The Hollywood Liberal

Late Late Nite FDL: Out Of Blog Experience
Tonight an unofficial YouTube with a song called Hljomalind, by Iceland’s, Sigur Ros, who just happen to be back in the US on a sold out tour.

Sigur Ros “Hljomalind”

Tonight an unofficial YouTube with a song called Hljomalind, by Iceland’s, Sigur Ros, who just happen to be back in the US on a sold out tour.

What’s on your mind tonight?

This Country Needs Change: Why I Drove to Nevada to Knock on 51 Doors in 115 Degree Heat
I drove to Las Vegas, along with hundreds of other Southern Californians, to help register voters and canvass from door to door.

Tan Is the New Tacky
There is nothing inherently healthy about tanning. It can give you wrinkles and cancer. Good thing it’s gone the way of the Ugg boot.

Polls: McCain Coming On Strong In Battleground States
Uh, oh. Conventional wisdom holds that McCain’s campaign is tanking and has been an all-around disorganized mess, but a new round of polling from Quinnipiac suggests John McCain could be making major headway in key swing states. He’s also taken…

Sen. Ted Stevens Enters Not Guilty Plea In Federal Court
From the AP: Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied about accepting more than a quarter of a million dollars worth of gifts from a powerful oilfield contractor. In the midst of his re-election…

Any Signs of a Bailout? Or something?

I have no idea what happened on Wall Street today. If part of the stock drop from yesterday was because there was no bailout deal then, what was the almost 500 point rise today about? There is no bailout deal. There is a lot of speculation there may be a deal in the works. The more I look at this bailout, the less I like it. The politics of it are all wrong. Fiscal conservatives feel that such an expenditure just is not warranted. There are some conservatives that believe the market needs to take care of the market. On the other side, because there is a significant number of Democrats who did not vote for this bill, Democrats are wondering why should we bailout Wall Street when they created this mess. Overall this is the specter of politics. All of the House members will be up for election in a little more than a month. You have a president who is clearly a lame duck. He has no clout with Democrats or Republicans. He went on TV this morning… did anyone know that he was going to be on TV this morning?

Maybe the Dems need to throw out the White House/Paulson bill and pass something that is progressive.

Rep. Steve King: McCain Was Right When He Said The Fundamentals Of The Economy Are Strong
Earlier this month, on the same day that two of Wall Street’s major banking institutions collapsed, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told a Florida crowd that he “still” believes “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Since then, Congress has worked with the White House to put together bailout legislation for the financial system, but it […]

Earlier this month, on the same day that two of Wall Street’s major banking institutions collapsed, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told a Florida crowd that he “still” believes “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Since then, Congress has worked with the White House to put together bailout legislation for the financial system, but it failed to pass the House yesterday.

Speaking to Rep. Steve King (R-IA) today about his vote against the bailout legislation, right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher argued that the financial situation isn’t “as bad” as people say because “we live in an era of exaggeration.” When Gallagher asked King if he agreed, King said that he did because he thinks “the fundamentals of the economy are sound” like McCain said:

GALLAGHER: But I would maintain that none of this is as bad as the pundits and some of the prognosticators have said it is. Would you agree with that?

KING: Well, I would agree from an economic standpoint. When John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy are sound, really, our unemployment is fairly low.

GALLAGHER: Right.

KING: And that’s one of the indicators. We are, our trade deficit has diminished some, it’s way too much yet it’s diminished some. People out there have jobs, they’re working, the economy’s flowing.

Listen here:

In fact, the fundamentals of the economy, as defined by economic experts, are not strong. Though King claims that “unemployment is fairly low,” the reality is that the unemployment rate is at a five-year high. King also says “people out there have jobs,” but this ignores the fact that the U.S. lost a total of 605,000 jobs in the first eight months of 2008.

As Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Christian Weller notes, America’s “employment growth has been the weakest since the Great Depression.”

Transcript: (more…)

Supreme Parody: Biden versus Palin
Want a preview of Thursday’s veepstakes debate between running mates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin? Pick up a copy of Christopher Buckley’s latest satirical novel, “Supreme Courtship,” that begins when a very unpopular American president decides to tweak Senate solons by nominating to the U.S. Supreme Court America’s most popular TV judge, the “sassy, flippant, sexy,” no-nonsense, gun-toting hottie from Texas, Pepper Cartwright. As the president explained, Cartwright was not a traditional pick, but “a hands-on, commonsense, workaday judge” who “calls them as she sees them.” Cartwright’s nemesis? Senate Judiciary Committee windbag Dexter Mitchell, whose “campaign ‘listening tours’ were occasions of mirth among political reporters, since it was the people he met who did the listening.”