Asian markets take a dive in early trading

From AP:

Tokyo down 10%
Seoul down 7%
Hong Kong down 7%
Australia down 6% Read the rest of this post...

A growing consensus: McCain is a coward

John McCain has been hiding behind his wife and his running mate Sarah Palin. McCain talks tough about Obama, unless Obama is around. Then, McCain wusses out.

There's a growing consensus: John McCain is really a coward.

This was a theme today on DailyKos and Talking Points Memo. Here's some of what Josh had to say:

McCain's moral cowardice has been one of the subtexts of this campaign ever since he wound up the nomination and turned his attention to Barack Obama. But I did not realize it would reveal itself in such a physical dimension.

The tell came this week as McCain unearthed the Ayers story which, for whatever its merits, was fully aired months ago and has no clear relation to the particulars of October other than McCain's collapsing poll numbers. He's on it. Palin's on it. He's releasing slashing new TV ads like this one. Both of them are ginning their crowds up into spiraling gyres of right-wing delirium -- a ready-made Lord of the Flies (and let's admit that's a gentle allusion, given the tone of these barnburners) if Obama happened into one of the auditoriums at the wrong moment.

He ever swaggered on for a couple days about how he was going to 'take the gloves off' when he met up with Obama in Nashville. But when the two of them were there in each others physical presence ... nothing. By a myriad of gestures and reactions Obama owned him....

And now Obama can lightly taunt McCain with that very cowardice, his inability to just say it to his face. And if my take on the inner workings of McCain's mind at the moment is right that should simply unhinge him even more.

And there's also John Cole, who has been saying it for days, starting with this classic line after the debate:

What a sad, pathetic, small man John McCain has turned into right before our very eyes.

More from John Cole here:

No one is debating that John McCain at one time exhibited great bravery in Vienam that I don’t think I would have possessed. How that changes what he has done the past few weeks, inciting his supporters to call Obama a terrorist while refusing to engage Obama directly on the matter, hiding behind surrogates and their sleazy innuendo, not mentioning the subject even though the gloves are “off” yet hoping upon hope that someone will ask him about it, is beyond me. It was one thing with Kerry- what McCain is doing now is dangerous, and he won’t even own it. Take that 2 minute commercial you released on the web, and pay for a national airing. If you want it out there, have it out there with your name on it and with your money backing it. Say something at the next debate. Own it. McCain is acting like a coward, and what he and his campaign are doing is a disgrace. Period.

And finally, both Obama and Biden are also now chiding McCain in public, noting how McCain talks tough when they're not in the room, but then in person he wimps out. Should be a fun next debate to see if McCain is all talk, or willing to own his words. Then again, he could just send his wife and daughter. Read the rest of this post...

THIS JUST IN: Sarah Palin not as bright as she looks

Sorry, I had to.

It seems that Sarah Palin - and I know you just won't believe this - got her signature issue, energy, wrong today. You remember energy, that issue that John McCain says Sarah Palin knows better than anyone in America? Yeah, well, not so much. From AP:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, touted by GOP presidential candidate John McCain as his expert on energy, seemed to have problems Thursday explaining whether the government bans oil exports — especially from her state's North Slope fields.

A questioner at a town hall-style meeting in Wisconsin said he had heard that at least 75 percent of the oil drilled in Alaska was being sold to China and said, if true, he would like to know why.

"No. It's not 75 percent of our oil being exported," Palin said, suggesting some of Alaska's oil, in fact, may be going abroad but not that much.

"In fact," she added, "Congress is pretty strict on, um, export bans of oil and gas especially."

No Alaska oil has been exported since 2004, and little if any since 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration and the Congressional Research Service.

And Congress has never imposed outright bans on oil exports. Congress prohibited exports of Alaska oil in 1973 when the Alaska oil pipeline was built. But that ban was lifted in 1996 when there were large volumes of Alaska oil coming down from the North Slope and U.S. demand was soft.

The Alaska ban has never been reinstated.

Yes, this is the person John McCain wants to put a half-a-heartbeat away from being in charge of the entire US economic crisis. This is the blithering idiot that conservatives want to be their frontrunner in 2012. Read the rest of this post...

When was the last time McCain and Palin even held a press conference?

Palin, never.

McCain, August.

Ever since Palin was chosen and it became apparent that she was a little goofy, the McCain campaign declared that she'd never speak to a real reporter ever again, and certainly not without dad present. And ever since questions starting arising about John McCain's physical and mental health, after he started becoming erratic, they yanked him from the press circuit too.

Yet McCain and Palin - who are refusing to speak to the public through the media - are demanding, simply demanding, that the media fully vet Obama (as if he hasn't been, and isn't still currently being). No one in the media should be reporting on anything McCain or Palin say from here on out without noting that they are in their second and third month, respectively, of having ceased their own vetting.

And let's not forget. We know nothing about Palin, other than she's a bit daft and up to her neck in scandal. Oh yeah, and that she's half a heartbeat away from the presidency during a time of economic crisis and war, and is clearly not up to the task. Read the rest of this post...

Palin: You look like me!!!

UPDATE: Perfect description of Palin from Sarah Silverman tonight on Olbermann:

Sarah Palin...she is the worst combination of...she is as off-putting and gross as a pageant contestant but without the desire for world peace.

Read the rest of this post...

TIME's Joe Klein: McCain's campaign "is a national disgrace"

From Klein in TIME:

But seriously, folks, I'm beginning to worry about the level of craziness on the Republican side, the over-the-top, stampede-the-crowd statements by everyone from McCain on down, the vehemence of the crowds that McCain and Palin are drawing with people shouting "Kill him" and "He's a terrorist" and "Off with his head."

Watch the tape of the guy screaming, "He's a terrorist!" McCain seems to shudder at that, he rolls his eyes... and I thought for a moment he'd admonish the man. But he didn't. And now he's selling the Ayres non-story full-time. Yes, yes, it's all he has. True enough: he no longer has his honor. But we are on the edge of some real serious craziness here and it would be nice if McCain did the right thing and told his more bloodthirsty supporters to go home and take a cold shower. But McCain hasn't done the right thing all year. His campaign is appalling, as the New York Times editorial board said today--and more, it is a national disgrace.

When the economic times get tough, the worst politicians turn to demonizing the other. Read the rest of this post...

CREW files ethics complaint against McCain over undeclared gambling revenue

From CREW:

Washington, DC - Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Senator John McCain (R-AZ) violated federal law and Senate rules by failing to disclose gambling winnings on his Senate financial disclosure reports.

According to a recent article in The New York Times , Sen. McCain is an avid gambler, who frequents casinos as often as once a month. The article states that in the winter of 2000, at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, “[Sen. McCain] and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings.” Sen. McCain also reportedly spent a weekend at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007, playing craps while there.

In July, Time reported that over the past decade, Sen. McCain has gambled on Mississippi riverboats, on Indian land, in Caribbean craps pits and on the Las Vegas strip, allegedly playing “for a few thousand dollars at a time.” In 2005, The New Yorker reported that while in New Orleans in the spring of that year, Sen. McCain gambled at Harrah’s Casino.

Federal law and Senate rules require all income to be reported on annual financial disclosure reports. The Senate Ethics Manual states that winnings, such as those derived from a lottery or a game show, are gifts that must be reported as income. Knowingly filing a false report is a crime punishable by up to five years in jail.

Nevertheless, Sen. McCain reported no income derived from gambling on the personal financial disclosure reports he filed with the Senate between 2000 and 2007.

Read the rest of this post...

Suze Orman: "We have built an entire economy on lies and deceit"

True, but ouch.

Suze says the current financial downturn started all the way at the top of banks, mortgage companies and brokerage firms.

"There was greed at the top -- serious greed," Suze says. "When you have stocks, you have individual companies that want to make money. And [CEOs] want to make more money because the more money they make, the more their compensation is, the more their stock price goes up."

These companies made money by selling investments like mortgages to people who couldn't afford them, Suze says.

"Have you all ever wondered, 'Why does Suze Orman say people first, then money, then things?'" she says. "It means if we cared about people more than we cared about money, we would not be having what happened today, because the people who run the corporations, if they had cared about all of you, they wouldn't have created loans that you couldn't afford."

A lack of regulations also contributed to the downfall -- and Suze says there weren't more rules established because they would cut into the bottom line.

"The more money the brokerage firms, the mortgage companies and all those companies made, the better the economy was. Because if they lent you money, you had money now that you could spend," she says. "When the economy looks great, everybody feels like, 'Oh, we're doing good.' The stock market goes up. When the stock market goes up, the price of shares go up. The compensation for the CEOs go up."

As things progressed, Suze says many people fell under Wall Street's spell.

"A lot of you have built your personal financial foundation on deceit and lies. You bought a home that you couldn't afford ... You spent money like it was going out of style and it wasn't your money to spend, because why? They were borrowing it," Suze says. "When you borrow money, you leverage yourself. The United States of America leveraged itself so high that when it started to come down, the whole thing now has fallen down."

Read the rest of this post...

"It's now clear that John McCain would rather launch angry, personal attacks than talk about the economy."

From the Obama campaign:

"It's now clear that John McCain would rather launch angry, personal attacks than talk about the economy or defend his risky bailout scheme that hands over billions in taxpayer dollars to the same irresponsible Wall Street banks and lenders that got us into this mess – a scheme that guarantees taxpayers will lose money. While Barack Obama ensured that the rescue plan that passed Congress protects taxpayers and homeowners, John McCain's scheme has been panned by experts and observers from across the political spectrum," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

How clear? Watch the mob mentality and how McCain and Palin incite them with angry, personal attacks. The Republican ticket is really out of control. Scarily disturbing:



Meanwhile, the Dow dropped 679 points today. You may recall this statement from the McCain campaign earlier in the week:

"It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice," a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

Well, most of us are talking about the economic crisis because it's getting worse. John Sidney McCain III and Sarah Palin are too busy spewing bile to worry about the economy. Read the rest of this post...

It matters who's driving

Read the rest of this post...

The headlines show a world in crisis. So check out what John McCain is talking about.

Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: Dow down 577 599 620 629 645 659 678.91

That's over a 7% drop in one day. Stay tuned. It's down well below 9,000 - it's at 8,579.19. They're calling it a market "crash." Jesus, they're saying Iceland's currency has collapsed. Investors are fleeing the country.

Read the rest of this post...

Rothenberg predicting Republican "bloodbath" in next month's elections

Stuart Rothenberg (via Cillizza):

The outlook in Senate races continues to deteriorate for Republicans, with Democratic gains at least in the high single digits increasingly likely. Where I once wrote in this space that Democrats had a chance of reaching 60 seats in 2010 (“For Democrats, Time to Pad Senate Majority and Think 60 Seats,” Feb. 12, 2007), I now can’t rule out 60 seats for this November.

Virginia and New Mexico are already gone, and Colorado, Alaska, New Hampshire and Oregon aren’t far behind. Add in North Carolina, and Democrats are plus-seven (and at 58 seats) without Minnesota or Mississippi, which are up for grabs.

Republicans can no longer count Kentucky as a lock, and if the Democrats spend significant sums of money against Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) in Georgia, they might even have a chance to swipe that unlikely seat.

In the House of Representatives, Democratic prospects have gone from good to great....

Democrats are now likely to net at least 20 seats, with gains closer to 30 quite possible given the cycle’s dynamics, poll numbers we are seeing and the Democratic financial advantage. This is the kind of cycle when even one or two third-tier Democratic challengers will win, inflating the party’s net gain even further.

While Democratic gains both in the House and Senate could still grow or shrink, for Republicans, the end of this movie won’t be pretty, no matter the ultimate number.

We could see a new modern floor for House Republicans made in November, and it’s likely to be in the 170s, if not the upper 160s. Given the realignment of the Reagan years and the GOP’s advantages coming from the last redistricting, this is an incredibly low level.

Over on the Senate side, Republican numbers could fall further in two years, since more GOP seats than Democratic seats are again up in 2010.

Republicans appear to be heading into a disastrous election that will usher in a very bleak period for the party. A new generation of party leaders will have to figure out how to pick up the pieces and make their party relevant after November.

Read the rest of this post...

It's not just attacks. It's utter bull.

John McCain just spewed the most ridiculous piece of garbage when it comes to categorizing Obama's health care plan.

I just heard him say live at a rally in Waukesha, WI that Obama wants a single-payer health care system that puts government in charge of health care, and if you like that, go to Canada or England.

Not only did McCain say this is Obama's plan, but he claimed that Obama said this was his plan.

Obama has made it clear over and over and over and over again that his plan keeps private insurance intact. No one's ever mentioned single-payer. Not once.

How the McCain camp can continue to just make stuff up is astonishing to me. I know this is nothing new, but for me, when it dips into the health care realm, it gets personal.

UPDATE: In the same forum, about 30 minutes later, McCain said we have to be able to trust what our candidates say. We have to be able to trust they are telling the truth. Read the rest of this post...

McCain told reporter "he would hate to live in Milwaukee"

That's crazy to admit something like that:

This week, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain will come to Wisconsin to push for his candidacy.

Four years ago, he made a comment to a reporter that some people might not think would be so welcoming around here.

Reporter Mark Leibovich, now of the New York Times, heard him say that, as Leibovich put it in his 2004 article in the Washington Post, "He would hate to live in Milwaukee."

"It was pretty random," Leibovich tells Newsradio 620 WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News."

Read the rest of this post...

An Ambien amnesia presidency

So what exactly is going on with John McCain's health? John posted yesterday about McCain's "energy" drink and mentioned that McCain was taking Ambien. McCain's Ambien drug use isn't new, it's been covered by ABC News here, but in the flurry of the Democratic primary, I missed it. Reading it yesterday for the first time, my jaw dropped.

While Ambien is a heavily advertised drug here in the US - $200 million annually in ad spending - it's extremely potent and has the potential to be addictive. That's why it's a D.E.A. Schedule IV controlled substance.

In addition to the addictive qualities, Ambien has a rather bizarre and frightening potential side effect if you take the drug and don't quickly fall asleep for eight hours - you're physically awake up but your conscious mind doesn't know it (and everyone around you will think you're actually awake when you really aren't). It's somewhat akin to sleepwalking. The effects are so striking that in 2007 the FDA required a relabeling (Official Sanofi-Aventis PDF):

A variety of abnormal thinking and behavior changes have been reported to occur in association with the use of sedative-hypnotics. Some of these changes may be characterized by decreased inhibition (e.g., aggressiveness and extroversion that seemed out of character), similar to effects produced by alcohol and other CNS depressants. Visual and auditory hallucinations have been reported as well as behavioral changes such as bizarre behavior, agitation, and depersonalization. Complex behaviors such as "sleep-driving"(i.e., driving while not fully awake after ingestion of a sedative-hypnotic, with amnesia for the event) have been reported. These events can occur in sedative- hypnotic- naive as well as in sedative-hypnotic-experienced persons. Although behaviors such as” sleep-driving” may occur with Ambien alone at therapeutic doses, the use of alcohol and other CNS depressants with Ambien appears to increase the risk of such behaviors, as does the use of Ambien at doses exceeding the maximum recommended dose. Due to the risk to the patient and the community, discontinuation of Ambien should be strongly considered for patients who report a "sleep-driving" episode. Other complex behaviors (e.g., preparing and eating food, making phone calls, or having sex) have been reported in patients who are not fully awake after taking a sedative-hypnotic. As with “sleep-driving”, patients usually do not remember these events. (italics and bold my highlights)

And that's how they explained it to doctors - amnesia and "complex behaviors." Here's how they explain it to patients, in English. Again, from Sanofi-Aventis:

Changes in Behavior and Thinking

Some people using sleep medicines have experienced unusual changes in their thinking and/or behavior. These side effects are not common. However, they have included:

• more outgoing or aggressive behavior than normal
• confusion
• strange behavior
• agitation
• hallucinations
• worsening of depression
• suicidal thoughts

How often these side effects occur depends on several factors, such as a person's general health, the use of other medicines, and which sleep medicine is being used.

Any of that sound familiar? Erratic? Angry? Confusion? These aren't just sleepwalking behaviors, these are behaviors that Ambien reportedly might imbue on someone while awake.

In looking back into this story, I found a great compilation of McCain's "Dazed and Confused" moments via TPM:



This isn't happening once and while, it just goes on, and on, and on. And this video is two months old. There have been more slip-ups since that time. Now, I'm not suggesting that John McCain is sleepwalking through the debates. I am concerned, however, that he is exhibiting many of the symptoms of someone suffering from Ambien's worst possible side effects. Side effects that are very dangerous for a president.

So why does McCain taking Ambien matter? Lots of people take sleeping medication. It's prescribed by a doctor, so it must be okay.

Sure, but lots of people don't have to worry about being drugged up on Ambien and getting a call at 3AM that affects the lives of 300+ million people. Perhaps McCain's erratic behavior of late is simply because it's hard to get a good eight hours of sleep when you're running for President. Just like it's going to be hard for him to not always be worn out were he to become President. But that's why 72 year olds don't usually run for the presidency. It's an impossibly difficult, strenuous, energy-sapping job. The capacity to do the job and not be drugged up is a legitimate factor in determining whether someone is qualified to be President.

The impact on McCain's less-than-stellar personal constitution is substantial. From the earlier ABC News story:

"Ambien should only be taken when you have a window of seven to eight hours for sleep," Greenblatt said. "Your staff should know that you've taken the medication, and that you should not be involved in any decision-making during that time."

Fotinakes added that sleeping pills and other sedatives have been proven to be more potent in the elderly. In light of this, he said, "It may not be the best idea for the commander-in-chief to be under the influence when he or she may have to make a snap decision regarding national security in the middle of the night; Hillary's so-called telephone call at 3:00 a.m."

"The key is to use Ambien-like sleeping medications in moderation and don't mix them with other sedative drugs or alcohol," Fotinakes said. "Most importantly, avoid use in the event you have to consider escalation from Defcon 4 to Defcon 3."

Does that mean, if elected President, McCain is truly checked out and inaccessible eight hours a day - even if an emergency hits after his 10pm bedtime? What happens if that phone rings at 3AM? Is McCain going to pick it up in a Ambien haze and bomb bomb bomb Iran, not even remembering what he did in the morning?

Again, this isn't a joke. This is what Ambien does to some people. It makes them do things, while having no idea they're doing them. They tell you not to drive a car after having taken this drug. How is John McCain going to drive a country? To accept the former as fact, yet not worry about the latter, is illogical and dangerous.

And if John McCain won't be answering the phone from dusk until dawn, who will? Cindy (a-la Edith and Woodrow Wilson)? Sarah Palin? Who will really be in charge for the 1/3 of the Presidency McCain would sleep away?

More disturbingly, in a crisis, how is the White House staff supposed to know if the President is truly aware of what's going on or not? Whether he's under an Ambien haze or truly himself? I've had a couple of experiences with people in exactly this situation, under the influence of sleeping pills, and the reality is you can't tell that they're under the influence. I've had a face-to-face conversation with someone who had taken Ambien and not fallen asleep - the next day they didn't remember any of the hour long discussion. The scary part? I had no idea that I was speaking to someone who wasn't fully conscious. To me, it was like having a regular conversation and I had no idea the person across from me was completely out of it. The prospect of a President "sleep-driving" the country on Ambien is terrifying.

That this hasn't been an enormous issue since the Palin appointment is shocking. It's why Presidential candidates let reporters see their medical records - so the country knows what to expect if the candidate becomes President. If all of this hasn't yet scared you into thinking that McCain's medical records need a REAL exploration, ponder this - do you think that terrorists or other national enemies might want to strike us while the President is incapacitated by his sleeping pills? Read the rest of this post...

US eavesdropped on "phone sex" calls of US military officers, passed them around the office, thought they were funny

ABC News:

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia....

She said US military officers, American journalists and American aid workers were routinely intercepted and "collected on" as they called their offices or homes in the United States....

Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.

"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News...

Asked for comment about the ABC News report and accounts of intimate and private phone calls of military officers being passed around, a US intelligence official said "all employees of the US government" should expect that their telephone conversations could be monitored as part of an effort to safeguard security and "information assurance."

"They certainly didn't consent to having interceptions of their telephone sex conversations being passed around like some type of fraternity game," said Jonathon Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University who has testified before Congress on the country's warrantless surveillance program.

"This story is to surveillance law what Abu Ghraib was to prison law," Turley said....

NSA awarded Adrienne Kinne a NSA Joint Service Achievement Medal in 2003 at the same time she says she was listening to hundreds of private conversations between Americans, including many from the International Red Cross and Doctors without Borders.

"We knew they were working for these aid organizations," Kinne told ABC News. "They were identified in our systems as 'belongs to the International Red Cross' and all these other organizations. And yet, instead of blocking these phone numbers we continued to collect on them," she told ABC News.

Read the rest of this post...

In Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen sticks with Bush/McCain on privatizing social security

Yesterday, one of our favorite candidates for Congress, Annette Taddeo, finally had the chance to debate her Republican opponent, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. At the forum in Miami, Ros-Lehtinen reconfirmed her commitment to the Bush/McCain scheme to privatize social security:

Taddeo pounced on Ros-Lehtinen's votes against expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP. Ros-Lehtinen replied that the program is not run properly, with adults benefiting from it in some states.

Ros-Lehtinen also stood behind her support of privatizing parts of Social Security -- which Taddeo opposes -- arguing that people should invest parts of their accounts to get higher returns.

Talk about clueless. In this economic climate, the GOP congresswoman is willing to turn over Social Security to Wall Street. Wow. Here's a clip of Annette at the forum:


For kicks, check out the Ros-Lehtinen "I love the 80s" t.v. ad. Apparently, Ilena's new haircut is a little too "Suze Orman" for Ileana. Draw your own conclusions from that comment. Read the rest of this post...

If the candidates were trains...

Read the rest of this post...

Norm Coleman's campaign is self-destructing. Still won't answer Yes or No questions about gifts from a donor.

This story about Norm Coleman's refusal to answer a very basic question about whether a donor bought suits for him is getting more bizarre by the day -- and getting more attention. It's not a hard question. We first wrote about this on Monday. The fact that it's still an issue says that something is very wrong at the Coleman campaign:



Norm Coleman is smarmy. I've despised the guy since the 2002 election when he won the seat in 2002 after the tragic death of Paul Wellstone. The right wing noise machine went crazy after Wellstone's memorial service and turned that into a negative against the Democrats. That was one of the last times the right wing noise machine went unchallenged.

Norm Coleman was never a worthy successor to Paul Wellstone. And, his sleaziness makes him unworthy of being a U.S. Senator. Recent polls show Al Franken has moved into the lead. This latest Coleman scandal can only make things worse for the Republican. Read the rest of this post...

Memo to media: The Palin rape-kit story has not been "debunked"

From Eric Boehlert at Media Matters:

[H]as any other Palin issue produced the type of visceral response ignited by the revelation that while she was mayor of Wasilla, the town began charging rape victims or their insurance companies for costly emergency-room rape kits and post-assault examinations?

The story remains woefully under-covered by the mainstream media, where most outlets have shied away from tackling the touchy topic as a straight news story about Palin's political past. But the issue continues to generate all kinds of discussion in the opinion pages and online. (AmericaBlog was among the first big-name liberal blogs to highlight the story.)

The persistent buzz, I think, stems from the fact that the Wasilla story just seems so ... weird. What municipality would bill rape victims for traumatic post-assault forensic exams? And especially in Alaska, where the rape rate is twice the national average. And wouldn't charging the victims or their insurance companies (assuming the victims were insured) simply drive down the number of women who are willing to report sexual attacks?

....Combing through Wasilla's budgetary documents, which are posted online, Alperin-Sheriff showed that Palin had clearly signed off on a fiscal-year budget that reduced by three-quarters the amount of money the town set aside annually for rape-kit costs and that the rape-kit reduction was spelled out before the fiscal-year 2000 budget was approved by Mayor Sarah Palin on April 26, 1999.

This week's bottom line: No matter how many times partisans in the GOP press announce the Palin rape-kit story has been "debunked," the central, undisputed facts remain hidden in plain sight for all to see.

It's time for the press to take a closer look.

Read the rest of this post...

McCain is hurting Senate and House Republican candidates

There's a lot of very good information in an article in today's New York Times about the status of House and Senate races. There's a lot of very good news for Democrats.

For me, the best tidbit is the admission that the Republicans running for Senate and House are being damaged by their nominee. Republicans are already a damaged brand because of their loyalty to George Bush. In a campaign, this kind of talk about the nominee spreads quickly and becomes pervasive. It damages morale, fundraising and volunteer efforts. For all the talk about how John McCain is their hero, just watch Republicans start to ditch McCain over the next few days and weeks. Republican candidates are in survival mode and McCain will be the first one thrown overboard by his fellow GOPers:

Strategists for both parties say Republican House and Senate candidates are being hurt by the dip in support for Senator John McCain at the top of the ticket, frustrating Republicans who had initially viewed Mr. McCain as a strong asset who could appeal to independents and even moderate Democrats and protect Republicans in a tough year.

But the market volatility and perceived Democratic edge on handling the economy has evidently turned voters to Democrats, a view supported by one top adviser to Republican candidates.

“This financial crisis has provided momentum to Barack Obama and other Democrats, and their campaigns now have the wind at their backs,” said the consultant, who asked not to be identified speaking pessimistically about the Republican outlook.

Obama is starting to pull ahead and leave McCain behind. That's what we want. It starts to get fun when the Republicans dump McCain and leave him in the dust. But, they can't run from McCain or Bush. They're all one and the same. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

26 days.

The level of attacks from the GOP ticket is reaching a fever pitch. Yesterday, McCain put his wife in the role of attack dog. Classy. I saw a clip on the TODAY Show where she challenged Obama to "change shoes" with her. That was a bad choice of words for Cindy. Thanks to Princess Sparkle Pony, we all know Cindy wears very, very expensive clothes and it is highly unlikely she would exchange her shoes with anyone. So, her attack lacked credibility for multiple reasons.

It is interesting to watch the traditional media's feigned disdain for the negative tone of the presidential race. McCain and Palin launch vicious attacks knowing the political reporters and cable news talking heads will obsess over the attacks. Then the political reporters and cable news talking heads do obsess over the GOP attacks -- and ponder whether the Obama campaign will retaliate. If the Obama campaign didn't fight back, the media would obsess over why Obama wasn't defending himself. But, when Obama did fight back, the media all say the race has been dragged into the mud. It's as if the traditional media had no role in how it happens. They just get played by Republicans every time.

The funny thing is that the McCain/Palin ticket doesn't know what to do now that Obama is fighting back. Republicans are used to being school yard bullies. This year, they've met their match.

26 days and so much work to do...get to it. Read the rest of this post...

Dow has declined 35% since this date last year

OK, it could be worse, we could have the Shanghai market or Moscow but is this what we should expect from what is supposed to be the strongest economy in the world? We had a Republican right wing Congress from 1994-2006 and a pro-business president since 2000, both of whom promised to unshackle business and let it reach its true potential. Impressed? Me neither. They received everything they wanted, walked away with salaries and bonuses and golden parachutes that dreams are made of and this is what we get. Even today, the Republicans are unable to admit that their model failed. Many still believe that we need even less regulation and that we shouldn't have any say in executive pay despite taxpayer investments.

Can we move on from this experiment in Republican economics now? Can we get back to real American ideas such as equal opportunity instead of a tilted system that favors the elite few? I remain skeptical that we're going to see any significant change though I'd like to be proven wrong. One thing that is for sure, we won't have any change if we let the Republicans control the message. Read the rest of this post...

Credit crisis lexicon

Libor, TED Spread, Commercial Paper, it's all there. It's still missing "neo-socialist" but just click here for the details. Read the rest of this post...

Federal Reserve loans an additional $38 Billion to AIG

Tell me again about all the great return on investment that we're going to see there. The right was giddy talking about the returns we would be seeing on this bailout. It was almost like hearing someone talk about the massive return they would see as shares of DogFood.com were snatched up just before that bubble burst. None of these investments are fun and none of them should be viewed as money making ventures. The new plan to semi-nationalize the banking system may be a better option and taxpayers could see some return thanks to investing on better terms, but this is all about preventing an even larger failure of the system.

Now that that is out of my system, let's look at AIG again. The party-loving folks who ran the beast into the ground splurged on a posh executive excursion to the tune of $400,000 because, well, they deserved it. I can't help but compare it to my world in the startup industry where we shave every dollar, every day to mind the books and keep everyone employed without cutbacks. We double up in rooms while traveling - when we travel - so that we can keep money in the bank and not fire people. When we do travel, we take the cheapest option and look for the cheapest hotel rooms so we can keep going another month until the business climate improves. But hey, we didn't force such an enormous failure that required the government to intervene not once, but twice and probably again. We didn't declare bankruptcy and then let our former CEO sell $1 billion of stock, which still puzzles me to this day. All we ever did was remain profitable and mind our spending like responsible adults. Read the rest of this post...

The Fed turns to the semi-nationalization plan

From the data out there now, this appears to be the plan that many economists had suggested, including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz. Last week I linked to this interview and it's worth watching again in light of the new developments. Obviously any nationalization is not a good sign for economy but this is perhaps the only real option left to get the credit market moving again. Buying preferred shares in the banks and basing the transactions on real numbers or even below market value prices, not the inflated bubble prices as was done in the initial rescue plan is considerably better for taxpayers. The potential upside return back to the taxpayer should also be higher in the long run.

This is what the UK government did yesterday and this is what has typically been done in similar situations around the world with reasonable success. Pumping cash directly into the banks balance sheets should help open up the lending system which has not been functioning. The Treasury is suggesting that this option is already there from the initial rescue plan so if that is in fact the case, I would expect this semi-nationalization plan to start in a matter of days. The Libor lending rates continue to increase so the longer they delay, the more costly the problem will become and the longer this crisis will continue. That said, in no way will this or any other action miraculously help the US and the world avoid a recession. The economy has been so badly bungled and it will take time and fresh ideas to transition out of this period. Read the rest of this post...

Only 9% of Americans are happy with the direction in which the country is going

The lowest reading in Gallup's history.

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George Will to John McCain: "Are you going to get any better or is this it?"

George Will:

Time was, the Baltimore Orioles' manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign....

[T]he Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seems surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep."

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