Meet The Bungles

In answer to the question I posed Friday, the answer was "The bigger disaster was the Bengals themselves" as they managed to find a way to lose their home opener to Denver in the final seconds of the game.

For a team that has lost games by almost every conceivable scenario over the past 19 years, the Bengals 12-7 loss to the Denver Broncos in Sunday’s opener at Paul Brown Stadium came on the unthinkable – a fluke tipped pass.

After a Cedric Benson 1-yard dive play with 41 seconds remaining, Denver got the ball on their own 13 needing a miracle to get even in field goal range. After Brandon Marshall was unable to haul in a Brandon Marshall pass on first down, they got the miracle and much more.

On a play the Broncos fittingly call “All Go”, Orton once again tried to find Marshall, but Leon Hall tipped the ball up at the Denver 38 while Chris Crocker and Roy Williams tackled Marshall. The problem was that Hall tipped the ball backwards, where Brandon Stokley made the grab at the 45 and raced 65 yards up the left sideline, outracing Dhani Jones in the process.

Stokley then took some time off the clock by running parallel to the end zone along the 1-yard line.

“It was the wrong play, he caught it and he scored. The right play would be to knock it on the ground or pick it off,” Hall said.

Who Dey, indeed.

Diss Them, But Don't Dismiss Them

Pandagon's Jesse Taylor brings up a good point this morning:

It’s often said that we shouldn’t dismiss the opposition to Obama as racists, or crazy, or potentially violent. And the thing is, we aren’t dismissing them. We’re accurately describing them, and taking their threat very seriously. There’s an assumption in our discourse that by describing someone as a paranoid bigot, we’re marginalizing them and saying they don’t have influence. This is largely because of a mainstream-media driven assumption that anyone who appeals to large numbers of people or makes their voice influential on the national stage must ergo be rational. I, for one, am totally willing to admit that crazy people such as Baron Weephausen can have a huge, even outsized effect on the political debate while still potentially needing a steady supply of adult diapers for what we call “rage leaks”.

The fact that a movement gains momentum does not make it rational or worthy of driving public discourse; it just means that far too many people are gullible enough to believe that Barack Obama is hunting down grandparents and harvesting their worn-out organs to mulch his organic garden with. They’re dangerous, they’re stupid, they’re angry, but what they are not is “dismissed”.

I agree, and as I've said, if anything these guys are stone cold dead serious in their beliefs that Obama must be stopped by any means necessary. And those means include the possibility of violence.

To dismiss them as harmless cranks would be a grave error.

Dollar Dollar Bill, Y'all

Investment guru Jim Rogers says a dollar currency crisis is on the way as the next leg of the continuing financial disaster.

"How can the solution for debt and consumption be more debt and more consumption? How can that be the solution to our problems?," he said.

"I would expect there to be a currency crisis or a semi-crisis this fall or next year. It's crony capitalism, Bernanke and Greenspan have brought crony capitalism to America … but that's not going to solve the world's problems," Rogers added.

There are still "gigantic amounts of horrible, horrible debt that hasn't been dealt with" in Central Europe, while hopes that China will pull the world out of recession are overblown, according to Rogers.

"China saved up a lot of money for a rainy day, it's raining and it's spending it," he said. "But China cannot pull out America or India or Europe from all this. Their economy is a 10th of the US. Hallelujah, let them do good things but they're not going to save the world."

The Federal Reserve has tripled its balance sheet and the US government's debt skyrocketed, which may cause currency problems next year, while protectionist tendencies have already started, he warned.

On Monday, China has requested World Trade Organization talks over US-imposed duties on Chinese-made tires, which China has branded protectionist.

"We're going to have some serious problems in currency markets, we're going to have serious problems in the world markets if we see protectionism rising and rising again," he said.

Rogers has two good points: bailing out the financial industry had added trillions to our national debt, and protectionism is already on the rise, witness the growing trade rift between the U.S and China that has gotten a lot more serious this month. China has responded to U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires by threatening to do the same to U.S. chicken and auto parts imports to China.

And it's only going to get worse. The U.S-China trade imbalance simply can't survive this recession. Something's going to have to give on a permanent basis, and the results may change the entire global economy for decades.

Keep an eye on this trade war. The first shots have been fired, and the whole world will soon be reacting to it.

StupidiNews!

• A purported tape released from Osama Bin Laden warns that President Obama can never win the war in Afghanistan.
• Russia is lending Venezuela's Hugo Chavez $2 billion for purchasing tanks and anti-aircraft systems.
• Chinese official fear the global economic slowdown will cost that country millions of jobs and set off widespread labor unrest.
• Analysts say Iran is acquiring U.S. military technology through Malaysia.
• The FTC has pulled the plug on corporate spyware distributed by, of all companies, Sears and Kmart.

Last Call

Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe has declared the public option dead, and wants President Obama and the Democrats to simply drop the matter and move on.

Speaking to CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Snowe suggested that President Barack Obama had shown "flexibility" on the key feature of his reform proposals during his State of the Union address on Wednesday,

She added: "It's universally opposed by all Republicans in the Senate, and therefore there's no way to pass a plan that includes the public option. So, I think it's recognizing that, because it is a roadblock to building the kind of consensus that we need. Even [Senate Finance Committee] Chairman [Max] Bauccus has indicated, no proposal could be passed in the Senate that includes it. So, it would be best to just move forward."

Among those Republicans is Rep. Lee Terry (R-NB), who told MSNBC on Sunday that a recent U.S. Treasury report claiming over half of all Americans will lose their health insurance over the next decade did not affect his resolute opposition to the public option.

Other Republicans, such as Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) and John Kyl (R-AZ), were quoted by The New York Times on Saturday arguing from varying perspectives that a public option is just an overstep too far.

Sen. Gregg said called it "a stalking horse for a single-payer plan," then switched his metaphor to, "more than the camel’s nose under the tent."

"It is the camel’s neck, and probably front legs, under the tent," he added. "There is no way the private sector will be able to compete."

Got that? Half of Americans will lose their insurance by 2020, meaning that we will have more uninsured Americans than insured ones in this country.

But there's not a single Republican who will vote for the public option in the Senate, Snowe says. Too worried about America's precious insurance companies. At least Snowe is finally being honest: there's not a single Republican in the Senate or the House for that matter who will vote for a real health-care reform bill. Not a one.

And we're too worried about the horrible "government takeover" of health care to worry about the corporate takeover of it.

If Obama does drop the public option, do you think Republicans are magically going to vote for the Democrats' plan? Anyone? No? Didn't think so.

No public option. No trigger mechanism. What they really want is no health care reform plan at all.

Worse Than Before

Nobel laureate economist Joesph Stiglitz says that the state of the financial services industry is actually worse now than last year before the collapse of Lehman Bros., and I for one agree with him.

“In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger,” Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris. “The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.”

Stiglitz’s views echo those of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has advised President Barack Obama’s administration to curtail the size of banks, and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who suggested last month that governments may want to discourage financial institutions from growing “excessively.”

A year after the demise of Lehman forced the Treasury Department to spend billions to shore up the financial system, Bank of America Corp.’s assets have grown and Citigroup Inc. remains intact. In the U.K., Lloyds Banking Group Plc, 43 percent owned by the government, has taken over the activities of HBOS Plc, and in France BNP Paribas SA now owns the Belgian and Luxembourg banking assets of insurer Fortis.

While Obama wants to name some banks as “systemically important” and subject them to stricter oversight, his plan wouldn’t force them to shrink or simplify their structure.

Stiglitz said the U.S. government is wary of challenging the financial industry because it is politically difficult, and that he hopes the Group of 20 leaders will cajole the U.S. into tougher action.

I honestly think it's going to take another major negative financial event or some sort, either another housing bubble pop or another sharp rise in unemployment (or both) that lays the banks' balance sheets open once again, and will force Obama to take action.

Right now nothing has been done. Nothing. Another financial bubble is forming as we speak, only the crash this time will come much sooner, and when it hapens again this time, it really will be Obama's fault. Banks are getting bigger, not smaller.

They'll be forced to shrink soon, along with our economy.

Baked Alaska Is A Dish Best Served Cold

SNL's Tina Fey has picked up an Emmy for her portrayal of America's favorite quitter. Also!

In winning her Emmy, Fey beat out two contenders from her own NBC comedy, "30 Rock," which leads all shows with 22 nominations. She made reference to Palin, who resigned in July as governor of Alaska less than a year after she was chosen as Senator John McCain's running mate in last year's U.S. presidential election.

"Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin!"

It marked Fey's sixth career win, and she is in contention for two awards at the main ceremony, including best comedy actress.

Did Tina Fey deserve it? You betcha!

The Party Of No's Joe Says No

Joe "You Lie!" Wilson told FOX News Sunday this morning that he's not going to apologize publicly in the well of the House.

"I am not going to apologize again," Wilson said on "Fox News Sunday." "I apologized to the president on Wednesday night. ... I believe that is sufficient."

Still, Democrats say Wilson broke House rules and should go to the floor and apologize, or risk facing a resolution condemning his actions.

"My view is that it's politics, this is plain politics," Wilson said. "The Democrats are playing politics. This is just a way to divert attention...It's a diversion from people looking at the bill and their concerns about the bill."

"People know my civility, they know this is a one-time event," he added. "I believe in the truth, what I heard was not true."

But asked by host Chris Wallace if the president were lying when he said the bill would not cover illegal immigrants, Wilson said: "I believe he was misstating the facts," and would have explained his outburst in a different way "if I had time."

Wilson also defended his campaign fundraising off the incident, saying that Democrats have "made me the No. 1 target for the elections.

The response from his district in South Carolina has been overwhelmingly positive, he said, but it'll be "tough" for him to handle when Democrats move to rebuke his actions.

I've said this before: Joe Wilson brought this all upon himself, and like most Republicans he's playing the victim card and blaming the mean old Democrats for making him follow House rules and hurting his feelings.

The man continues to look like an ass, and if the parties were reversed, not only would Republicans be demanding whatever Democrat made an outburst like that be censured, but that they should resign as well. The charge of "Well they're just playing politics!" rings hollow after the Bush administration, folks. None of this you see is Joe Wilson's fault, according to Joe Wilson.

Between this and the Not Two Million Birther March yesterday, it's been a miserable couple of days for conservatives in general and Wingers in particular. But don't be too hard on Joe: he can't apologize. His Obama-hating base would disown him in a heartbeat. Of course, the longer he holds out, the more damage he does to the Republican brand.

I don't envy the position he's in, but he put himself there. Man up, Wilson. Take responsibility.

Epic Seventy Thousand Is Not Two Million Fail

Many of the Wingers claiming two million people showed up at yesterday's "We love this country, now get the hell out" rally in Washington D.C. were working off a quote from ABC News that said the number was 1 million to 1.5 million, later it magically became two million. Freedomworks president Matt Kibbe announced as much to the crowd.

Only one problem. ABC News never said that.

At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, D.C., fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as "tens of thousands."

Brendan Steinhauser, spokesman for FreedomWorks, said he did not know why Kibbe cited ABC News as a source.

As a result of Kibbe's erroneous attribution, several bloggers and commenters repeated the misinformation.

They did indeed, from Malkvinvania to Pajamas Media to A.J. Strata to the UK's Daily Mail.

They of course are having none of the reality of 60k to 70k. It was two million, and anyone who says it wasn't at least a solid seven digit number is clearly working for the Obama media machine, right guys?

Still, those who did show up were folks like this:

No one on the tea party express seems concerned with the vocal fringe of the crowds that come with offensive signs -- besides Nazi imagery, a poster of Obama as an African witch doctor has become popular -- or the numerous conspiracy theories that float around most tea parties.

In Battle Creek, Michigan, a woman in her 60s says, "I really don't want to be a guinea pig for the experiment they have with the population control." In Canton, Ohio, a woman argues with an Obama supporter: "He's going after our kids to try to indoctrinate them into a national defense army."

The Tea Party Express tour has been free of violence, but occasional outbursts of vitriolic hatred toward the president combined with some menacing outward appearances often overshadow the more moderate tea partyers.

In Louisville, Kentucky, two young men in camouflage fatigues roamed the crowd trying to recruit new members for their militia called the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters. They bear signs reading "AK-47s: today's pitchfork" and "Quit worrying. Start your militia training today."

In Jackson, Michigan, a young man didn't need a sign. He was carrying the real thing: A loaded AK-47 assault rifle and two loaded handguns.

"I don't want a revolution. I don't want a civil war," he said. "But it is a possibility. It's there as an option, as a last resort."

From the stage, Deborah Johns and Mark Williams never interact with most of these characters. Russo shrugs it off, saying that the early stages of every political movement have people like this.

To Wierzbicki these troubling elements are just part of the price of a grassroots movement. He is convinced they will not derail the movement.

"The message will be moderated by the time it gets to 2010," he says.

The message will be moderated. Sure it will. An angry teabagger mob built expressly around the irrational "vitriolic hatred of the president" will moderate its message in time for the 2010 elections.

That's the most laughable thing I've ever heard. Anyone else here believe the message is moderation? Anyone else here believe that the GOP and the astroturf organizers are going to tell these rabid wolverines "Hey, chill out?"

Anyone else believe that should the teabaggers be told this, that they will turn that anger on the Republicans for not having the guts to "do what has to be done?" We have people talking about open, armed revolution here, folks. These guys are deadly f'ckin serious.

This whole thing is EPIC FAIL...one of the largest EPIC FAILS I think I've ever seen.

Last Call

Via Steven D at the Frog Pond, I'd like you to meet Las Vegas pawnbroker and gun salesman Glen Parshall.

Mr Parshall, though, is not just a businessman for whom the recession is a boon. He is also one of the out-riders for libertarians who believe that America under Obama is turning into a socialist state.

I do not exaggerate.

"We've got someone who is an out-and-out Marxist, a total socialist, who is trying to put everything under government control," Mr Parshall told me.

"There's a lot of people that are rising up," he says.

He and other self-described "free-thinkers" make much of Thomas Jefferson's statement: "The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

I asked him whether, given the taking over of America by a socialist, violence against Mr Obama would be legitimate.

"If they don't start conforming to our constitution, we may have to rise up in arms and take our country back," Mr Parshall replied, though he says that would be a last resort if elections did not do the job first.

And there's a hell of lot of people out there who believe exactly like Glen Parshall does, that violence against Obama and the government may be justified.

The really chilling thought is that there are people in this country who think the time for that violence has already come.

Night, folks.

Lehman Brothers: One Year Later

A year has gone by and nothing much has changed on the financial reform front.

The Obama administration has proposed regulatory changes, but even their backers say they face a difficult road in Congress. For now, banks still sell and trade unregulated derivatives, despite their role in last fall’s chaos. Radical changes like pay caps or restrictions on bank size face overwhelming resistance. Even minor changes, like requiring banks to disclose more about the derivatives they own, are far from certain.

Coming on the same weekend as the 11th-hour bailout of the giant insurer American International Group, and the sale of Merrill Lynch, Lehman’s failure was the climax of a cataclysmic weekend in the financial industry. In the days that followed, nearly everyone seemed to agree that Wall Street was due for fundamental change. Its “heads I win, tails I’m bailed out” model could not continue. Its eight-figure paydays would end.

In fact, though, regulators and lawmakers have spent most of the last year trying to save the financial industry, rather than transform it. In the short run, their efforts have succeeded. Citigroup and other wounded banks have avoided bankruptcy, and the economy has sidestepped a depression. But the same investors and economists who predicted, and in some cases profited from, the collapse last fall say the rescue has come at an extraordinary cost. They warn that if the industry’s systemic risks are not addressed, they could cause an even bigger crisis — in years, not decades. Next time, they say, the credit of the United States government may be at risk.

Simon Johnson, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, said that the seeds of another collapse had already sprouted. If major banks are allowed to keep making bets that are ultimately backed by taxpayer guarantees, they will return to the practices that led them to underwrite trillions of dollars in bad loans, Professor Johnson said.

“They will run up big risks, they will fail again, they will hit us for a big check,” he predicted.

It's really telling that despite the overwhelming approval Obama has on reforming the financial system from the American public, Congress refuses to move on legislation to do so, and the President isn't going out of his way to push the issue either.

But I can't say I'm surprised. Not on this subject. The banks still own Washington to the tune of trillions.

Pinstripe Power

Derek Jeter passed Lou Gehrig last night to become the Yanks' all time hit leader.

Collectively, they have 19 All-Star appearances, two Gold Gloves, an American League MVP and an AL Championship Series MVP.

But that didn't stop Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte from marveling at Derek Jeter's accomplishment any less.

The three were among the roughly 30 Yankees who cleared the dugout on Friday to trot out to first base after Jeter's third-inning single moved him past Lou Gehrig for sole possession of the franchise all-time hits record, at 2,722. The captain added a hit in the fourth inning to push what promises to be an ever-expanding record to 2,723.

"We've been playing so well lately, so we felt we could all really enjoy [Jeter's] moment," said Rodriguez, who led the group of players onto the field in what he deemed a spontaneous but well-deserved tribute.

"It's really all about [Jeter]," he said. "I think every player was more about his [record-setting] hit than anything else the last few days, which has been great."

It was a fitting tribute, as the already rain-delayed game stopped for three minutes following the record-breaking single, allowing some of the longtime Yankees to feel the magnitude of the moment.

"You knew he was special, you knew he carried himself a little bit different than a lot of other guys," said Friday's starter, Andy Pettitte, of the first time he saw Jeter in Greensboro, N.C., in 1992. "You knew really early that he was a great player, but not only was he a great player, he took it to another level in big situations and in great moments that could be made."

And Friday's moment was among the best, a fact that even a notoriously team-first player such as Jeter couldn't ignore. After reaching first, Jeter was greeted with a line of hugs from his teammates before doffing his helmet twice to the rousing home crowd of 46,771.

Even as jaded as I am over sports and the Yanks in particular, to see something New Yorkers can be damn proud of happening on September 11th is nice to see, period.

Overestimating The Opposition

I'm not sure which looks worse, House Dems clearly pissing themselves worrying about 2 million birthers showing up, or the fact that only tens of thousands of them actually did.

A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against President Obama since he took office, a culmination of a summer-long season of protests that began with an opposition to health care and grew into a broader dissatisfaction with government.

On a cloudy and cool day, the demonstrators came from all corners of the country, waving American flags and handwritten signs explaining the root of their frustrations. Their anger stretched well beyond the health care legislation moving through Congress, with shouts of support for gun rights, lower taxes and a smaller government.

But as they sang verse after verse of patriotic hymns like “God Bless America,” sharp words of profane and political criticism were aimed at Mr. Obama and Congress.

Dick Armey, a former House Republican leader whose group Freedomworks helped organized the protest, stood before the crowd and led the rallying cries in nearly the same spot where Mr. Obama took his oath of office eight months ago.

“He pledged a commitment of fidelity to the United States Constitution,” Mr. Armey said, suggesting that Mr. Obama was in violation of what the founding fathers intended the size and scope of the government to be.

“Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!” the crowd shouted back.

The crowd numbered well into the tens of thousands, though police declined to provide an estimate of the size of the crowd. Many of the participants simply came on their own and were not part of an organization or group. But the size of the rally took the authorities by surprise, with throngs of people streaming from the White House to Capitol Hill for more than three hours.

Whee, fun for all this morning. My favorite quote:

“I want Congress to be afraid,” said Keldon Clapp, 45, an unemployed marketing representative who recently moved to Tennessee from Connecticut after losing his job. “Like everyone else here, I want them to know that we’re watching what they’re doing. And they do work for us.”

That abyss keeps staring back, folks.

[UPDATE 3:20 PM] Malkinvania claims the crowd really is two million. This is getting funny. Since when does anybody on that side of the line deal in reality, anyway?

[UPDATE 3:25 PM] Stay classy, Wingnuttia.


Nice.

[UPDATE 3:30 PM] Why are the GOP astroturf groups behind this lovely little display trying to pass it off as a bi-partisan event, and why is the Village playing along?

This is not people upset over one particular politician or one particular party," Williams has said. "In fact, if you ask the Republicans in the crowd, you'll find they are just as upset at their party as they are at the Democrats." Members of conservative groups such as FreedomWorks, run by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Campaign Liberty and the Institute for Liberty also were expected to participate in Saturday's rally.

Oh I see. Congress hasn't impeached the Kenyan usurper yet. Nice.

[UPDATE 7:30 PM] Still no reliable numbers on how many people have showed up, but as Think Progress reports, the racist, birther freaks were out in force.

Proxy Fight

Joe "You Lie!" Wilson has raised a very impressive $750,000 in campaign contributions since Wednesday night, but his Democratic opponent Rob Miller has raised an even more impressive $1 million in 48 hours.

To put this fund-raising haul in perspective, Wilson, by early next week, could equal the total amount of money he raised in the entire two-year-election cycle of 2008, when he raised a little more than $1.1 million.

Miller, by contrast, raised just $390,000 in donations for the entire 2008 cycle and lent himself another $235,000 of his own money, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. So he's already doubled, in just two days, his total donations over a two-year period.

The controversy will definitely go on through the weekend, as Wilson -- a quiet backbench lawmaker who's never been in the national spotlight -- is scheduled to appear on the Sunday morning news show "Fox News Sunday." If he continues to refuse to make a public apology on the House floor, Democrats plan to offer a resolution admonishing his comments to Obama.

After liberal Internet activists turned Miller into a cause celebre in their effort to extract revenge on Wilson, conservatives joined the fray. Wilson, who hired GOP web strategist David All, now has ads running on conservative-leaning web sites such as the Drudge Report.

However as Mark Silva points out, Wilson may have gotten onto the national map and certainly upped his cred among the base and he's certainly won the publicity battle...but may end up losing the war in 2010.

Wilson and Miller are virtually tied in a new survey run by Public Policy Polling - 44-43 - in the aftermath of the shout-out. Nearly two-thirds of voters in Wilson's district say they disapproved of Wilson's action.

"In a matter of seconds Joe Wilson turned himself from a safe incumbent into one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country for 2010," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

Joe Wilson picked this fight, folks. Now he's definitely going to get one. We'll see how long this momentum lasts for both Joe Miller and Rob Wilson, but they now have a couple million between the two of them in just a few days to wage that war with. A few more outbursts like this and the Dems may not be as doomed as everyone thinks they are next year.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Gertrude Baines, the world's oldest person, died yesterday at the age of 115.
• House Democratic leaders plan to formally admonish Republican Joe Wilson if he does not formally apologize for his outburst.
• A Texas school district has issued an apology to the White House for the way it handled last Tuesday's speech to students.
• The latest battle between U.S. and China is over tires with China threatening to take the matter of U.S. tariffs to the WTO.
• Video game publisher Electronic Arts is making news -- and enemies -- over marketing itself as the worst game maker in the industry.