Hi BT.

Finally some good news from polls.

If it’s a Rasmussen poll, assume Obama actually has a commanding lead. Rasmussen is totally in the tank for the Rovians, but still, this was the best they could do.

Running mate Sarah Palin, who has generated much excitement in the GOP, won’t be accompanying McCain on this visit.

oops, there goes those 8,000 person crowds who have been showing up to hear JohnnyMac SarahSpeak…

yup – that was my first thought.

Rasmussen always trends 4-6% higher for Repubs than other polls….

I heard that in passing a day or so ago, but didn’t track it down. Do you have a link? Preferrably with a photo (not photoshopped).

The Rasmussen poll is bought and paid for by the Republican Party.

No poll conducted by Rasmussen will ever reflect reality.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.c…..t_tru.html

Former Pollster Pleads Guilty to Fabricating Results

Tracy Costin, the former owner of polling company DataUSA Inc., entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for fabricating the results of polls the company conduct on behalf of, among others, President Bush in 2004.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.c…..lster.html

Confirmin this apparent trend with anecdotal evidence.

Ed Koch, after supporting Bush in 2004 has swung over to Obama.

Why?

McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin.

“She’s scary.”

-G

Looks like we still have work to do but Florida is clearly in contention.

It’s promising, for sure.

Good point.

Sarah is prepared to go to FL to stand beside Crazy Kitty in the event that any recounts need stopping.

Could the moderators strike my first comment.

I researched this matter and whe’s wearing a military blue star pin.

Please consider this a retraction.

-G

John McCain’s campaign hit back hard at Joe Biden Tuesday after the Democratic VP candidate appeared to suggest Republicans who do not support stem cell research — like GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin — are lacking in their support of children with disabilities.

“Barack Obama’s running mate sunk to a new low today launching an offensive debate over who cares more about special needs children,” McCain-Palin spokesman Ben Porritt said. ”Playing politics with this issue is disturbing and indicative of a desperate campaign.”

We needed some good news. I also think this expense report thing has legs. People–middle class white collar folks “get” this. Lots of politicians from both parties at all levels have been drummed out of office for stuff exactly like this.

Also, her “preacher problem” hasn’t even started to simmer yet, much less boil.

I also have the sense that she doesn’t do well when she’s cornered. The question is, will anyone have the guts to corner her with follow-up questions? Right now, she’s on an ego high…let’s see what happens when reality bites. It always does.

Great post…good news…

The honeymoon will be over soon…

People will get sick of “haaaaakeeee maaaaaam”…

she’s….

She shouldn’t be wearing that till he ships out.

I hasten to add this to the top of the thread without reading the post and comments:

PLEASE FLORIDIANS: Confirm your voter registration BEFORE November. Assure your right to vote!

If Florida goes our way then how how many other states would McCain need to win to offset Florida?
Given that the Bush/Greenspan housing bubble is hurting Florida and California the most I do not see how McCain can run on Bush’s economy and win.

Hi BT
My 90 year old Jewish mother calls me every morning to rant and rave about how much she hates Palin. Then she heads off for coffee with the rest of the ladies in her central Florida neighborhood to continue the rant

I did a little googling too and the only pics I could find were not clear enough to be dispositive. Thanks for tracking it down.

I wondered about that, mr. martha wondered too, but I didn’t have anyone to ask. (dad-in-law the WWII vet has alzheimers and we don’t talk about that stuff anymore…just golf and how nice the wind feels…kind of nice actually…)

OK OK, she can. My parents put mine up when I went to Krea and took it down when I came home from Vietnam. my bad

I found this.

The pic is about 1/4 down the page, but photoshopped? Who knows.

Actually, the way it is presented here it could be anybody.

McSame’s path to victory is very narrow without Florida. It’s got more EVs (27) than Ohio (20).

that’s the second time today I’ve read “desperate campaign”. The other time was a different McSame spokesman saying Obama was “desperate” for speaking about his opponents at all.

Raven, my comment at 22 was in response to your comment about the pin. for some reason, my Reply button seems to be on the fritz today.

LOL. I suspect that’s a common story.

Bubbe no likey the Palin!

I found that too. See my 21 & GregB’s 12.

Just one of today’s talking points…remember, they always say the opponent is suffering from what, in reality, they are. That is the Puke schtick.

I just found the same thing. And the huffpost story about it has been scrubbed. Nice retraction, huffington.

Unfortunately for the McPalin campaign, Anita Bryant is living in Oklahoma now, so she probably won’t be available for Florida canvassing, aka cross burning.

Got ya. I looked on the google and it represents anyone in the service, not just those “deployed”.

I guess moderators don’t like to approve my comments very quickly…

What do you know! Another article about Palin!!!!!!! Obsess much? Wow, this is great for the right, keep the pressure on the VP candidate, ignore McCain. Thanks for the support.

Speaking of which, rumors about Kim Jong Ils health abound.

-G

That’s great news. I’ve spent a lot of time at my local Democratic headquarters in Gainesville the last few days stuffing envelopes for my Congressional candidate. You would not believe the steady stream of visitors and phone calls wanting Obama yard signs. Sadly, they have been out of signs for several days and still didn’t have more this morning. The Obama campaign has a separate office next door that is populated from 9 am to 9 pm. On the first day of classes at UF, they registered 2500 voters! We’re hoping this student vote helps to flip our Congressional district that was rated R+8 but didn’t take into account the huge number of students who can register locally this year.

Obama should make his Florida campaign all about the Freddie/Fannie/Greenspan /Housing debacle – and what happens when the roosters are put in charge of the hen house.

Everyone gets fucked!

How did McShame vote on s-chip

Oh, OK. Mystery solved. I’ll cross that one off her list of transgressions. Gosh knows, Hugh’s list keeps growing…

Great to hear, thanks for the report.

Plunger, you forgot to include Clinton in your group.

Reply doesn’t seem to work if you try to click before the page has finished loading completely

So much for the right to discuss.

Thanks FDL, hypocrites.

(fyi, if this posts, 3 or 4 of my posts have not posted, no profanity, no attacking, just discussion)

He didn’t.

He’s been too busy trying to find a new job to do the job the folks in AZ hired him for.

Okay, approved now, thought I was been banned for a moment there!

I’m back! Yeah!

McCain wants to call Obama desparate often enough that the MSM starts asking Obama why his campaign is desparate. It’s the “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” strategy. Demagoguery using false dilemas has long been a Republic staple.

Russia to maintain 7,600 troops in S. Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Congrats to Saakashvili, you are the proud owner of a Dick Cheney engineered rump state.

-G

I heard he was writing a book instead. Or was that Obama? Gets so confusing sometimes…

Q. Why does Sarah Palin hate cats?
A. They’re too small to fire at from airplanes.

Like Obama saying that “they” don’t think he looks like the other presidents on currency, and that he is black, etc.?

Same old story from both.

Good one.

Which is why Obama and Biden and every other damn Democrat has to stop calling the eminently dishonorable John McCain an honorable man.

-G

Georgia should ask McCain to send Palin there so that she can teach them how to stare down the Russians the way she has done in Alaska for so long.

Palin is justifying calling herself a “maverick”, because she ran against a Republican incumbent…..D’oh…I guess nobody every did that before…D’oh..

Yes, they need to give up the Senate-speak for a couple of months. McCain certainly has.

The “Federal Reserve” is a not “Federal.” It is private – and Greenspan personally assured the destruction of the housing market when he blew this bubble up to its massive climax.

I remember well the day he gave the speech that lit the fuse. He effectively said:

“If you’re in a 30 year mortgage, you’re a fool…adjustable rate mortgages are the path to riches.”

The FED has been feeding us bogus numbers. All of the numbers released by the government relative to the economy are false – chosen to create appearances and outcomes, not chosen based in reality. The entire government has become politicized, and the truth is only revealed when it’s too late to do anything about it.

At the top in 2006, Fannie Mae was running warm fuzzy TeeVee ads featuring lower-income blacks, taunting them into home ownership as their rightful piece of “the American Dream,” as the bottom row of the Great Fool Pyramid failed to fill up.

Now you get to pay for the ad campaign and the aftermath while Franklin Raines enjoys his yacht.

At a time when the Fed SHOULD have been taking away the punchbowl – Greenspan made a personal appeal to be reckless with your home financing and flip into a three year or five year ARM – borrow against your equity – and spend it.

HOW MUCH DID GEORGE BUSH AND DICK CHENEY INFLUENCE FED POLICY FOR POLITICAL GAIN? WAS IT BUSH WHO DEMANDED 0% INTEREST RATES, AND GREENSPAN WHO COMPLIED?

Greenspan met with Cheney HOW MANY TIMES? They met for breakfast at Cheney’s house on January 14, 2001, a week before the inauguration, and nine days before Greenspan’s thumbs-up-on-tax-cuts testimony to Congress.

Greenspan retired. The housing bubble he created has yet another 30%-plus to fall.

The conspiracy to entrap homeowners into indentured servitude is complete.

In the 1996-2000 period it was apparently necessary for the chairman to visit the White House about 12 times per year, or once per month. For no apparent reason, Mr. Greenspan’s visits to the White House tripled from just 12 in 2000 to 37 in 2001, when Bush took office. Starting in January 2001, the same month Mr. Greenspan began cutting rates and flip-flopped on the Bush tax cuts, he visited the White House at least three times per month, with the only slowdown in June and July of that year.

What were previously monthly meetings continued to skyrocket to over one per week in both 2002 (55 meetings) and 2003 (68 meetings).

These White House meetings since 2001 were with officials at the highest level, something Mr. Greenspan did not do in 2000 or apparently since 1996 based on his monthly meetings there. For example, in 2003 he met with the President once, Vice President Cheney seven times, Condoleezza Rice six times, and Chief of Staff Andy Card three times. In March 2003 he had 14 White House meetings, and in July 2003 he met with six members of the Cabinet, including Colin Powell.

Such increasingly frequent meetings at the most senior level, including the Oval Office, are appropriate for a politician but not a central banker, whose political independence is paramount. The noteworthy increase in these meetings since 2001 is puzzling and problematic.

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/….._cale.html

The chairman has met with Vice President Cheney at least 17 times since early January 2001; Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, 11 times; Rice, 12 times; Card, six times; Powell, once; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, twice; and Cheney’s chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, once, according to the Fed’s copies of Greenspan’s schedule.

Yeah, that’s getting annoying.

Is Kim Jong Il?

[Couldn’t resist. Where is punaise anyway?]

Good Afternoon Blue Texan and Firedogs

just ask your grandma how her friends in Boca are going to vote.

16 Synagogues and Temples – another 12 community/learning centers

just wait till those folks get a load of the Meshugganah Shikse and her Jews for Jesus, “Israelis are being punished” sideshow

Where would I get one

oh I forgot, she has an Israeli flag in her office -

And this comment has exactly what to do with the topic of Sarah Palin and the voters in Florida?

Off topic is one thing but when the off topic isn’t even within the same continent…

I wonder how many cats she has shot, there’s a subclass of hunters that believe cats are competition for game and it is fair to shoot what the hunter determines to be feral cats.

.
Attaturk proposed this question for Palin this morning:

Seriously, what’s up with you and cats? Are you going to get Bill Frist a cabinet position?

And for Californians …

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

Anyone else having a slow time getting their posts up? Or is it just me?

Either you missed the part about Florida being a key state, or the Florida housing train wreck, or my recommendations that Obama focus on the housing /Freddie/Fannie nightmare in order to win Florida, or what?

How about this for a lighter “off topic”

Meghan McCain: ‘No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period.’

I don’t get it…if you believe in the rapture….why would you want to run away and hide from it in Alaska…??? You must be expecting to stick around.

I found this article about Palin’s claim to be an advocate for special needs kids to be pretty balanced. NYT! When I heard her say that blather, it sounded like just so much “hey I’m a mom too” and not any kind of campaign promise. I know the GOP is not about extending any $$$ to anyone with a disability, not vets, not special needs kids, not anybody. But here you go.

BTW, the feds can legislate whatever they want, it’s the states that pay for it.

Drive-by. This should be read, and maybe heeded, who knows

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi…..600592.stm

Here’s the structural story. Consumer spending is almost 3/4 of the economy, so economy goes down if consumers don’t keep spending at rising rates. Yet, consumer incomes are a problem. Real wages have been flat or down for about 3 decades except for a couple of years during Clinton. Employment gains is another source of growth in consumer spending, and that soared during Clinton (something like 23 million jobs added) but not so much during W (aboout 7 or 8 million, going down every month). So with income growth problematic, the stimulus to consumers must be either fiscal or monetary policy, which encourages borrowing. The latter has been used with greatest frequency. However, stimulative monetary policy in the absence of a healthy underpinning (i.e. rising incomes) to growth gives rise to bubbles and crashes. Tech stocks in the late 90s, home prices in the 00s. It’s slomo econ suicide.

Thanks! :]

More good Florida news from a couple of days ago is that the Florida Supreme Court removed from the November ballot several questions near and dear to the Republics. Two school voucher questions aimed at shoring up Jebbie’s atrocities and a wacky tax swap on property taxes all bit the dust.

and all those retirees in Florida will just looooove what McCorpse wants to do with Social Security :D

It’s just you. Time for your paranoid rant.

Punaise to the white courtesy phone!

If true that Dear Leader had a stroke, it would be nice if the sheeple in the MSM would note the potential leadership vacuum such a health crisis could cause. And how it would be awful nice to have a qualified person a heartbeat away.

I think prior to the Rapture, they are expecting a global, bloody, religious war. They are holing up in Alaska with their guns until that part is over.

Um, I remember a brush ranch cowboy gettin’ ‘lected a while back…rednecks do rule.

You do know that all caps means yelling, don’t you?
Please be aware that you are not the only one here who is Upset With What Is Happening.
AND,
newperson biodieselvw, you may want to consider slowing your roll. Chill out, take a breath. This is a great group of people, and you might not want to give people the wrong First Impression.
Welcome to the Lake.

Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Remember to ignore trolls…don’t feed ‘em, don’t talk to ‘em, don’t speak their names and for sure don’t leave any spare change out in plain sight.

Great article.

Great synopsis. Meanwhile Greenspan continually bragged about the wonders of efficient markets and worker productivity, as if that were good for American Workers…many of of only now comprehend that the apparent boom in real estate prices was largely explained by a decline in the value of the dollar.

In real estate years, it’s presently about 2004 in Florida, heading for Y2K.

Ain’t reversion to the mean (and overshooting along the way) a bitch?

True, I forgot about that part of the “story”…

Does Sarah Palin hunt trolls from helicopters?

As opposed to polar bears, trolls get to stay on the endangered species list.

That too.

Can we get some of these fundies declared incompetent

I think prior to the Rapture, they are expectingtrying to start a global, bloody, religious war.

No fee for that slight correction.

Any guesses on what the next Palin blog will be?

Whatever happened to talking about policy and your platform?

Ailurophobia – irrational fear of cats

Alexander the Great, Amenhotep, Napoleon, and Mussolini were phobes

wonder if she has the “they steal a baby’s breath, and look in to your soul” kind of fear :D

worker productivity

Every other economist I know does not understand “worker productivity.” It comes about from the substitution of capital for labor, and the benefits thus accrue to capital. The only time that real wages & productivity rose at the same time in the postWWII period was in the 1960s. Back then real wages rose because labor was in very tight supply. Unemployment rate bottomed around 3-1/2% iirc. Rising real wages made labor expensive. Meanwhile inflation and interest rates were low, leading to the substitution of cheap capital for expensive labor, and labor productivity rose. In the 90s labor became expensive owing to medical benefits costs, and capital was cheap once again.

Short version: economists have the causality backwards.

an we get some of these fundies declared incompetent incontentant?
Sorry, could help myself. I must be in an editorial mood. And, yes I know I misspelled that word. Ha!

Pearls of knowledge v. conspiracy maven – best of luck

Dosido @ 78

It should be a fact taken into consideration, disregard at your peril.

wonder if she has the “they steal a baby’s breath, and look in to your soul” kind of fear :D

they aren’t stealing the breath from babies, they’re helping

Oppo: You’re Doing It Right !!!

h/t continentalOp/du

Everyone who is legally registered in California will be allowed to vote, I can guarantee that

S.o.S. Debra Bowen is above reproach

Citizen eCAHNomics:

“Does Sarah Palin hunt trolls from helicopters.”

Only when the State Controller won’t pay her a reimbursement for usin’ the National Guard’s armored APC!

I enter those same comments every once in awhile just to stay in practice. Don’t expect to convince anyone. Was never able to in 25 years on Wall St.

Thanks Jim.

I knew I didn’t have that quite right…

Oh, I do. I was really reacting to the author saying that rednecks are suddenly getting a lot of attention. hmm.

Anyway, here is my next public service announcement:

Please check your voter status before October!!! You can click on your state’s name at this site and check on your bad self.

http://www.votesmart.org/voter…..ources.php

lol !

I want that on a campaign button!!

There were to many dollars chasing a profit and real estate was seen as forever continuing to go up in value to where even if a property went in to foreclosure the asset could/would be more valuable and easily disposed of.

But they are so close to Russia

perfect.

I would so take your class :D

Citizen eCAHNomics:

Great comment, I find it absolutely mind alterin’ that there are no published academic economists or economists in any public positions that understand the “labor theory of value” that underlies everything in a capitalist economy. I really look forward ta yer comments…I’m still apprehensive about Obama’s proximity to the University of Chicago, the stink of Milton Friedman is gunna linger for a long time around there.

S.o.S. Debra Bowen is above reproach

That’s just another way to say that she is not a Republic.

Thank you.

Ye and teh Cassandra syndrome?

P.S. The Norwegian definition of “productivity” is: the boss gets more outta the workers for less. You betcha!

http://www.serviceflags.com/

Norske, were you wearing a black VVAW tshirt at the vets march in Minneapolis?

I live in the south and today a good friend how much she admired Sarah Palin. She’s a breath of fresh air. Normally I can handle wingnuts but not today. Our economy is on the brink of a major disaster and all Sarah can talk about is the bridge to nowhere.

Raven, How do you handle the wingnuts? I know in Athens you have more of a mix but not in Roswell.

Rosa Delauro finds Chris Shays comments about CT women voters on Sarah Palin insulting. That is we women vote smart and on issues, not just because Palin is a women. Via Jim Himes campaign. I am now curious to hear Shay’s original comments. Knowing him, they are probably wildly off the mark.

Sunday’s Dilbert

http://news.yahoo.com/comics/0…..a/20080709

That definition works for me.

Thanks Raven – my sons been in for 17+ yrs trying to make it to 20. Been in theater 3x w/ sp ops

Citizen Raven:

Hang in there Brother Raven, the kids’ll be comin’ home sometime and they’re gunna need advocates to wake up the general population and keep ‘em from gettin’ ground up in ignorant anger when the political and economic chickens start roostin’ on TV sets.

Keep on keepin’ on Citizen!

The wingnuts that are my friends? My buddy calls me a peace queer and I call him a nazi motherfucker.

Actually, I think my inability to convince people of my forecast was more a Q of turning points than anything else. I thought that the most valuable thing an economist could do was identify turning points, both upward and downward. But sentiment is so pessimistic at the former and optimistic at the latter that no one can believe anything could change. In between economists can contribute much less value added, but when it counts, they are dismissed.

Best to him. My pals son did his 11b tour and, because he graduated from U of Minn, they offered him Chemical OCS. I’m screaming, you proved yourself, you got your CIB. Get out now! Do you read this old green beanies blog

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/

Pat Lang, interesting stuff

That’s it!! My neighbor has put up a “Women for McCain” yard sign. I’m surrounded. aaaaaaaarrrrrgggggg!

I recently joined the VFW just so we had someone on the inside!

Thanks, Not sure that would work here but it helps me to keep the situation light.

Thanks BT.

That is probably because any other “brand” has been buried under the accolades and propaganda of the Chicago School of Economics. One class I attended was from a visiting Prof. from MIT, do not recall the name. Through Aristotelian examination, just over twenty terms were defined. From those terms, a model of economic function could be built. It has served me in good stead for forty years. The big problem is everybody is singing from different hymnals,or without a book at all and the cacophony is that of Babel. Ian does a splendid job of educating about the economic superstructures and their function. I would dearly like to discuss this with you sometime.

Dave Neiwert upstairs

Citizen Raven:

No Brother…I hadda black Al Franken shirt on and was tucked inta the first group with a couple a dedicated brothers who were workin’ with the “new” Vets Against the War folks. If ya see tape of the beginnin of the march on Monday you’ll see me, I’m the chubby old fart walkin’ next ta the beautiful 20year old blond with an Obama shirt on (that’s my daughter).

Speakin of which…Emmy and I were walkin’ accross the commons and down the street to the St Paul Cathedral past a clump of fascist “counter demonstrators”. Most a those folks were over 60, overweight, spoke with Dixie accents and had either Vaselined crew cuts er plasticized blue hair. Well anyways, as we walked past ‘em, on old hen yelled at Emmy: “Girl, you should be ashamed of yerself fer wearin’ thet shirt!” Now I was on my best behavior but I wasn’t gunna have Em lit up for committin’ vivisection on a public street so I get in the old hen’s face and said: “Ma’am, she’s yer worst nightmare…she’s blond, beautiful, smart and thinks Obama’s hot!”

JESUS, I thought the old biddy was gunna stroke out right there on the sidewalk!

Keep the faith Brother.

Raven, all they all McC people?

What a typo! It was supposed to say Clown Cars for McCain.

Citizen Raven:

I’ve steered clear of the VFW and American Legion since the day I ETS’d ‘cuz I know I woulda ended up gettin’ the shit kicked outta me after killin’ a few of the old farts. But now I’m thinkin’ I gotta join the local VFW and follow yer example…another group my father belonged to for years was “The Disabled Veterans of America”…those folks were mighty effective for decades in and around Veterans hospital issues and fundin’.

Go ahead and come on down here, sarah. You’ll melt.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Does anybody have any information about these people?

Overseas Vote Foundation
4786 N. Williamsburg Blvd
Arlington, VA 22207-2836

What denomination would they be, D or R or Other?

My 90 year old Jewish mother calls me every morning to rant and rave about how much she hates Palin. Then she heads off for coffee with the rest of the ladies in her central Florida neighborhood to continue the rant

I wish that idiot Diane Sawyer on GMA would do a story on your mom’s coffee klatch — instead of interviewing Palin’s “five best friends” in AK.

Oh, wait, Diane Sawyer, didn’t she used to co-host with Charlie “Don’t-You-Dare-Tax-My-Capital-Gains-or-High-Salary” Gibson?

ABC: totally in the tank for McSame.

PS – Really, I would love to hear more about what the coffee klatch ladies have to say.

and what happens when the roosters are put in charge of the hen house.

Or, as someone said, it’s like chickens voting for Col. Sanders.

I just joined, I haven’t actually been there!

don’t know. I’ll try to find out. It’s a good question. I hear that it’s becoming harder for servicemen to vote as well!

Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Remember to ignore trolls…don’t feed ‘em, don’t talk to ‘em, don’t speak their names and for sure don’t leave any spare change out in plain sight.

Norske, an Obama fist-bump from me to you!!

Thanks, I will check back here in the morning, this day is fading fast.

I had registered to vote in 2004 through them, I am not sure if it did any good. Just curious. Thanks again.

Hi T-Bear, I just toddled off to their website and they do appear to be bipartisan. I’m shocked to learn that I know one of the board members! I don’t know if I can easily contact her (no email was attached to her name) but it would be an interesting catch-up session!

Hey, thanks for the overseas voter link. We were just wondering the other day about how one could register to vote overseas. I have passed the link/info along.

I think I love your mother. That is so great. No doubt she “has seen it all.”