Keith Olbermann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keith Olbermann (born January 27, 1959) is an American sportscaster, news anchor,[1] and political commentator. He hosts Countdown with Keith Olbermann, an hour-long nightly news and commentary program on MSNBC. Starting with the 2007 NFL season, Olbermann also has served as co-host of NBC's Football Night in America with Bob Costas.


Click here to see the Olberman clip about Palin and Bush.

Humor/Wisdom: MY LIVING WILL

MY LIVING WILL

Last night my sister and I were sitting in the den and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all, If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

So she got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out my wine.

She's such a bitch.

--- thanks to former colleague Jean for sending this along

Political Wisdom/Humor: WHAT IS YOUR ACHILLES HEEL?

from the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008:

WHAT IS YOUR ACHILLES HEEL?

Joe Biden:

"You're very kind suggesting my only Achilles heel is my lack of discipline. Others talk about my excessive passion."



Sarah Palin:

"My Achilles heel is that my executive experience of a huge energy-producing state counting towards much progress towards getting our nation energy independence. That's very important."

Political humor - Best Jokes from Late-Night Comics

The Week's Best Late-Night Jokes
Friday October 3, 2008

"Critics are still analyzing Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric last week, and they're saying she was halting, repetitive and stumped on basic questions. Yeah, in other words, Palin appeared very presidential." --Conan O'Brien

"Political experts are saying that to succeed in the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin needs to show that she has the same concerns as everyday Americans. For instance, Palin planned to start the debate by saying she's really troubled by John McCain's choice for vice president." --Conan O'Brien

"Republicans are blaming Nancy Pelosi for the bailout not going through. Democrats are blaming it on an incomplete proposal by the Republicans. John McCain is blaming Barack Obama. Barack Obama is blaming John McCain. And Sarah Palin is praying nobody asks her what's going on." --Jay Leno

"Yesterday the stock market suffered its biggest one-day drop in history, falling 777 points. I’m telling you, boy, it's a good thing John McCain blew me off to go save the economy." --David Letterman

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Politcal humor and wisdom: The Golden Girls

Check out this funny "election edition" featuring the Golden Girls.
Click here to watch the video.

Here's background on the sit com from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Golden Girls

Created by Susan Harris. Starring Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan &
Estelle Getty. Opening theme "Thank You for Being a Friend," written by Andrew Gold and sung by Cynthia Fee. No. of seasons 7 and No. of episodes 180. Original channel NBC.

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from Sept 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a Miami, Florida home. The series was produced by Touchstone Television and distributed by Buena Vista Television.

The sitcom was originally conceived by NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff and created by Susan Harris. Tartikoff was visiting his elderly aunt one day, and saw how she and her next-door neighbor, who also was her best friend, interacted with each other. Despite their constant bickering and arguments, they were still the best of friends, and loved each other. He thought that would make a great premise for a TV show.[citation needed]

The Golden Girls won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. All four stars won at least one Emmy Award throughout the series' entire run.

Thanks to my partner Takashi for sending this video to me. cwj

Make-Believe Maverick

Make-Believe Maverick
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty
By TIM DICKINSON, Rolling Stone Magazine, Oct 16, 2008

At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.

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Bob and Steve noticed no one else was wearing a collar.

Bob and Steve noticed no one else was wearing a collar. Suddenly, they realized they were in a STRAY bar.

FactChecking Biden-Palin Debate

FactChecking Biden-Palin Debate
October 3, 2008

The candidates were not 100 percent accurate. To say the least.
Summary
Biden and Palin debated, and both mangled some facts.

(1) Palin mistakenly claimed that troop levels in Iraq had returned to “pre-surge” levels. Levels are gradually coming down but current plans would have levels higher than pre-surge numbers through early next year, at least.
Biden incorrectly said “John McCain voted the exact same way” as Obama on a controversial troop funding bill. The two were actually on opposite sides.


(2) Palin repeated a false claim that Obama once voted in favor of higher taxes on “families” making as little as $42,000 a year. He did not. The budget bill in question called for an increase only on singles making that amount, but a family of four would not have been affected unless they made at least $90,000 a year.

(3) We have retracted a portion of our article, "FactChecking Biden-Palin Debate," and have posted the following correction:

Correction Oct 3: This article originally faulted Biden for saying that McCain had voted "the exact same way” as Obama on a controversial troop funding bill. We said that McCain was absent for the vote and so didn't vote at all. Biden was however correct.

McCain did vote against the troop-funding bill in question, H.R. 1591, on March 29, 2007, when it originally cleared the Senate. The vote to which we referred, and which McCain missed, was a later vote on the House-Senate compromise version of the same bill, on April 26, 2007. McCain opposed the bill, which Obama supported, because it contained language calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Biden was responding to Palin's accusation that "Obama voted against funding troops." Obama voted for the bill March 29 and April 26, then on May 24, 2007, following a veto by President Bush, Obama voted against a similar troop-funding bill, H.R. 2206, that lacked any withdrawal language.

Please accept our apology for our error.

(4) Palin claimed McCain’s health care plan would be “budget neutral,” costing the government nothing. Independent budget experts estimate McCain's plan would cost tens of billions each year, though details are too fuzzy to allow for exact estimates.

o Biden wrongly claimed that McCain had said "he wouldn't even sit down" with the president of Spain. Actually, McCain didn't reject a meeting, but simply refused to commit himself one way or the other during an interview.

o Palin wrongly claimed that “millions of small businesses” would see tax increases under Obama’s tax proposals. At most, several hundred thousand business owners would see increases.

Vice-Presidential Debate Post-Mortem from fivethirtyeight blog

Friday, October 3, 2008
Vice-Presidential Debate Post-Mortem, Live From π in the Loop
Tonight, we didn't see any major game changing, trainwreck moments. The big question is: putting aside Sarah Palin's final comment about how great more of these debates would be, how much exposure will Steve Schmidt allow her? With the exception of a few short, scripted rally speeches, vis-a-vis the press will she go straight to Dick Cheney's bunker, do not pass go, do not collect $200?

I suspect she will. Despite what I view as the correct, hammering demand to have Palin face questioning in a press conference format from the grand old men of the blogosphere, Josh Marshall and Andrew Sullivan, I don't suspect the Obama campaign will much push the issue, and the McCain people have to be scared to death to have any more Couric-style answers out there. They want to lock this performance in and keep it in stasis.

Click here to check out this smart political site.

McCain Losing Core Supporters

McCain Losing Core Supporters

WASHINGTON, September 29 – John McCain appears to be losing support among a key group of voters who had hitherto stood firmly with him and Governor Palin, even as his poll numbers among other groups fell dramatically.

A new Gallup poll shows that, for the first time, McCain's approval rating has fallen below 70% among total fucking morons, and now stands at 64%. This represents a dramatic drop compared to a poll taken just last July, when 92% of total fucking morons expressed support for McCain and his policies.

Faltering approval ratings for McCain among a group once thought to be a reliable source of loyal support gives Republicans one more reason to be nervous about the upcoming elections. "If we can't depend on the support of total fucking morons," says Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), "then we've got a big problem. They're a key factor in our electoral strategy, and an important part of today's Republican coalition."

Not all Republican lawmakers are concerned about the poll. While Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) agrees that his party should not take total fucking morons for granted, they "really don't have anywhere else to go. They're never going to be able to understand someone intelligent and articulate like Barack Obama who wants to talk about issues. Just try having a conversation with them about global warming. They'll say, 'Oh, but Rush says volcanoes consume more ozone than humans do.' I mean, come on! They're total fucking morons!"

thanks to my friend Michael R who forwarded this message!

Politcal humor and wisdom: What's a federalist?

Don't you just love the open-access Wikipedia site? This item appeared VERY BRIEFLY October 1st, 2008:



The United States
In the United States the term federalist usually applies to a member of one of the following groups:

[edit] Historic
Statesmen and public figures supporting ratification of the proposed Constitution of the United States between 1787 and 1789. The Federalist Papers are documents associated with their movement.

Statesmen and public figures supporting the administrations of Presidents George Washington (1789–1797) and John Adams (1797–1801). Especially in the later years they were also called the Federalist Party, founded by Alexander Hamilton. It opposed the Democratic-Republican Party during the 1800s.

You are Sarah Palin and you have no fucking idea what any of this shit means

Rookie, the amazing "Canine Freestyle" champion

I've seen this video several times, and it still captivates me. Click here to see the Rookie video.

Sadly, I understand the dog Rookie has died. Click here to watch a video tribute to the dog Rookie.

Investigating a Scandal [Gonzales & Justice Department]

[Blogger added the photo.]October 1, 2008
Editorial, The New York Times

Attorney General Michael Mukasey made the right choice by appointing a federal prosecutor to decide whether his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, and others should face criminal charges for the firing of nine prosecutors for what appear to have been partisan reasons.

Click here to continue reading.

Lesson From a Crisis: When Trust Vanishes, Worry

October 1, 2008
Economic Scene
By DAVID LEONHARDT

In 1929, Meyer Mishkin owned a shop in New York that sold silk shirts to workingmen. When the stock market crashed that October, he turned to his son, then a student at City College, and offered a version of this sentiment: It serves those rich scoundrels right.

A year later, as Wall Street’s problems were starting to spill into the broader economy, Mr. Mishkin’s store went out of business. He no longer had enough customers. His son had to go to work to support the family, and Mr. Mishkin never held a steady job again.

Click here to continue reading.

Who Caused the Economic Crisis? [FactCheck]

Who Caused the Economic Crisis?
October 1, 2008
MoveOn.org blames McCain advisers. He blames Obama and Democrats in Congress. Both are wrong.

Summary
A MoveOn.org Political Action ad plays the partisan blame game with the economic crisis, charging that John McCain’s friend and former economic adviser Phil Gramm “stripped safeguards that would have protected us.” The claim is bogus. Gramm’s legislation had broad bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Clinton. Moreover, the bill had nothing to do with causing the crisis, and economists – not to mention President Clinton – praise it for having softened the crisis.

A McCain-Palin ad, in turn, blames Democrats for the mess. The ad says that the crisis “didn’t have to happen,” because legislation McCain co-sponsored would have tightened regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, the ad says, Obama "was notably silent" while Democrats killed the bill. That’s oversimplified. Republicans, who controlled the Senate at the time, did not bring the bill forward for a vote. And it’s unclear how much the legislation would have helped, as McCain signed on just two months before the housing bubble popped.

In fact, there’s ample blame to go around. Experts have cited everyone from home buyers to Wall Street, mortgage brokers to Alan Greenspan.

Click here to read the entire report from FactCheck.

Can Late Night Comedy Sink McCain?

By Adam Howard, The Nation

September 29, 2008

The only event called off during McCain's so-called campaign suspension was an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. It's a decision that may come back to haunt him even more than Sarah Palin's train-wreck interview with Katie Couric.

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If Looks Could...

It was the look on Katie Couric's face during her interview with Sarah Palin, as she listed to Palin relate the bailout to, well, everything.

By Terrance Heath, The Bilierco Project
September 30, 2008

Last week was a bad one for the McCain campaign, no matter how you slice it. First, he pulls the stunt of trying to "suspend" the campaign, only to get called out by Obama when the chronology of their exchange reveals an impulsive attempt by McCain to back Obama into "suspending the campaign" and following his lead. Instead, a reporter's question gives Obama the chance to say that whoever wins the election and ends up in the oval office "will have to be able to do more than one thing at a time."

Then he cancels on Letterman

Click here to continue reading.

Terrance Heath

THE LIMITS OF POWER, Andrew J. Bacevich [Bill Moyers]

In this slim volume on THE LIMITS OF POWER, Andrew J. Bacevich goes to the root causes of our discontent and to our broken and foundering politics. That many people agree with this unsentimental diagnosis was apparent when we first aired this interview a few weeks ago, your emails poured in to pbs.org. In a matter of hours his book had become a best-seller.

September 26, 2008
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the JOURNAL.

Here in New York a new season is opening on and off Broadway. But nothing, not even a comic opera, can compete with the spectacle, drama and farce of what's happening in Washington and on Wall Street.

If it is possible for a political system, like individuals, to become deranged, so unhinged from reality there is no longer any regard for the consequences, we saw the process this week. It's nothing but bizarre, and for a supposedly mature democracy, deeply troubling.

Click here to read the entire transcript.

Click here to watch the PBS video.

Defiant House Rejects Huge Bailout; Next Step Is Uncertain

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Representative James E. Clyburn, left, and Representative Steny Hoyer, the majority leader, at a press conference on Capitol Hill on Monday
September 30, 2008
By CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Defying President Bush and the leaders of both parties, rank-and-file lawmakers in the House on Monday rejected a $700 billion economic rescue plan in a revolt that rocked the Capitol, sent markets plunging and left top lawmakers groping for a resolution.

The stunning defeat of the proposal on a 228-205 vote after marathon talks by senior Congressional and Bush administration officials lowered a fog of uncertainty over economies around the globe. Its authors had described the measure as essential to preventing widespread economic calamity.

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Revolt of the Nihilists [David Brooks]

September 30, 2008
By DAVID BROOKS, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times

In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt inherited an economic crisis. He understood that his first job was to restore confidence, to give people a sense that somebody was in charge, that something was going to be done.

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The 3 A.M. Call

September 29, 2008
By PAUL KRUGMAN, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times

It’s 3 a.m., a few months into 2009, and the phone in the White House rings. Several big hedge funds are about to fail, says the voice on the line, and there’s likely to be chaos when the market opens. Whom do you trust to take that call?

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This Car Changed America

The Model T put America on wheels, created mass mobility and revolutionized mass production.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2008
A look at Ford's Model T, which debuted 100 years ago
By PAUL INGRASSIA, The Wall Street Journal

One could start a lively debate among historians about which car is the second most influential in American history. Perhaps the Chevy Corvair, which launched Ralph Nader, the consumer movement and the litigation explosion? Or the Volkswagen Beetle, the official car of the 1960s counter-culture? Or maybe the Toyota Prius, which might lead to cars powered by electricity and fuel cells?

But there is zero question about which car has had the biggest influence: Henry Ford's Model T, which went on sale 100 years ago, on Oct. 1, 1908. The Model T put America on wheels, created mass mobility, revolutionized mass production, established the American middle class and eventually reshaped the country's physical landscape with suburban sprawl. Over a two-decade run more than 15 million were built, more than any other car in history except for the Beetle.

Click here to continue reading.

[Blogger's Note: My grandfather Fredrick L Jewett and his two brothers ran the Jewett Car Company in the 1920s. It was the tenth best-selling car in the US. Gee, is that good or bad? cwjewett]

The Real Costs of the Bailouts

SEPTEMBER 28, 2008
By SUDEEP REDDY, The Wall Street Journal

Last week, as federal regulators seized Washington Mutual in the largest U.S. banking failure, Congress was grappling with whether to spend $700 billion of public money to fix the financial industry's troubles.

Lawmakers' initial reaction to the Treasury Department's staggering request: shock. That sum amounts to about a quarter of the U.S. government's annual spending. It's more than the Pentagon's annual budget, more than the nation pays out each year in Social Security benefits and more than the federal government's cost for Medicare and Medicaid.

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