While we were all fixed on the the banking bailout shenanigans, the Senate passed another bailout when they approved $25 billion in taxpayer funded loans for US Automakers yesterday. Oh and the Democrats completed their total capitulation on offshore drilling at the same time…
Automakers gained $25 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans and oil companies won elimination of a long-standing ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as the Senate passed a sprawling spending bill Saturday.
The 78-12 vote sent the $634 billion measure to President Bush, who was expected to sign it even though it spends more money and contains more pet projects than he would have liked.
To start off, I am glad the bailout bill failed in the House. Handing out an arbitrary amount without any real idea how much is needed, $700 billion in this case, just because they needed a big number, is ridiculous.
With that said I found it absolutely hilarious that House Minority Leader John Boehner is blaming Speaker Pelosi’s supposedly partisan speech for the bill’s failure. He is claiming that because Pelosi was mean to the GOP that at least 12 Republican’s voted against the bill that he had counted on voting for it.
I wonder if he understands that he is saying A bill that he claims needed to be passed for the good of the country failed because Nancy Pelosi yelled at you? And I thought the Democrats lacked a spine…
In honor of John McCain again having to cover for his VP choice on policy issues, this time on Pakistan, I figured I would give everyone an opportunity to add a fitting caption to the photo below showing said VP candidate. I have added a few of my own.
- This is the amount of experience I would bring to the Vice Presidency…
- This is how much vetting I received before being chosen…
- This is how close my state is to Russia…
- This is how much of a chance I have of beating Joe Biden in a debate…
Photo courtesy of the National Enquirer from their story on Palin’s alleged affair with her husband’s former business partner.
Just like Evel Knievel, it looks like John McCain hasn’t found a stunt that he didn’t like.
Getting trashed in the polls? Just pick an unqualified Dick Cheney in a dress. Got a debate that you are worried about? Tell everyone you are suspending your campaign to help the country out of financial ruin and after throwing a monkey wrench into the process you return with your tail between your legs.
In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.
Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”
When George Bush needed a boost, he had his terror warnings. John McCain has Sarah Palin.
Now that the first Obama/McCain debate is in the books we can set our sights on the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday. So with that in mind here is a sample of what Joe Biden has waiting for him a few days from now.
UPDATE: Sarah Palin made another appearance on SNL last night in the guise of Tina Fey and it was absolutely hilarious not to mention dead on. Watch it:
Another of America’s great actors has passed away. News reports are coming out that Paul Newman has died at 83.
Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “The Color of Money”—and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario—has died. He was 83.
Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.
You will be missed.
“What we have here, is a failure to communicate” - Cool Hand Luke
Before the debate, McCain spokesmen tried to spin how, against his own earlier comments about suspending his campaign, McCain could attend the debate despite the fact that the bailout plan hadn’t been worked out.
With that in mind, the first thing I noticed during the debate was how McCain skirted that whole issue. That was his first mistake and it killed any benefits he might have gained with the stunt and then Obama made the mistake of not pressing him on it. Much of the rest of the debate was filled with talking points on both sides along with McCain harping on the perceived lack of experience by Obama followed by answers from Obama that showed that the did have at least some knowledge on the subject and McCain trying to hammer home his less than truthful points on Obama’s tax cuts.
Putting the above standard fare aside, 2 points did stick out to me only because they weren’t the usual campaign talking points. The first affects South Dakota and our burgeoning ethanol industry directly and it didn’t take long for locals to catch an off handed comment by McCain that he would end subsidies for ethanol. Ending subsidies would probably all but kill that otherwise unprofitable industry but yet McCain said he would also work to encourage alternative fuel vehicle production by the US auto makers which is currently dominated by E85 vehicles. How would that work?
The last issue that stuck out to me was McCain again touching on his plan to build 45 new nuclear power plants. I mentioned this a few months back and it seems that while he keeps mentioning the issue, he cannot say how he will get around the fact that a license to build such a plant hasn’t been issued since the 1970’s because of regulatory and waste disposal issues and the fact that no one wants a plant built anywhere near them.
Yucca mountain, our only designated waste facility, is years behind schedule and may never open at all and McCain wants to ad 45 more waste generating plants to the 104 we currently have. So where will we store it? Of course my first reaction was one of McCain’s 7 back yards but I digress.
Overall I thought that both candidates had their high and low points, I could sense Obama having problems from time to time getting his thoughts from his brain to his mouth resulting in a few uh’s and um’s and Senator McCain, would it be asking to much to look your opponent in the eye from time to time when addressing him?
In my opinion Obama showed that he isn’t as clueless on foreign affairs as McCain would like us to believe and considering this debate was all about foreign policy, Obama held his own. Of course what I believe doesn’t mean much but it seems I am not alone if the CNN post debate poll can be believed.
UPDATE: This must have struck a nerve with someone as it was pulled from YouTube for “possible copyright violations” but Huffington Post has a slide show from the video. Too bad as the original YouTube poster promised more footage including a flute recital.
Now that John McCain is done saving us from financial ruin and has decided to restart his campaign in time for tonight’s debate, the users of Twitter have come up with a neat little drinking game to play while watching McCain and Barack Obama duke it out.
The game tagged #McCainshot is a drinking game in which the participants take a drink each time Senator McCain says “friends” during the debate. While I am sure folks that play the game will get their fill of their favorite beverage, I hear that those that devised the game originally wanted to use “POW” but had to shelve the idea because no one would be standing by the end of the debate…
Speaking of Twitter, they have set up a subsite that constantly scours their database for all tweets referencing the candidates pretty much in real time. It’s an excellent way to track the pulse of the “Twitter Nation” and should be a lively place to monitor during tonight’s debate (which McCain apparently already won).
UPDATE: They have added a new game so that Barack Obama doesn’t feel left out. #obamashot will have you taking a drink each time Barack Obama says the word “change”.
I would strongly suggest that those playing the game either do it at home or bring along a designated driver because having to drink each time that McCain says “friends” and Obama says “change” will result in you reaching .08 BAC quite early in the evening.
