It should be noted that since Oct. 14, when Super Duper Prize-Winning Washington Post bizness writer Steve Pearlstein penned his Ode To President Paulsen (and the bailout plan which he actually opposed but took credit for touting anyway) - the Dow has dropped appx. 570 points and lost more than 6-percent of its value.

Still waiting for Pearlstein's folo as to what to do now.

All of us non-prize winning bizness writers are waiting with baited breath!

We've been stuck on "only'' two active major wars for going on six years now.

The MIC depends, in fact demands, another big blow-up.

The Serious Folks spun the wheel and the needle pointed to Iran. So Iran it is.

This is all a work in process - the process being These Bi-Partisan Lords of War are busy making up the reasons why this action is neccessary now.

But c'mon Hawks, ya'gotta find some better messengers than the Coates/Robb duet. I mean, the Lovely Lady Byrd didn't even vote for her son-in-law in his last campaign.

And Dan Coats? He's little more than Dan Burton with a better tailor. A major-league lightweight east of South Bend.

Even the bloviators of the radical right have long thought these two bozos have retired to Vero Beach.

So those in the reality-based world should prepare for Plan B -a comparable NYT Op-Ed - this time written by the Grumpy & Dumpy tandem of bi-partisan worthlessness: George Mitchell and Bob Dole.

I know this topic is from last week, but it is incredibly interesting.

Here is the perpetually wrong and proud graduate of the J. Goldberg School of Economic Studies, Charles Gasparino, in today's NY Post: (BTW, the big reason for the massive sell off on Wall Street is due to Obama):

Of course, the market turmoil is first a reflection of grim reality - the bursting of the housing bubble and the billions upon billions in writedowns and losses that have forced upon the hugely leveraged financial firms companies that had cranked big profits during the bubble years.

The resulting credit crunch is hitting Main Street harder than ever before. The country is headed for recession; the only question is: Just how low can the markets and economy go?

It could be a lot lower - it all depends on the policies of the next president.

And, as it looks increasingly likely that Obama will be that man, the markets are casting a vote of "no confidence."

To be fair, McCain hardly instills confidence among the Wall Streeters I speak to. Why has his campaign spent the last week focusing on Obama's friendship with former terrorist William Ayers - when it should be hitting Obama's blind loyalty to policies that bring together the worst elements of Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter?

And surprise, surprise. This story is featured prominently on Dredge.

It is hard to believe that columnist Michael S. Malone wrote this with a straight face:

But what really shattered my faith -- and I know the day and place where it happened -- was the war in Lebanon three summers ago. The hotel I was staying at in Windhoek, Namibia, only carried CNN, a network I'd already learned to approach with skepticism. But this was CNN International, which is even worse.

I sat there, first with my jaw hanging down, then actually shouting at the TV, as one field reporter after another reported the carnage of the Israeli attacks on Beirut, with almost no corresponding coverage of the Hezbollah missiles raining down on northern Israel.

The reporting was so utterly and shamelessly biased that I sat there for hours watching, assuming that eventually CNNi would get around to telling the rest of the story … but it never happened.

"...conservatives are right that they often don't see their views reflected enough in the news pages"

=

"facts have a well-known librul bias.''

Debbie Howell's column is another misuse of valuable space in the WaPo. Just about every paragraph is pure nonsense.

For example, Gannett Co. lost 36 percent compared to the third quarter of '07. Of course, founder Frank Gannett was an unscrupolous right winger and a bigtime NY Republican.

And Gannett's prize commodity - USA Today - was founded by Nixon & Steinbrenner BFF - Al Neuhart.

The "far-left'' Chicago Tribune is basically a penny stock. The "far left" ChiTrib endorsed a Democrat for President for the first time ever this year.

The Newark Star Ledger, a moderate left publication, is laying off 200 people next month.

The Christian Science Monitor went to internet only this week.

And last month the neocons favorite paper, the NY Sun went belly-up.

Contrary to Howell's critique, the problem with the newspaper business isn't that they aren't making money (most still make a sizeable profit) it's that the profit margins have shrunk significantly since the late 1980's. Currently, profit margins of most newspaper range from the low teens to single digits. However 20 years ago, the margins were consistently over 20-percent.