Just because McCain uses the word "gook," please don't hold him responsible for saying "spic" twice today

John McCain is very careful about his words, and his campaign only lets him say exactly, and only, what they want him to say. McCain never says anything any more that isn't 100% scripted, no press conferences, nothing. So, I mean, he did use the word "spic" twice today, so I'm just not sure what else we're to think other than John McCain is a Latino-hating racist. Read the rest of this post...

Suggested new signature line for your BlackBerry, iPhone etc.

"Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld device, a miracle made possible by John McCain."

"Sent from my iPhone wireless handheld device, a miracle made possible by John McCain." Read the rest of this post...

Our interview with actress and writer Carrie Fisher

I learned tonight that even after a good shower, glitter simply doesn't come off until it wants to come off.

Tonight, Joe and I went by the Lincoln Theater here in DC to do a quick interview with actress and writer Carrie Fisher (daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Princess Leia of the original star wars, etc.) AMERICAblog reader Daniel, who is traveling with Carrie and working on the show, graciously invited us to see her show "Wishful Drinking" the other night - it was great, highly recommend it - and afterwards he asked if we wanted to meet Carrie. Uh yeah. So we went back to her dressing room for about 10 minutes and she was a riot (here's our report on that little rendez-vous from a few days ago). As she'd just finished the show for that evening, Daniel said we were welcome to come back for an interview on camera later in the week - that was tonight.

Joe and I arrived at 630, and hung out in the parking lot behind the theater with Daniel. Carrie arrived, proceeded to rub glitter all over our faces, then dumped a handful on my hair, and went inside. A few minutes later we were ushered in. Carrie immediately proceeded to rub more glitter on Joe's face and mine.


(Carrie Fisher rubbing glitter on Joe's face, and the aftermath - click for larger versions.)

While she was doing up Joe, I started the camera rolling. It was interesting. She was much more serious once we got her on camera than she was after the show the other night. I suspect she was pretty jazzed after the show, we'd had a good audience, and you never know, she may have thought this was a serious political interview (ha!). But still, Joe was able to tweak the story out of her of how she learned that George Bush, our current president, has a very special skill. He can fart on command, and does.

Towards the end of the interview, she signaled that she was going to say something we'd told her she probably shouldn't say on camera. But she did it anyway. I had to cut it. Maybe I'll share the video after the election - maybe. Right now, not so safe (trust me, really wasn't worth the firestorm it might have created :-) But she had us cracking up. Anyway, here's the interview, below. It was interesting to see how much she was up on the details of the election, not being a DC type. Oh, and I don't expect these interviews to be earth-shattering or anything. They're more meant as just a bit of fun, and a taste of our life in DC, crazy it as sometimes is. So take it in that spirit.

Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: Feds to give AIG $85 billion bailout

Jesus Christ.

Chris commented yesterday on the wisdom of bailing out AIG, he's calling it AIG's very own "Bridge to Nowhere":

Why would taxpayers want to extend a $40 billion bridge loan to AIG? This company has been mismanaged and gambled, so good luck figuring out how to make ends meet like everyone else. Maybe AIG should have spent more time worrying about being a sound company instead of making sure their CEO was showered with riches.

More from Chris on the implications of an AIG bailout:

Also in the news late Sunday night was long-troubled insurer AIG, another failure who overextended themselves in the housing bubble. And yes, another company who showered their CEO in riches, who still has that money as the company crumbles based on his bad decisions. (Great work, when you can get it.) AIG is asking the US taxpayers to kindly pass along a bridge loan of $40 billion to help them get through tough times. Is there really a polite way to say "sod off" or do we even need to be polite with these spongers? Call in Nancy Reagan and "just say no" to them all.

Let them fail or else they will drag us all under water with bad debt. Investor Wilbur Ross is saying that we could possibly see 1,000 banks in US fail as they did after the John McCain Keating Five/S&L; crisis in the 1980s. The flashy banks and financial services companies all wanted the rugged free enterprise system for those with the least but CEO socialism for those at the top. Let them go under and let them live with the consequences, just as the rest of Americans who have been on the receiving end of the credit crisis.

This past July, Chris wrote of how AIG gave its failed CEO a $47 million severance package for his troubles:

Poor fellow. I hope that he will be OK though he does have the advantage of having an office and secretary until the end of the year. This is a new era, where record losses are ignored and multi-million dollar golden hand shakes are given along with a nice peck on the cheek. Let's be honest, corporate America would do this for any employee, especially after years of being treated so well with no luxury too much. Just because he was paid massive amounts based on bad business and now is being paid yet again despite the company writing down billions doesn't mean he didn't deserve it. Hey, he had a contract! Legal wasn't able to find any of those famous loopholes despite AIG losing billions upon billions.

What's that? Your company won't even pay for all of your family health insurance after working there for 10 years? Well, you people are always so greedy and just ask for too much. Shouldn't you be working now anyway?

Read the rest of this post...

Bush-McCain economy loses $700 billion in retirement plans

Another reason why we need active and competent regulations for Wall Street. None of this matters for people like McCain who own 12 houses, but normal Americans are trying to rely on retirement plans when they grow old. With McCain's proposed cutbacks to Social Security, our retirement programs are even more important. It also brings us back to McCain's radical plan to send our Social Security money to Wall Street. Yes, the same Wall Street who just lost $700 billion yesterday. Imagine the consequences of an unchecked market controlling our Social Security money, because McCain has been against regulations for 26 years in Washington. Twenty six years of protecting Wall Street. That's the real McCain.

About $700 billion evaporated from retirement plans, government pension funds and other investment portfolios.

It was by far the most stomach-churning single day since a financial crisis began to bubble up from billions of dollars in rotten mortgage loans that have crippled the balance sheets of one bank after another and landed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the control of the federal government.

"We are in the middle of a deep, dark recession, and it won't end soon. Here it is, and it is pretty nasty," said Barry Ritholtz, who writes the popular financial blog The Big Picture and is chief executive officer of research firm FusionIQ.

Read the rest of this post...

John McCain's driver talks about how McCain invented the Blackberry

Here's the Facebook page of Billy, the Straight Talk Express bus driver.

Read the rest of this post...

Pinocchio

I like it. The little war hero whose nose grows whenever he lies. A friend forwarded this email:

I am working on a new project to try and expose the McCain/Palin forthe liars they are and get the label to stick in the Media and
culturally.

We are trying to encourage people to go out to McCain/Palin rally's with Pinocchio noses and have it become a symbol of the race like the Flip-flops did with Kerry.

Check it out at PinocchioPolitics.org. It's only a day old and still needs a ton of work.

We need Web designers to help out and People to get the word out.

Read the rest of this post...

More on McCain's Dishonor

Richard Cohen, former McCain adulator, eviscerates McCain over lies:

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.

I am one of the journalists accused over the years of being in the tank for McCain. Guilty. Those doing the accusing usually attributed my feelings to McCain being accessible. This is the journalist-as-puppy school of thought: Give us a treat, and we will leap into a politician's lap.

Not so. What impressed me most about McCain was the effect he had on his audiences, particularly young people. When he talked about service to a cause greater than oneself, he struck a chord. He expressed his message in words, but he packaged it in the McCain story -- that man, beaten to a pulp, who chose honor over freedom. This had nothing to do with access. It had to do with integrity.

McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP lawmakers sue to stop ethics investigation of Palin

That would be the investigation that she said she'd fully cooperate with until she then said she'd have nothing to do with them. Now the Republicans are trying to shut the entire thing down. Read the rest of this post...

McCain lied - rather massively - about his health care plan

From the NYT:

Senator John McCain’s top domestic policy adviser, former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin, recently said in a conference call with reporters that Mr. McCain’s health care proposal would “put 25 to 30 million individuals out of the ranks of the uninsured, into the ranks of the insured.” In an article released Tuesday, a panel of prominent health economists concludes that Mr. Holtz-Eakin’s projection is off by, well, 25 to 30 million.

NOTE from Jacki: I try not to weigh in too often on work-related stuff, but you have to know what we're talking about with McCain's health care plan. If you get your health insurance through work, you can kiss that good-bye. See, McCain will tax your benefits as if they were salary. So you will see more money come out of your paycheck with no additional salary to compensate for that loss. Then, employers will be inclined to drop coverage because they won't see the point in offering it when you can get it elsewhere and there is no longer a tax break attached to it. You will lose the benefit of employer-negotiated and monitored group plans. G-d forbid you have a medical history - any medical history - good luck getting affordable coverage (if you can get decent coverage at all) in the individual market. McCain wants to give you a tax credit that won't cover the average plan and won't keep up with the rising costs of care. Oh, and that buying across state lines thing - bad for you, great for the insurance industry. They get to set up shop in states with the least regulation.

Ezra Klein and Jonathan Cohn both have excellent pieces out today. If Sarah Palin doesn't scare the sh*t out of you, McCain's health care plan will. Read the rest of this post...

McCain now lying, saying staff never said he invented the BlackBerry

Yeah, and we'd almost have believed you, except that the "joke" was the same "joke" that McCain is himself quoted as saying by Scientific American. Note the "joke" the McCain campaign is now saying an aide told earlier today about McCain helping to create the BlackBerry.

Asked what work John McCain did as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate's top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.

"He did this," Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

Now note the non-joke in which McCain himself, using the exact same language as the "joke," says that he helped create the cell phone and wi-fi:

I am the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Committee plays a major role in the development of technology policy, specifically any legislation affecting communications services, the Internet, cable television and other technologies. Under my guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.

So was McCain "joking" too - pretty stupid way to run a presidential campaign, putting our repeated "jokes" lying about your boss's record, or did the McCain aide in fact tell the truth as the campaign sees it, that John McCain thinks he created the Blackberry? It's pretty clear that the campaign thinks all of this is true, but now is running scared because this lie was one lie too many. Read the rest of this post...

Top McCain economic adviser: McCain & Palin not qualified to run major corporation

But fortunately the US government is not a multi-trillion dollar enterprise with hundreds of thousands of employees. Oh wait... Here's what the Obama campaign had to say about this:

"If John McCain's top economic advisor doesn't think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn't understand as well as he should," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Now what Carly Fiorina diss her boss:

Read the rest of this post...

What else did John McCain invent?

Now that we know that John McCain created the Blackberry, cell phones and wi-fi, I was wondering what else he created. A few readers have already weighed in in the comments ("fire" and "the wheel" were particularly popular). Any thoughts on what else McCain created? Post them in the comments. (There's now a Here's Twitter feed too (#invented)). Read the rest of this post...

The Daily Show tackles the rape-kit controversy

Jon Stewart goes there -- and the audience gasps and hisses.

It's at around the 2:15 mark. That's the same reaction I get from everyone who hears about the fact that, as Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin charged sexual assault victims for forensic exams:

Read the rest of this post...

Even Fox News calls out McCain campaign on lies

You know it's bad when Fox jumps in like this. Read the rest of this post...

A reader's idea for the Obama economic team: Up the FDIC limit to $200k

Note from Chris: I agree, this is a fantastic idea and long overdue. The bigger issue is not the insurance level being raised, but the FDIC actually having available cash. The FDIC only has $50 billion in reserves to support $1 trillion in assets. (I would encourage you to watch the previous link.) They will have to get money from Congress and surely will start asking for more money from banks, who will be asking consumers for more in terms of fees. If the US has a serious run on the bank it will be tricky. There are reasons why FDR changed the banking laws during the Great Depression. The Republicans since Reagan thought it was all hogwash. Looks like they were ever so slightly wrong and we are now stuck with too many "too big to fail" situations.

Great idea from a reader:

It's been widely acknowledged that Obama won't win unless he connects with people and show exactly how his presidency would affect their lives. Given the bank failures we're looking at, here's a real and plausible action he should take immediately: propose to double FDIC insurance to $200,000. The current $100,000 limit is archaic and doesn't reflect the reality of today's deposits. It would immediately put the everyday person more at ease that the Fed will protect their hard-earned savings, and it would also have the very real effect of stabilizing the withdrawal panics at banks that we're starting to see.

I'm saving to buy my first place, and considering how much I need to keep in the bank for the downpayment, closing costs, my quarterly taxes (since I work for myself), and additional savings "just in case," that $100,000 limit is downright scary. Say you're looking to buy a $350,000 one-bedroom condo (that's what they go for in DC) - that's $70,000 in down payment, another $10,000-ish for closing, then you add in the money you're saving in order to pay your self-employment taxes, your annual retirement contribution, and additional savings as a safety net (i.e., six months rent/condo payment on hand), and it's not hard to get over $100,000. Read the rest of this post...

McCain now says he created cell phones and wi-fi too

Yes he did:

I am the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Committee plays a major role in the development of technology policy, specifically any legislation affecting communications services, the Internet, cable television and other technologies. Under my guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.

You have to be one heck of a visionary to create wi-fi for computers when you don't even really know what a computer is. Now that's American ingenuity, my friends. (And Al Gore's supposed claim of helping to create the Internet is based on the same premise, passing legislation that created an environment in which it flourished. You can't criticize Gore and praise McCain. The lies finally caught up with McCain. (Scientific American confirms he said it.) Read the rest of this post...

Obama lets McCain have it on the economy. Calls McCain's commission idea " the oldest Washington stunt in the book"

John McCain wants a commission to solve the economic mess. Obama blasted that idea as as stunt and passing the buck:

Read the rest of this post...

Dr. McCain's Amazing Black-Berry

Read the rest of this post...

The Blackberry was invented by a Canadian company -- not John McCain

(NOTE FROM JOHN: There's a rather serious side to McCain's claim that he invented the Blackberry. The Blackberry has been the subject of some rather high-stakes law suits. If in fact McCain created the device, and not Research in Motion - or even if McCain were a co-inventor - this would raise some interesting legal issues with regards to who owns the rights to the device. I would suspect Research in Motion isn't interested in watering down its patent, which to my eye is exactly what John McCain just did today.)

Today, McCain's campaign claimed that McCain created the Blackberry. Blackberry was developed by Research in Motion, a Canadian company. If McCain's campaign knew how to use the Google, they'd have known this important fact.

As one of our readers wrote, "Not only did McCain invent the BlackBerry -- he outsourced it!" Read the rest of this post...

McCain got nasty defending his negative ads and still doesn't get the need to protect kids from sexual predators

Both Jed and the Huffington Post have video of John McCain's outburst on Morning Joe today. He's cranky. Sam Stein reported:

John McCain defended his campaign from charges that it has a problem with the truth and batted back suggestions that he is economically out-of-touch during appearances on all seven morning shows Tuesday.

It was an uphill task, perhaps best illuminated by the Senator's appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. McCain was forced to redefine what he meant when he declared the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" just yesterday. He offered curt responses to charges that one of his ads falsely accuses Barack Obama of supporting sex education for kindergartners. (Later in the show, in fact, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds sent an email to host Mika Brzezinski defending the ad, which she subsequently read on air.)

McCain's performance didn't go over well. I got an email from one of our readers who watched this morning:

This morning I was watching MSNBC’s Morning Joe when John McCain was being interviewed. He was asked about his campaign's ad accusing Barack Obama supporting legislation that mandates teaching kindergarteners about sex education. The ad, as everyone but McCain knows is wrong. Obama was supporting legislation to educate kids about sexual predators. McCain is so wrong on that issue and I don’t think he realizes just how far off base he is. I know firsthand.

I taught in an Archdiocese of Washington Catholic school for five years – not exactly the most progressive institution. But, during my tenure, the Archdiocese of Washington’s Catholic School’s office adopted the “Child Lures” program. This curriculum required classroom teachers, from Kindergarten through eighth grade, to teach children how to thwart off sexual advances from adults, the importance seeking help from trusted adults when such circumstances arise, and that it’s not the child’s fault – self-blame is a common symptom for children who are sexually abused. McCain is criticizing a program that even Catholic schools mandate.

I am simply appalled by Senator McCain’s actions – while he is campaigning that he wants to protect America from terrorists, he does not want to protect America’s children from the predators who sexually abuse children.

Catholic schools teach the same kind of program Obama was supporting, which McCain falsely attacked. And, McCain continues to lie about it. We're dealing with derangement. Read the rest of this post...

Another good Obama ad

About McCain and equal pay for equal work (and the ad even kind of suggests that McCain's a bit of a sexist):

Read the rest of this post...

AP: "McCain has acknowledged that he doesn't know how to use a computer and can't send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions"

Seems like the McCain campaign's claim that McCain invented the Blackberry isn't really going over that well. You can practically hear the snickering in the articles. Here's AP, which, for the most part, has been hyper-supportive of McCain:

Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain helped create the BlackBerry.

At least that's the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

McCain has acknowledged that he doesn't know how to use a computer and can't send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions.

McCain's top aide held the device in his hands and told reporters that the Blackberry is the McCain miracle. Part of the miracle is that McCain doesn't really know what the Blackberry is or does. But, he created it anyway.

Behold, the McCain miracle:
Read the rest of this post...

McCain campaign's latest whopper: John McCain invented the Blackberry

Not kidding. That techno-wizard John McCain doesn't really use technology. No, he just creates it:

Asked what work John McCain did as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate's top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.

"He did this," Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

The McCain campaign has become so craven, so deranged, that no lie is beyond the pale.

When you think of the great minds in technological advancement, McCain is now right after Gates and Jobs. Can't you just imagine McCain trying to decide which features to include on his new invention? Read the rest of this post...

New Obama ad: John McCain doesn't understand the economy is broken

Quick turn around, good ad. Make McCain own his words:


Now watch the McCain campaign whine that this ad is unfair -- because it quotes the candidate.

Yesterday, McCain said the fundamentals of "our economy" are strong. The only way that statement could be accurate was if McCain was using the term "our" to describe his family and friends. Then, he'd be right. Their economy is strong. Cindy has a private jet and more houses than John can even count. But, as Americans, our economy isn't strong. John McCain doesn't know that. He's out of touch. He's got no plan. Read the rest of this post...

Goldman Sachs well below quarterly earning estimate

Ruh roh. Dow futures were already struggling due to AIG cash injection problems. This news is not going to help after yesterday, the worst day on Wall Street since September 2001. Futures trading often predict the direction of the market (up or down) for the day. Hours ago Dow futures were in positive territory until AIG financing problems were raised. When Goldman released this news, the futures dropped from around -40 to well over -130. The darlings of Wall Street missed their number by 70%, which will make the market nervous since Goldman and JP Morgan are supposed to be the best performing and most stable players on Wall Street. Wall Street generally dislikes small misses and 70% shortfalls often causes shocks to the market. The market is looking for anything positive to grab onto to keep it afloat so between the news from AIG and now Goldman, we could see another day of selling, forcing the Dow lower and creating even more concern about the direction of the economy.

The Fed and Treasury can do little to stop this slide. Until the Republican housing bubble stops - and that is anyone's guess - this economy will continue to shed profits and jobs. What the market needs now is stability and then profits. Neither is anywhere near which means a painful second half to 2008 and either negative growth or very slow growth in 2009. After a lifetime of voting against market regulation, who really thinks McCain is up to the task of fixing Wall Street and correcting the economy?

Goldman Sachs reported third-quarter earnings Tuesday of $1.81 a share ,sharply below Wall Street expectations.

Goldman Sachs shares fell 8 percent in premarket trading as financials continued their broad fall in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the takeover of Merrill Lynch, and the perilous capital standing of American International Group.

Analysts were looking for Goldman to post earnings of $6.13.

Read the rest of this post...

McCain's ultimate inside-the-beltway solution to the economy: Form a commission

Yesterday, John McCain said "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." His campaign been trying to dig out from that statement since the words left the candidate's mouth. McCain has no economic agenda. He's just going to follow the Bush path, which led us to where we are.

But, knowing that Americans are freaking out, the McCain brain trust has been scrambling to come up with an economic plan. Their grand solution: McCain will form a commission. Yep, that's it. Pretty much the most inside-the-beltway answer to any problem is: Form a commission. McCain's been in Washington for a very long time. McCain touted his bold, new plan on the TODAY Show this morning:



Funny that McCain would invoke the 9/11 Commission, when he didn't show up to vote on that commission's recommendations. Most of his GOP colleagues voted against them as Bob Geiger noted:

I knew there had to be a good reason that John McCain missed a critical vote on the 9/11 Commission recommendations in the Senate on Tuesday… I thought it might have been because he didn’t have the guts to go on the record and join 38 Republicans in opposing increased security for America -- though that may still be part of it.

No, McCain decided it was more important to be way out in California for a series of big-money fundraisers on Tuesday than to be on Capitol Hill voting on the bill intended to "make the United States more secure by implementing unfinished recommendations of the 9/11 Commission to fight the war on terror more effectively."

Bob posted McCain's fundraising schedule for the day of that vote, too.

So, let's review: McCain's economic solution is to form a commission, like the 9/11 Commission, but McCain didn't show up to vote for the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission because he was out raising money for his campaign. Got that? Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Seven weeks -- 49 days -- til Election day.

Just watched McCain and Biden on the TODAY Show. McCain has a solution for the economy: He's forming a commission. Not kidding. I'll have video in a few minutes.

Biden was good. But, here's one suggestion: Say George Bush. Yeah, the name. Say it. Our candidates often talk about "this administration" and "this president." Well, this president is George Bush and he got us into this mess. Invoke Bush over and over and over.

It's going to be another wild day... Read the rest of this post...

McCain has ZERO history to suggest he will properly regulate Wall Street

In fact, all history points towards leaving Wall Street alone to do whatever they want. Let's be clear about McCain's history here. He started his political life in DC in the Keating Five scandal. McCain used his influence to deflect regulators from investigating Charles Keating's troubled S&L;, Lincoln Savings. Thanks to McCain's involvement the US taxpayers ended up getting stuck with the $2.6 billion.

Fast forward to this campaign where McCain has relied on Phil Gramm, former Senator who set up the economic problems on Wall Street today and who now works for exclusive Swiss bank UBS. Gramm helped rescue a failing McCain campaign last year and McCain has repeatedly referred to Gramm as his economic brain and his rumored Treasury Secretary. Gramm has a long history of changing Wall Street rules, creating an "anything goes" atmosphere that never, ever, never includes regulation. So for McCain to suggest he is now in favor of regulation is a ridiculous assertion. Who honestly believes that 72 year old John McCain, without any history of encouraging regulations on Wall Street, can change and suddenly be in the lead on regulation? C'mon.

Mr. McCain’s reaction suggests how the pendulum has swung to cast government regulation in a more favorable political light as the economy has suffered additional blows and how he is scrambling to adjust. While he has few footprints on economic issues in more than a quarter century in Congress, Mr. McCain has always been in his party’s mainstream on the issue.

In early 1995, after Republicans had taken control of Congress, Mr. McCain promoted a moratorium on federal regulations of all kinds. He was quoted as saying that excessive regulations were “destroying the American family, the American dream” and voters “want these regulations stopped.” The moratorium measure was unsuccessful.

“I’m always for less regulation,” he told The Wall Street Journal last March, “but I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight” in situations like the subprime lending crisis, the problem that has cascaded through Wall Street this year. He concluded, “but I am fundamentally a deregulator.”

Later that month, he gave a speech on the housing crisis in which he called for less regulation, saying, “Our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital in financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital.”

Read the rest of this post...

Asia markets continue the fall

When Republicans scoff at the idea of Obama being popular overseas, sure, I get what they're saying but at the same time, they're also showing how ignorant they are to why that matters. We've seen what an unpopular President does for foreign relations and to an equal degree, the GOP has no idea how unpopular Bush has been from a business perspective. People who generally are more conservative and pro-business think Bush has been a disaster. His policies have been no better in terms of business than they have in anything else. The world does have something to lose when the US chooses poorly because when the US economic engine sputters or stops, everyone feels the pain. (Don't even try telling me China or India are taking over as the new economic engine. That's a joke.) Everyone has seen enough of the mindless Republican policies and want a change. Real change, that is.

To that end, Asian markets have been clobbered today thanks to the failed Bush-McCain economic policies. They allowed Wall Street to gamble beyond its means, ignoring history as well as the basic regulatory functions that they were supposed to provide. Because of those failures - policies which McCain's economic brain still thinks are solid - the world is paying the price. At this moment, the major markets (Hong Kong, China, Tokyo) are all down around 5% and Seoul is down 6%. Read the rest of this post...

Palin won't cooperate with Troopergate investigation

She's a reformer all right. That's why she went back on her word and is now stonewalling an investigation into whether she's corrupt as hell. Read the rest of this post...

McCain failed to mention his own ties to the Wall Street collapse today

And if Obama fails to make this the central issue and doesn't put McCain on the hook for this meltdown, we can forget about November. This is the issue on everyone's mind so losing control of this debate will hurt badly. Obama must remain ahead on this problem and quit giving McCain a free ride or launching an intellectual debate over McCain's role (though we saw Obama fighting harder later in the day on Monday, and that's good). He's already given up too much, too easily on owning "change" and without a hard move, he's going to lose on the economy as well. This is a Republican problem and McCain is making a move to appear as though he had nothing to do with it.

David Corn, who has had some brilliant articles on the McCain-Gramm links, has another classic out today. Learn more about what McCain failed to explain today when he criticized the Wall Street failures.

If McCain wants to hold someone accountable for the failure in transparency and accountability that led to the current calamity, he should turn to his good friend and adviser, Phil Gramm.

As Mother Jones reported in June, eight years ago, Gramm, then a Republican senator chairing the Senate banking committee, slipped a 262-page bill into a gargantuan, must-pass spending measure. Gramm's legislation, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists, essentially removed newfangled financial products called swaps from any regulation. Credit default swaps are basically insurance policies that cover the losses on investments, and they have been at the heart of the subprime meltdown because they have enabled large financial institutions to turn risky loans into risky securities that could be packaged and sold to other institutions.

Lehman's collapse threatens the financial markets because of swaps.

Read the rest of this post...

Highest-profile woman advising the McCain campaign, gone

We never hear about McCain getting angry at the men on his campaign for their gaffes. After Phil Gramm called us a nation of whiners, John McCain's still considered him for a cabinet post. But with Carly Fiorina, she says one thing and now she's banished, like some trollop. Temper, temper. Read the rest of this post...