Lovely

And good lord, the bloody madman was SERIOUS about the spending freeze gambit!

It's a good thing she didn't bring up John "I'm Clueless About the Economy!" McCain's latest scheme for "fixing" the economy:

When McCain said this nutty thing, I assumed he was just having a pardonable senior moment:

MCCAIN: How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.

LEHRER: Spending freeze?

MCCAIN: I think we ought to seriously consider with the exceptions the caring of veterans national defense and several other vital issues.

But I learn from Yglesias that McCain was actually serious.

Folks, this isn't an idea. This is just plain nuttiness on the level of a UFO behind the Hale Bopp comet, scientology, and invading Iraq. You don't take it seriously. You laugh at it. You sneer at it. And you use it as an example of the sheer flakiness of the person who mentions it.

Why not take it seriously? Oh, a couple reasons:

And a spending freeze of this magnitude goes well beyond getting rid of a few earmarks. Mark Schmitt explained:

A spending freeze ... is a very specific thing -- some programs will be in the freeze, some out. In a recession, programs that would normally cost more automatically -- like Food Stamps or Unemployment Insurance -- will be unable to respond.
Over the next few weeks, Obama (as well as the press, if it's not too much to ask) should pound relentlessly on the spending freeze: What's frozen, and what's "several other vital issues"? In a recession, are Food Stamps frozen? Student loans? Unemployment benefits? Pell Grants? S-CHIP? Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP)? The list is long, and different states and constituencies naturally have their own programs that they would like to know whether McCain would freeze them or not.
And wherever McCain's answer is yes, that program would be part of the freeze, numbers can usually be put to it quickly. For example, freezing LIHEAP would leave X million seniors without heat this winter. Freezing Pell Grants would mean X million students couldn't go to college.
At the end, McCain will be in one of two boxes: Either he's a guy who is willing to slash every domestic program, leave seniors in the dark and kids blocked from college, while dumping hundreds of billions of dollars into Wall Street and Baghdad, plus his tax cuts. Or his "spending freeze" is just another vacuous gimmick.

I'll take "vacuous gimmick!" for $1000, Alex!

Yglesias sums up what a spending freeze means in terms even a high-functioning moron such as Bush could understand:

It’s worth really focusing in on the fact that John McCain’s campaign was running around — proudly! — boasting about the fact that they intend to follow up a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street and $800 billion in tax cuts for the rich with an across-the-board spending freeze. That means, in real terms, less money for your local police department. Less money for the FBI. Less money for Head Start. Less money for Pell Grants. Less money for infrastructure. Less money for everything except failed banks and endless wars.

around teh edges

Well, I mean, who gives a flying ... about the poor, right?

Just in case anyone had any doubts about precisely what the economic priorities of this administration are, and who is going to be left out in the cold, Dana Perino clears it up:

In the press briefing today, just an hour before the Senate vote, Dana Perino said the White House opposed the measure, specifically citing its extension of unemployment and food stamp benefits as explanation:

PERINO: There’s some elements of the package that have been put forward by Democrats that we do not think would be stimulative to the economy, such as unemployment insurance. The food stamps, we believe we have met the need.

This was in response to a $56.2 billion second stimulus package meant for the people most hurt by the shenanigans of the financial giants that are getting the real money. It would have extended unemployment benefits for another seven weeks, provide $50 million for food banks as well as increasing food stamp benefits. You know, it would have helped people. Can't have that.
Not surprisingly, it failed in the Senate anyway, 52-42 (and what's up with Bayh and McCaskill on this one?).This probably won't get a whole lot of traditional media attention, because the fate of the Wall Street muckety-mucks is so much more important than that of the people they've robbed. Too bad, because it might be something folks making a decision about their vote in November might want to know.

According to teh Washington Post, this is what went down when McCain went up to Washington to save the bailout bill

Now why in the world was Obama grumpy, I wonder?


In the meantime, more Rick Davis shenanigans This is , of course, in addition to these interesting revelations Please refrain from daring the media to investigate your campaign manger if he is actually corrupt. You'll end up with egg on your face. And give much glee to wicked partisan liberals like moi.

Alternative Plans to the bailout proposal.

Funny thing I notice on the news. Not only do the journalists I saw seem to grossly oversimplify the problem, (its only about those people who took on mortgages that they couldn't afford, those greedy people!), but they present the bailout plan being negotiated in Congress as the one and only way to save the markets. And then I hear a journalist on Sunday morning mention that GE, which owns NBC, is going to be hardhit if there is no bailout because its financial services division was among those who improperly speculated on the financial markets. *lightbulb!* If the guys who own the news organizations want a piece of the pie, no wonder they have a vested interest in only finding financial "experts" that tell us in serious tones that the bailout plan HAS to be based on the Paulson version, and modification takes place from there; instead of discarding it all together and looking at alternative plans. No wonder some bloody woman got on my tv to tell me that it is absolutely wrong to blame Wall Street for this mess, that the plan will save Main Street as well even though benefits enumerated were pretty vague, that Wall Street's problem is EVERYBODY's problem. Ah, the results of deregulation leading to consolidation of our media by corporate interests! Honestly, are they worth being called news organizations anymore? When do we start calling them propoganda stations?

( More info and Alternative plans under the cut )

Judge not by the colour of one's skin...

(no subject)

Snitched from politicartoons

Laughing fit to burst

This Week in Wall Street Socialism from:Economic Populist

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Dive of Death

Awkward Loan Interview

OhMyGodSocietyIsCollasping!

First you demonise them. Then you attack them.

via: sex_and_race

I saw that cd in the paper and when I saw who had produced it, I felt so goddamn disgusted.


Muslim Children Gassed at Dayton Mosque After "Obsession" DVD Hits Ohio

On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West -- the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail -- were distributed by mail in Ohio, a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. This, apparently, is what the scare tactic political campaigning of John McCain's supporters has led to -- Americans perpetrating a terrorist attack against innocent children on American soil.

Click through to read an account of the incident
My statement as MRFF's Research Director:
The presidential campaign edition of the Obsession DVD, currently being distributed by the Clarion Fund, carries the endorsement of the chair of the counter-terrorism department of the U.S. Naval War College, using the name and authority of an official U.S. military institution not only to validate an attack the religion of Islam, but to influence a political campaign. For these reasons, this endorsement has been included in MRFF's second lawsuit against the Department of Defense, which was filed on September 25 in the Federal District Court in Kansas.

For those of you who care about terrorism AGAINST MUSLIMS

Keep in mind, as many of you know, Muslims in america are well assimilated, mainstream moderate people, often times professionals who contribute greatly to the communities in which they live.

But because of Fox News, because of right wing organizations, like the Clarion FUND and their viscious attacks on islam, because of daniel pipes and ohers like him, Islam has been maligned to the extent thathate crime is an acceptable part of the rights tradition. They believe that Muslims are out to destroy America.

No matter the facts, no matter the reality, all that matters is the propaganda they listen to on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, etc....

...

So many of them. And so, the regular people believe this crap, and they believe it is their duty to defend america against this Mortal enemy.

And when attacks like this happen. Nothing much is done, BECAUSE, muslims are ignored by and large. Their situation their suffering EVEN their votes dont seem to matter much.
After all, no body is going out to GET the muslim vote for this election, evn though its a substantial vote.

...

And in this latest episode, PLEASE WRITE A SHORT NOTE OF SUPPORT to the Dayton Mosque and let them know, that Americans do not stand for this stuff. They dont believe in terrorism of any kind by any body against any group/

Please do this, because I KNOW the media isnt going to, and surely the republicans arent going to.
And I know that the people in Dayton Islamic Society and their members would appreciate a kind word.
26 Josie Street, Dayton, OH 45403 Tel: (937) 228-1503
Here is the email:
isgd@hotmail.com:

Ah yes. Because we all know that the actions of a few can be easily applied to teh majority. I mean its not like America doesn't have a fucking extensive history of doing this and WORSE to its minorities. But we hide this history, don't we? We sweep it under the rug. And we pretend, oh we pretend that America is this exceptional...