It's Revolting by Steven Weber Operation Northwoods was a blueprint of sorts. "1984" was another. Maybe We The People need our own blueprint. Can you say "Liberty, equality, fraternity"? Keating 5 Ring a Bell? McCain's past collides with the present Wall Street debacle. by Rosa Brooks Once upon a time, a politician took campaign contributions and favors from a friendly constituent who happened to run a savings and loan association. The contributions were generous: They came to about $200,000 in today's dollars, and on top of that there were several free vacations for the politician and his family, along with private jet trips and other perks. The politician voted repeatedly against congressional efforts to tighten regulation of S&Ls, and in 1987, when he learned that his constituent's S&L was the target of a federal investigation, he met with regulators in an effort to get them to back off. That politician was John McCain, and his generous friend was Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings & Loan. While he was courting McCain and other senators and urging them to oppose tougher regulation of S&Ls, Keating was also investing his depositors' federally insured savings in risky ventures. When those lost money, Keating tried to hide the losses from regulators by inducing his customers to switch from insured accounts to uninsured (and worthless) bonds issued by Lincoln's near-bankrupt parent company. In 1989, it went belly up -- and more than 20,000 Lincoln customers saw their savings vanish. The 2008 Election Is About Customer Service by RJ Eskow The experience of being an American citizen has degraded over the last eight years. So has the experience of being a consumer. Whether we're dealing with a government that lies us into war or a credit card company that places us in phone-menu hell, we're confronting the same phenomenon: a screw-the-customer mentality that views both government and business as quick payoff schemes for those in power. McCain Is the Entrée Establishment Republicans Are Now Eating Their Own by PM Carpenter No matter what happens in November, we'll always have the delightful satisfaction of having watched the Republican Party unravel, strand by ideological strand, synapse by emotional synapse, tactic by tawdry tactic. The party is trapped like the rodent it is -- its years of ideological certainty thrown open to public ridicule and censure, its various factions squabbling with and accusing each other, its diseased desperation now strikingly unconcealed. John McCain is merely a symptom. Satire: Palin Suspends Vice Presidential Campaign Rushes Back to Alaska to Keep an Eye on Russia by Steve Young “Guys and gals, this is exactly the time that those Ruskies like to attack like they did at Pearl Harbor, don’tcha know,” said Palin. “I would hope that Senator Biden would join me and put the country above the campaign and come back to Alaska to make sure the USSR doesn’t try something funny.” Video: Roadkill Reward from the Daily Show "Before we hand this Munster-esque unelected official 700 billion no-strings-attached dollars," Stewart remarked, "there is one thing you should know — this financial guru never saw it coming." "I've got great confidence in our financial market," Paulson stated last March. "Our markets are resilient, are flexible. Our institutions, our banks and investment banks, are strong."

Today's Quote:

"If John McCain can't debate while thinking about the country's economy, then he's even more ill-equipped to hold the job than I think he is."

- Michael Tomasky

Editor's Notes & Rants:

Rick Davis & Freddie Mac: it's Keating 5 all over again, except this time there aren't 5 to blame, just John McCain.

John McCain's taking a nap. Let's hope he never wakes up. Now that McCain and Palin have chickened out of the debates, they should just concede the election. The voters have seen what liars and frauds they are, the only way they could win now would be to buy off Diebold, and I don't think America is going to put up with that again.

Bush's speech last night was one of the most pathetic things I've ever witnessed. Him recounting the sequence of failures, like a schoolkid trying to prove he had been paying attention in class, but showing not a bit more insight as to why they failed, than if he had just been scanning the newspaper headlines for the last few weeks. All that kept going through my mind was how many times he has insisted there was nothing to worry about, "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." This country is going to need a Truth and Reconcilliation commission, so we can round up and prosecute all these crooks, along with everyone who helped them get away with it.

Treasury Secretary Paulson blames future administrations for current financial crisis.

Democrats and Republicans reach deal, they will sell your children and grandchildren into slavery, in order to keep Wall St. in the luxury to which it has become accustomed.

John Edwards may have spent $400 on a haircut, but John McCain spent $5,500 on makeup!

McCain wanted Condi Rice, not Sarah Palin, as his VP running mate, but thought her being a lesbian would kill the ticket.

Sarah Palin's lover revealed. And it ain't Todd, it's his best friend! Way to go, Ms. "Family Values!"