4th and 8 on the Geezer 29

The last bits of economic data before the election just came out.  And… it’s a recession.  (You knew this, but the Commerce Department just fessed up.) 

3rd Quarter GDP: 0.3% FAIL.  Initial jobless claims this week?  Well, there are 479,000 new socialists out there.  (Welcome!  Coffee and danish out in the hall if you want some — help yourself.)  Oh: and Exxon Mobil beat expectations on its earnings this morning and had a record-breaking quarter.  (This is a recording.) 

Hopey can spin all three numbers today.  Geezer and Tailbunny have to find a radical professor at Northwestern to harp on (UIC and U of C are tapped out for that at this point) — don’t you worry… National Review is on the case as we speak.

And there it is.  Only two things can save the old man now: something that allows Geezer to spin terrorism (Osama or Mahmoud popping off, the military killing al-Qaeda’s number two for the sixteenth time, etc.), or a massively effective vote suppression effort (which has been a big pile of nope thus far, the efforts of GOPers notwithstanding).  Both still could happen.  But: my cautious optimism meter is ticking upwards, slightly.

44 Comments

It’s too bad that PG brought the intellectual equivalent of a penknife to an artillery duel.

The Perfect Storm, really. I thought 2006 was the perfect storm. I was wrong. Cocktober hypocrisy and corruption aren’t as big as this one.

1) The EPIC FAIL of 30 years of “FUCK YOU I GOT MINE” Liberturdian economic policies. Greenspan even said so. It’s funny that the Libertarians are scrambling to say that they ARE NOT AT FAULT. On a very shallow level they are not, but they own a large chunk because their policies ENABLED the economic disaster we are staring at. Inherent goodness of the indivisible hand my cynical ASS!
2) Wingnuts true insanity exposed for what it is. If we (the world) didn’t have the tubez then the US would have had an Elmer Gantry type elected. Hello theocracy. I’m pretty sure PG would have been offed.

Word to the GOP: It is time for you to reboot as your old crazy religious fanatic codgers and absolute anarchist free marketers are keeling off or have been incredibly discredited. You are facing teh EPIC FAIL and you must change lest you put yourself in a corner even more.

I pray that if Unicorn wins, the economy will recover in time for the 2010 midterms, and just like in ’02’s midterms, the party in the White House will actually maintain their hold on Congress or increase their majority, allowing for a complete disaster heading to Talibunny’s candidacy in 2012.

RomeBoy is convinced they have Osama in a room somewhere and are going to cart him out over the weekend.

@RomeGirl: I’m not convinced that would be a net win for either side. But it has been awhile since the terror level has been raised. Mustering the National Guard at polling stations in key voting districts is an option not entirely off the table.

@ManchuCandidate:

Shorter Alan Greenspan: “The substantial easing of monetary policy to date, combined with ongoing measures to foster market liquidity, should help to promote moderate growth over time and to mitigate risks to economic activity, yet I remain shocked that a financial system grounded in the selfishness and conservatism prescribed by Ayn Rand and championed by officials like myself has resulted in bankers and hedge fund managers acting selfishly.”

@RomeGirl: Nah, if so, they wouldn’t be bombing the shit out of Pashtun over the objections of the Pakistanis, they are trying real real hard to get Osama, which shows they don’t have him. He’s b een dead for years anyway.

@Prommie:
I don’t know if he’s dead, but he’s kinda quiet. I guess satellite imagery still can’t find a 6’5″ guy walking around with a dialysis machine.

@blogenfreude: I always pictured Rand as something like Cloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein. She was known for boinking her young acolytes, so just picture it, young Greenspan, doing the nasty with Cloris Leachman, its spectacularly dirty, isn’t it? The most self-absorbed, selfish sex ever in the history of the world; two people, each engaging in solitary sex together, masturbating by rubbing their bits against each other.

@Prommie:
Thank you. My penis has shrunk and is now an innie and I just puked up my breakfast.

@Prommie: Did you see that freaky movie with Eric Stoltz about Rand and her weird-ass sex life? It was the most depressing thing ever. I saw it randomly one night on Italian television and was like, WTF is this?

@nabisco: The National Guard? With all the shit that has gone down in recent elections, I vote for the U-freaking-N.

@RomeGirl: Let’s get Manchu to get us some Canadian blue-helments.

@RomeGirl: Sounds like I should be glad I missed it. I came by my knowledge of Rand because I detest objectivists, and objectivism, and I tend to read up on things I hate.

One of the topics that fascinates me more than anything is how it comes to be that great numbers of people come to fervently believe palpable nonsense. I am a student of idiocy, a fancier of folly. There are those who believe, for example, that Madonna has a “talent” for “music” and “dancing.” It was once thought necessary to give retards lobotomies to prevent them from playing with themselves and fucking. Some beleive that markets will regulate themselves through some magical “invisible hand.” The people who sold Enzyte made millions.

@Prommie: I actually loved Atlas Shrugged, but as a story; I read it not realizing what it was or knowing anything about Rand. Then I researched her, and felt dirty.

Prommie: Sold? They’re still around.

Hell, on the radio this morning I heard an ad for a pill that would help with your prostate gland — has 100 times more saw palmetto than a regular saw palmetto tablet. Seriously.

nabisco: I was just thinking that this morning. But the thing is that they have to do it soon. Maximum impact would be, say, this freaking afternoon. The narrative has to be repeated for a few days so that it can take hold. If they drop it on, say, Monday night, it might not do them any good. (OTOH: there’s no opportunity for counterprogramming from the Obamaplex if shit drops on Monday.)

ADD: maybe we have this all wrong. It could be like the Iranian hostages — Osama is found(ish) day before Barry gets (hope against hope) sworn in. Bush rehabilitation begins with a bang.

@rptrcub:
Sorry. Most of our “boys” are in Afghanistan right now cleaning up W’s mess. All we have left is our Mounties (+1 for RomeGirl.)

@RomeGirl: You are the first person I ever told this, but I loved The Fountainhead. I also didn’t see it as anything but a story. And to look at it now, well, the only author I would compare her to is Tom Clancy. As in, horrible.

@chicago bureau: Mormonism is still around, too. Boggles the mind.

@RomeGirl: @Prommie: Fountainhead is sufferable, but Atlas Shrugged is pure farce, long before they reach the Valley of the Dollar Sign.

@Prommie: Glad I haven’t heated up my leftover chicken fried rice yet …

@Prommie: @nojo: I would have loved the Fountainhead if I had read it first, but it was Atlas Shrugged for me. I tried to read it again recently, and couldn’t get through it. It’s a shame, because I really liked the story – of them growing up, and them as people. I would love to be able to chop out about 1200 pages of it, though, the valley stuff and the dogma. Just keep it about them.

In other news, RomeBoy’s therapist, an American, is trying to get a region-wide election expat party together on 11/4. Your foreign correspondent might have a juicy assignment!

@RomeGirl: Bring your cameraphone, or swipe somebody else’s. The election jam opens at 7 a.m. Eastern Tuesday morning, and I wanna see lots of Americana followed by everyone getting shitfaced at parties worldwide.

@RomeGirl. prommie, nojo: I guess my readings on the heavy metal genre, “Fargo Rock City”, “Sound of the Beast”, and “The Dirt: Motley Crue” fall somewhat short of the standard set by you all.

@nojo: Excuse my french, but I fucking have to fucking work on fucking election fucking day, giving a fucking 6-hour fucking seminar, and then I fucking have to do it again the fucking day fucking after. Which means I have to fucking be fucking alert and fucking coherent. I am not bitter or angry though, nooooo.

@redmanlaw: I loooved Fargo Rock City. Still don’t understand how anyone can listen to that shit, though.

@RomeGirl: There are already foreign election observers here, who are at the mercy of local polling officials. Cascos azules, on the other hand, have to be authorized by the UNSC. My wife’s parents had to help feed a bunch of Bangladeshis during one of the many sieges in the Great Balkan Wars of the early 90s cuz their government forgot to give them rations. Or bullets.

I meant the Guard deployed to gin up the Fear. That is voter supression for the 21st century…

@Prommie: @nabisco: The word is merde. Two years of college French, and all I remember is that and counting to ten.

@Prommie: The “Fargo Rock City” guy was more into hair metal/pop such as Cinderella and Warrant, but it was a hell of a fun book. My top three bands: Metallica, Tool, Sabbath. The only change in the last ten years has been to sub Tool for AC/DC. The documentary film “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey” was also great. Sometimes runs on VH1, but I got it through Netflix. Then there’s Metallica’s “Live Shit: Binge and Purge” CD and DVD set – Tallica in their late 80s-early 90s awesomeness.

Speaking of “Jailllll-break!” I’m headed home for the day to nurse the cold.

@redmanlaw: RML, no offense to heavy metal, when I said “that shit,” I was referring to the hair bands, it was brave of that dude to admit, let alone write a book, extolling his love of hair-band power-ballads. Heavy metal, oy, I won’t go so far as to call it “that shit,” and love some Ozzy, some AC/DC.

My three favorites? The Killers, The Replacements, The Beatles. The Ramones, The Clash. Make it five. All with the “The.” I should like The The, but I don’t.

The Killers are really up there. Yes, they’re a little Radioheady, but they have lots of depth, lots of range, first band in 30 years about which I can say I have never heard a song by them I did not like. I think they are a Beatles, Stones level band for real.

@Prommie: As do I, to handle calls for Ivory Tower eeelitist experts to speak on the Adkisson Brigades and/or the coup d’etat. And I’ve got to be up bright and early for a lecture about the new prezndent and the future of US health care — which should be interesting, actually.

@Prommie: The Stooges. The Experience. The Jam. The Crickets. The Monkees. The Knack.

Works for me!

@nabisco: The Call, The Verve, The Strokes, The Cure, The Damned, The Kinks, The Modern Lovers. Still working.

@nabisco: Did somebody mention Head around these parts recently? It’s the post-series Monkees movie, co-written by Jack Nicholson, and it’s a lot better than it deserves to be.

@Prommie: Thas cool, metal likes being hated. It’s part of the ethos.

I though “merde” was the word of the day?

@Prommie: The Smiths, The Zombies, The Who, The Police, …

@redmanlaw: Merde is always the word of the day.

@Prommie: Me too. I have a brief due in the Ninth Circuit on Nov 5. I need to have it done by Nov 3 or it will be 14,000 words of gibberish.

Wait a minute! I thought diapers was the word of the day.

@redmanlaw: Which brings me to a wonderful, silly, stupid song:

Danse sur la merde
qui passe à la radio
danse sur la merde
qui passe a la radio
tout le monde, tout le monde
cherche quelque chose à faire alors,
danse sur la merde
qui passe a la radio

@Prommie:

I’m actually leaving Saturday for vacation to visit my mom, so I won’t even have internet access during the actual election (!!!!!). Damn, I’m gonna miss you stinquers. (The Mr. and I mailed in our ballots weeks ago).

On the upside, I’ll be in the ideal location to go totally fetal should the worst occur.

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