Some folks seem to think I occasionally have interesting things to say. I don't always agree.
So let's see. In the interests of saving the country, John McCain has to cancel the debate. But he's got time to do prime time interviews on each of the three broadcast networks tonight.Ya know ... I really can't add much to that.
A man has been charged with battery on a police officer for allegedly passing gas and fanning it toward a patrolman.I really don't know what to say about this other than that must have been one hell of a fart.
Jose A. Cruz, 34, of Clarksburg, W. Va., was pulled over early Tuesday for driving without headlights, police said. According to the criminal complaint, Cruz smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and failed three field sobriety tests before he was handcuffed and taken to a police station for a breathalyzer test.
As Patrolman T.E. Parsons prepared the machine, Cruz scooted his chair toward Parsons, lifted his leg and "passed gas loudly," the complaint said.
Up to 10,000 staff at the New York office of the bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers will share a bonus pool set aside for them that is worth $2.5bn (£1.4bn), Barclays Bank, which is buying the business, confirmed last night.
The revelation sparked fury among the workers' former colleagues, Lehman's 5,000 staff based in London, who currently have no idea how long they will go on receiving even their basic salaries, let alone any bonus payments. It also prompted a renewed backlash over the compensation culture in global finance, with critics claiming that many bankers receive pay and rewards that bore no relation to the job they had done.
A spokesman for Barclays said the $2.5bn bonus pool in New York had been set aside before Lehman Brothers filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States a week ago. Barclays has agreed that the fund should continue to be ring-fenced now it has taken control of Lehman's US business, a deal agreed by American bankruptcy courts over the weekend.
So I propose letting the public bank at the Fed, just the same way banks bank at the Fed. I'm not proposing banks be made illegal - if they can find a way to operate without having a getting privileged access to the Fed, wonderful. That's free enterprise and it should be applauded. But the current system, where banks get privileged access to the Federal Reserve is rather unfair, and its been that way since long before this mess began.
On the September 22 broadcast of his syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh baselessly claimed that Sen. Barack Obama is "not black," and went on to ask: "Do you know he has not one shred of African-American blood?" Limbaugh continued: "He's Arab. You know, he's from Africa. He's from Arab parts of Africa. ... [H]e's not African-American. The last thing that he is is African-American."
Indeed, let me suggest that Obama needs to suspend his campaign and return to Washington to propose his own Market Stabilization bill. As president he'll have to execute any bill, as Senator he should step up and do his duty by crafting and leading the fight to put through a bill that meets his principles.This is the time to shit or get off the pot ... if Obama wants to be president this is the moment for him to prove it and to show that he has the ideas and the will to get them accomplished. If he cannot pull this off then McCain will run as a faux populist and win.
Your country needs you, Barack. Not today as President, but as a Senator. It's time for Mr. Obama to go back to Washington.
Now, I am sympathetic to the argument that the overall consequences to the economy of letting Big Shitpile fall apart naturally would be too horrible; but, if that is the case, I would like my pound of flesh, please.
The Obama people — and the Congressional Democrats — do know that the Republicans will run a populist campaign against them on the basis that they voted for a horrible big-government program, don’t they?Fuck, I hope they are paying attention here. This is the poison pill and if they swallow it then all the good that Obama could have done will be lost.
Obama has stepped up and stated what he needs a bailout plan to include in order to support it, and the Paulson plan simply can't meet his requirements. Obama has just announced his opposition to the basic principles of the Paulson Plan.
Paulsen and congressional Republicans, or the few that will actually vote for this (most will be unwilling to take responsibility for the consequences of their policies), have said that there can't be any "add ons," or addition provisions. Fuck that. I don't really want to trigger a world wide depression (that's not hyperbole, that's a distinct possibility), but I'm not voting for a blank check for $700 billion for those mother fuckers.
Nancy said she wanted to include the second "stimulus" package that the Bush Administration and congressional Republicans have blocked. I don't want to trade a $700 billion dollar giveaway to the most unsympathetic human beings on the planet for a few fucking bridges. I want reforms of the industry, and I want it to be as punitive as possible.