Be very afraid

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” If the bill passes with this in it, Xiao Bushie will still have 3 months to dip his mitts into the bail out money. It is the Bush way to suspend the very underpinning of what makes Democracy work as well as it does. No pins is not good for the highly touted “transparency” which in large measure helps to keep the gummint honest.

This is so scary. Why would the Executive branch, within which the awesome responsibility will reside, need to insist on no judicial review. Isn’t that what criminals do when they turn states evidence so they won’t have to go to jail for things they haven’t yet been charged with? The 32 word sentence should be the deal breaker. Chris Dodd’s attempts to make provisions that would disallow such unfettered mastery over the financial lives of the citizenry have already been quashed. The Paulson polemic mimics what the bloody “Bush Doctrine,” preemption before you get caught, really means. They lied about the war then lied about blowing it. Called “quaint” the Geneva Convention rules. Brownie doing a heck of a job (think what New Orleans would look like with even a lick of that $700 B). Managed the budget and deficit into a staggering shag-up that some people’s grand-children will be paying for ad infi their lives.

McCain’s little trick, make that a BIG trick, to supposedly suspend his campaign to go roaring into the White House to solve what could be one of the biggest issues of this country in modern history, is about the only transparency in his campaign. If you can’t see through this gimmick, you ain’t been paying attention. It is as desperate a move as picking Palin. But it should show to most voters that he is relying on hoodwinking us which means he thinks that our level of nincompoopery knows no bounds. I can see Steve “the Bullet” Schmidt glowing over the plan and thinking, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. At least that’s what I think he’s thinking.

Will McCain show up tonight? The Smoking Jacket has learned that nobody actually knows. The multi-millionaires in the punditocracy who get paid to prognosticate, begin their answer to that question: “Well Pete, nobody knows for sure what the Senator will do, but… Then while they are getting paid more per word that some of us make a month on Social Security, they blab on. If I knew what the “it’s time to fish or cut bait” statement of definitiveness meant, I would tentatively hazard a speculation that if you held a gun to my head I might guess that a no-show would be a major blow to the campaign. What ever people think of Obamaian wisdom and judgement, you must know (or can learn here), the dude has a crack team of advisers that any campaign would love to claim and they are all over this. They are working around the clock so that whatever eventuality happens they will have the best possible response. “There is no advantage too small to take” and certainly that is true in this universe altering game of the White House race. But you knew that.
Click on Sue Bru’s column on the right (of this page) for a catch-up course on what’s taking place till now.

Supposedly, 100 million people will watch the debate. That is the number of voters in the country. Picture an up-market bar in Manhattan, DC, SF, or St. Looey say, with all eyes turned to the tube to see if McCain shows. Rehearsal dinners from sea to shining sea will halt in the middle of toasts to watch the white haired wrinkly dude greet the nation with that insane rictus. Voter age college kids will cancel their frat party to pay sober attention to this terribly important first debate that will pretty much control the polls on Saturday morning. If I had a tivo, I’d watch Larry King and Jamie Lynn Spears with pictures of her first breast feeding.

In Webster World there was only one big development. While she refuses to make eye contact, I can tell that she knows I know something or know somebody who does know, who in this case will remain OTR. A second secondary (or even flimsier) rumor has popped up and has confirmed (for me) that Margie may be looking at charges. This would make my heart soar like an eagle (thank you John Ashcroft) because I am a petty and vindictive little shit who will have revenge no matter the cost.