one more thing

Q: How do you know conservatism's dead?

A: T. Boone Pickens is now selling wind power. (And yes it's part of an elaborate real estate scheme, but he's calculating that the next political power center will be more likely to allow him to carry on his nefarious ends is going to be pro-wind power. And that sure as shit ain't the Republicans. So now he's OUR bastard.)

Welcome aboard, T. Boone!

Next up: Rupert Murdoch. Just you wait. Fox News is going to go under the knife within six months.

And if there's any justice, someone will find some dirt on Roger Ailes and throw him in prison, then bring every one of those motherf***ing administration officials (they know who they are) up on war crimes charges in the Hague, which we will be party to, because President Obama will have forced through the ratification of the treaty that binds us to the International Criminal Fucking Court. Ah...a man can dream...

things on my mind tonight

Sorry. I'm too lazy to put these in separate posts:

1. Armageddon
   Not maybe so much end of the world, maybe, but the end of the faux conservatism that post-Nixon Republicans morphed into. You know: the kind that wants to make the U.S. an empire. Now we're all going along for the ride! (Something about reaping and sowing is coming to mind.)
2. Democrats
   I'm scared shitless about this whole thing, but let's just take a shallow breath and think about how well the Democrats have been playing this thing, from a purely political standpoint. This definitely proves the "good policy is good politics" theory. They are so in their element it's nearly making me weep.
   
3. Maddow
   I love that thing that Rachel Maddow does where she scrolls through the dozen-plus Republicans she's tried to book on a particular segment to counter her Democratic guest. It's so deliciously aggressive and self-assured for a proud liberal. Again with the near weeping.
4. McCain
   He is so personally unhinged from any objective reality at this point (even his facial expressions have become like cartoon character versions of themselves), it nearly (yeah) makes me weep. But not the same kind of tears.

That's it for now...

Homepage

This should be your homepage.

Go change it. I'll wait.

Seriously.

And another thing (banks part deux)

I read several economics blogs, try to keep up with the Bloomberg website, etc. I've read a lot of breathless paragraphs about the big traditional banks taking over the investment banks and the smaller traditional banks. I have questions:

• Is there an economic upside in concentrating all the bad debt from the various failed institutions in only a few huge banks?
• It seems like a bank such as B of A, which has low exposure to the bad debt, becomes more, not less, unstable by taking on others' bad debt. Am I missing something?
• I keep hearing the phrase "too big to fail" used in conjunction with B of A, JP Morgan Chase, and Citi. Is that supposed to reassure me? Scare me? The phrase is never accompanied by follow-up analysis. If one of these banks is on the brink of failure (because of taking on the bad debt of all the smaller banks it's gobbled up), and the government has to step in, is this something the FDIC is equipped to handle, or will it require some other form of government intervention (nationalization, etc.)?
• Where's Wells in all of this? (see earlier post)
  

Banks

How many banks will be left in six months? Two? Three? And why isn't Wells being forced to swallow any of these bad companies? Why just B of A and Chase?

George Will

Not a fan of John McCain's:

For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people.