Polemic®

I’m glad to know that the international emergency of the cause of death of John Travolta’s son has been handled.
That kid looked more like John Travolta than John Travolta does. Hmph.
I tried to refrain from saying something shitty about Scientology, but… I guess Dianetics didn’t cure this one.

From the moment that Bush Patsy McCain chose Nilap for vice-president the 2008 election felt like an episode of the old South Park, the one that was fresh and consistently funny. If the stakes hadn’t been so high, the whole ‘08 caper would’ve been hilarious. Indeed, “‘Joe’ the ‘Plumber’” feels more a denizen of the [...]

The Oregon DOT is exploring a way to tax miles driven (not “mileage” which sounds better) instead of gallons of gas used.
Now, taxes have to be big enough to actually change behavior. Before last year, most experts predicted that much lower levels of gas price inceases would begin to change behavior than it did, and [...]

I have to admit that I am beginning to admire this guy’s balls. After all, isn’t it really about the appointee, not the Governor?
The Democrats are so fucking retarded. Again.
This whole scandalette is designed to cost them a Senate seat. A “fair” special election will simply hand the seat to the Republicans, because everyone there [...]

Laura Bush says that history will judge whether her husband was the worst president ever. Fair enough. That story can’t be written until the end of the American Republic. Of course, Bush II’s hastening of that should count for something.
And, heck. Who knows? It might turn out that Karzai and Al Maliki could end up [...]

I’ll just get this out of the way.
Israel’s attack on Gaza is probably strategically counter-indicated, even if it wasn’t so startling. I find it hard to live in country responsible for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis for no reason whatsoever and criticize the actions of virtually any other country. Still, this falls under the “no one [...]

Obama campaigned as a 21st century update of Andrew Jackson, but it appears that his model for governing is going to be Dwight David Eisenhower.
Obama and Ike are surprisingly similar. Ike was adored for being vital to winning World War II, but was a political ink blot. No one knew if he would run as [...]

Please make her go away.

Every little cent of government spending is critiqued, especially by Norquistites on the right. God forbid you spend money on, say, fixing leaky windows in schools. God forbid you fill in some potholes. God forbid you keep a few manufacturing jobs in the county.
But apparently the already overly evangelical Air Force’s use of NORAD to [...]

Of course, it gets buried in the horrible Washington Post. “Pakistani Jets Scramble As India Hardens Tone: All Options Open, Minister Says in New Delhi”

To date, we have had 7 weeks since election day. And each week has demonstrated the perils of shtick-loss in the lefty blogosphere. Like phantom limb syndrome, bloggers continue to predict the apocalypse every time Obama’s decision doesn’t reflect their agenda. You mean, Obama’s a center-left politician? But he’s BLACK! Or something. I wish I [...]

That a shock and awe sky is falling demand for $700B with only very minimal strings attached could have resulted in money that was hard to track and $1.6B going to bank executives.
It wasn’t wrong to put liquidity in the system and force the shadow banking system into the regulated banking system to get that [...]

With the recent use of TARP funds to offer a bailout of sorts to the automakers the first $350 billion of the $700 billion that Congress authorized for Generalissimo Bush to rescue the financial industry has now been allocated. Congress must now decide whether or not to authorize the remaining $350 billion. The Democrats must, [...]

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the importance of Presidents being correct on the “big things.” It’s one of my better posts. I showed concern for Obama being another punchlist President (other than his being the first black President) like Clinton or Carter or Ford. And he was well on his way to [...]

As annoying as Politico is (complaining about Dem dynasties while Bush II is in office?!?!(##%$%#$@$) I think they’re right on this: enough with the e-mails. More than one a week at this point is annoying, and, frankly, I just delete them. Why do they want me to donate now? They have a surplus and a [...]

No one could have predicted that they wouldn’t be able to attract capital or get loans even though the banks were saved and interest rates have been slashed.
I think it’s seriously time to consider more drastic steps. Among other things, how about a limited time “Chapter 15″ Bankruptcy (add it on) that allows reformation of [...]

The Fed Funds rate is near zero. T-bills were going for less than 0% recently. Monetary policy is exhausted. A fiscal stimulus is required, yet the party of business seems to think that only deregulation and tax cuts will solve the problem.
Just as Bush v. Gore shattered the myth that conservatives had some kind of [...]

And of course they’re trying to spin this as the UAW’s refusal to get paid what the people in the Southern factories are getting paid.
I think people aren’t going to get that micro. They’re going to wonder why there were no strings attached to Wall Street and all of these nitpicks on real jobs. This [...]

They’re going to filibuster a “measly” $15B for the Big 3 after giving 50 times that much to the very crooks that got us into this! It’s punishment to the midwest for voting for Obama. GOP to Midwest: die.
GOP to California: die.
The GOP is trying to bankrupt California by refusing to negotiate on a six [...]

1. CLINTON RULES ARE BACK!!! Obama’s sister’s cousin’s roommate likes Blago, so Obama should be impeached and thrown in jail. 4 MORE YEARS OF BUSH!
2. Obama’s election means no more racism! Close historically black colleges! (Going on in Georgia)

There’s been some considerable pushback against the potential appointment of Caroline Kennedy to the New York Senate. Radio host commentator Alex Bennett called her “lucky sperm,” and Tapped complains that but for her name, what has she done to merit a Senate appointment. Others object to the “dynastic” appearance it presents.
This shows massive naivete, faked [...]

Denies cert in alleged fake birth certificate case.
The right wing whizzes that brought us Rathergate again took their fine eye for typesetting discrepancies and claimed that Obama’s published birth certificate looked suspiciously new. Of course, that’s because it was reissued by the records agency.
FAIL.

I just caught wind of Whale Wars on Animal Planet. It’s an interesting show, but, like many reality shows, not for the reasons the subjects think.
The fact that Japanese are killing whales for “scientific research” and ends up as meat is almost certainly bending the spirit if not the letter of the ban on whaling. [...]

Just six weeks ago, I was telling myself that I would move to Canada if McCain won the election. What a difference a little time can make, eh?
The United States has cleansed itself of a long, disastrous nightmare. Putting aside problems Canada doesn’t really have, the United States is poised to correct most of its [...]

OK, I get it. It was politically tone deaf for the Big 3 to show up to Washington in corporate jets. But, something tells me all of the brand new bank holding companies have their folks flying G4s on our dime.