One of the nicest things about being a righty (for them) is that their ideology insists, and provides ready-made fables in support of, the notion that since time immemorial, they've always been right. This makes it extra easy to "win" arguments.

An ethnically cleansed violent hellhole in Iraq, a trillion down the rathole and 4100 dead? Rah! We won! (of course even a retard wouldn't swallow that, after all these years and nothing to show for it, so toss in "essentially.")

Violence and American deaths up in the spiralling disaster of Afghanistan, while the Taliban spreads into a collapsing Pakistan? Rah! We Won! The Taliban's been "routed!" Re-routed, maybe....

Unemployment skyrocketing, record foreclosures, real wages down, inflation up, unprecedented inequality, poverty and homelessness up, gas hovering around $4 per gallon? Rah! Get an eyeful of that stock market!

The worst terrorist attack on US soil ever, while a dithering nincompoop of a president ignored the warnings, did nothing to prevent it, and sat in a classroom until it was almost over? Then another deadly anthrax attack shortly thereafter remained unsolved, miring the FBI in lawsuits and bungled investigations? Rah! No terrorist attacks since! (Of course, they've been unnecessary; Bush has killed more Americans with his idiotic wars than the terrorists did, but never mind...)

Anti-Americanism not just increased, but practically universal throughout the world, with Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Spain, and on and on all, in their own way telling Bush to take a hike? Who cares? (followed by Fox and the Grapes name-calling)

They say and Elephant never forgets; sadly, the human kind pretty much does nothing else.

"Absolutely massive moral scrota..." --Pedinska.

Sweetie, that phrase is perfectly logical. The relativism, in varying sizes, is just a bit north.

WaMu's enlightened hiring practices are what led me to move my business there after my local bank, where I'd been since college, was purchased by an out of state entity, and service predictably declined and fees skryrocketed. Lo and behold, some of the fired personnel from my old bank had even turned up at WaMu.

It is predictable, but unsurprising, that the right would blame such policies for the bank's collapse. Heaven knows, they blame crime, gas prices, and indigestion on the dirty Mexicans and what have you. Their mistrust of McCain stems largely from his somewhat enlightened immigration policies, and his initial opposition to torture.

It seems that the Republicans have devolved, with a healthy push from talk radio, into nothing more than a hate group, seeing enemies around every corner as they become more desperate and impervious to observable reality. Fortunately, as they become more open about this, their credibility declines and more people are embarrassed to be associated with them.

I'd say they were paranoid, but paranoia is the incorrect assumption that everyone is against you.

In this case, they're right for a change.

I'm delighted that this emergency du jour did not receive the instant assent of the house, and hope it will be replaced by a much smaller "crap sandwich" later, perhaps even one that is tilted more to stabilizing home prices vie actual homeowners than those who used to bubble to get rich. After Pelosi's absurd statement that "the party's over" even as she was prepared to finance a $1 trillion beer run, I never felt such affinity for the far right in the house.

It's tiresome to continue to be told that some hare-brained, stupefyingly expensive adventure is the only way to save the world, when it seems obvious that each time the result is that, oops, it's going to cost a lot more than we thought, and oops, it didn't work anyway.

But let's not start the blame game, though.

The good news is that this leaves an opening for the left to push for a slightly more reasonable bill that addresses the needs of ordinary people, while the right will continue, loudly and to blank stares, to clamor for tax cuts and unrelated Shock Doctrine "reforms."

The longer the bill is discussed, the less likely that it will be solely a Wall Street giveaway.

Ah, I'm dreaming again.

That is the saddest thing about this bailout; the absurdly narrowed media discourse that renders it inevitable, just as every other past history-making debacle. Ondelette and Gandhi, you've given me more painful reminders of why this is so as never before. Would Nixon have survived had he had Fox News? The answer is obvious, but more tellingly, could anyone imagine the WaPoo we know, what with Broder, Cohen, Ignatious, and Shailagh Murray, et al. doing anything like Woodward and Bernstein did back then? Could Woodward himself?

(Bush "at War"... honestly.)

It seems that with Journalism, finance, law, and almost every other industry, the money, glory, and status go to the biggest liars, sociopaths, and those who would dedicate their clearly fine intellects to a life of either outright crime or the just enabling thereof, because, dang, it pays.

And has Sysprog notes, government spending and indebtedness aren't really necessarily bad, if that which is bought is useful and contributes to the economy over time. But shoveling borrowed money into the hands of what my grandmother would have called, "professional freeloaders" like the finance bigwigs is as financially dumb as it is morally reprehensible, and it is the job of honest reporters to point this out.

Too bad it's now a firing offense.