January 18, 2010
"Why would you hand the keys to the car back to the same guys whose policies drove the economy into the ditch and then walked away from the scene of the accident?"
That's Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meaning to help Coakley win Teddy Kennedy's seat, and running right off the road into a ditch called Chappaquiddick.
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122 comments:
Ouch.
;-)
Best laugh I've had all day. Really good. Just classic.
My god, really? Unbelievable.
He has a point there. But it was an Oldsmobile.
e said whaaaaat???
I suggest Chris Van Hollen put down whatever he's been drinking, go home, and come back in the morning.
By now the Democrats must be filled with the wish and desire and the hope that suddenly this whole Coakley accident would disappear.
Perhaps it really is the Ted Kennedy seat after all.
wv: "rehedab" - where you check into rehab to be able to hit on a hot redhead chick who's also going there
Can Marcia Coakley swim?
I keep wondering, are these people trying to lose?
Suppose they were trying to lose. Would the campaign look any different?
I have to say that for all the talk about how Democrats are the nuanced and sensitive ones--you know, the "people skills, ex tempore speaking" types--Coakley's campaign and its supporters have:
1) gave Republicans a perfect sound byte to lead into the Amiraults
2) linked Brown to a major sports figure, and
3) linked Coakley to Chappaquiddick.
What the hell, people? This is unforced error, own-goal stuff here.
"Coakley in free fall"
I would have said "she's drowning"... but eh... whaddayagonnado?
Wow..
Just when you start to resign yourself to soon not having Coakley to kick around anymore..
It rains Coakley from heaven.
the gift that keeps on giving.
lol
First, it wasn't a ditch, it was a tidal channel. Second, it wasn't destroying our national economy, it was just drowning a "boiler room girl". How you can equate economic collapse at the hands of the Rethuglicans with some mere adolescent misbehavior by a Kennedy is really stretching things too far.
Settle down folks.
Why would you hand the keys to the car back to the same guys whose policies drove the economy into the ditch
Excuse me? Democrats are the ones who caused the collapse, forcing banks to make risky loans to the unqualified, or be deemed racist and punished, under the Community Reinvestment Act. Bush tried to fix Fannie and Freddie twice, and was blocked by Dems.
[...]
I'm still laughing at Pat Kennedy's endorsement of "Marcia". How much can it mean when he cant even get her name right? He obviously didn't even prep before the announcemnet. And must think his audience are complete idiots. Yah, you really know "Marcia" well enough to recommend her....
To be fair, Patrick Kennedy may still have been drunk. Today was the day he was finally going to sit down and read the bill. He prob braced himself with a bottle of Stoli. Like he does before he votes bills into Law.
BTW, I've managed to insert a provision into the bill that declares me Dictator For Life. Please prepare your estates and daughters accordingly.
I bought Pat Kennedy's vote with a case of Scotch. Mary's on the pole now, under the promise that I'll settle with her afterwards. Ben Nelson is still holding out for a Library in his name. What a bunch of sleazy whores.
No wonder Bill reached for Monica. He needed the moral support of an innocent.
It is not going swimmingly.
Okay but, in his defense, Van Hollen did manage to not put too fine a point on the fact that Martha Coakley has never been expelled from Harvard for cheating. No one can say that isn't to her credit.
Dam.. I wish I was there .. at the seven eleven .. I make eye contact with the paper in my hand and with a big mocking smile I hear myself saying ..
Did you hear the latest?
I'm still laughing at Pat Kennedy's endorsement of "Marcia". How much can it mean when he cant even get her name right?
I heard a local radio news anchor refer to her as "Margaret" today. Before long, people will resort to calling her "what's-her-face" (hopefully after tomorrow, when she's consigned to the dustbin of history).
wv: sublese. If I were Coakley, I wouldn't sublese a flat in Washington quite yet.
Oh.
My.
God.
Tomorrow will make 3 for 3 strikeouts for Obama - New Jersey, Virginia, and now Massachusetts!
Intrade is not reliable, folks. It's entertaining, but it doesn't have a good track record.
FiveThirtyEight, however, has a very good track record.
And now FiveThirtyEight is saying this.
So this whole recession is Brown's fault? THAT BASTARD!
"But it was an Oldsmobile."
No one ever let that get in the way of those great jokes about how history could have been different, if ONLY Teddy Kennedy had driven a Volkswagen Beetle.
The Onion right?
SCAM ALERT!
Bought Tiger Woods DVD titled "My favorite 18 holes".
Turns out it's about golf.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
Sidebets that the Dems will pull a Karzai and just announce a vote tally they like.
Acorn. SEUI. MoveON. They are going to try everything. At this point, they don't care if they get caught.
Instead of the Coakley five oclock follies it's been the Coakley round the clock follies.
Thank you Chris Van Hollen.
They are going to try everything. At this point, they don't care if they get caught.
Hell, they probably want the trickery to be obvious. Might as well let the GOP know what they can expect in November. Crush their spirits now and they'll go quietly in the fall.
The Full Coakley level of political disaster is verging on a supernatural intervention. Remembering the "What's with Christians and forgiveness" post earlier, it almost makes me think that Tony Amerault must have forgiven Coakley for harmining him and thus left room for the vengeance of God to repay Coakley.
Coakley is a radioactive TMZ.
Martha must be thinking "with friends like these . . . ."
You guys are getting way too giddy. You have another 24 hours till the polls close, so maybe you should hold back a bit and save some potential embarrassment this time tomorrow.
By the way, if Coakley is such a disaster as a candidate, how much can this election be seen as a repudiation of Obama?
Assuming Coakley wins.
Lots of assuming going on here.
The plat du jour tomorrow could still be crow.
Put another way, I prefer to wait until after the actual triumph to be triumphal.
I don't know whether to be happy that a Republican is competitive in Massachusetts or depressed that a candidate as incompetent as Coakley is still competitive simply because she's Democrat.
Re Ted Kenndy being president today if he had only drive a VW Beetle.
"The Onion right?"
I think it was Mad Magazine that ran the cover of the floating bug.
Gosh, I donno, John.
Seems to me that people are pretty careful to put the possibility that Brown might not win out there.
And why should anyone be embarrassed if he doesn't win?
Will you be embarrassed if Martha looses?
Why not?
wv: poobsuad
lol.
Killing Mary Jo Kopechne was "adolescent misbehavior" on Teddy's part? How do you look yourself in the mirror, john? Oh, I forgot. The agenda. The agenda must go forward. The agenda trumps all decency. Worthless leftist scum.
I thought that the person who mentioned "adolescent misbehavior" was obviously being sarcastic.
I mean, *obviously*, right?
No matter what happens tomorrow, this campaign is going to go down as the silliest.
A woman who is an attorney, former prosecutor(persecutor) and does not realize her record is public. Her baggage and skeletons can be revealed.
A woman who cannot spell the name of her own state.
A woman who sneers at face to face campaigning- you know getting to know the great unwashed voters. Of course it may have worked to her benefit. She is the type who would kiss a baby and make it cry.
A woman who fraudulently fills out financial campaign disclosure forms. (She had the typical Democrat excuse- OOOPS)
A woman who does not even know her own state's baseball champions.
A woman who was actually blindsided when revelations about Amirault and Winfield came out.
A woman who is a Catholic but aspires to be a WASP. She must think the P stands for Penance.
She has made more mistakes in the last month than some candidates make in a whole election cycle.
If this is her idea of preparation then the last thing Massachusetts needs is Coakley. Hmmm? Has she ever tried a case or has she just been one of those faceless bureaucratic lawyers. Maybe that accounts for her lack of preparation.
Did I mention she cannot spell Massachusetts?
ricpic - omelets and broken eggs and all that ya know....
john said...
"First, it wasn't a ditch, it was a tidal channel".
No shit?
The infamous VW spoof ad appeared in National Lampoon special in 1973. Google "national lampoon kennedy vw ad" images to see it. I still have my issue - bought it before it was pulled off the newstands.
@ricpic- Be careful with what you wish for! Much of that "worthless leftist scum" is supporting your side in this particular event. The scum is very finicky and will likely leave as soon as the ego-balance tips the other way.
You guys are getting way too giddy.
My eyes have seen the Coakley coffin.
Way too many Maatha moments the last 10 days. You don't survive after that. Considering the help she got from the Kennedys and the faux Kennedys and the wannabe Kennedys, she's lucky she's still withing single digits.
Or is she?
AllenS said...
Can Marcia Coakley swim?
The Demos better start hoping she has a scuba rig in the back seat and one of those little survival hammers.
Bob said...
If Brown does indeed win I propose the following addition to the political phrasebook:
"To execute a full Coakley" is to perform a complex series of maneuvers such that one's political campaign completely disintegrates just before an election.
Close. The Full Coakley is when everything you do, all your friends do, and all those who support you do not only makes things worse, but makes them more and more calamitous (not to mention ridiculous) by the hour.
It's probably more endemic to politics, but I'm betting this could be applied to many of life's little disasters in all walks of life.
Lem said...
You guys are getting way too giddy.
I love it when a plan comes totally unstuck.
edutcher I was responding to John @ 6:06
Folks, it ain't over until the fat lady sings her aria.
If you live in Massachusettes (that is the right spelling, right, Marcia) the by all means please vote tomorrow.
Thanks.
From a commenter on DC Daily call.
Coakley is losing because she didn’t get the campaign contributions from Chivas and Cutty Sark.
They always put Teddy over the top.
Couldn't resist one last Maatha moment. This is off Gateway Pundit:
Martha Coakley told attendees (at a commemorative breakfast for Martin Luther king) at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast this morning that, “Dr. King would be standing with me if he was alive today.”
Problem was that Scott Brown had also been invited and was in attendance. Afterward, Brown told reporters,
“I thought it was inappropriate to be politicking when we are trying to honor Martin Luther King today. I don’t have any comments on what it says about her. Right now I am not going to comment on anything political right now, we’re going to start campaigning in about a half hour… I certainly didn’t realize that this was a rally for Martha and I thought it was inappropriate that she was starting to ask for other people’s votes when we were trying to remember Martin Luther King Jr. …I don’t remember hearing anything about Martin Luther King except for minor references. “
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/01/woah-scott-brown-slams-martha-coakley-for-turning-mlk-prayer-breakfast-into-pep-rally-video/
Lem said...
edutcher I was responding to John @ 6:06
I appreciate that, but the general flow of comments leads in that direction.
Fen:
I like the Dictator idea. Too funny.
AllenS:
That scam alert is an hilarious joke and I plan to borrow it!
Julius Ray Hoffman,
Thanks for the link to FiveThirtyEight. I had to laugh at this:
She is basically relying upon getting solid turnout from a "silent majority" of voters who have done little to make themselves seen and heard.
Of course they're silent -- they're dead! (Or were never alive.)
Anyone here a bet man or woman? Now is the time to buy Coakley. She's at 26.0 (Brown up 76.0), and those are great odds for what could still be a Coakley win tomorrow.
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS, DEMS!
Cheers,
Victoria
"She has made more mistakes in the last month than some candidates make in a whole election cycle."
Haven't you heard?
It's no longer about mistakes in an election cycle.
It's more like that cell phone provider ad...
"Can you hear me???"
I was thinking about this today, when I was out and about:
God knows this campaign could've been really down and dirty -- and I honestly do not think it was. Gaffes, miscues, and even a shove or two do not equal dirty campaigning. That's very bush league compared to some of the things which normally go on in heated elections.
I don't know what the deal is, because this election is do or die for Obama tomorrow: it determines his lame duck status way ahead of the predicted November 2010 moment. And it just doesn't look like the Dems have that fire in the belly to eke out a win here. After all, it's MASSACHUSSETTS.
Why didn't they go for the jugular with Brown?
Hey, did anyone see or here Joe Biden in Massachusetts?
The silence is deafening.
The Democrats knew that Coakley was her own worst enemy. Adding Biden would be political homicide.
It would be like the stupid helping the stupid.
ricpic - does "just drowning a boiler room girl" sound like "adolescent misbehavior" to you?
Pretty soon I won't be able to say anything sarcastic here. (Oh, and my nude avatar is a real photo of me.)
Victoria,
What would "go for the jugular" have entailed, that they didn't try?
Discrediting tactics such as hitting Brown for the Cosmo/ownership of several homes/his daughter, etc. You saw Gail Collins attempt to ridicule him through his daughter, but only a bit. The Dems could've gone one better, and called him the Republican Idol, etc.
Also, the unions don't seem to be terribly against Brown (the police in Worcester is backing him, and that's telling because Coakley's husband is an ex-cop), and they're usually the muscle in dirty tricks campaigns.
There's so much that could've been done in terms of making this campaign truly dirtier, and Brown certainly didn't, whilst Coakley tried only a bit.
Or maybe it's just my perception.
Cheers,
Victoria
Sad to bring old "Dick 'em and Dunk 'em" Teddy into this.
Hey, guys? Remember the Political Compass test? I just retook it and to my surprise...
...I'm closer to Friedman than to Thatcher these days. I used to be about where Sarkozy used to be.
Cheers,
Victoria
Sometimes there is zero substitute for irony.
Or maybe it's just my perception
It is just your perception.
Start here Victoria:
The Massachusetts Democrat Party set this mailer last Friday (picture at the link) stating this in big letters on the front:
1,736 WOMEN WERE RAPED IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2008.
SCOTT BROWN WANTS HOSPITALS TO TURN THEM ALL AWAY.
That's so over the top Victoria that even far left-wing sites like Kos and Talking Points Memo thought it went too far.
Need more?
After all that I've read about Coakley, how she consistently put political ambition and serving the powerful ahead of basic human decency, it is only fitting that she will be remembered as the biggest disaster in Massachusett(e)s political history.
This whole problem can be blamed on Kennedy. Coakley thought she had the seat. The problem- drunken Kennedy left with out putting the sat down. Coakley fell on her ass in the toilet.
Martha's "I can see Russia from my House" moment.
She thinks visiting her sister in England means she has foreign policy experience.
Come on, Dems. This is not the best Democratic candidate you could've put it. Admit it, and move on to the next fight.
Why didn't they go for the jugular with Brown?
They tried. Over the past few days, whenever I have the radio on, there are non-stop negative ads against Brown during the breaks.
But a lot of people can't believe Brown is as evil as Coakley tries to paint him, so the ads become laughable. People are mocking them.
Plus she has ads saying that Brown will be the vote to stop Obama's agenda. When I first heard that ad I thought it was FOR Scott Brown, because that's a selling point for me.
Hey, I've seen "Mary Poppins" more than a dozen times. Maybe Obama could appoint me as Ambassador to England
(Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland are on their own.)
Seriously, though. At some point, shouldn't the Democrats in the House and Senate change their leadership? Pelosi and Reid are leading their party to the slaughter.
Moving on to a Coakley postmortem a finger pointing fight ensues.
'I told you we should have gone with the Brown was born in Kenia bit.
But did you listen'?
This is what I mean about dirty politicking, which we really haven't seen MARTHA participate in.
Making Scott look like a prettyboy lightweight (and nothing more) just like Sarah Palin has been typecast, because she's pretty.
Sally Quinn says it's obvious why Scott Brown is winning: He posed nude
Maybe Obama could appoint me as Ambassador to England
Worked for Walter Annenberg. ;)
(Hey, the US Prez on "24" is a woman? Whaddayaknow)
Sally Quinn says it's obvious why Scott Brown is winning: He posed nude.
As I said this morn.. Brown heroically tried to break the man posing nude for pay ceiling.
Women get better pay always have.
Brown was spearheading civil rights.
"Why didn't they go for the jugular with Brown?"
Oh, come on, victoria! Don't make me drag Lem in here to play, "There's Got To Be a Morning After".
Back to the original post.
I do find it interesting that the DCCC is running this ad. There are a lot of people out there who are of the belief that it was the Democrats who drove the economy into the ditch. If for nothing else, think of the "stimulus" bill a year ago that was enacted to supposedly keep unemployment below 8 or so percent.
Of course, the reality was that the Democrats were raiding the American treasury to pay off their campaign contributors. So, of the "saved" jobs that were in identifiable Congressional districts, much of it was in the form of giving government employees raises. Not surprisingly, they haven't faced the sort of unemployment that the rest of the workforce has, while making more, and having much better benefits. Those government workers getting raises - were they really worried about losing them if they didn't get those raises? I don't think so.
And then there were the putative tax cuts, which turned out to be one-time refundable tax credits primarily to those not paying income taxes. Sounds more like welfare payments to me. And definitely not the type of tax (rate) cuts that have proved so useful in the past recessions.
And then there was the pure pork. Harry Reid's train from LAS to LA. Stuff like that.
This was followed by an appropriations bill with 8,000 or so earmarks (and, remember, the last Congress was also controlled by the Democrats). Why were all those government programs being expanded in the midst of a recession?
Of course, we cannot ignore Tax and Bribe (aka Cap and Trade), health care "reform", and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. All aimed at raising taxe rates at precisely the wrong time in the recession.
Oh, and I forgot all the "bailouts". I read something the other day that indicated that worldwide there was maybe a 25% surplus in automobile manufacturing capacity. So, in response to that did we liquidate uneconomical capacity? Of course not. And the bankruptcies of the two car companies accomplished essentially one thing - they protected UAW benefits. At a huge cost of the American taxpayers, as well as eroding the Rule of Law when it comes to creditor priorities in bankruptcy, which has the effect of making it even less attractive to lend to companies. Not what you need in a recession.
So, all in all, a rather humorous proposition on the part of the DCCC.
""Why would you hand the keys to the car back ...and then walked away from the scene of the accident?""
In which the Democrats demonstrate how it is difficult, though not impossible, to kick yourself in the balls.
There's still time for them to work in a reference to the Kennedy-Dodd Senator sandwich.
Excuse me? Democrats are the ones who caused the collapse, forcing banks to make risky loans to the unqualified, or be deemed racist and punished, under the Community Reinvestment Act. Bush tried to fix Fannie and Freddie twice, and was blocked by Dems.
And you're a fucking moron if you really think that's how it happened. Or, shameless lying through your teeth, both of which are hardly disqualifying things to be a modern conservative. So actually you're probably okay.
At the end of the day, from the Massachusetts Democrats' point of view, wouldn't it have been better if they'd never tampered with the law on senatorial succession? The governor - whoever it is - fills the vacancy with someone who sticks around until at least the next election. If the Massachusetts Dems hadn't yanked that power away from Gov. Mitt Romney in favor of a special election, and hadn't pushed later on for an interim appointment until that special election, there would have been no Coakley vs. Brown contest, just a replacement Democratic Senator (in this case, Paul Kirk).
Then again, hindsight is 20/20, and other assorted clichés.
To Professor Althouse.
Dear Madam,
Having apply'd my Ghostly Mind with more than ordinary Attention to the Election in Massachusetts, I resolv'd with such Firmness as a Spectre may possess to enroll myself, at last, as an American Elector. 'Tis plain that my Phantasmal State & Foreign Origin were no Impediment to the Exercise of that Office. I may tell you, Madam, that I had my Hopes rais'd just t'other Day, when I met a fine, worthy-seeming Gentleman here upon the Astral Plane.
This Gentleman, one Mr. Curley, told me that he had once been, in Life, Lord Mayor of Boston; and, that he could see to my Enrollment as an Elector, if I so wish'd. You may imagine with what Pleasure I heard this News. Mr. Curley inform'd me that he was in daily Communication with several worthy living Gentlemen of his Party in Boston, and that they should see to my Enrollment. I said, t'was an Honour to be so allow'd once again, in my Ghostly way, to climb the Polling Booth Steps; but that my only Care was how I should give Effect to my Vote. Mr. Curley says I needn't worry. He would see to Everything.
In the Meantime, I had closely consider'd whom I should chuse. I settled upon Col. Brown, as one sympathetick to my Humours if not my Principles; for, I had always the highest Regard for the plain & direct Speach, and open Frankness of a Military Man; whilst Mrs. Coakley, of the opposite Party to Col. Brown's Tories, habitually pronounces Weasel Words, and says but little with much Clinquant & Tinsel. In Truth, Madam, she seems more of a Leveler than a Whig.
I went to Mr. Curley earlier Today with my Vote. He laugh'd in my Face, saying the Matter had been decided. "What?" Says I, "My Ballot has not been cast! I should be pleas'd to inform you how I would vote." "You are not only a duly enroll'd Voter," says he, "in a Voting Machine in East Boston, but your Vote for Mrs. Coakley has aleady been register'd. Did you honestly think the Opinions of either the Living or the Dead carry much Weight with the Democratick Party?"
Alas! Madam, I am deceiv'd! I am to be a mere Cypher—An unreasoning, disembody'd Wraith amongst the Gears & Cogs of a Machine. Altho' I have been dead these 260 Years and more, 'tis a hard Fate, Madam! A hard Fate!
Praying you should ne'er be so ill-us'd, I am
Madam,
Your humble & obt. Servant,
Sir Archy
Garage, if you think the Community Reinvestment Act wasn't a contributing factor in the mortgage crisis, the kick back and enjoy the coming farce (which won't be easy to blame on W, as his Administration fades into history...)
While there may be a high ratio of ditto on this site at times, the comments from the right tend to have a higher ratio of substance than the jeers from the left.
The left, on the other hand, wins hands-down when it comes to insults and blatant falsehoods. There are honest and intelligent arguments from that direction (I almost never agree with FLS, but I always read what he writes, and there are a few others) but Garage, you I tend to skip unless it's really short.
So keep tweeting.
Sir Archy:
Please don't take offense but your story made me laugh [with you not at you].
Ah, I would follow Archy. Damned.
@Mark- It's those sorts of ideas that turn many people away from the Republican banner. Yes, the Community Reinvestment Act might have been a contributing factor. But its contribution was so very very very small-- put it in numerical terms and you'll probably come out with something less than 1%. The real problem was the lack of oversight on the securitization end combined with the liability of too-big-to-fail institutions. CDOs of CDOs of MBSs of NINA loans made by TBTF banks? Things like that were the cause.
The folks on the right can keep on trotting out arguments like this Community Reinvestment Act one. And the people who aren't die-hard Rightists will realize that it is bullshit and go the other way. The Right can gain the middle, but not by promulgating more nonsense.
Sir Archy speaks the truth..
Coakley has always lead Brown among dead voters.. it's a well known secret.
I just pray they don't tap the Chicago pool.
Of course, you both might be wrong. Sometimes bubbles just happen. Whatever the U.S. federal government did or didn't do wrong, it's hard to see why either the Community Reinvestment act or our lack of regulation of bundled American mortgages caused a housing bubble in Spain, England, and Ireland (among other countries).
It was a pretty worldwide real estate bubble.
Mark...The CRA was around 7 years before the FNMA and FHLIC started offering 100% loans with no mortgage insurance requirement and marginal credit standards. Those loans drove VA and FHA loans out of the market because VA and FHA had some minimum requirements and a big Fee or a big MIP included to pay for defaults. Those were marketed to feed the loan derivitives market for sale to foreigners to keep some Money flowing back here from Saudi Arabia and China. When they ran out of customers who could fog a mirror, then they turned to easy mortgage fraud of over appraised properties. The golden flow made 100 million dollar bonuses for the executives and those who sold out at the peak of ther mortgage pump up in 2004-5 before the dump in 2006. It took all of DC and wall street working together to pretend this was workable , and especially Mr Greenspan, to allow that bubble to start and to grow that large. The CRA was 2% of the problem and was not the cause of the damage from the collapse of an entire debt industry based upon a bubble of unsustainable foreign investmeents . The USA pulled a Madoff on the world on purpose, and now no one will trust us until we put righteous truth tellers back into office again. That means Sarah Palin and the rednecks who believe in telling the truth instead of super dramatic fantasies from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and its world class super fantasy as reality experts.
"If you live in Massachusettes (that is the right spelling, right, Marcia) the by all means please vote tomorrow."
No, it isn't right. :)
I don't think I'd say the CRA "caused" the real estate bubble. It was a factor but of course there were many others.
What's undeniable is that all the usual liberal suspects - the NYT, Frank, Dodd, etc. - were all in favor of making more mortgages available to people who really couldn't afford them. Remember when "redlining" was the liberal outrage du jour?
Of course, Republicans like George W. Bush and Henry Cisneros were right alongside cheerleading for universal homeownership, so there's plenty of blame to go around.
I remember Teddy's campaign slogan very well: A Chicken in Every Pot, and a Blond in Every Pond.
People this clueless are doomed.
Darwin said so.
Didn't some lawyer named Marcia try to prosecute OJ?
I never said the CRA was the cause of the crisis, I said it was a contributing factor. The poison (which is alluded to by those correcting me) was the idea that the government would "make good" on bad loans, however repackaged. Fannie and Freddie were passing so much bad paper to the Lehman Bros. etc. that the game became "hot potato" instead of "how can this investment net an annual 6% profit for me or my investors".
What I am saying is that "evil Rethuglican" comments and their ilk just go into my /dev/null file. (As do their "evil Libtards" counterparts. But FWIW and YMMV, I /dev/null a lot more crap from the left than the right.)
Mayor Curley?
He's the guy who ran Boston for 5 months while he was in Federal prison.
From what I've read, our bubble did indeed cause the global bubble. Other currencies are pegged to ours, so our cheap dollars are floating around the entire globe with nowhere to land in the US after our bubble burst, as bubbles always.. T/4 they are invested in other places, causing other bubbles.
One of Sir Archy's gems, as infrequent as they are - most worthy of mass media.
Trooper York, please pick up your game if you are churning out classics.
John: 1/18/10 5:17 PM "...some mere adolescent misbehavior by a Kennedy is really stretching things too far."
Do you know a young woman was killed in that "mere adolescent misbehavior"? Or like Marcia Moxley, she "deserved" it because a Kennedy adolescent misbehaved? I seriously hope you were being sarcastic.
When Coakley wins:
1) Who will scream loudest and longest?
2) When will the memory of those screams fade?
ic -
Look at my 7:10 comment.
Yes I was.
When Coakley wins:
I never thought of Coakley as a book maker.
if coakley manages to pull this one out, i believe that mary jo kopechne would think that it was all worth it. /
oh and ... TRUCK !!!!
How long have the democrats controlled congress (the part that matters most to the economy(the purse strings, the laws, etc.)
Since 2006. Remember 2006, when jobs and mortgages were things everybody had and liked?
It's more like taking dad's car for the evening and then blaming him for the damage.
John:
"Second, it wasn't destroying our national economy, it was just drowning a "boiler room girl"."
First and last, you defame the dead without knowing who she was. Mary Jo was not a "boiler room girl" but you are an execrable POS.
bagoh20 said:
"How long have the democrats controlled congress (the part that matters most to the economy(the purse strings, the laws, etc.)"
This is incorrect. The important part is the federal bureaucracy, the millions of nameless, faceless people who couldn't hack it in the private sector if their lives depended upon it. The democrats are merely the pustule that presages the malady; that malady is bureaucracy.
These are the people who really contro government, and thus, the economy. They have the organized voting blocs and union money that influence our democratic (small 'd' intentional) Congresscritters. They are the permanent structure of the government that eats up an ever-expanding percentage of tax revenues.
Unlike the prvate sector, it is not in competition with any rival, and so has no reason to work either cheaply or efficiently. It has scads of cash just thrown at it, which it then (mostly) wastes, and can never seem to keep track of.
The very people in government who criticize Citi, AIG and Lehman Bros. for playing "fast-and-loose" with their numbers have a lot of nerve; the Bureaucracies at both the State and Federal Level couldn't pass a half-assed audit if they had a decade to prepare for it. They waste more money in an hour than AIG hands out in bonuses for a year.
(No, I'm not defending Wall Street, just pointing out some hypocrasy).
Destroy that bureaucracy and you're going to solve at least half of the economic problems in this country; you'd get a tax code that was rational and fair. You'd get public sector contracts that weren't loaded with retirement and medical benefits that can't be paid for. You'd get way less pork in every budget. You might even get a more than a few fed'ral agencies that solve no useful purpose (like the Dept.of Education)closed entirely.
HIlarious!!!
First, it wasn't a ditch, it was a tidal channel. Second, it wasn't destroying our national economy, it was just drowning a "boiler room girl". How you can equate economic collapse at the hands of the Rethuglicans with some mere adolescent misbehavior by a Kennedy is really stretching things too far.
The miscreant was already a Senator at the time, so was in his 30s, so I wouldn't really call it adolescent, unless you consider that he never really left his adolescence. Which given some of his behaviors later in life, may be credible.
As for destroying the economy, I would agree that that criminally reckless drunk driving exploit (or what would have been such for anyone with a different last name) didn't destroy the economy. However, there are few politicians who could honestly say that they did as much to try to destroy our economy during their term of office as the party being discussed. Always with the best of intentions, of course. We can just all be happy that he wasn't more successful.
Which ivy league university did this guy attend, and what was his major?
William: Was that a guess? If so — good guess! From his own Congressional website:
"Rep. Van Hollen received an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College, a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center."
So the answers would be Hahvahd, and "public policy."
The Wikipedia article on him says that he is a hereditary member of the governing class ("The son of a U.S. State Department Foreign Service officer, Van Hollen was born a United States Citizen in Karachi, Pakistan. Van Hollen has also lived in Turkey, Sri Lanka, and India.") He represents a gerrymandered district where the "federal government is the largest single employer …, and many private companies are funded by the government."
Neither bio mentions any private sector employment. A big government guy all the way.
crazy conspiracy theory:
She's trying to lose. The dems would rather be able to blame the republicans for the lack of healthcare reform than to have to take responsibility for the current train wreck bill. This election is a golden chance to snatch the ability to blame from the jaws of responsibility for their own legislation. Given the state, she's had to take an extreme approach to get it done, but she'll probably manage.
Does that make any sense?
wv: inguello, Italian dialect word for what Marcia's campaign is a big pile of.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfBx3EvDTEI
'nuf said...
Democrats can breathe easy.
Sen. Al "trunkful o' ballots" Franken (D-MN)was seen this morning unloading numerous bags of "flyers" from his car, and from staffer's cars.
Fear not; all is well.
WV: tedde (!)
One honestly has to ponder the possibility that the Democratic Party in Massachusetts is deliberately throwing this election. For what purpose I can't fathom but it boggles the mind that these people can be this monumentally tone deaf.
It would be funny if it weren't a reminder of how much suffering Tedddy caused.
My sarcasm bone broke yesterday.
Later today, I'll be interested in how the absentee voting count comes out. That's Marcia's ace in the hole. If she wins, it will be the absentee vote count that pushes her over the top.
One honestly has to ponder the possibility that the Democratic Party in Massachusetts is deliberately throwing this election. For what purpose I can't fathom but it boggles the mind that these people can be this monumentally tone deaf.
I don't for a moment believe the following scenario is true. I believe Occam's Razor here implies that the Democrats in MA, stodgy and mostly unchallenged, are just living down to their competency level.
However, the DNC is in nominal control of the entirety of the US government. As such, they are on the hook for every bad thing that happens. Their plans are unpopular, and appear to be forced on the public regardless of public preference with no real regard for bipartisanship.
Imagine this; the leaders of the DNC know this, and know that if they appear to be in complete control in 2010 with no signs of improvement, they will take real electoral damage in the fall. So, the concoct a plan...move the Senate right, by one seat. Suddenly they can rail against the obstructionism of the Republicans, plausibly this time, while still getting Snowe on board for whatever they really want. So then they have 9 months to blame everything bad on the obstructionist Republican party, with collusion from the major media (Fox excluded, of course), and make even bigger wins in the fall, all for the very small price of one Senate seat now.
No, I don't believe that's what's happening...but spinning conspiracy scenarios is a fun pastime.
I thought I was being so original...and then I read Michael Farris's post a few before mine.
Good one!
This is why the country is in such bad shape. We are drowning in politicians who are halfwits.
RebeccaH is correct with "We are drowning in politicians who are halfwits."
So too are CEOs who have been given back the keys, but are so halfwitted they dole out huge bonuses in plain view.
Political suicide performed by idiots of habit.
The worst is yet to come.
When China is content with its controlling ownership of U.S business and closes the vice on delicate parts of US debt, Canada will feel the mygraine of all time.
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