Cartoonists With Attitude

As it’s entertaining to see McCain’s panicked behavior make him look more like an ass than ever, we should not forget that Senate Democrats - including the Democratic nominee for President - are letting BushAdmin fear-mongering push them into going along with this bullshit bailout, so matter how many negotiated “principles” a revised bill adheres to.

There are two fantasies at play here: first, that we have $700 billion to spend at all; second, that putting ourselves more in hock to foreign lenders should be done for the sake of salvaging a corrupt and incompetent banking and financial industry. If we’re going to put my children’s grandchildren into debt, why not spend the money on things that will serve them best in the long run? Why not bail out the health care system? The education system? The energy production system? Are there not workers who need retraining? Are there not new technologies that deserve more research and investment to push them along so that we are free from fossil fuels, more secure as a nation, and less destructive environmentally?

The panic-stricken will scream that “doing nothing” will push us into a depression. I’m not saying “do nothing.” I’m saying, do something for the long term social and economic health of the country as a whole (with dividends for the rest of the world if we get our crap together), and let the bankers, the lenders, the investors, and the other money-monkeys go marching off to their own doom. As for the depression - be realistic. This bailout will not forestall the next calamity. Ruben Bolling explains why.

Posted in capitalism, politics, presidential election   Tagged: bailout, capitalism, depression, economy   

Click to read a cartoon that will fundamentally realign your wheels of perception.

Posted in cartoons, in contempt   Tagged: bailout, capitalism, economy   

Props to my friend Leah for noting what a dodge this is. Head full of cold germs, my first thought when I heard CNN breathlessly report this morning (”this just in!”) John McCain’s proposal to delay his debate with Barack Obama and renounce campaigning until a bailout program is developed was, “Ah. Good strategy. Makes him look ‘presidential’ - whatever that means.”

Such is the obvious gambit. But, hey, what a way to get out of answering questions about an economy McCain fails to understand. Sure, the debate is focused on foreign policy, but a global economy facing a widespread crisis as the world’s largest consumer and debtor drowns in its own stupidity might have some bearing on how the next Prez interacts with his peers on the world stage. McCain has found a handy way to deflect criticism for last week’s gaffes and wild demands for firing the SEC chief, while putting Obama on the spot. The Bloomberg article linked above quotes a perfesser:

“The suspension does bring the ‘ready-to-lead’ issue back into focus for McCain,” said Paul Light, a public service professor at New York University. “Obama is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.”

Dana Perino helpfully chimes in:

“Bipartisan support from Senators McCain and Obama would be helpful in driving to a conclusion,” press secretary Dana Perino said.

But, hey, no pressure, “Barry”. So far, the AP reports that Obama is not, as Sarah Palin might put it, read to “blink.” If you’re thinking, “Er, isn’t this a non-issue meant to distract us from the sheer stupidity of the Paulson bailout plan,” I would chastise you for your cynicism. Really, just because neither candidate has anything more to offer than vague “principles” and is more interested in hedging their bets against either a full endorsement or a full rejection than, say, calling the Paulson bailout for the utter bullshit it is - that’s no reason assume they’re more comfortable arguing over porcine applications of lipstick. Are not presidential contests supposed to be about debate formats, the relative heights of podiums and microphones, the selection of bland moderators, and the arrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic?

Posted in capitalism, politics, presidential election   Tagged: bailout, barack obama, economy, john mccain   

Headline: McCain says economy in crisis.

Next: McCain finds ass with both hands.

Okay, snark over. I find it interesting that after so many years opposing regulation of the investment and financial communities, he is now calling for oversight of the bailout program. In fact, I think he makes a good point. But, really, where has he been? How the hell does he think we are going to afford this mess? More foreign debt? Lower taxes? Selling off lousy mortgage assets at pennies on the dollar? We have a $3 trillion war, a $5 trillion government take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and now another $700 billion (Paulson calls it a maximum, but I wouldn’t be surprised he is low-balling) to save the asses of the clowns who created the house of cards / shell game / Ponzi scheme / smoke and mirrors clusterfoofaraw we have been blindly calling an economy for the last mmmmmmmm 7 years? How about longer? Our government has been de-regulating everything for nearly 30 years now. Any chance we might finally recognize the folly of letting foxes guard the hen house?

(You can tell I’m upset when I start throwing metaphors around like spittle from a rabid dog. Frothy spittle.)

I am not holding my breath. Should Mr. Changey-Hopey Guy from Illinois actually overcome the white flight of Palinophiles and win this election, I doubt his answers will be much better. There is potential in his plans for an environmental technology overhaul, but how do you get that off the ground under the weight of such massive debt? When do we get the bill?

I say we’re already paying for it in the poor state of manufacturing, health care, and our social infrastructure - you know, the “hidden costs.” Yet the symbiotic relationship between American and Chinese manufacturing and lending has all the tenuousness of the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction: so long as no one is kah-razy enough to press the button, that doctrine held, we’re safe. Now we have Mutually Assured Globalization. So long as no one goes broke, we’ll keep buying and the Chinese (and other countries) will keep selling and lending. Which do you have more faith in - our instincts for self-preservation that keeps us from nuking each other; or the American capacity for consumerism? How long before the Chinese and others are forced by their own economic crises to come collecting?

Tags: economy, globalization, foreign debt, John McCain, Barack Obama

Posted in capitalism, politics, presidential election      

Headline: McCain says economy in crisis.

Next: McCain finds ass with both hands.

Okay, snark over. I find it interesting that after so many years opposing regulation of the investment and financial communities, he is now calling for oversight of the bailout program. In fact, I think he makes a good point. But, really, where has he been? How the hell does he think we are going to afford this mess? More foreign debt? Lower taxes? Selling off lousy mortgage assets at pennies on the dollar? We have a $3 trillion war, a $5 trillion government take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and now another $700 billion (Paulson calls it a maximum, but I wouldn’t be surprised he is low-balling) to save the asses of the clowns who created the house of cards / shell game / Ponzi scheme / smoke and mirrors clusterfoofaraw we have been blindly calling an economy for the last mmmmmmmm 7 years? How about longer? Our government has been de-regulating everything for nearly 30 years now. Any chance we might finally recognize the folly of letting foxes guard the hen house?

(You can tell I’m upset when I start throwing metaphors around like spittle from a rabid dog. Frothy spittle.)

I am not holding my breath. Should Mr. Changey-Hopey Guy from Illinois actually overcome the white flight of Palinophiles and win this election, I doubt his answers will be much better. There is potential in his plans for an environmental technology overhaul, but how do you get that off the ground under the weight of such massive debt? When do we get the bill?

I say we’re already paying for it in the poor state of manufacturing, health care, and our social infrastructure - you know, the “hidden costs.” Yet the symbiotic relationship between American and Chinese manufacturing and lending has all the tenuousness of the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction: so long as no one is kah-razy enough to press the button, that doctrine held, we’re safe. Now we have Mutually Assured Globalization. So long as no one goes broke, we’ll keep buying and the Chinese (and other countries) will keep selling and lending. Which do you have more faith in - our instincts for self-preservation that keeps us from nuking each other; or the American capacity for consumerism? How long before the Chinese and others are forced by their own economic crises to come collecting?

Tags: economy, globalization, foreign debt, John McCain, Barack Obama

Posted in capitalism, politics, presidential election      

Click to read the cartoon.

Tags: InContempt, John McCain, economy

Click the image to read it a full size.

Tags: wanderlost, sheldon, search party

As Howard Kurtz remarks, “The production of this spot in less than 24 hours underscores how modern technology has quickened the pace of campaigning and how the ad wars are increasingly driven by daily developments.”

Nervous Democrats and independent Obama supporters worried that the Obama campaign will let the McCain campaign “swift-boat” it have seen new evidence to the contrary this week. This ad is the first evidence I’ve seen that the Obama campaign is going on the offensive. Well, okay, I guess I could count the “McCain’s too old to understand the InterTubez” ad, but that was lame. This one actually addresses a real problem Americans (and thanks to globalization of financial markets, the world) faces now, one with practical consequences for anyone who owns a home, took out a student loan, or needs a job.

The next question is “What’re ya gonna do about it, Barry?” (Cuz certain yobs out there insist on calling Obama “Barry.”) The Obama campaign shouldn’t expect anyone to visit their website to read its glorious list of plans. No one but political nerds like me do that. Despite a long-stated aversion to “negative ads”, voters get most of their information about candidates from 30-second spots, the debates, and whatever folks like Wolf Blitzer yammer on about (if they have time.) A few “positive ads” promoting Obama’s plans to address voter’s real life economic concerns should follow.

He could make an ad solely out of this endorsement of his health care plan in, of all things, The Wall Street Journal.

Tags: barackobama, john mccain, economy, presidential politics

Click to enlarge the image and read it!

Tags: JohnMcCain, religious right, Sarah Palin

You may have been distracted by the 500+ point Dow Jones drop on Wall Street, or the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros., or Bank of America’s absorption of Merrill Lynch, or Senator John McCain’s insistence that American economic fundamentals are strong. But the National League of Cities issued a report today on the bleak financial situation common to American cities that seems quite at home amidst the general malaise.

The report found that the decline in property tax revenues (3.6 percent from the prior year, in inflation-adjusted terms) is having an impact on the fiscal health of local governments. Unlike the previous economic downturn in 2001, when property tax revenues were able to buffer the effects of declining income and sales tax receipts, the weak housing market is likely to affect city budgets until 2010.

Moreover, the report found that other sources of revenue are headed downward as well, with sales tax receipts declining by 4.2 percent and income tax revenues expected to decline by 3.3 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2008 compared to 2007.

As a result, 64 percent of city finance officers surveyed expect cities to have a harder time meeting fiscal needs in 2008, and 79 percent forecast even bigger problems ahead in 2009.

“Even if economic conditions improved immediately, the nation’s cities are likely to be realizing the effects of the current downturn through 2010,” said Michael A. Pagano, co-author of the report and dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “The sharp decline in property tax receipts erodes a critical buffer that has helped cities through economic downturns for the last three decades.”

On the spending side, increases of 3.0 percent in 2007 were met with flat or declining revenues, according to the report. Taken together, city finance officers project a budget gap of 2.8 percent in 2008, with revenues declining by 4.3 percent and spending declining by 1.5 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars over 2007.

The areas affecting city budgets most heavily include prices and inflation (including energy prices), which were identified by 98 percent of respondents. Increases in infrastructure (85 percent) and public safety spending (83 percent), and employee-related costs for wages (95 percent), health care (86 percent), and pensions (79 percent) were also cited as budget-busters.

Fear not, people. I am sure we can pray our way outta this mess.

Tags: economy, financial crisis, home mortgage crisis