Last Call

It's not that Dana Perino necessarily lied here when she says that "No terrorists attacked America during President Bush's term."  She clearly misspoke.

It's the fact that nobody on Hannity's show even bothers to correct her that is the problem.

FOX.  Fair and balanced.

Because It Never Gets Old

Never, ever get tired of this.

Happy Turkey Day.  Unless you're the turkey.

I Don't Know Why You Say Dubai I Say Hello

Dubai's possible sovereign debt default is turning into a disaster.  Credit Suisse says Euro banks may be in as deep as $40 billion.

The broker said it's identified $10 billion of bonds issued by the government's Dubai World investment vehicle just since 2005, along with a further $26 billion of syndicated loans.

Fears of a potential sovereign default by Dubai roiled financial markets Thursday, sinking stocks across Asia and Europe and pushing up government bond prices, after Dubai said late Wednesday it would restructure Dubai World and announced a six-month standstill on repayments of the conglomerate's debt. See full story on the impact on financial markets.
 
In a note to clients, Credit Suisse said the middle-East region is unlikely to be more than 1% to 2% of banks' total exposure and Dubai itself would just be a small part of that.

Still, it estimated that a 50% loss on the exposure that bank's may hold would be the equivalent of a 5% increase in provisions in 2010.

For the banks that Credit Suisse analysts cover, which could have an exposure of around 13 billion euros ($19.6 billion), that would equate to a combined hit of around 5 billion euros, it added.

(More after the jump...)

What Zandar's Thankful For

In no particular order, ten things I'm thankful for this year:

1. Our troops overseas.
2. My job.
3. My family.
4. The United States Secret Service.
5. Genetic turkey mapping.
6. The Lions and Cowboys playing on Thanksgiving.
7. Wingers to blog about.
8. Movies about robot boxers.
9. Singing Carl Sagan.
10. and last but not least, you, the faithful ZVTS reader.

Have a great holiday, folks, and thanks for sticking around.

The Capital Job

CNN's Jeanne Sahadi takes a thoughtful look at what Congress can do to pass a jobs bill as soon as they can.

Several ideas are percolating among economists and lawmakers. But none are clear winners - politically or economically.

There is a limit to what government can do to create jobs, and there is legitimate disagreement about which measures offer the most bang for the buck.

It's also because a jobs bill that adds to the deficit may face headwinds since the country's debt problem - which both Democrats and Republicans played a heavy hand in creating - has become a political hammer to oppose legislation.

(More after the jump...)

Canada: Still Laughing At Us, And With Good Reason

Maybe our neighbors up north are trying to do us a favor and all, but it was distressingly easy for Canadian comic Mary Walsh to take up her Marg Delahunty persona (you know, Canada's answer to Stephen Colbert) and punk Moose Lady into saying Canada should dismantle a health care system that's light-years ahead of what we have here.

The action was documented on Tuesday night’s “This Hour Has 22 Minutes,” but four days later, Walsh was still marvelling at her close encounter with one of the most controversial politicians on the planet.

“We told her we’re from Canada, and we’re just looking for a few words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so tirelessly to destroy the socialized medicare that we have,” Walsh recalled Tuesday from St. John’s.

“Four huge big burly guys started pushing, and I pushed back, but I got her attention, and she told us to keep the faith, something like that, and said we’re all trying for the same thing.”

After being kicked out of the book-signing, Walsh and her crew then waited outside at a loading dock close to where Palin’s bus was parked. When Palin emerged from the Borders bookstore, Walsh said, Delahunty — dressed in a more toned-down version of her trademark warrior princess costume — called out to her.
“Hey, remember us, we’re the Canadians! We came all the way here from Canada!” Delahunty yelled. “When we asked you that question, we didn’t hear your answer.”

Palin strolled over, looking down on Walsh and her crew to tell them that “Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”

“Basically, she said government should stop doing the work that private enterprise should do,” Walsh said.

It's mind-numbing how ignorant Palin is about anything not involving GOP talking points and field-dressing ruminants.  Out of the 19 wealthiest countries on earth, we have the worst health care.  Dead last.  19 out of 19.  The other 18 countries haven't exploded yet into fireballs of socialist anarchy.  What they do have is universal coverage.  Canada in particular has a Medicare for all type system where basic care is guaranteed and private insurance picks up the rest.  It's a pretty good system (they're ranked number 6 by the way) and it's the kind of system that would work here.

But not if you're Moose Lady.  No, they should dismantle it and have free market stuff like we do.

I'm sure they'll get right on that.

StupidiNews, Thanksgiving Edition!

Time to give thanks this year as we check to see who's talking turkey and who's merely full of stuffing.

• A couple of reality-show turkeys crashed the White House's state dinner on Tuesday night.
• Tony Blair ladled on the gravy when it came to Iraq's WMD claims he apparently knew were false.
• A Marine in Afghanistan had a fiery holiday cooking disaster making dinner for fellow troops.
• Dubai's decision to delay debt payments has the global banking world gobbling about default.
• Web use among non-smartphones is stuffing cellular traffic full worldwide.

Have a good holiday, folks.