Traditional Saturday Morning Post Election We Told You So Open Thread

Yeah, we told you.

Comments

[centralcal]

Sail on oh ship of state . . .

Well, California is interchangeable with the Titanic, rapidly heading toward - not an iceberg - but the abyss.

Oh wait . . . they are already getting back door bailouts (via the stimulus)! But most of that is going to L.A. and S.F. Yeah, yeah, gotta keep this ship afloat till Brown and Newsome take the helm. Unfortunately, there will be no course correction.

They went to sea in sieve, they did, in a sieve they went to sea.

[Elliott]

I said 73 seats, so I didn't tell you so. Too bad Gallup was off the mark.

[sbw]

For anyone from California . . . and points East, West, North, and South . . . let me put in a good word for the 36 lecture (18 CD) Teaching Company course Thinking about Capitalism that is now on sale for $69.95.

I listen to the courses on the 15 minute trip to and from work. After laying a fascinating foundation, there are a few where-is-he-going-with-this sessions on some reactionaries from stadts in Germany, but he wraps it up beautifully in the last chapter so that:
a) you will wonder what the hell reactionary "liberals" are teaching in history class,
b) you will never be at a loss to respond cogently to cliché-driven progressive oversimplifications,
c) you will proudly defend the sensible balance between the commercial marketplace, democratic institutions, and quality government, and
d) you will be awed by what individuals seeking their own communities have accomplished over 250 years.

... an unsolicited testimonial.

[Clarice]

Hi, elliott!

[Melinda Romanoff]

sbw-

Don't forget this online source as well.

Great link, Thanks.

[Pepe LeRou]

May we start spelling Hilda Macaroonowitz's name correctly now, or are they still filling out ballots in Alaska?

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--Well, California is interchangeable with the Titanic, rapidly heading toward - not an iceberg - but the abyss.--

I'd say we bounced off the iceberg some time back, cc and are already 1000 or so fathoms into the abyss.
There's no question we're breathing liquids already, we just don't know how deep the hole or how hard the landing.

[DebinNC]

State-Level Tsunami

Wouldn't it be wonderful if supposedly hopeless cases like MI and OH could show marked improvement under the new Rep leadership before the next election?

[Rick Ballard]

From the day HCR passed

"Speaker Yamamoto has eight months left, Emperor Kendonesian commie has less than three years."

I wish Dr. Benishek the very best in representing the good citizens of Michigan who were betrayed by the lying scum, Bart Stupak.

[Jane]

You gotta love this response from an Indian to Totus:

We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact," an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.

[rse]

Mel-

Saw yesterday that CCX is closing shop and ECX is likely not far behind.

Hope that purchase price last spring was worth the political connections. Funny how the socialists wanted their cash while cap gains were at their nadir.

CCal-One of my favorite poems and expressions although I get funny looks when I say it out loud as one of my favorite metaphors for "bad idea".

[sbw]

So I thought. . . and why, I don't know. . . I'd waddle over to Paul Ryan's Roadmap for a gander.

And it didn't take more than ten seconds to appreciate that he'd run off the road.

The first click was to healthcare and I saw two major flaws right off the bat.

1) He seems to leave health insurance in the hands of business, which means individuals never get to evaluate true price signals in their purchasing decisions, and

2) He doesn't eliminate restrictions on buying health insurance out of state -- which leaves individuals at the mercy of state legislative mandates.

[narciso]

This is the problem, between Kennedy's HMO bill, and McCarren/Ferguson in the 40s, we lost the traditional medical system

[peter]

I agree with Andy McCarthy (LUN.) Who is NBC trying to kid? Does anyone think that Maddow, Matthews, and Lawrence O'Donnell are unbiased? Free Keith!

[peter]

On the other hand,LUN

[centralcal]

rse: I love the poem too. I think this part is especially descriptive too: "their heads are green and their hands are blue."

Ah, yes, the Jumblies. Great name for radical progressive liberal idiots.

[centralcal]

Jane: In other news, this weekend I so look forward to the Indian reporting of the Obama visit. It is sure to be amusing. Plus, I can hardly wait to see what Fashion Icon and Busy Mom, Michelle chooses to wear.

[DebinNC]

Some unnamed Senate Rep porkers are reportedly joining House and Senate Dem porkers for an earmark fest during the lame duck session. Richard Shelby, Don Young, and Murkycow come immediately to mind. McConnell should release their names and refudiate them loudly and publicly well before the vote. Ideally, they should lose their plum committee assignments too.

[narciso]

I saw the O'Donnell interview that the Ewok was so rattled over, and I didn't get that vibe, in the LUN, from someone who seems to have drank the Establishment's koolaid, and that's a shame, because I really think Preston
has always been on of the best analysts

[glasater]

Here's an article that most who travel through RCP may have noticed but once again:

5 reasons Murray bucked trend, got re-elected

When I sneaked into the local Murray rally a week ago for the Tea Party folks to take pictures I had little knowledge of how unions operate. Control is the operative word.
Until the union faction is blunted somehow--and I sure don't understand how that can happen--the D's and King county are going to run this state.

[peter]

Jill Clayburgh has died. When my wife and I were first dating, we used to watch Ally McBeal.

[Cecil Turner]

I see "the Won" is making his usual plea for no politics as he plays politics: Obama calls for compromise, won't budge on tax cuts

Days after Democrats received a self-described "shellacking" at the polls, President Obama called for an end to campaigning and an embrace of compromise.

But he signaled no willingness to bend on the first challenge likely to face him from a Republican House as he advocated the permanent extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year despite the GOP's resolve to extend the tax cuts for all income brackets.

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't look like it's any different at all from his previous position. Moreover, it's the solution the CBO scored as the worst possible option. (Though I guess it's no surprise that it's the stupid one he's stuck on.)

[Cecil Turner]

Who is NBC trying to kid?

Doesn't matter. I'm a firm believer in using Alinsky #4 on Alinskyites. Suggested position:

He's a witch! Burn him!

He turned me into a newt. (I got better.)

Okay . . . maybe the messaging could use a little work.

[Neo]

The Best One Line Statement in Defence of Democracy for 2010 … Barbie’s line from “Toy Story 3″:

“Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!”

The Democrats forgot this completely. The Republicans must not forget it.

[Captain Hate]

I saw the O'Donnell interview that the Ewok was so rattled over

You mean Squish of Spades? The wanna-be country clubber who is envious of all the kewel kids worthless twatigarchs that are larding up Repuke Central. To hell with him and his ilk; they're so last century. Let him spank his tiny monkey to Nooner.

[narciso]

You could ask Clarice, who is the only one of our crew,who actually has met me, Captn, I'm not a normally boisterous person, but lies do tend to bug me, and when the Ewok, or that prosecutor for the land of Mordor (LA), and their 'peanut gallery' either openly lie, or are ignorant of the truth, one has to call them out

[Neo]

Obama will make history for more than one reason during the Nov 6-9 visit. This will be the first time a teleprompter will be used in the nearly 100-feet high dome-shaped hall that has portraits of eminent national leaders adorning its walls. Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.

[boris]

Obama ... the karaoke president.

[Specter]

Yea...he'll be doing his rendition of "Another House Bites the Dust"....

[DebinNC]

I wonder what gifts he's bringing along? Leather bound copies of his two books for PM Singh?

[Janet]

I also like Soylent's, President 404 - "The 404 or Not Found error message is a HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server could not find what was requested"

[Captain Hate]

narc, he's become Charles Johnson right before our eyes; complete with his catamite co-bloggers like Drew "Kilgore Trout" M and Gabe "Sharmuta" Malor. He'd already starting purging non-RINOs such as progressoverpeace, who consistently posted some of the most articulate statements of conservatism, because of some perceived slight agains eeyorism. That garbage about COD being the cause of defeats elsewhere was the final straw. I'd overlooked his idiocy in the campaigns hoping he'd return to sanity afterwards. To hell with him.

[Clarice]

It would be so wrong, but hw much fun would it be to bollix up totus?

[Janet]

For 404 at wiki...."See Also: Link rot" Heh!!

[Danube of Thought]

Specter, where have you been? If you were in stir someplace, I hope you buried some of the loot before you went away. Welcome back.

[narciso]

Lol, what an embarassment, it just goes to show you, how little he regards our most important regional ally. Had I been suggesting
strategy, I would have recommended keep the entourage small, within littles, the itinerary
short, do not come off with the triumphalist
air, specially in light of recent events, and pay tribute to that all too high price that
was paid a year ago

[Specter]

Thanks DoT. Let's just say I was in the fine hands of the government for a while...but soon the worm will turn and maybe I'll get my life back...

[Specter]

Sure missed all-o-you though...

[Theo]

Elliot -- You could still be close. Check out the news from NY's 1st CD. The Republican is now leading in a race that AP and the rest already called for the Democrat. Could make SEVEN pickups in NY (if Buerkle holds her lead) and up to 68 nationally. Still votes to count. Sixty four or five the likely outcome.

[sbw]

Cap'n, I chuckle at the lightness and grace of your wordsmithery.

[Porchlight]

I liked progressoverpeace's comments, Cap'n. I think he got banned at Hot Air months ago.

Both Ace and Allah continue to post O'Donnell threads. O'Donnell needs to move on, but so should they. What is it Vanderleun says that narciso often quotes - "Republicans, they thirst for death"?

It really is pathetic.

[matt]

the leech - taxpayer ratio in California has increased to an intolerable level.The patient has been bled out.

I fear it is now irretrievable, as the union/grievance based electorate now makes up over 35% of the total and are the core of the Democratic Party.

Now that they well and truly own it, there is no place for them to hide. Perhaps it will become an object lesson for other states and governments. In 20 years, grandmothers will tell their grandchildren "be good, or Jerry Brown will come and get you and take you to California"

[anduril]

Interesting leftish take:

Obama must break his devil’s pact with the banks in order to succeed.

Bruce Bartlett says it was a failure to focus. Paul Krugman says it was a failure of nerve. Nancy Pelosi says it was the economy’s failure. Barack Obama says it was his own failure — to explain that he was, in fact, focused on the economy.

As Krugman rightly stipulates, Monday-morning quarterbacks should say exactly what different play they would have called. Paul’s answer is that the stimulus package should have been bigger. No disagreement: I was one voice calling for a much larger program back when. Yet this answer is not sufficient.

The original sin of Obama’s presidency was to assign economic policy to a closed circle of bank-friendly economists and Bush carryovers. Larry Summers. Timothy Geithner. Ben Bernanke. These men had no personal commitment to the goal of an early recovery, no stake in the Democratic Party, no interest in the larger success of Barack Obama. Their primary goal, instead, was and remains to protect their own past decisions and their own professional futures.

Up to a point, one can defend the decisions taken in September-October 2008 under the stress of a rapidly collapsing financial system. The Bush administration was, by that time, nearly defunct. Panic was in the air, as was political blackmail — with the threat that the October through January months might be irreparably brutal. Stopgaps were needed, they were concocted, and they held the line.

But one cannot defend the actions of Team Obama on taking office. Law, policy and politics all pointed in one direction: turn the systemically dangerous banks over to Sheila Bair and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Insure the depositors, replace the management, fire the lobbyists, audit the books, prosecute the frauds, and restructure and downsize the institutions. The financial system would have been cleaned up. And the big bankers would have been beaten as a political force.

Team Obama did none of these things....

If only the GOPers would take some of this (bolded) to heart, but I'm afraid they've been bought by the bankstas, too.

[PD]

From Warren Buffet's 2009 letter to shareholders, regarding management principles.

We will never become dependent on the kindness of strangers. Too-big-to-fail is not a fallback position at Berkshire. Instead, we will always arrange our affairs so that any requirements for cash we may conceivably have will be dwarfed by our own liquidity. Moreover, that liquidity will be constantly refreshed by a gusher of earnings from our many and diverse businesses.

When the financial system went into cardiac arrest in September 2008, Berkshire was a supplier of liquidity and capital to the system, not a supplicant. At the very peak of the crisis, we poured $15.5 billion into a business world that could otherwise look only to the federal government for help. Of that, $9 billion went to bolster capital at three highly-regarded and previously-secure American businesses that needed – without delay – our tangible vote of confidence. The remaining $6.5 billion satisfied our commitment to help fund the purchase of Wrigley, a deal that was completed without pause while, elsewhere, panic reigned.

And:

We tend to let our many subsidiaries operate on their own, without our supervising and monitoring them to any degree. That means we are sometimes late in spotting management problems and that both operating and capital decisions are occasionally made with which Charlie and I would have disagreed had we been consulted. Most of our managers, however, use the independence we grant them magnificently, rewarding our confidence by maintaining an owneroriented attitude that is invaluable and too seldom found in huge organizations. We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly – or not at all – because of a stifling bureaucracy.

...[W]e will never allow Berkshire to become some monolith that is overrun with committees, budget presentations and multiple layers of management. Instead, we plan to operate as a collection of separately-managed mediumsized and large businesses, most of whose decision-making occurs at the operating level.

Someone explain to me why this man is an Obama supporter?

Hm ... wait:

Charlie and I will limit ourselves to allocating capital, controlling enterprise risk, choosing managers and setting their compensation.

I don't understand Buffett's affinity for Obama. But I can see how Obama would like those words of Buffett. Except when Obama says them, he's talking about someone else's capital, controlling someone else's risk, and making someone else's choices.

[Danube of Thought]

Rapid scroll-by accomplished.

This stuff with Pelosi is positively surreal. Her approval rate among independents is 8%, and she's going to remain the face of the Democratic party. Could we dare hope for more than this?

[anduril]

A Brit take:

Marco Rubio follows the Barack Obama script. So what happens next?

...

“Our nation is headed in the wrong direction, and both parties are to blame,” Mr Rubio added soon after. There are difficult negotiations ahead, and partisan warfare leading to governmental shutdown is unlikely to impress voters, either.

The solution? Apparently for Mr Rubio – a man from an ethnic minority and modest means – to go to Washington, change it, not let it change him, and help unite the country and put it back on its historical, exceptional path as “the greatest nation in all of human history”.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Comparing Mr Rubio to Barack Obama is already a cliché, but it’s inescapable that his pitch tonight resembled a Right-wing version of Mr Obama’s from back in 2004. And we know where that led.

And Bill Kristol is hyping him, which means Bill and the Boyz think a President Marco could be just the dupe to be talked into more Mideast wars.

[anduril]

Personally, I'm disappointed that Christie has taken himself out. OTOH, maybe he's right and understands the learning curve needed to be an effective president--as opposed to a Dubya type president.

[anduril]

Lobelog has a beautiful example of the way bipartisanship can work:

More Insights Into Steven Emerson’s Tangled Funding Web:/b>

...

Grants written to the CTSERF and directed to the Investigative Project included a total of $400,000 over four years from the Russell Berrie Foundation and $1,225,000 from the Carthage Foundation over a six year period.

Neither the Carthage Foundation nor the Russell Berrie Foundation responded to repeated calls for comment.

Other high profile donors to the CTSERF include casino magnate Sheldon Adelson [huge Zionist and Bush supporter], whose foundation contributed $250,000 in 2006, and billionaire Obama supporter Lester Crown, whose foundation wrote grants totaling $75,000 between 2006 and 2007. Neither Adelson nor Crown specified the Investigative Project as the end recipient of their funding.

[narciso]

Doug Ross, as always 'speaks truth to power' in the way only a few can, in the LUN.

[Ann]

$200 Million a Day
Are we getting our money's worth?

[Danube of Thought]

Good Lord: the Blue Demons are leading the Cavs 14-0.

[PD]

off

[PD]

Are we getting our money's worth?

They're out of the country, aren't they?

[anduril]

Ann, la Michelle and her husband's IDEAS are plenty offensive enough--there's really no need to post pics playing off their racial orientation (I say that to cover Barry, who is half white but black by preference).

[anduril]

Come to think of it, their ideas are conventionally white leftist ideas.

[MarkO]

If the Duke leads holds up, it will be because of the Good Lord.

[MarkO]

Pelosi exhibits the bovine stare emblematic of those not burdened with the weight of intelligence. But, in fairness, she has a great facelift.

[Specter]

off

[Frau Hoffnung]

glasater, I can see why my son, who is basically very logical and independent politically, gave in to the Rossi as "sleaze." I sent your link to him. It is frustrating to live in a state where one or two urban areas can outweigh the rest. I'm here in CA. IL cannot buck Chicago and environs. As Threadkiller sez, just poll those areas and announce the winners so the rest of us don't have to hope for change in vain. (I just had to use that phrase.)

[Specter]

Yea...Pelosi - the great diplomat. Goes to Syria as a woman with "power" (uhhh...even hat to use that term), visits a mosque and makes the sign of the cross in front of one of their icons. Real Smart that one....

[Danube of Thought]

Demons still lead...

[centralcal]

I see we're very bold in Firefox today!

Any handwriting experts amongst our talented JOMers? Scroll down to the Guest Book and see what you think about Barack and Michelle's messages.

[Specter]

oops...I meant "hate" instead of hat...

[narciso]

All right, who brought the bold, along with the nasty trail from IPSnet, what Press TV wasn't available

[Frau Hoffnung]

Clarice, maybe it's time to revisit Iowahawk's teleprompter video. LUN

I hope Captain (@10:35) doesn't get in trouble with PETA for encouraging corporal punishment for simians.

[Captain Hate]

I liked progressoverpeace's comments, Cap'n. I think he got banned at Hot Air months ago.

Squish and AllahPuke operating in lockstep; there's a shocker. It's like Chris Buckley and Frum waiting to show their true colors. If this was 30 years ago they'd both be bedridden with massive cases of the vapours hiding under their binkies with fear of what Reagan would do. As I've said numerous times, this election cycle has been very useful as far as shining the light on the country clubbing roaches in our midst.

Thanks for the compliment sbw; I'm just grateful for this place as a forum. Particularly after yesterday when the mask completely fell.

[Specter]

Heck...not sure if that's "fashion"...

[centralcal]

Sometimes when people "snark" it is funny. Sometimes it is just truthfully accurate. A commenter over at MOTUS calls Michelle's India hairdo the "Al Sharpton."

If it had a few silvery gray streaks in it, it would be a dead ringer.

[DebinNC]

Looks like Michelle visited the Mumbai equivalent of the Chicago Lab Schools her girls attended. Unless, she and BO were given pens and hers misfired, what explains MO's "splotchy" message?

[Porchlight]

Could Michelle just keep her feet together when she is sitting? Is that so very much to ask of a First Lady when she is representing our country abroad?

[Specter]

"splotchy" message? Maybe she just writes in fits and starts... What's obvious is that she wasn't taught handwriting by nuns...

[Frau Handschrift]

cc - not an expert, but I spent thirty-some years teaching penmanship (it's returning!) and trying to decipher the results. Obama's handwriting is easy to read and controlled. (Signature is *more* than a tad "celebrity-esque." How many hours did he doodle with that?) Michelle's handwriting is wild and unruly! I would have whispered words of encouragement for improvement in her ear had she been with me. A former colleague of mine used to say, "It looks like she held the pencil in her mouth."

I didn't look at any individual letters, just the overall impact. Handwriting, whether justly or not, reflects on a person. The goal of legible handwriting is for *someone else* to read the content correctly. How many documents were misread earlier and published with mistakes because the writing was not legible? Too danged many!

::now returning ruler to desk top and removing pince=nez::

[Clarice]

I love Iowahawk....and I don't care who knows it!!!

[centralcal]

Porch: Keep her feet and HER KNEES together when sitting!

Even worse are all the photos of her seated, legs crossed at the knees, skirt hiked way up, and oiled thighs (sans hosiery) fully exposed from every angle.

You would think after seeing such a photo of herself, she would be quite aware of how she is seated in order to avoid future embarrassment. But, no.

[Porchlight]

Barack's signature is downright silly.

[Porchlight]

central,

Either she's showing everything off from mid-thigh down, or else she looks like a man with legs apart.

I know her handlers understand all this, so my guess is that MO will not be told what to do by anyone.

[Rick Ballard]

Cecil,

Here's the link to the actual CBO blog entry. I would submit that the CBO's "worst of both worlds" analysis understates the problem significantly due to reliance upon static modeling. Evidence of the assertion can be found in the BEA Personal Income Tables. The drop (Q3 07 - Q3 10) in interest income of $108B (partially due to declining interest rates, to be sure) and dividend income of $92B, is offset in part by the increase in rental income of $158B. Rental income is sheltered income and the sheltering aspect explains, again, in part, the drop in current personal taxes of $338B. The rest of the drop in taxes is due to loss of income, which, given the progressive nature of the rates, appears to have fallen upon the same turnip which our illustrious President proposes to continue squeezing.

[DebinNC]

I'd really like to know when Obama began signing his name that way, specifically the "O" bissected by the "b".

[Danube of Thought]

I see Michelle uses the European style for dates. I wonder if she refers to the attacks of 11/9?

[JM Hanes]

"Comparing Mr Rubio to Barack Obama is already a cliché

Swain got that part right! Rubio may be aspirational, but he is not exactly singing Kumbayah. Andrew Malcom is a good source for transcripts, btw. He's also one of the only bloggers who posts the White House and Republican Saturday addresses together. Does anyone know who, and how many, people actually listen to these dueling fireside chats?

"Come to think of it, their ideas are conventionally white leftist ideas"

A little slow on the uptake there, too.

[Pagar]

"Until the union faction is blunted somehow-
The major factor in the union factor is the public employees unions. There are many studies available which show public employees and public employee retirees making much more than private employees in the same job.
Making a whole lot more money available to the unions and thus to the Democrats.But it is not just the same old numbers. Doing 2008 forward Illinois and California added thousands to the unions by declaring all home care givers to the union rolls.

Obamacare is going to add hundreds of thousands to the public employees union rolls. To keep track of it all.
Here is a source that will help ">http://www.followthemoney.org/"> Follow the Money.

Keep in mind that all elections/ voting records etc are handled by Public employees.
Public Employee Unions have to be brought under control to have fair elections.

[DebinNC]

Insty links to an article about the 10 worst states for business. I wasn't surprised to see NC among the bunch, but I was shocked to see the pic chosen to represent Maryland's problem. Whoa.

[Frau Handschrift]

Am I being overly sensitive by finding Obama's feet on the desk in the Oval Office offensive?

[Danube of Thought]

Blue Demons by 12 early in the 4th...

[Thomas Collins]

Sbw, for several years I have been getting together with a friend to discuss Teaching Company courses. We meet once every couple of weeks on a Sunday morning at Starbucks or Panera and discuss a lecture and the accompanying questions. Currently we are discussing the late Rick Roderick's course The Self Under Siege. Adding to the fun, because he is a physician and I am a lawyer, we get to engage in the typical good-natured (and sometimes not so good-natured) physician-lawyer snarking at each other's field.

[DebinNC]

Private sector union's bluff is called. Note at the end the vote was pretty evenly split, and the hardliners were blamed by the realists for their MO jobs moving to Mississippi...Haley Barbour Land.

[Thomas Collins]

"I love Iowahawk....and I don't care who knows it!!!"

I'll raise you, clarice. I love TMZ and I don't care who knows it.

[Thomas Collins]

Just figured out why my avatar changed. I missspelled my email address. I have corrected the spelling. Let's see whether I am back to my old avatar.

[Frau Handschrift]

Pagar, the public employees unions are going to kill us all. I posted this on an earlier thread; it's from Nate Silver's NYT blog about election turnout, the unions and NV:
"The difference in Nevada was the Latino vote. However, you are missing the main reason for the difference: the Culinary Union's GOTV. As the Las Vegas Register pointed out, the Culinary members were ubiquitous on the ground, identifying and moving people to vote. That same union did it 2 years ago for Obama. That same union has been doing it for more than a decade in Los Angeles where the Latino voter has identified lock step with a progressive, living wage agenda. If more of this type of disciplined, door to door work was done around the country, the Dems would win much more. THe consultants dont get it because they earn their salaries with mail and media. But even if they gave a small percentage to a real ground game like the CUlinary, the difference would be notable everywhere." *(NY commenter)

Lock step. Is that what made this country great?

[matt]

The underlying truth of Pelosi's chances at retaining her leadership position is that the Democratic Party just tilted further left.

A lot of the ones who swore up and down they were moderate even after they voted for the health care bill are now gone, and so the really looney ones end up with more power internally.

I think the moderate wing of the Democratic Party will now caucus at Starbucks while the Bolsheviks caucus in the capitol.

Darrell Issa needs to institute investigations of Barney's boyfriends, the sweetheart deals, and the criminality rife throughout the financial markets.The kabuki hearings held by the Dems were a joke and not a damn thing really changed even with the financial services bill.

Fannie is back for another $2.5 Billion after another dismal quarter, and it looks like this is going to continue for a while. I am curious how their securities fit into the Fed's purchases, since they are among the most worthless financial instruments in history.

It's sort of like when a shark loses a few teeth. The next row behind them simply grows into place.

[narciso]

All right TC, 'them's fighting words' the way that channel has behaved over the years, including my fellow paisan, Perez Hilton,
though fortunately he graduated from high school a decade after me

[Danube of Thought]

I saw in a segment about Mitch Daniels that upon assuming office he had decertified all the public employee unions. I wonder how many state's governors have that authority?

And I'm still wondering whether a president can do the same at the federal level.

[narciso]

Swaine's commentary is less blinkered than Spilius and Harnden, but then again didn't they but Obama wholesale, almost as much as this country did. Didn't they serve as the flaks for Cameron

[Rick Ballard]

"since they are among the most worthless financial instruments in history"

Somebody better tell Fidelity.

[cathyf]

That means we are sometimes late in spotting management problems and that both operating and capital decisions are occasionally made with which Charlie and I would have disagreed had we been consulted.

There is a story making the rounds around here that the head of BNSF decided that, rather than call train crews back from furlough and run more trains, he would "protect" his cost-cutting bonafides by telling potential customers to go elsewhere. Within a few days, his phone rang, and his secretary got him out of a meeting. It was Warren Buffet explaining politely but firmly that they were in the transportation business to make money, and that they did that by moving customers' freight around and getting paid for it.

So, CEO suitably chastened, the train crews were called up off of furlough and got to work. In this case Buffet got the problem fixed with more-than-adequate alacrity.

[Pops]

Just have to say. I tried to tune into MSNBC the other night and the Maddow was on. I thought if I paid attention, maybe Obama and NBC and all have a point and I am just too dumb to understand.

The anchoress was presenting a story about how Fox News viewers live in a bubble, so they don't comprehend the real world. This was of interest, I am a Fox news viewer so finally I was going to see a true, factual story about how Fox News lies and keeps me in a bubble.

Her first story was about Obama taking 34 ships to India, what she called an out and out lie, but Fox News viewers wouldn't know that.

But wait...I looked up that story on the Internet and it wasn't a Fox News story, in fact the story came from the Associated Press type organization of India.

Her second story was some obscure home made video of a Congressmen being asked about Obama bringing small groups of Muslims into the country. She was all upset that the Congressmen didn't shoot down the claim, saying it was clearly a lie, but instead he played along.

Now I don't watch Fox News all day, but I am pretty sure that video wasn't just NOT on Fox news, but wasn't on any news.

The women claimed that the story was obviously false, that Obama wasn't bringing groups of Muslims into the country. I myself thought it was ridiculous, but then I thought, well maybe the guy means tranferring GITMO detainees to the US and having trials in the US.

This would make perfect sense for the man to be concerned Obama was transferring GITMO detainees to the US, so in fact Obama had plans to transfer small groups of Muslims into the US.

Anyway, the entire story line, simply demonstrated how in a complete BUBBLE you have to be in to watch MSNBC, and actually believe this crap.

[daddy]

Hey,

Did Captain Hate's Maryland Terp's pull it out over Miami? Had to go get my dog's girlfriend for housesitting, and returning home with that bitch my gal's have commandeered the Remote Control and its some freakin' Cake Bake Off on the tube. Arghhhhh!

[Captain Hate]

Goddammit. I'm being hit by a garbage snowstorm which is producing this slushy shit which is causing all sorts of problems, such as the power going out when I was typing this. Plus it bent my hedges down because the leaves are still on them into my POS white trash neighbors who whined about it rather than just cutting them down like I do when I have the same problem with my POS black neighbor on the other side.

Plus I'm out in my POS Toyota and the goddamn tire pressure light goes on even though the tires are just fine and it's caused by the weather (this isn't the first time this has happened). Everything that's changed in this Corolla from the last one is shit: The sightlines are terrible, they put the stupid electric door lock things as part of the key instead of a separate widget so it gets tripped for no reason in my pocket, the radio/cd knobs are stupidly placed. I hate this car. No wonder they're having so many recalls when they can't resist screwing around with things that previously worked just fine. Idiots.

[Pops]

The main problem with unions is they believe in Collective bargaining and acting as a group for all, while the Goverment and many others treat them as separate entities.

What you have to do is start treating them COLLECTIVELY, like they want to be treated.

So when you need to discipline a teacher, you make it COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT, rather then singling out one person that they will defend.

If you want to be a single entity for the purposes of collectively bargaining then it needs to go both ways.

So if one teacher is going to have their pay reduced, you reduce everyones, since they are a collective unit.

Once you do this, then watch them start to police themselves.

[Captain Hate]

daddy, in answer to your question: I went over to a Terps BBS and the first thread I saw was "Fire Ralph".

Next question?