Man, Obama is just so naive.  I mean everybody knew it was a failed state.  Except maybe the US ambassador to Pakistan during the takeover, William Milan Milam, and a bunch of other experts on the subject:

There are a number of interesting books, including a forthcoming one by me, that cover the 1999 coup by the Musharraf-led army. You might want to look at those already published by Steve Cohen, Hasan Abbas, Hussain Haqqani (long before he became the present Pakistani Ambassador), and especially Ian Talbot’s updated history of Pakistan.

I think that all of them would agree that, while there were a lot of things wrong in Pakistan during the years leading up to the 1999 military takeover, Pakistan was not a failed state as we normally define such states. I am on record as stating publicly that, having come to Pakistan from Liberia a year before the takeover, I had a pretty good idea of what failed states look like, and it was not one.

I guess there’s a lot of people that just don’t understand.

Best part (at about 3:33):

If your neighbor’s house is burning, you’re not gonna spend a whole lot of time saying, “Well, that guy was always irresponsible. He always left the stove on. He always was smoking in bed.” All those things may be true, but his house could end up affecting your house. And that’s the situation we’re in right now. We’ve got to make sure that we put the fire out and then we’ll start making sure that these folks stop leaving the stove on. But right now our job is to put out the fire.  And we can’t forget that.

This is exactly what we need the presidential candidates to do.  Explain the situation to the American people, because they have the bully pulpit.  What we don’t need them to do is suspend their campaigns and try to wrastle Congress.

Barack Obama.  Ready to Lead.

made me think of this :

Rep. Barney Frank, GOP crusher.

Yglesias points out that the House GOP has no real alternative to the bailout:

But the deal’s critics on the right have . . . an irrelevant capital gains tax cut? And perhaps a plan to suspend “mark-to-market” accounting so as to allow financial institutions to recapitalize themselves through handwaving and cooking the books. I’m fully in sympathy with people who have their doubts about the desirability of the bill that was brought to the floor today, but surely one has a responsibility to lay out some alternative course of action. Even spelling out “we should do nothing, let large banks fail, assume money will flow elsewhere, etc.” could qualify you to participate in the conversation. But just bleating vaguely about socialism and saying mean ol’ Nancy hurt your feelings doesn’t really cut it.

Now’s the time to quit being scared of the GOP.  We have them on the ropes.  Push the progressive version.  More equity in the companies.  More help for homeowners.  More restrictions on executive pay.  More stimulus for the middle class.

They have nothing to counter with.  Nothing.  The GOP is practically begging to get crushed here.  They’re egging us on.  Make ‘em complain.  Hell, make Bush veto it.  Then they’ll really be in hot water.

They had their chance.  Now it’s our turn to mop up.

Autogenerate your Palin-answers today!

Q: What is your foreign policy experience?

I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help shore up our economy and putting it back on the right reasons and serving for the other party. Trying to get caught up in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia. For Russia to have all the dealings within the party. The same it applies for the right reasons and serving for the United States, and the pragmatism that’s needed at a crisis time like this. I’m not one of those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that we’ve got to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there.

[Via Sullivan]

So the bailout didn’t pass.  And the S&P fell 8 percent.  And what do the House Republican’s have to say?  Ambinder’s got it:

House Republicans are blaming Speaker Nancy Pelosi for quashing bipartisanship sentiment right before the bailout bill vote — and therefore deserves the knock for its failure.

“We could have gotten here today had it not been for a partisan speech on the floor of the House,” Boehner said.

Awwww.  Poor wittle House Republicans.  They had to listen to that big fat meanie Nancy Pelosi say this:

Today, we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years with the failed economic leadership that has left us left capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

We choose a different path.  In the new year, with a new Congress and a new president, we will break free with a failed past and take America in a New Direction to a better future.”

Apparently, them wuz fightin’ words, and cause for playing partisan games with an economic crisis.  Do they really think this excuse is better?  I didn’t vote for this bill because Nancy Pelosi was mean to me?  That’s the excuse.  Not “well, you know, my delegation didn’t like the socialist overtones of this package and I couldn’t wrangle enough support for it.”  I might actually be able to respect that.  But Pelosi is mean?  That dog don’t hunt.

So now that we tried to play Mr. Nice Guy with this and worked with the House GOP to compromise, and they still didn’t get on board, I say we make a hard left on this thing.  Let’s add more help for homeowners facing foreclosure.  Let’s throw back in the bankruptcy provisions.  Let’s add a second stimulus package for the middle class.  We tried to play ball.  They weren’t interested.  If they want to pass this on partisan lines, then fine.  We’ll pass it on partisan lines.

Oh, and if you think the plummet of the Dow today didn’t just put the American public behind this thing, then you’ve got another thing comin’.

One other thing, as a nice little cherry on top when we go to pass our progressive bill, I think all of the Dems in the House should yield their time to Dennis Kucinich.  If they want partisan, we’ll give ‘em partisan.

(btw, none of this will ever happen.  ever.)

[Update]

A new Rasmussen poll is out on the bailout:

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted Sunday found that 33% of Likely Voters now favor the plan while 32% are opposed and 35% are not sure.

That was before the market tumbled.  How do you obstructionists feel about your electoral prospects now?

Hey guys, just curious what everyone has been listening to recently.  I feel my music library is starting to stagnate a bit and I would love to hear what you guys have been grooving out to.  Leave it as a comment.

Thanks dudes, perhaps we can all spice up our tunes with everyone’s recommendations.

So every morning at the same time I wake up to feed my 4 month old beagle puppy and let her outside to take care of business. She sleeps in her pen at night (which is one of those small playpen fences you get for children), and every morning she’s there waiting for me to lift her out. Well, it didn’t exactly go down like that one morning last week. She miraculously escaped from her pen and busted into our bedroom and hopped up on the bed and started licking my face. Since it happened, Betsy and I have been trying to figure out how the hell she managed to get out of that pen. Well… I think this may explain it…enjoy.

November 4th 2008 the American people will choose a new president. The president of the United States of America is the most powerful person in the world.

…Our mission is to get more people to vote than voted in the last election. Mission impossible, we know, but still, wouldn’t it be great to see what the whole world thinks?

I came across this tonight and thought it was mildly interesting. Mildly.

http://www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/