Have I mentioned how cool it is to see Rachel Maddow doing great in th

After a week of The Colbert Report, I thought this is funny, but it's going to get old quick. A year later, I thought it was funnier than ever, and I still think so.

After the first episode of Rachel Maddow, I thought this is just going to be rehashed Countdown. But she does come up with new news, including things I don't see on the blogs. And she has guests that aren't stale.

I did e-mail her to say "More Steve Benen, Less Pat Buchanan". So far she's only compromised.

Joe Klein wonders why McCain would deliberately put a "chill in the relationship with one of our NATO allies simply because McCain misheard a question." I'm wondering the same thing.

McCain didn't mishear a thing. He's still pissed about The Maine.

Apparently, the president can fire an SEC chairman. Visit www.professorbainbridge.com for details. McCain got that one right.

""Wall Street rallied Thursday, finding momentum at the end of a tough session, on talk that the government is working on a more permanent solution to absorbing bad debt. "

You didn't mention HOW they were planning on doing it. Let me re-post something I posted over on Salon's How the World Work's comments:

S&L Bailout x1, 000,000

Reports are now coming out of the Treasury that the Feds are going to set up a private company to buy up all the bad debts sitting on Wall Street’s books. This is going to be just like the $300 billion bailout of the S&L industry in late 80s when the federal government set up the RTC to close down all the failed S&Ls only at an enormously greater cost. One of the biggest problems with the current crisis is that NOBODY really knows how far the problem spreads.

Let me repeat that NOBODY knows just how big this thing really is. The derivates market is a mass of fog designed to hide risk.

Thanks to the now repealed Glass-Steagall Act the S&L crisis of the late 80s was largely contained to the commercial real-estate and Banking sectors. It was expensive but survivable. The era of ‘shared-risk’ means that the current crisis hits the entire financial sector and even crosses numerous borders with markets around the world taking a beating.

This new ‘government sponsored corporation’ will be on the hook for all those bad debts and their derivatives. And NOBODY knows just how much money they are talking about. $500 billion, $700 billion, $1 trillion. We DO NOT KNOW.

Meanwhile the twits who made all these bad decisions will ride off into the sunset with their billions in profits and billions in taxpayer money that paid for all their mistakes.

When I started following the rape kit issue, long before I knew who Sarah Palin was, it was quite clear to all us feminists why they didn't want taxpayers to fund them. I think the Kos diary linked is an evidentiary stretch, but at an intuitive level, I do think that was Palin's reasoning.

Kudos to Rachel--The show is fantastic and she is great with the guests.

Although I'm not a Bill Maher fan, and I don't like him saying Americans are stupid, because that's demeaning to all of us--and rather simplistic--

but I love how Rachel just jumped in and gave her take and re-framed to a more substantive/accurate take: that Americans equate might makes for strength). In other words she's simply fantastic at re-capping what her guests are saying while also adding her own insightful take. Go Rachel!

Hope she exposes more about how creepy McCain/Palin are on women's issues.

--------------------------------------------------
I do think Biden is right in philosophy that it's Patriotic for wealthy Americans to do their part with taxes. However, I would've also liked him to emphasize (it was a very open-ended question about tax increases) that 95% of Americans won't see any tax increase, and that many will see more tax cuts than during the Reagan administration! Leaving this part off was like only telling a tiny part of the policy plan. And it sounded a bit preachy/condescending.

It would be more effective to emphasize that this "Patriotic" giving is indeed what strengthens us ALL--time to emphasize we're all in this together--it's not 'Wealthy versus Middle Class'.

http://alaskareport.com/news98/x61620_rape_palin.htm

Here's a link to the original article by Shannyn Moore at Alaska Report if you don't want to visit DKos.

"Reform, prosperity and peace is what Sarah Palin and I will bring to Washington," the Arizona senator said in Michigan 9/18/08

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/POLITICS01/809180378

Reform= set up all kinds of commissions to study problems because I am clueless about things like the economy

Prosperity= for those who will gain from making bush's tax-cuts permanent.

Peace= staying in Iraq for 100, 1,000, or a million years, and being so clueless about basic NATO allies (Spain for instance) that we can all be so confident that he understands what peace is.

I am aghast at the corporate socialism that we've seen these past few days. A quarter of a trillion dollars injected into the world markets??? Just how is that capitalism???
I smell something rotten. Bailouts = rewarding greed. So what if the global economy tanks?

As I stated somewhere else on WM, Biden needs to ask Palin who she expects pays for her boondoggle bridges and other earmarks up in Alaska. Ummmm, taxpayers? With taxes???

Speaking of Palin, we've all heard that she thought Tina Fey/SNL sketch was funny, but it turns out that Palin watched without the sound! Not kidding...

From Hannity:
HANNITY: One last question that I didn't ask you: Did you watch Tina Fey on "Saturday Night Live"?
PALIN: I watched with the volume all the way down and I thought it was hilarious, she was spot on.
HANNITY: Do you think you could play her one day?
PALIN: Oh absolutely. It was hilarious. Again, I didn't hear a word she said, but the visual was spot on.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,424346,00.html

Not that it needed to be said, but this blog is still uglier than the old one.

Oh, and me no-likie that people can't see my blog url under my comments. What do you people think I'm here for, my health? This is marketing, baby. Something needs to change. Don't make me take my comments to Eschaton.

Bill Clinton warned today (with Maria B. on MSNBC interview) not to under-estimate Palin--namely her "intuitive" sense of what folks want to hear...Yikes!

I really think Obama/Biden need to get coached by Didi Myers--she did a great job with keeping Clinton on his toes and looking out for the "traps".

On the Anchorage Daily News site, they have links to some Alaska bloggers. I thought this blog entry re Troopergate was particularly interesting:

http://alaskareal.blogspot.com/2008/09/palin-stop-slander.html
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
Sarah, stop the slander
I honestly am just so frustrated with what Gov. Palin has been doing and saying, I cannot write what I was going to write. What she is attempting to do with Walt Monegan - shift the blame and public disgust to him, rather than be "open" and "welcome the investigation" as she has repeatedly promised in the past - is just beyond digust to me.
His firing was a shock to many, and gained attention it specifically BECAUSE OF THIS MAN'S EXCELLENT REPUTATION and propensity to fight for those who needed it the most. Nobody saw the firing coming.
~~~
Go read the whole thing. The photo at the top of the page is gorgeous, too, another reason to check this out.

The occupation of Afghanistan will never go well.

Chuck Hegel must be another

REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA!

like that woman who used to head up HP.

No one can take the smell of horse shit forever.

Good to see comparisons of the response to Ike and other government actions.

When Obama spoke in Germany I was surprised to learn that the Berlin air supply line was organized and delivering goods for a fully operational city in three days. Three days...from zero. And the whole thing was _by air cargo_.

It is criminal that Ike is being handled as badly as it is even now. Anyone still living in the area has to spend most of their day waiting around for food, water and ice. At one location they were forced to wait in cars, they couldn't just walk up! Another place is setup so you can register with FEMA. But it is just a bank of ten computers connected to the FEMA website! No humans from FEMA. If you were homeless at the time, guess what, the computer can't handle the situation. In order to get actual aid, you have to wait at your address for them to survey the damage. Yet with Google Earth you can zoom in with satellite imagery in a few seconds with before/after shots.

Crazy bad government, exactly like Bush wants it, oh, and the person handling the response is Chertof. Why do we have a FEMA chief?

Good thing is that the press conferences are great: a bunch of Republicans all patting themselves on the back with praise about how well they have done. Take credit early and often.

Once the financial crisis passes on Wall Street maybe the networks will notice what is happening in South East Texas.

"Talk about a roller-coaster week: "Wall Street rallied Thursday, finding momentum at the end of a tough session, on talk that the government is working on a more permanent solution to absorbing bad debt. Also helping lead the advance: reports that China will cut out taxes on stock purchases. The Dow Jones industrial average added 410 points, or 3.9%. The Standard & Poor's 500 index jumped 4.3% and the Nasdaq composite gained 4.8%."

Okay, the Dow dropped about 500 yesterday and up 400 today. That's a net loss of about 100 points in one day. The "permanent solution" the government is working on is sticking the taxpayers with the debt of failing banks, investment banks and so on. Real bad idea people. We will be the ones absorbing the debt! There are both Democrats and Republicans supporting this absolutely terrible idea. This would be the Bear Stearns/Fannie and Freddie Mac/AIG rescues on steroids. If we are going to have active socialism in this country, let's have it to support the people, not the corporations.

Whenever Universal Health Care is brought up, the Republicans immediately begin a chorus of shreiks; "You won't be able to choose your own doctor!"
"Faceless bureaucrats will control your treatment!" The usual.

So why aren't these same Republicans shrieking that, "You won't be able to choose your own broker!" "Faceless bureaucrats will control your investments!"

Couldn't be that it's because the people who became rich off of this debacle are going to keep their money (And pay only 15% in taxes on it), no one is going to jail and that the bill will be paid by you and me and our children and our grandchildren - could it? In the good old days, the ones for which the Republicans are so nostalgic, the monkeys who perpetrated all of these frauds would have been tarred and feathered. Now they all get golden parachutes.

It is very sad that U.S. court rulings do not set a shining example for the world. This country has lost a lot of its credentials. When I think of those credentials, I realize that, in spite of many abuses over the decades, the U.S. has been regarded as a trustworthy holder of great power. Other nations have let us carry the means of world destruction on not much more than the promise not to use it irresponsibly.

Now, the weight of that promise is not so great. I wonder how soon we will be seriously forced to give it up.

As the late Mr. LaFontaine may have put it:

"In a world where a single attack could lay waste a continent . . . one nation was entrusted with the keys to the Western arsenal.

Until now . . ."

Fundamentals, they're hard to keep track of.

Like houses.

http://diy.despair.com/output/poster45929222.jpg

from "informed consent" http://www.juancole.com/

"Not McCain himself but some neocons around him may really be annoyed with Spain because Spanish intelligence is in Herat province and blew the whistle on the mistake the Pentagon made in bombing the civilian village of Azizabad and killing 90 people in late August."

the post links to this story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4710062.ece

Caribou Barbie makes Bush sound like a poet laureate:

"Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."

Gristmill via Mark Kleiman:
http://www.samefacts.com/archives/palin_/2008/09/impersonation.php

" Joe Klein wonders why McCain would deliberately put a "chill in the relationship with one of our NATO allies simply because McCain misheard a question." I'm wondering the same thing."

My guess would be that he is totally irresponsible. After 8 years of accountability-free GOP under the Bush, they've completely lost any sense of responsibility they ever had. Just a bunch of self-absorbed sociopaths.

a patriotic duty to pay more in taxes

Exactly. As more than one bumper sticker has pointed out, "Freedom isn't free." Of course, the people sporting those bumper stickers are only thinking in terms of spending other people's lives, not their own money. But I think it's high time we apply the sentiment to the simple act of supporting the society in which you live and (presumably) thrive.

koreyel, CB learns the fungible word. Aren't we all proud of her?
I'd lay donuts to dollars (The former now being worth more than the latter) that "fungible" has come out of her mouth about 1/1000th as much as another f-word.

You gotta believe that this shit is going to wear real thin real fast.

From TPM

McCain Press Aide Calls Alaska Reporter At Home To Complain About Unfavorable Coverage
By Zachary Roth - September 18, 2008, 6:03PM

Here's a little more evidence that the McCain-Palin campaign is playing the hardest of hardball on Trooper-Gate -- especially in regard to press relations.

Jason Moore, a reporter with Anchorage-based KTUU-TV, just confirmed to TPMmuckraker that Megan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign in Alaska, called his home to complain about one of Moore's news reports, and accused Moore of calling Stapleton and another McCain staffer liars.

Moore's report looked at the McCain-Palin campaign's "Truth Squad," an aggressive Alaska-based public relations campaign that's being led by Stapleton and former federal prosecutor Ed O'Callaghan and is designed to help thwart the Trooper-Gate investigation.

Moore reported that the Truth Squad was not always entirely truthful itself. He noted that Stapleton had said in a Friday press conference that it was Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, who had pulled one name, that of former Palin chief of staff Mike Tibbles, off the list of witnesses to receive subpoenas. Stapleton had pointed to this as an inappropriate political maneuver by French.

But in fact, Moore reported, it was GOP Rep. Jay Ramras, a McCain supporter, who took Tibbles' name off the list. Moore quoted Ramras saying so.

Stapleton and O'Callaghan have another "Truth Squad" press conference scheduled for 7pm EST tonight.

Moore told TPMmuckraker that he and Stapleton -- who was a press aide to Palin before eventually moving over to the McCain campaign -- used to work together as co-anchors on KTUU. "We're friends," he said.

When Stapleton called his home, said Moore, she reached Moore's wife, and immediately told her: "Your husband just called two Hoyas liars." Stapleton, O'Callaghan, and Moore's wife all attended Georgetown University, whose mascot is the Hoyas.

Moore added that Stapleton had also called the news director of KTUU to complain.

Asked whether he and Stapleton really remained friends, Moore allowed: "It hasn't been too friendly this week."

I second Hannah's recommendation about the Alaska Real blog, but don't stop with the article she recommends. There are a number of great articles just on the first two days.

I particularly suggest you read the discussion (September 8) of Obama and McCain's record on Native Alaskan issues which I have quoted here previously. Again, it was this article that reminded me yet again why I am voting FOR Obama and not just AGAINST McCain.

"first two days" should be "first two pages." Mets rally distracting me, plus a new cat's arrival in the family.

koreyel, CB learns the fungible word. Aren't we all proud of her?

The only problem with the Caribou Barbie nickname is when it is abbreviated. I saw the above and thought "hold it, CarpetBagger isn't a 'her'!"

The APA has voted to prohibit members from participating in the torture of detainees.

My family has voted the same way on this issue, should we ever find ourselves with any detainees.

Re Egan and Alaska law...

Most states, a mayor of a town of 6K is, to use biz language, only the (unpaid) chairman of the board and NOT the CEO as well. That's what you have a city administrator, or in a larger town a city manager, hired to do. It's absurd to elect someone in a town that size to be its chief exec.

(Not to excuse Palin's other ineptitute.)

Related pet peeve -- why do we elect sheriffs in every state in the union (as far as I know)? We don't elect police chiefs at the local level or state directors of public safety. Individual states need to amend their constitutions.

On Olbermann vs. Maddow, his schtick is getting old, and he too blindly drank the Obama Kool-Aid early on. Keith, go back to ESPN with Dan Patrick.

Zeitgeist, "CB" can stand for "corrupt bitch," or even worse.

Alex, a mere technicality that Prof. B cites, as more than one poster has already noted. And, which Schmuck Talk certainly DIDN'T know. Nice try, but ...

Wrong.

Where is the Rachel Maddow podcast? MSNBC has to get their act together. RM is one of the only cable talkers I'd put up with ads to podcast.

Note to Todd Palin:

Take your AIP and secede. You've fallen well behind Texas in production, and it will save the rest of us our share of $213 federal gravy per year for every man, woman and child.

McSame and Playlinmate are sinking ... best news of all.

Kmt9o7 pgupfibtoaui, [url=http://lolgewopshca.com/]lolgewopshca[/url], [link=http://svshbsizmpys.com/]svshbsizmpys[/link], http://pzgozrlvqmfm.com/

The debates were always going to be interesting. Now I think they're going to be high art farce and well worth watching, even with the sound turned down.

SNL will be hilarious (I guarantee it) for a few weeks after each debate. Of course, they could just replay them word for word since they'll be hard to improve on.

"This would be the Bear Stearns/Fannie and Freddie Mac/AIG rescues on steroids. If we are going to have active socialism in this country, let's have it to support the people, not the corporations."

impeach,

Ain't that the truth. I'm livid. According to Henry Liu in the Asia Times, Fannie and Freddie have risk assets amounting to $5 TRILLION DOLLARS. Even assuming that they can get partial asset recovery, Dr. Liu thinks F&F, now under the wing of the US gov, is looking at a loss of somewhere around $3.5 TRILLION. And that's just two companies (!), although probably the two most in trouble with bad mortgage paper plus mortgage insurance obligations. I think today's government bailout probably indicates that the whole house of cards would have come falling down if anyone had even a hint of how bad things really are. Whether the government's action is justified in that case is a question for someone other than me to answer.

But in any case, like you, I'm furious that the very people who were playing Ponzi Scheme (TM) won't lose a dime. And today, of all days, I learn that an internet friend of mine will be hitting the streets tomorrow, homeless and penniless. How about an emergency organization for those in this society who, for one reason or another and yes, sometimes even through their own failures or weaknesses or eccentricities, find themselves losing in the capitalist game. If we're not going to take care of ordinary people in real need, then forget the bankers and stock brokers and insurance companies and CEOs.

Freaking hilariousN wealthy americans need to pay more taxes. If it were up to me every merican would have to spend a month in Iraq. Rich and poor, black and white, young and old.

Start there then we will talk about taxes.

MarkH - were you snarking at Palin for saying she watched Fey's SNL but with the sound turned down? Heh, like "I smoked but I didn't inhale ..." What a riot. This should go up here.

"When Joe Biden claimed wealthy Americans have a patriotic duty to pay more in taxes, he was absolutely right."

Nobody has any patriotic duty, except scoundrels. Biden is full of shit and I would like to see his economic analysis that sets the tax rate and consequences, for which I think, he is clueless.

I know it's late and this is the end of the thread, but I've got to mention this thought. What a tremendous end to the Bush / Cheney administration. Talk about going down in a ball of flames. It's kind of unbelievable. Chaos, really. Add to that, McCain fumbling through the week and it's got to be really tough to be a "conservative" -whatever that means these days.

Palin stopping investigations, blackberry inventions by a guy who can't use a computer, strong fundamentals, and the most difficult thing for a republican to swallow... Biggest. Government. Ever.

Matt, if you want to stop paying taxes, stop making money.

"Biden is full of shit and I would like to see his economic analysis that sets the tax rate and consequences, for which I think, he is clueless."

Hey Matt, if you don't think that getting money into the hands of those that spend it is worthwhile, then what is your suggestion for solving the current problems ? The depression was caused by significant amounts of debt, stagnant incomes, and the subsequent severe demand destruction. You had farmers and other producers literally throwing things out while people starved and lost their homes. We have all of the same symptoms, and are starting to experience demand destruction now after the Bush stimulus checks have been spent.

You see, a lot of people in this country that think they're rich are about to learn a very important lesson in how the economy works. If you strap the lower income classes to the point that they shut down all non-essential spending, then you experience demand destruction that will spiral out of control if you don't reign it in by getting more money into the hands of the lower income classes.

Hopefully Obama is elected and get a handle on this. However, if nothing is done (McCain), then you're going to see a lot of people that were bitching about "socialist" policies and "wealth redistribution" (go check out the comments section for Joe Klein's post regarding this at Time's web site) suddenly wondering why they're losing their businesses and homes. And all because they didn't want to pay an extra few points on their upper marginal income. That, my friends, is stupidity that you can believe in.

OK, ok, the rich have to pay more taxes. So do the not-so-rich, let's face it, we ran up the credit card and now it is time to pay the piper.

Nobody is talking about a higher tax burden across the board. What the hell happened to "shared burden"?

1/2 a trillion dollars.

We can't possibly provide healthcare to our citizens, it's too expensive and would put more burden on taxpayers.

So let's create wealthcare.

Wealthcare will take over bad mortgages and banks can start lending again.

How is this showing fiscal restraint???

Haphazard bailouts have now morphed into , tada wealthcare!

God bush america.

Wealthcare. The newest fad in Washington.

More later.

Why the media balckout on the Galveston tragedy? Why do they say they cannot account for thousands of people? There cannot be many people in this country without SS numbers. There must be information about postal addresses & who lives/owns them. There are thousands unaccounted for and a lot that the government is not telling us.

Alex, a mere technicality that Prof. B cites, as more than one poster has already noted. And, which Schmuck Talk certainly DIDN'T know. Nice try, but ... Wrong.

Cross-posted from another thread:

Notice the inherent dysfunction of the wingnut mindset, here. They're silent, unable to offer up any relevent thoughts of their own until a right-wing blogger posts the talking points. Then, full of relief and marching orders in hand, blockheads like majarosh file out to liberal blogs to assert -- on their own (feeble) authority -- that the host is wrong.

Only one argued in enough good faith to post reference, so that the argument could be evaluated. Now, as I understand it, there's considerable debate in the comments to Professor Bainbridge's post as to whether his assertion of a technicality has any real relevance to McCain's statement. But hey, Republicans have so little to hang their hats on, any tendentious technicality will do, right?

Here's a clue, wingnuts: Your assertion and a buck will buy a cup of coffee, and a lousy one at that. You'll need to bring a lot more that your word to demand a correction.

Haven't you idiots learned yet not to trust the bullshit posted on right-wing blogs, no matter how comfortable it may be to your cognitive dissonance? Good Ford, the complete domination of you so-called conservatives by emotion over logic is simply embarrassing to behold.

What I thought was interesting on Prof Bainbridge's website is that while he defends McCain on the question of whether the President can fire the SEC Chairman, the first post where he does so is titled "McCain's Moronic Critique of Cox".

"When Joe Biden claimed wealthy Americans have a patriotic duty to pay more in taxes, he was absolutely right."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Why is it that the same people who say "Freedom Isn't Free!" to justify sending young men and women into harm's way are the same ones who want tax cuts?

Proposed bumper sticker: "FREEDOM ISN'T FREE! PAY YOUR FREAKIN' TAXES!"

"Nobody is talking about a higher tax burden across the board. What the hell happened to "shared burden"?"

How about we all share the burden when we all start sharing in the benefits ? In case you haven't noticed, the people that Obama is targeting for tax cuts have seen jack-shit in wage increases over the last 8 years while the rich have seen their income and assets go through the roof. Well, guess what ? It's time to pay the piper.

Steve has been doing a spectacular job of covering the politcial fallout from the recent economic crisis. For those of you, who like me, are still trying to understand what is happening, Steve Levitt over at the Freakonomics blog on the New York Times did a great post on the crisis. Here's the link:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/diamond-and-kashyap-on-the-recent-financial-upheavals/?em

The APA has voted to prohibit members from participating in the torture of detainees. Good.

The fact that such a vote even had to be taken or that this was even an issue in the United States? Bad.

I know all about the battering of the middle class, that isn't the point.

We are all in this mess because tens of millions of us, including a good many members of the middle class, voted for really, really bad leadership.

Now we pay the piper. I am all for making others pay more, why would it follow that I am helping dig us out of the mess by paying less?

It aint gunna happen, period. If we want a strong country we will all pay more. Otherwise we will just redistribute an increasing amount of pain.

Damn republicans and the myth of the sturdy yeoman peasantry.