Yet another interest rate cut

[pieces o nine]

I am amazed by my own hostility towards this administration, and I cut my political teeth on Richard Nixon's presidency. (I don't 'hate' any of them, which reassures me somewhat when I see the knee-jerk facial contortions, hissing and vitriol that the word 'Clinton' seems to evoke in so many. I think Bill & Hillary have major flaws, but hate?  Wow.) I do think this administration is packed with inhuman beings and I want to see them (forced to) accept responsibility & just punishment, and make reparations for the willful, greedy evil they have done.

For the first time in my voting life, I almost begged  my entire family to vote for *anyone* else -- both times -- and got wishy-washy rebukes for my efforts. Some are single-issue voters who would vote for Satan himself if he promised that every fertilized human egg would be carried to full-term delivery. (They would note with satisfaction his additional planks for cutting birth control, WIC, Headstart, subsidized hot lunch programs, foster care, SCHIP ... but I digress.) Some have swallowed the premise that legally committed Gay couples will -- mysteriously -- undermine hetero marriages.

Others blindly accepted the very fuzzy geography and dodgy justifications for starting (two) Middle Eastern wars, and told me you can't change presidents in the middle of a war. (Not too aware of US History, eh.) My response: if you were being led off a cliff, would you reject a new leader who wanted to *not* take you off the cliff?" was not met with approval.

Now most -- not all -- of those same relatives are slinking off the W bandwagon and starting to say things like, "I knew he was bad news from the beginning!" They only say this around me once, as I give them THE LOOK.   What have they learned from this debacle? That real strength of character can be found in John "100 More Years! / Bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran" McCain. 

You're right about their plans to scurry like roaches to the brand new fam-damnily compound -- 98,840 acres  -- in Chaco, Paraguay. Part of me is surprised they would go to a region so ripe with hatred for US interference, but then, what European nation would tolerate such a land grab or want them? Oh well, we can take comfort in knowing that US military personnel (or their Blackwateresque equivalents, obscenely compensated with US tax dollars) will be providing overt or covert security from now until the Second Coming that his supporters are so eager to bring about.

In the words of Bill Maher, "Why do we always have to be the stupid country?"

[beagle]

Interesting article in the Torygraph about the Bear Stearns rescue.

article...

Apparently Bear probably (depending how much they closed-out since November ) had positions amounting to $13.4 trillion leveraged off just $80Bn in assets.

[Sibling Chatty]

Wanna chip in on a microwave for Chain-eye? 

Can we get one of those ones with the built in probe for meat, and can we make sure the probe's inserted into either his cirrhotic liver or that tiny black stone that his pacemaker's attached to?

Sure.