to seize control of Washington to fix what is broken there. And people hear this Orwellian doublespeak ... and cheer. Why not? They have been taught that words mean what you need them to in a given moment.

Sadly, it has proved an easy lesson to impart. Turns out, all it requires is a limitless supply of gall and the inherent belief that people are dumber than a bag of hammers. And all it costs us is language, the ability to have reasoned and intelligent political discourse, the idea that words do, and should, have weight, dimension and intrinsic meaning...

Speaking of weight, dimension and intrinsic meaning, bet you didn't see this one coming! I was looking for Words, the old BeeGees clunker, but found this instead and liked it a lot more...

pavarotti eric clapton
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Feeling a little tired? and wondering why you feel so broke?

Probably because you are -- overworked, underpaid and overstimulated.

Since the 2001 recession, the American work force has contributed to a robust 20 percent growth in productivity, as measured by the gross national product.Yet seven years into this economic cycle, most middle-class American households have less inflation-adjusted income than they had when it started.The 140-million-strong work force has engaged in efficient, profitable production, "but when it comes to being rewarded for the work they do, that's a different story," said Jared Bernstein, co-author of "The State of Working America 2008-2009," released in part online on Aug. 26.

On that note, how about some gratutious Cream? Because if you do the math, the unemployment rate among the overworked, underpaid, overstimulated American people is at least 33% higher than announced by our alien masters.

 

The dog ate the weapon?

That's what we do when we catch bin Laden, goddamnit. My theory is that the perp was really a CIA operative trying out a new type of psychological warfare. Or, and this is disturbing on many levels, that's what they do for fun in the gay community of Fresno.

Why him? Why now? Utah...Enquiring minds need to know...

I keep trying to find something to care about in the on-going debacle that is going on. Perhaps this is a start.

Just so we're clear here...

You know, I think we need to hire someone to help these people -- government and semi-government agencies largely, although the publicly traded companies that all crated in the early days of the Bush reign needed it -- learn how to bring guns to gun fights and knifes to knife fights. Because the way these agencies run indicates that they don't have the sense to pour piss out of their gucci loafers. Oh, and having the CEO sign off that the documents reflect the actual strength of the organization really works well too...

The government’s planned takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expected to be announced as early as this weekend, came together hurriedly after advisers poring over the companies’ books for the Treasury Department concluded that Freddie’s accounting methods had overstated its capital cushion, according to regulatory officials briefed on the matter.

Overstating the size of the capital cushion is known, I believe, as an act somewhere in the legal code as, oh, fraud.

Jesus No Longer Weeps! Or, Brute Force is Different from Freedom Force!!

If I were technically inclined, I'd add the Casablanca Bit where Claude Rains expresses shock, horror and dismay as opposed to shock and awe at the news that there is gambling going on in Rick's cafe in Casablanca, and then pockets his winnings as a site gadget. Seriously, Chernobyl Cheney just accused the Russians of using brute force, threats and intimidation. Seriously, this is as bizarre as casting Britney Spears as Melodie in a remake of Gone with the Wind...with Leonardo de Caprio in his fake Afrikaans' accent as Ashley, Howey Mandel as Brett and Bette Midler as Scarlett and setting the goddamn thing in Wasilla Alaska. Of course the Russians are acting like imperialist totalitarian assholes! They are imperialist totalitarian assholes. The whole Pan-Slavic thing, the messianic thing, the concern about outsiders and unnatural orientals and Muslims inflamed by Chechnya now carried to Georgia. The communism shtick was an aberration.  Of course, we have the whole manifest destiny thing, the messianic thing, concerns about outsiders and unnatural orientals and Muslims inflamed by 911 and now carried into Iraq and soon the rest of the Persian Gulf if Twinkle Toes and Moose Mangler get elected. Jesus is no longer weeping, he's taken to mainlining coke while eating pages of blotter acid with Jefferson and Lincoln. While Phil Ochs strums in the background, and this fits really well..."Here's to the schools of Richard Nixon/where they're teaching all the children not to care/Here's to the Land you've torn the heart out of/Cheney find country to be part of of..."

Conventional Wisdom

I have made a point of avoiding the convention coverage or listening to any of the crap flowing. Guiliani Lieberman, Thompson, Palin and McCain question Obama's patriotism, screech the "Noun Verb POW' rnat and then McCain claims he's going to end the hate in Washington. Kum Bah Ya, baby. I find two other things interesting -- Woodward's new book that indicates we're spying on Malaki  and the uptick of unemployment.  I agree completely with Karen Tumulty of Time and Swampland the unemployment numbers will have more impact on the election than any speech, with one proviso -- it should have more impact. The Reps are trying to run as a reform party which is interesting. If McCain calls for the impeachment of Cheney, then they can call themselves reformers. But, Americans are easily distracted. Woodwards book is probably too subtle by half for most Americans to get, but I do find the dismay at his revelation of spying on the Iraqi government to be one of those "shocked, shocked that there is gambling" moments. Of course we're spying on the bastards. If we weren't, we'd be far more seriously screwed up.

Oh, and yeah, I wrote this and yeah, it's why I'm not so sure about the wisdom of allowing Jeffersonian Democracy to break out any more.

Putting it all in perspective or....duh!

A lot of people are making a big deal out of the testiness of McCain when asked what he meant by "honor." The story goes that he said, "Read my books." Yeah, well, there's a problem with that. Bill Clinton probably wrote most of his book; he's a verbose kind of guy. I suspect Hilary do too, because she's competitive to a fault. Most worshiping at the shrine of JFK would say he wrote Profiles in Courage, and I suspect he helped. Again, he was a literate type of guy, and had world class writers and historians working for him. However, the last American POL I'm sure wrote his own stuff was Teddy Roosevelt. Before that, Grant. Roosevelt was well known as an author before he became a politician; Grant was writing to provide something besides the county home for his wife, broke and dying of throat cancer. Churchill wrote his own stuff and a lot besides; again, it's easy to believe Grant did without a ghost writer because he was broke. It's easy to believe Churchill wrote his own stuff because that was primarily how he made his living. Obama wasn't much of anything when he wrote his stuff, and he probably did write a lot, if not all of it. 

Mad Mac? Not so easy to swallow. However, sometimes things you say with the help of others or never said at all can really come back to haunt you. Somebody told Gerry Ford to announce that Poland was free, which came as a surprise to the Poles. Somebody got Nixon to come out with the line "I am not a crook." And, at the tail end of his tome to the Religious right, largely citing Catholic Saints, Martyrs, and Saints-to-Be (Hagee must not have vetted it!)  trying to sound like a reincarnation of Bill Bennett, he smugs (I know it's not a verb, but it should be and sums up a lot of both his and Obama's bs of late):

The worst decisions I have made, not just in politics but over the course of my entire life have been those I made to seek an advantage primarily or solely for myself."

Matt Welch's piece at ReasonOnline deconstructs his books, but I think it's safe to say that Welch has nailed it. The Palin nomination has nothing to do with the country and everything to do with hubris, ambition, fear and desperation.

If there was a reason to give McCain a pass based on the "honor" concept, he's flushed that down the toilet with his latest hire -- Tucker Askew, the guy who dreamed up the McCain black bastard baby bullshit in South Carolina in 2000. While codes of honor are a lot less restrictive than in the days when Aaron Burr challenged and shot Alexander Hamilton for saying something vague about Burr's character, the honorable man doesn't hang out with batcum. Too make it especially precious, given all the other crap going on about Palin, the asshole is supposed to work with her and polish her for the campaign.

You know, at times I get the feeling that the silly sonofabitch has given up and is just doing this to screw with the media and the Republicans. They hate, they slandered him, so he brings a poster child for the Right-Wingnut fringe who's latest pronouncement indicates she thinks the Pledge of Allegiance is part of the constitution and if under God were good enough for the Founding Fathers, it's good enough for her. Well, great. The American Legion came up with the thing in the first Red Scare just after World War I. So, I guess if we asked her for her favorite founding father, she'd probably say "Harding?" or, given the religiosity issue, "William Jennings Bryan."

No shit, Sherlock! Damned pterodactyls are coming home to roost in your attic!

From Jim Hightower, populist and Texan comes a moment of sheer brilliance illustrating why Quietism in the face the ongoing debacle of the end of the American empire is perhaps the only way to remain sane. Discussing the decaying infrastructure, Hightower puts it all in perspective:

Then there is the alarming inaccuracy of the National Bridge Inventory, which is compiled from state records. After the Minneapolis crash, federal authorities mandated an emergency inspection of all similar steel deck truss bridges. The inventory listed 756 of these. Wrong. Inspectors found that 280 were not that type at all. Indeed, 16 didn't even exist, 13 were wooden, and a Maryland bridge was actually in Pennsylvania.

"The data is not as good as we thought," explained the embarrassed man in charge. Obviously not, which leads to the more urgent question of how many bridges are misclassified as another type when they're really made of steel deck trusses, like the fallen one in Minneapolis. The feds don't know.

I'm not sure what the hell government is good for, but a rational person would probably say that building and maintaining roads and bridges is a big part of the reason it exists. Sarah Palin's comment about getting the infrastructure in Alaska taken care of while the congressional delegation has clout wasn't praise of the pork barrel so much as a realistic reflection of what the fuck it means to try and get things done in this country. Hightower bitchslaps Rick Perry, heir to George Bush just by quoting the guy --

The first report found that 20 heavily traveled Texas spans were classified "structurally deficient" by highway authorities. A year later, only one has been fixed. Oh, tut-tut rebutted sitting Texas Gov. Rick Perry, this is not an issue of importance, because "structurally deficient" is nothing but a "bureaucratic term."

As Bill Mahar pointed out the other night while interviewing the Governor of Virginia, it's frightening when you can get laughs by just reciting the facts.

While this may look seem like  more " AXE is a Democrat ergo Republicans are bad" stuff, my position is  fuckuava lot more complicated than that. I lived for ten years in Ectopia. I was in Seattle for the quake on Ash Wednesday, during my brief stint running a big nonprofit despite the board of directors. Anyway,we had a fleet of trucks out there in February 2001, and when the ground stopped shaking, I told my operations manager to get them in and off the roads. Several had been on the lower deck of the Seattle viaduct, a two decker elevated expressway when the quake hit. Dodging fallen hunks of concrete and feeling the thing shake, rattle and roll scared them enough that several quit rather than continue to drive. Over seven years later, and they still haven't figured out what they're going to do...dig a tunnel, build a new one, fix the old one, tear down the old one and let the choirs of angels carry the commerce from the port outwards...Democrats have been just as useless in this problem as Republicans. The Dems worry about pollution, noise, aesthetics while the Rs worry about the cost and who's going to pay for it? Well, any pristine scene is probably more pleasing and less polluting and quiter than a network of effective and efficient roads, bridges and associated stuff. As for cost, you get what you pay for, and it gets more costly over time. We the people are going to pay -- the question is how much and when. I suspect that we pay more in the long and short run by waiting. Republican Hobbits and Democratic Hobbits are still fucking goddamned Hobbits, scurrying around doing nothing but getting in the way. I'm not sure of much, but the only non-Hobbit on a national ticket at the moment is Sarah Palin.

So, here's a thought -- Do some goddamn things. A national referendum on whether or not we want to be efficient and effective in getting around or if we want to wait for miracles and the second coming before we get our asses in gear would be interesting. Spend the stimulous packages on building infrastructure. Fast-track repairs and replacements and improvements to existing roads, bridges, tunnels and so on. (Being on the viaduct was scary in good times let alone in an earthquake. Being in a fucking tunnel in what is largely undocumented fill next to a seawall that is leaking anyway during an earthquake scares the hell out of me sitting here in the Crossroads of Opportunity. Despite a Democratic governor, a Democratic Legislative Branch, a Democratic Mayor and a Democratic City Council, Seattle still hasn't figured this crap out. Being incompetent and ineffective and goddamned stupid has nothing to do with party affiliation. ) Alternatively,  announce  that with our debt, our crumbling infrastructure and our growing status as an exporter of raw materials and net importer of finished goods, we have become a third world country.

Some folks aren't so kind...even in her home town!

Downtown in Future VP's Home Town. The First Dude got drunk here...

Clusterdouche? Well, if the Palin thing were any more insane, then the AXE would have to counter with cluster snake fuck goat rodeo, which would be a great name for a Cowpunk band and pretty much sums this crap up. Aunt Bee's great granddaughter with a Winchester. Who loves Jesus, thinks gaydom is an abomination, T-REX probably   elped build the pyramids, polar bears should just get over it, and drill, drill, drill  all over Alaska but run the pipeline to Canada. I think she's really a Canuck Alaska-sized mole... the effete maple syrup swilling hypocrites are going after our precious body fluids, or something.

There were a lot of Boston Irish who hated the Kennedys  who voted for Jack, Teddy, Bobby and all the rest simply because they were Irish. Oddly enough, there are a lot of Alaska Republicans who are confused, dazed and basically wierded out by the whole thing.

The reaction wasn't so rosy elsewhere. State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to tell her the news."She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"Green, who has feuded with Palin, brought up the big oil tax increase Palin pushed through last year. She also pointed to the award of a $500 million state subsidy to a Canadian firm to pursue a natural gas pipeline that's far from guaranteed.House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was also astonished at the news. He didn't want to get into the issue of her qualifications."She's old enough," Harris said. "She's a U.S. citizen."

I really, really, really, really want McCain to win now. Pelosi and Reid will eat them for lunch.  I'm really wondering if his strategy is run by the Monkees in one of their semi-tripped out moments? Isn't this something Mickey, Davy and Peter could have come up while they're loaded on robotussin and mentoes o or some goddamn teenybopper 60's drug substitute thing? Or, a group of radical right wing Christian end-timer True Believers , using this as a way of bringing about the end-times and the rapture quicker...Sarah Palin for Messianic Red Heifer! err, VP...err, uh, burnt offering? But, where in Alaska are they going to find hyssop. And, who's going to check all her hair to make certain it all has some red?