Brand Spanking New Election Thread

[Analogman]

When I lived in Colorado it was a law to sport one of these on your Subaru Outback

 

That, and a bunch of Grateful Dead stickers.

[fatheadfred]

It will take care of that itself.

 

P.S I'm a whitey, college grad. Does this help you in anyway?

 

In Economics or Business (college)?

[Sir Stewart]

Bumperstickers suck and the bumperstickers in my 'hood are the worst. "That's OK, I wasn't using my civil liberties anyhow" - shit like that. I wanna kick in windows all over the place.

[John Smith]

I haven't seen bumper stickers either but I have seen a lot of Obama t-shirts on people.

 

I've seen a few Obama yard signs around, but no McCain yard signs. I think there's someone out there kicking them over and lighting the rich people on fire.

 

I don't see many sitckers for anyone right now. Mostly old W'04 stickers. I see one McCain sign up down the street from me. The sign is so close to the house as to be almost un noticable. My secretary has a McCain coffee mug. She is the perfect example of some one who will vote against her own best interests because of the lack of interest in separatign fact from fiction.

 

Before the '04 election I had a whole slew of signs up in my yard. I have a good location, people woudl ask and If I liked the candidate and I liked the requestor I would let them put up the sign. It was republicans and democrats mainly for local elections. We went away for an overnighter and came home to no signs in the yard, they all were stolen.

[austrya]

When I was in high school a couple of kids went around and stole about 300 election signs from all over and put all of them on the front lawn of the high school in the middle of the night.

 

The also decorated it will all of these lawn ornaments they could find:

 

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

Hot.

[EL the Famous]

for the patriotic men of VC

 

10 smokin hot American flag bikini moments. Enjoy, don't say I never contributed anything here.

 

god bless america.

 

i firmly believe in supporting your candidate via bumperstickers:

 

[Analogman]

I don't see many sitckers for anyone right now. Mostly old W'04 stickers. I see one McCain sign up down the street from me. The sign is so close to the house as to be almost un noticable. My secretary has a McCain coffee mug. She is the perfect example of some one who will vote against her own best interests because of the lack of interest in separatign fact from fiction.

 

Before the '04 election I had a whole slew of signs up in my yard. I have a good location, people woudl ask and If I liked the candidate and I liked the requestor I would let them put up the sign. It was republicans and democrats mainly for local elections. We went away for an overnighter and came home to no signs in the yard, they all were stolen.

 

 

Did anyone ever draw on the signs?

[Party @ the Moontower]

Did anyone ever draw on the signs?

 

 

Man, those guys are so cool. I thought about going into the republican headquarters here (in an old burger joint) and getting some signs to "draw" on, but I'm afraid they will smell the Obama on me.

[EL the Famous]

bumper sticker potential:

 

Smell the Obama on Me! Obama/Biden '08

[bjorn_skurj]

It needs to be said: who the hell puts bumber stickers on his/her car?

I have one that says "The Clash" and another one that says "Boobies!"

[fatheadfred]

are people noticing many bumperstickers on cars about this election? in southern maine i see just about none, which is really unusual, and i'm wondering about other regions/states. if not, are people afraid to let their preference be known this time, is nearly everyone out there undecided after all, are people not excited about their preferred candidate if they do have one, or are they worried about wrecking the paint on their vehicles?

 

I'm sporting the "Jon Stewart for President 2008" along w/ some local shtuff.

[fatheadfred]

When I lived in Colorado it was a law to sport one of these on your Subaru Outback

 

Or the response to that was the

 

"Fuck Tibet, Free Boulder" stickers.

[Elixir Sue]

It needs to be said: who the hell puts bumber stickers on his/her car?

 

In moderation, though...right now, I only have an Obama sticker and a Wilco sticker.

[EL the Famous]

I have one that says "The Clash" and another one that says "Boobies!"

 

CLASH/BOOBIES '08!!!

[bjorn_skurj]

When I lived in Colorado it was a law to sport one of these on your Subaru Outback

Free Tibet! That's right - Free Tibet to the first 10 callers!

[John Smith]

I was thinking over lunch and like the "Bush is the guy most peopel would like to have a beer with" the whole Sarah Palin knows more about energy than anyone in the country line is begining tomake me sick. 1) it's not true. We have energy traders here in our compnaay who have already forgotton more about energy than Sara Palin will ever know. If sahe knew so GD much about energy Conoco, Shell, Exxon etc... woudl all have come callign long ago. If she knew more than anyone in the country about energy then she woudl be the person the news organizations would have been consulting rather than CEO's of energy companies. 2) the Obama camp has let this untruth go on too long and they need to confront it head on or it will be considered truthful. 3) how the heck did she become this genius? Osmosis? SImply living in a state with oil revenues no more makes you an ennergy expert than living in a state bordering the soviet union makes you an expet on foreign policy.

 

This only came up because energy traders here think it is an absolute joke, just as real foreign policy experts think that the whole "she lives next to Russia" argument is a joke..

[Sir Stewart]

CLASH/BOOBIES '08!!!

 

Now there's something.

[Doug C]

The only bumper stickers that I have are an old faded, ragged but durable Sleater-Kinney that has a picture of the ladies and a fresh Wilco Now.

[Analogman]

Gov't rushing to finish huge financial rescue plan

Friday September 19, 2:38 pm ET

By Jeannine Aversa and Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Associated Press Writers

 

Gov't plan to attack financial crisis, buy up billions in bad debt rallies stock markets

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration sketched out a multi-faceted effort on Friday to confront the worst U.S. financial crisis in decades, outlining a program that could cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to buy up bad mortgages and other toxic debt. Relief washed over Wall Street with a surge of buying.

 

President Bush, flanked by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, acknowledged that the program will put a "significant amount of taxpayers' money on the line."

 

Markets unhinged by anxiety in recent months greeted the plan enthusiastically. The Dow Jones industrials shot up over 400 points and stayed in that territory into the afternoon. Global stock markets soared, too.

 

The administration is asking Congress to give it sweeping new powers to execute the plan. Paulson said it "needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get to the heart of the problem."

 

Paulson gave few details but said he would work through the weekend with leaders of Congress from both parties to flesh out the program, the biggest proposed government intervention in financial markets since the Great Depression. Members of the Senate Banking Committee said they had yet to receive details of the proposal, but were ready to move quickly when they do.

 

Before the markets opened Friday, the government announced plans to temporarily insure money-market deposits and to block short-selling in financial securities. Short selling is a trading method that bets the stocks will go down.

 

Speaking to reporters at the Treasury Department, Paulson said that the new troubled-asset relief program that he wants Congress to enact must be large enough to have the necessary impact while protecting taxpayers as much as possible.

 

"I am convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative -- a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion," Paulson said in a prepared statement.

 

"The financial security of all Americans ... depends on our ability to restore our financial institutions to a sound footing," he said.

 

Paulson said mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will step up their purchases of mortgage-backed securities to help provide support to the crippled housing market.

 

He also said the Treasury Department will expand a program, announced earlier this month, to buy mortgage-backed securities, which have been badly hurt by the housing and credit crises.

 

"As we all know, lax lending practices earlier this decade led to irresponsible lending and irresponsible borrowing. This simply put too many families into mortgages they could not afford," Paulson said.

 

At a news conference in which he only took three questions, Paulson was asked the approximate dollar size of the government intervention. "We're talking hundreds of billions," he said.

 

Paulson did not address specifics about the plan to buy back bad debt or whether the government would take a direct stake in troubled banks in exchange for its help.

 

"These illiquid assets are clogging up our financial system, and undermining the strength of our otherwise sound financial institutions. As a result, Americans' personal savings are threatened, and the ability of consumers and businesses to borrow and finance spending, investment, and job creation has been disrupted," Paulson said.

 

He said that the administration would present Congress with a proposed legislative package and then work with lawmakers "to flesh out the details through the weekend. And we're going to be asking them to take action on legislation next week."

 

"This is what we need to do. Because for some time we've been saying that the root cause of the problems in our economy and our financial system is housing, and until we get stability in the housing market we are not going to get stability in our financial markets," he said.

 

Earlier, Bush authorized Treasury to tap up to $50 billion from a Depression-era fund to insure the holdings of eligible money market mutual funds. And the Federal Reserve announced it will expand its emergency lending program to help support the $2 trillion in assets of the funds.

 

Both moves are designed to bolster the huge money market mutual fund industry, which has come under stress in recent days.

 

The Fed said it is expanding its emergency lending efforts to allow commercial banks to finance purchases of asset-backed paper from money market funds, which should help the funds meet demands for redemptions.

 

The Securities and Exchange Commission early Friday imposed a temporary emergency ban on short-selling, which had been contributing to the collapse of stock values of investment and commercial banks.

 

Congressional leaders said they expected to get the rescue plan Friday and act on it before Congress recesses for the election.

 

The government's actions could help alleviate the uncertainty that has been sending the markets into tumult over the past week. Lending has come to a virtual standstill in the wake of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

 

European Central Bank, Swiss National Bank and Bank of England also offered up more cash Friday. The three banks put a combined $90 billion into money markets in a lockstep move.

 

The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd, D-Conn., warned on ABC's "Good Morning America" Friday that the United States could be "days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system" and said Congress would work quickly to prevent that.

 

Later Dodd told reporters that the government's rescue plan will be costly, and demanded more details. "We're anxious to hear the specifics. None of us have any idea what the details are. We understand the gravity of the moment," he said. predicted the new bailout plan would cost at least half a trillion dollars.

 

Paulson said he wanted action next week by Congress.

 

"Time is of the essence," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday night after being briefed by Paulson and Bernanke.

 

Rep. Roy Blunt, the No. 2 GOP leader in the House, suggested the rescue can be handled without a tax increase.

 

"It doesn't necessarily have to be something that impacts taxpayers in a negative way," said Blunt, R-Mo. "It all depends on how you put that structure together."

 

GOP presidential candidate John McCain said any action should "be designed to keep people in their homes and safeguard the life savings of all Americans."

 

Democratic rival Barack Obama said it is critical that leaders in both parties work in concert. "Truly we are all in this together," he said.

 

The federal government already has pledged more than $600 billion in the past year to bail out, or help bail out, some of the biggest names in American finance.

 

Associated Press writers Martin Crutsinger, Andrew Taylor, Marcy Gordon and Jim Abrams in Washington and Joe Bel Bruno in New York contributed to this report.

[LouieB]

My latest prediction....Obama by a nose.....

 

Grandpa McCain is fading fast and cutie pie Sarah ain't helping nearly enough....

[quarter23cd]

the whole Sarah Palin knows more about energy than anyone in the country line

...

2) the Obama camp has let this untruth go on too long and they need to confront it head on or it will be considered truthful.

I can honestly say I have not heard a single person--including McCain/Palin supporters--repeat this line with a straight face. My sis-in-law is still feeling the Palin swoon, and even she cringed when she heard this. (along with the you-can-see-Russia-from-here bit)

[Guest Jules]

I was thinking over lunch and like the "Bush is the guy most peopel would like to have a beer with" the whole Sarah Palin knows more about energy than anyone in the country line is begining tomake me sick. 1) it's not true. We have energy traders here in our compnaay who have already forgotton more about energy than Sara Palin will ever know. If sahe knew so GD much about energy Conoco, Shell, Exxon etc... woudl all have come callign long ago. If she knew more than anyone in the country about energy then she woudl be the person the news organizations would have been consulting rather than CEO's of energy companies. 2) the Obama camp has let this untruth go on too long and they need to confront it head on or it will be considered truthful. 3) how the heck did she become this genius? Osmosis? SImply living in a state with oil revenues no more makes you an ennergy expert than living in a state bordering the soviet union makes you an expet on foreign policy.

 

This only came up because energy traders here think it is an absolute joke, just as real foreign policy experts think that the whole "she lives next to Russia" argument is a joke..

You eat lunch?

[John Smith]

I can honestly say I have not heard a single person--including McCain/Palin supporters--repeat this line with a straight face. My sis-in-law is still feeling the Palin swoon, and even she cringed when she heard this. (along with the you-can-see-Russia-from-here bit)

 

But like the whole she hates earmarks thing, they keep repeating it and the less curious voters out there will take it to be true and possibbly vote accordingly. Heck there is a guy here, he has a degree, works in a professional capacity, values learning and is a big fan of critical thinking and scepticism and he repeats the Russia line. COme to think of it the one thing he refuses to use critical thinking or scepticism on are the talkign points of the republicans. He still thinks Bush is doing a good job, or at least says he thinks that.

[Tweedling]

Which Obama economic advisors was once with Fannie Mae? Wasn't he the CEO? Wasn't one of them with Freddie Mac also? Hmmmmmm