It's one thing to appear intelligent, well read, and informed. For some people, appearance is all that matters. But it's something else entirely to actually BE intelligent, well read, and informed. What an absolutely terrifying choice! Sarah Palin makes a Bush 2 interview seem downright educational! What the HELL was John McCain thinking? His whole campaign has been basically careening from one WTF moment to the next. Now here it is Friday morning and we still don't know if he's even going to show up for his own debate TONIGHT.

Someone said last night that McCain is placing his bet on the stupidity of the American public, and the fact that the polls are so close shows that there may have been some reason to play that card. But it's a hell of a gamble, and it's not looking like it's going to pay off for McCain this time. You can't keep changing the subject and think that folks aren't going to connect the dots at some point. People are figuring it out, and trotting out the Fembot wind-up doll to spout "John McCain is a maverick! I can see Russia from my house! You can't blink!" has got to be really wearing thin.

And that link to the picture of Vlad Putin eyeballing Alaska?

TOO. DAMNED. FUNNY. Needed that laugh this morning.

Am I to understand that the American taxpayer is (or could be) on the hook for what would appear to be hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars of bad real estate debt? Somehow that number just does not seem credible. I suspect that the number is vastly inflated in an attempt to scare us into capitulating to one last Bush Administration attempt to pork the American public before he leaves office. Sort of a nasty parting shot which shows us all exactly the level of contempt the Bushies and the GOP hold for the ordinary US citizen. There's something very wrong with a plan that's only three pages, allows for no outside review, allows CEOs of these troubled Wall Street firms to walk away richer than they already are, AND allows foreign companies that do business here to essentially get "bailed out" at taxpayer expense. I'm not convinced that these foreign companies were as exposed or as stupid as the robber barons here are who clearly bet on credit holding up without any real income. You can't really have credit if you have no income. Even the rich find that out sooner or later.

So what we have now appears to be a perfect storm of credit extended to the limit and no income due to the systematic destruction of the income and income generating opportunities of a fairly large slice of the US working population. Now that same population is being asked to bail out the ones who sold us on the idea that this scheme would work. Yeah, I get why people are pissed off on both sides of the aisle and every place in between, and I admit that I'm hoping that Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Co. slit these bastards throats and let them bleed out. At least a little.

Makes me want to jump in my car and run SCREAMING to the Northern Border and beg for asylum. Almost. But then I remember that this has been tried before. Remember the "anointing" that supposedly sat on George W. Bush? Remember how Pat Robertson used to say how "God just loves this guy"? Yes, I gagged too. Anyway, if I read the Bible right (and I don't much anymore), an anointing was supposed to grant good judgement and wisdom for kings. Does any of what you've heard come out of Gov. Palin's mouth the last two weeks sound like the utterances of God? Hell, I'm thinking a more telling revelation was given us on "Saturday Night Live". Right after that, Ms. Palin's favorablitity numbers dropped like a stone. Then the earth, I mean, Wall St. moved. There came a massive flood that filled the land of TX (home of the last "anointed one")and when it all passed (more or less, depending on if you're still in Galveston), the landscape had been altered. The bulls were running away from Wall St. headed for Pomplona, and this newest "chosen one" looked very much like a rather ordinary, if a bit dangerously unstable human being who seems constitutionally incapable of telling the truth.

Connect the dots. God moves in mysterious ways.

Anne Lamont is my kind of Christian. Questioning, skeptical of weirdling ideology, and wholly genuine. I don't think a bigger obscenity has been thrust upon us in recent years than the horror that is the Bush Administration, than the greater by several orders of magnitude offense that is Sarah Palin. I was calling her a pretty package of trouble before, but after the intense scrutiny she's gotten lately, I fear she is far worse than that.

Having to endure all-Sarah-the-time for the last two weeks has made me almost physically sick. The prospect of a presidency with her in it, vice or otherwise, has me seriously considering another country. So, what to do with the emotional and spiritual toxin that is this distraction in a skirt? I think Anne (and Barack Obama's advisers, not to mention yesterday's USA Today) have it right: ignore her. The truth is, she's not that interesting. She's just a Religious Right-Wing freak show. And it's indicative of the desperation of the GOP if this is all they have to trot out. Let's focus on what this is really about. With the events on Wall Street in the last 48 hours, that shouldn't be very hard to do. Also, I think Anne is right. We should pray. Fortunately you don't have to be a Christian or particularly religious to pray or to believe in the power of prayer. What we should pray for is release from oppression because that's what this criminal (and criminally stupid!) administration has been these last eight years.