What the F**K Edition

Main portion of the post

Rest of post here.

Flabbergasted. Really. FLABBER. GASTED. I am. I had to spend some time drinking wine and reading some calming poll numbers to keep my brain from spinning in all directions.

Helene came into class today and said, "Hey, did you know John McCain wants to cancel the debate on Friday?" Whuh-HUH??

But wait! There's more! He also wants to suspend his campaign so he can work on the $700 billion bailout plan.

But wait! There's more! He hasn't even read the plan yet-- and it's only three pages long. (Fer the love of Mike! I've read it -- didn't understand it, but I've READ it.)

But wait! There's more! Senate members are confused because THEY'VE ALREADY WORKED OUT THE PLAN. (Barney Frank says that McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona who has spent much of the year away from the Capitol campaigning, could end up slowing down work on the bill. The Massachusetts Democrat noted that a meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday will be interrupted for a "photo op" at the White House with congressional Democrats and Republicans as well as Bush.")

But wait! There's more! He also want to suspends the VP Debate too. Ohhhhhhh... I get it now...

CLEARLY, he is doing his level best to LOSE THIS ELECTION, and the 46% of you people who insist on supporting him through thick and thin--you're MESSING UP his plan!!! (Okay, maybe it's only 43% of you.)

And when you've gotten up off the floor, there are people trying to make the argument that this was somehow "brilliant strategy" on the part of McCain. Seriously. Only if McCain's brilliant strategy was to start another Twitter Meme (Yep, here's my contribution...)

So. Cancel the debate Friday? Whaddya think? Obama says, Uh... Let me think...No. "There are times for politics and there are times to rise above politics and do what's right." But he said he saw no need to cancel the debate, scheduled for Friday night at the University of Mississippi. "This is exactly the time when people need to hear from the candidates," Mr. Obama said, adding: "Part of the president's job is to deal with more than one thing at once. In my mind it's more important than ever."

Oh, and in the process of "suspending" his campaign and "rushing" back to DC, McCain dissed David Letterman, on whose show he was supposed to guest this evening. Watch Letterman's hilarious and RATHER affronted spiel. Yeah, nice way to treat Dave. You might recall that it was on Letterman that McCain ANNOUNCED that he was running for president back in February 2007. I guess that was also back when he used to talk to the national press too. (By the way, since McCain cancelled, Dave got Keith Olbermann to sit in instead.) After saying "something doesn't smell right..." Dave points out that if the economy is in such a tailspin, and you personally must be in Washington to fix it (which you don't), why don'tcha leave your second-in-command VP nominee in charge of campaigning and get on your flight? Oh, Dave, Dave, Dave...you forget that he can't leave her unattended even for 30 seconds.

This WAS my favorite video of the day...until the McCain campaign imploded: Campbell Brown goes OFF on the McCain camp's sexism in shielding Sarah Palin from the Big Bad Media: "Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment...you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now."

Even Fox News reporters are starting to get testy about the Palin Media Shutout. And Maureen Dowd refers to Palin's recent rush through Top World Leaders plus a bonus Henry Kissinger Round as "speed dating diplomacy."

Perhaps the reason they keep her under wraps is that--uh, pardon me, Governor Palin? Your ignorance is showing.

Here is my SECOND favorite video of the day: the BIG interview, with Katie Couric of CBS playing "Stump the Candidate." I love that right at the top of the interview, Couric asks Palin about McCain adviser Rick Davis's Freddie Mac involvement. Palin answers that her understanding is that he recused himself from any dealings with the company and that she would hope that that's the case. To which Couric says, "But he still has a stake in the company, so isn't that a conflict of interest?" At which Palin says that her understanding is that he recused himself from any dealings with the company and that she would hope that that's the case-- Whoa, deja vu! I guess that's the only talking point they gave you, honey? Particularly delicious is the moment when Couric asks Palin to cite "specific examples in [McCain's] 26 years [in the Senate] of pushing for more regulation."

Couric, incidentally also does a series called Presidential questions, in which she asks the same question of Obama and McCain. One of the questions was "When is it appropriate to lie to the American people?" Both of them give the same answer, but McCain's interests me, given the questions and statements made about his running mate. Next week we ask: "When is it appropriate to manipulate the political process?"

Oh, and not that anyone is paying attention to the Sarah Palin Troopergate story NOW, but The Plank pointed out that even the AP newswire is getting snarky, putting out this lead in a story covering the investigation: "Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature's investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire."

By the way, about the "Is Sarah Palin qualified?" poll on PBS NOW's website. I sent it out, and many of you have sent it to me. Well, the poll, which only ran a week in early September on PBS' homepage, became the single most viewed page on their entire site, even though nothing links to it now that the homepage link is gone. But it's remained so popular via email that PBS was moved to post this notice. As many people noticed, voting "da Chicago way" seemed to be entirely possible, and apparently was (thank god, I didn't really waste that half hour clicking and refreshing....!) until yesterday, when they embedded cookies so you can only vote once per computer. (Naturally, I have voted from every computer in the house...)
Econ 101

Yeah, I wrote all this this morning-- before all the fun began.... Best not to waste it though. Who knows what we still have brewing ahead in the overnight hours!

So over the last couple of days, I've spent about a half an hour looking at Paul Solman's very informative and yet amusing videos for PBS's Lehrer Report. Solman used to be a kindergarten teacher which maybe accounts for his simple, yet not condescending explanations.

• Back in 2007 after Amaranth Financial lost $6 billion betting on natural gas futures and collapsed, Solman explained what a Hedge Fund is (EXTREMELY enlightening for non-econ types like me). It has the bonus explanation of what a "Black Swan" event is -- actually no surprise to those of us who have seen Swan Lake.
• In March 2008, Paul explained how the subprime mortgage caused the Bear Stearns collapse (hilariously using green Monopoly houses and Monopoly money). Paul and his team of expert explainers have a clairvoyant moment and "see" the domino effect of cascading failures causing a crisis of confidence for financial institutions.
  
• And yesterday, he explained what triggered the "Credit crunch." Why is credit so important that we had to bail out giant financial organizations?
  

Betty also forwarded to me the very funny "Urgent help needed" spam that's making the rounds: "I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America . My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe...."

Apparently, McCain is not the only one having a crappy day. It's all falling apart for BushCheneyCo too: "House Republicans who walked into a closed-door meeting with Cheney steaming over the plan walked out just as angry, and they described what happened in between as both 'a bloodbath' and 'an unmitigated disaster.' 'It's a sad fact, but Americans can no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this administration,' South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint said in a comment posted on Politico's Arena forum."

Last word on those thousand dollar bills: Jeez, it's like being a candidate. Every time I open my mouth--or laptop as it were--I generate a new misstatement. Hah! So I noticed that I said the US stopped printing $1000 bills in 1969 but in fact they stopped printing them in 1945. The bills were pulled from circulation in 1969.

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Debate Prep
The League of Women Voters has a handy worksheet that you can print out and use to take notes while watching the debate this Friday, September 26 at 9pm EDT (8 pm local Mississippi time, 6 pm PDT). Well, you know... if we get to it....Jesus, Mary, Joseph.

Some more Foreign Policy statements from the candidates' own websites:

Obama's Record: As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Barack Obama has fought to focus America's attention on the challenges facing Africa – stopping the genocide in Darfur, passing legislation to promote stability in the Congo and to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia, mobilizing international pressure for a just government in Zimbabwe, fighting corruption in Kenya, demanding honesty on HIV/AIDS in South Africa, developing a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia, and travelling across the continent raising awareness for these critical issues. He has also increased America's focus on the long term challenges of education, poverty reduction, disease, strengthening democratic institutions and spurring sustainable economic development in Africa.

Barack Obama would like to:

• expand prosperity by establishing an Add Value to Agriculture Initiative, creating a fund that will extend seed capital and technical assistance to small and medium enterprises, and reforming the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. He would launch the Global Energy and Environment Initiative to ensure African countries have access to low carbon energy technology and can profitably participate in the new global carbon market so as to ensure solid economic development even while the world dramatically reduces its greenhouse gas emissions. They will also strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act to ensure that African producers can access the U.S. market and will encourage more American companies to invest on the continent.
• take immediate steps to end the genocide in Darfur by increasing pressure on the Sudanese and pressure the government to halt the killing and stop impeding the deployment of a robust international force. He and Joe Biden will hold the government in Khartoum accountable for abiding by its commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Accord that ended the 30 year conflict between the north and south. Obama worked with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006.
• double our annual investment in foreign assistance from $25 billion in 2008 to $50 billion by the end of his first term and make the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, America's goals. He would fully fund debt cancellation for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries in order to provide sustainable debt relief and invest at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including our fair share of the Global Fund.
• in Cuba, empower our best ambassadors of freedom by allowing unlimited Cuban-American family travel and remittances to the island. If a post-Fidel government takes significant steps toward democracy, beginning with freeing all political prisoners, the U.S. is prepared to take steps to normalize relations and ease the embargo that has governed relations between our countries for the last five decades.
• bring together the countries of the region in a new Energy Partnership for the Americas to forge a path toward sustainable growth and clean energy. He will call on the American people to join this effort through an Energy Corps of engineers and scientists who will go to the region and beyond to help develop clean energy solutions.
• target all sources of insecurity through a new hemispheric security initiative. This initiative will foster cooperation within the region to combat gangs, trafficking and violent criminal activity. It will strive to find the best practices that work across the hemisphere, and to tailor approaches to fit each country.
  

John McCain's National Security policy: "Strong Military in a Dangerous World"

The global war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, threats from rogue states like Iran and North Korea, and the rise of potential strategic competitors like China and Russia mean that America requires a larger and more capable military to protect our country's vital interests and deter challenges to our security. America confronts a range of serious security challenges: Protecting our homeland in an age of global terrorism and Islamist extremism; working with friends and partners overseas, from Africa to Southeast Asia, to help them combat terrorism and violent insurgencies in their own countries; defending against missile and nuclear attack; maintaining the credibility of our defense commitments to our allies; and waging difficult counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

John McCain:

• to protect our homeland, our interests, and our values - and to keep the peace - America must have the best-manned, best-equipped, and best-supported military in the world.
• has been a tireless advocate of our military and ensuring that our forces are properly postured, funded, and ready to meet the nation's obligations both at home and abroad. He has fought to modernize our forces, to ensure that America maintains and expands its technological edge against any potential adversary, and to see that our forces are capable and ready to undertake the variety of missions necessary to meet national security objectives.
• wants to strengthen the military, shore up our alliances, and ensure that the nation is capable of protecting the homeland, deterring potential military challenges, responding to any crisis that endangers American security, and prevailing in any conflict we are forced to fight.
• want to ensure that America has the quality intelligence necessary to uncover plots before they take root, the resources to protect critical infrastructure and our borders against attack, and the capability to respond and recover from a terrorist incident swiftly. McCain fought for the creation of an independent 9/11 Commission to identify how to best address the terrorist threat and decrease our domestic vulnerability. He fought for the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the creation of the U.S. Northern Command with the specific responsibility of protecting the U.S. homeland.
  
• strongly supports the development and deployment of theater and national missile defenses to protect America from rogue regimes like North Korea that possess the capability to target America with intercontinental ballistic missiles, from outlaw states like Iran that threaten American forces and American allies with ballistic missiles, and to hedge against potential threats from possible strategic competitors like Russia and China
• believes we must enlarge the size of our armed forces to meet new challenges to our security. For too long, we have asked too much of too few - with the result that many service personnel are on their second, third and even fourth tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. There can be no higher defense priority than the proper compensation, training, and equipping of our troops.
• reform the defense budgeting process to ensure that America enjoys the best military at the best cost. This includes reforming defense procurement to ensure the faithful and efficient expenditure of taxpayer dollars that are made available for defense acquisition.

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41 days to the election, God help us, we must survive the circus to VOTE! Reminder again that, for many states, would-be voters must register well in advance of the elections. RockTheVote's list of voter registration deadlines. And if you're voting absentee, Declare Yourself has links to each state's voter information page where you can find out how to get your absentee ballot. Feel free to harangue your friends in the swing states.