"WE DO NOT SUPPORT GOV'T BAILOUTS OF PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. Gov't Interference in the Markets Exacerbates Problems in the Marketplace . . .

and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself." (Emphasis supplied.)

From the 2008 Republican Party Platform adopted earlier this month.

P.S.: Did you catch (from The Washington Post), "The White House budget office said yesterday that it has decided not to incorporate mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the federal budget, citing the temporary nature of the Treasury Department's takeover and 'the level of federal ownership' of the firms."

The Food Shark

If you're going to Marfa for Open House this year, keep your eye out for my friend Adam Bork, video artist and alt-rock musician, and for his Food Shark, which serves the best falafel in town. Somebody told me he's getting famous.

Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations

Per Democracy Now (citing Army Times), "[b]eginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds."

Anyone ever heard of posse comitatus?

And don't forget those those "detention centers" Halliburton's been building in the U.S.

Dem. Rep. from Washington State, Jim McDermott

Wish I could say, I watch so you don't have to; but I alone can't keep up.

Of Course, Konservative Keymasters Know . . .

it doesn't matter who the V.P. or even the P. is; all that matters is, can they be managed.

Anne Lamott on What to Do

"Figure out one thing you can do every single day to be a part of the solution, concentrating on swing states. Money, walking precincts, registering voters, whatever. This is the only way miracles ever happen -- left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe. Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe. The great novelist E.L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving at night with the headlights on: You can only see a little ways in front of you, but you can make the whole journey this way. It is the truest of all things; the only way to write a book, raise a child, save the world.

"As my anonymous pal Krinkle Bearcat once wrote: Laughter is carbonated holiness. It is chemo. So do whatever it takes to keep your sense of humor. . . .

"Reread everything Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower ever wrote. Write down that great line of Molly's, that 'Freedom fighters don't always win, but they're always right.' Tape it next to your phone."

More at Salon.

"Lipstick"

It all makes sense if in place of "lipstick," you read, the corporate-owned media. (Speaking of pigs.)

Installations at Adam Bork's Dome House in Marfa, TX

Don't forget to go rate the video up if you like it. Also a bunch of cool photos here.