I’m Just a Bill

I will start off saying, I believe my money is somewhat safe in the bank.  Somewhat.  I’m trying not to panic.

Say what you want, Nancy Pelosi was justified in her comments (and you know I’m not fan of hers) and if the GOP wants to take their marbles and go home, so be it.  But I don’t think they can blame the Dems on not getting their bill passed.  You know - the one both W and McCain supported.  67% of the republican house voted ‘nay’ on it.

“They” doubt it will come back up on Thursday (at least as of last night), because those in the house who are up for re-election have to go campaign.  G-d - would you want to go to your constituency if you were running and had just voted down this bill?  Regardless of how iffy it was.

So, the bill tanked.  As did the market.  Biggest. Single. Day. Drop. Ever.

Just because I can’t seem to finish this in a dignified or educated way - I’ll just YouTube my way out of it. Well, link my way out of it - as the YouTube user disabled the embedding feature.  So just click here.   I know you think you saw it yesterday - but this isn’t all you think it is.

Song by: Jack Sheldon

No Song Title Today - Just Funny

Since I was traveling, I missed this when it originally aired. The SNL/Sarah Palin thing continues and Tina Fey is knocking it out of the park.

This segment is so much funnier than the initial outing a few weeks ago.

NBC will let you embed this video in just about any medium besides WordPress - so I’ll just have to link it here.  I’m sure every other blogger in the universe is posting this as well - but I’m a follower, so sue me.

Though Amy Poehler is good, her blinking was as distracting as when Katie Couric was doing it. Fey is absolutely terrific. The mix of direct Palin quotes with clear embellishments is flawless and funny - which is so not SNL.

I’m sure Fey is hoping Palin won’t win so she can stop doing double-duty, but until the election, she might be stuck.

The NBC site (even the embeded vid) is slow to buffer - at least from my house, so the time it takes to get through 6 minutes is frustrating, but worth it.  Eventually.

Tired

I just flew in from Nashville (and Chicago) and boy are my arms tired.  ……thank you ladies and germs!   I’ll be here all week - don’t forget to tip your server!

I’m sure I’ll get to stories in the next day or so, I’m just tarred (that’s Appalachian for ‘tired’ dontcha know).  So tired I actually dozed on a plane, which I never do.   I needed the rest.  My liver needed…no…DEMANDED… the rest!

And even better than stories:  pictures!!!   Maybe just one.  We’ll have to see.

I’m going on record though:  I hate O’Hare.  But I have yet to find one person who likes that airport.  Considering it is the busiest, or one of, I would assume someone likes it - but they are all elusive, much like the GOPer who really really hates Sarah Palin.  They are out there somewhere, but they ain’t talking.

The cats greeted me and then smelled me to see where I’ve been - places they’ll never get to, just smell on me.  Then they went about their regular everyday cat business….whatever that is.   Denton did pretty much the same.

Song by:  Lili Von Shtupp

Lies

Well, I found this funny.

Song by: Knickerbockers

Crazy

I had started another post regarding the economy when the crazy that is McCain hit the airwaves and blogosphere.

What a freak.

For full disclosure - yes, I’m a democrat, but I have no issue with pointing out the flaws of my party. You’ve read this blog - right?  The DNC and their folks can be just as big of fuck-ups.

But my g-d!  These last 12 hours have been hilarious, but I can already see how the GOP will spin it.  Everyone can - and though it is full of hole, ones you can drive tractor-trailers through, it won’t stop them.  And my fear is middle america will ignore it.

McCain going to personally solve the credit crisis so we don’t go into the Great Depression II, as he stated yesterday on CBS!  Mind you - eight days ago he said “the fundamentals of the economy are strong”.   That’s quite an eight days, don’t you think?

I’ve heard nothing out of McCain’s mouth on how to salvage the goings-on over the last few weeks.   Hell, even Meredith Viera took McCain to task about his stance on not giving rewards to CEOs who put us in this mess.   …..well, except for his own financial adviser, Carly Fiorina who got a $45 million golden parachute while 20,000 HP folks lost their jobs.

I’ve kind of stopped watching Keith Olbermann, but I really really really suggest you watch (on-line) his show from last night.  I don’t know it’s easy to do, but you can podcast it.  You don’t really need the visuals.   The show really encapsulates the weirdness of the last day.

I have to be in Nashville for the next three days (don’t ask) and not sure I am going to blog, but I was planning on getting drunk and watching the first debate.  Now, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do that.

….except the getting drunk part.

Song by: Icehouse

People Talkin’

Monday night we went to Cleveland State’s Town Hall lecture series. Last year, we saw quite a few good talks - and this year kicked off with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and her husband, former Clinton-era State Department spokesman, James Rubin.

Each got their 30-45 minutes at the podium, along with a joint Q&A session afterwards.

The event was the best one I’ve seen. Clearly, they are a well-informed couple, and well spoken. I love when someone comes out without notes and clearly doesn’t need them, even if they did.

Each had great insight to how the world has come to view us over the last decade. And while both were fairly objective, Amanpour was more so than her husband. I guess that’s her job though as a journalist. Rubin was a little less partisan, but he didn’t let that get in the way of his analysis of who we are perceived.

There was some discussion and questions about the upcoming election. Neither had predictions or wishes (ok, maybe Rubin did) - other than how to get ourselves out of the hole we’ve made for ourselves.  But they both likened the U.S. to being a 12 year old when it comes to Iran.   You just can’t ignore them - it’s not a good diplomatic strategy.  The last 5-6 Secretary of States agree with them - save Ms. Rice.

The crowd was good and intelligent, but I guess you kind of figure people who goes to these things don’t normally attend Monster Truck Rallys.    Normally!

The next one is with Eleanor Clift, whom I really like.  It’s odd, but I never read her in Newsweek - mainly because we don’t get Newsweek.  But I do watch her on the McLaughlin Group weekly - and have for about the last two decades.  How scary is that?

Anyhoo, she will be at the next lecture, which is before the election, so that should be good.

Song by: Lucinda Williams

Record of the Month

I figured I’d do a monthly ‘what I’m listening to’ kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it’s my blog! So there!

These may or may not be newly released disks. They might not even be a good disk - just what is been in heavy rotation in my car (as usually the iPod is playing anywhere else). Whoa! has Lindsey Buckingham not aged well - physically.  How many covers shots were taken before they finally settled on this beauty?  eeek.  He looks like a beaten man.

Buckingham, however, has aged just fine musically.  At least with Gift of Screws.  His solo album track record isn’t all that great.  I say that every other disk he releases is listenable.  That is not to say they aren’t all interesting, just not everyday kind of fare.

Gift is his only his fifth release in 27 years. He clearly peaked with 1992’s Out of the Cradle, and while 2006’s Under the Skin was great musically, lyrically and vocally it majorly lacked.  And that is has always been his biggest issue as a solo artist.  Buckingham is clearly a great arranger, producer and guitarist - possibly one of the most underrated guitarists that is out there.  But the experimentation he started on Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk has gotten the better of him.

Without other singers/songwriters/musicians to balance his quirks, sometimes he just comes off as the Howard Hughes of pop music.

That being said - Gift of Screws brings Buckingham back to center.  Left of center for sure, but a bit more normalcy for the listening public.  There are Tusk and Cradle elements in the songs, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say it sounds like any of this other albums.  But some of them sound some of this other songs.  I don’t think he can help himself with his multi-layered vocals.  Not a bad thing, and it is not nearly as annoying as it was on Under the Skin.

Yeah, I’m a sucker for late 70s Fleetwood Mac, so I find the best songs to be “Did You Miss Me” and “Love Runs Deeper”.  His guitar work on songs like “Bel Air Rain” is exemplary (as it is on “Time Precious Time” - but with weak weak vocals), but how does the beginning of “A Right Place to Fade” not pull directly from his Rumours song, “Second Hand News”?  …and not just the beginning, I guess.  “Underground” and “Treason” reflect some Cradle work.

Incorporating the past with the present isn’t a horrible thing or equates to selling out.  There is only so long one can stand out on the edge beforealienating your buying public.  Buckingham has stepped off that edge, possibly just in time.

Will the disk get any kind of radio or VH1 support?  No, but it is a decent disk that should at least have the chance to be heard.

Brothers in Arms

I’m not a huge Maureen Dowd fan - at least her writing. Granted, she has a Pulitzer and I don’t, but I just don’t have the peeps to get me nominated for anything. Hell, I can’t even get a Bloggie.

No matter.

I do like her when she appears on shows like Real Time w/Bill Maher. She is intelligent and witty, but sometimes her columns just come across as annoying. Kind of like yesterday’s.

….I said ‘kind of like…’.

To be fair, it is in the style which she’d write - faux conversations between real politicians. But she didn’t write this - it was Aaron Sorkin. It is a fictional conversation between Obama and Sorkin’s fictional president, Jed Bartlet.

I was a big West Wing fan.  At least the Sorkin years.  It was well written and even insightful to the inner-workings of politics.  Exaggerated to a degree?  Sure, but the points were made.  I used the title of the post from one of their better episodes - which was possibly the best incorporation of a song into a drama show.  Sure, it begat every show from using the trick and now it’s overdone and not done well.

Most of the article is throw-away, which is why if you didn’t read the intro, you’d just assume it was Dowd who authored the piece. But it’s not until about three-fourths into the article that it gets to the heart of the matter. Feel free to follow the above link to read the entire thing, or you can just go to what I’m cutting and pasting below.

To set the scene, Obama has come to New Hampshire to get the advice of former President Bartlet.
OBAMA: What would you do?

BARTLET: GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA: So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET: No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

Amen.  That was me, not Sorkin.

Song by: Dire Straits

Closer and Closer Apart

UGH.

The only thing worse than waking up to devastating financial news is devastating election news.

McCain is ahead in Ohio.  48-42%.  I swear, it has making my stomach turn all morning.  Yeah, I could get a big-ass Obama sign for our corner lot, but the reality is, Obama will carry Cleveland.  It’s the southern, more podunk areas (yeah, I’m talkin’ to you New Lebanon, Wapakoneta and Cincinnati) with their gun-toting, papa don’t preach, I’m keeping my baby, ways.

Yes, it is the white voters, more specifically, the white man, who is tipping the scales for the old white man.  Same old political machine.  Same old story, same old song and dance.  Possibly 4-8 more years of this shit.

Since 1944, Ohioans have sided with the losing candidate only once – opting for Nixon over Kennedy in 1960.   Double UGH.

I hate the ill-informed.  Like a man quoted in the paper today saying he will vote for McCain because of the democrats stance on abortion. oooooooooooookay .   When will someone inform him that McCain (personally) is pro-choice.  Politically, maybe not.   But then all democrats are not pro-life either.

Ok - there is some good news. I hope.   These polls were done two weeks ago - before Bear Stearns, before AIG, before the proposed $700 BILLION  bail-out.

Here are some McCain’s quotes from a few months ago: ‘I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.” Or this one, “The Issue Of Economics Is Not Something I’ve Understood As Well As I Should.”

Don’t get me started on Palin and her spin on economics.

Denton points out to me, that while yes, all this is true, people (read: voting public) don’t read the papers or political journals.  I hate it when he’s right.

I can barely wait for the debates….and then on the other hand, I don’t want to see.

Song by: Mary Chapin Carpenter

Ain’t No Money

AIG, Lehmen and Bears. Oh my.

Opening my hotel room door each morning this last week to pick up the Washington Post - each day’s headline worse than the day’s before. I just couldn’t stand to read it all. The pall over the city was amazing. I’m sure it was all cities, but man, I could not imagine being anywhere near Wall Street.

I’m scared to death to log on to the Fidelity website to see how demolished my 401k is after this last week. If there is a dime left in it, I’d be slightly surprised.

But what do you do? I mean really?

If I take it out, I incur a huge penalty. If I let it stay in ‘because it can only get better’ and it doesn’t - well, I’m fucked too. The irony is, of course, that I was never going to be able to retire. There ain’t no money enough that I could ever put into it or invest into something else that I could have to live without working.

And if I could have - I think this week’s tanking economy might have made the ‘work till you die’ thing a reality.

Really, how much worse can it get? After Freddie/Fannie, I would have said it had to take an upswing, but oh, how wrong I was. Now, I’m wondering if history will be repeating itself, ala 1929.

I am really quite surprised that no media has mentioned that - Black Friday. But really, why couldn’t it all just implode? It’s not unprecedented. I think the media and administration knows if they did even hint at it that, the panic would be colossal.

And I have no faith in the FDIC, that my money is insured and protected. Even if it is, the process of getting any (not all) of it back, I would have to live years on a bread-line before I saw a penny of that.

Clearly I have no actual basis in this. I’m not an economist, but I do listen to Marketplace daily!

The Bush administration has been so out touch on the economy, since day one, that no one months ago could agree that we were (or were not) in a recession. They didn’t dare utter its name. It’s beyond recession time folks.

…and now another bail-out?????  They say it’s government, but what it is is you and I paying for the fuck-ups that “didn’t see this coming”.   You know that check some of us got to stimulate the economy a few months back?  Do you?   Guess what - now you get to pay that back like 5-fold.

Yes, this bail-out will cost each household $7,044.  Weren’t the stimulus checks only $1,600 per family?   At least W still thinks the fundamentals of our economy are strong!  It’s a sad day when our stockmarkets rise when the Bush administration steps in.  Not sad - SCARY!

A recent on-line CNN poll says that most americans don’t believe that W & Co. can even stabilize (not get it moving in the right direction) the economy.

Yes, it’s ‘not a scientific poll’, but seriously, who are these 19%? They must all be Bush staffers who voted 2,000 times each. I can see Laura on her Commodore 64, hitting refresh over and over again.

I have three clients already who are looking at the possibility of terminating our services just so they can cross a line-item off their budget. Mind you, it is service they will have to pay for somewhere else, but it looks good to the bean counters. Just the other day one laid off 100 HR reps. (First off, who has 100 HR reps?)

Yes, I believe it will get worse before better. Mind you, I think this will hurt McCain more than help him, but g-d help us if he wins. He and Palin will start WWIII to jump-start the economy. I just know it.

Song by: Rosanne Cash