Open Thread: Memory Lane

Al, just curious about your thoughts on how this all went down between the 2 camps and the Commission agreeing to the format.

st. at the cost of the tax payers. Should Obama be supporting this hastily cooked up scheme by the same crooks who brought this disaster ?

And all this fuss for what ? To put a lipstick of that pig of a failing wall st ?

Love that Story btw.

amk

It's funny - in that last thread about the mortgage / banking crisis Al warned, "don't speak too quickly there are a lot of steps left in this thing," to which I responded that he's right, and I'd expect to see two types of concern trolls: "1) Why hasn't Obama already won yet and 2) Will we vote for a black man with ties to _____". Well, I thought Chris Matthews would do it in his own bumbling wa, but it looks like Ron really beat him to the punch. I **can't believe** that Politico and others are revoicing this absurd story under any circumstances, let along during such a big event. Thankfully, I don't know how much of an impact this media event designed to keep the race close will have, but I do take comfort that the field hands are organizing to put an end to this.

JoyIA - The stories about the changes in the vice presidential debate rules - that the McCain campaign made new conditions to allow Palin to be more scripted and less subject to having to spontaneously pontificate on the many matters she knows little about - seems "off" to me, in the sense that no changes can be made without the consent of both camps.

I think the Obama campaign agreed to this because it benefits Biden, too: fewer chances for him to appear as bullying just by the nature of his vastly superior grasp of policy issues. That's really all Biden has to accomplish at this debate: to neither appear overly brutal nor appear to condescend in ways that the media circus would indubitably call "sexist." My guess is that Biden's debate instructions will be to ignore Palin altogether, and talk about the platforms of McCain and Obama.

In that sense, the new rules benefit him, too.

Meanwhile, I think its tremendously interesting that Obama will be doing his debate prep from Tampa (even though the debate is in Mississippi). This will allow him to get out there once a day and do a speech or a media hit in Florida. It indicates that the Obama campaign's internal numbers tell them that Florida is very much in play (which, if he wins there, would of course pretty much cement his Electoral College victory).

Jill Nevels-Haun

http://www.gannett.com/go/newswatch/2007/march/nw0315-7.htm

The News-Messenger
1700 Cedar St., Fremont, OH 43420
Phone: (419) 334-1040

JHaun@gannett.com
www.thenews-messenger.com

Career summary: I've worked since 2003 as managing editor of The Herald-Dispatch.

I am the former regional editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky and was previously city editor of The Marietta Times in Ohio. I also was education reporter and assistant city editor at The Herald-Dispatch from 1995 to 1998.

Recent accomplishments: Selected to receive a year-long James K. Batten Fellowship and participated in the 2003-04 Breakthrough program. Received the 2005 Newspaper Association of America's Minority Fellowship and attended Poynter's Leadership for Managing Editors: Managing Today, Leading Long-Range program. Selected as NAA Fusion's Fellow Spotlight.

APME activities: Newsroom participation in Time-Out for Diversity and Accuracy programs.

APME should: Continue its commitment to newsrooms and continue offering practical, affordable training, such as NewsTrain. APME also should continue to be a resource for cutting-edge readership ideas and initiatives.

In my spare time: I paraglide, run and volunteer at various youth organizations. I also organize fundraising activities for my son's youth football league.

 

 

pkovaks@timespicayune.com

phone (504) 826-3352 fax: (504) 826-3007

The Times-Picayune
3800 Howard Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70125-1429

Peter Kovaks radio interview:

http://www.here-now.org/shows/2006/04/20060418_13.asp

"New Orleans Times-Picayune reporters Brian Thevenot, Gordon Russell, Jeff Duncan and Gwen Filosa; managing editors, news, Peter Kovacs and Dan Shea; and editor Jim Amoss, are the newest winners of the Duranty-Blair Award for Journalistic Infamy, for their September 26, 2005 attempt to “untell” the story of the savage violence that befell New Orleans just before and after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29 of last year."

http://nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.com/2006/09/seven-at-new-orleans-...

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/08/30/new-orleans-times-picayune-reporters...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/business/media/05picayune.html?_r=1&ad...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...

http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/30/gustav-katrina-orleans-biz-media-cx_db_...

 

 

Peter Kovacs
Managing Editor, News

From Brown University's site while winning an award for service to society: Class of '78 Peter joined the Times-Picayune staff in 1983 as the night metro editor. In 1988 he coordinated the paper’s coverage of that year’s presidential campaign and conventions. In 1990 he was promoted to metro editor, and in 1993 he was named to an associate editor position. Before the Times-Picayune, Peter worked as a reporter and editor at the Birmingham News.

Shared a Pulitzer for his work covering Katrina; also active in Brown activities, based on the googles. Has a son attending Brown, class of '10.

http://alumni.brown.edu/volunteer/honor/2006_people_1.html#KovacsGraceSw...

I'm 99% sure this is the same "Peter A. Kovacs". (Brown also lists middle initial as "a".

Peter A Kovacs

5001 CLEVELAND PL
METAIRIE, LA 70003
(504) 885-3381

Ah yes -- verified on:

http://www.paladium.net/usa-ffpublicityAPassociatedpressAPME.php

Speaking of which, that Paladium.net site has some info on AP writers, etc.

 

Watch this amazing video of Assistant Treasury Secretary Phillip Swagel's briefing on the economy from early JULY--it's embedded in a story by Dana Milbank from the Washington Post:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/03/AR2008070303317.html?hpid=topnews

It's unbelievable that the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank didn't know then about the approaching catastrophe.

But now, after this incompetence, they are asking the government essentially rubber-stamp their bailout now.  Which we probably have to do.

What utterly incompetent governance.

John McCain, the time to call for oversight and regulations is BEFORE you drive the economy into the ditch.  Not AFTER you call the ambulance.

Great photo Al.

Karen Peterson

karen.peterson@thenewstribune.com

The News Tribune Main Office
1950 South State Street, Tacoma, WA 98405
P.O. Box 11000, Tacoma, WA 98411
Lobby hours: Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Phone: 253-597-8742

Hysteria by Design? Good news, bad news and the 'chicken little' syndrome.
A Community Conversation
Tuesday evening, March 21 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library

If hysteria is indeed a communicable disease, is the news media guilty of being the primary source? The media makes issues like homelessness, police brutality, teenage pregnancy, and drug use into fodder for panic - rather than understanding and response - by substituting graphic imagery for a rigorous description of the size and seriousness of the problems. Every year at Thanksgiving, we see pictures of the homeless, shuffling like ghosts into shelters for turkey dinners served up by beaming volunteers. Yet, no one in America knows with any certainty how many homeless people there are.

At the mere threat of a snowstorm, local news switches into the STORM WATCH 2006 mode - complete with logo, theme music and ten-minute updates. Even military initiatives get heir own catchy tune and dazzling graphics. Sensationalizing sometimes the smallest tragedy into overproduced and overhyped coverage is epidemic. Why? How did this happen? Is the American public so difficult to reach except through shouting. How much is too much when it comes to saturation coverage of a story like the DC Sniper or the disappearance of Natalee Holloway? Is the news media guilty of creating hysteria by design?

Guests include:
Paul Larosa, Emmy Award winning journalist, , producer for the newsmagazine 48 Hours and author of Tacoma Confidential; Dave Ross, popular talk show host, KIRO AM,; Karen Peterson, Managing Editor, The News Tribune; David Silver, Assistant Professor, Department of Communications, University of Washington and a specialist on the relationship between cybermedia and contemporary culture.

---

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/newsroom/article_dis...

 

Al, if you have the chance, check out Moyer's interview with Kevin Phillips.

As your expertise is not the economics, and neither is it mine, if find this interview really helpful.

"Finance has been prefered" since the 1980s---'consumerism was pushed to the umpth degree", the 'rise of the debt industry', etc.

No, folks, I don't think that this tumult is even close to working itself out.

Aside: no it is not surprising that the rightwing is trying to push race topics at this point.   Change the subject.

Belive me, the folks that want a continuation of Bush are going to have a hard time convincing rational people to follow McLame/ImPalin--'the reformers'.  LOL

Let's bail-out mainstreet also; the hegemony of finance capital is running the nation into the ground.

 

30-40% declines in the Dow and in home values.  We are half way through this mess, according to Phillips.

Amazing.

Accompany this tumult and decline with increasing ecological problems that are a result of putting profit over long-term sustainability.

Hold on folks--this is going to be a long ride.

And what are we to do about this Wall St. bailout?  It is all happening so fast, and with what appears to be built in favoritism and lack of accountability.  What do we do to try to make this as much in the public interest as possible?

It's massive, and fast-moving...

What can/should we do?

Well, James, it seems as though there is a concensus from both parties to back these bail-outs--however, the Dem's are closely tied to this finance capital that has become dominant.

A return to New Deal values and a massive intervention into the economy to create jobs, develop infrastructure, get people to work, etc.   Seems as though this would be the way to go.

Propping up finance capital like Clinton and Rubin did would be pure malfeasance.

When/if Obama gets into office as president he needs to develop another form of New Deal that is reminiscent of, but not the same, as what we experienced in the 1930s.

The malasise that is afflicting the US has to do with drinking the koolaid and being convinced to let the super wealthy and thier corporations steer the ship of state.  That was massively foolish.  Also the idea that labor should give up struggle in the face of corporate hegemony, and not caring about your fellow citizen--this philosophy as been a disaster, and Dem politicians bought into it because they were bought-off.

Of course, as citizens we need to take our economuy and country back from these goofs.   The subordinant classes have to engage in hard thinking and hard work.

I think that Obama's progressive instincts will be crucial in helping the nation recover--but we at the grass roots need to remind him toward where he should focus.

 

Oh goody, an open thread.  I'm still wanting to know if Al has any thoughts on why Palin suddenly cancelled her west coast fundraising swing.  It just seems so odd to me.

geez, Al, so long ago and far away...were we really all that much

younger then? the valley so innocent?

And , hot dam, kids, yep he was a good reporter back then too.

amk - I'll wait to see what the final legislation looks like after Congress gets its mitts on it before drawing conclusions. 

Tien - People read too much into the smallest things. (And bloggers blog on them before all the facts are in.) Maybe they just decided to deploy Palin elsewhere. California is lost to the GOP no matter what they do.

Steven - I'm not as impressed with Kevin Phillips as some seem to be. His explanation of what has happened is a fairly common one. His axe-grinding predictions for what can happen next are standard DC beltway "conventional wisdom" and his claims about FDR when he got elected in 1932 are just plain wrong. FDR was the governor of New York had the backing of many magnates of industry and finance (who, after all, were his constituents in the Empire State). He himself was extremely wealthy. Phillips has his head up his tukus on that one.

http://d21c.com/aquariusmoon/ElectionCalendar.html

Please e-mail if there are any errors or omissions. I took the dates off of a similar table at Daily Kos, and made it readable.

OK, I suggest that we enlist Nicolas Kristoff in the effort to expose Fournier. Kristoff writes in the NYT Op Ed today about "The Push to 'Otherize' Obama" and how if we let this happen the real loser is the political process. He cites his own frustration that an interview he did with Obama is being mis-used to spread the scurrilous rumors about Obama's religion. He ends his piece as follows:

"Journalists need to do more than call the play-by-play this election cycle. We also need to blow the whistle on such egregious fouls calculated to undermine the political process and magnify the ugliest prejudices that our nation has done so much to overcome."

Well.... Fournier very specifically is trying to "magnify the ugliest prejudices that our nation has done so much to overcome." Maybe we can figure out how to bring Kristof in to this as well, give him the chance to do something and not just wring his hands in his Op Ed column.

A few days ago Al mentioned the neocon / populist (sometimes called evangelical) rift that is developing within the Republican Party.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178318884054675.html

"Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on [SEC Chairman] Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential."

Al, what's the best way to aggravate this rift?

Both The Wall Street Journal and Fox News are owned by News Corporation, which is run by Rupert Murdoch, who is on the Board of Directors at the Associated Press.

http://www.newscorp.com/management/newscor.html

How does one cloak the http://.... code with words here?

As it pertains to the emergency economic package sitting on the desks of Congress: I am greatly concerned about the specific references to NO accountability. Given the nature and actions of this Administration, it worries me to think of giving them any kind of unaccountable, absolute power. Am I chicken-littling? Talk me down, as Rachel says. I hope I am, but fear I am not.

Yeah, Al, I guess KP's claim to fame is being a semi-rational Republican that is willing to be critical of the excesses.

I did notice that his analysis included no criticisms of off-shoring jobs, the global race to the bottom on the part of corporations. More, nothing about the ethos that a president can help establish, what FDR did very well.

FDR was a connected, wealthy, pro-capitalist govenor, indeed.

So, I guess the entire interview was convential wisdom.

In my veiw this crash should be about diminishing corporate power, helping citizens organize away from the mass herding operations, the collectiviist tyrannies that we call corporations.

KP stays revelvent within the truncated new/opinion parameters that are assiduously policed by goons for the corporate status quo.

Why not workers taking over corporations that are failing?--as with Argentina? Oohhhhhhhh.....halloween is coming and I am scaring myself. Should'nt even be thinking such thougts, lol. Only 'bad' people come up with such ideas.

 

 

I've created a link-list of reactions to the bailout on my blog.

Shortest and succinctest, from the NPR Global Pool of Money guys: 

I would guess that this has to be one of the biggest peacetime transfers of power from Congress to the Administration in history.

Still trying to understand it all. I haven't yet come across anyone who's gung-ho for it, and my surfing and linking time needs to draw to a close. 

previous thread for the organizing? I have been putting the info there.

I feel like this is going to turn into another FISA and that it may be better at this point to focus on getting Obama elected so he can fix the thing as president than spending his political capital only 44 days before the election on opposing it. But I suspect that I am in a tiny minority in the blogosphere that feels that way.

My dad, a 70+ year old, conservative-leaning Independent from Virginia - transplant to Republican-leaning Chicago burbs (but has voted Democrat in the past 3 elections at least), is fairly supportive, at least he was when they first announced it. He is a retired accountant and follows the stock markets pretty religiously - not that he's good at investing in it or anything, he lost a lot of money back in the 90s on futures, but he knows quite a bit about it. We were discussing the large drop in the Dow-Jones and the fact that it had climbed back up. I'll have to talk to him again and make sure he really is in favor of it, but he sounded very supportive of the bail-out (or at least in favor of his stocks going up, though I don't know if he has money invested right now). Anyway, I mostly just wanted to show that not everyone is opposed to it. I don't know a whole lot about economics and the stocks so I usually ask my dad his opinion.

I_Love_the_Field: You got it right! Thanks for reading carefully!

when you were writing for the Advocate, Al.

I just exchanged email with Paul Should, who's done a lot of great work over the years.

 

One thought pushes fence-sitters to the left: Palin

By Adam C. Smith, St. Petersburg Times Political Editor

ST. PETERSBURG — Five weeks ago, the St. Petersburg Times convened a group of Tampa Bay voters who were undecided about the presidential election. Their strong distrust of Barack Obama suggested it was a group ripe for John McCain to win over.

Not anymore. The group has swung dramatically, if unenthusiastically, toward Democrat Obama. Most of them this week cited the same reason: Sarah Palin.

Wow, gone all weekend and come back to a highly organized effort to bring down Fournier - impressive.

I did find out, however, that apparently voter suppression robot calls are in full swing in Michigan. My mother received an automated phone call this week telling her she will be receiving material in the mail that is required for her to vote, as she will need to vote absentee.

The problem with that is she's not eligible to vote absentee in Michigan. Unfortunately there was no organization attached to the call, or at least she didn't remember it.

I read the following on The Market Oracle in Great Britain. Dont have time to investigate whether it's true, so simply putting it out there as something that everyone should be aware of when final details of the complete WS bailout become common knowledge.

RAIDS OF INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS

This is so important a topic, that it deserves top billing!!! Hidden inside the AIG bailout funding package, surely hastily cobbled together, but carefully enough to include a totally corrupt clause, was a handy dandy clause that permits raids. The conglomerate financial firms are permitted at this point to use private individual brokerage account funds to relieve their own liquidity pressures. This represents unauthorized loans of your stock account assets. So next, if the conglomerate fails, your stock account is part of the bankruptcy process. Finally the corrupt USGovt and corrupt Wall Street houses are desperate enough to put into policy, stated by the US Federal Reserve, outlining the authorized raid of your money. [...] The actual evidence for legalized stock account raids by the financial firms can be found in recent articles in Financial Times and Wall Street Journal . So this is not a wild claim. The September 14th article on the Wall Street Journal entitled “Wall Street Crisis Hits Stocks” was the first exposure.

This would also include units that invest in the stock market such as company pension funds, retirement accounts, mutual funds, and affects everybody.

Again, I reiterate, I do not know if this is accurate, but if it is true, then someone should go to jail. I'm four days late leaving the country, which will happen today, so no time to spend hours looking into this.

Wow, this news is nice:  From Obama today in North Carolina, he is making it clear that if investment houses get bailed out, than so should familes being foreclosed upon.

This is not only smart politics, it is morally correct, and this will resonate with voters.

Go Obama!

Incredible--I am listening/watching Obama today in North Carolina.  He's  using this crisis as a way of showing people how presidential he is.

He's definately not going to jump on board of this bail-out while forgetting average Americans that are in trouble.

"The radical idea that government has no place in protecting the American people...."

This is the death of the rightwing, government-bad meme.  No, it will still hold sway among the slow class, put this is an idea that has no ascendency at this juncture in our history.

Obama, if he indeed engages a progressive adgenda and if people organize on the grass roots, will be as beloved by future generations as is FDR.

 

 

Jason, or anybody else, if you have more information about this, could you please add to the thread I just set up on the Voter Suppression Wiki?  There was an earlier report of this in the Michigan Messenger ...

Thanks!

jon

 

THE STATE OF SARAH PALIN

The peculiar political landscape of the Vice-Presidential hopeful.

by Philip Gourevitch (9/22/08)

Gourevitch researched this story before the VP announcement; he was in Alaska to report on the Ted Stevens scandal.

Given that the VP debate has to cover both domestic and foreign policy, whereas the presidential candidates have two debates, one for each topic (plus whatever is asked in the town hall debate), I think it would actually be more useful for voters to increase the number of topics asked about even though it means less time on each. In reading the New York Times article it sounded like the McCain campaign wanted to cut out the "back and forth discussion" period entirely, but this was rejected by the Commission, then as a compromise it was agreed to shorten the length of each segment. When there are negotiations about something, I have often found that the party that has the least to say is the one that got what they wanted. I think that the McCain campaign is trying to spin why this compromise solution is just as good for them as what they originally wanted, while the Obama campaign may have wanted that all along, either for the reason I mentioned above, or to make sure Biden does not become too long-winded. I see a lot of people upset because they saw the McCain campaign acting like they won. Folks, just because your opponent claims he won, you don't have to believe him! Look at what each party wanted and what they got and decide for yourself who really won!

On a more trivial note, I'm curious that the NYT says the McCain campaign wanted the podiums instead of having the candidates sitting at a table with the moderator because the conventional wisdom was that sitting at the table would favor McCain because it neutralizes Obama's height advantage. Maybe he thinks there is some other advantage?

@Jason 3:48 p.m.

I cannot speak to the automated calls since I let all unidentified phone calls go to my voice mail, but yesterday I received an absentee ballot application from the Michigan Democratic Committee. I had never received one before but I suspect that because I voted absentee during the last election that I was on the list of "possibilities" this time around. The application appears legit since it has Obama's logo on it as well as the address to my local clerk's office (I checked). But even if it had not come, I had already downloaded an absentee ballot from the Secretary of the State's website. I say all of this because I wonder if the automated call your mother received was part of the course (perhaps she voted absentee in the past??) or if something more sinister is at work. Michigan absentee laws are pretty broad. In my case, I qualify simply because I "expect to be absent from the community in which I am registered for the entire time the polls are open on election day."  Other qualifications include inablility to vote due to physical disabilities and religious tenets. And since absentee ballots are apart of the GOTV effort I don't see a problem encouraging it where it applies. Of course, if the call indicated that absentee is the "only" way for your mother to go, then there is a problem.

Actually, I think the impact of the vp debate format restriction is a negative for the Repubs.  It reinforces the 'she's not ready' thing and 'needs to be coddled/protected'.

Obama is not buying Paulson's "Pig in a poke."

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gGg9zm

Laura M. Poyneer,

 

With respect to the use of podiums, I think this was asked because I believe  when the candidates sit down next to each other, they tend to be more civil.

If I remember correctly, Obama generally performed much better when he was seated during the primaries.

I'm finally coming back into the world after a few months of mono (easily the most boring disease in the world) and, now capable of caring about something besides overcoming catatonia, am getting fired up.  I'll still be piggybacking on a lot of the work you guys are and have been doing, but I'm getting good at identifying the folks who will retain information and pass it on.  I'm spending the rest of the afternoon in bed, but the little old lady downstairs who's so far been far too intellectual to get enthusiastic about anything has borrowed my cell phone for a phone-bank party taking place even as we speak.  She's terrified of calling strangers, but between the information I'm passing on and her Palinophobia she's getting fired up, too.

Accountability and transparency are my concerns with the bailout.  I agree that something must be done on Wall Street, but if they  hand $700 billion over to Bush with no constraints, transparency, and Congressional oversight, they might as well just make checks out to the CEOs and shareholders of every financial firm in the world.  It's about as scary as the thought of a Palin presidency.

Anyhow, as someone who's had the attention span of a gnat since June, it's nice to wake up to find that there is, indeed, a wagon to jump on.  All the euphoria and anxiety I had during the primary season has turned into pragmatism.  My more 'idealistic' Democratic friends seem a little dismayed by how cynical I am (cynical, in this case, meaning realistic), but I'm not the one running for President, after all.

And hey, Al, cute photo.

Laura, I kind of like the balance of time per question.  The more questions and the shorter response period, the more Palin will shine with her sarcastic soundbites.  If she's got more than a few minutes of response time she'll use up her memorized speech and have to spend the actual conversation time parroting what she's already said.  Biden, on the other hand, might have the perfect balance of time to fit his style: enough to give intelligent and direct answers, but not enough to let his emotions get the better of him.

Bill R.: Thanks for the link.  I hope this spreads widely throughout this wanna-be-great nation of ours.

I think Micheline is probably right. It may also be that having the candidates seated together allows a more free-form debate, whereas the podiums make it more formal and for some reason McCain does not want to get in a free-form debate with Obama.

The issue caught my eye because I am "vertically challenged" myself and know that bringing a taller opponent "down to size" can be important psychologically. I had a silly imagining as McCain comes out and suddenly becomes taller as he steps onto the box that is hiding behind his podium!

Jason Young @ 5:05 pm,

I also think that is why they also asked for the podium. Obama seems to perform better that format than the podium.

Another thing you have to look for is whether or not the audience is allowed to give applauses. Obama performs better when this is allowed. Obama depends on the energy in the room.

 

This is the headline at TPM and is spot on.  This is exactly the phrasing that encapsulates the whole disaster that is Republican economic orthodoxy. This is even more hard-hitting than the Wall Street vs. Main Street dichotomy the Obama campaign is drawing out. I hope this phrasing sticks.

since this is an open thread, and to appreciate and empathize with all people on the ground dealing with these crazy things called human beings. I've been canvassing in NH for the past three weekends. It feels like it does help. And it is also very intense. I feel sometimes like I'm touching the heart of America and some of it is very hard to face--racism and deep ignorance, doors slamming, people saying terrible things. (And as a therapist swimming in people's private darkness during the week juxtaposed with collective ignorance, I am at this point getting to an overwhelm threshold.) And yet I know I need to keep on. I feel like I keep myself in such an idyllic, liberal, (elitist) oblivious (ignorant) life, surrounding myself only with people I like. It is also difficult dealing with other volunteers. It can be great and not so great, working hours on end together. Last week, I teamed up with a very serious chicken little. This week, I was with someone with great intentions but a slightly strange manner who I felt weirded out some undecideds. It is exhausting and challenging. The field organizers can give pointers but cannot change personalities. I just spent the morning napping in a very beautiful cemetery. I am very tired. And this whole experience is changing me very profoundly. I am wondering how I will make sense of it all on Nov 6th.

at DKos and am wondering if I should go ahead and put out there now or wait until after Al rolls out the plan with talking points. Thoughts?

No offense to Roman O, but Al, I would like to see his comment at 5:11 deleted.

@Al - great story to share with us and it seems to bear out what we Field Hands know and appreciate about you. Now about that sign...that must have been when offices first started posting No Smoking signs? I think it was in 1990 in my office.

@Kris Johnson - awesome work - thank you and how exciting will it be to hopefully see the termination or resignation of Ron Fournier. (Of course to be hired by Fox the next day but at least he won't have the cover of a reputable news organization to spread his smears.)

@roman o - LOL.  haven't seen you in a while - welcome back

@amk -  having worked in a management capacity for mortgage companies for 25 years, the economic situation in the U.S. is front and center in living color every day I go to work.  While clearly there is a moral hazard (although we already flew through that red light with the Bear Stearns bailout)  to this proposed bailout and the various CEOs making off like bandits (because they are) and the taxpayer shouldered with the debt in some form or fashion, there are two things I would say:  one - it has already been directly affecting Main Street for at least the past year so unfortunately, this isn't just a Wall Street event.   There are thousands and thousands of people who have lost their jobs in the financial arena who all made less than 40K a year on average.  For every one financial institution, there are probably less than 1% of the people who worked there who profited from the fiasco.  Not to mention pretty much every sector of society has been indirectly affected by the downturn in housing and home values and credit tightening.

Secondly, what is truly a crime is that while EVERYONE is talking about the 700 billion dollar bailout, no one is mentioning that the Iraq War has already cost us 700 billion.  And lost lives.  How Bush and Cheney get out of 2 separate 700 billion dollar crimes without spending the rest of their lives in prision is sickening.  Perhaps they won't.  First Ron Fournier and then those two, right Al? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/washington/19cost.html

Agreed. Al, please delete Roman O's comment. Very offensive.

Palin's answers may not even fill the allotted time, leaving the moderator to move on or fill dead air.  Or she'll do her best to fill the entire time and sound so nonsensical that there will surely be some youtube "highlights".  ["fungible commodities...they don't flag molecules...]

I imagine the prep time for Joe will hone his skills and he'll get through the debate gaffe-free... one can hope!

Roman O - Christine and Elizabeth are right. Don't know how that one got through the goalie. You should know better than to come here to do what you should only do in the privacy of your own home. C'mon, man. This isn't a babysitting service. Don't use it as one.

Aaron Sorkin of West Wing writes for Maureen Dowd.  This is really good.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html?_r=2&em&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

 

Can someone explain to me the point of Intrade Prediction Markets.

Man, I hate it when appauling comments get deleted before  I have a chance to enjoy the abhorant.

I'm just say'n.

Tell me I am not supposed to read it and I'm there.

Tell me I am not supposed to do it and it happens.

I been reprobate before there was even a 'probate'.

Just say'n, someone fill me in on what these comments consisted of.

Ladies, please, stop spoiling my fun.

 

Oona, I like it: napping in cemetaries and going door to door with effers that creep 'normal' people out.  That's so cool.  This will be stuff to scare the grandchildren with--when they are suffering under the dictatorship of President Jena Bush. LOL--or Bristol Palin.

 

A helping Field Hand here.  The commentary was around some possible debate challenges for Mr. McCain and the comment would be considered ageist. So it "depends" on whether or not that is considered off limits.  Oh and it also referenced the possible debate attire of Mr. McCain to include 70s style platform shoes.  It could have been because he is stuck in the past, or because has a political platform he wants to stand on, OR....perhaps height issues? 

Al is probably not appreciating my helping hand here but I didn't think it was awful.  Well yes it was.  Awfully funny. 

p.s.  If I recall correctly from the Old Field, roman o is a Field Hand by a different name with some link to the hockey world (so perhaps that's why the comment got past the goalie.) 

Loved your photo. You look like Johnny B. Goode.

You had pretty good hair back in the day.

GateHouse's page had a typo in his email address. You need to put a 'b' before his last name.

bdennison@gatehousemedia.com