http://www.nytimes.com/...

Toyota Motor sold nearly 300,000 more vehicles than General Motors in the first half of 2008 and appears to be on its way to ending G.M.’s 77-year reign as the world’s largest automaker.

Toyota said Wednesday that it sold 2.41 million vehicles in the second quarter, 2 percent more than a year ago. G.M. said its sales for the quarter fell 5 percent, to 2.28 million.

Both companies had record sales in emerging markets like China, but falling demand in the United States took a larger toll on G.M., whose lineup comprises more of the big trucks that consumers are shunning in response to high gasoline prices.

77 Years.

And now they are headed down to bankruptcy.

It's kind of sad in a pathetic, amusing way.

according to the washington post, a Continintal airlines jet from Houston to DC was
fored to make an emergency descent and landing at Louis Armstrong International
in New Orleans after losing Pressure.  The pressure loss was severe enough that
the Oxygen system was deployed

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

On Board was Republican candidate Rep Ron Paul, Rep Nick Lampson
,,,,Also on the flight were Reps. Paul, Ted Poe, John Carter, Solomon P. Ortiz, Ciro Rodriguez, and Henry Cuellar, Kincaid said.

Now, Lampson and Paul are both favorites of the Netroots, although of different persuasions,
but the Kicker?

The group was trying to make a vote on the Aviation Safety Enhancement Act

Look, I know it's a little shocking, but let's think about it.

We all know that George Bush is an alcoholic.  We all know that Karl Rove is a Homosexual

We all know Cheney is a traitor

We all know the Iraq war was about Oil.

But why is it so hard to imagine the FDIC could be bankrupt?

The FDIC has about $50 Billion in reserves in the kitty.

<Scarlet Ohara>
Oh Please, Come Quickly and Bring the Smelling Salts.
I Do declare Young Master Gerson has had a fit of the Vapors and has passed out all over his Keyboard
</Scarlet Ohara>

Warning: The following contains extreme vulgarity by a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Now Let's try and see who young Master Gerson is

Michael John Gerson (born May 15, 1964, New Jersey) is an Evangelical Christian[1] op-ed columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.[2] He served as President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, and as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006. A member of the White House Iraq Group,[3] Gerson was called "the conscience of the White House" by some admirers.[4]

So the Conscience of the Consciousless, the Seller of WMD,  the man who invented the Axis of Evil
and

The Smoking Gun in the form of a Mushroom Cloud

If President Obama were to pick say a handful of Republican Senators to put in his cabinet,
would this be a smart move?

Seriously, There are 15 cabinet members and 4 more with Cabinet rank.

This present an interesting possibility.

FDR governed in part by hiring some of his greatest enemies into his cabinet.  It insulated him
from the right and gave them the ugliest tasks (Secretary of War, Navy and Industry).  
It also pulled some of his greatest enemies out of the senate.

Iowa is a mess, probably a 100,000 people are evacuated or living in flooded houses.

what's bush doing?  Partying in Paris.

http://ap.google.com/...

PARIS (AP) — President Bush on Sunday expressed concern to those affected by record flooding in Iowa and other parts of the Midwest.

Now the Iowa guard is in Iraq.

Now the global climate is changing.

Now maybe 1/8th of the food crop just got drowned in iowa (between washout, seed rot and field flooding
expect corn futures to explode)

and what's bush doing?  Drinking with Sarkozy and his hot new wife.

The second levee breached in Des Moines Iowa, an evacuation of the city is now
under order. for the river districts

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/...

Plan A has Failed,  Plan B has Failed, They are now at Plan C.

This is no longer a prevention effort, it's now rescue and recovery.

keep watching the news.

(Hey I made the reccomended Diary list, It shows you folks care)

United Way of Central Iowa

At this time, we are asking that those interested in volunteering for the flood emergencies report IMMEDIATELY to the Volunteer Reception Center at United Way’s Human Services Campus, 1111 9th Street. The EOC has informed us that there is an immediate need for volunteers to begin sandbagging efforts due to the latest flood developments in our community.

We need Anderson Cooper to get out there.

The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/...
is reporting on the impact of gas prices nationwide.

With National Gas Prices at over $4/Gallon,  you should look where the impact falls.

The Times article has a wonderful graphic. It shows the graphical impact, and if you look it's hitting
the worst in the south and the mountain states.  People are now spending up to 15% of their
income on GAS!!!!

Think about that, it's running about half of their allocation for rent/mortgage.  It's running
3 times the food bill. It's running 8 times the entertainment and clothing bill.

And Where is it hitting hardest???  RED AMERICA!!!!

That is Opportunity calling my friends.

(Seriously, spot the lie, win a cupcake)

So this morning Secdef Gates decapitated the airforce command.

General Mosel and Secretary Wynne are tossed

now the official story is  http://news.lycos.com/...

The top military and civilian leaders of the U.S. Air Force were forced out Thursday over the handling of nuclear weapons, the Defense Department secretary said.

woah?  Since when did a bushe ever get fired for INCOMPETENCE (Mike Brown, condi rice, john bolton,
doug feith, paul bremer,,,,,,)

Let me start by saying my Military career should always be preceded with the phrase
"Short, sad and pathetic", so i'm not like some big time war hero,  and I don't pretend to
be some armchair warrior like the neo-cons, but, I know what I know.

And one of the thing I know is that nuclear weapons security is one of the most critical
tasks they can do.  When they've got nukes out on the field, they have guys with machine guns
around,  when they have nukes in transit, they use helicopter aerial coverage and they used the
first real time satellite tracking system  and to handle a nuke you need a top secret nuclear
clearance.

Schmucks handle fuels and bombs,  the nuke crowd made watchmakers seem sloppy.

and what do i see in the washington post  

Air Force Unit's Nuclear Weapons Security Is 'Unacceptable'

I'm sure this has been diaried before, but
let's try and pull together various VP Candidates

And let's try and reach outside the pool of usual suspects.

I'd like to see some names suggested that either show political brilliance, policy brilliance or
electoral brilliance.

I'll throw in my list, and i'd love some suggestions.

What if the point of this is to rile up the shock troops for one last charge.

A charge directed by Karl Rove.

What is it?

It's the Gay Marriage ruling?

We all know California is a very blue state and mostly lost to the GOP.

But the Judges were all GOP Appointees.

What if they were asked to push a ruling for political purposes?

Has anyone outside of the Netroots really run the numbers?

JFC,  I just added in the Michigan and Florida results for kicks using the slate calculator,
she needs 64% of the remaining vote to tie Obama in pledged delegates and she needs
54% of the superdelegates or almost 71% of the remaining superdelegates

Is she unable to do Math?  jesus, Send her a wreath and a coffin, please.

If you don't seat michigan and Florida or you just seat Florida, it's just awful

Now I don't mind the primary running long, it's good for the small state parties.

Now I know every Kossack is addicted to Obama and Hillary disputes, and JFC how screwed up
the Primary process is, but, let's look at the big picture.  TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE BEING WIPED
OUT ON WALLSTREET, and as we are getting stuck with the bill, let's go see what and where it came from

David Einhorn's talk

There are other sources, but Einhorn wraps the whole smash together fast.

A few weeks ago the financial world was presented with the imminent failure of a
publicly traded entity called Carlyle Capital Corporation.  You see, it had leveraged itself
more than thirty to one.  The press scoffed about what kind of insanity this was.  Who in
their right mind would take on such leverage?
,,,,,,,
It didn’t take long for investors to realize that the big investment banks sport
similar leverage.  In fact, the banks count things such as preferred stock and subordinated
debt as equity for calculating leverage ratios.  If those are excluded, the leverage to
common equity is even higher than thirty times.

and it gets worse folks

General Petraeus or Major Failure

Seriously, Folks  

David Petraeus is up now for a four star slot?

Let's consider the record.

Would he even in a normal army be a Lieutenant?

No Kidding, Holy S^&*, Great jumping jehosophat or Where the H#$$ is my Money?

If you parked your car at a parking lot and discovered the attendants had sold your car during
lunch you'd file charges.

If you had left your coat at a coat check at a theater, and you discovered the attendants had
borrowed your fur coat and been out clubbing?  You;d have people fired.

and  

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...

OLYMPIC hero Herb Elliott faces the loss of half of his $40million fortune, becoming the highest-profile casualty of the Opes Prime collapse.

The Weekend Australian understands that Mr Elliott has lost control of about half of his 5.5million shares in would-be iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group, founded by Australia's richest man, Andrew Forrest.

why? Because he's australian and put his retirement in a brokerage

??????????

Last Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that the Big Banks may be under-reporting the LIBOR Rate  

The Wall Street Journal reports on another sign of how bad the credit crunch has gotten: banks fudging on what they are reporting as their short-term cost of interbank borrowing, out of fear of revealing how stressed they are.

(I'd cite the WSJ but their cite is mostly subscription only.)

Now why should you care?

The Journal mentions another consequence, that Libor-indexed borrowers are getting a better rate than they deserve. But it misses an implication that is ultimately more serious: as more and more statistics and benchmarks come into doubt, it creates uncertainty and undermines planning, which in turn is a deterrent to investment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

A crucial yet overlooked deadline looms over the Iraq debate: Unless further action is taken, the war will become illegal on Jan. 1, 2009.

Despite protestations to the contrary, Congress clearly understood that it was authorizing the president to intervene militarily when it passed its joint resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq in October 2002. But it did not give him a blank check. It allowed for the use of force only under two conditions.

.