I know this topic has been up here recently...

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/09/wamu-cliff-diving_25.html

Everyone's backing off as WaMu's weight pulls it over the edge. It will be the biggest bank failure in history.

I'm dismayed by Pelosi's plan, especially the part about more money for highways and bridges. More automobile infrastructure further contributing to sprawl and our energy situation is the last thing we need. This is even more true when it's just part of some hasty, poorly thought out stimulus package.

I'd be concerned now as to exactly what financial situation you want the next President to be facing, especially since it looks like it will be Obama now.

I have to assume our national credit is getting stretched thin... if it isn't already. Propping up the economy for another few months doesn't seem wise, especially when the Republicans are going to take the hit for it. Why dig the hole deeper when you're going to be the one filling it in three months?

They have *ahem* allegedly provided an adequate stimulus package to stave off a complete meltdown of banking sector, right? So why worry? Let the belt-tightening continue under these AMATEURS in the White House before the professionals take over.

This article cracked me up, from start to finish. Although, I admit, if McCain somehow pulls an upset, it will make me very, very scared.

a comforting thought... if Palin somehow ever becomes president of our country, she is impeachment meat. She is just SO SLOPPY, that no amount of Rovian maneuvering could possibly keep her safe. It would be like trying to lead a blind, spastic 2-year-old on a sugar high through a mine field.

Her recent statements on the 1st Amendment are dumber than any Bushism. In fact, I think Bush himself is probably thinking she is a complete moron. This is a milestone...

You would think he would have been more measured in his comments. After all, the grassroots backlash against Wal-Mart seemed to have convince the management in Arkansas that they really needed to improve their image and at least pay lip service to green movements, and organized labor... but this?

It's like the villain in some kid's cartoon revealing himself... "HA HA HA... in this economy, I can do anything! And NO ONE can stop me"

The weather was perfect here in Chicago, and the mood of the crowd was positive and electric. My group didn't head downtown until just before they called the election, so we couldn't make it to Grant Park - too crowded. But in Millenium Park they had a big screen set up displaying CNN, then McCain's Concession, and Obama's Victory Speech.

All in all a cool night. And as noted above, there was no violence, no disturbances. We sang along with the national anthem when they played it, cheered for Barack, and afterward everyone moved quietly and efficiently out of the area to our mass-transit system. We went home for a night cap, and sleep so we could get up and go to work the next day. Yay for Liberal Elitists!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!

This Sarkozy is cracking me up; whether he's doing it wittingly, or unwittingly, as portrayed by some French-Canadian jokers. I hope he stays in the news for the foreseeable future.

If I were Barack, Sarkozy would be getting an invite to the WhiteHouse... PRONTO

What odds do you give that this book . . .

. . . doesn't find it's way on to the reading lists at Wharton, HBS, Tuck, etc., etc.?

Oh, it will certainly be on their reading lists. However, in the article Lewis noted that the average American business school student viewed Liar's Poker not as a cautionary tale, but as an instruction manual.

It's more than likely that the 2008 version will suffer the same fate.

The clever prey upon the ignorant. The wise stand above it all shaking their heads. Nothing has changed, nor will it... the current situation is just a momentary pause as those in the feeding frenzy have exhausted their food supply.

The Post article yesterday noted that those objecting to this domestic deployment plan include those "in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians,"

I haven't heard anything about any members of the military objecting to this. Indeed, I'd be surprised if any members of the military ever objected to any policy that resulted in additional defense appropriations and/or increased roles in every aspect of American civil and political policy, both domestically and abroad.

... prostitution is no different.

Literature has Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, David Foster Wallace... and also Jonathen Franzen, Dan Brown, Tucker Max.

Lawyers have Alexander Hamilton, Clarence Darrow, Glenn Greenwald... and also Mark Geragos, Alberto Gonzales, uh, Eliot Spitzer

Musicians count among their members Ludwig von Beethoven, Maurice Ravel, Jimi Hendrix... and also Poison, Milli Vanilli, and the Backstreet Boys.

And with yer Prostitutes, you have the street-walking crack whores... and also the Melissa Beeches.

I'm also not so sure the record from the tape will be enough for some people. The other angle to this they might try is that "Blago didn't play ball with the Obama camp, so they turned up the heat on him."

Of course, this would imply some link between them and Fitzgerald, of which there is no indication.

And of course, Blagojevich was the one committing the crimes here. Fitzgerald was just doing his job.

While I'm not surprised by any of this (any given day in Chicago, it could be windy, and/or the Gov. could be indicted), it is sort of interesting that Blagojevich made it this far. I mean, you read the transcripts, and this guy was just sloppy. I suppose it all comes down to the Feds getting the right guy, and Blagojevich trusting the wrong guy. And maybe he did really think that because Barack was the President-Elect, the heat on Illinois politicians would be turned down.