I got a pen right here. (That’s a sharpie, John.) You only get Miss Congeniality if you vote 100% with Bush. My 90% makes me a MAVERICK. MAVERICK! DID YOU HEAR ME!
Back in my day, we went to war in our bare feet. Uphill, both ways in the snow; you just don’t understand. You never went to war in your barefeet! (spits on podium in anger.)
You’re showing your naiivite. Maverick, maverick, POW.
You are riding on a beautiful white horse.
On your right side is a drop off.
On your left side are several ostriches being chased by a lion.
In front of you are four large gazelles that won’t get out of your way and you can’t seem to overtake them.
Behind you is a stampede of horses.
What must you do to get out of this highly dangerous situation?
Get your drunk ass off the merry-go-round.
Here’s an idea we all floated around the table at lunch, and Democrats and Republicans all agreed it was great:
Rather than use the $700 billion (or whatever the hell number) to bail out failing banks, why not take that money and pay off the mortgages of every single American who makes under $1 million a year?
THAT would stimulate your economy, right there. If my mortgage were paid off, we would immediately start building a big carriage house/garage with an apartment above it. I’d also buy a wii.
I want to hear a debate tonight. If McCain flew to Washington to fuck up talks about the bailout and to drag Obama into the weeds with him, he better stand up in front of me and explain himself.
If if he’s too much of a chicken to do so, then Obama should appear without him.
Harsh Republican Party in-fighting sidetracked the Bush administration’s $700 billion plan to bail out the battered financial services industry, and it’s uncertain how many GOP lawmakers will even take part in Friday’s resumption of closed-door negotiations in Congress.
Even for a party whose president suffers dismal approval ratings, whose legislative wing lost control of Congress and whose presidential nominee trails in the polls, Thursday was a remarkably bad day for Republicans.
A White House summit meeting called principally with the purpose to seal the deal that President Bush has argued is indispensable to stabilizing frenzied markets and reassuring the nervous American public descended into arguments — mostly among Republicans.
The meeting revealed that Bush’s proposal to combat the worst financial crisis in decades had been suddenly sidetracked by fellow Republicans in the House, who refused to embrace a plan that appeared close to acceptance by the Senate and most House Democrats.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson begged Democratic participants not to disclose how badly the meeting had gone, dropping to one knee in a teasing way before U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make his point according to witnesses.
Paulson reportedly pleaded Pelosi not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the financial rescue package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.
“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, according to a report in the New York Times, making a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, adding that “it’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”
When Paulson hastily tried to revive talks in a nighttime meeting near the Senate chamber, the House’s top Republican refused to send a negotiator.
“This is the president’s own party,” said Rep. Barney Frank, a top Democratic negotiator who attended both meetings. “I don’t think a president has been repudiated so strongly by the congressional wing of his own party in a long time.”
By midnight, it was hard to tell who had suffered a worse evening, Bush or McCain. McCain, eager to shore up his image as a leader who rises above partisanship, was undercut by a fierce political squabble within his own party’s ranks.
Emphasis mine.
I’ve tried numerous times to stop blogging about political matters. I’m not any sort of expert on them, and they do make me frazzled in a way that isn’t always healthy. There are lots of cool things going on in our lives that I should be talking about instead.
But like many people I know, in the last week I just can’t stop reading the papers. Lately I flip from the NYTimes.com to cnn.com to msnbc.com to abcnews.com to the huffingtonpost.com to talkingpointsmemo.com and then back again, trying to figure out what new shit is happening every day.
I think my attitude about all this is like millions of Americans. I go to work every day, do my job, come home, take care of my house & family, and pay the bills. I’m not over-extended or over my head. But now because some empty suits fucked up because they were greedy fuckers, we have to have another Great Depression and lose everything. I have to give up stuff I care about, work harder, tighten my belt and worry about my family and friends getting along and surviving.
Fuck that noise. I’d like to opt out of this new Great Depression, please. I did nothing wrong. I’m not fucking around on Wall Street. I’m not taking out loans I can’t pay back, or handing out loans I can’t get back. Why the fuck should this affect me? Let the shitheads responsible pay 700 billion dollars, or whatever made up number they’re throwing around.
Interestingly enough, the “It’s not my shit, why should I pay for it?” is the exact attitude that the Republican party has been cultivating for decades in regards to any social program whatsoever. But now they’re SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YOU1!! that American citizens are having this reaction to the bailout. Welfare is welfare, whether it’s being handing to starving people or people driving BMWs to work every day. I’d much rather give $2,300 dollars to people who are starving.
You guy rang that bell, so deal with it.
McCain canceled his appearance on the Letterman show to “race back to Washington to work on the crisis” but while the show was being taped, McCain was in THE SAME studio with Katie Couric instead.
Candidate Obama addresses what’s happened in the last few days. Every time I hear him speak, I think this guy is the most presidential guy I’ve seen in years.
Does Barack need to suspend the campaign and return home? Here’s an astute analysis from metafilter:
This is entirely needless. Yes, they’re both Senators, but that doesn’t put them on any sort of level at which they ought to be meeting with the sitting President as a pair on this issue. Nor should they be able to do that as candidates. And despite both being Senators, neither of them are on the Senate Banking Committee. Nor is either on on the Joint Economic Committee, from which the eventual bicameral bailout bill is expected to emerge.
As Senators, they have only three roles in this crisis: 1) to vote on the eventual bill, and 2) to negotiate with their networks within the Senate on the content of the bill, and 3) to speak publicly in support of their vision for the bill. Only one of those roles (1) requires presence in Washington, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to be happening Friday night. Congress was scheduled to end its session Friday – they may have to go into special session, in which case Friday evening won’t be when things get resolved anyway (that would be insanely optimistic!) The other two Senatorial functions can be fulfilled – indeed, perhaps best are fulfilled – by communicating from the road, privately and to the public and the press.
I am not sure I respect the judgement of a candidate who is so ready to go into panic mode over a crisis that he doesn’t really even have much power to direct at this moment. We’re six weeks away from electing one of these two men President. I think that the debates are actually a much more important way for them to spend their time than meddling in a process which is already well under way and doesn’t require special Candidate Magic to move forward. It will be easy for them to fulfill their rather limited (at this moment) Senatorial responsibilities while still campaigning, as sitting Congresspeople usually do. The choice of who will be leading us through the aftermath of this crisis over the next 4-8 years is a bit more important to me than watching them showboat right now. Put in your two cents, stay out of the way, vote when you’re called to, and stay accountable to the American people whose votes you’re asking for. Anything else looks like grandstanding and evasion. No other way to read it.
“It’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess,” said Obama. “Part of the president’s job is to deal with more than one thing at once.”
My favorite part of this is the Bush quote “now is not the time to be partisan. We need to come together…”
I disagree. I think this is a GREAT time to be partisan. The best possible time, actually. The Republicans FUCKED UP. There’s just no other way to see this. The fuck-ups don’t get to make decisions now. You’re done.
Someone somewhere made the analogy about the Iraq War rebuilding efforts — if someone breaks into your house, loots and steals all your stuff and kills your pets, you sure don’t want THEM to be the ones to try to help you sort everything out and help you get back on your feet afterwards.
The same holds true of this economic crisis.
Mary Ann Sullivan is the Democratic candidate for my district – Indiana House District 97. She’s running against ‘cut and run’ Jon Elrod, who was going to leave the District high and dry to run against Andre Carson, but then ran back to District 97 when he realized he couldn’t beat Andre.
I’ve met Mary Ann several times and she’s the smart, capable person we need in HD 97 – someone who will actually serve the people and not use the office as a stepping stone to the next job.