elfs | Brains, Green With Greed And Power (Reply)

First, this joke: What's a liberal?
A conservative who's been ripped off by Wall Street

George Will asks, "Is this most leftist administration in history?"

The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end is government control of capital. So, is not McCain's party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The New Deal never acted so precipitously on such a scale. Treasury Secretary Paulson, asked about conservative complaints that his rescue program amounts to socialism, said, essentially: This is not socialism, this is necessary. That non sequitur might be politically necessary, but remember that government control of capital is government control of capitalism.

...

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

(via Matt Welch)

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

If only there were pushback. Why aren't we protesting this? Are we deer in the headlights, are we idiots? C'mon, you know that the next four years will be rougher than Hell, and Obama will catch a ton of flack for it all.

Payback is a bitch for the party of Wall Street

By a 2-1 margin, the American people believe that Republicans are responsible for the crisis on Wall Street. And Palin's numbers are now dragging on McCain rather than boosting him. The people who would have held their nose and voted for McCain will now gleefully vote for Palin, but apparently nobody else will.

Did the Surge work as advertised?

A new analysis, tracking electricity consumption in Bagdahd as well as other variables, concludes that "the Surge" played only a minor role in the pacification of Bagdahd. The report states that "ethnic cleansing by rival Shiites may have been largely responsible for the decrease in violence for which the U.S. military has claimed credit."

Rush Limbaugh says Barack Obama is "an Arab."

Do you know he has not one shred of African-American blood? He's Arab. You know, he's from Africa. He's from Arab parts of Africa.... He's not African-American. The last thing that he is is African-American.

Insert your own "WTF" right here.

McCain: Even with the bailout, we can still balance the budget, and maintain four wars!

More ponies rhetoric from McCain.

And if you're scratching your head over the "four wars" quip, consider Palin's recent speech (probably not penned by her) in which she said that "The Iranian dictator [Ahmadinejad] must be stopped.The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us." Nevermind that Admadinejad was elected (yeah, it was an unfair election, but it's a pandering lie to call him a dictator), and nevermind that, as I've already pointed out, he's not the supreme leader of Iran. That's the language Bush used to go after Saddam Hussein. That is as clear a signal as you could want that on top of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the building conflict with nuclear-armed Pakistan, the McCain administration intends to go after Iran.

And make sure to watch Tucker Bounds avoid answering the question. Again!

McCain lies about the press's coverage

Having recently announced that the whole off the press is now "the enemy," the McCain camp seems to have gone off the rails. They complained that the NY Times hasn't covered Joe Biden's son's banking interest a week after the Times ran such a story. They complained that the Times hasn't investigated Obama enough, and the Obama camp rolled out three dozen references to Times articles about his background, his family, his campaign, his time in Illinois, his religion, etc. etc.

And yet the Times has yet to mention the Keating Five. Why is that?

The Twelve Lies Of Sister Sarah

She has lied about the Bridge To Nowhere.
She has lied about her firing of the town librarian and police chief of Wasilla, Alaska.
She has lied about pressure on Alaska's public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law.
She has lied about her previous statements on climate change.
She has lied about Alaska's contribution to America's oil and gas production.
She has lied about when she asked her daughters for their permission for her to run for vice-president.
She has lied about the actual progress in constructing a natural gas pipeline from Alaska.
She has lied about Obama's position on habeas corpus.
She has lied about her alleged tolerance of homosexuality.
She has lied about the use or non-use of a TelePrompter at the St Paul convention.
She has lied about her alleged pay-cut as mayor of Wasilla.
She has lied about what Alaska's state scientists concluded about the health of the polar bear population in Alaska.

Sarah Palin, under pressure to perform as the running mate to a Presidential Candidate, has reached pathological proportions.

AFA: Homosexuality causes Depression

Ed Brayton brings us a lovely article in which the American "Family" Association claims that homosexuality by itself, rather than societal disapproval or a lack of commonly approved societal niches, causes depression.

I would totally date a woman who wore 'In the library' perfume.

Described by the perfumer as "First Edition, Russian and Moroccan Leather, Binding Cloth and a hint of Wood Polish." Mmmm. I'd do that. Goddess, just thinking about it makes me want to write another Journal Entry that either starts or ends in a library!

The Digest digests Philip Roth's latest

The prevailing sexual code of the time was dry-humping with no orgasmic discharge but I wanted to experience intercourse before I died. I invited Olivia Hutton, a girl I noticed in the library, to dinner. On the way home I tentatively kissed her. Unprompted, she gave me a blow job. I couldn't accept that Olivia wanted it to happen. She had to be an abnormal slut so I avoided her. I then felt guilty and wrote asking her to forgive me. She replied, bidding me adieu, saying she had tried to slit her wrists some time before arriving at Winesburg.

Ouch! I love the digest. (via Jessa Crispin)

The 19 Ffmpeg Commands You'll Ever Need

FFmpeg is the video processing Swiss army knife for Linux, and here are 19 commands you'll need to do just about anything: extract audio, encode to ipod, extract a frame, encode to Flash, and prep for VOB (DVD) burn.