Agreed, this isn't socialism. This is just the continued nationalization of the loss side of profit-and-loss.

The next time some winger starts bemoaning how kids supposedly aren't allowed to fail in school because it might hurt their self-esteem, I'll be sure to ask them how they feel about propping up the self-esteem of CEOs.

I'm sure those state employees are just being patriotic, supporting an honest, reformist, open-government advocate like Sarah Palin by refusing to cooperate with an bi-partisan investigation into her possible misuse of power.

If you believe that, I have a bridge in Alaska I'd like to sell you ... and a Presidential candidate you're gonna love.

Does he think he can invoke executive privilege, because i don't think this is one of those situations where national security can be factored in.

Maybe they're worried about an investigation revealing sensitive information regarding a foiled plot by Canadian terrorists.

Except that he was using the same phrase that McCain used.

Oh wait, that was true of "lipstick on a pig", too, and the Repubs still whined about it. So yeah, they'll probably try it and see how much of MediaCorp goes along with the "controversy".

It's been a while since I read The Transparent Society, but I think the one major problem I had with Brin's thesis is that it'd only really work if society was totally transparent. Perhaps I'm just tiresomely cynical, but I can't picture that really happening. It seems much more likely that we'd just end up where we already seem to be heading -- with privacy reserved for the powerful.

"Taxes are the price we pay for civilization."

Which succinctly explains why wingers don't like paying taxes.

As Warren Buffet pointed out, as one of the planet's wealthiest individuals he pays a far lower effective tax rate than his secretary. (Who presumably is not one of the planet's wealthiest individuals.)

Cue up loud whining about "paternalist and socialist interference with the free market" from people who think giving oil companies billions of dollars of tax breaks and bailing out mismanaged financial institutions are excellent ideas.

If you take money from someone who pays taxes and give it to someone who doesn't that redistribution.

I see, like tax breaks and bailouts (and no-bid contracts) for big corporations, for example. And the overall shifting of the tax burden ever more heavily onto the lower and middle classes over the last few years. It's true, there has been a very large redistribution of wealth lately.

Well, tiberius, I admit that I never would've expected you to oppose the Bush Administration -- and McCain's support of them on these things -- so strongly.

"I and all of my colleagues are concerned about the lack of information and the lack of consultation that has occurred," Boehner said.

Welcome to the friggin' club.

... that he's even willing to strongly disagree with himself.

Yup. Evidently the Trolls For McCain caucus has realized that McCain is particularly vulnerable on this topic.

If you are looking for an abuse of power, that's where to start.

But McCain's campaign isn't looking for an abuse of power. They're looking for a scapegoat that will draw attention away from the abuses of power that they enabled.

Opposition to the proposed same-sex marriage ban is growing.

When you have people like that who are (presumably) in favor of the ban, it's no surprise that opposition is growing. Not that there aren't lots of other reasons to oppose the ban.

The supposed Franklin Raines / Obama connection has already been shown to be pretty tenuous. (Except they're both black, which of course is proof of nefarious collaboration.) Certainly their connection is much more tenuous than the list of connections McCain's staff has to various other financial institutions which are far more to blame than McCain's conveniently singled-out scapegoat.

I notice with bemusement that McCain's triple-gainer-with-a-twist flip-flop regarding financial regulation was so impressive that a few people in MediaCorp actually remarked on the reversal.

No doubt many very very contrite corporatists will immediately do penance for their hubris and greed ... as soon as they can remember in which of their closets in which of their houses they keep their hairshirts. No doubt they've been carefully stored in plastic since they were dry-cleaned after last time they were worn.

If the free market were actually allowed to work, then mortgage lenders would not have been forced to lend massive amounts of money to unqualified, risky borrowers.

The color of the sky in our world is blue, how about yours?

That's a pretty fast shark-jump.

Obama is using his community organizer skills in an effort to stir up votes.

Oh my God, you've stumbled onto Obama's secret plan! You have discovered that he's planning to win the election by getting more votes!

You realize, of course, that we're going to have to kill you now.

Hillary shows everybody she's still got political muscle, and Obama -- and the country -- benefits from her flexing it.

Yeah, obviously that whole campaigning-for-Obama thing she's been doing is just a smokescreen for her support for McCain.

C'mon, you already used that lie today. Haven't your handlers given you more lies than that? It's not like they have a limited supply.

The Obama campaign is perverting politics by using the truth against McCain. How is the McCain campaign supposed to respond to an underhanded attack like that? All they have is distortions and lies, and a media that is only mostly willing to let them go unchallenged.

If you don't realize that the 50-state strategy has already had a positive effect, I can only conclude that it's willful blindness.

... I think I can see where the McCain campaign is spending a little of the money from their post-convention funding bounce.

How much are they paying you? Is it per-word or per-post? Do you have to buy your own Cheetos and Flav-R-Aid?