Hrh... Touche, gazing into my hand mirror, I find a certain resemblance to that remark, too. I guess it depends upon whether fun is found hurling threats, insults, and lies, or having meaningful discussions and learning something from others....

Except for certain days, UT is pretty high on the fun scale for me as well.

Bop... I's heavenly here on the 13th. (hear that, Bahhummingbug?) No vacancies at the moment, but one floor up, my same city and mountain view on the 14th is available at the moment. People who dislike booze-swilling, cackling, midnight blogging and other unseemly behavior on the balcony below are strongly discouraged.,

The ground's only an elevator ride away, and I'd happily brave the possums to visit.

I missed you a lot, and I'm glad to have you back, and in as good form as ever. I'll slap a Gooper for you, with a brick in my handbag. Any lost curlers (for such a good cause...) can be picked up later.

A bill will be rammed through, largely unread and completely unexplained by the msm, who will play up the crisis and urgency, endlessly analyzing the political risks, and steadfastly ignoring the real risks. Politicians of both stripes will wax grave and serious, as they wipe their feverd brows and congratulate themselves for "saving" the financial system, America, apple pie, motherhood, and the universe with a 400 page pile of giveaways. The only sensible questions will be asked by the far right, about the costs, and the far left, about the unfairness, and they will (all three of them...) be denounced as Cassandras and perhaps defeated for reelection.

In the months to come, details will gradually emerge; that the real winners are the creators of the mess, who will magically escape any accountability, and that, oops, the cost is really double or triple what we said.

Then, earnest hand-wringing all around, as the media and the congress say, in unison, that there weren't any better options, and "no one could have predicted ....." The mantra, as ever will be, "We need to look forward, and not get into the blame game."

Thus plays the endless loop....

(Kitt, I bet you could probably get a really big TV for cheap pretty soon.)

Ccrockatt saves the day... Those of us who thought that the Chrysler bailout just enabled another bloated, antiquated company, and industry, to avoid innovation and warm up for another bailout just read too damn much. And if y'all thought that the S&L crisis was just a warm-up for the same thing in the banking industry, and rendered "moral hazard" the sole province of the lower orders... Surprise! It was so great, we should do one every decade or so.

So, good news! We're gonna get RICH! Thanks to the benevolent foresight of somebody or other.

The one-hit wonders are back... And the wisdom and foresight falls like pennies from heaven.

Kitt gets a TV the size of a 2-car garage, and everyone gets a pony! Jebbie gets a baker's dozen!

Bop... It's afternoon, and the Farmer's market has closed down; the really good saxophone player in the park below took his instrument and left. Hence, Bathrobe must be stowed to await tomorrow's (maybe hung over?) NYT.

If Jebbie gets 13 ponies, why do I only get a wool coat? Cloth coats are for Republicans, to pull out when they beg for money, or when the furs are in storage. Maybe I could have a nice Wolf something that The Untalented Mrs. Palin got for me from the chopper? Furriers are good at patching little bullet holes.

I'll be a little more cocksure at 5:00pm, when the shaker gets a shaking. Bah says he's coming up, but we'll see. I've still got his gun, but it might be out of ammo.

EP... Coyote would do; maybe a jaunty parka with a hood to hide the curlers. (If I go visit Vladie, I won't need much underneath...) Jebbie's pony idea sounds alright, but it might expose me to comment on the elevator. We have standards here on Park Avenue.

EP... I'll wrestle you for Vladie; let the best dame win. First Dude can be the consolation prize for the loser. Riding shotgun on the carbon-spewing snowmobile; losing was never so fun... Too bad that either way, Caribou Barbie will be able to watch with her binoculars. Maybe we should have a best two out of three, and the winner gets both. That'll show her.

I'm wondering what Jebbie's pony-walkers look like...

Publican is onto something here. Already, the countries where the US, USAID, and IMF jumped in and arrogantly and imperiously forced them to rearrange their economies to Friedmanite (Milton and Thomas) models are laughing their asses off as we collapse under our own dogmas; perhaps now (or never) time to point out how silly, counterproductive, and damaging these dogmas are.

Free Trade, meaning a race to the bottom, is just that.

Do Americans really want to live in a "flat" world?

This could be time to serve them all a nice Globaloney sandwich.

Perhaps the main reason opposition from the far right is so crucial is the gross overrepresentation of this faction in our political dialogue. It seems that any righty who can fog a mirror is give a microphone and two sidekicks to do battle with any journalist, or heaven forfend, any actual liberal for a lineup of Washington gasbaggery. So, if dialogue continues to be the numbers game it has been of late, support from flat-earth authoritarians is the key to preventing this giveaway, and making folks like Bush, Paulson, and McCain look like the sticky-fingered, secretive insiders that they are.

On some level, one has to applaud this predictable, but nonetheless astonishing epiphany about their constitutional role on the part of Republicans. Hell, as an oppositional force, even Fox News and the righty radio blatherers are considerably less disturbing and detrimental to democracy.

Let the fun begin.