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ONCE AGAIN, THE VICIOUS LIPS OF MICHAEL "LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER" SAVAGE AS CONSTANTLY SEEM TO DROOL WITH HATE AND DESIGNS ON ULTRAVIOLENCE against liberals, welfare "basket cases," National Minorities, homosexuals, liberals, Secular-Progressives and others who, in his twisted Weltanschauung, are "selling out Our Beloved Nation" just as Judas betrayed the Christus to the Roman authorities for thirty silver pieces, keep drooling with hate.

And with potentially Reckless and Utter Disregard for the Consequences in case his words translate into acts, deeds and exploits carried out by one of his mentally-unstable listeners who will not only try pleading insanity as a copout, but will implicate Mr. Savage's remarks, which could have him held indirectly liable.

Witness these remarks from his very lips, mind you (so don't get any ideas, Mr. Savage, denying that you said them) on his broadcast of the 26th of last month as sound almost right out of apartheid South Africa from the Afrikaner perspective:

My value system is from another world -- I'm like Rip Van Savage. I grew up with parents who went through the Depression. And I went through a sort of depression in my own life as a result of liberal social activism. They imposed affirmative action on me and stole my very birthright simply because I was white. They stole my birthright, and I could have gone under.

I'm telling you now, I'm telling you, like, from the Savage confessional something, then I'm gonna get back to executive compensation and the yuppie punks on Wall Street who went to Harvard. I'm not jealous of them -- I don't need what they have -- I'm a better man than they are, 'cause I never stole from anybody. I never sacked a pension plan. I never robbed a person's retirement fund. OK, so don't think I'm talking from the point of view of bitterness here.

And, for that matter, from the same show three days later:

REP. JOHN CULBERSON (R-TX) [audio clip]: We're not gonna load our kids up with an unaffordable debt burden that'll bankrupt this nation and turn us into the Weimar Republic. We've got to be careful and --

SAVAGE: Well, here in San Francisco, we're way past the Weimar Republic. They had in the midst of all of this a so-called Folsom Street Fair, where naked men cavorted with whips and chains and leather yesterday. I noticed that our Italian grandmother, Nancy Pelosi, had nothing to say about values. This went on in the sickest city in the world. We're way past the Weimar Republic. I only pray that there's no Hitler in the wings.

[...]

Now, I want you to go to MichealSavage.com, go to the middle of the page on the right, and you'll see a man in a leather mask -- a man, a grown white man, standing at a leather parade yesterday. A leather festival, so to speak, in San Francisco, where people were walking around with their private parts exposed beating each other up with whips, while others stood around in a drunken stupor, or a drunken orgy, witnessing men being whipped in public. And my headline is, "The Devil Runs San Fransicko," and that's what I said to Representative Culberson.

It's interesting to me that you mention the Weimar Republic, because this country today is far beyond -- has gone far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic, which led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened -- the average person in Germany was sickened by the perverts; they were sickened by the artistes; they were just sickened by the leather fetishists; they were sickened by the degeneracy; and they couldn't handle it.

Now, you know, leather and this and that is, you say, someone's business. I may agree with you. If someone does so willingly, I could look the other way. But it shouldn't be permitted on a public street. When this occurred last September, I voiced opposition to it. Nancy Pelosi had the nerve to say that, as a Catholic grandmother, she's not offended by it. I said, "If she's not offended by this, what would offend her?" Well, apparently, nothing offends Nancy Pelosi except Republicans who don't go along with her iron gavel.

No, this shouldn't be permitted in public. They should be arrested by the vice squad. But we have a sick mayor -- a useless, sick piece of spaghetti. He's not even al dente, you know, he's al softy. We have a mayor that's al softy in this city, not even al dente. The vice squad is now only looking for people who do not burn American flags rather than people who burn American flags. Everything's upside-down. It's "Alice in Wonderland." I guess what I'm getting at is this: At the same time we have the largest financial meltdown in our time, these sickos go to a leather parade and whip each other in the streets -- still doing what they do because they're sick, they're mentally ill. Every last person there is a mentally ill person, in my opinion. And what they were doing in the streets was an example not of wholesomeness but of sickness.

[...]

What do you think God was saying through Isaiah: "What part shall they be stricken, as you stray away more and more?" Well, God was talking about the Folsom Street sadomasochistic fair in San Francisco. He's saying to those people, "What part will you be stricken of your body, seeing as you stray away more and more?" And they keep whipping each other, saying, "I condemn God. I don't believe in God. That's for the fools. That's for the right-wing Christians. We don't believe in that." And yet, they get sick and they die, and they don't even understand they're getting sick and die -- dying from their own behavior.

(Thanks to Media Matters for America for the hat tips on these transcripts and audio clips, lest I forget.)

I ask you: Are these the rational remarks of a sane man?!

more the engrish!

HOW THIS PARTICULAR SPECIMEN OF "ENGRISH" WOULD QUITE RELATE TO THE FACT OF TOMORROW BEING YOUR CORRESPONDENT'S 47TH BIRTHDAY is anybody's guess.

But the fact is that I turn 47 years young tomorrow.

And what a long, strange trip it's been, to quote the songwriter--even if today turns out to be cloudy and chilly enow in the Minnwissippi to have me turn on the heating system in my flat. Too, I admit sometimes to being hesitant to acknowledge certain facts of my own life publicly.

Dad died in 1993 and Motherdear, 87 herself, is in her loneliness (save for the regular visits of Home Health Nurses or Aides) in Caledonia, Minnesota, insisting on staying home all the longer "to maximise the value of the estate" on her decease, never mind her having no equities investments and still insisting on a basic bank account being all the more satisfactory ... and occasionally having to subsist on toast, leftovers or frozen toaster waffles for dinner unless she's recovering from a substantial dinner such as during a wedding or other occasion involving close friends or relatives; blame that on her limited Social Security benefits.

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IN ANY CASE, EXPECT SARAH PALIN TO LET SLIP JUST WHAT CLASS OF A FLOOZIE SHE REALLY IS IN THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL DEPARTMENT in tomorrow evening's Vice-Presidential debate.

Not just as a floozie, but also as a psychopath who may be trying to channel "dog-whistle" messages to her droogs among the weird and unwholesome.

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EVEN THE SAME JEWS TRADITIONALLY EXPECTED TO BE SEEN AS NOTHING LESS THAN EVIL AND SINISTER CONSPIRATORS working in secret to weaken and undermine Christendom to the point of the "New World Order" following close behind aren't taking too kindly to His Fraudulency's Grand Delusions known as the Paulson Plan to Save Our Pecuilar Socieconomic Model and Paradigm.

Case in point: The following editorial from this week's Forward entitled "Taking Back the Street:"

For all its malodorous air of refueling a getaway car, the upcoming federal bailout of Wall Street is a lifesaving emergency operation, and it must go forward. It could become a fat giveaway to the rich, as progressives rightly fear, but it doesn’t have to be. Handled properly, the emergency measures will douse the fire that is threatening to consume the American economy, without rewarding the arsonists in the executive suites. With wisdom and luck, the intervention might even lead to a rebuilding of the financial markets on a safer, fairer, more structurally sound foundation. For that to happen, though, progressives must plunge into the details of the rescue so that their values are reflected in the repair.

Tempting though it might seem, we can’t just leave Wall Street to suffer for its sins. Financiers perform a public service no less essential than farmers or truckers. Farmers grow our food. Truckers deliver it to market. Bankers produce the financing that truckers need to fill their tanks, and farmers to buy next year’s seed. Without functioning capital markets, the economy grinds to a halt. That’s what is happening now.

But if the current crisis teaches us the necessity of markets, we should consider the broader implications. Farmers aren’t allowed to sell food that might be poisonous. Nor do good intentions matter; the government steps in at every stage of growing to protect the public. For that matter, truckers aren’t allowed to speed, run on worn ties or drive all night without rest. There are rules.

By the same token, financiers should not be allowed to package finance deals that might leave the rest of us broke and hungry. They need rules and oversight as much as farmers, truckers, pharmacists and electricians. Otherwise, they will end up doing — well, what they just did.

Bankers should not be allowed to package mortgages that lure buyers in with easy terms and then blow up in their faces a few years later. Traders should not be allowed to hide fake mortgages and other flimflams inside opaque pyramid schemes. Firms shouldn’t be permitted to shower billions of dollars on their managers and investors, and then run to the public trough when they lose billions. Companies should not be allowed to raise easy capital only to dismantle their factories and ship the jobs overseas.

All that should be illegal. But it isn’t.

How could that be? It’s illegal for builders to build homes on quicksand. Why are banks allowed to finance them that way?

The answer is simple: fad ideology. Call it the trickle-down theory, or Reaganomics, or the Chicago School or the Washington Consensus. Whatever you call it, it remains a crackpot theory sold to us by generations of snake-oil salesmen: the notion that businesspeople, unlike pharmacists or teachers, can be trusted to police themselves, magically shepherded to wisdom and virtue by the Invisible Hand of the Market.

And if they don’t behave intelligently — and here is the key — it’s nobody’s business but theirs. After all, they’re engaged in private enterprise.

It’s nothing of the sort, of course. As noted, finance is an essential public service, like airline safety. When it goes bad, the public must step in and fix it. If things fall apart, the public suffers. In case of catastrophe, the whole world suffers. Public affairs are everybody’s business. A democracy that governs everything except for what matters most is no democracy.

Our current troubles are not the result of greedy Wall Street executives breaking laws to make a fast buck at everyone else’s expense. Our problems begin with the fact that what they did was perfectly legal. In fact, it was encouraged by the tax code. Washington manufactured this crisis in a three-decade, slow-motion abandonment of the public welfare.

Partly, it was well-intentioned. Changing technology — the Internet, satellite communications, container shipping — rendered old financial regulations obsolete. But instead of reforming the rules, Washington largely abolished them. And now the taxpayers must step in and clean up the mess.

This is the moment to change the rules of the game in the public interest. As Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress, the Treasury must intervene in the markets and inject nearly a trillion dollars — roughly equal to the entire national debt when Reagan first took office — to buy up the banks’ junk and let them get back to the necessary business of finance.

And, as Congress has told Paulson, the bailout must help the banks, not the bankers. Executives must not be allowed to skim the money we provide to save the system. The rescue must help poor folks losing their homes, not just the bankers who set them up. A process must be launched — beginning now — to rewrite the finance and tax codes so that they serve the public’s interest and not just the bankers’.

Above all, the rescue must be managed by a team of honest, competent, intelligent people. That means it can’t be run by the current administration, with its impeccable record of ideological blindness, cronyism and incompetence. Congress should create an independent commission with the authority to manage the bailout-fund and put things right.

Which, come to think of it, is mainstream opinion across the board--well, except for what Fox Prolefeed considers "mainstream," as in "home folks" (think, reader, of an earlier generation more than likely getting their news and information from the likes of Grit or Capper's Weekly as opposed to the more "sophisto" Time or Newsweek, with the former representing idealised "hometown" and "home folks" values sometimes tending to glowing generalities.)

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FOR THOSE EXPECTING WINONA TO BECOME A RAILROAD TOWN OF THE 21ST CENTURY WITH THE CANADIAN PACIFIC'S ACQUISITION OF THE DAKOTA, MINNESOTA AND EASTERN having been approved (howbeit conditionally) by the Federal Surface Transportation Board--I wouldn't bet the farm on it just yet, boys and girls.

Especially considering where the STB's approval of the merger included a provision that prohibits carriage of Powder River Basin coal over Canadian Pacific lines until such time as a proper Environmental Impact Assessment is completed; the better to pacify especially the concerns of Rochester, Minnesota, fearing the likes of some class of a chemical or fuel leak from the rail yards midtown essentially afflicting especially the Mayo Clinic. (But then again, it's just as likely that the CPR is unlikely to proceed with the DM&E's Grand Proposal to construct a new line from near Wall Drug to the Powder River coalfields in Wyoming.)

On the other hand, the CPR is pledging substantial investment of time, money and resources in the reconstruction of both DM&E and Iowa, Chicago and Eastern (IC&E) lines which, for the most part, don't quite meet accepted industry standards for long coal trains roaring by on streetcar-like headways. Especially so the former, with a nasty reputation for frequent derailments known to disrupt service as recently as last week, when a derailment near Minnesota City had one tank car leaking soybean oil.

Let's just hope that such reconstruction could be a major bright spot socioeconomically in what may otherwise be depressing socioeconomic times, creating jobs and then some. 

IF WE'RE TO BELIEVE ERIC BOEHLERT @ MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA, it looks as if the Neoconservative/Fascisti "new media," or reasonable facsimilie thereof, may be about to backfire on itself in Indecision 2008 after claiming moral victories in Indecision 2004:

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Nearly four years ago to the week, right-wing bloggers were basking in the glow of their CBS Memogate caper.

They were being toasted in the mainstream press for their dogged detective work (even though it was suspect) and tapped as the next great resource of the conservative movement in America.

Fast-forward to the autumn of 2008, and the same bloggers are almost unrecognizable in terms of their shrinking clout and the almost complete un-seriousness with which they operate.

Rather than using the CBS story as a stepping stone to launch serious online investigative work and to grow the right side of the blogosphere into an alternative and insightful newsgathering source, the bloggers--how do I put this politely?--have pretty much become a joke in terms of original reporting, with many of them throwing away any legitimacy they accidentally acquired in 2004 when they stumbled across the CBS story.

And boy, it must irk them to look around and see what the liberal blogosphere has been able to achieve over the same four-year span. To see how the netroots community responded to that heartbreaking John Kerry loss and to see that it now enjoys unbridled success and growth, and how its efforts often crackle with enthusiasm. How they're helping, in modest but unmistakable ways, to change the debate in America, especially this election season.

Note that it was liberal bloggers who pressured Democratic candidates to pull out of primary debates scheduled to be hosted by Fox News, an unprecedented campaign feat. They were the ones who put the Associated Press on notice for shoddy reporting, helped elect a new breed of Democrat to Congress, and almost single-handedly elevated the issue of warrantless wiretapping. It was the progressive bloggers who forced John McCain to repudiate Pastor John Hagee and who created their own convention-within-a-convention in Denver this summer, an off-site hot spot that drew high-profile politicians, speakers, and journalists. (How did GOP bloggers pass their time in St. Paul?)

By contrast, right-wing bloggers are now reduced to playing small ball. And even then, they're prone to Little League bloopers. Last week was a perfect example of how the conservative blogosphere's leading lights have been reduced to ridicule, simply because their efforts have become so thoroughly laughable. (See Sadly, No! for the ridicule part.)

For reasons that still elude me, considering the grave issues now facing this country and that remain in play in the unfolding election, the right-wing blogosphere's biggest names decided to rally around the monumentally trivial pursuit of trying to uncover who produced a little-known, anti-Palin YouTube clip that first appeared online earlier this month. And then without a shred of actual evidence (that's their favorite method), the bloggers deduced the Obama campaign may have had a hand in the long-forgotten clip. In fact, Obama himself may have "funded or knowingly supported" the online effort.

Can I just say for the record that when bloggers set out to create buzz about a big "investigation" and count down the hours until the bombshell is published online, and then a posted correction actually precedes the report itself, that's a sign that all may not be well in "investigation" land?

And that's what happened with the right-wing Jawa Report and its overexcited exclusive ("extensive research" was involved!) that set out to identify the person who was behind an anti-Sarah Palin video "aimed at discouraging people from voting for McCain/Palin" and that erroneously claimed she had once been a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.

Not exactly blockbuster stuff, we agree. (Misinformation spread via online clips? What next?!) But the Jawa Report's Rusty Shackleford seemed to have the goods on the person who posted the clip and where he worked: Ethan Winner, a vice president with the Los Angeles-based public relations firm Winner & Associates. (Shackleford noted that he used the same research techniques to out Winner that he'd previously used to uncover "the identity of online terrorist supporters," because Palin critics and terrorist supporters are sort of alike, I suppose.)

And sure enough, Winner quickly admitted to posting the clip. Or "confessed," in Jawa parlance.

So, yes, Winner posted a video that was inaccurate. Case closed and democracy saved, right? Wrong. Because the Jawa Report's completely circumstantial report also suggested the Obama campaign, or some other nefarious, left-leaning outside entity, may have helped peddle the video by either paying for it or by using Winner's P.R. firm in an effort to make it go viral. And that represented a hugely important story, a "scandal."

In that regard, the "investigation" was a laughingstock, drowning in layers of guilt by association but without the slightest evidence to prove anything. And certainly without any evidence to prove the central premise of the "investigation," which was that because Winner worked for a P.R. firm that had ties to the Democratic Party, Winner must have been paid to produce the clip and may have even been paid or encouraged by the Obama campaign.

Winner flatly denied the allegation, claiming he made the video himself. (It's called user-generated media, and apparently it's all the rage this campaign, even for political pros.) He also flatly denied that the Obama camp was involved in any way or that any other independent political action committee was either, for that matter. The Obama camp also issued a blanket denial: "This one ranks as one of the most outlandish conspiracy theories in a campaign that has had its share of them. Neither our campaign nor any of our consultants had any involvement with this YouTube video."

I chuckled when I read the countless right-wing posts about the Jawa Report's supposed blockbuster and discovered that in the course of the "investigation," right-wing bloggers practically begged the McCain campaign to join them in their little squirrel hunt. But the grown-ups inside the GOP (wisely) ignored the bloggers' request.

The pros might have kept their distance, but the right-wing blogosphere cheered Shackleford's "must read post." They all claimed he'd hit reporting gold with his insightful analysis and detailed detective work.

Michelle Malkin insisted it was the latest example of bloggers doing the real reporting that lazy mainstream journalists would not. (Malkin hyped the exclusive on Fox News, where the FNC regular butchered the facts of the story.) "It certainly appears that Barack Obama's campaign manager is involved if not orchestrating these efforts," announced blogger Confederate Yankee.

"It looks ... suspicious. And, do you know something? Right now Rusty's suspicions are pretty damn credible," cheered RedState.

"If all of this is true and the Obama campaign can be connected to it, it would represent a massive set of FEC violations," blurbed Ed Morrissey [emphasis added], who apparently didn't see the earlier memo that conceded there was nothing illegal about the making of the Palin video even if the Obama campaign paid for it.

"I think they're lying," claimed Ace of Spades, which saw an even bigger conspiracy at play: The Obama campaign had actually produced the YouTube clip itself and then pawned it off on Winner.

Can I just say that "I think they're lying" could pretty much double as the right-wing blogosphere's motto? Because whenever they come up against a set of stubborn facts they don't like or can't disprove, they just reach for the "I think they're lying" card and plow ahead, usually straight into oblivion, as with the Jawa Report's "investigation."

Don't just take my word for it.

"Trivial," is how Politico's Ben Smith described the right-wing blogosphere's sad, ill-fated production. "It's driven by theories that just aren't substantiated."

Added Marc Ambinder, blogging at The Atlantic: "What the evidence implies is that a liberal PR firm decided to gin up some anti-Palin viral videos. That's it."

It was telling that Smith and Ambinder were among the only journalists connected to mainstream outlets who even bothered acknowledging the YouTube "investigation." Ironic because just four years ago, many of those kind of mainstream media outlets were busy patting the bloggers on the back for their Memogate coup. Today, journalists seem to look at the bloggers with an odd mixture of pity and contempt. "This is your centerpiece contribution to the unfolding campaign?" they might be asking.

But anyway, go read the whole Jawa Report mess if you must. I'm not going to address each tinfoil-hat point, but I will accentuate a couple of lowlights just to give a sense of the intellectual dishonesty that's rampant on the right, and that seems to be celebrated.

Jawa announced, way up at the top of the piece where the "investigation's" bullet points were breathlessly typed up, that it was "likely" that the [Winner] PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign."

A weeklong investigation, and the best Shackleford could come up with was that it appeared "likely" the P.R. firm was paid? That strikes us as monumentally lame. But oh well. More important, however: What was the proof to even support the "likely" part? Answer: There was none. Invoices? Nope. Quotes? Original reporting? Nope.

An active imagination? And how!

That "likely" part was simply Shackleford's assumption because that's what seemed plausible to him. You know, the way it was "likely" that the Associated Press concocted a phony Baghdad police captain named Jamil Hussein in order to quote him and help the worldwide news agency spread the insurgents' propaganda. We all know how "likely" that turned out to be. (And then there was Shackleford's Bilal Hussein fiasco ... )

The question that weighed on Shackleford's mind was, "Why would any one hire a PR firm" to launch the clip? The hiccup was that he had uncovered no evidence that anyone hired Winner's P.R. firm. But that didn't stop Shackleford from speculating about who might have paid for the clip, even though there was no evidence anybody did. (See how liberating fact-free "investigations" can be?)

Shackleford thought maybe George Soros, MoveOn.org, or some other mysterious 527 footed the bill.

More intriguing, though, was Shackleford's announcement that the possibility was "open" that "Obama or the Democratic Party might also be the ones paying for the campaign."

The evidence in support of that tenuous Obama link was almost too funny for words, and we'll get to that soon. But here, it's important to emphasize that even if Jawa Report had uncovered black-and-white evidence of the Obama campaign's involvement, the still-unanswered question would be, "So what?" And that's what really made the whole "investigation" so painful and tiresome to read: knowing that even if the bloggers connected each very, very distant dot, the whole mess still wouldn't have added up to anything.

I mean, if tomorrow Shackleford unearthed a signed invoice from Obama media chief David Axelrod himself paying for the YouTube clip, I'd still be asking, "So what?"

As Time.com noted, "Even if the Obama campaign or the McCain campaign produced the ad, there is no requirement under federal election law that they disclose authorship, as long as the ad is distributed free online, not as a paid advertisement."

But it would look bad if team Obama were involved, the bloggers clamored. Maybe, maybe not. But I don't think it's up to them to decree that Democrats aren't allowed to play hardball if they want. And that seemed to be the gigantic gotcha that fueled the "investigation."

Speaking of, what was the evidence that led Shackleford to suggest the Obama campaign might be involved in the YouTube clip (and perhaps even paid for it), and what was the evidence that led other bloggers to announce the Obama campaign was involved? Answer: The voice-over artist who narrated the clip. She represented the key to the whole "scandal," according to the over-caffeinated bloggers. She might "provide direct linkage between the video and the Obama campaign."

Try not to laugh here, but identifying the voice-over artist became central to the whole soggy conspiracy theory, because when you stripped away the layers of conjecture and what-ifs that puffed up the "investigation," the bloggers were left grasping at the notion that the woman who worked on the Winner YouTube video kinda sorta sounded like a voice-over artist who had worked for one of the consulting firms associated with David Axelrod.

Do you follow? The entire conspiracy theory revolved around the premise that because the voice-over talent on the YouTube clip had (possibly) worked for Axelrod, it was only natural to tie the Obama campaign to the long-forgotten video.

If you say so, Rusty, although I think that's an almost comically inept way to build an "investigation." Because even if he proved who the Winner voice-over Jane Doe was, and even if he proved she'd worked for Axelrod in the past, those two facts would have advanced the plot line approximately one foot.

Nonetheless, check out the bullet points touted from Shackleford's "investigation":

• This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod's firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as "astroturfing."
• The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.

Additionally, Shackleford announced, "We believe that the artist in the ... Palin smear video has also worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign."

Now, reading those proclamations, it sure seemed like Shackleford knew exactly who did the voice-over work for the YouTube clip, right?

Wrong. Because in truth, as the bloggers buzzed around the story last week, they did not know who did the voice-over work on the Winner video. Oh, sure, they had inklings and hunches and guesses. But a name? A confirmation? A direct connection between her and Axelrod or Obama? Sorry, you'll have to look elsewhere, folks.

And don't forget, even if the voice-over woman worked with Axelrod -- even if it were Axelrod's wife -- we'd be right back to the question of, "So what?"

Here's the bottom line for right-wing bloggers in 2008: Their hyped "investigation" failed to confirm a story that doesn't even matter.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Is it any wonder that the ConWeb must be whining and bawling and caterwauling and boohoohooing non causa pro causa about the supposed lack of "healthy and positive stories" serving, as it turns out, no practical benefit but to distract attention from The Big Picture (not unlike the kind of overly cheery stories which dominated the pages of rural weeklies such as Grit and Capper's Weekly years ago)?

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CAN SOMEONE ASK HIS FRAUDULENCY TO PLEASE EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING, as came to light yesterday by way of NewsHounds:

Remember all that talk about tax cuts stimulating the economy and letting the market work and trickle down blah, blah, blah? None of it worked.

After Bush’s first full business day in office on January 22, 2001, the Dow closed at 10,587.59.

Nearly eight years on, the Dow closed today (September 29, 2008) at 10,365.45, 222.14 points below where it was when Bush took charge.

So far, no mention of this by Bush's "business news" guy, Neil Cavuto.

Which brings to mind the following worthwhile video from Brave New Films as reveals just what class of hypocrite John McCain is when it comes to regulatory relief being the magic key as will create jobs and, in its turn, social stability:

(In any case, please pass this video along.)

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AS FOR ANY REALISTIC "JOBS CREATION" LIKELY TO ENSUE AS A BYPRODUCT OF THE CURRENT SOCIOECONOMIC CRISES AND SITUATION, Your Correspondent has to wonder if the only such is likely to come by way of scam artists who traditionally exploit, and cash in on, socioeconomic uncertainty and mass unemployment with particular emphasis upon:

• those with few or no realistically marketable job skills vis-a-vis current economic conditions;
• those living in economically-disadvantaged communities, or such with otherwise complacent "old school" socioeconomic mindsets (as in unskilled manufacturing); and
• those unemployable for reasons outside their direct control, such as:
• age;
• blindness;
• disabilities;
• emotional disorders or histories of mental illness;
• lack of decent education; or
• need to care for infants or elderly relatives.

And the only "help wanted" ads likely to be seen are such of the "homeworkers urgently needed" sort as tend to what one critic of online "make money fast" scams describes as "vapourware," or otherwise tends to perpetuate make-work Ludditery (as in "home mailing" positions which could just as easily be handled by mailroom services with their economies of automation and scale, unless cause can be shown otherwise for the need of homeworkers).

Not Only That: You also have the possibility of certain chain-letter types claiming that the current National Economic Emergency has prompted a temporary suspension of enforcement of the mail-fraud statutes as involve "make money from home" offers "in the interest of keeping especially unskilled people busy all the more," or so the patsy will go--particularly so when it comes to the likes of "Five Reports," "cashflow gifting," "forced matrix" and "Aussie one-up" schemes using both traditional letterposts and "spam" e-mails where PayPal or similar will likely be utilised.

Which, in the latter instance, would raise questions of such being Wire Fraud, inasmuch as the Internet uses telephonic, fiber-optic or broadband cable-TV wirelines as their agency of transmission.

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HAVE YOU SEEN THAT AD FOR THE AMEX BUSINESS GOLD CARD which has an airline passenger trying to buy a ticket for the next flight to San Francisco with a "vanity" credit card--only to be met by TSA agents before he's able to by the tickets in the belief that such may be a Security Risk?

Such has to make you wonder if the TSA's super-secretive "Do Not Fly" Lists include such with credit cards as are issued on a secured or otherwise Morris Plan-type arrangement, or such issued by banks with a notoriety for issuing VISA and MasterCard to poor credit risks @ higher-than-average rates.

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MEANWHILE, MIGHT I BE ONE TO SUGGEST THAT, IN SEEKING TO REUNITE AND REBUILD AMERICA FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL SOCIOECONOMIC CLASSES, there be a revival of the "classical" model of Building Society as a way to finance home ownership among the working-classes in particular.

As in managed on a mutual-ownership basis.

And offering three basic types of account:

1. Monthly Installment Shares (a/k/a "save as you earn"), where one agrees to buy a set amount of shares @ $1/share, payable monthly, which would be repayable once the amounts paid in and the dividends on same equal $200/share. Usually offered only once or twice a year.
2. Ordinary Shares, similar to a regular passbook account in that such allows one to save any amount of money and receive dividends on same.
3. Paid-Up Shares, usually sold @ $50 or $100/share, paying a higher dividend than Monthly Installment or Ordinary shares; similar to a Certificate of Deposit, but cashable @ any time.

Which, in turn, could ensure a stable supply of funds to make possible affordable, and @ once energy-efficent (not to mention practical), housing. Any such who have had acquaintenance with this type of Building Society, especially so such as operated in Pennsylvania, Maryland or Delaware until some 25 years ago (usually with private deposit-insurance protection), is encouraged to offer their comments.

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SOMETHING WHICH THOSE SOUTHERNERS FACING GAS SHORTAGES FOR SOME WHILE NOW may want to consider for the time being:

Consider getting their shopping done online, the better to save not only gas and time, but also bedlam and confusion @ both gas lines and shopping malls. And The Exaggerator is pleased to offer a decent selection of affiliated e-tailers as should serve your every requirements.

So what exactly stands in the way?     

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JUDGE FOR YOURSELF, READERS, whether the packaging of Obama Waffles or an old ad for Aunt Jemima pancake flour is the more racially offensive:

As if the initial flap over "Obama Waffles" wasn't sickening enough, it's now emerged that the so-called "Family Research Council," as co-sponsored the "Values Voter Summit" with Focus on the Family about a fortnight ago, has come to its senses (or are they?) about the whole flap (courtesy of Right Wing Watch):

It has now been more than two weeks since it was reported that vendors at the Values Voter Summit were selling the offensive "Obama Waffles" and Focus on the Family's Jim Daly, who spoke at the event  which his organization also co-sponsored, is just finally getting around to issuing an apology ... while saying that FOF had nothing to do with it and blaming the Family Research Council:

You should know we were appalled by the product, and embarrassed that it was sold at an event bearing our name. Although we did not have direct responsibility for reviewing or approving vendors for the Values Voter event (that was the duty of the chief sponsor, Family Research Council Action, which has acknowledged its mistake), the truth is we should have done more to ensure the appropriateness of the displays. We apologize for our failure to do so in this instance, and have already taken steps to ensure similar things do not happen again — either in our event sponsorship or in our ministry alliances.

You should also know that Dr. Dobson had absolutely nothing to do with the product, despite some misleading media reports he cited in his radio broadcast. The truth is, Dr. Dobson was 3,000 miles away working on his latest book when the Values Voter Summit was held — and he only heard about “Obama Waffles” when references to them turned up in the news with Focus’ name attached. When he learned of the product, he was outraged by its ugly, racial stereotypes.

Racism is a blight on the American conscience. As Christians, we must also call it what God calls it: sin. Those who speak or act in racist ways, such as those who engage in any form of sin, must seek restoration through prayer and, of course, full repentance.

It is disturbing, even if not surprising, that we have seen an increase in racist public statements coinciding with Sen. Obama becoming the first African-American to win a major party’s presidential nomination. Racism is always deeply hurtful and offensive; but in the midst of a presidential race, it also detracts from the kind of substantive debate needed in the public square. It has no place even at the fringes of our political discourse.

Let me reassure you again that Focus on the Family Action will do everything in its power to prevent another such unacceptable situation in the future.

(But then again, there are anecdotal reports of racist pamphletting drives by weird and unwholesome elements in certain areas of the country in the election runup, all the more designed to question the loyalty and patriot love of Barack Obama among Right-Thinking Voters--especially so the poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced who are likely to vote Democratic by tradition. And remember, too, that the notion of "American culture" which the Religiopolitical Right loves to project is an obviously racist one in and of itself--one which sees Branson's Muzikschaukultur as the Acme and Perfection therefor.)

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IN ANY CASE, RACISM IS RACISM, NO MATTER HOW IT'S PACKAGED or how it's presented--even as "healthy patriot love."

And should be challenged @ any and every opportunity.

IN CASE PEOPLE NEED ANOTHER CLEAR AND COMPELLING REASON NOT TO SUPPORT JOHN McCAIN IN INDECISION 2008, consider the following ur-campaign commercial (hat tip to Brave New Films):

Which can only mean that our "morally superior" nation risks all the more becoming prey to the so-called "New World Order" under a McCain/Palin ticket more so than under Obama/Biden, exploiting that One Fatal Mistake as can bring down Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations....

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AND TALK ABOUT POOR JUDGEMENTS IN POLLING WHEN IT COMES TO INDECISION 2008: Media Matters for America calls to your timely Notice and Attention what could be a miscued "opt-in" text-message poll as could be Indecision 2008's version of that infamous Presidential Straw Poll of 1936 as doomed The Literary Digest in the end:

Following the first presidential debate, on the September 26 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity promoted the results of a Fox News text-message poll that found that Sen. John McCain won the debate, but did not mention that viewers were allowed to begin voting just minutes into the debate. Hannity announced, "[W]e have gotten around 50,000 text votes so far. Eighty-two percent are correct: They say John McCain won." But during Fox News' broadcast of the presidential debate, an on-screen graphic invited viewers to vote on "who [they] thought won" the debate as early as 9:12 p.m. ET, 10 minutes after the candidates began responding to the moderator's questions.

Further, Hannity had previously dismissed text-message polling--which is non-scientific and produces no reliable results--as "just a lot of fun" when the results were favorable to former Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (TX). After a Fox text-message poll put Paul in first place following the October 21, 2007, Republican presidential primary debate, Hannity said to Paul during an interview, "Oh, this poll is--you've got all your supporters calling." Paul responded: "What, you mean your own poll isn't any good?" Hannity then said: "No, it's just a lot of fun."

Come to think of it, Fox Prolefeed may want to be reminded of what they would regard as Ancient History--as in The Literary Digest Presidential Straw Poll of 1936, discussed previously in this blog.

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IS IT ANY WONDER THAT WE, A SUPPOSEDLY "MORALLY SUPERIOR" SOCIETY (AND EXPECTED TO HOLD THIS DEAR AS AN ARTICLE OF FAITH), are now all the more likely to be looked upon as a "gangster state" thanks to the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism, and related misadventures, only giving al-Qaeda greater credibility and respect in the Arab World especially?

Such, methinks, may be the findings of a newly-released survey commissioned by the BBC of 23,000 adults across 23 countries as noted where, among other things:

• 30% of those surveyed said that the ur-RAHOWA on Terrorism may have only strengthened al-Qaeda's hand and influence, while 29% felt there was no discernible effect; 22% felt that al-Qaeda's influenced had been thus weakened.
• 49% of those surveyed felt that the ur-RAHOWA had no clear winner (an ur-Mexican Standoff, as it were), as opposed to 22% claiming the "morally superior" United States was claiming Total and Complete Victory, and 10% saying al-Qaeda was winning.
• Only 22% felt that the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism had weakened al-Qaeda.
• Egyptians and Pakistanis surveyed were especially likely to hold positive opinions or sympathies for al-Qaeda, especially considering where al-Qaeda has substantial numbers of members or sympathisers from both countries.

Is it any wonder that we "morally superior" Americans, pronouncements from the Elmer Gantry crowd from time to time notwithstanding, have become all the less so thanks to a fatally-flawed and misguided ur-RAHOWA based all along on lies, deceit, forgeries and trick? And should we not be ashamed of ourselves for stooping ourselves to such depths, or what otherwise prevents this?

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AS IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL, OR SO THE QUASI-NATIONAL HYMN OF DISNEYLAND AND WALT DISNEY WORLD REMINDS US, perhaps an interesting lesson and warning to would-be voters comes from the weekend's balloting in Austria, according to the BBC:

The leaders of Austria's two far-right parties have hailed the results of snap general elections, which saw their support doubling since the 2006 polls.

The Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria took nearly 29% of the vote, preliminary results show.

The Social Democrats won the polls with 30%. But they, and the conservative People's Party, with 26%, suffered their worst results since 1945.

The shape of a possible coalition will now be hard to predict, experts say.

A total of 183 parliamentary seats were up for grabs in Sunday's election.

The early polls were called after the grand coalition between the Social Democrats and the People's Party collapsed this summer amid internal fights and personal feuds.

'Difficult situation'

"Today, we are the winners of election night," Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said.

Mr Strache also suggested that he was interested in becoming the next chancellor, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Joerg Haider, the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria, told the BBC that both the Social Democrats and the People's Party were now in "a difficult situation", predicting that any coalition talks between them would fail.

"Therefore I think after some talks between these two parties, we will have the opportunity to negotiate the new government."

The Freedom Party had won 18.01% of the vote, Interior Minister Maria Fekter said.

The Alliance for the Future of Austria - which split from Mr Sprache's party in 2005 - had 10.98%.

The rise in support for the far-right parties is the result of protest votes on a variety of issues, the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna says.

The resurgent far-right can be attributed to a mixture of anti-European Union sentiment, some anti-immigrant positions and a general sense of discontent with the two traditional centrist parties, our correspondent says.

The far-right showing was even stronger than in 1999, when the Freedom Party won 27% and gained a place in the coalition government with the conservatives.

The nationalists could now re-enter government but only after all other options are exhausted, analysts say.

'Worst result'

The most obvious solution would be another grand coalition between the Social Democrats and the People's Party - an option most Austrians oppose, our correspondent says.

Social Democrat leader Werner Faymann on Sunday reiterated that he would not be joining forces with either of the two far-right parties.

Wilhelm Molterer, who heads the People's Party, has so far made no public comments on his possible coalition allies.

But referring to Sunday's polls, he said: "This is the worst result in the history of Austria's People's Party."

Final results will not be released until 6 October after absentee and postal ballots, making up about 10% of the votes, are counted.

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IN ANY CASE, THIS IS THE SUNDAY CHOSEN BY THE SO-CALLED "ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND" FOR RELIGIOUS TO MAKE UNLAWFUL POLITICAL ENDORSEMENTS for the sake of creating nothing short of frivolous test cases in the Federal courts challenging the Tax Code proscriptions on non-profit religious entities (as in churches) making political endorsements of candidates for Constitutional offices.

And the argument they'll likely bring up is that churches have a Religious and Moral Duty to "advise" their penitents on who they see fit and proper for elected office come Indecision 2008. A Moral Duty based on Biblical Authority, or so they will claim--but expect the courts to dismiss such a pathetic defence in the ensuing legal actions designed solely for the particular benefit of Fox Prolefeed's giving unhealthy attention to over even Indecision 2008.

Not only Fox Prolefeed, but also certain pseudoreligiopolitical "ministries" playing along all the while. Especially when a carefully-measured and yet scripted tone and nuance are used, the kind guaranteed to conceal a psychopathic intent on the part of such involved throughout.

And which numerous studies confirm.

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COME TO THINK OF IT, THE NOTION ABOUT "THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY [BEING] A FRIEND OF MINE" used by anti-Semitic and other weird and unwholesome types to support Palestinians over Jews vis-a-vis Israel sounds rather illogical.

Fatally flawed, even, does it not? (Leave comments on this point.)

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LATE-NIGHT THOUGHTS WHILE LISTENING TO "MAIDEN JAPAN" BY THE RUMBLERS, an obscure little classic among surf-rock standards from the early 1960's, when the genre was particularly popular:

I could just imagine as a music video therefor the several specimens of Japan's storied "bullet trains" on the Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto Tokkaido line passing by that vantage point made famous in travel posters from the mid-1960's or thereabouts showing one of the first examples of the same passing within view of Mt. Fuji--howbeit speeded up and time compressed for the sake of not so much brevity as showing all three varieties of "bullet train" now in service:

• Nozoni ("Hope"), the newest genre of "bullet train" (as in super-fast, with top speeds of 200 mph);
• Hikari ("Lightning"), the Mother of All Modern High-Speed Trains (as makes the Tokyo-Osaka run nonstop, though not as fast as the Nozoni type); and
• Kodama ("Echo"), a slower cousin of the Hikari in that it makes several stops in transit, but still makes good time.

(Just so you know: In case any of you planning to visit Japan plan on using the Japan Rail Pass, be aware that said pass is not valid on Nozoni-class high-speed services, as opposed to the Hikari and Kodama such. This applies equally to Green Class and Ordinary Class versions, Green Class being a more luxurious type of service.)

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SOMETHING WORTH THINKING ABOUT AMONG THE ANTI-SEMITIC ELEMENT THINKING THE CURRENT AMERICAN SOCIOECONOMIC CRISIS IS SOME CLASS OF A JEWISH PLOT to "weaken and undermine White European-American Christian honour and prestige," by way of this editorial from the Israeli daily Ha'aretz (Hebrew; "The Land"):

It is said that in 1929, when the stock exchange on Wall Street collapsed, hundreds of speculators jumped to their deaths through the windows of the Manhattan skyscrapers in which they worked. In reality, only a few suicides actually occurred. The real blow was felt three years after the stock exchange fell, when a large-scale crisis in the banking sector plunged the U.S. economy into an economic depression that nearly lasted until the end of the decade. In 1932, the number of suicides in the U.S. reached a record high.

Nobody is committing suicide now on Wall Street. Those who are not economists are treating the chaos in Congress and the collapse of the financial institutions as just another event. The absurdity is that in 1929, a minority within a minority of U.S. citizens invested in the stock exchange. In 2008, almost every American worker is invested either directly or indirectly, and is thus affected by the ringing collapse of the banks, insurance houses and investment firms. Thus it is difficult to understand the indifference in which this past month's economic developments have been received. After three days of tense negotiations, the U.S. Congress this past weekend blocked an emergency bailout plan proposed by the treasury. In fact, it was the Republicans who opposed the series of measures approved by President George W. Bush. Meanwhile, another banking giant collapsed - Washington Mutual.

The repercussions of these developments are immediate and painful also for Israel. Losses in the stocks and bonds market hurt investors as well as anyone putting aside money for retirement. The forecast for the intermediate term is no less threatening: higher unemployment, less growth, a drop in the standard of living, a decline in the real estate market. The situation here is as it is there.

The United States, the largest political, economic and military superpower since the Roman Empire, is undergoing an existential crisis. In economic terms, the scope of the crisis is the largest since Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered the White House. In ideological terms, it is the largest since the Civil War. The house of cards that rests on the pillars of financial witchcraft - lies based on the assumption that what goes up will continue to go up, and that one may extend loans on an unlimited basis and not have to pay them back by the end of the month - came crashing down before our very eyes over the course of the past year. The layer that is now collapsing with the nationalization of mortgage and insurance companies together with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, is the one which serves as the foundation of the financial system in the U.S. and its capitalist ideology.

Capitalism is not dead, yet the way it was practiced in America this past decade is fading away. The emergency unit treatment that the U.S. government is now proposing is highly problematic. The rescue plan being championed by the treasury secretary includes the same troublesome measures of the kind that gave birth to the crisis, yet it appears that there are not that many options available. America is on the path to decline, together with those who shared in the fraudulent belief in free credit.

How ironic it is that the president during whose term the credit bubble burst and the crisis hit, is the son of the president who promised a new world order. That promise is being realized, yet in a manner not intended by Bush senior. In November, a new American president will be elected. The challenge awaiting him is monumental - to heal the empire, whose arteries are becoming clogged having just undergone a heart attack. The time has come for America to rediscover the best it has to offer - the creativity, the industriousness, the freedom and the strength for innovation that made it a role model for the rest of the world.

(Too, readers, let's not forget that Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan majordomo Chavez have been quoted themselves as suggesting that our supposedly "moral" misadventures in the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism may have helped aggravate the socioeconomic turmoil thanks to His Fraudulency's post-9/11 insistence of maintaining normalcy as one with preventing further terrorist attacks, not to mention insisting that sustained socioeconomic growth and arbitrarily-low taxes "to help create jobs" will finance the ur-RAHOWA to the point of Complete and Final Victory--as in nothing short of an American Colonial Occupation of Iraq "for as long as necessary," as in subject to "the proper signs" being discerned by fortune-smellers working for the Great Within. Fortune-smellers, it turns out, of a highly disreputable sort.)

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THOSE OF YOU LOOKING FOR A CONVENIENT WAY TO FIX SWEDISH MEATBALLS WITHOUT WASTING NEEDLESS TIME might want to consider this interesting little recipe of mine:

• 32-35 frozen Swedish-stylee meatballs (Burke's or Rosina brand, depending on where you live)
• ½ cup prepared sodium-free chicken broth OR, alternately, 1 tsp. chicken bouillon granules dissolved in ½ cup hot water
• 1 10¾-oz. can condensed fat-free cream of mushroom soup
• 1 4-oz. can sliced mushroom stems and pieces (drain liquid)
• Few drops Worcestershire sauce or Maggi Seasoning
• ½ cup (half of an 8-oz. tub) prepared snack dip (any flavour)

Spray non-stick cooking spray into a 2-qt. slow cooker.

Place the frozen meatballs into the slow cooker.

Combine chicken broth/bouillon and cream of mushroom soup in the same measuring cup, blending well. Add a few drops Worcestershire; stir into the meatballs in the slow cooker.

Add mushrooms; stir to blend.

Cover and cook on Low heat for 4-6 hours (or, if time is of the essence, on High for 1½-3 hours.)

Half an hour before serving, add snack dip, blending well.

Serve over cooked cholesterol-free egg noodles or rice. (Remember to refrigerate leftovers.)

I hope the recipe agrees with you.