2008 archive
McCain Spins like a Washing Machine 3
In the third major segment of This American Life this week, Alex Blumberg deconstructs the Republican lie that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac caused the collapse of the mortgage market, and therefore the collapse of the housing market, and therefore of the collapse of the whole wide world.
Of course, believing that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, rather than criminally negligent and even some fraudulent practices by banks and mortgage companies, mortgage brokers and real estate salespersons, is convenient for Republicans, because it absolves their failed stewardship of governance from responsibility for what happened.
And, as I have demonstated, conservatives never take responsibity for their failed policies.
Remember who was in charge from 2001-2007 and who blocked anything from happening in Congress in 2007-2008.
From the website (emphasis added):
Praying Liberally Wilmington Updated 0
Praying Liberally blog updated.
Conservative Values 0
Over at the Booman’s place.
The “Voter Fraud” Fraud (Updated) 1
Terry Gross investigated the “voter fraud” fraud in three segments on Wednesday’s show.
Check it out here.
Addendum, 10/13/08:
Josh Marshall sums it up:
Wine 0
About the onlu thing I can’t reliably do on Linux that I can do on Windows is play Windows media files, the ones with the extensions *.wmv and *.wma.
This has nothing to to with Linux. Rather, Microsoft, in typical Microsoft fashion, keeps messing with the codec to keep those files proprietary in the hopes of further enslaving users to Windows.
Now, I can play some older *.wm? files. Both mplayer and VLC are capable of doing that.
Normally, this doesn’t bother me. I either ignore *.wm? files or stream them over the network to a Windows box.
But I finally got tired of commuting into the next room to watch the occasional video, did a quick webseach, and test drove Crossover Linux from Codeweavers, which uses Wine to run Windows programs on Linux or Mac boxes.
I could have set up Wine myself, but I didn’t want to learn anything; I just wanted the watch the darn video. After testing Crossover Linux for almost two and a half minutes, I went back to Codeweavers and registered the product.
Here’s picture of the result: That’s Windows Media Player v. 9 on the left, the Midnight Commander file manager on the right, this website viewed in the venerable Lynx text-based web browser at the bottom, of course, a shameless plug for the Linux Distro of Iron in the background.
Bushonomics: DOWn 1
Not that the DOW is the end all and be all–after all, it’s fewer than 50 stocks–but, well (emphasis added) . . .
Banks Shot 0
Two more bite the dust:
The closures are the 14th and 15th bank failures so far this year.
’nuff said.
Beyond the Palin 1
Abuse of power is a wingnut thing.
From MarketWatch:
As my mother would have said, “Honestly . . . .”
McLies 3
From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link the for the full analysis (emphasis added):
In a Web ad and in repeated attacks from the stump, McCain describes the two as associates, and Palin claims they “pal around” together. But so far as is known, their relationship was never very close. An Obama spokesman says they last saw each other in a chance encounter on the street more than a year ago.
McCain says in an Internet ad that the two “ran a radical ‘education’ foundation” in Chicago. But the supposedly “radical” group was supported by a Republican governor and included on its board prominent local civic leaders, including one former Nixon administration official who has given $1,500 to McCain’s campaign this year. Education Week says the group’s work “reflected mainstream thinking” among school reformers. The group was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, started by a $49 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which was established by the publisher Walter Annenberg, a prominent Republican whose widow, Leonore, is a contributor to the McCain campaign.
For Fact Checks I missed while rebuilding the server, go to the FactCheck website.
Ya know, the lies are bad enough.
But what is truly appalling is that Republipartisans are so willing to wrap themselves up in willful ignorance as to profess them. And maybe even believe them.
I do not think that Senator Obama is the second coming.
Remember, I was a Dodd guy.
But, frankly, the basic rule, based on the experience of things seen, is this:
Any Democrat is better than every Republican.
The rest of the political discourse starts from that point.
The Current Federal Administrator has proved that and sealed it with a kiss.
Stray Thought: “Change You Can Believe In” Dept. 0
Give the Republican Party a 20, it will give you back five fours.
Baseball 1
As I watch the Phillies game, I realize that the Fox Sports announcers are really really bad.
Bring back Harry Kalas for the playoffs.
At least he understands baseball.
When You Got Nuttin’ 1
You dodge, weave, lie, and attack.
It’s a Republican thing. They got nuttin’.
And they are leaving the rest of us with the same:
The Dow’s close leaves it 5,585.34 points, or 39.4%, under its year-ago high.
Bushonomics: Time Runs Out Dept. 0
The Republican Party, the party of fiscal responsibility.
Yeah.
Right.
Incompetent lying hypocritical bastards.
If my wording is too circumspect, please use the email link at the top of the page and I’ll tell you what I really think.
Men without a Country 0
The outrageousness continues:
(snip)
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina issued the landmark ruling in the case of a small band of captives, known as Uighurs, who have been held at Guantanamo nearly seven years and are no longer considered enemy combatants by the U.S. government.
The United States is refusing to repatriate the Uighurs to China, since China considers Uighurs to be prima facie terrorists and rebels, and doesn’t want to admit them to the United States because, for some reason or other, they just might be bearing a grudge.
But today, an appeals court enjoined the order so that the government could “have more time to make arguments in the case.”
Note the argument was described, in the first link above, as using to keep these innocent persons incarcerated (emphasis added). It boils down to “King George the Wurst doesn’t want to.”
Justice Department lawyers had argued that only the president had the authority to allow the men into the country. They also said the judge was barred from ordering the entry of detainees if they had ties to terrorist groups.
Just because I haven’t quoted it in a while, here is the oath of office that King George swore:
Frankly, Pascal nailed it.
A Present from My Bank 3
Came in the mail. They really do not have to remind me.
I’d tell you which bank it was, but I don’t know what name they are trading under today.
And why are they mailing books all over the country when they are gasping for air already? This is they kind of good business sense that got them into trouble in the first place.
Furrfu!
Bushonomics: Creampuff Dept. 1
Wanna buy a used car dealership?
The national outlook is likewise grim. Last week, Ford Motor Co. reported U.S. sales had dropped 34 percent in September. And yesterday, normally bulletproof Toyota Motor Corp. saw its shares experience their largest one-day drop in decades on fears of a global recession.
Penske Chevrolet is among a batch of dealerships in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey to close or merge during the last month. Dealerships in Hammonton and Elmer, N.J., also shut down in recent weeks or are on the chopping block, and others are rumored to be next.
Most affected are dealerships selling autos by the Detroit “Big Three” – Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler L.L.C., said John Devlin, vice president of the Pennsylvania Automotive Association in Harrisburg.
Praying Liberally Wilmington Update 0
Right over there—->
