Bill Rempel, a.k.a. NO DooDahs!

Some “PG-13″ language. Headphones? Direct link.

I think this paper did a creditable job of debunking four so-called “facts” about the credit crunch. “Myths about the Financial Crisis of 2008″ (PDF). Hat tip to Mises blog.

“Argentina: The Crisis That Isn’t” by Mark Weisbrot, cepr (PDF).

Lorrie Morgan, country singer hottie from back in the day, has filed for bankruptcy. I wouldn’t have known this, except for the huge number of hits I’ve gotten today from Google Image Search for “Lorrie Morgan” - where I’m currently #9! It’s from a post a year ago, titled Fred Thompson’s Greatest Achievement While In Office. Thought I’d share it with y’all again.

Click for a slightly larger view.

A Democrat will be elected U.S. President in 2008, but it won’t go down exactly as I had penned it happening back in February.

(1) I got the GOP VP choice wrong
(2) I got my Dem VP choice running for POTUS instead
(3) Economic troubles arrived early

I had expected the GOP to field a credible choice, with an eye towards vetting a possible candidate for 2012. Instead, we got “Meth-Capital Barbie” for VEEP. Wow. I still think the GOP wanted to tank this election and get a Democrat in office, however, as I wrote eight months ago:

Ultimately, they want to blame the economic troubles and the continuing foreign policy/war troubles on the Dems, which will be easy, because the Dems don’t have any economic solutions and they will continue the war. The problem is that McCain is this year’s Bob Dole, the “next guy in line” (and a partially crippled war hero, too, just like Bob), so they needed to get him out of the way to make room for new blood. The best way to do that is to give him a shot NOW, knowing he can’t win, and using this campaign as a vetting process to prepare a list of possible candidates for 2012.

If the credible, believable VEEP candidates saw it as a train wreck to stay away from, or if the GOP wanted to hold dry powder for 2012, it makes sense for them to pull away (or for the party to pull them away) and have a non-credible, relatively unknown VEEP candidate.

I don’t believe the GOP thought that choosing a VEEP with a vagina improved their chance of getting the female vote, but if they thought that, they’re dumber than a sack of hammers. Women (not any individual woman, but women as a group, statistically speaking) tend to base their votes on a desire for security and the f*ckability of the candidate. So maybe they influenced the moose-a-phobic lesbian voter, but not the female voter at large.

Palin represented a chance to throw someone unknown under the McCain “bent talk express” bus, and the party can try to maintain it was a sop to their “right-wing core” if they want to, but let’s face it, if they had really wanted to appeal to their party base, the time to do that was during the nomination process. It’s only pure comedic luck that Sarah’s as bumbling, incoherent, and laughable as she is. It really works out to plan for the GOP.

Regarding Obama, never underestimate youth and the ability to give speeches that sound like a Missionary Baptist preacher on a summer Sunday. I also guess there was too much animosity under the bridge for a Clinton VEEP, or maybe not enough “change” attached to having the VEEP be the wife of a former POTUS. Oh, bother. Regardless, the only GOPer that stood a chance against either Obama or Clinton (or both together) was Ron Paul, and the nomination of McCain all but cemented a Dem victory.

In broad terms, we’re going to get exactly what both the mainstream media and GOP wanted, and that’s a Democrat in the White House for the next four years.

There’s only one problem with the GOP plan … and that’s the economy.

The consensus forecasts for economic weakness, stretching out years, would have played right into the GOP’s hands. By the time the cycle was over and recovery had begun, “boobus americanus” wouldn’t notice recovery underway – they would still be thinking about how “bad things are” – and they would be ready for a change.

As it is now, with a spectacular stock market crash and a horrific current news cycle, it’s highly likely that, no matter what the state of the economy four years from now, the average doofus american will perceive it to be “better.” Right around re-election time.

So the GOP will get what they wanted, McCain out of the way and a Dem in office for 2008, but I don’t think they’ll like their chances in 2012 as much as they thought they would.