http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/15/sources-recall-mccains-jo_n_112955.html

“McCain supposedly asked the crowd if they had heard “the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?”

The punch line: “When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, “Where is that marvelous ape?”

I assume it’s generational, but, I don’t get the joke.  Even though republican fundraiser clayton williams and mccain love the rape jokes, I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to pull off a funny one – as mentioned here.

The following joke was sort of funny yet weird since he was critiquing a teenager’s looks.  Although back in the day I thought Chelsea would have been a decent land.  I was 16.  People make mistakes.

http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html

“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?  Because her father is Janet Reno.”

An interest rate hike was (FINALLY) discussed by the fed on June 24/25th.  Remember when I mentioned Richard Fisher was the smartest guy in the room as seen originally on BccList.com here?

The minutes from that meeting were released publicly over the last few days…

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5htN2868alrCkUVVQxMPv-vSBev0Q

Thus, oil prices dropped as a result of an interest rate hike simply being discussed within the JUNE fed meeting…

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/17/markets/oil/index.htm

It’s not rocket science.  Raise the rates, less US dollars go into the market, and the cost of goods go down.  As seen here.

That said, per the incorrect reasonings discussed in the above CNN.com article, the recent drop in oil prices has little to do with potential diplomacy with Iran and/or a natural gas sell off and everything to do with the fed actually doing its job.

Shout-Out: Hey fed, no need to actually raise the rates though that would be even better in regards to curbing our growing inflation.  Simply keep talking PUBLICLY about the possibility of the interest rate raising.  Boners.

P.S. As seen here, oil (and gas) prices will still rise because of the “busy driving season” we’re entering but should eventually subside in late August/September assuming something “crazy” doesn’t happen. $3.50 a gallon of gas coming soon to a city near you.

Isn’t it “weird” the bush administration – actually, almost the entire gop including mccain – has decided to adopt some of Obama’s philosophies they previously called naive?

For example…

1) Agreeing that strategic strikes into Pakistan are needed if we had ACTUAL and RELIABLE intelligence (not like the Iraqi “intelligence”) in regards to bin laden’s whereabouts.

2) Actually talking to North Korea so that they chill the fck out on their nuclear program.

3) Focusing more on Afghanistan/Pakistan than Iraq since it turned out Iraq never posed a threat to our security.

4) Opening up a line of communication with Iran in hopes of solving an issue with – wait for it – diplomacy.

Obama has to feel like somebody is looking over his shoulder during a test and stealing all his answers. Dude, cover your exam leading up to the election or they’ll copy everything and claim your work/thoughts were their agenda the whole time.

Nonetheless, it’s fair to assume the administration/gop won’t be able to say we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq since we’re knee deep in that debacle.  Nor, will they be able to claim that the surge was a good idea since – while we may be “winning” the war now – our own economy is in “shambles” thanks to way too many billions of dollars being injected into the market…I mean, middle east.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/business/17econ.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

As originally seen on BccList.com here…

“Inflation rises in May (and eventually June and July)…The “good” thing is that the interest rate cuts should be over (if the fed has any sanity left) so the dollar should “rebound” and inflation will continue to rise but not as horribly as it has been. $3 a gallon gas by the end of the year!!!”

I’m not so confident in the fed right now although they probably (and thankfully) won’t cut rates again this year.  However, nothing will change unless they AT LEAST start HINTING of an interest rate increase as originally seen on BccList.com here.

If the fed doesn’t at least hint of an interest rate increase (no actual action required), we’ll be paying $3.50-$4.00 a gallon for gas throughout the rest of 2008.  Laughable but I know one group of individuals that won’t mind – “big oil” shareholders.

The idiot of the United States still – publicly – thinks the increase in gas prices are a supply vs. demand issue.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSWAT00978920080715

Does he truly think there’s a supply vs. demand problem that is causing gas prices to go out of control?   No, he has to be pushing his offshore drilling agenda, right?  If not, wow!

https://bcclist.com/2008/07/06/opec-president-gets-it-we-dont-yet/

https://bcclist.com/2008/06/27/bernanke-bush-raise-the-interest-rate/

https://bcclist.com/2008/06/02/welcome-to-the-city/

https://bcclist.com/2008/05/27/agree-to-disagree/

Seeing that mccain will likely be dead (clarification: from natural causes) within the next 4 years, I’m pretty confident Americans won’t be turning out to vote for a “mccain-romney” ticket knowing romney will be president within the relatively near future.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/15/mccain-praises-romneys-surrogate-skills/

No, it’s not a real SNL parody ad but should have been…

Funny…

Dave, thank you.

P.S. Last night I saw a similar “report” on Countdown with Keith Olbermann – hosted by Racheal Maddow over the last few weeks – stating that mccain doesn’t know how to get on the internet.  Literally.  His aides have to show him websites like Drudge which he “watches” with them.  Are you kidding me?

I tuned into Meet the Press yesterday for the first time since Tim Russert passed away.  Actually, I “iTuned” into it via a video podcast.  Regardless, aside from the iPhone being the coolest thing ever (more later), I’m glad I didn’t waste my time sitting in front of a tv.  In short – Brokaw is garbage.  Seriously, has anyone else seen MTP over the past few weeks?

Not only were Brokaw’s questions and follow-ups “softballs,” but, he’s not an entertaining guy to watch and you can tell they (collectively) aren’t putting half of the effort into the show that Russert used to.  I can also assure you that MTP hosted by Tom Brokaw won’t have to worry about the younger generation “demographic” tuning in.  I assume grandpa mccain might like Brokaw as the host if he wasn’t so gosh darn neutral on-air.

Moreover, I had the displeasure of watching an episode that started off with Carly Fiorina (McCain supporter) and Clare McCaskill (Obama supporter) running their mouths and making meaningless/repetitive points.   No, this blog didn’t turn all sexist…Carly Fiorina, Clare McCaskill, and Hillary Clinton annoy more people than just sexist males.

How can Brokaw label Fiorina a successful business woman when she nearly ran HP into the ground?  And, I’m not sure how McCaskell earned any public speaking spot on Obama’s campaign because it’s like listening to a high school librarian talk for 15 minutes straight.  My ears started to bleed but I fought it out until the second half.  While Part 2 was slightly better, this week’s episode of MTP was sloppily/lazily put together like a public access television show.

To conclude this rambling post, what a waste of a 1 hour time slot on Sunday morning when there’s nothing else on.

From today…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/opinion/14obama.html

The upcoming market meltdown (presumed after the government bailouts) had me thinking back to last year when Jim Cramer said Bear Stearns was dying.

At the time – though I casually followed his investing show Mad Money – I was more amused at him flipping out on live tv rather than really paying attention to the shiat that was going down behind the scenes in the financial/housing markets.

Again, this clip is from almost a year ago.  Yes, you’ve probably seen it before.  If not, enjoy…

Hopefully, he shorted some Bear Stearns stock…amongst other financial companies.

Funny…

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080709210526AAqogWI

Burchie, thank you.

Outside of knowing who Tom Ford is – thanks Z – I admittedly know nothing about fashion…especially men’s fashion.

However, I will unequivocally declare that the “Men’s V-Neck T-Shirt” look needs to immediately cease to exist.  It’s worse than the hair comb/pick in Afro look.

Not cool…

The exception…