Terrace Agenda

I talked to Zack earlier today and we both lamented the fact that it’s really hard right now to feel confident being satirical (or even derisive or snarky) about the election because the McCain campaign has gone so far out there that it’s basically a parody of all the ridiculous tricks the Republicans have pulled over the past 30 years. As Zack pointed out, even the Daily Show’s writers, the best in the business, are having trouble right now doing much more than just telling us what’s really happening. So we basically just sit around waiting to see what the McCain people do next and then show videos about it. And that’s no way to live.

So here are some videos:

This is as strange as it gets:

Did you hear that? If you don’t have audio right now, John McCain referred to the American people as “My fellow prisoners.” There is no reasonable explanation for this. Either he’s so accustomed to using his POW status as a crutch, or he’s just lost it. Very, very strange.

This one’s been making the rounds quite a bit– Robert Gibbs, Obama’s communications chief, slaps Sean Hannity around (verbally, anyway):

Ahhh, that’s nice to see. He just stays calm and makes his point and Hannity melts down and really has nothing to say. Pure entertainment.

By the way, here’s a poem John Cleese wrote about Sean Hannity, courtesy of Keith Olbermann:

Aping urbanity
Oozing with vanity
Plump as a manatee
Faking humanity
Journalistic calamity
Intellectual inanity
Fox Noise insanity
You’re a profanity
Hannity

And just for fun:

And more fun, from a McCain/Palin rally where Jon Voight is defending Sarah Palin in front of a reporter:

Unfortunately, this video isn’t at all shocking, but it’s important to be reminded sometimes:

If you couldn’t get through it all, I don’t blame you.



And lastly, I’ve pretty much avoided entirely any discussion here of the financial crisis and, more specifically, the $700 billion package the government put together, but I just read a New York Times article that’s talking about things that could turn out to be pretty huge. Basically, the Treasury is still so worried about the situation that they seem to be moving toward injecting money directly into the banks in exchange for ownership.

This is definitely allowed under the flexible rules set down in the package passed by Congress, and it’s an idea that’s been pushed by economists like Paul Krugman but resisted by plenty of Republicans because it’s seen as (gasp!) socialism (GULP). Read Krugman, he’s been doing a pretty good job of explaining the entire situation and the benefits of this kind of plan, and also Brad DeLong, if you’re really curious.

If anyone’s interested in having the whole thing explained as well and as simply as I can manage, let me know and I’ll lay it out here. I’ve pretty much felt like it’s too dry for people to want to muddle through, but after talking to Cale over the weekend it’s apparent that the government has done a terrible job explaining this whole thing to people who aren’t paying really close attention. I’ll leave it up to you.