Breaking news, that legendary actor Paul Newman has died.
From an NYT News Alert;
Paul Newman Has Died at 83, His Spokeswoman Says
The actor Paul Newman has died at 83 of cancer, his spokeswoman told The Associated Press. Mr. Newman, whose career spanned five decades, was also a prominent social activist, a major proponent of actors' creative rights and a noted philanthropist. He was nominated for Academy Awards 10 times, and won a best actor Oscar in 1987 for "The Color of Money."
Kind of stunning, as I hadn't been hip to the fact that he has been ill.
For me, and my generation, as youngsters, he would have been the equal today of this generations' Tom Hanks, appearing in dozens and dozens of movies, and always the consummate pro.
Then again, there's a generation, or two that know him as the salad dressing or popcorn guy.
While he won an Oscar for 'The Color of Money', I thought that was somewhat of a "make-up" call ... He should have won it a few years before, for the monster performance he gave in 'The Verdict'.
He looked like a third grader, called to the front of the class to do a reading, with each question asked.
And, while Barack Obama was laying out his views and vision as to the economy, Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, fairly often, ignored the substance of the question (or what Obama had to say), and repeatedly prattled on about spending and earmarks, like he was hitting slow pitches in a batting cage (and quite proud of himself for hitting a lot of singles).
This carried on in the area of Foreign Policy and Iraq.
Obama's best moment, likely, came, when he showered Cranky Johnny with a litany of "You Were Wrong", about the various issues around Iraq.
Oh yeah, Obama also reminded Cranky Johnny, that the war in Iraq had been going on for near five-years - BEFORE THE SURGE - which Cranky John seemed to be staking his territory on.
Cranky John, looking to dig himself out of the hole, went not to his POW-POW-POW super ring, but bored through stories of seeing 650 soldiers re-up in Iraq (and telling him all they wanted to do was win), and how he got a bracelet from some soldier.
Obama, with all the coolness of someone who knows they are right, simply held up his wrist, and informed Cranky John that he had one also.
On the international stuff, Cranky John got all full of himself, on how Obama is going to meet with Wicked Witch of the West, and all her Flying Monkeys, without preconditions and didn't appreciate Obama pointing back to him how, 1) The Bush Grindhouse, in a reversal, adopted some diplomacy and 2) Cranky John's own advisor, Dr. Death, aka Henry Kissinger, said exactly the same thing Obama has said.
Cranky John waited until the final moment to pull out his POW-POW-POW super ring, and he only said "My Friends" once.
Both candidates exasperated moderator Jim Leher, by not answering (and he asked it four times) what they would cut out of their plans, if elected, due to the Wall Street Meltdown and Hank's Heist Plan.
In summing it up, I peg it as no knockouts, no major gaffes.
While you could hear, ringing throughout the evening Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny (and Cranky John) often saying how he has been in Congress forever and he knows how to do things, over-and-over, and that came out on the Super Titles and Closed Caption as "Trust Me", while Obama articulated substantive answers, depicting vision and plans, and a commitment to restoring the country's place in the world.
If this debate was supposed to be in Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny's wheelhouse (a much over-used phrase on the cable this evening), then it's going to be all downhill in the rest of the debates.
Next up - Palin vs. Biden (Hey, Hey, Hey, no laughing out loud, yet).
Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain calls off his Mighty Mouse ("Here I come to save the day!"), "My sister-My daughter" campaign suspension and is rolling down to Ole' Miss for the debate this evening.
Hard pressed to come up with a good example of when a national-stage politician has so thoroughly embarrassed him or herself (excluding his running mate).
By virtually all accounts (excepting of course, his own staff), he was utterly useless, and his ploy was seen for what it was - big-time grandstanding, putting not his bank-slogan "Country First" up front, but, rather, his flailing, dying campaign (or, by a good number of people, it was done to cover-up the dreadful Katie Couric - Sarah Palin interview; If he's going to start covering up for her, he's going to have to light his hair on fire nearly everyday).
So, not sure what that means for the country.
He's still watching over us? ... He doesn't care anymore? ... It will still be a deal, but just not his?
Anyway, here's a good sample of the vibe going down ....
I'm intending (hoping) to get another post up late this evening, with, at minimum, first riffs on the debate.
Will Mr. Economy snap at Obama, with an angry something (not the "N" word, but, perhaps a "son" or "boy")?
While we listen to Obama answering a question, we hear a "thud", the camera cutting over to Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, who has fallen asleep at the podium?
And, as always, polish the "My Friends" counter before the debate, you can expect a slew of them coming out, and the more "My Friends" that come out, the more that means he's on auto-pilot, just going through the motions.
Where, oh where can my little 10 Town Halls be Where, oh where can they be ... With my campaign cut short and his lead getting long Oh where, oh where can they be?
Allow me to rant here. Jesus, he just doesn't get it.
While the bigger buzz, coming from the Brian Williams interview with Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain yesterday is over the "I'm a betting man", referring to whether or not he will show up at the debate this evening, Fly Boy took another opportunity to hawk his "town hall meetings", again chiding Barack Obama for not agreeing to them.
And, it's hard to say, if he's acting like a petulant little child, stamping his feet in a tantrum, or, perhaps closer, to reality, it's in the area of dementia and senility.
And, this is the second time in the past few weeks that he has harped on this, previously, actually blaming Obama's not accepting the town hall meetings for the lying, negative campaign he has run.
"First of all, this is a tough business. Second of all, I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in town hall meetings all over America, the same way Jack Kennedy and Barry Goldwater had agreed to do so. I know that, because I've been in enough campaigns."
You can lay odds he'll, almost definitely, and especially if he is sweating and screwing up, make this charge again (or, in the post-debate spin is where it will pop up).
It's probably a good idea, that on the day you light your own hair on fire, and you happen to be booked on the David Letterman Show, you should follow through with the booking, and drag your charred, sorry-ass onto the stage.
Shortly after announcing he was putting the Dead Campaign Express up on blocks, he ducked out of the Letterman gig, and David Letterman spent virtually the entire program skewering Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny for it.
Especially so, when it was discovered he wasn't rushing back to Washington, to lend his thimble-sized expertise to the current economy woes, as was the reason he gave for lighting his hair on fire (and, we should add, going against the advice of his financial mentor, Phil Gramm, whined about needing to bag out of the debate tomorrow evening, if Hank's Heist was a done deal by that time).
If, by chance, you just got zapped onto earth, had a quick crash course on its' culture, and then viewed this interview, you might come way with thinking, that Katie was still in her NBC 'Today Show' mode, interviewing some turnip from the latest new reality show.
It's only a short snip, about 5-minutes, but it could .... Possibly ... It could leave Leonard Pinth Garnell speechless.
Just got an email from a good friend, who hipped me to a on-line poll by PBS's 'Now' program, asking the question "Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States?"
It came with the caveat, that the Right Wing was bag-jobbing it, stacking the vote for Mommy Moose (I just voted, and, incredulously, the "Yes" vote for Mommy Moose was ahead, 50% to 49%).
Yeah, right ...
The typical PBS demo is going to stand behind the Whiz from Wasilla...
It may very well come to dawn on them, the Wall Street chieftains, how lucky they are, as they sit and wait to see if Uncle Sam is going to dole out a wheelbarrel of cash to them for screwing up.
Other CEO's, and one in particular, don't, necessarily, have the luxury of that option;
Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.
Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, a manufacturer of car parts that has its headquarters in Italy, died of severe head wounds on Monday after being attacked by scores of laid-off employees, police said. The incident, in Greater Noida, followed a long-running dispute between the factory’s management and workers demanding better pay and permanent contracts.
And, much like Wall Street (and to use Joe Pesci's line), "Always the dollars ...Always the fuckin' dollars";
A spokesman for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said: “Such a heinous act is bound to sully India’s image among overseas investors.”
In today's Murdoch Street Journal, Charles Calomiris and Peter Wallison lay down the case for blaming the Wall Street Meltdown on Democrats, Congress, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Incredulously, not one Republican was castigated, and, in particular, one conspicuous Republican. The Commander Guy ... The court-appointed 43rd President, George W. Bush.
Much like Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny throws rocks at Barack Obama, over "The Surge", while completely ignoring the first five-plus years of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Calomiris and Wallison also choose not to look too far in the rear-view mirror.
"...if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country."
-President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004
Expanding Homeownership. The President believes that homeownership is the cornerstone of America's vibrant communities and benefits individual families by building stability and long-term financial security. In June 2002, President Bush issued America's Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities. The President also announced the goal of increasing the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families before the end of the decade. Under his leadership, the overall U.S. homeownership rate in the second quarter of 2004 was at an all time high of 69.2 percent. Minority homeownership set a new record of 51 percent in the second quarter, up 0.2 percentage point from the first quarter and up 2.1 percentage points from a year ago. President Bush's initiative to dismantle the barriers to homeownership includes:
* American Dream Downpayment Initiative, which provides down payment assistance to approximately 40,000 low-income families; * Affordable Housing. The President has proposed the Single-Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit, which would increase the supply of affordable homes; * Helping Families Help Themselves. The President has proposed increasing support for the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunities Program; and * Simplifying Homebuying and Increasing Education. The President and HUD want to empower homebuyers by simplifying the home buying process so consumers can better understand and benefit from cost savings. The President also wants to expand financial education efforts so that families can understand what they need to do to become homeowners.
Can't have an Ownership Society if no one is buying and owning anything.
You gotta move some product, get the numbers up, rack-up testimonials, create the soundbites and talking points to build up the program.
So, however Fannie and Freddie were managed and/or mismanaged, they had a mandate to sell the legacy, the Ownership Society and sell they did.
As did the rest of the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds on Wall Street, dissecting it every which way, so as many cronies as possible could get a piece of the money pie.
Here's some riffs on the great "Ownership Society";
You won’t be hearing much at the Republican Convention about jobs and wages, because job growth has stalled and wages are stagnant. But you will hear about something Republicans are now calling the "Ownership Society." The notion is to expand private ownership through more tax cuts on capital investments, tax credits for saving and privatized Social Security.
Face it: The Republican "Ownership Society" is hokum. Ownership of America is now more concentrated than since the days of the Robber Barons of the 19th century. The richest 1 percent of America owns more than the the bottom 90 percent put together.
Calomiris and Wallison also leave out that it was still, at that time, a Republican-dominated Congress, that was rubber-stamping anything and everything coming out of the Bush Grindhouse.
Calomiris and Wallison also were forgetful in mentioning that two close aides to the Republican nominee for President this year, were retained by Fannie and Freddie, as lobbyists, to, among other things, resist regulation and oversight.
Calomiris and Wallison, both, are from the American Enterprise Institute, which has been, for all intents-and-purpose, a second West Wing for the Bush Grindhouse.
Between Hank Paulson's attempted coup, Faux News, and others, laying down the meme of blaming the people who bought houses during this period (and many of them, first in line, as to getting royally screwed), this drivel blaming everyone but the Republicans, break out the umbrellas, as you can expect significant more bullshit to be thrown before the week is over.
I've been a bit jammed up on the homefront, and, likely, will be for another day (right now, I am aiming to get back to posting, regular-like, tomorrow (Tues) evening, or Wed AM, at the latest).
But it's hard sitting on the sidelines, so, a few, brief observations.
Hank Paulson ... Al Haig ... Al Haig ... Hank Paulson
Not since those heady days of Reagan's Morning After, have we had such a low-rent, second-banana, administration hack look to take over control of the government.
Henry "Hank" Paulson is showing Alexander Haig what a piker he was.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
I mean, considering his background (He came from Goldman Sachs - I don't believe you need to fire up Google Maps to know where they are), it was already the fox guarding the hen house, and now, with this Ponzi-inspiring scam, The Commander Guy is greenlighting handing out the contract for guarding all the hen houses, to said same fox.
Simply breathtaking, in its' raw, naked sleaziness.
Fortunately, there's nearly universal, fist-pounding, raised-eyebrows, no-fucking-way steam building up, notably from Senator Chris Dodd, with an alternative that dwarfs Hank's plans, in details.
The heavy-duty arguments, and horse-trading begins in Congress tomorrow (undoubtedly, under the attack of fear bombs being lobbed by the Bush Grindhouse).
But for now, Hank's Heist looks pretty similar to something else;
Not sure I'm going to get to posting everything today, so we'll put this down as a marker (and a good one, at that).
In the event you are beguiled, haunted, obsessed, or, otherwise, just curious, about the music in the newest Apple iPod commercial ("I tried to do handstands for you ... I tried to do handstands for you ..."), here it is in full.
