The Republic of T.

They finally said it. I always thought that part of the reason McCain chose Palin was because it would put Obama — who’s already in the position of having to be careful how he addresses race — in the position of having to do something that would put him in a precarious position as black man: attack a white woman. Even politically. (Now, I’m sure someone will point out an attack on Hillary during the primaries, but I don’t recall any.

The flip side of coin is that she can attack Obama in any number of ways, but he has to be careful about how he deals with her.

That’s the first layer of subtext in this ad, but I think there’s another.

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A funny thing happened on the way to the bailout. A number of the members of the bucket brigade — that’s us, taxpayers — realized that for all the billions of dollars worth of bailing we’re doing, we still appear to be sinking. Our task seems to be keeping things afloat long enough for first class passengers to fill the lifeboats. And as the water rises, more of us are less content with apparent the “brokers and bankers first” rule.

And let there be no doubt, as the U.S. economy looks like it’s going down for the first time, “brokers and bankers first” is the rule.

In the waning days of, well, everything from the George W. Bush era, to the Reagan era and 30 years of conservative rule — as is often the case in a disaster — men’s true characters reveal themselves, and they reveal their intentions when they have little left to lose.

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You gotta be kidding me. This guy, first of all, should have zero credibility left. But after he’s expose as a fraud, he’s talking about running for Congress. That’s bad enough, but we already have a number of politicians who also know-nothing poseurs. But a record deal?

Move over, Sanjaya, and tell William Hung the news: Joe the Plumber is being pursued for a major record deal and could come out with a country album as early as Inauguration Day.

“Joe” — aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, a Holland, Ohio, pipe-and-toilet man — just signed with a Nashville public relations and management firm to handle interview requests and media appearances, as well as create new career opportunities, including a shift out of the plumbing trade into stage and studio performances.

On Tuesday, Wurzelbacher joined country music artist and producer Aaron Tippin to form a new partnership that includes booking-management firm Bobby Roberts and publicity-management concern The Press Office to field the multiple media offers he’s received over the past few weeks.

Among the requests: a possible record deal with a major label, personal appearances and corporate sponsorships. A longtime country music fan, Wurzelbacher can sing and “knocks around on guitar” but is not an accomplished musician or songwriter, according to The Press Office’s Jim Della Croce.

By inauguration day? I don’t know if he can sing or not, but anything turned out that fast is probably going to sound like a guy singing along with a mediocre karaoke track.

Well, as it D.C.’s transit system didn’t have enough problems’ from the bus that arrived late to pick me up yesterday morning, to the delay on the red line in the afternoon, to the rather inconvenient construction project at Silver Spring.

Now it looks like NDC’s Metro system may be in financial trouble.

The Washington area’s transit agency is seeking a temporary injunction against a Belgian bank that is demanding a $43 million payment by Friday.

KBC Group is requesting the money following the collapse of insurance giant American International Group, which had guaranteed a financing deal the bank made with Metro in 2002.

But AIG’s financial problems have triggered a clause that allows the bank to demand the money all at once.

Now, I know DC doesn’t count as “Main Street” or the “real America,” but it looks like the credit crisis has arrived on Main Street, by bus. Besides Metro 30 other transit systems could be forced to pay up now.

I don’t want to think about what happens if Metro has to fork over $43 million by Friday, but my guess is that it’s probably something a lot worse than non-working escalators.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m voting for Barack Obama, but as a human being I can’t see someone in danger and not warn them. And, I’m not talking about Obama, even though everyone has probably at some point wondered and worried about “what if.” (And the first and second foils assasination attempts don’t help calm anyone’s nerves.

I’m talking about John McCain. And I feel the need to warn him, because I can’t see someone in danger and not warn them. And I think John McCain is in danger based on the latest quotes from Sarah Palin about 2012.

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Wait for it.

Well, somebody finally came out and said it. The question is did Palin hear it? And if she did, why didn’t she address it? And if he hasn’t addressed it, why hasn’t she? McCain did stop and address stuff like this earlier, and the base didn’t love him any better for it.

• Robert Reich Dismisses Trickle-Down Theory - FORA.tv
  (tags: economy)

Last week I ventured into the "spreading the wealth" discussion with a post attempting to unpack one aspect of why even some people who might be helped by the kind of economic policies Obama is proposing are against them anyway. It was a rather long post, so I wrapped it up without getting into another aspect of the debate that I alluded to briefly and hoped to get back to in another post.

Never mind that it takes an utter lack of an “irony gene” to speak of “steal-from-the-rich,” when only after the taxpayer-funded $1 trillion bailout of the financial sector that got us into the current economic mess — welfare for the wealthy, essentially — was passed has Washington started talking about a stimulus package for the rest of us. It takes Joe himself to bring it on home.

While the McCain/Palin campaign attempts to whip people into a lather with a liberal use of the "socialism" label, invoking fears of a wealth transfer, it’s easy to forget that a huge wealth transfer has been underway for a while and is going on even now. We call it "the bailout."

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Tell me it’s a lie. Tell me you’re not giving up acting!

Oscar-nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix made a shocking announcement to “Extra,” saying, “I want to take this opportunity…to give you the exclusive … that this will be my last performance as an actor… I’m not doing films anymore.”

Probed further by “Extra’s” Jerry Penacoli, “Are you serious?” Phoenix, who was curiously being followed by his own camera crews, reiterated, “Yeah. I’m working on my music. I’m done. I’ve been through that.”

Penacoli, still suspicious, followed up with Casey Affleck who was standing next to Phoenix. Penacoli asked, “I take it that he’s kidding?” Affleck responded, “I don’t think he’s kidding. He’s got music and stuff.”

Today, “Extra” contacted Phoenix’s rep for clarification and got this response: “That is what he told me.”

*sigh* Well, I guess I’ll have to look forward to his next music release instead hi next movie.

Well, I’d hope so. Anyone stupid or careless enough to put an uzi inthe hands of an eight-year-old ought to be charged with something. The D.A. looking into “whether anyone committed a reckless or wanton act” by allowing the child to fire a weapon. Oh, I’d say that qualifies as reckless and wanton. If it doesn’t, then nothing does.

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for October 22nd through October 27th:

• Alan Greenspan Falls on His Theory - There was something almost criminally pathetic about Alan Greenspan’s confession that he had “made a mistake” in believing that banks could adequately police themselves. Duh, deregulation doesn’t work. Even Greenspan, the apostle of Ayn Rand, admits that now, too late.
• Fineman: Obama’s Supporters Must Be Reckoned With | Newsweek Voices - Howard Fineman | Newsweek.com - It is eerily quiet at Barack Obama's headquarters, an open expanse that takes up the entire 11th floor of an office tower in Chicago's Loop. It's nearly as silent as a study hall, which is appropriate, since most of the 20- or 30-somethings in it wear jeans and T shirts. They could be working on their Ph.D.s or at a high-tech startup. Yet, as unassuming as it seems, this is the engine room of a novel grass-roots machine that may soon have another purpose: to help Obama govern the country.
• RIGHTS: A Home Shouldn’t Be a Luxury - "The belief that markets will provide adequate housing for all has failed," said Raquel Rolnik, the U.N. special rapporteur on adequate housing. "A home is not a commodity. It is a
• McClatchy Washington Bureau | 10/26/2008 | Is Barack Obama a real American or a Harvard elitist? - There's no question about it, John McCain's supporters said. We are the real Americans, and folks who support Barack Obama aren't.
• How Washington’s Bailout Will Boost Wall Street Bonuses - TIME - Uncle Sam has a new name on Wall Street — Sugar Daddy. Bonuses for investment bankers and traders are projected to fall by 40% this year. But analysts, compensation consultants and recruiters say the drop would be much more severe, perhaps as much as 70%, had it not been for the government's efforts to prop up the financial firms. "Year-end pay on Wall Street will be higher than it would have been had it not been for the government and mergers," says Alan Johnson, a leading compensation consultant. "You would expect it to be down much more."
• The price of optimism - International Herald Tribune - For the better part of the past two decades, Americans have been living in a state of willful optimism about our financial future. It is probably fair to date the start of this period to the late 1980s, when the stock market took off and the Soviet empire began to unravel. Since then, our default attitude toward the economy has been to believe that, one way or another, things will work out.
• David Bromwich: Parable of the Poor and Rich Plumber - The truth is that Obama in Ohio spoke the language of American democracy, which has always included a perception that wealth is a form of power, and that stupendous inequalities of wealth produce an undemocratic inequality of power. His questioner, angry in anticipation that he could not hold onto all of the $300,000 he might hypothetically earn in a year, spoke the language of righteous self-interest; and he cited as his irrefutable authority "the American dream." If I follow that dream, said the Joe of today, hoarding the wealth of the Joe of tomorrow, why should I ever pay a higher tax? Obama's answer was simple and Christian. Once you have been helped by a tax break to prosper and to grow relatively rich, it seems fair to give others lower down the ladder the same chance that once helped you.
• One Cool Customer | The American Prospect - The public seems to be getting the impression that for all McCain's vainglorious preening about his superior moral fiber and incomparably copious love for America, the Arizona senator simply has a character problem. And it matters, just as much as any position paper you can find on either candidate's web site.
• The Washington Monthly - If the available evidence is accurate, in about two weeks, Americans will help elect a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and possibly a Democratic president. A majority of the nation's governors are already Democrats. Polls show fairly strong support for the policy agenda presented in the Democratic Party's platform, including universal healthcare and ending the war in Iraq. Even on culture war issues, most Americans are pro-choice, support the separation of church and state, and are growing increasingly supportive of expanding gay rights. With all of this in mind, Newsweek's Jon Meacham has a 3,300-word cover story this week, insisting that the United States is a "center-right" nation, and if Obama is elected, he'd be foolish to forget it.

• Gitmo Guys Get the Gals! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  (tags: photocredit)

In case you missed it, today is the 79th Anniversary of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Over at the day job, I’ve posted an interview with economist and author Robert Kuttner about how we got from the 1929 crash to the 2008 meldtown.