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After John McCain’s interview on the David Letterman show…I have an immense amount of new found respect for David Letterman (he should be voted Journalist of the Year even though he’s a comedian)…as opposed to enforcing the dwindling impression of John McCain.

Brave past the dumb CBS ad before the episode and give it a full viewing.

What happened here? We were supposed to be the most admired nation of the planet. For decades our government touted our successes around the globe with the confidence that our system should be emulated by everyone. Now, that arrogant pulpit has a mud all over it. The nations we’ve scorned over the years would be bathing in their own delight if it weren’t for the fact we’ve spread our gloom across all currencies and borders. The most tragic part of this chapter is it stems from the most primal of all the world’s sins: greed. You’d think this was a difficult new concept to absorb…but humans are inherently rotten. Our government became the puppets of cannibal-capitalism gone awry…and the “Wild Wild West” days of debt trading have done themselves in. What a fitting way to send off the Bush administration in its final days.

Back in high school I had a Social Studies teacher who claimed the pages of history had shown us the odds were pretty good that America would evolve into a more socialist type of government. Well, here we are…holding onto a freight train going over a cliff. The super wealthy blame everybody else…and we’ve not seen one person or company being held accountable (a few brow beatings at best), if nothing else to at least reassure us that justice is still alive and well. But with so much deregulation, what laws are they going to charge people with breaking? Other than of course telling investors the house is sound when termites are feeding on the foundation.

All this vaguely reminds me of General Motors and the EV1…they were basically ahead of their time on this one, and they’d be way out ahead of their competitors by now…but their lusting over SUV profits & the bantering of their buddies in Big Oil crushed that project. Now, GM is fighting for its survival for just long enough to get their next electric vehicle into the showrooms. Hopefully by then people can actually get the credit they need to buy one.

The Patriot Act and the array of big bailouts of Wall Street’s fat pigs has slid a monstrous socialist movement in under our feet…not as we slept oblivious to current events, but while we all watched in horror and dismay.

During the first presidential election night when G.W.B. won, one of my coworkers at the time ranted on and on about how if G.W.B. didn’t win there would be a surge in capital gains taxes and more. Well Allison, your boy won, twice, and how does that capital gains tax argument fair now? I’d bet every wealthy body, 401K, hedge fund, CDS jockey, General Electric executive, Wall Street trader, mortgage holder, Countrywide mortgage broker, pension fund, AIG investor, Lehman Brothers employee, and the rest of the world would gladly trade a bit of taxation & regulation over the Katrina-type chaos financials are in now. Debt overflowed the dyke, and a proud system is in ruins…some bodies won’t be found for months. How ironic.

If you haven’t watched the Palin interview regarding the Bush Doctrine, watch that first…this is only that much funnier once you’ve seen that. =)

If you’re a Republican running for office this November, you better start praying and donate boatloads to worthy charities. You’re going to need all the karma points you can get.

With so many Americans loosing their homes or already living on sardines and crackers after having lost their homes…after watching their savings evaporate….while taxpayers watched all the excesses which Wall Street is famous for, the rich became bloated hogs…with 2:1 of the public not blind enough to not blame the GOP for our woes, and an unjust war in Iraq…I’d find it a hard sell trying to get the American people to vote for a presidential candidate who has 7 houses and a vice president who’s 7000 member town charged rape victims up to $1000 for their examinations. If by some chance McCain/Pailin do win, it will be by the skin of their teeth and with the help of illegal manipulation.

The Republicans are opposing edits to the $700Bn bailout of Wall Street directed at limiting executive pay and allowing courts to reduce payments for borrowers with a house in foreclosure. Is that really so unreasonable given the funk we’re in? Maybe they should require every CEO & member of upper management that needs to be bailed out to work 2500 hours a year in soup kitchens, rebuilding distressed neighborhoods & helping those living in tent cities. Let these wealthy honchos directly face the mess they made. Let them bathe in the sorrow they’ve put thousands of families in, and get their damn hands dirty. Maybe, just maybe, these ultra rich dimwits will have a remote sense of cause for their fellow human. Ahh, who’m I kidding, they sold their souls a long time ago…and they could give a rat’s ass about those not in the circles of the ultra elite.

This just in from the Bush administration’s deregulation generals…”Taxpayers…we screwed up, and it will cost YOU a total of $900BN. This is money that we don’t have, but we’ll sell more of our soul to the global markets in order to pay for it. And just so do you don’t worry your hearts about wealthy executives feeling any real pain for their stuplidity, we’ll be sure that Robert B. Willumstad (CEO of A.I.G.) will get his $8.7MM severance package…even after we threw in $85BN to save his company. Furthermore, a mediocre apology goes out to the millions of homeowners loosing their properties to foreclosure…we won’t be saving you or your jobs, we, the Republicans, only worry about the rich, and if you’re in foreclosure…you’re not rich…so go pound salt.”

No, it’s not a new strip club. It’s all in who you know, and who you work for. If you work for the U.S. government, and you happen to be in TIGHT with the energy industry…and you’ve a knot you need busted, you might get your wish…and maybe a few other fringe benefits: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/oiil.scandal/index.html

Gotta love this one. I dug up this photo from the archives of my old Treo phone. This idiot obviously didn’t see the big concrete dividers warning folks that the bridge was out over on Haverford Ave. in Philly. The best part is this car was left propped up like that for over a week. Maybe he was working on his transmission? x}