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January 19, 2008
Cramer On Hardball Predicting Armageddon
Another great video at John Amato's house. Cramer also predicts a massive Democratic sweep in November. At some point before then, someone needs to grab the president by the lapel ONCE AND FOR ALL and smack him across the face with a hammer glove and beg him to make the right decision for once in his failed presidency.
Put it another way, if your 401(k) is invested in a mutual fund -- say a conservative S&P index fund or the like -- and the market drops 2,000 points in a single day? That will have erased years worth of gains in a single 8 hour span. AND with still no established bottom.
Why? Because of Bush Republican deregulation of the mortgage industry; because of President Bush's naming of Ben Bernanke to take over the Fed; and now for President Bush's utter lack of response to this crisis.
10:29 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Uncle Freddie's Show About Nothing
John Amato has video of Country Bear Fred Thompson's weird South Carolina speech which was... nothing. I just got back from dinner, and missed this, but I think the expectation was that Thompson was going to quit the campaign due to his distant 3rd place. But then he gave a speech which announced nothing.
10:19 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Clinton-Clinton '08 Ticket Wins Nevada
The cable people are calling it for Senator Clinton and Former President Clinton who are running an unofficial ticket in the primaries. Yet Senator Obama is only around 300 votes behind. Can anyone think of a primary in which one of the candidates runs with an ex-president in their campaign stable?
I can't.
But congratulations to the Clinton-Clinton campaign!
04:07 PM | Comments (8) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Republicans in Nevada
Everyone is projecting that the Romney Unit has won the Republican side of the Nevada caucus. On CNN right now:
Romney 44%
McCain 15%
Paul 15%
Whoops! What's that? Ron Paul tied with Saint McCain for second place. I say Ron Paul gets to punch every Republican he defeats in Nevada. After that, he gets to punch Roger Ailes for excluding him from the New Hampshire FOX News debate held inside that futuristic FOX Islamo-Proof Bubble.
Not a Ron Paul fan, but justice is justice.
02:00 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Depression
Last night, Cramer warned that if the government doesn't bail out the mortgage insurers -- Ambac, MBIA, PGIC -- they'll go under. If they do, we'll have...
“the end of the world – or at least another 2,000-point decline in the market, which in my view is about the same thing,” he said.
What we have here is either a $125-$250 billion government bailout or economic armageddon? Nice.
Thanks, Mr. President. Good job, you dingus.
10:10 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Nevader
Just a heads-up... We'll know the winner of the Nevada caucus this afternoon.
Begin at 11:30 am PT (2:30 pm ET).
Preference groups form at 12 pm PT (3:00 pm ET)
Second alignment begins at 12:15 pm PT (3:15 pm ET)
Results start coming into Nevada Democratic Party at 2 pm PT (5 pm ET).
10:04 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
I saw this last night and all I can say is, "Oh my God." The other thing I can say is, "Don't sit too close to the screen." I can also say, "Cloverfield does for kaiju movies what Alien did for sci-fi."
09:19 AM | Comments (6) | Posted By Bob Cesca
January 18, 2008
The Sword of the Dance
12:24 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
President Bush Tries To Change Own Diaper
President Bush announced his economic stimulus package today. Of course my reaction was the same as whenever I see him "talking" on television: to shout phrases like, "You fuckwit!" At the end he urged Congress to make his tax cuts permanent -- his tax cuts being one of the reasons why we're in this mess in the first place.
To that point, it's always worth mentioning why President Bush should stay as far away from economic issues as is humanly possible. I mean, do we really need this corporate criminal to leave more of his stink on the economy? To wit:
Arbusto, an oil exploration company, lost money, but it got considerable investments (nearly $5 million) because even losing oil investments were useful as tax shelters.Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. bought out Arbusto in 1984 and hired Mr. Bush to run the company's oil interests in Midland, Texas. The oil business collapsed as oil prices plummeted by 1986, and Spectrum 7 Energy was near failure.
Harken Energy acquired Mr. Bush's Spectrum 7 Energy shares, and he got Harken shares, a directorship, and a consulting arrangement in return. Harken, under Bush, brought in Saudi real estate tycoon Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh as a board member and a major investor. Over the next few years, Harken would turn out to have links to: Saudi money, CIA-connected Filipinos, the Harvard Endowment, the emir of Bahrain, and the shadowy Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
A 1991 internal SEC document suggested George W. Bush violated federal securities law at least 4 times in the late 1980s and early 1990s in selling Harken stock while serving as a director of Harken. This is essentially the same kind of activity that Martha Stewart is going to prison over. Except at the time of the investigation, Mr. Bush's father was president and the case was quietly dropped.
You fuckwit.
11:48 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Fix The Economy With... Lies
John Amato has video of Matt Lauer asking Jim Cramer why he doesn't candy-coat the state of the economy.
Lauer: …they say why don’t you guys stop talking about recession because simply by talking about it, you’re going to freak out consumers and definitely push us into one. Is there any logic to that thinking?Cramer: The answer is that we can, we have to point out the positives with the negatives.
Lauer: But if consumer confidence in spending is a large part of what goes into possibly creating a recession, by talking about it, is there an emotional side to it?
Cramer: There is, but also we have to report the news. And there is an astounding decline in business in the country. If we say that there isn’t, we cannot be possible doing our jobs.
Say what you will about Cramer, but he tends to be brutally honest about the economy. Last night, he actually used the word "depression".
09:01 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
08:57 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
January 17, 2008
Roy Sekoff vs. Joe Klein on Fearmongering
Huffington Post founding editor Roy Sekoff hammers down a Republican and Joe Klein on Senator Clinton's New Hampshire terrorist attack gaffe.
The point Roy made, and Abrams and the rest failed to understand, is that talking about national security isn't the problem -- the problem is a presidential candidate predicting an inevitable terrorist attack to scare up votes. In other words, when someone like Senator Clinton predicts the certainty of a terrorist attack in order to discuss her own ability to lead, she incites fear for political purposes. That's fearmongering.
03:33 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Man-on-Dog Huckabee
QUESTIONER: Is it your goal to bring the Constitution into strict conformity with the Bible? Some people would consider that a kind of dangerous undertaking, particularly given the variety of biblical interpretations.HUCKABEE: Well, I don’t think that’s a radical view to say we’re going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal. Again, once we change the definition, the door is open to change it again. I think the radical position is to make a change in what’s been historic.
So in Huckabee's world, which is the same as Santorum's world, allowing a gay couple to marry leads to... a man and a child?! A man and an animal?! He's -- what's the word? Batshit nuts. Yet he's such a nice guy. I wonder where else we've heard this nice-guy-who's-really-quite-insane story?
(h/t Sargent)
01:53 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
New Huffington Post Item
This week: President Bush Shouldn't Play With Sharp Objects.
12:40 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Here Comes The Pig Man
British scientists are close to being able to create human-animal hybrids. The cool thing about the hybrids? They get 60 mpg highway. POW! BLAM!
It's a pig man!
12:22 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
New Cramer Rant
For those of you interested in the FUBAR economy, check out Jim Cramer's latest rant from this morning. And he's right about this shit. Under the (George W. Bush) SEC, these massive financial corporations -- Merrill, Citi, etc. -- are getting away with murder. By "murder" I mean "criminal levels of fraud".
10:42 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Eisenhower's Farewell Speech
On this day in history, President Eisenhower delivered one of the most prescient warnings of the 20th Century. January 17, 1961.
09:01 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Another one of my cartoons. Colin Mahan as Arnold. Jason Nash as Sly.
08:42 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
January 16, 2008
Homeless Veterans Are Hilarious
Bill O'Reilly thinks it's hilarious that homeless veterans might be sleeping under bridges. Ed Schultz and O'Reilly make with the talking (video here -- listen to O'Reilly's tone of voice):
ES: I think (Edwards’) message is strong and he has tremendous conviction, but I think he needs a little bit more material than just the “Two Americas” talk, he got to get a little bit deeper…BO: Well, we’re still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges, Ed, so if you find anybody, let us know, because that’s all the guy said for the last three nights…
ES: Well they’re out there, Bill. Don’t kid yourself.
BO: They may be out there, but there’s not many of them out there. Okay? So if you know where one is, Ed…
ES: Well, actually…Now, wait a minute…one in ..
BO: Ed, Ed. If you know where’s a veteran, sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it. Is not there.
Right. He'll send a tubby FOX News intern to stalk the veterans. What kind of injustice exists in this world when veterans are homeless and O'Reilly ISN'T sleeping under a bridge?
04:28 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Al Franken Makes Commercials
Schecter has the YouTube versions of the latest Al Franken for Senate ads. At first, you'll think they're set-ups for hilariously satirical punchlines. And then you realize that they're for real and -- go Franken! -- he might actually unseat Senator Coleman.
04:03 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Who's Laughing Now, Assholes?
Again, the disclaimer is that I'm obviously not a Ron Paul supporter. But after speaking the truth about American foreign policy while Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani laughed in his face, it's nice to see that Paul won almost as many votes as the combined totals of both 9iu11iani and Country Bear.
Mitt Romney 334,797 - 39 percent
John McCain 255,103 - 30 percent
Mike Huckabee 138,428 - 16 percent
Ron Paul 54,016 - 6 percent
Fred Thompson 31,750 - 4 percent
Rudy Giuliani 24,475 - 3 percent
Uncommitted 17,749 - 2 percent
Ron Paul supporters everywhere: "HAHAHAHA! So long suckers!"
01:40 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Smoking Out the Evildoer Whales
WASHINGTON-President Bush exempted the Navy from an environmental law so it can continue using sonar in its anti-submarine warfare training off the California coast -- a practice critics say is harmful to whales and other marine mammals.
More from Paddy at Cliff Schecter's house.
Imagine every car alarm in world going off simultaneously. Right behind you. That's what it must sound like.
12:16 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
I can't wait.
08:28 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
January 15, 2008
The Democrats
All three of the Democratic candidates tonight made me proud to be a member of their party. Compared with the Republicans last weekend who could barely stumble over each other to invoke Reagan and to repeat myopic applause lines, the Democrats engaged in a real discussion on the issues -- a discussion you might overhear between three great heads of state in the Oval Office. Dignified, smart, engaged, realistic.
Whoever you're rooting for, you have to admit that any one of these three candidates, when elected, will make us proud.
10:52 PM | Comments (11) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Mitt Winning Michigan
Which means there really isn't a clear frontrunner on the GOP side. Which also means that they'll be sniping at each other for a very long time.
With 9 percent of precincts reporting:
Romney 31,534 37%
McCain 26,175 31%
Huckabee 13,574 16%
Paul 5,220 6%
Thompson 3,495 4%
Giuliani 2,401 3%
Uncommitted 1,834 2%
Giuliani is only 600 votes ahead of "Uncommitted". Ron Paul, who Giuliani was laughing at last weekend, has more than double the votes.
09:01 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Huckabee and God's Law
"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards," Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Okay, no. You don't make laws in America based on "the word of the living God". It's what they call "unconstitutional". Be as religious as you want, please, just keep it away from the Constitution, thank you.
Why? Because once you start making laws based on the Bible, it opens a whole can of worms. I'd love to enumerate those worms, but Aaron Sorkin did it better:
08:28 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
President Bush And His Awesome Sword
On the surface, this photograph from an event today at Al Murabba Palace in Saudi Arabia is just another unfortunate snapshot of our 43rd president being a dingus on the world stage. Below the surface, however, it's not so funny-haha.
They're called "Chop Squares."
CBS News: A condemned convict is brought into the courtyard, hands tied, and forced to bow before an executioner, who swings a huge sword amid cries from onlookers of "Allahu Akbar!" Arabic for "God is great."
Saudi Arabia is notorious for its public beheadings of criminals, homosexuals, women, Christians, witches and the like. Many of them innocent. Some of them children -- despite international sanctions against it. At least 136 public beheadings were carried out in Saudi Arabia in 2007. Perhaps you saw the gruesome footage of a public beheading in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911.
On yet another day when the American economy has been forced to genuflect before the Saudis, it's nice for our president to explicitly remind us that one of the world's most awful human rights violators is actively buying our sovereignty... at a discount.
UPDATE: Compare the executioner swords in the video below with the sword our president is playing with above. (Don't worry. The video is just an interview.)
UPDATE 2:
11:57 AM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
FUBAR
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wholesale inflation shot up in 2007 by the largest amount in 26 years even though falling gasoline costs allowed price pressures to moderate in December.The Labor Department reported that wholesale inflation was up 6.3 percent for all of 2007, reflecting a huge increase for the year in various types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.
Oil prices guide inflation. Meanwhile, Citigroup announced that they'll be taking bailout cash from the oil regime of... Saudi Arabia. How ironic that President Bush is visiting Saudi Arabia today.
There's a word for this sort of confluence of events: FUBAR.
09:02 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Happy Birthday to Martin Luther King, Jr.
08:30 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
January 14, 2008
Remember The War?
Experience shmerience:
(h/t Crooks & Liars)
And here are Senator Obama's remarks at the same time -- 2002:
I know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors… I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale -- without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than the best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.
I wonder who had the most "experience" in 2002? I wonder, as Tim Russert asked on Meet the Press, who displayed better judgement at the time?
04:11 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Caucus Blockus
The Nevada State Education Association has filed suit against the state Democratic Party, on the grounds that the nine at-large caucus locations set up on the Las Vegas Strip make it too easy for workers there to caucus, while no similar accommodations have been made for other Nevadans.
It's worth noting that the NSEA is pro-Clinton. It's also worth noting that the culinary employees who work on the Las Vegas Strip have endorsed Senator Obama. It's also worth noting that this lawsuit would prevent the culinary workers from caucusing near their workplace.
09:13 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Awesome prog rock by my friend Billy Sherwood.
08:38 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
January 13, 2008
2007: The Second Hottest Year On Record
The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies:
Data collected from around the globe indicate that 2007 ranks as the second-warmest year on record...
Oh it gets worse. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
Taking into account the new data, they said, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.
Now, for you Bush Republican trolls... this data is for the WORLD. Not just the United States. I know you like to mix that shit up in order to prove your worth as ignorant dittoheads. You like to say, "Well whah abaahh 1934? It was hot n' shit in 1934!" Yes, it was hot in the United States in 1934. But when I look at a map of U.S. Americans and such as... The United States isn't the WORLD.
04:23 PM | Comments (7) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Clinton-Clinton '08
With regards to Senator Clinton's surprise win in New Hampshire as well as her prospects moving forward into the next four weeks of contests, no-one in the punditocracy has mentioned that Senator Clinton already has... a running mate.
Her running mate happens to be, arguably, the world's most popular living politician: President Bill Clinton. There is no doubt that President Clinton is behaving and stumping as if he were an actual vice presidential nominee. He's not, but he's playing that role. There is no doubt that his on-going schedule of stump speeches and town hall meetings is making a significant difference for Senator Clinton on the ground.
Senator Obama, on the other hand and with the exception of a single event with Oprah Winfrey, is completely out-matched when it comes to sheer brute force on the stump. BUT...
...he totally dominated in Iowa and came within 2 or 3 points in New Hampshire -- which would normally, in political primary terms, be considered a "win" given President Clinton's Godzilla-like presence. But this election is anything but normal.
Pundit predictions or not; poll inaccuracies or not; emotions and the female vote or not; Senator Obama's disciplined, smart campaign at every level has been historic and awe inspiring to be sure, but the fact that he's too-close-to-call with the Clinton-Clinton '08 ticket says so much about the support he's inspiring with voters.
03:48 PM | Comments (19) | Posted By Bob Cesca
They Won't Stop
President Bush yesterday:
"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere," Bush said. "So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late."
President Bush on November 23, 2002:
"The world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands."
And just like Iraq, no amount of reality or contrary information will stop them.
10:26 AM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
09:47 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
