elfs | The Fat Lady sings out her Brains! (Reply)

Recent Scenes from North Korea: Man, if you haven't seen these... *shudder*. That place is all the more creepy knowing that the Pleasure Squads are culled from some of the girls in these photographs.
Economies do better under Democrats: Michael Kinsey says (and I concur), "Correlation is not causation, but as long as the correlation holds... who cares?"
The White House refuses to back John McCain: Dana "The Cuban missile crisis was before my time, so I don't have to know anything about it to be White House spokesperson" Perino today refused to reiterate Bush's earlier statements, now echoed by John McCain, that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong," instead saying, "I know that you're not asking the question in the forum of a 2008 campaign, but I know as soon as I say something you're going to turn it around and it will be a part of the 2008 campaign, and I'm not going to play the game."

Huh. Restraint from Dana Perino? What is this world coming to?
The current crisis was caused by the SEC willfully allowing five firms to ignore SEC regulations: The SEC allowed five firms - the three that have collapsed plus Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley - to more than double the leverage they were allowed to keep on their balance sheets and remove discounts that had been applied to the assets they had been required to keep to protect them from defaults.
In short, this isn't simply a matter of Phil Gramm's ramming through the deregulatory regime with which we are now suffering, but it's also due to Congress giving the SEC exemplary powers that allow them to "deregulate" some firms even further.
Chris Matthews: "Bush is pulling one of those Katrinas again.": Meanwhile, Chris Matthews has apparently found his voice again and is browbeating Republicans for refusing to stand up and accept that their president and their congress created this crisis, and in this crisis, leadership is once again AWOL.
Brutal Snark from Gail Collins: "This Week's John McCain": when McCain took the center stage, they were itching to cheer the war hero and boo all references to pork-barrel spenders.

Nobody had warned them that he had just morphed into a new persona - a raging populist demanding more regulation of the nation's financial system. And since McCain's willingness to make speeches that have nothing to do with his actual beliefs is not matched by an ability to give them, he wound up sounding like Bob Dole impersonating Huey Long.

The whole transformation was fascinating in a cheap-thrills kind of way. It's not every day, outside of "Incredible Hulk" movies, that you see somebody make this kind of turnaround in the scope of a few hours.
It's from Kos, but it seems solid: Why Sarah Palin charged rape victims for evidence collection kits: Unless we want to accuse Mayor Palin of the sin of being too cheap and trying to "save the budget," the only excuse she has left for refusing to fund rape evidence collection kit purchases for the Wasila police department is that she objected to the kits supplying emergency contraception, which winguts claim is an abortifacient.

The Kos article actually makes Palin's case that she was toeing a principled ethical and moral line. She can now claim with a straight face that she would have liked to have funded the kits, but could not do so in good conscience "knowing that babies would be killed." (via Daily Kos)
Really, George? Is this all we have left?: George Will's op-ed this morning is an interesting one. He basically admits that McCain has only point left on which to run: A Democratic White House and a Democratic Congress will be a disaster. Therefore, since it seems certain that the Dems will take Congress, a Republican in the White House would be a good idea.

I'm inclined to agree. I just feel even more strongly that John McCain and Sarah Palin should not be those Republicans.
McCain: "I'd fire the Chairman of the SEC.": The regulators were asleep, my friends," McCain said. "The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president. And in my view has betrayed the public trust. If I were president today, I would fire him."

But while the president nominates and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission cannot be removed by the president.
Uh, yeah, John... about that "I know about the economy from my days on the Commerce Committee" thing? Better shut up now.
Bonus McCain pre-emptive lying!: And in a bizarre followup, the McCain campaign blasted Barack Obama for something he hasn't even said yet, but might say at a stump speech later in the afternoon.

They're pre-emptively claiming that Obama will distort what McCain said about the SEC Chairman (see entry above) and "attack John McCain's call for removing the Chairman of the SEC."

But that's not what McCain said. He said he would fire the Chairman of the SEC. He can't do that.
Californians unprepared to destroy existing marriages, even if they're gay: Now this is good news. The polls showing the number of people opposed to the initiative to ban gay marriage have risen in the past three months from 51% to 55%.
John McCain, Party Animal: Empty Wheel digs up some lovely history and brings us a great fifteen-year-old photograph of John McCain partying hard (and looking dorky) with Charles Keating. Remember Charles Keating? Remember our last major taxpayer-funded bailout?
For Science Hackers: The Democratization of Biosciences: A great article for nearline SF writers about the growth of accessible kitchen bioscience. As the article notes, "Biohacking may occur, but this negative externality is a byproduct of democratization." Why is it "negative?"
John, John, John: "We've heard a lot of words from Senator Obama over the course of this campaign. But maybe just this once he could spare us the lectures, and admit to his own poor judgment in contributing to these problems. The crisis on Wall Street started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence peddling, and he was square in the middle of it. [...]

"My friends, this is the problem with Washington. People like Senator Obama have been too busy gaming the system and haven't ever done a thing to actually challenge the system.
When pressed for an example of "Senator Obama gaining the system," The McCain campaign failed to produce any susbstantive examples.
Sarah Palin is running for President: Watch the video where she calls the campaign the "Palin and McCain" campaign. And Jake Tapper reports that Palin refers to McCain as 'the running mate'. Even NPR has reported that people come to see Palin, and leave when John McCain takes the stage.
The other war goes badly: Kevin Drum reports that the summer initiatives have mostly failed and the Taliban has demonstrated an ability to use advanced tactics across a very wide territory.

How does McCain plan to fix this problem, again?

Fairness where it is due. I've heard the interview with El Pais, rather than read a transcript. How John McCain could understand her at all through that accent and rapid speech was a mystery. I agree with most people; she blindsided him and he handled it badly, but I don't think it's indicative of incompetence or senility. Also, Randy Scheuenemann is being roundly criticized for referring to Prime Minister Zapatero as "President Zapatero," but apparently calling him "President Zapatero" is not uncommon in Spanish media, as he is president of his party, and his party is the ruling party in Spain at the moment. I think Scheuenmann was talking out his ass, but he's at least got plausible deniability.

And in good news, blogger and journalist Brian Beutler surfaces after disappearing for three months, dropping off the Earth without any warning. He now informs us that he "bravely robbed three bullets of their deadly momentum." And we Seattlites thought our summer sucked this year.