ShowMeBlog

Firefox update

“I got an automatic download of a Firefox update this morning at first log on and it seems to have taken care of an annoying problem I'd had - I'd have to log on to some sites each time I left and came back - the Yahoo Groups was one such place it happened and anytime I'd close the browser and return I'd have to log on again so there was a glitch in the Firefox routine that was supposed to remember logons.      They caused the problem since it had worked ok till the  3.0 series loaded - today's update is 3.0.3.
My computer went all day yesterday without crashing and rebooting. All I'd done was jostle some cables in the back - so maybe there was a loose cable but long run I suspect the problem will return.
Lets see how your stock portfolio is doing today?  Hey, you're still dead even - market's up 225 but you're ok. No gains, no losses, no sweat.
I'd agree with some who say Nancy Pelosi should not have paraded a crew of Democrats out to proclaim victory yesterday before the vote - that was premature for one and didn't foster any unity with the Republicans. Both sides have tried to use the mess to bash the other party and they haven't looked good handling things in that manner.  In the end there will be a bill - it won't differ greatly from yesterday's aborted bill and lots of people will have lost real money needlessly.  It's easy to not have too much sympathy but many are just ordinary people with retirement accounts, college accounts and modest savings.   So far of all the talk I thought Bill Clinton on David Letterman last week sounded the most Presidential and calming - but that didn't get much airplay since it was on a late night comedy show.  Right message, wrong place.
Bush was pretty pathetic this morning - like "Oh, God! I have to go out here and read another statement. Let's get it over with."  The networksbarely break into their chatter for his 2 minutes speeches anymore.” Dick in Kansas City

  Yes I got the update also of Firefox and I heard that was the problem they had to update for – password saving problems.

Conservatives saying Let Palin be Palin

  I wonder if the right has been reading Howard’s Notebook.  Smile
Conservatives to McCain camp: Let Palin be Palin

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- “Conservatives are calling on the McCain campaign to stop keeping Gov. Sarah Palin under wraps as the Republican vice presidential nominee continues intense preparations for her debate with Democratic rival Sen. Joe Biden.

Some conservatives were bombarding the campaign with complaints that it is not allowing Palin to be herself on the campaign trail and in the debate, sources within the McCain camp told CNN.

The New York Times conservative columnist Bill Kristol argued in his column on Monday that McCain must "liberate his running mate from the former Bush aides brought in to handle her -- aides who seem to have succeeded in importing to the Palin campaign the trademark defensive crouch of the Bush White House.

"McCain picked Sarah Palin in part because she's a talented politician and communicator. He needs to free her to use her political talents and to communicate in her own voice," Kristol wrote…”

  That is what I said the other day.  They should just let her be real and honest.  I think people would like her.   My God the Bush people are going to try and get her ready to debate?  That is crazy.
  When she does not do well in the debate people are not going to blame Sarah Palin.  (The Bush aides will blame her.)  The American people are not going to blame her they are going to blame John McCain.

Charlie Rose show about the Presidential debate

David Sanger, Mark Halperin, David Brooks, Al Hunt, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jim Hoagland, Walter Russell Mead, Katty Kay, Jeff Greenfield, Byron York

Discussion about the Presidential debate

All the problems are Bill Clinton's fault!

"Sean Hannity is on the Fox Biased-News cable channel - I think on talk radio also and he is influential. He's a verbal bully toward anyone who disagrees and I don't find him appealing but he does carry a lot of weight with a nightly show where many get their talking point for blogs and the next days rants against Obama and Biden. Hannity is big on blaming all this on guess who? Yes, it's all Bill Clinton. Now Clinton left office in January 2001 - the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and still the problems in 2008 are laid at Clinton's door - a very dicey argument int eh first place and completely ignoring all the intervening, Gingrich, Hastert, Bush, Cheney years. It's ludicrous and they get away with it. I'm sure Rush is singing the same song but I seldom hear him. Enough greed and blame to go around - where was the SEC, the state agencies that oversee lenders. The atmosphere was free market to the max and if somebody didn't remotely qualify for a mortgage under the old rules, write new rules and worry later about how they'll pay or what their past credit history might have been. I'd agree both parties gave up oversight including Chris Dodd who was portrayed this morning on the talk shows as Moses - white mane of hair and speaking as the voice of wisdom and reason. Which I think he is but he too has to share some responsibility as a long time member of the Banking Committee and current Chairman. The blame game hinders discussion and I wish both sides would just agree lots of agencies and individuals were at fault - deal with the immediate problem and write the report later. But putting all this back on Bill Clinton is a stretch and a half. There are no Bush loyalists anymore - his own party is trashing him - and his announcements are sort of tossed away. He looked pretty ineffective this morning and was just mouthing words - absolutely no FDR in that little outdoor statement of his. dick in KC."             

• Commenter name: Dick
• Commenter email: [email protected]

I am the only one that did not lose money today

The following is an email from my friend Dick.

“You're the big winner today - anyone without a cent in the stock market held their own today and came out great compared to all the IRA and 401K and stock portfolio types.
Rough month for everyone with any type of stocks and what a great time to run on a platform of changing Social Security to a federal employee type system where there's a very small pension (or no pension) with the majority of a person's retirement account tied to the stock market. The Republicans won't be running that pony around the track for  quite a while.  That's essentially the FERS system which all new Fed employees are under since the middle 80s.  No social security for them - just the FERS system.
Thank God I'm under the old Civil Service Retirement - I do have a Thrift Savings Account or TSP - something like an IRA but for Feds.   But my Civil Service annuity is separate and as long as the government can print the checks I'll get my monthly payment. I haven't started taking Social Security yet - I'll only get about $280 since they knock it way down for Fed retirees and mine is based only on the part time work I've done - not based on my time. It would be around $700 if I wasnt' a fed but a provision of the law restricts it to something under half of what it would be for anybody else. I just realized that if I don't take SS next year then I'll have to write checks for Medicare starting next September when I'm 65. I was waiting since it's not a large amount and it goes up some by delaying the start till I reach 66 I think it is. But I also don't want to write out of pocket checks for the $95 for Part B Medicare.  I'll have to look at the alternatives. IF you opt out - as you've done - can you change your mind and opt back in at the beginning of each new year?
dick”

John Gibson blames Obama

  I tuned in Fox “news” radio and the John Gibson Show was on the air.  I am not sure what drugs he takes or what he drinks but it must be good stuff.  Because he is flying high in some other world.
  He put all of the blame for the President Bush bailout policy failing today on Obama.  He says that Obama should have got the votes for the (Republican) President Bush bailout plan.  
  Now this was not just one comment.  The entire subject of his show for today is how Obama has failed by not getting the votes for President Bush bailout law.

  I did not listen to the rest of the show because I know the guy is stupid. 
  He is the same guy that said the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is anti-American.  I been listening to the BBC since 1955.  Until cable TV and the Internet I would try and listen each day to the BBC news.
 
  If President Bush wants HIS bailout policy to pass he needs to get on the telephone with Republican congressmen and bend their arms. 
  John McCain needs to just keep taking his Geritol.

Republican Cry Babies and Whiners

  The President Bush bailout policy failed.  The Democrats came up with the votes for it and did their share but the cry baby whining Republicans did not come up with their votes for the $700 billion Bush bailout.
  It seems that 13 of the Republicans had their feeling hurt because the Speaker of the House made a speech and said in the speech that this mess was caused by 8 years of President Bush.
  The little McCain/Bush Republicans got their feeling hurt and so they decided not to vote for the Bush bailout plan.  Their feeling were hurt and they took their toys and left.
  So the the stock marked crashed and $1.2 trillion dollars of market value went down the toilet.  The Dow suffered the worst point drop ever.  Banks around the world failed today.  I do not think anyone knows what is going to happen tomorrow.
 
  I think we all are sick and mad that we have to give President Bush $700 billion dollars to bailout Wall Street. He has not done one thing correct in eight years.  But we have to give him now $700 billion. 
  I think if he wants the $700 billion he should announce that when the $700 billion is voted that on the first Monday after that his vice president will resign from office and on the following Monday he will resign from office.

  I am sick and tired of the God dam Republicans.  The Bush/McCain Republicans caused all of the current problems that we have now.  Then they put a gun to our heads and demand that we give them $700 billion dollars.
  Then they demand that we not tell anyone that they caused all of these problems.
  
  The Bush/McCain Republican cry babies and whiners should come up with all of the votes for the Bush bailout plan.

Bailout plan rejected

  The House voted no on the bailout plan and the DOW is down 461.80 (-4.14%) at this time.  The Republicans are the reason it failed. 
  The American people do not want this plan.  They do not want to bailout Wall Street.  

  They should never have attempted to rush a bill like this through congress in a few days.  They knew, however, that people did not want it and I think they feared holding meetings on it and looking at the matter up close.

  There is nothing good about any of this.  The bailout plan sucks.  If we do not bailout the fat cats on Wall Street no telling what effect it will have on the nation and the world.

  The DOW is now down 533.16 (-4.78%).

Palin Replaced by Mitt Romney

“A new comment from “Dick” was received on the post “Biden and Palin debate in St. Louis” of the weblog “Howard's Notebook”.

Comment:
A clarification - Dick's longshot prediction: 20% chance that on Wednesday Palin will be off the ticket. Replaced probably by Mitt Romney. For family and family values reasons Gov. Palin will decide she can't do justice to her family living in the fishbowl of Washington DC and will resign from the Republican ticket. Unstated but done entirely at the behest of McCain's backstage handlers. I'm not saying this is likely just tossing it out - as many others have as a 20% probability - that's 1 one 5 odds - not very strong odds but it's got to be entering the minds of the McCain camp if they feel she'll perform in Thursday's debate in the manner she performed on the Couric interview. If they're prepped her to the max and she's doing passably well in the mock debates I'd assume she stays and watches this play out but the longshot prediction was a change of VP candidate. Dick in KC - nearly all my predictions are wrong - truth in predicting this sort of thing.”

• Commenter name: Dick
• Commenter email: [email protected]

Sarah Palin not ready for prime time