Get Cynical

From the NY Times:

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department, in its boldest move yet, is expected to announce a plan Tuesday to invest up to $250 billion in large and small banks, according to officials. The United States is also expected to guarantee new debt issued by banks for a period of three years, officials said.

And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will offer an unlimited guarantee on bank deposits in accounts that do not bear interest — typically those of businesses — bringing the United States in line with several European countries, which have adopted such blanket guarantees.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. outlined the plan on Monday to nine of the nation’s leading bankers at an afternoon meeting, officials said, in which he essentially told the participants that they would have to accept government investment for the good of the American financial system. This capital injection plan will use a huge chunk of the money authorized for Troubled Assets Relief Program.

Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were told they would each get $25 billion; Bank of America and Wells Fargo, $20 billion each (plus an additional $5 billion for their recent acquisitions); Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, $10 billion each, with Bank of New York Mellon and State Street each receiving $2 to 3 billion. Wells Fargo will get $5 billion for its acquisition of Wachovia, and Bank of America the same for amount for its purchase of Merrill Lynch.

He’s very excited!

Not surprisingly, Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol’s pregnancy, but he says he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due Dec. 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.

There’s no word on how his future mother-in-law feels about Johnston’s decision to drop out of high school. Last year, she made a point of trying to turn around the high dropout rate in their hometown.

“I’d remind the kids that no matter where they are in life — (maybe) in circumstances that probably aren’t ideal — that there is no circumstance that they’re in that is insurmountable or would necessitate them just giving up,” Palin said.

Johnston said he wasn’t forced to campaign with Palin’s mother. Bristol Palin invited him and Johnston jumped at the chance. It was a whirlwind experience for Johnston, who was seated with the Palins at the Republican National Convention.

“At first, I was nervous,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘Whatever.’”

Pastor at McCain Rally: God Must Ensure McCain Win

(via Cartoon Brew)

From Pam’s House Blend:

Here we go folks, the frustration of the right wing is in full flower. This one has manifested itself specifically as a defense of the hatemongering McCain/Palin crowds, excusing the behavior as equal somehow to anti-Bush or anti-Palin rhetoric out there. Judge for yourself, from “The Libertarian Conservative,” who posted “Enough!” with this image.

From Andrew Sullivan:

Palin-McCain supporters hold signs suggesting a moral equivalence between the Democratic nominee for president and the Islamist terrorist responsible for murdering thousands of innocents on September 11, 2001. This was at a Palin-McCain rally in Virginia Beach this morning. This is what it means to be a Republican today.

From FiveThirtyEight:

The McCain campaign is planning on a major “reboot” of its campaign in some point in advance of Wednesday night’s debate. This will take on something of the form that Bill Kristol advocates in his must-read Monday AM piece in the Times, including some combination of (i) pledging to run a positive campaign; (ii) firing/demoting Steve Schmidt and or/Rick Davis; (iii) apologizing for his campaign’s tone. In fact, Kristol’s column may be something of a trial balloon for this strategy.

What the McCain campaign really, really doesn’t want is for this move to be portrayed as desperate stunt. McCain has already developed a reputation for being a bit erratic under pressure — the ABC/Post poll now shows that a 48-45 plurality of voters trust Obama to handle an “unexpected major crisis” — and Bill Burton and Robert Gibbs must be foaming at the mouth waiting to spin something like this.

Calculated Risk’s primer on what indicators to watch during this credit crisis.

From the HuffPost:

Dr. James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute, says, “Enough is enough! From the beginning of this campaign there have been those who have used ‘Muslim’ and ‘Arab’ in an effort to smear Barack Obama. This exploitation of bigotry and the stoking of racist fires to forward an agenda is reprehensible. This is not only offensive to Arab Americans, but to all Americans. As any ethnic group who has ever been used to scare the electorate knows, this is a dangerous game that, tragically, can get innocent people hurt.

“And while we are pleased to see that the senator is trying to dispel rumors about Senator Obama, we feel the need to point out that Arab Americans are also decent men and women with full rights of citizenship as enumerated under the Constitution. Arab Americans are part of the great melting pot that is this country’s strength. We work towards peace in the Middle East along side our Jewish partners. We raise our sons and daughters to be model citizens of this nation. We serve this country with honor. The suggestion that any ethnic group is treacherous and Anti-American is unacceptable, dangerous, and unbecoming of such a great nation.”

From Serious Eats:

A little more than a week ago, A Hamburger Today introduced the world to the Hamburger Fatty Melt, a burger with grilled cheese sandwiches as its bun.

And what did the world do?

It spit in our face. Here on this site, and on other sites where it was blogged about, all we heard was, “Where’s the bacon?”

Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. I went through several iterations of the sandwich, trying different breads and different patty sizes, to find the proper beef-to-bun ratio—to create a burger you could actually fit in your mouth and one that a glutton of normal proportions might actually make.

But I guess with something like this, more is more, and so I heeded the call of the internets, and decided to make a second version of this burger with what you all said was the missing ingredient. What you are looking at above, ladies and gents, is the new, improved Bacon Hamburger Fatty Melt.