I am Sancho, in theory, I understand exactly what you are saying and it makes sense. However, I work with Brokers and Traders all day long and I know the majority of them have lost BIIIG money recently. Now if these guys, whose job it is to know the market can lose money, then I dont know what the other 99% of the population will do.

Almost everyone in my department has lost between 20-50% of value of their 401K, within the past year and a half. There isnt a single person, whose portfolio has gone up. Now we might be able to take that hit in our 30s -40s and still recover. But I would hate to see the people in their 60s, 70s and 80s have to figure out how they are going to survive. Thats why I am scared to death of McCain getting into office!

Interesting link.....maybe if Obama is elected he can bring the troops back and place them in these cities with Democratic mayors (Bloomberg is really a Democrat). These cities are more dangerous to live in than Iraq is considering the murder rate.

http://newsbusters.org/node/9932


Look at this mess the Illinois pension fund had in 2006. Looks like Obama did a great job protecting the pensions of Illinois state workers, teachers, etc.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0611030135nov03,0,4581699.story

Thumper, I too have lost a fair amount from my 401k in the last year. I'll survive. However I could point out that despite it all, the S&P 500 is still up about 700% from when I started working 25 years ago. My comparison of what a huge rip off Social Security is compared to alternately investing the same amount of money in a 401K takes into account crashes and down years in the stock market.

The McCain campaign had a bad day.

Lets go to war with Spain?? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/

Chuck Hagel says Palin has no experience. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ This woman only got her FIRST passport less than a year ago.

Who else here heard her say the "Palin/McCain" administration?

Any response there Beachman? Do you really want these two to run our country for the next 4 years? Scary!!

RG

It is now known that McCain's hero, Reagan, had the early stages of Alzheimer's during his Presidency, something that is not so surprising when one considers some of the stupider shit he said while in office. I honestly believe McCain is now following in his hero's footsteps (at least in one respect), and is showing some indications of dementia, perhaps related to the early stages of Alzheimers. As he continues to say patently stupid shit, I become more and more convinced he has this problem.

Anyone out there able to sneak up behind him and tap some of his spinal fluid for analysis? Perhaps if his dementia could be medically confirmed through such a sample, a sufficient number of his voters (not including Beachman, of course) would choose to either abstain or vote against him. We then would not have the spectacle of Dementia-Man with his side-kick Lipstick-On-A-Pig Palin (if your side is going to get the blame for saying this, why not also get the pleasure of doing so?) running the country for the next four years.

OTOH Obama seems to be doing better in recent polls, so maybe there is some hope even if we can't get a hold of some of McCain's spinal fluid. But it would certainly be a bonus.

(Message edited by LAguy on September 18, 2008)

LA Guy,

That is downright funny. Perhaps we should create a 527 creating TV commercials demanding McCain's spinal fluid. Great Republican politics. Obviously if he doesn't respond, he clearly has something to hide.

Rob

I think you guys should get someone to sneak up behind Sarah Palin to smell her ass and see if her pussy stinks. It is quite plausible given her anti sex ed stance that proper vaginal hygiene was just something you didn't talk about in her family when she was growing up. Same probably applies to her slutty daughter.

Good idea about the 527 Bluestraveller. I suggest we name it "This is Spinal Tap for Truth."

IAS: I nominate Beachman.

(Message edited by LAguy on September 19, 2008)

But if Beachman came back after smelling her ass and told you her pussy smelled like soap you would accuse him of a cover up. Better to put one of your own guys on it.

But Beachman is the only one who would enjoy the job. My nomination stands.

Count me out on the Palin snatch sniffing. Probably smells like moose, or at least very old sockeye salmon.

How can you guys expect to win this election if you are unwilling to confront the truly important issues of our time? Many male voters out there can accept a woman who may have divergent political views, but stink-pussy is a deal breaker for most of the guys I know.

You know it smells bad when the last guy who was in that thing came down with Down's syndrome as a result!

With all due apologies for what I have just said,
LAguy

(Message edited by LAguy on September 19, 2008)

I thought it was bad in 2000 when reports that Bush had only been outside North America once was bad. Looks like Palin is worse; reports are she just got her first passport last year. And that was probably just to be able to drive to Canada.....

I think the Republican peak is past.

While I'm still giving Obama 60% odds of winning, clearly it all comes down to who has the best night at the debates. Still to close otherwise to call a winner at this point.

Prior to the "Big Trip®" wasn't Obama's foreign travels primarily to attend a madrasah or otherwise visit his Islamic buddies? ;)

LAGuy. Since I myself have been retarded since birth, clearly I am deeply offended by you making fun of people with Down's syndrome. Political correctness dictates you should be more sensitive to my condition. You owe me and all the other retards of the world an apology.

IAS: And here I thought retardation was an acquired skill for you. My deepest apology.

Wait a minute . . . looks like IAS is trying to pull a fast one. I already apologized. OTOH, given his condition IAS may not have realized this.

In any case, I hereby retract my last (redundant) apology.

The Seattle Times did something that stunned me, they endorsed Obama for President: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2008190671_obamaed21.html

I'm stunned because they made their endorsement so early and The Seattle Time has a fairly conservative editorial board and owner. Normally, the newspaper does not make an endorsement until a few days before the election and when it does, it seems to prefer GOP.

Yes, the Seattle Times endorsement is noteworthy given it tends to be a bit conservative. And particularly given where they are coming from, they make a persuasive case (of course, I'm biased).

I guess the Seattle Times is trying to beat the Post Intelligencer (the more liberal Seattle paper) at its game!

(Message edited by LAguy on September 19, 2008)

Let me see if I have this straight.....

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.


If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.


If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches,
you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your
disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.


If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.


If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's
values don't represent America's.

If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.


OK, much clearer now.

Roadglide, you're making me suicidal.

Looks like another "McCain you gotta be kidding" moment just happened.

Anyone out there think McCain would have canceled the Friday debate and "suspended his campaign" if he were nine percent ahead of Obama in today's newly released Washington Post-ABC News national opinion poll rather than nine percent behind?

(Message edited by LAguy on September 24, 2008)

I can't call it. Last week McCain says the economy is fundamentally strong. Now,if he debates Obama this week (on a Friday night btw), we may be in a depression next week. ?????

It's called "I'm fucked". It's a pure stunt, the "maverick" at work.

Sounds a bit like when Livingston got snagged having an affair and resigned and called out Clinton to do the same. Clinton probably still laughs about that every day.

Friday nights debate is going to be a comedy show. We will see if Obama has the killer instinct that the Dems so desperately need. McCain is another privileged kid who is where he is because of his name. Daddy did the work and the slacker is reaping the rewards. Bush and McCain are in the same sentence as Paris Hilton. The vice president debate will feature the infamous bulging back transmitter because Palin is lost just like Bush. Both should be better than SNL.

Wow. It is just painful to watch a Sarah Palin interview. Very painful. Here is part one from Katie Couric.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg6hF0nShQ

Xen

Funny she did just fine on the "hard hitting" Fox News interview with Sean Hannity .

It was hilarious when John Stewart on The Daily Show interspersed the clips of question and answer session on an infomercial with the Palin interview and they were identical . How can anyione with a brain believe anything Fox spews out ??

The McLame train's wheels are falling off and he friggin knows it . He knows he will be totally outclassed in the debate. He is running scared and trying to call time out. Sorry John you are toast -- very old toast .

I actually think this is a very accurate and scary foreshadowing of the way McCain and Palin would govern.

Time out on Iraq, Russia, North Korea, Iran and Afghanistan. We can only concentrate on one crisis at a time.

Palin is so unqualified and so unready to be Vice President, her handlers are hand picking her interviews and interviewers (and she is still failing miserably), she never answers reporters questions on the spot, and when she is required to think on her feet she makes absolutely no sense at all.

This election is turning from simply a debate on ideals and values and a difference of opinion to a stark contrast between someone who is steady, methodical, intelligent, thoughtful and analytical versus someone is half cocked, senile, incompetent, has a temper and is impulsive, hasty, erratic and quite volatile.

Here is a link to the Stewart segment you mentioned.

Hannity's interview was a complete joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtSbozdgWAw

Who would have thought we'd be spending so much time talking about a VP nominee during the late phases of a presidential election? Not I! But every day she provides more evidence of why choosing her suggests that McCain has TRULY HORRIBLE JUDGMENT!

Today the folks at NPR had a chat with Ms Palin. They asked her about her position on the economic crisis. She blathered on for a minute, saying absolutely nothing other than 'this is serious, possible Depression, Dems will make it worse, etc' Then she made a fatal error. She said she and McCain have a proposal to deal with the problem. The interviewer asked for specifics. Palin stammered. The interviewer persisted..."just one proposal." Palin's response: I'll have to get back to you later.

Holy fuckin' shit! There are apparently millions of Americans who are willing to let this ignorant, arrogant fool within a heart's beat of the presidency. Haven't we been subjected to enough idiocy over the past 8 years?

Did anyone watch McCain on Couric? It reminded me of an old sitcom in which a kid had to give an oral report on a book he just never actually got around to reading. The kid made a valiant attempt, but the whole thing fell apart pretty quickly. That's what McCain looked like. It was a pathetic performance. No wonder he's anxious to duck the debates. There is no substance to the guy. He's all attitude and platitudes. But when you have to tackle something complex, like a major economic meltdown, he has nothing of substance to offer.

I loved this piece from the Financial Times (not a liberal press outlet, for sure!):

"If McCain had been conducting a campaign of utmost sobriety and deliberation up until this moment - I think calling the debate off might have worked for him. The trouble is that in the past couple of weeks, he’s given the impression of making spur of the moment pronouncements and decisions. So at the beginning of the week, he is announcing that the US economy is fundamentally in good shape. By the end of the week, the crisis is so grave that it would be a dereliction of duty to honour his commitment to one of the hallowed traditions of a US election - the presidential debate."

The FT chief foreign affairs columnist called McCain "batty." This from a guy who wrote on international economic policy for 15 years for the decidedly conservative Economist.

From James Fallows, on the impressions conveyed by McCain's proposal to postpone debates :

--The senator with (understandably) one of the lowest actual-attendance rates at the Capitol in the last two years, and who has played little role in crafting legislation recently, suddenly needs to be nowhere but Washington -- exactly now?

--The candidate whose strongest claim to office is his experience, mastery, and understanding of foreign policy, cannot handle a debate on that topic, against a rookie, when he has other things on his mind?

--The candidate who wants to quash any suspicion that he is not quick enough, not vigorous enough, or not multi-tasking enough to handle a job that poses a new challenge every minute, is essentially asking for everyone to take things a little slower so he can concentrate?

--The candidate whose first response to the financial crisis was to propose firing the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and whose second response was to run ads linking his opponent (hazily) to former Fannie Mae officials (before news came out that his own campaign manager was still on the Freddie Mac payroll), now wants us to believe that statesmanship and love of country govern his every move on this issue?

--The most famously stoic candidate of recent times is willing to have it look as if he's running away from a confrontation while he's behind.

Later, Fallows says "This involves basic "dog ate my homework" appearances that anyone can understand."

So true!

The American public should be outraged that McCain and some Republicans in the House and Senate are holding progress on solving the financial crisis hostage to McCain getting photo ops at the White House and credit for whatever solution others have already negotiated without him. McCain's behavior is a national disgrace, but I am afraid McCain will likely be successful in snookering his followers and perhaps some inattentive swing voters to believe otherwise.

More evidence that Palin is a slow learner: She is having trouble with the first law of holes:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_el_pr/palin_24

Here is part 2 of the Palin interview, the same interview that formed the basis of the article directly above.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/25/palin-talks-russia-with-k_n_129318.html

She's an expert on US-Russian relations because Putin occasionally flies over Alaskan airspace. She actually says this! More frighteningly, she seems to believe it. I wasn't completely sure whether she was stupid before, but there's no doubt in my mind now. She can't carry on an intelligent discussion on a single policy topic. Not one. Even on oil issues she is shallow, and just uses a few buzz phrases.

Bwana....But would ya do her?

Sandman,

Mid-40s gringa living in the Arctic. Possible bad breath from eating mooseburgers, extremely painful when listening to her talk, she likes to talk. I think I can speak for a lot of guys here who say "probably", but we would all have to be thinking of garota or chica or some woman somewhere else while sticking her.

I must confess to being thoroughly perplexed by anyone even contemplating a sexual liason with her. I find her incredibly repulsive. She is the antithesis of the Asian spinners that I prefer to be intimately aquainted with.

BD, the Economist isn't THAT conservative. Sure, I've been perplexed over their inane support for the Iraq fiasco and the dunce in chief Shrub. But they're also in favor of decriminalizing prostitution and medicinal marijuana, among other admirable stances.

Murasaki's comments notwithstanding, how about if we let Newuser from the Bareback - Don't be Stupid! thread get first crack at her, after which we can read his report about the liason and then contemplate the matter further?

Murasaki,

You're right. It's more accurate to say the Economist offers a blend of conservative and libertarian perspectives. The libertarian positions sometimes look liberal, but generally reflect a "the best government is no government" philosophy. That said, I subscribe to it, have for years, and learn a lot from their analyses. They are just a little too much "free market über alles." But on the plus side, they see McCain for the idiot he is.



Sandman,

No, no, no. Not even remotely appealing. If you think so, I'm deeply depressed and more a little saddened.

I have no idea why anyone calls her a MILF.

Fucking her is the last thing on my mind when I see her. She has a dumpy body from spitting out 5 maybe 6 ( if the tabloids are right) kids. Tits probably hang below her navel.
Peter North would probably get bruised from banging side to side in her pussy.

Sending her back to her double-wide trailer in Alaska is priority ONE.

Man, you guys are seriously riled. ;-) I am sorry if I have not had time to come in here and give you guys a hard time lately. I have just been to busy solving this economic crisis for you guys. I have come up with my own progressive bail out plan involving direct cash payments to young working women and some stimulous for my package.

Come on guys lighten up. LAGuy. Admit it. If Osama does win, it will be all that much more satisfying for you on election night simply because of guys like me.

Actually,IAS, you have confused your own identity with that of Beachman. "My friend" (I hope you appreciate I just quoted from your favorite politician), I know Beachman, and you are no Beachman.

Now Palin thinks we shouldn't ever second-guess Israel because if they attack Iran and we ask them to stop, that's an invitation to a second Holocast.

And the whole "Putin flies over Alaska and we have to scramble fighters to follow him and that's my foreign policy cred...."

I love how a lot of conservative media types are now calling for her to step down. The wheels are off of this apple cart at this point. McCain's on the road to Oxford with his tail between his legs at this very second.

Only the religious right, single issue gang still seems to be supporting her. Now that she has to actually talk with people without a script, the idiocy of McCain's judgment is becoming apparent.

I was talking at lunch today with two friends who are lifelong Republicans. Both have switched this past week and will vote for Obama. Neither is honestly enthusiastic about Obama, but both are horrified by both McCain and Palin. One said "it's time for the Republican Party to dissolve and start over, and we need to tell the kooks to form a third party."

Oh Yeah-


Biden know his history! Let's see when the Great Depression started in 1929 Roosevelt got on TV and spoke to the American people. Too bad Roosevelt didn't get elected till 1932 and televisions weren't in people's homes yet.

Of course, all the money you guys spend on mongering....well why don't you just send it to the government and you can be patriotic. You know you are alll un-patriotic because you are spending all your hard earn cash on carnal pleasures instead of sending the cash to the goverment. I guess the millions and millions of citizens who pay no federal taxes at all are not patriotic....at least according to Joe Biden!


If Palin or McCain you libs would be jerking off and getting that feeling up you leg like Chris Matthews.

Oh yeah.....if you need Obama....he is just a phone call away. Let's see how he does tonight without a teleprompter! Let's see if he can think on his feet without studdering.

BD starts to talk about kooks, and look who shows back up in this thread. Welcome back Beachman ;-)

He gets more incoherent by the week. Beachman, are you off your antipsychotic meds again? They're going to put you back on the ward if you're not careful.