Gripedujour

In a day in which the major markets sold off nearly 4% finishing their worst close since September 11, the financial world seems to be at a loss for answers as to how to stem the tide of what is increasingly looking like a complete collapse of the American markets.

No one knows what Bernanke and his crew will do at their meeting tomorrow. CNBC is chock full of guests groping for answers. American financial wizards are at a loss.

We need a a superhero. We need someone who knows more about the financial system than perhaps anyone else in America. Damn you Sarah Palin— If only you lived next door to a bank!

By GOP reasoning this would make her an expert in the financial system and an expert is what we need now. We’ve already seen John McCain claim she knows more than anyone in America about energy ‘cuz she lives next to a pipeline. And we’ve all seen the Republicans fall over themselves claiming she’s an expert in Russia, ‘cuz she can see it from her house. Damn, don’t they even have an ATM in Wasilla? I’m sure in GOP circles that’d do.

C’mon Sarah, get out from under McCain’s shadow and tell us all how you live next door to an ATM (or at least have visited one) and with your super human intellect (journalism degree from Idaho State and GOP bullshit) that makes you the world’s most renowned expert in the field of finance.

Let’s go pitbull, get in there and input your PIN number— save us all!

These great graphs come courtesy of Media Matters and document both air time and number of clips shown on Fox “News” and all other networks over the past couple of weeks. Notice anything in particular? Maybe that not only does Fox “News”, which is to be expected, but all other media organizations give hella more time to the GOP lairs than to the Democrats trying to save this country from George Bush’s mess.

My newest favorite white-trash soap opera just got another installment. In this episode we steer away from druggie hoodlum brother Track, and refocus on sister Bristol. Turns out that in addition to being a drunk and a knocked-up high school drop out, just like her baby daddy, Bristol Palin is a man stealing bitch.

For the complete skinny click here.

Barack Obama accurately describes the failing of our major financial institutions as a “major threat”.

He also had this to say:

“The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren’t minding the store,” he said. “Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged out sized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.”

On the matter of the failing of two major financial institutions today John McCain recylcled his old line and had this to say:

“The fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

Watch it here.

Decide for yourself which man is better qualified to lead this nation.ction, wall stret

Here’s a longer version of the ad previously posted here.

Here’s a powerful new ad going directly after McCain’s POW status, told by a former POW who was in the Hanoi Hilton with McCain.

That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.

Anyone want to take odds on whether the national media takes note of this bad boy? Too busy covering lipsticks, pigs, and liars like Palin, probably.

A longer version of this ad can be found here.

Listen to the crowd go wild! Republicans love being duped. It’s amazing. The bigger the liar, the more they love ‘em. Check out this guy. I never seen anything like it. They know she’s lying, they just don’t care.

This is pretty good. The DNC has launched this site to keep track of John McCain’s bullshit. Countthelies.org keeps a running total of John McCain and Sarah Palin’s bullshit.

I can only imagine it’s a full-time job that employs a staff of hundreds. So far their at 52. Clearly they don’t count repeats, as Sarah Palin has told her Bridge to Nowhere lie about 33 times already.

GOP: Vote for liars! Truth, apparently, is not a Family Value.

There he goes again. With Lehman Brothers in liquidation, Merill Lynch being sold off for $50 billion to B of A, Washington Mutual and AIG on the verge of collapse, unemployment on the rise, $100 a barrel oil, $4 gallon gas, and Alan Greenspan describing the economic peril facing this country as a once in a century kind of thing, Grandpa Simpson had this to say today:

 ”The fundamentals of our economy are strong”

Whether you agree with him or not, what the fuck is he doing repeating that disastrous line on a day like today? Maybe it’s true what he said, maybe he really doesn’t know that much about the economy.

Well, this is the American Idol of Presidential elections, so why not a word from Lindsay Lohan’s My Space Page:

Is our country so divided that the Republicans best hope is a narrow minded, media obsessed homophobe? 

Or this gem:

Palin’s Desire to “save and convert the gays”-really?? 
According to this Associated Press story, the church of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is hosting a kind of conference devoted to the “conversion of Gays” — no kidding. 

What about this one:

I find it quite interesting that a woman who now is running to be second in command of the United States, only 4 years ago had aspirations to be a television anchor.

I started this post 15 seconds ago with the idea that I was semi-making fun of Lindsay Lohan. Now what I’m thinking about is that Lindsay Fucking Lohan seems to be better informed than many Americans, and most journalists. Scary fucking shit! Lindsay can take time out of her vagina baring schedule to bone up on the issues better than your average Joe.

The rest of Lindsay’s “thoughts” on Sarah Palin here.

By the way, her mood today is “shocked.”

From the Atlantic: Back when she was increasing the long-term debt of the town of Wasilla by 69 percent, Mayor Palin also fired the town’s police chief and librarian, Irl Stambaugh and Mary Ellen Emmons. The accusation was that they were fired because they had supported her opponent in the previous election. Palin denied any political motivation. But whatever the merits of the firing, what is salient is that Palin’s reflexive instinct was to lie in public about it. From theAnchorage Daily News:

Reached at her home … Palin said she planned to meet with Stambaugh and Emmons this afternoon. She also disputed whether they had actually been fired. ‘‘There’s been no meeting, no actual terminations,” she said.

This was another odd lie – easily disproven:

Stambaugh’s response was to read part of the letter given to him. ”Although I appreciate your service as police chief, I’ve decided it’s time for a change. I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment. . . . ” ”If that’s not a letter of termination, I don’t know what is,” he said.

You all know the drill: In her speeches, Sarah Palin routinely and repeatedly uses the phrase: “I told the Congress ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.” In the McCain-Palin ads, the claim is that she “stopped the Bridge to Nowhere.”

Here are the facts, with documentation:

In 2006, Palin ran for governor on a “build-the-bridge” platform,^[101]attacking “spinmeisters”^[102] for insulting local residents by calling them “nowhere”^[101] and urging speed “while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.”^[103] About two years after the introduction of the bridge proposals, a month after the bridge received sharp criticism from John McCain,^[104] and nine months into Palin’s term as governor, Palin canceled the Gravina Bridge, blaming Congress for not providing enough funding.^[105] Alaska will not return any of the $442 million to the federal government^[106] and is spending a portion of the funding, $25 million, on a Gravina Island road to the place where the bridge would have gone, expressly so that none of the money will have to be returned.^[101] Palin continues to support funding Don Young’s Way, estimated as more than twice as expensive as the Gravina Bridge would have been.^[107]

I appreciate the conservative readers that this blog has been attracting. Please, before you respond that this is just wikipedia nonsense, do yourself a favor and click the links to verify all documentation before commenting.

By Tom Toles. Original can be found here.

Bambi, true to his word is fighting back against McCain’s bullshit. Here’s his newest ad entitled “Honor”.

After the crap McCain has pulled in recent weeks and the absolute mess the Republicans have made of America over the past eight years, this ad just doesn’t cut it for me. If this is what Democrats call “hard hitting”, it’s no wonder they always lose.

I know the Huff Post wants to make it look like the Bush economy is a disaster, (‘cuz it is!) but why exaggerate, and worse yet, why look like you’re rooting for economic collapse?

Regardless of political party, many many many Americans have money in the stock market, and fanning the flames of a financial panic is simply irresponsible.

The Bush economy speaks for itself, and blaring a headline about “Black Monday”— a reference to, among other things, the market collapse of 1987, is sensationalistic. As of 11:00 Eastern Time the market is off approximately 240 points, or a little less than 2%. In this shitty economic environment that’s just an average day at the office. By contrast, on “Black Monday” 1987, the stock market sold off a whopping 9.5% in a single day! No comparison.

Moreover this sort of headline at the Huffington Post, and at other newspapers across the country, is typical media bullshit. Any given day the market sells off a coupe hundred points (‘cuz Bush’s economic policies suck-ass) and papers and blogs go ape shit with blaring headlines. However, let the market go up 200 points in a day and not a peep out of the Huff Post and it NEVER makes it to the front page of the NYT.

Trying to scare the hell out of Americans so that they see your point of view makes us no better than the Bush people. Remember when McCain’s camp said a terrorist attack on America would be good for McCain? Rooting for an American economic meltdown is kinda the same thing.

Moreover, the Bush clowns and their disastrous economic and fiscal policies are so target rich with actual truths that there’s no reason to hype “Black Mondays” on 2% sell-offs.

Side note: please recall that stock markets do better under Democratic administrations than they do under Republicans. 

• Over the past 60 years, the Democrats have held the presidency only 41% of that time, but under their rule the average annual return in market has been 15.26%, more than six percentage points higher than the 9.01% return under Republicans.

Under George W Bush, the real return has been a measly 0.22%, and an
even worse minus 2.69% return once inflation is factored in.