I am having trouble keeping my breakfast down listening and reading about these Fascists Republicans suddenly try to act like champions of regulation. Just who is buying this crapola?? Sense the election of Ronnie Ray-gun with his Government is the problem and constant harping on the need to deregulate I have heard nothing but this mantra over and over again from these Cretans. If I hear one more of these Fascists say that now is not the time for blame, I will scream. By the way "HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY"!

Visit The Truth About Cars to see a long running history of Bob Lutz's ineptitude. The fact is GM, Ford, and Chrysler created the SUV trend, spewing forth gas guzzling behemoths, skimming easy profits, and failed to plan for the future. Now they are screwed. I feel sorry for the people who work there, but these companies shouldn't get a frikkin' dime.

RayC @ 1:

I am having trouble keeping my breakfast down listening and reading about these Fascists Republicans suddenly try to act like champions of regulation.

Surprised? Populism has always been a hallmark of fascists.

Republicans aren't anti-government. They're pro-wealthy-people and pro-corporate-power. Most of the time, the former can be used to justify the latter. But not all the time.

L.A. Confidential @ 4:

Revelation of Celestial Proportions

According to an AP-Yahoo! News poll, people would rather watch a football game with Barack Obama than with John McCain — but by barely the length of a football. Such views are significant because in many elections, candidates considered more likable often have an advantage.

Quite a quantum leap in the American consciousness there.

My boss just came back from getting a mammogram

Of course I couldn't ask what I was dying to ask,

Is that what one calls a topless telegram?

Need name suggestions for a facebook group:
No Socialism for Republicans!...or --other name suggestions?

*Link didn't work

Tapper

10 John

Kind of like when Marge Simpson became the Listen-Lady on her church phone answering problems. It gets to the point where after the sermon, people rush to surround her, and ignore Rev. Lovejoy who she now treats as her secretary.

RayC @ 1:

I am having trouble keeping my breakfast down listening and reading about these Fascists Republicans suddenly try to act like champions of regulation. Just who is buying this crapola?? Sense the election of Ronnie Ray-gun with his Government is the problem and constant harping on the need to deregulate I have heard nothing but this mantra over and over again from these Cretans. If I hear one more of these Fascists say that now is not the time for blame, I will scream. By the way "HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY"!

arrrrr matey!

Nick @ 3:

Visit The Truth About Cars to see a long running history of Bob Lutz's ineptitude. The fact is GM, Ford, and Chrysler created the SUV trend, spewing forth gas guzzling behemoths, skimming easy profits, and failed to plan for the future.

Their European branches, though, weren't off denying Global Warming.. they were working on alternative-fuel vehicles, hybrids, etc. And they didn't really build SUVs until relatively late in the game, after Detroit forced them to. (e.g. Volvo XC90)

I think the government should demand they dispose of their current top-management and let their European directors take over. You can't survive as an auto-maker today with only a single market, even if it's the US market. And it seems pretty obvious their current leadership is completely ignorant to what's going on outside the US borders.

right on! @ 20:

John J @ 10:

*McCain/Palin*

Have you been wondering who's at the top of the Republican ticket?

Palin leaks the truth. She's running for President!
(She's just waiting for the 72yr old with a history of cancer to kick the bucket)

Tapper
All this star treatment is heady stuff for Sarah-of-the-North... She's a diva and it's already gone to her head, this star power. Obama/Biden have to get in as president and VP... I'll have to throw myself on moose antlers if the Lying-Stoopids get in!

A WHAT Administration? A WHO Administration?

Uh-oh.

Gov. Sarah Palin is now talking about "a Palin and McCain administration."

I've also heard her refer to McCain as "my running mate" -- a term I don't recall ever hearing a VP nominee use when discussing the guy at the top of the ticket.

Maybe the fact that the crowds are leaving after she speaks, while McCain is speaking, is getting to her.

OOPS... here's where I meant my comment to go... (gotta lay off the espresso!)

All this star treatment is heady stuff for Sarah-of-the-North… She’s a diva and it’s already gone to her head, this star power. Obama/Biden have to get in as president and VP… I’ll have to throw myself on moose antlers if the Lying-Stoopids get in!

Just wondering why there is a story in Yahoo about the woman running for
Prosecutor in Vermont saying that if she's elected she will prosecute Bush for murder, and it's not on any of the progressive websites other than Smirking Chimp?

What gets me about the whole massive bailout of financial institutions isn't just the fact that the U.S. taxpayer is going to get the massive bailout bill. What really gets me is who are making these bailouts. The Federal Reserve and the U.S. treasury have used taxpayer money to bailed out or buy out financial institutions without going through Congress. The House of Representatives, Senate and the President had no say at all in these proceedings yet the U.S. taxpayer is going to get the bill in the end. If it wasn't apparent before, it sure is now when it comes to who actually controls the U.S. economy.

17 right on! Says: RayC @ 1:

I am having trouble keeping my breakfast down listening and reading about these Fascists Republicans suddenly try to act like champions of regulation. Just who is buying this crapola?? Sense the election of Ronnie Ray-gun with his Government is the problem and constant harping on the need to deregulate I have heard nothing but this mantra over and over again from these Cretans. If I hear one more of these Fascists say that now is not the time for blame, I will scream. By the way “HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY”!

arrrrr matey!
_____________________________________________________________

It's cretinous to call the cretinous Cretans

Hagel Warning
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/09/previously_unkn/#comments

Pic of the day: Obama's email leaked!

(The Onion..)

Arrr me hearties! Speaking of [and like] pirates did ya hear what interweb pirates "Anonymous" went and did?
Keel hauled mcpalin's secret yahoo email addy. Apparently it's true and has been confirmed.
'Tis said she was usin' it for her own doubloon making purposes and to avoid those annoying "sunshine" laws.

Does the Alaskan gov's mansion fly a jolly roger? It's probably should.

I can't wait for the debates... the mere thought of Obama smearing McLame with his deregulation bullshit lies is so heart-warming.

Obama just gave the most impressive, most presidential press conference that I have seen in at least 9 years. Wow! Very intelligent, easy to understand, non-partisan and a solid grasp of the gravity of what we are facing now. He took many questions from the press and answered them with aplomb, something that neither Booosh or McPow have done to date. This is the next President, folks.

Obama/Biden '08!

An email I just sent my wife:
_________

"Statistical and applied probabilistic knowledge is the core of knowledge; statistics is what tells you if something is true, false, or merely anecdotal; it is the "logic of science"; it is the instrument of risk-taking; it is the applied tools of epistemology; you can't be a modern intellectual and not think probabilistically—but... let's not be suckers. The problem is much more complicated than it seems to the casual, mechanistic user who picked it up in graduate school. Statistics can fool you. In fact it is fooling your government right now. It can even bankrupt the system (let's face it: use of probabilistic methods for the estimation of risks did just blow up the banking system)."

"Are we using models of uncertainty to produce certainties?

"This masquerade does not seem to come from statisticians—but from the commoditized, "me-too" users of the products. Professional statisticians can be remarkably introspective and self-critical."

_______

I would hope that such describes me. Not always, to be sure, but, I try to take Taleb's admonitions to heart. This is from his awesome take on the financial meltdown now still in progress.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/taleb08/taleb08_index.html

He humbles me.

Holy crap. That Mother Jones (MoJo) blog video of Palin's unscripted answer is unfuckinbelieveable. What the hell is she talking about????

Best Article So Far

Sue Them, Jail Them, Make Them Pay for Meltdown: Ann Woolner
by Ann Woolner

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- As it stands, the rest of us will be paying much money over a long time for the greed and bad judgment of those who melted down the economy.

Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are propping up firms that a relative few money lenders and Wall Street wizards ruined.

If that weren't enough, the crisis is shrinking the money that Americans diligently socked away for retirement, down payments on first homes, college for the kids or this winter's heating bill. We might as well have opened our windows and tossed out cash.

Beyond crimping living standards around the globe, the crumbling of the U.S. financial system has prompted action radical for a nation devoted to free enterprise. However necessary, it's nothing short of astounding that the U.S. government essentially nationalized the largest insurance company in the country.

The real kick in the teeth is that the executives who inflicted all this financial pain, who forced unprecedented government takeovers, walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars. It's up to us -- innocent little us -- to dig into our pockets, into our futures and into our children's futures to fix their spectacular errors.

Stanley O'Neal took a $161 million package last year when he left Merrill Lynch & Co. (remember Merrill Lynch?), even without a severance package in the mix. Angelo Mozilo, founder and top executive at Countrywide Financial Corp., reaped almost $122 million during 2007 in stock options alone.

For a mere three months at the helm of American International Group Inc., Chief Executive Officer Robert Willumstad gets a $7 million package.

Selling Stock Options

And while the value of Richard Fuld's shares in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. plunged roughly $1 billion, he still pulled in almost $490 million by selling options and share grants in the 14 years that the company's been public, according to Fortune magazine.

We now know those shares were grossly overpriced, resting as they did on subprime mortgages. Shouldn't he give back most of it? All of it?

At least the government is blocking the $24 million given to the fired top guns at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both taken over earlier this month.

As a rule, it isn't easy to take back money or benefits awarded as part of an employment contract, unless you can figure out some way the executive violated the contract's terms.

But it's worth a try. Consider these options.

Toss the rascals in jail. Criminal prosecution allows the government to seize ill-gotten gains. Snip the straps off those golden parachutes and grab them. Take over bank accounts, investment accounts, mansions, private planes and yachts.

Bear Stearns

The feds did bring charges against a couple of Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund managers in June, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller told Congress this week his agency is pursuing possible suspects ``as far up the corporate chain as necessary.''

The hitch is that proving executives lied in criminal ways is easier said than done, Enron and WorldCom convictions notwithstanding.

``Criminal prosecutions need to be specific, detail-oriented fact patterns where clear-cut criminality can be established,'' says Robert Mintz, white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor.

``These are broad, sweeping market failures that have swept up so many individuals and so many institutions that prosecutors will have a hard time singling out any entity, much less any institution, and hold them responsible,'' says Mintz, a partner in McCarter and English in Newark, New Jersey.

OK, so file civil suits.

Sue the Directors

WorldCom shareholders sued and wrangled $18 million from the pockets of directors, who agreed to pay more than 20 percent of their combined net worth. Another $36 million came from the directors' insurance carriers.

These days, collecting from an insurer might not be the best idea. If AIG is doing the insuring, it would be the taxpayers paying out.

William McGuire, former CEO of UnitedHealth Group Inc., agreed this month to personally cough up $30 million to resolve a lawsuit over stock-option backdating. That's on top of the $600 million in benefits -- mostly in stock options -- he said he will turn in to resolve another shareholder suit.

The problem is that it normally takes something akin to criminal conduct, such as options backdating or accounting fraud, for civil suits to take money out of the hands of the accused. And, as previously noted, it isn't clear we will have that here.

Stricter Regulation

Well, what about government regulators? The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission didn't do anything to prevent this meltdown. But at least, with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo leading the charge, federal and state regulators have forced investment banks to buy back billions of dollars worth of auction-rate securities said to have been sold under dubious claims of reliability.

The bankruptcy law may give Lehman Brothers creditors a chance to grab some of the bonuses the firm paid out last year.

If they can show bonuses were based on bogus claims of solvency, they can go after them, according to compensation expert Paul Hodgson of the Corporate Library, which analyzes corporate governance issues.

Some plaintiffs' lawyers apply the same principle when pushing for tougher corporate governance rules as part of settling a case.

The idea is that CEOs and CFOs who drew bonuses based on earnings that had to later be restated, for whatever reason, must automatically return the excess amount, according to Darren Robbins, a partner in Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins.

Frankly, it's only fair.

This could very well be the end of the GOP.

They will be in the political wilderness for 30 years.

Thankfully.

OMG! I got a nod from Mike. Thanks MIKE! Thank you, thank you and thank you. I think McCain's financial adviser is hot.

Listen. I don't care if you have to take a bus or hitchhike, but get down to wall street and give the first pinstriped "hero for America" all the cash you can spare, and then some.

They've got outrageous expenses like the yacht staff, the groundsmen, the hunky poolboy who tends to be a bit expensive.

You've been lavishing cash on them for years so it would be unfair to let them suffer the losses without a helping hand.

I said hand, not foot.

Lets have Olbermann and/or Maddow as Presidential Debate moderators. Instead we get McCain flunkies. Bob Schieffer will probably ask McCain to "describe the little fishes around the oil derricks".
Based on yard signs, there are a lot of moron voters in Amarillo,Texas. Their source of political news is probably MSM (thirty minutes a day).

Nada @ 51:

RE: Bob Lutz

The gm electric car IS a weak POS because of idiots like him trying to keep the entire world trapped in the f-ing 50's.
The American car makers are dying a slow government subsidized death because they are 50 years behind the times. And personally I'll be glad when they go. Isn't that just the market 'regulating' itself? When the makers of these flintstone cars finally go maybe we'll get someone who will build cars that are affordable, safe and green.

Agreed.

Businesses lose money and go bankrupt every day. Wasteful enterprises need to go bankrupt- our modern, wealthy lives are possible only because markets redirect wealth from less productive enterprises to more productive ones.

If unsuccessful entrepreneurs were punished for making losses, successful entrepreneurs – and our economy – would be destroyed as well. The real criminals are the politicians forcing you to pay for the market’s mistakes. Unfortunately, people like Ann Woolner are only encouraging them to continue to rob us – and cripple the market.