Job Market 2009

My sister sent me this. Quite hilarious and very apropos. You only need to watch the first 2 minutes.

No Gas at the Pumps! Issue Subpoenas Immediately

This last week, after Hurricane Ike slammed the Houston area, some gas stations in NC raised their prices from $3.89/gallon to $4.25/gallon. There were rumors that some gas stations raised their prices to $5.00 or more per gallon.

On a personal basis, I curse the stations that do this

But as the picture shows, there are now many gas stations which have no gas. This Kangaroo station in Cary had previously had a note on each pump saying "Please don't pump more than 10 gallons". Despite that request, this station ran out of gas.

NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, seeing a chance to capitalize on a natural disaster, went on the radio last week and announced that subpoenas were being sent out to gas stations around the state that had raised their prices. The state legislature, like other states, had last year passed an anti-gouging statute which made it illegal to raise prices due to a natural disaster.

Apparently, it did not stop politicians from taking advantage of a natural disaster.

These anti-gouging statutes hurt relief efforts. As a recent article in the San Diego Tribune explains:

"[T]hese laws are a mistake. They are a mistake because price gougers, as morally repugnant as they we may find them, are doing something that provides real aid to people in desperate need.

Consider John Shepperson, a Kentucky resident who bought 19 electrical generators and drove 600 miles to Mississippi in a rented U-Haul after Hurricane Katrina. There, he planned to sell his generators for twice what he paid for them. In so doing, he would have provided his customers with a tremendous benefit. Sure, they would liked to have paid much less for the generators, but the fact that they were willing to pay Shepperson's price shows they would rather be “gouged” than not have the generator at all.

Unfortunately, Shepperson was arrested for violating Mississippi's anti-gouging law and his generators were confiscated. This was bad news for Shepperson, of course, but the real problem with such laws is their effect on disaster victims. These are people who have already lost more than anyone should have to bear to the capriciousness of nature. Their homes are often wrecked, their jobs might be in jeopardy, the safety of their family is often seriously compromised, and their opportunities to do anything to make their situation better are severely limited. The way to help such people is certainly not to take away the one option they see as more promising than anything else they've got. Yet, this is precisely what anti-gouging laws do."

I say, send out subpoenas to the gas stations which did not raise prices. If they had, then people would have naturally bought less and the gas would have been rationed amongst people who need it. Additionally, people might have driven less, or car pooled. They might also have considered alternate fuels, like natural gas or a hybrid for their next car.

But no, the state wants to "control" prices. Hence, the shortage - with no benefit of convincing people to wean off gasoline.

Attorney General Roy Cooper needs to be investigated.

Congressman Alcee Hasting: Since Sarah Palin Hunts and Strips Moose, What Will She Do to Jews and Blacks?

Democratic Congressman from South Florida. Alcee Hastings said:

"Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,"

about Sarah Palin. He later apologized.

You probably heard this racist, anti-Semitic statement in the main stream media along with calls for Rep. Alcee Hastings' resignation from Congress!!!

Or not.

It seems that depending on who is making the racist and anti-Semitic statements, you will or will not hear about it in the main stream media.

You see, Alcee Hastings is a black Democratic Congressman from a solidly Democratic district. The Dems wouldn't want to lose that district.

EXTRA CREDIT for those who seem to remember Alcee Hasting's name from before...gee, what was it?

Oh that's right, HE'S AN IMPEACHED FEDERAL JUDGE that was kicked off the bench in a case where ithe Senate determined that he took $150,000 to give a lenient sentence and then perjured himself in the investigation. Impeached Federal judges, bribery, corruption, perjury, and making racist anti-Semitic remarks - but from a solid district. Why would the liberal media go after that one?

Harvard Economist: Let the Banks Fail - No Bailout is Best

One of our alert readers from the Left Coast (which may become the Right Coast if all of Wall Street fails) pointed out that there are many good arguments for no bailout.

One Harvard economist and a libertarian argues that bankruptcy, not a bailout, is the best solution to the problem. He says that in bankruptcy, the good assets would be sold off and the shareholders would lose all their equity. But that the economy would move forward. [Article here.]

Let me tell you that there is an appeal to that argument. I certainly don't trust the government to do much. I trust the free market. I want to believe that is the answer.

But is that too easy of an answer? Remember, even with conservatives there is a place for government. Can you imagine your town if there were no roads built by government. What roads would there be if a road was only built once enough neighbors got together and chipped in several million to build a paved road?

And what if we only had a military when enough of the neighbors' kids decided that they needed to buy some guns and go fight the enemy?

And what if we only had electricity after the neighbors chipped in enough to build a power plant for your subdivision?

While I hate government involvement, fluid markets and solvent banks is a necessary infrastructure to existing in today's world. Between the civil war and 1900 - a period of 35 years - with no central liquidity maker, America suffered 8 recessions - despite amazing economic growth as a nation.

There are few things worse than not having a job when you are ready able and willing to work. Especially if it is because of economic conditions way beyond your control. And when people don't have jobs, housing, and food on the table - which they have earned - they are ripe for fanatics' ideas.

We all remember (or remember hearing about) the great depression. What we may have forgotten is that those years also spawned communism, Naziism, fascism, the USSR, Nazi Germany, the Japanese aggression, WWII, the rape of Nanking, death camps, millions dead, and ultimately the detonating of atomic bombs and the start of the cold war.

Would these things have happened without the financial collapse of the 1920's? Maybe. Bolsheviks came into power as early as 1917. And the capacity for man to commit evil seems to know no bounds, but the petri dish of the 1920s was certainly ready to give great growth because of the dire times.

So I hate it. I hate supporting anything that grows the government. But like chemotherapy, while the medicine hurts as much as the disease, it looks like we need to take the medicine to be able to see another day.

Ground up peach pits, another helping of vegetables, or magnets will not in my opinion cure this disease. Let's be adults and take the medicine while it can still work.

UPDATE: I just heard Rush Limbaugh make a good argument for no bailout: There is no surplus to pay for the bailout, therefore we are just creating a larger deficit. That certainly sounds appealing to my ears, but I still wonder what happens when we don't move and cure the problem when we had time.

Congress on the Bailout: Keystone Cops to the Rescue

What the h--- is Congress doing about the bailout? They can't pass a plan. The plan they have agreed upon releases bailout funds a little at a time.

That's like having a fire at the Empire State Building and only sending a few fire trucks at a time.

That's like going to a doctor's office and getting only part of the medicine that you need.

Doctor: "You've got cancer and you need a full treatment of chemotherapy, but I'm going to prescribe that you only get partial treatments now. After your cancer has spread further, then we'll give you some more."

If you are going to do a bailout - if you need a bailout - then give the medicine in full and calm the markets down.

If you don't need a bailout then don't give any bailout.

And what have the candidates been doing? McCain put the bailout high on his priority list and suspended his campaign to go to Washington. He should, he's a senator and has been for a long time. He should be working with other senators to get the job done. But why did he fire off his mouth and declare he'd fire the head of the SEC, Christopher Cox? There will be a time for heads to roll, but why Cox? Did the SEC encourage bad lending practices? And why get everybody in the blame/avoid blame mode when a problem has to be solved? McCain - we don't need you to prove you're a maverick right now.

Obama finally showed up in Washington for a photo op and then left. His campaign says he's been on the phone every day to Treasury Secretary Paulson.

What the h--- is that? On the phone while a crisis is looming. Obama - you're a senator don't forget! (I know you have been one for such a short time that you probably forgot.) I bet you're doing the same thing you did in Illinois every time a tough piece of legislation came to a vote: you voted "present" so you wouldn't have to take a position. Obama - are you once again hiding from the tough decisions so you can blame it on somebody else? One way or another, if you win the election, you're going to be living with the loan debacle as we Americans will be.

We don't want you to vote present. We want leadership.

I'm a PC Too: Bill Gates Proves He Can Outnerd Any Nerd

Do you remember the kid you just wanted to smack in high school because he was so nerdy that he was irritating? Bill Gates in his new set of commercials "I'm a PC Too" is trying to tell us the losers, the big losers in business and life, use his old fashioned PC.

Look, we're not taking about Raymond Higgenbotham, the kid in my advanced calculus class in high school who borrowed a college trig text book and did all the problems over his spring break. No despite his white socks, pencil protector, plaid shirt, and thick glasses, we liked Raymond. He was brilliant and odd but not irritating.

Bill Gates' lame efforts to show us that some other nerdy people use PCs to get us to use PCs is falling flat on its face.

I personally hate the Indian guy who sits behind a desk and says: "I'm a human being, not a human doing, or a human thinking, but a human being." He has a smug smile as if he has pulled some celestial wisdom out to display to us, that we don't have.

A human being not a doing or a thinking?? Well I'm thinking I would like to be strangling that irritating idiot the next time the I'm A PC commercial comes on.

Bill - your people are irritating. ("I wear glasses...I wear glases too! is equally irritating) Is that supposed to make me buy a PC with your disappointing Vista on it?

Huey Lewis once sang:"It's hip to be square" but he didn't say it's hip to be irritating.

Bill, your windows company is so yesterday. We don't like Vista and it doesn't matter if you get some odd balls to look at it in your Mohave experiment. It still is unwieldy and merely tries to mimic what Apple's MAC OSX did a year or 2 ago. Microsoft needs to innovate, something it has not done since you were at the controls. Go back and do your foundation.

PS Bill, if your going to hire a celebrity to be with you in commercials to show you're normal, then pick someone that has had a success this decade. Jerry Seinfeld was very funny - once - but his re-runs are old. His show was a show about nothing. They were trying to get people to watch a show about nothing. His appearance with you shows us that the commercials carry a message of nothing to us. Nothing.

What will be next? Kramer going cross country with Steve Ballmer??

World's Largest Aquarium in a Mall is a Bloodbath

A Dubai shopping mall is is set to have a grand opening on October 30th of it's humongous walk through aquarium. The Burj Dubai Mall Aquarium is the home to 33,000 living creatures including 400 sharks. It is the largest shark tank in the world.

Apparently the sharks are devouring each other with at least 40 sharks dead. The sharks are also attacking the divers that come in to feed them.

Dubai, on the Saudi Arabian pennisula, is a primarily Muslim country.

No word on whether the sharks are practicing an aquatic jihad.

British Newspaper: China Is Making Slaves of Africans

This explosive story reports on how China is exploiting Africans with hard mining work for $3 a day while bribing the corrupt governments with loans and other perks.

The Daily Mail reports:

These poor, hopeless, angry people exist by grubbing for scraps of cobalt and copper ore in the filth and dust of abandoned copper mines in Congo, sinking perilous 80ft shafts by hand, washing their finds in cholera-infected streams full of human filth, then pushing enormous two-hundredweight loads uphill on ancient bicycles to the nearby town of Likasi where middlemen buy them to sell on, mainly to Chinese businessmen hungry for these vital metals.

...

Many perish as their primitive mines collapse on them, or are horribly injured without hope of medical treatment. Many are little more than children. On a good day they may earn $3, which just supports a meagre existence in diseased, malarial slums.

We had been earlier to this awful pit, which looked like a penal colony in an ancient slave empire.

Defeated, bowed figures toiled endlessly in dozens of hand-dug pits. Their faces, when visible, were blank and without hope.

...

I can give you no better explanation in miniature of the wicked thing that I believe is now happening in Africa.

Out of desperation, much of the continent is selling itself into a new era of corruption and virtual slavery as China seeks to buy up all the metals, minerals and oil she can lay her hands on: copper for electric and telephone cables, cobalt for mobile phones and jet engines - the basic raw materials of modern life.

It is crude rapacity, but to Africans and many of their leaders it is better than the alternative, which is slow starvation.


The Congolese risk their lives digging through mountains of mining waste looking for scraps of metal ore

It is my view - and not just because I was so nearly killed - that China's cynical new version of imperialism in Africa is a wicked enterprise.

China offers both rulers and the ruled in Africa the simple, squalid advantages of shameless exploitation.

For the governments, there are gargantuan loans, promises of new roads, railways, hospitals and schools - in return for giving Peking a free and tax-free run at Africa's rich resources of oil, minerals and metals.

Pirates Seize Ship Carrying Tanks; Demand $35 Million

Real life pirates have captured a Ukrainian cargo ship that is carrying T-34 tanks and other munitions. The pirates operate along the 1800 mile coast of the primarily Muslim nation of Somalia. Somalia is in the primarily Muslim area called the Horn of Africa at the south end of the Red Sea and across from the primarily Muslim area of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Yemen is where Muslim terrorists tried to blow up the American Embassy last week.

The capital of primarily Muslim Somalia is Mogadishu, where US lost soldiers who were dragged through the streets naked by Muslim warlords and their peons in 1993. [Mogadishu story here, but warning that the pictures of US soldiers dragged by Muslims is sickening]

It apparently is not known if the pirates are Muslim (since no main stream media has said so) so I won't assume they are Muslim. Perhaps they are Buddists.

Pirates rob all kinds of ships and sailing boats along the primarily Musim coast of Somalia and often kidnap people for ranson, but now they have captured a cargo ship with tanks in it from Russia.

The pirates (who we don't know are Muslim) have demanded $35 million in ransom. The US has sent a ship to the area and the Russians are really pissed and have also sent a warship.

Story here.

Speaking of Chinese Communists: Chinese Elites Get Special Organic Food and Taint Free Milk

The corrupt Chinese communists not only poison their own children's milk and try to cover it up, they raise special organic foods and pure milk for the chosen elite of the Communist Party.

The AP and Raleigh News & Observer report:

"While China grapples with its latest tainted food crisis, the political elite are served the choicest, safest delicacies. They get hormone-free beef from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow.

And it's all supplied by a special government outfit that provides all-organic goods from farms working under the strictest guidelines."

Well there goes my naive belief that communism was for the people. The next thing you know, they'll be making up news stories about their space launch.

China Releases Article Saying Spacewalk Trip Went Great, With Extended Astronaut Dialogue BEFORE LAUNCH

The Chinese - ever so honest about Olympic footage, Tibetian suppression, the milk scandal and more - accidentally released an article about their Shenzhou 7 mission (which will include a spacewalk) BEFORE THE SPACE CAPSULE WAS EVEN LAUNCHED. Dated 9/27/08, the article was released on 9/25 by the Chinese official news agency Xinhua on its web site. The article even had detailed dialogue between the astronauts, reports Yahoo News.

I say, why wait for the truth to develop, when you can make it up now.

Financial Bailout Reached?

Yahoo News reports that Congress has reached an agreement on the bailout. The Dow is up.

The Bailout: A Simplified Explanation of the Problem

I worked for years as outside counsel to the FDIC, the Resolution Trust Corporation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and several banks including Bank of America. From that experience, I gathered this knowledge which should help you understand the underlying problem in the loan industry.

First of all, in mortgage loans, there is A, B, C, and D paper.

"A paper" is a standard home loan of 80% LTV "loan to value". For example, if your cost of a new home is $300,000 and you are going to put 20% down, i.e. $60,000 and you have a high credit score, your loan is "A Paper". With "B paper" your credit score is lower or you are getting a 90% loan but it is close.

With "C Paper", the credit score is lower. We used to say that only an Italian named "Guido" will loan on "D Paper". That's a hard money loan.

"C Paper" can also be 2nd mortgages on a home. It is a "C" because if the borrower defaults on the 1st mortgage, the 2nd mortgage can only save it's security (that is the house) by paying the first mortgage off. The 2nd actually has to put money in to save a 2nd mortgage.

Bank Lending 101

In a small town at the turn of the 1900s, a small bank like Bailey S&L from "It's a Wonderful Life" would get in say $100,000 in deposits. If they had to keep a 20% reserve (to cash checks and cover regular withdrawals) they could lend up to $80,000 on a mortgage.

But once they lent that $80,000, they would have to turn down other fine citizens because they had no more money to loan.

So Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were formed to buy those loans. Bailey would "sell" the loan to Freddie Mac for $80,000 (less some discount) and Bailey's would continue to service the loan.

Bailey's now had another $80,000 to lend a fine homeowner. But in our example, Freddie Mac doesn't have another $80,000 to buy a 2nd Bailey's loan and thus a 3rd fine citizen can not buy his home, and therefore Pottersville Construction Company doesn't need to hire workers, Pottersville's grocery store and auto dealer don't get the worker's wages they would have made, and so forth.

But Freddie Mac could sell the loan to a rich company who wanted the security of monthly payments at a set interest rate secured by a home. Once Freddie does that, it now has another $80,000 and can buy Bailey's 2nd loan, and Bailey S&L can now lend to another citizen.

This is how it works, or is supposed to work. The exception is that these loans are not sold individually but rather bundled in $100,000,000 groups and bonds secured by the loans are sold by Fannie Mae. Also there are certain rules that make the loans similar and safe. They can't be jumbo loans ($410,000 or above) and the home buyer has to put 20% down (or 10% with PMI insurance) so that the homeowner has some serious motivation to save his home if things go bad.

I believe that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans are guaranteed to the buyer, but I'm not absolutely sure of that.

Meantime, the C and D paper loans also get bundled together and bonds are sold secured by these loans. These bonds pay higher interest than the Fannie Mae loans because they are riskier.

What Happened

People were getting A loans because they were putting 20% down. But then some people didn't have the 20%. So loan brokers (who get paid by the number of loans funded, not by how the loans perform) said: "No problem. We'll get you a 2nd mortgage on the same property for 20% so you can put 20% down."

Now this is even before loan brokers who lied about income and assets. That's a separate deal.

A Real Story

A man had worked hard all his life in the construction trades. His wife worked for the school system. He had always lived in an apartment but wanted to provide for his family. He was jealous because some of the guys he knew bought a house for $450,000 and the value went up to $600,000. They had made "$150,000" in addition to their salaries over the last several years. The man had been working 12 hour days for years and had no equity to show for it.

He wanted a home.

A friend of his became a real estate agent who "had a loan broker who could get anybody funded". Now before you get mad at this loan broker, remember that he only gets paid and only gets new business and referrals if he can get deals done. He gets paid nothing when they don't get done.

The man "bought" a $620,000 house. Even he admitted it was expensive, but he had had a good year the year before. He worked almost everyday except Christmas. He had to turn clients away.

He just didn't have the down payment.

But if he could work just as hard for a few years, maybe when his kids went to college he could sell the house for $150,000 profit.

There was no malice here at all!

The real estate agent said: My loan broker can get you a 1st and a 2nd loan. You'll get into the house without a down payment. And he did - with a $5,000 per month mortgage.

The economy slowed down. People were no longer buying houses.

The real estate agent went into another line of business. The loan broker quit and retired.

The man's construction business slowed down. Fewer people were hiring this man. Some who did hire him, welched on their contracts and didn't pay him. He couldn't keep paying the full $5,000. He tried to pay a partial payment of $4,500 but they returned the payment (partial payments are not allowed. It's all or nothing).

He went into default on the 2nd mortgage. They sent out a notice of default which put the 1st mortgage in default. The bank said if he paid them $12,000 immediately, it would come out of default. He said he now had $5,000 but he couldn't get $12,000.

The bank foreclosed. The man and his wife are angry with one another. They are both embarrassed because all they wanted was a piece of the American Dream.

Meanwhile

Somewhere some company (e.g. AIG) had bought a bond containing $100,000,000 of C paper loans. "How many of these loans are bad?" The president cried. The CFO said: "There is no way to tell." The CEO screamed "Well then don't buy any more until this crisis is over!".... and the market for home equity loans dried up.

But AIG's president's problems weren't over. His accountants and stockholders said "Your balance sheet lists a bond secured by $100,000,000 in home loans. How many of those loans are still good?" And AIG's president said "Nobody knows". So then stockholders sold his stock and other people wouldn't lend AIG any money. In fact, even though AIG had basically a good business, it might have to declare bankruptcy.

But it doesn't end there. But to keep it short, I'll make this part really simple.

1. There is a company, let's call it ABC who did a big deal with XYZ. XYZ was insured by AIG. When ABC heard that AIG might go under, they called XYZ and said: "We no longer feel secure in this deal. No matter what the contract says, we may pull out because we can't trust that AIG will be able to pay off any insurance claim." XYZ threatened to sue ABC but that would take years. In the meantime, they told their HR department to lay off most of the people working on the project with ABC. One of the workers laid off defaulted on his 2nd mortgage which put the first mortgage in default. See above for what happened to this man's loan.

2. There is a money market fund with a lot of retirement money in it. The money manager only invested in the most secure investments to guarantee that his retirees would have their retirement money. In fact, he bought a bond from Fannie Mae which is secured with $100,000,000 home loans. The man's home loan is in that package. The money manager wants to know if his investment is any good. "How many loans have gone bad?" he screams to Fannie Mae. "It's hard to tell" Fanie Mae says. If Fannie Mae can't sell their next $100,000,000 bond, because nobody wants to buy a bond secured by home loans, that will mean that the bond that the retirement fund has will be almost worthless too. The retirement fund won't have enough assets to pay off all the pensions. What then happens to the retirees?

That's why there needs to be a "bailout". It's for everybody, not just the rich. And while the CEO's may have taken too big of a bonus, their bonus was not the cause of the problem.

(My apologies to anyone who has a better knowledge of this. We accept your comments.)

China Plans First Spacewalk; Blogger Hopes They Get Tainted Chinese Milk

China is planning it's third space mission and it will contain a spacewalk by Chinese astronauts.

We here hope that they give the Chinese astronauts the tainted milk that has injured 53,000 Chinese kids.

By the way, somebody please tell China that spacewalks are so yesterday. I mean really, once you have hosted the Olympics, with 2008 synchronized drummers, while brutally suppressing Tibet nationalists and hiding reports of kid's deaths due to tainted milk, a walk in space is a little anticlimatic.

(Picture is of US astronaut Edward White spacewalking in 1965. China, get a hint.)

Bush: If We Don't Do Bailout, There Will be a Deep Recession

AP reported:

President Bush on Wednesday warned Americans and lawmakers reluctant to pass a $700 billion financial rescue plan that failing to act fast risks wiping out retirement savings, rising foreclosures, lost jobs, closed businesses and even "a long and painful recession."

His dire warning came not long after the president issued extraordinary invitations to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, one of whom will inherit the mess in four months, as well as key congressional leaders to a White House meeting on Thursday to work on a compromise.

So far McCain has announced he would come back and meet with the country's leaders and Obama has declined.

Odds are, that in a few days, after opposing it, Obama will come to Washington.

John McCain Suspends Presidential Campaign To Go to Washington to Work With Government Leaders on Bailout. Invites Obama to Go With Him.

John McCain today suspended his campaign to go to Washington to work with government leaders to hammer out a bail out pan. The proposed bailout had bogged down and worldwide markets had gone down in anticipation that no plan would be reached.

McCain announced he would seek cancelation of the Friday night debate.

McCain invited Obama to go with him. Obama declined. Obama says he'll go ahead with the debate. [Another story on Obama and the debate.]

Developing.

Here's One We Would Never Have Guessed: Clay Aiken is Gay!

Surprising up to a half dozen of his followers, American Idol runner-up and Raleigh resident Clay Aiken revealed today that he was gay.

Reports also revealed that the same half dozen people were also surprised to find out the world was round and that the US had succeeded from Great Britain.

Clay had previously denied being gay and Rosie O'Donnell had blasted Kelly Ripa after an incident occurred on the Live with Regis and Kelly show. On that show, Clay had jokingly put his hand over Kelly's mouth to stop her from speaking. Kelly said: "Don't put that hand over my mouth, I don't know where's it been."

Clay's half dozen fans stood in disbelief as the news sunk in.

Video of Clay's hand over Kelly's mouth:

Does Poll Show Obama Will Lose Because of Race?

You probably have heard broadcasted from every media outlet that an AP-Yahoo poll found that racism may keep Obama from being elected President.

Racism, racism, racism. If Obama loses, we are supposed to believe that racism is the cause.

But if you dig deep into the poll you'll find that blacks are almost unanimously for Obama - which is a race bias that somewhat negates the alleged racism against Obama.

But if you dig even farther - you'll find something that almost no media outlet is reporting: that many more people doubt Obama's qualifications to be President than have concerns about his race:

"Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.

Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain." Report here.

Now you've heard the rest of the story.

Russian Nuclear Destroyer Cruising the Caribbean

This would be funny, but it is not. Russia has probably their best ship, Peter the Great, with 20 nuke missiles, cruising the Caribbean as a show of force to us. Peter the Great is a Kirov Class ship.

The problem is, the Russian stock market has collapsed and stopped trading. If you think Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, AIG have it bad, Russian institutions are worse. Their market collapsed twice last week. Russia itself is money strapped.

And what does a dictator do to stop his people from revolting? Find an enemy for the people.

Putin is trying to make the US the bad guy of all mother Russia.

Expect to see more sable rattling.

Another Great Biden One-Liner

Welcome back folks. I have been leaving several great flubs by Joe Biden this past week untouched because there has been some serious news, but sometimes he has such good ones, I can't leave them alone.

In an interview with Katie Couric of CBS Joe Biden said:

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

Now can anybody tell me why that's funny?

Here's an hint: There were only experimental TV's when the stock market crashed in 1929.

Here's another hint: Roosevelt didn't become President until.....1932

Biden might have a future on Saturday Night Live if he doesn't get elected.

China: They Cheat Even If It Means Making 53,000 Kids Sick

The milk scandal in China makes me sick - no pun intended. Milk plant managers in China have watered milk down, but to pass nutrition tests (which tests for nitrogen level in milk to see if sufficient protein is in the milk), plant managers have laced the watered down milk with an industrial chemical that releases nitrogen in the milk. The chemical attacks children's kidneys and causes them to fail. 53,000 kids have been stricken in China.

Those sons of b@$&%@. I don't have anything else to say about it.

1. Stars at Emmy Awards Make Fun of Bush, McCain and Palin; 2. Emmys Have Lowest Viewership in Years. 3. Hollywood Doesn't Know Why

Seems like a simple formula to me. Hollywood stars make fun of what we Americans hold near and dear; they put things on prime time TV that we wouldn't want to see in an adult film; then they make fun of our President, a war hero, and a successful governor and they wonder why the award show for TV has the lowest ratings ever (in fact, they were 12% lower than last year's previously lowest ever Emmys.

Well, d'uhhh!

Left Wing NBC's Saturday Night Live Does Skit that Palin's Husband Commits Incest

NBC's Saturday Night Live did a skit this last weekend where NY Times reporters were trying to prove that Todd Palin committed incest, "as is done in backwards Alaska". In one way, it was a slam on NYT reporters for them trying to find any dirt whatsoever on Palin. But, it definitely also spread dirt on Palin in the way in which liberals slam the other side and then say they didn't really mean you. (Remember when Obama used the phrase "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" and the democratic crowd knowingly laughed and then he claimed he wasn't talking about Palin at all. It's a typical MO.)

Skits have to be done in taste or skip it. Can anyone imagine a skit about Obama's mother hunting out a black man, the way "white women from Kansas do" or such other outlandish thing. Remember the outroar when the New Yorker ran the cartoon of Obama and Michelle in turbans with a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall?.. Their were screams of impropriety then and there should be screams for decency here also.

Especially since it was NBC, which has pretty well established itself as a mouth of the left.

Sarah Palin, VP Canididate, Draws 60,000 in Florida Town of 70,000!

Sarah Palin, a mere Vice Presidential candidate, drew 60,000 people to her speech in a Florida community that only houses 70,000!! Proclaiming that John McCain is the only man running that has served his country in the military, she drew round and round of applause. Story here. Remember, the media is aghast when the Democratic Presidential nominee, Obama, draws 80,000 the last night of his planned convention to crown him. This is 60,000 on a simple campaign stump by the VP nominee. The people like Palin (even if Pamela Anderson says "she can suck it" [see post infra].

Discussion Thread: $700 billion bail out: The Rescue of the US Economy or Biggest Socialist Nationalization Ever?

There is an elephant in the room that I haven't discussed on this blog. This topic is so big I haven't been able to reduce my thoughts to a simple entry here. The feds have rescued Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and on and on.

The cost to tax payers is estimated to be up to $700 billion. That is $2,333 per person in the US or almost $10,000 per family of four. But only 1/3 of Americans file a return that has a net tax amount (e.g. your 2 year old, as well as your 17 year old either don't file a tax return or get all their money back). So a more accurate representation is that each net taxpayer in the US will pay $7,106 or $14,212 per married couple.

As a conservative, I don't like or trust the government to do what the free markets can handle, and which I believe the free market can handle better. Based on this tenet alone, a conservative would say, let the various investment banks fail and let the market correct itself.

But, even from a conservative's perspective, the government should provide for certain things: primarily defense and infrastructure. Traditionally, that meant military and roads.

But a banking system, particularly when it is close to failing because there is no liquidity in the market to lend to the banks, might justifiably be called infrastructure. Certainly, central banks (and in the US the Federal Reserve Bank) have traditionally provided the infrastructure to keep the country's banking system fluid and open.

This was particularly so in the days before fast communication and travel. When there was merely a rumor that the local bank was going to fail, there would be a run on that bank which could cause it to fail. Often, there was no one else that could make a short time loan to a bank to stave off a run. Those of us who have watched "It's a Wonderful Life" know the trouble George Bailey (played by Jimmy Steward) was having before the townspeople lovingly brought in their $10s and $20s to save Bailey Building and Loan when Uncle Billy lost the S&L's deposit and a run started on the the bank. George considered suicide but was dissuaded by an angel who showed him how bad the town of Potter's Bluff would have been without George Bailey.

There was no FDIC at the time nor any mechanism for the Fed to lend Bailey S&L enough money to make it through the run.

So...I will write more on this topic to help you understand it, but presently I am thinking that it is proper and indeed necessary for the Feds to make the rescues they have made this past week or two.

And what might the cost per person have been if our banking system collapsed?

George Soros: Out to Defeat The American Way of Life

(Picture is of an ad Soros sponsored MoveOn.Org ran in NY Times and Washington Post before General Patraeus even reported to Congress. Accusing a commanding general of betrayal during a time of war, with no evidence at all is a despicable thing.)


Here is an editorial from the Investor's Business Daily, a respected financial newspaper, which they printed last year about George Soros. It answers certain questions about him so directly that I want to print it here in its entirety:

George Soros: The Man, The Mind And The Money Behind MoveOn

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, September 20, 2007 4:20 PM PT

The Left: The smear ad published against Gen. Petraeus has drawn attention to its sponsor, MoveOn.org. But the fingerprints of the group's chief financial backer, George Soros, were all over it. Who is this man and what is he up to?

George Soros & MoveOn.org: Exclusive Series

To read Soros' own spun story, he's a Jewish survivor of Nazi-occupied Hungary who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, studied economics in England, became a U.S. citizen in 1961 and made a multibillion-dollar fortune as a financier who pioneered hedge funds.

Over the years, Soros has written books giving his philosophical take on global affairs and acquired a reputation as something of a "stateless statesman." He calls himself a philanthropist and has given away $5 billion of his now $8.5 billion fortune through his principal vehicle, the Open Society Institute. The institute, in turn, has passed cash on to far more radical groups, such as MoveOn.org.

But Soros is no hands-off donor. According to the Open Society Institute's Web site: "Despite the breadth of his endeavors, Soros is personally involved in planning and implementing many of the foundation network's projects."

Soros says he gives away about $400 million annually.

It's an admirable picture, but "philanthropy" may be the wrong word. Unlike, say, Bill Gates, who really does put the bulk of his charity into helping the world's poor through medical services, Soros tends to fund pressure groups and foundations he misleadingly characterizes as promoting "civil society" and "democracy."

The image gives him moral cover to manipulate democracies whose voter verdicts he opposes.

Tearing Down America

The first groups Soros supported back in the 1980s did play a role in undercutting the rickety communist regimes of Eastern Europe. But his motives seemed less than idealistic. All Soros groups tend to tear down tyrannies rather than build up democracies.

And since 2003, tearing down what he views as the "fascist" tyranny of the United States, as he has put it, is "the central focus of my life."

Through networks of nongovernmental organizations, Soros intends to ruin the presidency of George W. Bush "by any legal means necessary" and knock America off its global pedestal. "His view of America is so negative," says Sen. Joe Lieberman, who, like Gen. David Petraeus, has been a target of Soros' electoral "philanthropy." "The places he's put his money are . . . so destructive that it unsettles me." Soros' aim seems to be to make the U.S. just another client state easily controlled by the United Nations and other one-world groups where he has lots of friends.

Best known among these groups is MoveOn.org, a previously small fringe-left group to which Soros has given $5 million since 2004. Bulked up by cash, the group now uses professional public relations tactics to undercut the Iraq War effort, with its latest a full-page New York Times ad that branded Gen. Petraeus "General Betray Us."

It ran Sept. 10 in the New York Times, the same day Petraeus delivered his progress report on the surge in Iraq.

MoveOn.org previously put out ads depicting Bush as a Nazi, something that certainly echoes Soros' sentiment.

"We have to go through a certain de-Nazification process," he told this year's Davos conference in Switzerland.

Moving On To The Far Left

MoveOn.org was also pivotal in getting Howard Dean elected chairman of the Democratic Party in a bid to push the party to the far left.

Soros acolyte Arianna Huffington is on record as advocating that outcome. Berating Democrats for their electoral losses in 2004, she wrote: "Have these people learned nothing from 2000, 2002 and 2004? How many more concession speeches do they have to give — from 'the center' — before they realize it's not a very fruitful place?"

Soros also has financed spin outfits such as Media Matters that specialize in providing distorted conservative political statements as grist for leftist politicians and media.
Media Matters (and MoveOn.org) succeeded last year in denying incumbent Lieberman the Democratic nomination for Senate in Connecticut and effectively drove the moderate out of his own party. Net result: Fewer Democrats, including today's crop running for office, are willing to challenge any Soros-financed pressure group.

Money & Elections

Soros' efforts go beyond spin. He has also bankrolled groups involved in the manipulation of elections, an activity that has increased since his money came into the picture. Two groups — Americans Coming Together and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — were sanctioned recently by the Federal Election Commission for fraud.

Soros pledged $10 million to ACT, which has since been fined $775,000 for illegally funneling $70 million set aside for voter registrations to Democratic candidates.

He also gave at least $150,000 to ACORN, the left-wing group best known for pushing minimum-wage hikes, marching for illegal-immigrant amnesty and harassing Wal-Mart. ACORN has been accused of voter fraud in 13 states since 2004 and was convicted of falsifying signatures in a voter registration drive last July, drawing a fine of $25,000 in Washington state.

Soros says he has ended funding to voter-drive organizations, but he still heads a secretive rich-man's club called "Democracy Alliance" that has doled out $20 million to activist groups like ACORN.
I
t's also noteworthy that the Soros-funded MoveOn.org advocates "paper-trail" electronic voting in the U.S., the same kind used in Venezuela, where allegations of electronic fraud and ballot secrecy violations have ended confidence in the system and sealed Chavez's dictatorship.

Terrorist-Friendly Groups

Soros additionally finances groups best described as helpful to terrorists. Since 1998, he has given the American Civil Liberties Union $5 million to empower criminals, including lawsuits on behalf of terrorists' "civil rights."

Soros' Open Society Institute gave $20,000 for the legal defense of radical attorney Lynne Stewart. She was convicted in 2002 of abetting jailed terrorists after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Soros is also involved in the financing of a 9/11 memorial at ground zero, the World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex — which critics say blames the U.S. for 9/11.

"Bush says (the terrorists) hate us for what we are, not what we do, and I think that's false," Soros told an audience at UC Berkeley last year.

He has handed $3.1 million to the left-wing Tides Foundation, which funds organizations, such as the Sea Shepherds, Earth First! and the Ruckus Society, that have condoned or engaged in eco-terrorism.

On the international front, Soros-backed groups have undercut important U.S. allies, including Israel and Colombia, which have aligned with the U.S. rather than the U.N.

Both see their sovereignty as non-negotiable, view victory over their enemies as an absolute good and refuse to become failed states — all anathema to the thinking of Soros. His Human Rights Watch repeatedly attempts to portray both nations as pariah states.

One World Government

Soros additionally finances groups supporting the interests of one-world government. While he has criticized the United Nations occasionally, he favors U.N. dominance in world affairs, sees the European Union as a model for "open society" and has called for a global central bank.

Anyone who doesn't agree with this vision, or who doesn't fit cozily into his multilateral model, gets a visit from Soros-backed groups.

MoveOn.org, for example, led the charge to keep John Bolton out of a permanent seat in the U.N., and Bankwatch piled on to topple Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank.

In fact, pick any cause that seeks to weaken the U.S. and it's hard not to find Soros' name on its list of financial backers. Most of these causes are financed by relatively small amounts, but that's all that's needed to make trouble.

And without the cash, countless bad ideas would have no presence in American political debate at all.

What keeps these groups on cue, and Democrats in line, is the prospect that any funding from Soros can be stepped up to massive levels. It's probably no coincidence that Soros was a big backer of campaign finance reforms that have allowed nominally nonpartisan groups like MoveOn.org to strike with the kinds of tactics they are using.

Soros usually doesn't offer up or endorse specific candidates for office. His chief aim seems to be tearing down Bush, driving the Democrats to the far left and enforcing party discipline through fear. In fact, he seems to like keeping Democrats guessing whether or not he's offended.

The strategy seems to be working. No Democrat had the courage to cross MoveOn.org after its libelous Petraeus ad. On Thursday, a symbolic vote in Congress censuring MoveOn.org for the Petraeus ad passed, but with the notable absence of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Election looming, neither wants to cross Soros' MoveOn.org.

Soros himself does not believe in victory in Iraq and wants to keep America from achieving it.
"The war on terror cannot be won," he has said

Obama Makes a Comeback in the Polls

Gallup says that Obama has taken a 48% - 44% lead among registered voters.

Rassmussen says that they are tied 48% - 48%

Rassmussen says that red and blue states will probably be the same as they have been the last 3 elections. In counting probable electoral votes, McCain has 227 votes to Obama's 212, with 270 needed for election. Fully 99 electoral votes in eight other states (CO, MI, NH, NV, OH, PA, VA, and WI) remained in the toss-up category. In fact, Ohio could determine the election again. Great state by state analysis here.

Big Ten States Poll

More Fire from MSNBC

Keith Olberman fell from having the largest audience at MSNBC to third place. He was beaten by newcomer Rachel Maddow and Larry King.

Drudge Report reports that Fox got the top four spots on cable news with Sean Hannity getting almost twice as many viewers as Keith Olberman. Here are the results:

HANNITY/COLMES 3,136,000
O'REILLY 3,060,000
GRETA 2,908,000
HUME 1,977,000
COOPER 1,828,000
RACHEL MADDOW 1,801,000
SHEP SMITH 1,724,000
KING 1,710,000
OLBERMANN 1,635,000
GRACE 1,166,000
DOBBS 1,156,000
HARDBALL 821,000

Kim Jong-il May Have Suffered Stroke and His Female Companion May Be Running North Korea

The Raleigh News & Observer and AP are reporting that North Korean dictator and jerk for life, Kim Jong-il, had a stroke and his pompadour, pictured above, and possibly chosen by his 3rd wife, may be running the country and signing documents for the supreme one of North Korea.

The AP also separately reported that South Korea and the media ought to stop reporting on Kim Jong-il's ills and the possible collapse of North Korea because they might get mad. (?? "The Dear Leader is not dead. He is just resting in that casket. Say otherwise, and I'll punch you in the nose!"??).

AP reported:

South Korea should stop talking about North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's reported stroke because it could anger the North and hurt ties between the two countries, a senior official said Thursday.

Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong, who is in charge of relations with North Korea, told a parliamentary committee that the North could see it as an "act of hostility" if South Korea keeps talking about Kim's reported illness despite Pyongyang's denial that he is sick.

"In particular, reporting on the possibility of North Korea's collapse would cause a deterioration in South-North relations and is not conducive to the national interest," he said.

A South Korean newspaper, has an editorial called "Kim Jong-il's Health is the Elephant in the Room: The Kim Regime is Like A Time Bomb Set to Explode". The English translation is here.

Obama Shoots and Scores!

Obama is sharpening his attacks against McCain to satisfy his supporters. Here is one such attack reported in the SF Gate:

"Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he's president he'll take on — and I quote — 'the old boys network in Washington.' I'm not making this up," Obama said. "This is somebody who's been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign.

"And now he tells us that he's the one who's going to take on the old boys network," Obama said. "The old boys network. In the McCain campaign that's called a staff meeting. "

As Larry the Cable Guy would say on the Redneck Comedy Tour: "I don't care who you are, that's funny!

New Rassmussen Research: Since Abe Lincoln, only 3 Dem Presidents Have Won a Majority of Voters

Scott Rassmussen reports that:

Since 1860, the year that Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president, only three Democrats have won the White House with a majority of the popular vote. Each of the three—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Jimmy Carter—were aided by extraordinary circumstances.
Roosevelt was elected during the depths of the Great Depression. Johnson was elected less than a year after he assumed the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Carter was elected in the immediate aftermath of Watergate, a time that makes even the current challenges faced by the Republican Party seem tame by comparison.

For a while, it appeared to many that Barack Obama might be able to expand the traditional limits of Democratic appeal and break through the 50% ceiling. But despite all the polling done by Rasmussen Reports and others this season, he has not yet broken through that barrier.

Keep in mind that a person becomes the President of the US after winning a majority of the electoral college votes. That's the way our founding fathers set it up. But usually, winning the electoral college vote means you also won the majority vote. Read here and here about the electoral college.

Polls and Political Backers

Gallup Polls show McCain with a one point lead over Obama amongst registered voters 48%-47%.

In states critical to either party winning the election, Rassmussen says that McCain holds a 5 point lead in Florida, a 3 point lead in Ohio, and is now tied up in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

CNNPolitics.con reports that "Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president on Wednesday, her spokesman tells CNN."

"[S]he said of Obama in an interview with CNN’s Joe Johns. 'I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.'”

Newsweek Prints Article Favorable to Palin

Newsweek actually printed an article favorable to Sarah Palin. Please read all the way to the bottom!

Newsweek stated:

In Alaska, Palin is challenging the dominant, sometimes corrupting, role of oil companies in the state's political culture. ..." For Palin, that has meant tackling the cozy relationship between the state's political elite and the energy industry that provides 85 percent of Alaska's tax revenues... But even as she tackles Big Oil's power, Palin has transformed her own family's connections to the industry into a political advantage. Her husband, Todd, is a longtime employee of BP, but, as Palin points out, the "First Dude" is a blue-collar "sloper," a fieldworker on the North Slope, a cherished occupation in the state. "He's not in London making the decisions whether to build a gas line."

In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Palin said it's time for Alaska to "grow up" and end its reliance on pork-barrel spending. Shortly after taking office, Palin canceled funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere," a $330 million project that Stevens helped champion in Congress. The bridge, which would have linked the town of Ketchikan to an island airport, had come to symbolize Alaska's dependence on federal handouts. Rather than relying on such largesse, says Palin, she wants to prove Alaska can pay its own way, developing its huge energy wealth in ways that are "politically and environmentally clean."

But uhhh, don't bother looking for this article in this week's Newsweek. It was printed October 15, 2007, back before Palin was on the McCain team challenging The One and his VP candidate Biden.

H/t to Drudge Report and The Fix from the Washington Post

American Embassy in Yemen Attacked by Terrorist; Bomb and Machine Gun Fire Kill 4

Terrorists, most likely Al-Queda, set off a bomb outside the American Embassy in Yemen, a tiny country on the south of the peninsula which is mostly occupied by Saudi Arabia. That attack killed 4, but it does not appear Americans were injured.

Yemen is where the USS Cole was attacked several years ago.

The attack occurred about 9:15 am local time, which was 1:15 am Washington time.

As the Hillary ad once said: "Who do you want answering the phone at 3 am?"

Full story here.

MoveOn.Org Continues to Move in the Shadows with Unmarked Facebook Ads

MoveOn.Org - that ultra leftist organization financed by George Soros, the billionaire currency trader that steps over boundaries to influence nations (see post infra), is now running ads against McCain and Palin, on Facebook.com. If you don't know what Facebook is, then you don't have kids, because Facebook and MySpace are the social meeting places for the teen and 20 something set.

The ads, as reported in the Wall Street Journal blog by Emily Steel here, state things like "Palin lied" and then click through to a main stream media story or columnist who is lambasting McCain or Palin. The problem is, you can't tell that MoveOn.Org sponsored or paid for the ad.

Now anyone should be able to run ads for or against a presidential candidate. And both Obama and McCain advertise on the internet. But their ads say "Paid for by Obama for President" or "Paid for by McCain for President" but these MoveOn.org ads don't tell you who paid for them. Why are MoveOn.org and George Soros hiding in the shadows?

Remember Soros has claimed he owns the Democratic party. What price will he extract if Obama wins? [Links to editorials about Soros, MoveOn.Org and the Democratic party.]

Be sure to read "The Enemy Within" here.

Here is a great blog on MoveOn.Org moving legally against t-shirt vendors selling t-shirts with logos against MoveOn.org.

When you lift a rock, all the little cockroaches scurry to hide again. They don't like being exposed.

CNN Reports That Now Obama is Taking His Teleprompter Everywhere

Obama has long been known to deliver eloquent speeches, that others write, so long as he's reading the speech off a teleprompter. He likewise has been known to stumble around when speaking off the cuff. CNN now reports that Obama is now taking his telepromter everywhere, including rodeo rinks.

Perhaps someone running the Obama campaign thought it was too dangerous to let Obama speak on the issues from the center of his belief system. Full story here.

Did ABC Use Intentional Camera Trickery On Palin Interview

One blog site, anonymously written by a conservative hollywood cameraman points out that the camera angle, with Gibson appearing taller and larger is specifically done by a scene selection camera angle shot to disparage Palin. In support, he shows clips from interviews of Obama and Clinton. He also shows the shot from storyboard software, used by directors to plan shots.

Read the blog here and look at these clips. Note the height of Gibson's head (higher than Palin, equal with Obama and Clinton) and the facial expression of Gibson to Palin (like a disapproving father)

NY POST: Obama Has Tried to Stop Withdrawal of Troops from Iraq

In a blockbuster flip flop, the New York Post reports that Obama has this summer been trying to convince Iraqi government officials, and top US Generals not to allow any withdrawal of troops until after the new administration is in place. One of Obama's main campaigning tenets has been the illegality of the Iraq war and the need to bring home troops immediately. But privately, he wants them to stay.

Will he be like LBJ (President Lyndon Baines Johnson for you X-geners) who campaigned against the Viet Nam war and Goldwater's hawkish stance while at the same time planning to increase US involvement? (Johnson increased US soldiers in Viet Nam from 16,000 at Kennedy's death to 550,000 in his last year as president.)

See the full N.Y. Post story here.

Obama Attacks McCain for not Using Email

Obama has launched a new attack ad alleging that McCain admits he's computer illiterate and doesn't know how to use email. [Play ad above.]

These allegations could seriously impact McCain's ability to be Commander-in-Chief. Imagine this scenario in McCain's unopened inbox:

Dear Pres. McCain,

u stink. we r now in process of attacking US with our mighty Russian power but u won't know this because u can't read email. LOL.

Putin

PS Buy vi*A*gra now at low, low prices from Russian pharmacy. Also low interest home loans.

PSS Also I have 15 billion rubles in an off shore bank account which i will transfer to u if u please give 2 me ur bank account number.

"Take My Wife, No Seriously Folks" Shecky Greene is Reincarnated as Joe Biden

Who's got the best one-liners in politics? Why Joe Biden, of course. Try these actual lines out on your funny bone:

Last year he called Obama bright and clean and articulate. (is he a credit to his race, Joe?)

And he said you needed a slight Indian accent to walk into a Dunkin' Donuts or 7-11 in Delaware.

When announced as the VP candidate, he referred to his party's presidential nominee as "Barack America".

He noted that his own wife, Jill, a college professor, was "drop-dead gorgeous" but who, problematically, possessed a doctorate. (That got him the professional women's vote!)

In Florida, last week, he referred to the "Biden administration," before quickly correcting himself to say the "Obama-Biden administration".

But by far, the best gaffe has been earlier this week, in Columbia, Missouri, when Biden urged a state official to stand up to be recognized.

"Chuck, stand up, let the people see you," Biden shouted to State Senator Chuck Graham, before realizing, to his horror, that Graham uses a wheelchair. "Oh, God love ya," Biden said. "What am I talking about?"

Ta-ta boom. We'll be here all week folks, be sure to tip your waitresses!

Full story here. Thanks to Drudge Report.

Duke is Now Legally the Worst Team in Div 1A Football

Last year, Duke backed out of a multi-year agreement to play Louisville. The contract said that if Louisville could not find a replacement opponent of "similar stature" then Duke would have to pay them $150,000. Louisville wanted the money and sued in Kentucky Superior Court.

Duke defended by saying that EVERY TEAM in Division 1A was of "similar stature".

At oral argument, the Duke attorneys argued:

I think the Court can absolutely positively take judicial notice that Duke is probably the worst football team in Division I football. Everybody knows that. That’s no secret. The longest losing streak, the inability to ever win games. . .We certainly don’t have to go out and take six months of discovery to establish that for you. . .So the bottom line is how much discovery, if any, should anyone have to take, want to take or need to take to make the simple analysis of whether or not that was a team of similar stature? It’s judicial notice that they got beat by Utah. Maybe that’s part of the dispute – that they wish they’d played somebody weaker, like Duke which would have been an automatic W.

In its opinion, the court judicially agreed:

The term ‘team of similar stature’ simply means any team that competes at the same level of athletic performance as the Duke football team. At oral argument, Duke . . . persuasively asserted that this is a threshold that could not be any lower. . .Duke won only one football game, and lost eleven, during the 2007 football season.

How about posting that on the team bulletin board? Full story and video link to oral argument here.

[At Duke:] Rinnngggg. Coach, its for you. The New Jersey Institute of Technology says they are calling us out and want to play us next year.

Watch Out for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Let's see. Last year Appalachia State beat #5 ranked Michigan in "The House"

This year, East Carolina beat both #17 ranked Virginia Tech and #7 ranked West Virginia.

And last night Carolina broke a 20 game out of state losing streak and trounced Rutgers, on national TV...on Thursday when no one else was playing.

Hmmm. If NC State wins this weekend, we'd recommend that you head for the hills and watch out for the Apocalypse because the end of time must be near.

Pamela Anderson Calls Out Sarah Palin

Pamela Anderson, noted academic and phony PETA spokeswoman challenged VP candidate Sarah Palin on the issues of today.

In issuing her challenge, Pamela said:

“I can’t stand her,” and “She can suck it!”

Uh, thanks Pam. Next time we want the reasoned opinion of a Baywatch babe, we'll be sure to call you.

Full story with video here.

Freaky Friday - The News is Mostly Humorous Today

Sorry folks but much of the news today strikes me as funny. I hope you'll enjoy these listings

One exception is Hurricane Ike. I hope the people in Ike's path are in your prayers today.

Developing: Could Obama be Ready to Switch to Hillary as VP?

Tip of the hat to Don the engineer for this heads up.

Yesterday, as featured in this site below, Joe Biden amazingly said:

"Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight. She’s a truly close personal friend, she is qualified to be president of the United States of America, she’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America, and quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me. But she’s first rate, I mean that sincerely, she’s first rate, so let’s get that straight." See ABC story here.

This blogger wondered in another post whether, given the fact that Obama has been reeling like a punch drunk sailor since McCain chose Palin as his VP candidate, Biden was floating a trial baloon to see if the Dems would be happy or mad if he stepped aside and let Hillary come in and fight Palin mano a mano (no it doesn't mean man to man, it means hand to hand).

The trial balloon would be important because the last time a Dem Presidential candidate dropped his VP was when McGovern did it 30 years ago when he dropped Sen Eagleton because the latter had sought psych help at an earlier date. That was a disaster. (Read how Sen. Eagleton was forced to withdraw by Sen. McGovern in place of Sargent Shriver of the Kennedy clan on Wikipedia here.)

But Obama and the old white guy from Delaware are sinking fast. McCain/Palin have not only gotten a 15 point switch amongst likely voters, they have the momentum and buzz.

Well my friend Don the engineer (will engineer for food!), called me and let me know that Obama was having lunch with President Bill Clinton - on Clinton's turf - NYC. TODAY 9/11/08. This is confirmed on a WSJ blog site here although the meeting is not listed on Obama's official web site.

Could it be just a meeting to catch up since they last were together 10 days ago at the DNC? Or was Obama coming with hat in hand to persuade Bill, and by extension Hillary, to let Hillary take over the VP spot if Biden stepped out of the way.

Sheer whimsy you say? When you're suddenly losing a race that is only 55 days away that was previously yours for the taking, and the only known new ingredient is a women named Sarah Palin, and the attack dogs haven't found any Palin skeletons, one might do anything to grab potential victory back.

Now in one sense, Hillary would be foolish to take the VP spot. If Obama loses, then fate will surely make her the nominee in 4 years. And she will be able to crow "I told you so" all the way to the bank.

But there is now suddenly a downside in her bid to make history as the first woman president. That is, Sarah Palin could become the VP, with a mandate to be a visible reformer in DC and she could come back the favorite to be the first woman president of the US.

This downside is only made more probable by the possibility that McCain could die in office and Palin would become the sitting president ... and eligible for two more terms!!! (Constitutionally, it is possible that Palin could be president for up to 10 years. If Johnson had run and won a second term in '68, he would have been president for almost 10 years. Here is the 22nd Amendment on Wikipedia.)

And if Hillary now came back and helped Obama win, she surely would be given the key to DC. She could be the most active VP ever.

We have contracted the Obama campaign to verify this issue and we will update the site once and if we hear from them.

Biden: Hillary Would Have Been a Better Pick Than Me!

Hillary's Pumas [Party Unity My Ass] say: Well, duh! No joke.

But for Biden to admit it leaves us wondering whether the dems are floating a trial ballon and Biden will exit if Obama and his handlers want him to.

We suspect we know why Obama didn't pick Hillary in the first place. Hillary is a strong woman, from a politically strong marriage, it is likely that Bill and Hillary would have injected themselves into all of the country's business that they could, and reportedly Michele Obama didn't like her.

But all those reasons (or similar ones) didn't stop Ronald Reagan from picking his primary rival George H. W. Bush (the first one) as his VP candidate - and it is well known he hated George Bush.

So why else did Obama not pick the only democratic rival who got 18 million votes in the primary?

Was it because a woman and a black on a ticket would be too hard for the country to stomach? No. The racists and bigots weren't going to vote Obama anyway so adding a woman wouldn't have hurt.

Our guess is two things: George Soros (pictured above) a billionaire who likes to manipulate countries for his benefit (not just the US, he influenced Yeltsin to devalue the ruble even though Soros is a currency trader, and the results were disastrous for the Russian people). He is persona non-gratis in Russia now. Soros also started the ultra left wing moveon.org, slandered General Petraeus in full page NY Times Ads saying that the General would "Betray us" even before the General made his first report to Congress, funded millions of dollars of soft political donations to shadowy 527 groups that don't have scrutiny like the candidates, given massive funds to former "weathermen" (the ones that blew up buildings - including Obama's friend William Ayers) and more. [One story here.] and backed anti-US films. He has even told democrats that he has "bought the Democratic Party" and owns it now. [Click here for 56,000 links to story.]

Anyway, we think that Soros detested the Clintons because they did not give him the influence that he thought he should have had during President Clinton's 8 years in office. So with Obama up by 8 points before the DNC, we think Soros told Obama to skip Hillary as a payback to the Clintons and instead chose a non-dangerous white man (Biden - old time politico but from the tiny state of Delaware. Soros would not have to worry about him after Obama's term) and just cruise in to victory.

The other reason, of course, is that Obama thought he didn't need or want Hillary looking over his shoulder for 4 or 8 years. So he said "up yours" to the many women and men who had worked hard to elect Hillary.

Now the wheels are falling off as Republicans are energized over Sarah Palin = a female who appears to fight the big interests for the people and there has been a 15 point switch in likely voter preference to McCain/Palin.

Soros and Obama don't know what to do. The Obama camp is in a tailspin. Watch for some serious mudslinging, but we don't think Soros will allow Hillary to be put on the ticket at least until it is clear that the bleeding isn't being stopped.

One more question for Obama. What does a community organizer do, how much do you get paid, and who else paid your salary directly or indirectly over the past years since law school? Could it have been George Soros all this time?

Is North Korea's Kim Jong-il Dead - or Dying?

News reports are saying that North Korea's crazy dictator may be ill or dying because he was not present at the 60 Anniversary celebration of the Communist takeover of North Korea. Story here.


But after this made the headlines along with speculation as to who would take over since Kim has not made his successor apparent, which of course raises the spectre of military turmoil in North Korea, Kim suddenly shows up again. Well, not in person, but by way of sending a telegram to Syria leader Assad. Story here.

But hold the show. A long time Japanese expert on Kim Jong II released a book this summer saying that Kim Jong-il has probably been dead since 2003 - with acting doubles making his few limited appearances. Story here.

At first, I thought the story was wacky, but given that dictators often have doubles (The New York Times and others have reported that Saddam Hussein had at least 3 doubles), and Professor Toshimitsu Shigemura's expertise in Kim Jong-il and his argument that there was a different change in Kim's outreach efforts in 2003 (along with the move of Kim's favorite sister to Paris after her husband got booted out of the ruling party) leads me to believe that perhaps Kim is dead. The best report of Shigemura's finding is here.

If he is dead, the facade could be a way for a small circle of power brokers to keep power. In most 3rd world countries, that doesn't affect us, but with this nuclear, missile selling country of mystery, it could very serious consequences.

McCain Throws Lipstick Back in Obama's Face

New McCain Ad on YouTube:



UPDATE 9/10/09 AT 3:30 PM.

This video is no longer available. John McCain's site says: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by CBS Interactive Inc"

This is tantamount to censorship. I saw the video. All it had was a clip of Palin talking about the difference between hockey moms and pit bulls being one wears lipstick, then a clip of Obama saying you can put lipstick on a pig but you still have a pig, and then the closing of a pic of Obama with the title Ready to Lead? or Ready to Smear?

So it appears that CBS does not want McCain making mileage off of a clip they shot of Obama slamming Palin.

What is this? A media that decides for us what we'll know about the candidates? Do they think they can protect Obama by limiting video of him?

Did Obama Use Sexist Term in Calling Palin a Pig?

Obama in a stump speech said that "even if you put lipstick on a pig, you still have a pig". The audience (Obama supporters) laughed loudly. Many think he was referring to Palin who at the Republican convention said she was a hockey mom and the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick.

Now would lipstick be a gender specific term?

What if one candidate was an Arab American and somebody made a joke referring to camels? Or a candidate was Indian American and one made a joke about convenience stores (like Joe Biden did)? Or if one candidate was African American and one made a joke about putting on whiteface (a twist on the "blackface" that actors used to put on to portray African Americans). Would the media be enraged about those comments?

I think so, but where is the outcry today?

You decide what Obama meant...

McCain Crowds Grow Exponentially

McCain, who used to draw only crowds of 1,000, now has standing room only with average crowds now of 5,000 or more.

See full article here on ABC News.

How Dare She Be A Working Class Woman

One of our readers notified us of an article in the National Review:

Writers for the New York Times are still sneering at Sarah Palin and her family on a regular basis. After all, these snobs will never forgive her for going to the University of Idaho, or for having a husband who isn’t a lawyer or an investment banker, but a member of the United Steelworkers union, who doesn’t have a degree, whose mother (who is part Yupik) is a former secretary of the Alaska Federation of Natives, and whose grandmother is a member of the Curyung tribe.

The article goes on to point out the outrageous lies which have been circulated against Sarah Palin, all of which are untrue, including:

1. Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence party for two years in the 1990s. (She wasn't)

2. Sarah Palin didn’t support Pat Buchanan in the 1999-2000 campaign; she was an official on the campaign of Republican presidential contender Steve Forbes.

3. Her eldest son Track (who is deploying to Iraq this week) didn’t join the National Guard because he was a drug addict.

4. Her daughters Willow and Piper aren’t named after witches on TV.

5. She’s not anti-Semitic. In fact, she has an Israeli flag in her office, and quietly turned up for services at a newly opened Wasilla synagogue to pay her respects.

6. She didn’t cut funding for unwed mothers, but increased it by 354 percent.

Read the full article here.

Gallup: McCain Now Leading Obama with Independents 52% to 37%

Gallup released it's latest poll showing that McCain had a whopping 15 point lead with independents over Obama. That lead expands to 20% when polling independents with no previous political leanings. Even Democrats who only favored McCain by 9% prior to the convention had swelled to 14%.

A post convention bump is normal for most candidates. Obama had a 8 point lead following his Friday night acceptance speech. But it appears that McCain has been greatly helped by the addition of Palin and her speech.

This race is far from over. Don't expect the Dems to take this lying down. Shots are being fired already. Obama has accused McCain and Palin of lying about being mavericks [story here and elsewhere on this blog].