Where's Bush

Where's George W. (The Worst) Bush been hiding? He did not attend the Republi-con National Convention, appearing only by video. And to date, he has not appeared in public at a campaign rally for any Republi-con candidate. Read CBS News, The Invisible Man Of Campaign '08.

An appropriate end to Bush's presidency, don't you think.

What’s the Difference Between Sarah Palin and a Pit Bull?

Lipstick and $150,000 worth of designer clothes.

Read Washington Post, Neimansgate, and see how hard it is to spend $150,000 on clothes.

The Mistake is Presuming that Republi-cons Have Decency

Maureen Dowd is not usually so serious. But today she wrote an op-ed worth repeating here in full, in which she admires Colin Powell for pushing back on ugly innuendo. Read New York Times, Moved by a Crescent:

"Colin Powell had been bugged by many things in his party’s campaign this fall: the insidious merging of rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim with intimations that he was a terrorist sympathizer; the assertion that Sarah Palin was ready to be president; the uniformed sheriff who introduced Governor Palin by sneering about Barack Hussein Obama; the scorn with which Republicans spit out the words "community organizer"; the Republicans’ argument that using taxes to "spread the wealth" was socialist when the purpose of taxes is to spread the wealth; Palin’s insidious notion that small towns in states that went for W. were "the real America."

But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards — the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star — and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith.

"I stared at it for an hour," he told me. "Who could debate that this kid lying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?"

Khan was an all-American kid. A 2005 graduate of Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J., he loved the Dallas Cowboys and playing video games with his 12-year-old stepsister, Aliya.

His obituary in The Star-Ledger of Newark said that he had sent his family back pictures of himself playing soccer with Iraqi children and hugging a smiling young Iraqi boy.

His father said Kareem had been eager to enlist since he was 14 and was outraged by the 9/11 attacks. "His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go," Feroze Khan, told The Gannett News Service after his son died. "He looked at it that he’s American and he has a job to do."

In a gratifying "have you no sense of decency, Sir and Madam?" moment, Colin Powell went on "Meet the Press" on Sunday and talked about Khan, and the unseemly ways John McCain and Palin have been polarizing the country to try to get elected. It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo.

Even the Obama campaign has shied away from Muslims. The candidate has gone to synagogues but no mosques, and the campaign was embarrassed when it turned out that two young women in headscarves had not been allowed to stand behind Obama during a speech in Detroit because aides did not want them in the TV shot.

The former secretary of state has dealt with prejudice in his life, in and out of the Army, and he is keenly aware of how many millions of Muslims around the world are being offended by the slimy tenor of the race against Obama.

He told Tom Brokaw that he was troubled by what other Republicans, not McCain, had said: " ‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?"

Powell got a note from Feroze Khan this week thanking him for telling the world that Muslim-Americans are as good as any others. But he also received more e-mails insisting that Obama is a Muslim and one calling him "unconstitutional and unbiblical" for daring to support a socialist. He got a mass e-mail from a man wanting to spread the word that Obama was reading a book about the end of America written by a fellow Muslim.

"Holy cow!" Powell thought. Upon checking Amazon.com, he saw that it was a reference to Fareed Zakaria, a Muslim who writes a Newsweek column and hosts a CNN foreign affairs show. His latest book is "The Post-American World."

Powell is dismissive of those, like Rush Limbaugh, who say he made his endorsement based on race. And he’s offended by those who suggest that his appearance Sunday was an expiation for Iraq, speaking up strongly now about what he thinks the world needs because he failed to do so then.

Even though he watched W. in 2000 make the argument that his lack of foreign policy experience would be offset by the fact that he was surrounded by pros — Powell himself was one of the regents brought in to guide the bumptious Texas dauphin — Powell makes that same argument now for Obama.

"Experience is helpful," he says, "but it is judgment that matters.""

Without fear, anger, and hatred, the Republi-cons would be lost.

Shop Baby Shop

First Palin charged the state of Alaska for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

Then she billed the campaign for more than $150,000 in purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Macy’s, Barney’s New York and Atelier New York (a men’s clothing store) for her family's clothes.

And now it is revealed that the McCain campaign paid $13,200 for Palin's make-up. (And you thought she was just a natural hottie.)

So much for the no-frills hockey mom who sold the state plane and fired the official cook, celebrity has gone to her head.

Can't wait to see what she can do with $700 billion!

Economic Models Explained With Cows, 2008 Update

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbor.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away...

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

THE ANDERSEN MODEL
You have two cows.
You shred them.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

Whining Republi-cons

Have you ever heard such whining, it is incessant, the poor Republi-cons are 'victims' of bias in 'unreal' America. Charles Gibson, Katie Couric, Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill, Tom Brokaw, Bob Schieffer, Kathleen Parker, and Colin Powell (to name a few) are all bias. Who next, God.

I for one am tired of it. Republi-con should stand up and accept responsibility for what they have done to this country, starting with 9/11, Iraq, secret prisons and torture, Katrina, budget deficits, and now the economy. Instead it is ignore, manipulate, deny, conceal, hide, suppress, silence, undermine, distort, then lie.

Is that 'real' America?

Al-Qaeda Praises Bush and Supports McCain

Al-Qaeda praises the foreign and economic policies of George W. (The Worst) Bush and supports McCain as "the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend." See Washington Post, On Al-Qaeda Web Sites, Joy Over U.S. Crisis, Support for McCain.

Who needs the communist middle class when you have corporate interest and Al-Qaeda on your side.

Republi-con America

John Stewart on the Republi-con's so-called Real America. Then visit Real America in Wasilla, and see real American stuff, including tattoos of your naked ex-wife and girlfriends, meth addiction, and a secessionist group. It will make ya proud to be a Real American.

Then after you are done, you can take a quiz to find out if you're a real American or a fake one.

The Rats Are Abandoning Ship, Cont.

First Colin Powell, now Kenneth Adelman, a lifelong conservative Republi-con, says he will vote for Obama. See The New Yorker, First Collin Powell, Now . . . When asked why, Adelman said:

"Primarily for two reasons, those of temperament and of judgment.

When the economic crisis broke, I found John McCain bouncing all over the place. In those first few crisis days, he was impetuous, inconsistent, and imprudent; ending up just plain weird. Having worked with Ronald Reagan for seven years, and been with him in his critical three summits with Gorbachev, I’ve concluded that that’s no way a president can act under pressure.

Second is judgment. The most important decision John McCain made in his long campaign was deciding on a running mate.

That decision showed appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office—I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign—Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick.

I sure hope Obama is more open, centrist, sensible—dare I say, Clintonesque—than his liberal record indicates, than his cooperation with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid portends. If not, I will be even more startled by my vote than I am now."

Who next? Will Bush vote for McCain?

Judicial Activism and the Second Amendment

Republi-cons are always bemoaning judicial activism and courts that overturn legislation enacted by elected representatives. But you didn't hear many complaints when the Supreme Court overturned the D.C. gun ban. However see New York Times, Ruling on Guns Elicits Rebuke From the Right, in which "[t]wo prominent federal appeals court judges say that Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in the case, District of Columbia v. Heller, is illegitimate, activist, poorly reasoned and fueled by politics rather than principle."

BS Award

Let me see if I understand. The taxpayers give a $125 billion bailout to major banks because they are short of cash and need the money to recapitalize. But the banks will be allowed to pay their shareholders dividends this next year, which if paid at current levels will redirect more than $25 billion of the $125 billion to shareholders. And the officers and directors of the banks may receive $250 million in dividends. See New York Times, This Bailout Doesn’t Pay Dividends.

This BS, pure and simple. Businesses that receive government bailouts should be required to suspend dividends until the taxpayers are repaid with interest.

Credible Allegation That Bush Ordered Arrest as Prop for 2002 State of the Union Speech

A court filing alleges that the Bush administration ordered the Bosnian government to arrest and hold the men after an exhaustive Bosnian investigation had found them innocent of any terrorism related activity and had ordered their release, in order to use them as props in Bush's January 2002 State of the Union speech. See, Mother Jones, 16 Words: New Court Filing Suggests Manufactured Terror Threat in Bush's 2002 State of the Union.

In 2012, Will It Be a Palin/Gingrich Steel-Cage Death Match

The election is still two weeks away and already there is talk of a post-election Republi-con blood bath centered on Palin. In New York Magazine, The Right’s Class War, former Reagan economic adviser Bruce Bartlett is said to predict that the 2012 Republican primaries will turn into a "Palin/Gingrich steel-cage death match."

The Economy is Like Life

If the economy has you down then read, Washington Post, In Good Times and Bad, and remember:

"If things seem splendid, they will get worse. Success inspires overconfidence and excess. If things seem dismal, they will get better. Crisis spawns opportunities and progress. Our triumphs and follies follow a rhythm that, though it can be influenced, cannot be repealed."

So relax.

How Come Palin Still Hides From the Press

How come Joe the so-called Plumber has given more interviews and answered more questions from reporters than Sarah Palin?? Palin even refused to take questions during the SNL skit about her first press conference.

But admit it, the Alaskan rap song was absolutely hilarious.

Just imagine, if McCain wins, we'll get four years of SNL skits about Palin. Almost makes you want to vote Republi-con.

President McCain or Generational Change, Which Will It Be

Obama received more than $150 million in political donations in September, and on Sunday got Colin Powell's endorsement. Powell is a retired Army general who was a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George Bush and President Bill Clinton. Powell said of McCain "As gifted as he is, he is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda, with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it. But I think we need a generational change."

One Republican strategist described the endorsement by saying that "Powell is a glass of warm milk and a cookie for those who can’t sleep worrying about the lack of experience of a President Obama."

But McCain might still win. Read, Washington Post, Just in Case McCain Wins, A Survival Guide for Reporters Who Wrote Him Off.

More Articles About How We Got Into, and How We Might Fix, the Economic Mess

Read Time, Nobel Laureate: How to Get Out of the Financial Crisis. Joseph Stiglitz writes that the "troubles we now face were caused largely by the combination of deregulation and low interest rates . . . [ l] oose money and light regulation were a toxic mixture." He suggests that we recapitalize banks, stem the tide of foreclosures, pass a stimulus that works, restore confidence through regulatory reform, and create an effective multilateral agency.

Also read Washington Post, We Forgot Everything Keynes Taught Us.

And if you are interested in more details, see The Baseline Scenario, Financial Crisis for Beginners.

Or play an updated version of the Depression-era board game Monopoly, Econoply, with loose money, instant mortgages, vague and constantly-changing rules, and Bankers that can't go bankrupt.

A Dog's Purpose (Who Cares If It Is a True Story)

A Dog's Purpose (from a 6-year old).

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolf hound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, 'I know why.'

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, 'People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?' The Six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.'

Forrest Gump Explains the Economic Crisis

If asked about the economic crisis, Forrest Gump might say:

"Mortgage Backed Securities are like boxes of chocolates. Criminals on Wall Street stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds. Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poor rated these boxes AAA Investment Grade chocolates. These boxes were then sold all over the world to investors. Eventually somebody bites into a turd and discovers the crime. Suddenly nobody trusts American chocolates anymore worldwide.

Hank Paulson now wants the American taxpayers to buy up and hold all these boxes of turd-infested chocolates for $700 billion dollars until the market for turds returns to normal. Meanwhile, Hank's buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the good chocolates are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted.

Mama always said: 'Sniff the chocolates first Forrest'."

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