"I am not a racist"

Hard to excuse this

Magic ponies, Democrats and November

from FDL

But the Democratic Party, while not in total denial, is not running on a platform to address any of these problems. They’re silent. And without knowing what, if anything, they plan to do about the monstrous issues facing the country, and trying to enlist the voters’ support in tackling those issues, they’ve given the voters no reason to vote for them.

To which I can only say ... Any left (or even center) leaning person that gives a shit about this country and does not vote for their local Democratic candidate for the House or the Senate should sit beside the 2000 Naderites on the "I am a dumbfuck" bench. There are no excuses for allowing a Republican takeover of Congress just because you didn't get a magic pony when Obama was elected. Suck it up and be a grownup.

FDIC to bring hammer down?

Bloomberg

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has authorized lawsuits against more than 50 officers and directors of failed banks as the agency aims to recoup more than $1 billion in losses stemming from the credit crisis.

I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth now.

WWJD - Part II

I see that FDL has a nice post up about this as well.

Final Thoughts on Rick Sanchez

Balloon Juice

Sanchez was pissed because Jon Stewart makes fun of him and his bosses are replacing him with Eliot Spitzer. So he ran his mouth off in a way that annoyed a lot of people and hurt his credibility as a newsman. Don’t make him into some kind of noble truth-teller.

The end.

Argument from authority

Ezra Klein

On the other hand, Krugman has a Nobel, and I, well, don't.

I am a big Paul Krugman fan but his Nobel isn't what makes him correct.

It's a good thing

TPMDC

A new survey of Connecticut by Public Policy Polling (D) provides a fascinating look into the possible future of independent Sen. Joe Lieberman. To be exact, the former Democrat is incredibly unpopular with most voters -- and only marginally popular with Republicans -- and would have a hard time avoiding a landslide defeat should he run again in 2012.

Good Idea or Bad?

via TPM

Jones will be replaced by his chief deputy, Tom Donilon, a former Democratic political operative and lobbyist who in many ways is already the day-to-day leader of the White House national security operation. The move deepens a season of White House turnover near the midpoint of Obama's term, with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel departing last week, chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers leaving by year's end and other changes expected before long.

I cannot convince myself that this is a good idea. Donilon's background, up until the last two years, is most definitely not in National Security. This appointment is an accident waiting to happen and I can only hope that it will not blow up in everyone's face.

Lou Dobbs

From The Nation

But with his relentless diatribes against "illegals" and their employers, Dobbs is casting stones from a house—make that an estate—of glass. Based on a yearlong investigation, including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on his properties, The Nation and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute have found that Dobbs has relied for years on undocumented labor for the upkeep of his multimillion-dollar estates and the horses he keeps for his 22-year-old daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper.

You will excuse me if I am not astonished.

Spam

I guess I should be happy that I don't get spam in here. Probably is a good indicator of the level of readership though .. hmmm .. I might have to spice the place up a bit.

WWJD

In this case, critics of the fire department are confused both about right and wrong and about Christianity. And it is because they have fallen prey to a weakened, feminized version of Christianity that is only about softer virtues such as compassion and not in any part about the muscular Christian virtues of individual responsibility and accountability.

So the answer to the question, according to Bryan Fischer at the AFA is ... let that fucker burn

Megan McArdle on Foreclosure Fraud

The Atlantic

The story on the foreclosure mess has become a bit overblown in some tellings. It's clear that banks have been taking some shortcuts in preparing their foreclosure documents. The banks are obviously overwhelmed with the volume of foreclosures, and the (apparently) many instances in which sloppy securitization has resulted in lost paper trails, obscuring who, exactly has a right to foreclose. Rather than seeking legislative or judicial clarification, they've resorted to dubious practices that seem (to my non-legally-trained eye) illegal.

Note that the dubious practices include fraud and breaking and entering. There is a statute that is just perfectly set up to deal with such a pattern of illegal behaviour ... just sayin'

ummm

From Josh Green at The Atlantic

An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one: Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio's 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned a German Waffen SS uniform and participated in Nazi re-enactments.

Much to many people's amazement, there are times when words fail me.

Body organs can send status updates to your cellphone - tech - 08 October 2010 - New Scientist

Body organs can send status updates to your cellphone - tech - 08 October 2010 - New Scientist: "Dutch research organisation IMEC, based in Eindhoven, this week demonstrated a new type of wireless body area network (BAN). Dubbed the Human BAN platform, the system converts IMEC's ultra-low-power electrocardiogram sensors into wireless nodes in a short-range network, transmitting physiological data to a hub – the patient's cellphone. From there, the readings can be forwarded to doctors via a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. They can also be displayed on the phone or sound an alarm when things are about to go wrong, giving patients like me a chance to try to slow our heart rates and avoid an unnecessary shock."

Politico on polling driven journalism

Alex Burns @ 4:30 am

Forget the careful craft of survey research; as the midterm election hurtles toward the finish, campaigns are wielding polls less like scientific instruments than like heavy weaponry, using them to hijack news cycles and push their favored narratives about the campaign.

Alex Burns @ 5:53 am

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has widened his advantage over Republican wrestling executive Linda McMahon to 15 points, the Democrat’s internal tracking poll shows. The Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner has Blumenthal holding steady with a majority of the vote and leading McMahon, 53 percent to 38 percent. The pollster notes in a memo that McMahon’s public image remains deeply problematic, and “large numbers of Connecticut voters hold unfavorable views of McMahon.” Her favorability rating in the survey was 32 percent, while 47 percent said they had an unfavorable impression of her. The poll tested 600 likely voters on Oct. 3 and 4. Read the polling memo here.

Third way or same old way?

Via Oliver Willis

Third Way is the newest attempt of the corporate elements within the Democratic party to move the party into something that’s just a smidge less conservative than the GOP. It pushes the sort of DLC thinking that led Clinton to embrace the types of conservative deregulation that helped to cause the financial crisis. Look no further than Third Way’s honorary co-chairs, people like Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh who rarely have seen a right-leaning “solution” they didn’t like. Or Artur Davis, who ran so far to the right he got whomped in the Democratic primary for Governor of Alabama.

I find it interesting that these so-called moderate movements are mostly made up of self-identified Democrats moving to the right and not Republicans moving to the left. When Republicans want to reach out they reach out to the far right, not the middle.

Terrorism Prosecutions

Via TPMMuckraker

Faisal Shahzad, who pleaded guilty in June to terrorism charges after attempting to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to life in prison without parole.

• Caught by Police work
• Read Miranda warning
• Pleads guilty
• Sentenced to life

Is there a moral there somewhere?

The Horror

From POLITICO.com

“Michele Bachmann: not doing s—- for the people of the 6th District, but doing more than her share for the special interests in Washington,” the announcer says, bleeping out the expletive.

Let the passing of the smelling salts begin.

On Witches

Via Politico.com

Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is using a new TV ad to stress that she’s no witch, but her latest attempt to get past a decade-ago comment is providing fresh fodder for chattering classes.

Case in point: Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said O’Donnell “looks like she might be a witch,” referring to O’Donnell’s appearance in the ad where she looks the directly at the camera and proclaims: “I’m not a witch.”

Which century is this again?

I See Stupid People

From Crooks and Liars

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) attempted to convince pastors that economic issues are moral issues at the Greater Freedom Rally at a church in Spartanburg, South Carolina yesterday, imploring them to help conservatives retake Congress in November.

In addition to reiterating anti-choice talking points on abortion and backing 'traditional marriage,' according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, the senator went further and 'said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn't be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who's sleeping with her boyfriend -- she shouldn't be in the classroom.'

To which I can only say,

WTF?

Sigh

Larry Kudlow at Big Government

Am I the only one who saw weakness when President Obama and his departing chief of staff Rahm Emanuel gave each other big, fat, full-bore hug following their speeches at the resignation event in the White House’s East Room on Friday

But of course IOKIYAR

But the visual evidence also compels us to remark that Bush 43's hugs are among the least stage-y of his mannerisms. There's an athletic, energetic, almost muscular quality to them. They seem, in a word, genuine.