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September 2008 - Posts

Via the mighty Joe Powell , Matt Taibbi said this about Sarah Palin's address to the GOP convention: It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag. That, my friends, is priceless. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Although I'm convinced some kind of large-scale federal intervention is necessary to correct the current economic crisis, the bill that was voted down yesterday was, in my opinion, fatally flawed. It did little to address the fundamental problem of escalating
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The hideous Nina Easton has written a long apologia for the demons of Wall Street who have inflicted a financial and economic crisis on the rest of us. In it, she goes to great lengths to assert that the public outrage over the bailout is due to nothing
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The inimitable Newscoma had this to say about the bailout and the growing job losses in small town America: People are hurting everywhere and if one, and I mean, ONE, Wall Street exec gets a bonus for bad behavior, the local sheriff is just going to have
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This week's TennViews roundup of Tennessee liberal bloggers is here . The bailout and the presidential debate dominated the blogs this week. My favorite quote came from Steve at WhitesCreek Journal : I don't know that much about this stuff, but according
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By special request, this week's Feel Good Friday is "Searchin," by The Coasters: Outstanding song. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Via Newscoma on Twitter , here's Wanda Sykes on the bailout and Sarah Palin: Just watch the whole thing. It's five and a half minutes of hilarious stuff I wish I'd said. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Wow : Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night in the largest bank failure in American history. Regulators simultaneously brokered an emergency sale
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Something goofy is happening with the Javascript code from twitter.com that plops my Twitter feed in the sidebar: it's prompting visitors to enter a username and password for Twitter's servers. If that happens, just click Cancel on the dialog box. If
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John McCain is desperately trying to avoid a debate with Barack Obama (and is even more terrified of the prospect of his incompetent running mate debating her opponent ), so he is using the current financial crisis to justify suspending his campaign.
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Here's why Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid need to be replaced as Congressional leaders, encapsulated in a single sentence : Congressional Democrats bowed to political pressure yesterday and agreed to let the ban on offshore oil drilling expire, a decision
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E.J. Dionne summarizes the crisis in a nutshell : There is a moral problem for capitalism itself if taxpayers take on a burden created by the foolishness of the privileged and get little compensation in return. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg
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Paolo Scaroni is the CEO of the Italian oil company ENI, one of the 25 largest companies in the world (it sells fuel in Europe under the Agip brand, among many other things). He had this to say about American oil consumption: If Americans used the same
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The US government is about to write the largest welfare check in history, and the recipients will be banks and other financial institutions holding worthless debt. You and I will have the privilege of paying for it. In a late-night meeting in Nancy Pelosi's
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For this week's Feel Good Friday, kick back for a few minutes and listen to Ray Charles perform one of my favorite songs of all time, "Georgia On My Mind:" Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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From Taking Note : One good thing to emerge from this week’s market turmoil is that it lays waste to the argument that privatizing Social Security is in everyone’s best interest. Amen to that. Just try to imagine what would have befallen Social Security
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Under the "leadership" of Alan Greenspan (and I use that word loosely), the Federal Reserve refused to enforce the terms of the Truth in Lending Act and thereby explicitly permitted the explosion of sub-prime mortgages, marketed by predatory lenders to
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Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) says Dick Cheney lied to him about the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq : "Did Dick Cheney ... purposely tell me things he knew to be untrue?" Armey said. "I seriously feel that may be the
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A group called Science Debate 2008 sent a list of questions about science and technology policy to Barack Obama and John McCain, covering such topics as science education, stem cell research, the politicization of science, space exploration, and numerous
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Your weekly reader of Tennessee liberal blogs is here . R. Neal has rounded up some great content this week, so grab a beverage and spend a while reading what Tennessee's progressosphere has been talking about. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg
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Today's Feel Good Friday is a triple feature. First, let's start off with Fats Domino singing "Ain't That A Shame": During that same era, the performer known as Little Willie John was an enormous influence on his peers; he was a pioneer of soul, R & B,

Hurricane Ike is fixing to beat the crap out of coastal Texas. For the fourth time in a month, the American Red Cross is having to respond to a hurricane. As a result of Fay, Gustav, and Hanna, the Red Cross has already incurred significant debt ; as
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I've applied a service pack to the platform running this site, and I've made some other (hopefully invisible) tweaks to the code behind it. If you notice anything out of sorts, leave a comment on this post or send me an email here . I'm not sure if everything
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This week, the Washington Post is running a series of excerpts from Bob Woodward's new book, "The War Within," which details the decision-making process leading up to the "surge" in Iraq. In yesterday's installment , Woodward detailed Bush's refusal to
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This week's roundup of Tennessee progressive bloggers is here . In addition to the roundup, R. Neal includes this note: SPECIAL NOTE: Our condolences to Katie Allison Granju , whose father passed away unexpectedly. You should go pay Katie a visit and
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This week's pick for Feel Good Friday is "True Fine Mama," by Little Richard: Play it. Get up and dance a little. It'll make you feel good. Share this post: Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit
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Legend has it (according to Seutonius) that the Roman emperor Caligula ordained his horse Incitatus as a priest , and threatened to install that same horse as one of Rome's two consuls (who acted more or less as vice-emperors). Caligula was by all accounts
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Today's tech buzz has been all about Google's release of its very own web browser, Chrome . I've seen tons of breathless blog posts, comments, and Twitter updates about this over the last 24 hours; hordes of people were eager to start downloading it the
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A Rutgers University study has been released that paints a somber picture for American workers : In its first national labor scorecard, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations said more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged
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