Mahmoud Strikes Back, Me and Paul...

Paul Krugman
Michael Kinsley
Terrence McNalley

"The United States can deal with its debts if politicians of both parties are, in the end, willing to show at least a bit of maturity. Need I say more?" - Paul Krugman

"But as soon as it seems that change might actually happen -- as soon as we leave the abstract for the particular -- we panic." - Michael Kinsley

"Sarah - I need to contact you. I need to know how to fight this current govt. We must find a way to get them removed, standing by and watching all the evil occur, is like watching water run quickly down the drain, each of our freedoms gone daily. Please advise me what direction to take my group. Thank you" - commentator on Sarah Palin's Facebook

"A blind person who sees is better than a seeing person who is blind..."If anyone is sounding more and more like an Adolf Hitler these days, its Iran's fake President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The man can't take a little criticism, or opposition it seems. After again being criticized by the Supreme Leader yesterday, who said that the protesters were not foreign agents, which was one of the main arguments for the show trial currently being staged by judicial cronies, Mr Ahmadinejad rebutted rather forcefully on a radio address before morning prayers today, that: "... leaders of the protests that followed his disputed re-election in June need to be dealt with decisively. Speaking ahead of Friday prayers in Tehran, he said the "main elements should not enjoy immunity and security" while their followers were punished. He also acknowledged some arrested protesters had been abused but said security forces had not been involved." Yeah, they have these really big abusive rats who raped and tortured the prisoners, their birth certificates show they were bred in the New York sewer system... This is like watching a chess match between two very bad players. Who will win, the religious leadership or the military leadership, who are two similar conservative types of rats sniping at each other, to the amusement of everyone else. Unless you are one of the 100 on trial, whose lives are the scraps of cheese being fought over... Ayatollah Khamenei is trying to recoup his position of Supreme leadership after bungling things badly after the fake election, by alternately encouraging the different factions. It looks like he has been spending more time lately reading Sun Tze's The Art of War than the Koran...

Snippets...
A couple of interesting items from Foreign Policy's AfPak daily brief: "The good news out of Afghanistan this morning is that far fewer Afghan civilians have been killed since Gen

. Stanley McChrystal took over as the top U.S. commander in the country (Los Angeles Times). From July 1 until Thursday, coalition forces were responsible for 19 Afghan civilian deaths, compared with 151 during roughly the same time last year." Should we just pull out all of our troops from Afghanistan if Kharzai wins the election, let him make his own deal with the Talibans? It's nice to know that the Petraeus and McChrystal strategies are successful, but it is a very expensive experiment to run and still costing us the lives of our children. Their is no win/win option forseeable in the future.

And: "Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has reportedly authored a searing critique of the U.S.'s strategic communications plan with the Muslim world, saying that American efforts to counter extremist messaging "lack credibility" (New York Times). Mullen didn't spotlight any particular government program, but noted in an essay to be published later today in the Joint Force Quarterly, an official military journal, that "there has been a certain arrogance to our 'strat comm' efforts" This is probably because we have academic types crafting our messages, and you know how those professors love to lecture... or it could be that all of the really good writers and translators were gay people, who were drummed out of the service from being outed by their superiors...

Bi-partisan House party...
From Politico comes the story of the current collaboration between Barney Frank, who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Ron Paul, the author of the bill to audit the Fed: "Frank, who supports Ben Bernanke's re-appointment as Fed chairman, is walking a tightrope between supporting the administration and heeding the broad, bipartisan support for the Fed audit bill, which has 282 co-sponsors.

After initially backing the Fed's role as a dominant "systemic regulator," he now seems leerier of its institutional reach -- and wants to curtail the Fed's nearly unlimited powers to lend cash -- citing the $80-plus billion loan to AIG." This way you will be able to see where the Fed spends its money and there will be no secrets, or groups like the stimulus oversight committee begging to get information. Why something like this wasn't done when the Fed was created is beyond me. I think we would have had a less bloated economy if the Fed's decisions were put under public scrutiny. It's bad enough that there are predictions that over a thousand banks may still fail, and the ones that were deemed "too big to fail" have grown even larger... See, even Ron Paul loves Barney, not every adult hate those purple dinosaurs.

late night jokes:

"Boy, it's hot in New York City today, huh? I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking, OK, OK, go ahead and pull the plug on the old folks, just don't pull the plug on the air conditioner." --David Letterman

"Here's the way it stands now. Hamid Karzai is leading in the election and he picked up a lot of swing voters, they said, in the Afghanistan elections, because of his No Infidel Left Behind program." --David Letterman

"One of the candidates, Abdullah Abdullah, has dropped out of the running, and they think now his dumb son is thinking about running, Abdullah W. Abdullah." --David Letterman

"Here's the approved CIA torture methods: sleep deprivation; waterboarding; face slapping. Sounds like attending a Donald trump real estate seminar, or watching a Ben Bernanke confirmation hearing." --David Letterman

"Anyway, he's being re-nominated for the Federal Reserve chairman. And I'm already planning my big Ben Bernanke party." --David Letterman

"I like Ben Bernanke. He looks like the guy who OK's your check at Kroger." --David Letterman

"He looks like every guy at your high school reunion." --David Letterman

"He looks like a porn kingpin. That's it. Ben Bernanke, that's what he looks like." --David Letterman

"The Obamas taking a vacation on Martha's Vineyard. When something like that happens, it's like a big deal for the community. And people on Martha's Vineyard are going crazy and they're buying Obama T-shirts, they're buying Obama mugs, they're buying Obama caps. The only thing they're not buying is Obama's health-care plan." --David Letterman

"Obama has a great money-saving idea for health care. Here's what he's saying — if you need an X-ray and you don't have the money or you don't have proper health coverage and you need that X-ray, just drop by an airport, go right through the scanner. They'll send you the results." --David Letterman

"But on Martha's Vineyard, they're serving a new drink inspired by Obama. It's an Obamarita. After three Obamaritas, a $9 trillion deficit doesn't look so bad." --David Letterman

"This is not the first time a president has inspired a cocktail. We have the Obamarita. And remember George W. Bush? He inspired the Mojidiot." --David Letterman

"The latest rumor is that President Obama is going to have dinner on Martha's Vineyard with Oprah Winfrey. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. The most powerful person in the free world is going to have dinner with President Obama." --Conan O'Brien

"Governor Schwarzenegger is trying to reduce California's deficit by auctioning off state holdings that he says are no longer needed. So check out the auction if you're looking to buy real estate, construction equipment, or the Los Angeles Clippers." --Conan O'Brien

"General Motors has announced it's going to be removing its GM 'Mark of Excellence' logo from all GM cars. Of course, the GM Mark of Excellence logo doesn't usually have to be removed because after 50 miles, it just falls off." --Conan O'Brien