Eric Cantor, R-Va., the chief deputy whip for House Republican, told Forbes.com the insurance program was a "terrific alternative," but the program was not strong enough in the legislation. "That sort of cost us some votes, the fact that there wasn't more teeth in that," said Cantor, who was one of the originators of the insurance scheme.

In the legislation that failed Monday, the secretary of the Treasury was given the option to decide whether to buys the assets or apply the insurance program. Cantor is pushing a more muscular version of the insurance program that would require affected firms to pay insurance premiums on mortgage-backed securities rather than have the Treasury Department buy them directly.

Cantor said that under the failed bill, firms would probably be subject to one option or the other, since the government wants to prevent businesses from gaming the system by unloading their troubled assets on taxpayers, then buying insurance for the good assets, which presumably could eventually be re-sold at a higher rate.

after watching another splendiferous political debate and the subsequent wonderfully stimulating commentary, i have lost my mind - again.  i'm sick and tired of partisan bickering, punditry, and faloofalafawafalolalooba.

i've given up on my pathetic attempts at faulty, mis-dis-un-tris-fun-gun-bun-reasoned analysis.  i've decided to simplify my world view beyond even "good guys vs. bad guys."  my answer to any political problem is now very simple.

nuke it.

my fellow americans, we can, and we WILL, nuke our way out of every problem.  we have a robust, but neglected, stockpile just waiting to be used - my pretty, pretty arsenal.  that's why we also urgently need missile defense, so they can't nuke us back.

and to those who doubt whether my solution will work, well ... we'll never know until we try.  the logic is irrefutable.  it worked in ending wwii.  it can work in reducing our oil demand.  and dammit, it will work in solving the credit crisis!  the iranians understand this.  why do you think they are trying so hard to get some of their own?  it's the universal answer to everything!

in closing, just ask yourself, if god didn't want us to nuke things, then why would he have blessed us with so many?  thank you.

i wonder who made out big on the recent collapses. and the russian stock market blew up. hmm. and oil suddenly spiked along with gold.

All we can do is hope for change and put our country first during such desperate, fundamentally sound times of relatively tepid, potential semi-catastrophe.

Bush the Idiot

People have talked about peace in the Middle East forever.  Talk talk talk.  Oh, it's so sad.  Talk talk talk. Finally, somebody actually did something about it, and what was the reaction?

Bush the Idiot, the uncultured Neanderthal, shows his stupidity by trying to establish peace in the Middle East by killing tyrants and blowing up terrorists!

What a simpleton!

Everyone knows that the way to peace is by talking. A lot. That's the way it's been done in the past and will be in the future.  Speechify in the UN.  Get all the world leaders together.  Have heartfelt conversations.  Reach mutual understandings.  Get a big rock concert for peace.  Everyone around the world will hold their hands in a great symbol of unity.  Design a neat logo for a pin that people can wear.

That is the way to achieve peace.

You're not supposed to establish peace by pummelling the dictators and terrorists! Haven't you considered the weighty issue of ethical and moral equivalency? You're doing it wrong, foo!

Violence begets violence.  You can't put a fire out with fire (unless it's a giant explosion that snuffs it out, but don't let facts interfere with a good stream of cliches and old adages). War! What is it good for? Uh! Absolutely nuthin! Say it again!

There is supposed to be spontaneous, non-violent protests.  Grassroots movements.  Woodstock.  Massive media coverage.  And then the dictators seeing the power of the people and shamed by the error of their ways will yield power. Just like in China.  Err, ok.  That didn't quite work out, but you get the idea.

bzzt. channel change.

War is nasty and horrible, but it changes things really quickly.  Bush didn't want to wait for democracy and love to spontaneously bloom in the Middle East.  He saw the direction that the Middle East was heading, and if you payed attention, you'd realize that Bush was sure that it would end in a mushroom cloud.

Yes, even monkeys dream. And I suspect that Smirky the Chimp did have dreams after 9-11.  The kind of dreams that when we wake up from, we eventually forget, but for a President ...

Meh, maybe I give the guy too much slack.  He made a lot of mistakes, but I think he did a lot of important work.  Most importantly, he managed to turn around a war that had been going badly.  But enough about Bush, let's talk about ...

Ah well.  A lot of what I wrote is snarky and tongue-in-cheek. This isn't always obvious on the Interwebs.