Jesus Use Me

Original here

EVERYONE fucked up in this mess

Forgive me but I've just about had enough with all the bitching and finger pointing going on out there.

Everyone fucked up.

The home buyers fucked up for not being more sensible when it came to getting questionable mortgages. The brokers fucked up when they saw the dollars rolling in and threw caution to the wind when trying to persuade people to get those questionable mortgages. The investment bankers fucked up when they got clever trying to find new ways to turn crap into gold (at least long enough for them to make a killing). The media fucked up for giving into the excitement of the good times and only reporting how much money people were making and not pointing out the $700 billion elephant in the living room. The politicians fucked up for arguing for (or just going along with arguments) that an unregulated free market was God and it would take care of weeding out the evil people so that all would be goodness and light. And the voters fucked up because they bought into all the happy talk and put these guys into power in the first place.

So when I hear voters complaining about having to pay for that $700 billion dollar elephant a part of me can't help but think: Fuck you! You voted for these assholes! What did you expect? Now just sit back and take your medicine and quit your bitching!

Thought for the day

When you have the angels on your side the last thing you want to do is be an ass about it.

I just wanna fly!

Some people are suspicious of Obama because they think he is politically pragmatic and therefore not the fighter they want him to be.

I am certain that Obama is politically pragmatic and that is why I support the guy. Yes, I know that means he will sometimes vote in ways that I don't like (FISA, etc.) But I don't assume that the guy is a traitor to some ideal just because he doesn't do what I want on certain issues.

I'm tired of ideologues and dreamers. I want people in there who can try to get things done within the limitations of what is realistic. I don't want people who rant about those limitations as if doing so will somehow magically make them go away. You want to get rid of the limitations? Then work to get rid of them.

Complaining that people can only get certain things done because of certain limitations is like complaing about blaming gravity because you can't fly.

We Are Zogg

Payroll crisis

Jeffrey Feldman picks up on something I had an inkling of earlier today but didn't have the skill to put into words: the current financial crisis could result in several businesses being unable to meet payroll. That means the worst case scenario of what could happen is that a LOT of people may lose their jobs, and soon.

I complained earlier that the advocates for this bailout have done a piss-poor job of explaining it to the American people. But tell them that their jobs may be on the line and I think a lot of them may start to think twice about their misgivings.

I still have a lot of problems with the idea of bailing out the very people who fucked us over. But if that is what is needed to prevent massive unemployment then I may just have to work past my misgivings.

Crisis?

From Yahoo's Market Overview (changing link):

2:00 pm : The stock market extends its gains and then holds near session highs.  All ten sectors are posting a gain.  The worst performing sector, utilities, is up 0.9%,  The best performing sector, financials, is up 10.7% (emphasis mine - Chris).

At the time of this posting the Dow is up 371.

Oh, and Congress has gone on a two day break. Wonder if that might be helping?

On a more serious note... Yes, I know this is probably a combination of dead-cat bounce and latent hopes that the Paulsen plan might be revived. The true impact of a complete failure to pass any bailout will take weeks to be felt.

But I think there is an important message here. Those who are arguing that we are in a crisis are doing a terrible job of conveying to the American people the true nature of the crisis. Most of the messages coming from the pundits, politicians and business press are akin to, "Things are bad, but it's to complicated to explain, so just trust us that things are bad and give us a ton of your money."

That is not exactly a message that will win The People over. But then the political/business/media class in this country long ago lost the ability to even care what the The People think.

Mythbuster Adam Savage drunk on a treadmill

We need something to cheer us up.