The Surrender Monkey is simply thrilled by news that came out Thursday, and demanded that he be allowed to cover it

The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn’t equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can’t agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.

Lawmakers say they are unlikely to take action before, or to delay, their planned adjournments — Sept. 26 for the House of Representatives, a week later for the Senate. While they haven’t ruled out returning after the Nov. 4 elections, they would rather wait until next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who are leading efforts to contain the crisis, call for help.

One reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that “no one knows what to do” at the moment.

So, we have major financial turmoil in the markets, problems with housing, particularly Freddie and Fannie, and what does, the Democrat controlled congress do? Punt. On first down. To President Bush. The guy they have been maligning for days over the latest financial problems (not to mention since 1/21/2001.)

Queen Nancy and Dingy Harry say “Save us, Dubya, save us!” Glad to know we are getting value for the money Congress appropriates to itself.

Captain Ed

First Pelosi adjourns the House in the middle of an energy supply crisis that hammered the working class with sharp hikes in fuel and food costs. Now both Pelosi and Reid want to adjourn both chambers of Congress rather than deal with the credit crisis that Washington created with its heavy-handed mandates to issue credit to marginally qualified borrowers and lack of oversight over government-guaranteed entities. Given their ineptitude, we probably should be grateful — as Bloomberg notes. But considering their rhetoric over the last few days, their retreat may be one of the most cowardly acts in domestic policy seen in a very long time.

He dubs the Congress the Brave Sir Robin Congress. That character is Surrendie’s favorite from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Is it just me or does Michelle Obama appear to have lost some of her confidence? Don’t vote for McCain because Palin is cute?

The desperation of the Obama campaign has gotten downright pathetic.

Quick and dirty update on State polls. You can check out the full data at Electoral Vote. Some of the important highlights to a massive amount of new polls

• Va is back to slightly McCain
• Pa. still a dead heat
• New Mexico is back to Barry
• Mac takes over Colorado
• Barry is losing ground in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
• Mac lost some ground in Florida, West Virginia, Louisiana, and NC (though NC is still solidly GOP)
• NY is back to Barry by 12
• The Welfare State of Washington DC is massively Barry
• Barry lost a bit in Idaho Iowa, though still solidly Barry (woops, brain and fingers did not co-operate)

A big concern, and not just symbolically, is Illinois, Barack’s home state, of course. The margin has been slowly creeping closer, and, with the latest poll, Barry only leads by 6. This is a state that Kerry won by 10, Gore won by 12, Clinton won by 17 in ‘96 and 15 in ‘92. WIll Obama lose it? Probably not. But, if he pulls a Gore and loses his home state, very bad, since Illinois accounts for 21 electoral votes.

For the most part, I am ignoring most solidly blue or red states, especially if there is little change.

There has been a constant bleat from the Obama campaign and many compliant and complicit media outlets to announce to the American people that Barack Obama would decrease taxes for 95% of the American people. Beyond the fact that that would be impossible, this begs the question, since the Barry camp wants to deal with non-distractions, what rates does Barry propose?

Web CPA, which is concerned, rightly, about job and income loss for CPA’s, has this to say

Obama also is pushing to repeal the Bush administration’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts - at least the part of those laws that gave relief to upper-income taxpayers. But in order to “protect tax cuts for poor and middle-class families,” he has proposed limiting the rollback to taxpayers with incomes of $250,000 or more, as well as permanently extending marriage penalty relief and simplifying the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Obama has been against making the Bush tax cuts permanent for years. And, as John Feehery points out

History: When it comes to cutting taxes, Barack Obama is a virgin. He has never voted for a tax cut in his legislative life. He has had 94 opportunities to vote for a tax cut in his Senate career, and he has voted no each and every time. When you have a long history of voting to raise taxes, you can’t convince voters that you are a born-again tax-cutter. Sorry. Nice try.

Now, Barack has all sorts of refunds ($500 for singles and $1,000 for families) and stuff going on in his plan, but, consider: here are the tax rates for 2000

And for 2008

Let’s consider what this means. The average American income in 2007 was $50,233. So, in 2000 you would have paid $14,065 in federal taxes. In 2008 you will pay $12,558 (and people say tax discussions are boring?) A difference of $1,506. Of course, we are not considering any deductions and other tax wonkiness, just straight numbers.

So, Barry let’s the Bush tax cuts lapse. What does he replace it with? Will he actually keep the rates for those who are making less then $250k as families and $200k as individuals in place? Will he go back to Clinton era tax rates? Those are the questions. Because giving a rebate is not a tax cut, it is just giving you your own money back. And people rarely pay attention to the actual tax rates

And that does not even get in to the capital gains taxes Barry wants to double, nor shifting the tax burden to the middle class as “the rich” start spending less and sheltering their money, nor the raise in Social Security taxes.

He has already joined the ranks of the Media Who Have Lost It, so, now he goes a little farther with his “OMG, Barry could actually lose!” whining

Can Barack Obama actually blow this thing? Can he actually lose in November?

Yes. Check the polls, Roger.

We have a deeply troubled economy,

It has some issues, and Democrats running around, including Barack Obama, saying we are closing in on the next Great Depression sure doesn’t build confidence by the American people

an unpopular war,

Which barely gets a mention in the media anymore, is barely on people’s radar, and, is actually almost over, thanks to The Surge that Barry opposed, and continued to say was not working

a very unpopular president

Congress is even more unpopular, Roger, and, BDS aside, Bush is not running

and a historic reluctance on the part of the American people to elect the same party to the White House three terms in a row.

Check the polls, Roger.

“Dear (insert name of news source here”

At what point should you be forced to give up your press credentials because of massive bias which leads to journalistic malpractice and a complete lapse of journalistic ethics? How are you different from the Blogosphere, which tends to add opinion to news stories?”

I tell ya, this has got to leave a mark

Sarah Palin bests Joseph Biden 47% to 44% in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up for the presidency, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone surve.

In a Biden vs. Palin race, 84% of Republicans and 16% of Democrats back the Alaskan, and 75% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans support the senator. Unaffiliated voters give Palin the edge 45% to 39%.

And, I understand that most people surveyed thought Biden was really cranky and crusty.

Speaking of polls

• It is dead even in Va. again
• Pennsylvania is a dead heat now (big!)
• Barry’s lead in Colorado is down to 1
• Ohio has stretched to McCain by 4
• Florida has stretched to Mac by 7
• Utah is still massively McCain
• And in New York (drum roll, please), Barry’s lead is down to 5 (B46-M41)

What desparate attack ad will Barry and Co. come up with next cause of this?

Bob Hebert has written a standard liberal missive about how McCain is bad, in this case, McCain’s health care plan, which attempts to put the choice of choosing an insurance plan in the hands of the workers, not the government or employer. Choice. Responsibility. Humorously, he actually writes in the column

There is nothing secret about Senator McCain’s far-reaching proposals, but they haven’t gotten much attention because the chatter in this campaign has mostly been about nonsense — lipstick, celebrities and “Drill, baby, drill!”

It’s apparently nonsense in the Manhattan cocktail party circuit to talk about going and getting our own energy. Then they get in their limo’s.

But, anyhow, Bob, Barry Obama’s main focal point in attacking McCain is multiple commercials saying that McCain=Bush. He has one which whines about McCain’s ties to lobbyists. No mention of the ties B.O.’s running mate has to lobbyists, including his own son (who supposedly got out of the business recently.) Barry attempted to smear McCain for not being an email and Internet user, Bob. Is that an important issue?

The Barry campaign, along with elected Democrats and democrat operatives, have tried to make hay about McCain’s age and having had cancer. Are those important, or nonsense, Bob? One of those groups has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Obama, Bob.

The Barry camp, along with a compliant and complicit media has looked for massive personal dirt on Sarah Palin, Bob. That would be exactly the type of nonsense you are referring to.

It’s kinda hard to have a substantive debate on the issues, Bob, when Barry refueses to engage in anything other then acting like a modern day Messiah. McCain offered multiple times to debate Barry many, many times. Barry ran away like a little girl who got mud on her fancy party dress.

Go talk to your man-crush, Bob, and ask him if he would like to really debate and deal with the big issues. Maybe he would like to discuss how things are going very well in Iraq, and how he was completely against the surge, instead, preferring to walk away like a bad dating experiment.

Or, perhaps, we could discuss how Barry wants to nationalize a sizable chunk of healthcare, making our system as piss poor as it is in Canada, England, France, and Germany, Bob. How’s that sound?

Since the Barry camp is under fire for ignoring outside advice, since Barry is losing to Palin on experience, since panic is setting in for Democrats, since battlegrounds are breaking for McCain, since Barry supporters are reduced to calling Palin a child predator, since the biggest kook fringers want Barry’s message to be purely person, and false, smears against Palin, since Excitable Andy has become even more excitable lately (no point in a link, 99% of his site is frantic. The other 1% is nice photos,) and Congress is now up for grabs.

Since the hysterical “the GOP is going to steal the 2008 election!!!!” yap has really been ramping up lately, since the NY Times has been regularly losing it’s Collective Hive mind over the Palin pick, since a Governor who supports Barry went off message and said that Palin has more experience for the office of president then Barry, since Palin is driving supposed feminist wildly bonkers, since the Credentialed Media is attempting to do everything they can to portray McCain as the one in trouble, and since Kiddie-camp B.O. is reduced to smearing disable veterans and the elderly (while smearing Barry’s own VP choice, who has been in Congress 14 years longer then McCain, in trying to make McCain look like a long time Washington insider) and calling the McCain campaign the sleaziest in history (waaaah-mbulance time), I have a gift for all the Barry supporters, from the Nutroots to the should-have-their-credentials-pulled MSM to Barry himself below the fold

The Coalition forces and Iraq government bring into light something that was woefully missing during Saddam Hussein’s long rule

“Iraq was the first country to introduce laws to the world and now it is important to bring back the rule of law to Iraq,” said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at yesterday’s opening of the Rusafa Justice Palace in Baghdad.

With a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Prime Minister Maliki officially opened the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-built $11.3 million new-construction facility. Members of the Higher Judicial Council and judicial members, Coalition forces, security teams and more than 30 international media crowded the central courtroom to overflowing to listen to the Iraqi judicial officers in the Justice Palace.

Prayers from the Koran and a moment of silence in the courtroom for all those judges and judicial workers who have been killed in past years under Saddam and during the turmoil of the past years led off the array of speakers.

Iraqi Chief Justice Medhat referred to the importance of the Justice Palace in establishing the rule of law in Iraq. Medhat gave thanks to the Coalition forces and a special recognition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the workmanship and diligence.

Could this have happened with Saddam in charge? Could this have happened even pre-surge? They call it the justice center, but, it is more about turning Iraq into a country of law, rather then a county of will.

Guess who supported the Surge and who was for abandoning it to the will of Islamic animals?

The Surrender Monkey is exhilarated by the Washington Post this morning. Any time he sees one of the major mainstream media outlets completely distort and dive in to Weekly World News territory, he gets a thrilling up his leg.

Surrendie wants to start with the sleaze: A Tangled Story of Addiction - Consequences of Cindy McCain’s Drug Abuse Were More Complex Than She Has Portrayed

When Cindy McCain is asked what issues she would champion as first lady, she often cites one of the most difficult periods of her life: her battle with — and ultimate victory over — prescription painkillers. Her struggle, she has said repeatedly, taught her valuable lessons about drug abuse that she would pass on to the nation.

While McCain’s accounts have captured the pain of her addiction, her journey through this personal crisis is a more complicated story than she has described, and it had more consequences for her and those around her than she has acknowledged.

Her misuse of painkillers prompted an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and local prosecutors that put her in legal jeopardy. A doctor with McCain’s medical charity who supplied her with prescriptions for the drugs lost his license and never practiced again. The charity, the American Voluntary Medical Team, eventually had to be closed in the wake of the controversy. Her husband was forced to admit publicly that he was absent much of the time she was having problems and was not aware of them.

Folks, what in the hell is the point of this very, very, very long story? How many times have you seen a 5 web-page hit piece on anyone else? And it is a hit piece. Is Cindy McCain running for President? Will we see anything similar about Michelle Obama? Hell, will we see anything similar about the guy running for president on the Democrat side? This is just sleaze journalism, and show how far in the tank the Washington Post is for Obama.

Next up, the Post uses its willful ignorance to say that Sarah Palin linked Iraq to 9/11 (apparently the WP has changed its headline since it went up on Memeorandum)

Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.

As Confederate Yankee points out

When Palin referenced “…the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans,” is was an obvious reference to al Qaeda in Iraq, an offshoot of the parent al Qaeda organization that plotted and executed the 9/11 attacks, and while still funds and loosely controls the failing Iraqi branch.

Perhaps the writer, Ann Kornblut, should go and do the style pages, because her grasp of the facts, not to mention that she calls stone cold Islamic terrorists “militants,” is sorely missing. But, she does a great job of supporting Democrat talking points.

Dan Riehl writes:

So much for all those layers of editors. Geesh! The soldiers are not shipping out to fight the Iraqi government under the control of Saddam or anyone else. They are shipping out to fight the remnants of al Qaeda still in Iraq and any other nefarious individuals terrorizing the people and the current freely-elected government.

At least if I was reading the National Enquirer, I would know if they were being stupid or malicious on purpose.