Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - Liberal Version

From a viral letter that's going around:

MY HOLIDAY WITH JOHN McCAIN

It was just before John McCain's last run at the presidential nomination in 2000 that my husband and I vacationed in Turtle Island in Fiji with John McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget (their adopted Bangladeshi child).
It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune to be in close quarters with John McCain for almost a week, since Turtle Island has a small number of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force all vacationers who are there at the same time to get to know each other intimately.
He arrived at our first group meal and started reading quotes from a pile of William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its sticking out of them. As an English Literature major myself, my first thought was "if he likes this so much, why hasn't he memorized any of this yet?" I soon realized that McCain actually thought we had come on vacation to be a volunteer audience for his "readings" which then became a regular part of each meal. Out of politeness, none of the vacationers initially protested at this intrusion into their blissful holiday, but people's buttons definitely got pushed as the readings continued day after day.

More follows, but you can go find it yourselves, 'cause I'm not going to post the rest of this rancid piece of filth. Because it's probably not true.

For one thing - it has two different authors connected to it. My wife, who found it first in the comments at TAPPED has Mary-Kay Gamel a Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Theater Arts at Cowell College, UC-Santa Cruz.

But, according to Counterpunch (Google cached), and many other left-leaning websites, the author is Anasuya Dubey, she is a clinical psychologist in California.

No one can seem to get Ms. Dubey or Ms. Gamel on the record.

The current McCain story in question originated with a San Francisco-based clinical psychologist named Anasuya Dubey, who is alleged to be the daughter of a former Indian Consul in San Francisco. I've tried to reach Dubey to no avail (she is said to be "private") but an e-mail chain has revealed a few things.

Unfortunately, Jeff Wells, whom I quote here, later slimes the 'author' with a mildly racist accusation himself. Dipshit - he doesn't believe the story, but then takes the authorship at face value? The supposed authors are being smeared as much as John McCain is.

Folks, this has the greasy, oily fingerprints of social engineering, particularly as a viral story. The only thing its missing is animated GIFs of angels & promises that you'll have good luck after you mail it to 10 more people. John McCain may have sold out his straight talk and maverick independence, and has certainly shown poor judgment in this camapign, but we don't do ourselves any favors peddling this kind of bullshit that we regularly accuse the GOP and its minions of.

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"There is great chaos under heaven, and the situation is excellent."

- Chairman Mao

I feel like the last week - and the last few days especially - have been exhausting. Full of alarming and bewildering events, hysterically funny belly laughs, and great opportunity. I'm ready for the election if only to stop the roller coaster.

Slate tried very hard to be The Onion this afternoon, but their fail was pretty lackluster.

Slate predicts McCain's next 10 Hail Mary stunts.
1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.
2. Offers the post of "vice vice president" to Warren Buffett.
3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.
4. Learns to use computer.
5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.
6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.
7. Sex-change operation.
8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.
9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.
10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

Buffet is no friend of the GOP right now, but you bet your sweet butt McCain would nominate the best closest chump he could find with financial experience to Proposed Treasury Secretary or 'Special Advisor' tomorrow if he could. And while John doesn't have the attack codes, he's got a friend who does. And in an election where his running mate is more popular with his base than he is, he might do a one-term pledge in order to guarantee their turn out.

McCain: "He's so crazy, it just might work!"


Switching gears, I think someone's asked me to ditch it already, but I'm really beginning to tire of the divided post format since it's; 1) mandatory on all posts, 2) almost none of us use it. I'm not mad or disappointed, just being realistic. And it wasn't a big coding fix to implement.

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Sleight of Hand

I've seen this pop-up a few other places, but one of benefits for delaying Friday's debate is that they push it to the VP Debate's time and date. And then the VP thing moves further away, and maybe disappears completly.

Causus belli? As Penn and Teller quite beautifully illustrate, sleight of hand has to either be deliberately choreographed and practiced or the practitioner has to be a virtuso of it's spontaneous use. Has the McCain campaign (or for that matter, even the Obama campaign) convinced you of it's ability to misdirect us skillfully and regularly? Can they pull lit cigarettes from our ears convincingly?

So I consider it doubtful, but once some McCain staffer noticed postponing might also displace the VP debate & make it go away, I'm sure the idea to postpone really did begin to glow like a Godsend.

Update: Chez works up 855 words more.

By announcing the temporary suspension of his campaign, John McCain hopes to lure Barack Obama into a kind of trap that only the most craven and cynical of political operatives could dream up. He truly believes that he's concocted his own little Kobayashi Maru scenario whereby Obama, no matter his move, can't win: If he agrees to McCain's ludicrous suggestion that both sides call a truce until the economic bailout bill is negotiated -- which would include postponing Friday night's debate -- McCain can claim victory; if he refuses to relent and continues to campaign even as his opponent doesn't, McCain can point to it as an example of Obama putting his own interests above those of his country. McCain once again can wrap himself in the big banner of "Country First."

It's a Hail Mary pass like nothing we've seen in American politics in, well, perhaps ever.

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Holy Crap Coyote - Terrifying

Yesterday, Coyote posted this in a thread over at TLC.

I finally read it this morning.

Good gawd.

I am not at all well versed in military issues and I do not really understand the law when it comes to these kinds of things. However, my limited understanding is enough to scare the crap out of me when I read an article like that. So, I have some questions.

1. Isn't it against the law to turn the military against the people?

2. When Bush attempted to destroy posse comitatus, didn't the Congress restore it within a few months?

3. Aren't these types of missions what the National Guard are supposed to be used for?

4. Doesn't this take control away from the Governors of the states and give it to the President and the Pentagon?

5. Do the Governors know about this "new policy" and what do they say about it?

6. Isn't it curious that it begins October 1st? My guess is that it is being put in place so that those unruly Democrats don't get too out of line when they are attempting to vote November 4th (attmpting to vote, or demanding that their franchise not be denied.) And, even more likely, that the unruly Democrats don't raise too much hell, taking to the streets, when this election is again stolen from us.

This will also come in handy when the economic meltdown hits and many, many Americans are left homeless. When the rabble take to the streets and demand that the top 5%, secure in their gated communities, give us some food and shelter - the marines can shut those demonstations down too.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

We are in for a strange ride, people. A very strange ride.

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Things to Come?

CEO murdered by sacked workers. No, not in the United States, but in India.

Wow... if that don't send a chill up CEO's spines everywhere.

Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.

Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, a manufacturer of car parts that has its headquarters in Italy, died of severe head wounds on Monday after being attacked by scores of laid-off employees, police said. The incident, in Greater Noida, followed a long-running dispute between the factory’s management and workers demanding better pay and permanent contracts.

Sign of the times?

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Important PSA

Check your voter registration. Now. Even if you checked it last week.

Confirm your registration to vote.

The Republicans are working hard to disenfranchise Democratic voters.

My husband was purged. He had voted in the most recent Primary - last month. He checked his registration and it was not there. He has re-registered and raised a significant amount of hell. First week of October (NEXT WEEK) is the end of the ability to register for the November election (in most places, check the registration deadline in your area, some places allow for day of registration but that is rare.)

Please confirm that you have not yet been purged. They are working hard to do it.

As quickly as we are registering voters, they are purging them. Especially anywhere that there are tight races or where the presidential race will be tight.

Please confirm that your registration is current.

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Do We Really Trust bu$h To Have Carte Blanche... Again?

Why don't I trust the bu$h administration on their rush to rescue our financial giants? Could it be that we were blindly hurried into the Patriot Act... or was it the fast moving attack on Iraq... hell, it's really both. And both have been huge blunders. The bu$h administration has a record of screwing the pooch on way too many items over the years... and we are supposed to just let him have Carte Blanche?
More after selections of the N.Y. Times article.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Saturday formally proposed a vast bailout of financial institutions in the United States, requesting unfettered authority for the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets from the private firms.

The proposal, not quite three pages long, was stunning for its stark simplicity. It would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

“This is a big package, because it was a big problem,” President Bush said Saturday at a White House news conference...

Some Congressional Republicans warned Democrats not to overreach...

The administration’s plan would allow the Treasury to hire staff members and engage outside firms to help manage its purchases. And officials said that the administration envisioned enlisting several outside firms to help run the effort to buy up mortgage-related assets...

You have got to be kidding me right? "...unfettered authority...?" Like Cheney? Like Rummy? Like "Gonzo"? Like "heck of a job" Brownie? Sorry, I've been down this road before... you're incompetent bu$h and so is your staff. If Paulson was so great why has the problem gotten so huge?

bu$h telling me it's a "big problem" does not ease my fears or bode well with me... I don't trust the man. A man I call "King Midas in Reverse!" I can sense a real rip off of the American people here, name one thing he has successfully done for U.S. citizens. Or better yet, reel off all the things bu$h and his cronies have benefitted from when they expedite policy at the expense of the American public.

"Some Congressional Republicans warned Democrats not to overreach..." WTF? Who the fuck are they to tell our Democratic congressional leaders "not to overreach..." I hope they "overreach" and finally protect the electorate from bu$hco.

"...the administration envisioned enlisting several outside firms to help run the effort to buy up mortgage-related assets..." This sounds like outsourcing of jobs and special contracts to me, ala Iraq. How much will this cost? Who will be doing the work? The same schmoes who were working on Wall St. and got us into this mess?

In conclusion, I don't trust a fucking thing bu$h proposes, especially when he is trying to ramrod a plan down the American public's throat. We've been screwed too many times before.

Of course I'm no economist, but Paul Krugman is and he agrees with me: No Deal.

I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal. Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets...

Here’s the thing: historically, financial system rescues have involved seizing the troubled institutions and guaranteeing their debts; only after that did the government try to repackage and sell their assets. The feds took over S&Ls first, protecting their depositors, then transferred their bad assets to the RTC. The Swedes took over troubled banks, again protecting their depositors, before transferring their assets to their equivalent institutions.

The Treasury plan, by contrast, looks like an attempt to restore confidence in the financial system — that is, convince creditors of troubled institutions that everything’s OK — simply by buying assets off these institutions. This will only work if the prices Treasury pays are much higher than current market prices; that, in turn, can only be true either if this is mainly a liquidity problem — which seems doubtful — or if Treasury is going to be paying a huge premium, in effect throwing taxpayers’ money at the financial world.

And there’s no quid pro quo here — nothing that gives taxpayers a stake in the upside, nothing that ensures that the money is used to stabilize the system rather than reward the undeserving.

I hope I’m wrong about this. But let me say it again: Treasury needs to explain why this is supposed to work — not try to panic Congress into giving it a blank check. Otherwise, no deal.

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