obama has already picked his cabinet

according to foxnews, barack obama has already essentially picked his presidential cabinet and already discussing what he’ll do in his first 100 days.

john mccain on saturday night live this weekend

john mccain is set to appear on saturday night live this weekend. previous appearances have included his singing barbara streisand tunes. lorne michael, producer of the show, has donated to the mccain campaign.

more americans trust mccain on economy, taxes; the economist says ‘voting for obama a risk’ but backs him anyway

the editors write ‘But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama’s inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk.’ and then the go on to endorse him. which is sort of a backhanded compliment, don’t you think.

at the moment according to rassmussen reports, more americans trust john mccain on taxes and the economy. is this the joe-the-plumber effect?

is new anti-sarah palin ad sexist?

what is it about the new anti-sarah palin ad? some women are calling it sexist. well, that is one woman who appeared on fox. just because palin doesn’t have an ivy league education, doesn’t mean that she’s dumb. perhaps it could be a good idea for people to take a look at her record as governor of alaska as well as her record as mayor of her home town and draw their own conclusions. and see that she is managing a state apparently with 20,000 plus employees and a budget in the billions. all this information is freely available on the internet.

are women politicians who don’t wear pants suits and don’t look like men judged by a different standard? no one asked hillary why being a first lady for 8 years = experience.

barack obama’s new head of gray hair

in 1992, bill clinton suddenly got a whole head of gray. barack obama, who sometimes looks like he’s about 30 years old, has suddenly sprotted a whole head of gray hair. if you didn’t notice this in his weapy, self-indulgent infomercial, you can see it here in the photo next to the wall street journal article about barack obama and fannie mae and freddie mac.

gallup likely voter poll mcain gains 2 points now at 47 obama at 49

according to gallup, the poll of likely voters–traditional, has mccain but 2 points shy of overtaking obama. for registered voters, they are separated by 7 points.

media bias and where’s barack obama’s friends?

abc news editorial about lopsided media coverage of the 2008 presidential election. the journalist writes: ‘if current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the united states a man who…has left no paper trail,seems to have few friends and has entire years missing out of his biography.” you can read the full article here.

michael ballack feud with jogi loew

michael ballack, captian of the german national football team and star of chelsea has been fueding publicly with coach joachim loew. low, who recently booted kevin kuranyi off the team is being criticized for sidelining thorsten frings.

now bild zeitung reports taht maybe ballack will be the next to go.

lindsay lohan america ferrera feud

last week, it was announced that lindsay lohan would be cut from ugly betty. some reports had her guest appearance being cut from 6 to 4 episodes, other’s mentioned that she was being x’d from all the episodes she’d already shot.

there are rumors flying around about a feud between america ferrera and lohan.

lohan is a terrible actresses. the only reason she’s a publicist’s wet dream is because she’s such a f**k up. maybe she was pulling the ratings down.

joe biden gets an extra lesson in marxism

a t.v. reporter in florida asked joe biden if he recognized this quote from karl marx “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” trying to drive home the connection between taxing those who work in order to distribute money to those who don’t or work less hard.

after the interview, the obama campaign denied the reporter the opportunity to speak with biden’s wife. although maybe biden did too.

preppy east coasters caught up in ohio voter fraud scandal

so you’re a trust fund kid from the east coast and have some extra time on your hands. why not move temporarily to ohio and register people to vote. and while you’re at it, why not register yourself to vote too. thirteen campaign workers have yanked their voter registrations and ballots.

why are these 20 and 30-somethings not being charged? smells like a kind of george w. bush silver spoon in mouth (or was that a fork?) scenario. reportedly, the spokesperson for the group, who apparently did not turn in a ballot, is a stanford law student, according to the palestra student network.

sarah palin on charlie rose

joe biden gaffe in new mccain ad

joe biden, aka ‘gaffe machine‘ went on the record last week saying ‘mark my words, obama will be tested by an international incident sometime within the first 6 weeks of his presidency.’ or something like that. that blurb has just made it into a new mccain ad:

hasselbeck on the road in florida with cindy mccain and sarah palin

elisabeth hasselbeck, the much maligned co-host from ‘the view’ is on the road this weekend in florida. she’ll be (or is) introducing sarah palin at rallies.

a poster to the forum for the new york daily news in a related article writes “i think all of the view audience hate elizabeth because she’s a beautiful women and 90% women who watch the show are fat ugly chics… and they relate to the other hosts because they are just as ugly and out of shape as they are….”

a bit of right of center support for barack obama

over the past 2 weeks, barack obama has racked up support from moderate republicans such as colin powell, scott mcclellan, and chris buckley. colin powell has always been essentially a non-partisan figure while scott mcclellan was dubya’s spokesperson during most of the iraq war. what would william f. buckley, jr. say to his son’s endorsement of obama. since he died earlier this year (and perhaps a certain kind of conservatism died with him as well), we will never know.

as the democratic party has a left wing (obama) and a right wing (billary clinton, evan byah, etc.), the republican party has this as well. which was more pronouncedly on display during the 2007 debates and this past spring’s primaries. with mitt ‘i gave taxachussets universal health care and gay marriage’ romney and rudy guiliani (cross dresser that he is) representing the left flank and mike huckabee essentially representing the right flank and mccain running basically in the middle.

but is this a valentine to barack obama, an f–k you to george w. bush, or a slap in the face to john mccain? hard to say. or is colin powell, now in his twilight years, eager to rehabilitate his reputation after his performance at the un in 2003 during which he made the u.s.’s case for heading into iraq. and scott mcclellan possibly overcome by protestant guilt that he told numeours big ones over the pass few years. was chris buckley, an eastcoaster, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy his weekends in the hamptons without catching s–t and is now anxious to be invited by the kennedy clan to martha’s vineyard? only mr. buckley knows.

whatever happened to obama’s reverend jeremiah wright

last sping, during primary season, barack obama’s pastor, reverernd jeremiah wright, from trinity united chuch of christ in chicago surfaced as a cammpaign issue.

he disappeared for a period. then resurfaced in front of the national press club in washington.

initially he was to be the october surprise. a report went out over the summer, that rev. wright was releasing a book in october. wonder what happened to this? was it right (so-to-speak) for the media last spring to focus on wright and pull out snippets of his sermons with incidiary yelpings like ‘god damn america?’ but now that the press has tired of the story, is it fair game for the mccain campaign to bring it up. or god forbid, bloggers.

joerg haider out of the closet beyond the grave

joerg haider, the controversial austrian politician, credited with reviving xenophobia and pulling austria towards the far right, was pushed out of the closet this week by his spokesman, stefan petzner. according to the guardian newspaper, petzner admitted that he and haider had been lovers for years. is it any wonder that his wife looked like his mom. german newspaper, bild zeitung reported last weekend that haider had spent his last hours wooping it up in a gay bar. apparently petzner has been in shock since haider’s death and has taken to crying on national t.v. and discussing the love of his life on austrian radio.

some of the above links are in german. but some are also in english. you can google babelfish if you want to try to translate the text. the the bild article subheadline quotes the 27 year old petzner as saying: ‘i only had him and now i am alone. he often sad to me, ‘you are the love of my life.’ he and i know what he meant by that and that should stay between us.’

why can’t matt damon support charities to end poverty in the u.s.

why is it that celebs like matt damon and angelina jolie don’t adopt american children (in the case of jolie) or invest their time and money in helping low income and impoverished african-american families in their own country as opposed to well africa or even in addition to africa or south east asia, etc. and that inlcudes celebs like musician wyclef too.

or maybe they do and it doesn’t bring good press. or maybe their problem is, their idea of building low income housing is eco-friendly houses complete with solar panels with starting costs at 100K. solar panels are great, if you can afford them.

but why is it that it is easier to get a star to donate millions to someone who lives outside of their own countries, who is an abstraction, yet they would be hard pressed to press a few hands at a food bank in a crime-ridden area of their so-called, first-world country. not all americans or europeans are rich. although some countries, like denmark have a fairly generous safety net.

barack obama’s 12.5% tax

aside from the wall street journal, most of the political media has buried this tidbit. barack obama wants to attach an extra 12.5% tax on those who make more than $97,000 per year. this was initially floated on the campaign trail and covered by abc news in 2007.

earlier this month, the same media outlet wrote that this tax would be 12.4% and hit those making $102,000 or more (the rate rose to $102K in 2008).

barack obama echoed this on meet the press in november 2007.

in this wall street journal article obama says he wants to increase payroll taxes for those making over 250K. and applies to household income.

william shatner channels sulu

william shatner comments on sulu’s snub saying: ‘i wish him well’ and ‘i didn’t really know takei on the series.’ apparently due to the tiny role of george takei (aka sulu) in star trek. no matter what anyone thinks of william shatner, he is one of the few television actors from the 60s who is still successful. perhaps the 70s weren’t to good for him. but since the resurrection of star trek in the 1980s, he’s been on a roll.

john mccain prisoner of war video

this clip from a french documentary made in 1968 was added to youtube yesterday.

media asked to pay for access by obama campaign on election day

according to fox news media organizations are being asked to pay upwards of $1,870 if they want a prime spot to cover barack obama’s election night party.

on paper, it seems reasonable. given that they are asking news organizations to cover their costs. but according to the report there’s some nonsense about paying to be in areas with heat and areas that don’t have an obstructed view. has the political news media created an icon of such proportion that even prior to gaining election, he’s suddenly become as inaccessible as bush ever was.

it is quite likely that whomever put this out to the press did not think the whole thing through. in that now obama is being thought of as say more like his pays george clooney or equated with the likes of angelina jolie. such people whom the media generally must negotiate endlessly with p.r. people in order to obtain access. arnold schwarzenegger made a similar screw up when he initially ran for governor. as an actor, all of his questions were pre-screened and when prior to holding his first press conference, as a gubernatorial candidate, his handlers requested that journalists hand their questions in in advance.

one would think that barack obama might actually rethink having his election night party in chicago and move it to springfield, the capitol of illinois.

bill clinton pelosi and biden repealled bank regulation law in 1999

the glass steagall act passed during the depression era, tightly regulated the u.s. banking system. it stood the country in good stead for about 70 years –until bill clinton signed the bill in 1999 which repealed the glass steagall act.

according to an article in the new york times, from 1995, robert rubin, treasury secretary at the time, is on record as saying the clinton ‘administration continues to favor allowing banks to merge with insurance companies as well as securitites firms.’

the 1999 financial services modernization act, written by phil gramm, who had been advising john mccain up until this past july, was passed by both houses of congress and signed by bill clinton in the same year, the new law effectively repealed glass steagall and the bank holding act of 1956 which prohibited financial companies from owning banks and insurance companies.

glass steagall prohibited the merging of banks, securities firms, and insurance companies, while the financial services modernization act allowed for huge financial conglomerates.

both nancy pelosi and joe biden voted yes on repealling glass stegall on november 4, 1999 and bill clinton signed the bill into law one week later. barack obama was in the state senate at the time, so his hands are clean. and john mccain abstained from voting.

the gramm-leach-bliley act, also known as the financial services modernization act of 199, passed the senate 90-8 and the house 362-57 on november 4, 1999.

i will continue to post variations of this post every few days or at least every few weeks. it is important for people to know where the blame lies. and it is squarely on the shoulders of congressional members from the 90s and especially bill clinton.

campaign expenditure breakdown mccain and obama

apparently the barack obama campaign spent 430K on food (which presumably includes michelle obama’s $500 snack at the waldorf astoria last week) $44m on salaries and benefits, 160m on broadcast media and $10m on internet media. there is an area called unknown which sucked up $550K. what unknown element consumes half a million dollars?

the mccain campaign spent $6m on broadcast media and $3m on internet media. miscellaneous expenses with insufficent info sucked up about $160K –about $400K less than the obama campaign.

from the 2004 presidential campaign, john kerry, a staunch barack obama supporter, still has incomplete finance reports. there is no disclosure for $26m of funds and incomplete information on $4m funds. that’s about 19% and $30m that is unaccounted for.

berlusconi flourishes under financial crisis

there have been a number of articles over the past few weeks about how silvio berlusconi, the 72 year old prime minister of italy and media mogul has seen his popularity rise during the present international banking crisis. the new york times notes that berlusconi is in very good spirits. this article comes 4 days after a similar version ran in the financial times.

could it be that the editors of the new york times are following the lead of international newspapers when it comes to covering international news, as opposed to generating their own stories?

what’s also questionable about the article is the mention of russia followed by vladimir putin’s poll number while there is zero mention of the present president of russia, dimitry medvedev. even in the u.s. presidential debates, the moderators insisted on discussing vladimir putin (as did the presidential candidates) while ignoring medvedev. although putin may be the power behind the power. until we 100% know, it seems that there should at least be some acknowledgement that russia has a new head of state.

50,000 commercials and 605 million dollars

according to the new york daily news, citing the campaign media analysis group, last week the barack obama campaign broadcast 50,000 30 second commercials on national, local and cable TV channels. counting his primary run, obama has thus far raised $605m. some might call this a perversion of democracy. in most first world countries, there are strict regulations which would prohibit dominating the airwaves in such a way. but obama is in america, so he doesn’t have to worry about this.

but how much traction is he gaining. at the moment he is 4 or 5 points up.

whatever happened to barry soetoro

while barack obama attended school in indonesia, he went by the name barry soetoro. here’s a new video on youtube called ‘october surprise’ by illuminati pictures which asks questions about barack obama’s citizenship. questions such as, was he adopted by his step father? did that make him a citizen of indonesia? and addresses the philip j. berg vs. obama lawsuit which is asking barack obama to present his birth certificate and proof of citizenship. apparently the DNC and howard dean are fighting this.

so the question is, why is the democratic national committee fighting this? case documents can be found here if this is only a frivilous lawsuit.

but why isn’t the mainstream political media talking about the fact that barack obama is in the middle of a lawsuit?

there are also questions about whether or not john mccain is a natural born citizen considering he was born in the panamal canal. during the time of his birth, this area was u.s. territory. but it raises the question of what did the fathers of the american constitution mean when they wrote ‘natural born citizen?’

edit: thanks to the poster who pointed this out. friday, a lawsuit was filed in hawaii demanding that barack obama present his birth certificate.

oliver stone’s W is a big ‘ole flop

oliver stone’s new film (aka, a $100m campaign donation to barack obama), has died at the boxoffice. it’s weekend take barely cleared the $10m hurdle according to boxofficemojo. the new film, starring josh brohlin as george dubya bush and thandie newton as condi rice, follows a long line of naughties films about the iraq war (such as the dud by ridley scott) and the bush administration that americans just aren’t interested in seeing. maybe dubya will do better overseas with all the europeans who suffer from bush delusionment syndrome.

the economist weighs in on joerg haider

the economist gives an video obituary of joerg haider, the controversial austrian politician who died in a car accident earlier this week.

michelle obama’s $447 lunch

last week, while staying at the waldorf astoria in manhattan, michelle obama got a wee bit hungry so she ordered some lobster and champagne. you can take a look at the bill here. well, that’s just chump change considering the obama campaign has raised $650m this election cycle. was michelle obama just spreading the wealth or rather, sharing the wealth? click the highlighted link to read the obambi.com story.

first photos from tarantino’s next film

babelsberg studio just released the first images from tarantino’s controversial film, ‘inglorious basterds.’ the press release spells bastards with an ‘e.’ is this right? will this film be yet another masturbatory tarantino film?

the photos of brad pitt and the german actor til schweiger,

still from inglorious basterds

both photos were taken by francois duhamel.

brad pitt on set quentin tarantino's new film photo credit francois duhamel

still from inglorious basterds

brad pitt on set quentin tarantino’s new film photo credit francois duhamel

ohio disenfranchising cops?

apparently sometimes police officers are reluctant to list their home address on voter registration cards. given their line of work, this is understandable. are they about to bedisenfranchised due to this practice?

joe the plumber unemployed

yesterday joe wurzelbacher (aka joe the plumber) stopped by mike huckabee’s new show ‘huckabee,’ which appears of fox, as well as fox and friends. he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he had a job anymore because his company had been closed down.

does this have anything to do with the brave new world we presently live in? has 1984 show up a couple of decades late? has the obama campaign, which has just reportedly raised $150m in september, by snooping around in joe’s background and havine joe biden announce on jay leno that joe doesn’t even have a license, cause the powers that be in ohio to shut down his company and put joe and his family in the unemployment line? this is unclear.

but bloggers are reporting that someone contacted the local union of plumbers, steamfitters and service mechanics in toledo and the toledo division of building inspection and as of friday they were trying to track him down to tell him he can’t work without a license.

hopefully joe will end up with an offer from rupert murdoch and a television show on fox. or maybe cindy mccain could offer him a job.

have the media and the obama campaign killed joe the plumber’s american dream?

joe the plumber saves the mccain campaign

over the weekend, both barack obama and john mccain sent themselves and each other up (as well as billary clinton) at a white tie affair in manhattan (see below).

peggy noonan of the wall street journal stepped up to give both mccain, and his much maligned running mate sarah palin, a backhanded compliment saying joe the plumber has done a better job of laying out the republican platform than the republican party.

the so-called joe factor. should not be overlooked. that mccain has been able to attach a visual image to barack obama’s taxation proposal has probably helped as well. reuters/cspan/zogby now show john mccain as being only 2.7 percentage points behind barack obama. which is a statistical tie. these numbers are reflected on gallup.com as well, for likely voters.

angelina jolie speaks at council on foreign relations

a few days ago, angelina jolie, brad pitt’s babies mama (also known as the man who can’t open a movie), spoke at a press conference for the council on foreign relations. as she stumbled through her speech, she noted things like: ‘i’ve seen refugees,’ and ‘i’ve sat in a tent with a woman,’ and also she said ‘i have no idea.’

the journalists should’ve asked her: “do you mean ‘i’ve seen refugees’ in the way that washed up child star haley joel osment saw dead people in ‘the 6th sense’?” or “when you say you have no idea. are you also implying that you have no ideas?”

we know the u.s. is going to hell in a handbasket when actors who barely graduated from high school are asked to join think tanks.

the funeral of guillaume depardieu

the french version of gala shot a short video outside of guillaume depardieu’s funeral. one of the stars entering the chuch appears to be catherine deneuve. but it’s hard to tell. the funeral was held at the bougival church. here’s a photo of guillaume’s sister and mother at the funeral. here gerard depardieu talks about his son during the service. in the short video, he is reading from the little prince. the audio is quite bad. i will try to post an english translation soon.

guillaume depardieu and pneumonia

guillaume depardieu’s untimely death is a bit of a mystery. who dies at 37 from pneumonia? this is the buzz swirling around the internet regarding the death of gerard depardieu’s son, guillaume. was it AIDS is probably the most searched for term alongside the recently deceased actor’s name. but there is no documented evidence proving that he had AIDS or was HIV positive.

here you can see the actor in the early 90s in a scene from ‘tous les matins du monde’ (all the mornings of the world), which he starred in alongside his father.

barack obama and joe the plumber

fox news thinks barack obama is a socialist because he wants to spread the wealth around in the u.s. which for some equals wealth distribution. you can watch fox’s commentary below. and below that, you’ll find the full length video of obama’s conversation with joe the plumber from ohio.

CNN anchor says cunt on air

click here to view CNN anchor calling political strategist a cunt.

the world series rolls over for obama

game 6 of the world series will be delayed by fox, the rupert murdoch owned station, so barack obama can have his 30 minutes before the u.s. audience. that is, if there’s a game 6. his ad buys on fox, cbs, and nbc amount to about 3 million dollars.

will this bolster barack obama? or is it analogous to hillary clinton’s one hour TV buy one night prior to Super Tuesday? which was staged managed within an inch of its life. will people love him more the more they see of him? or will this backfire on him in the way that his excellent adventure to europe did?

guillaume depardieu dead at 37

the son of french actor, gerard depardieu died yesterday of complication from pneumonia. guillaume depardieuwas 37 years old. do you recall the days when you heard that a youngish person had died of pneumonia usually meant AIDS. but according to the bbc he died from a lung infection he got while he was in romania.

guillaume depardieu was introduced to international audiences in the early 90s in tous les matins du monde (all the mornings of the world), which he starred in alongside his father. the film by alain corneau, with whom guillaume was working prior to his death, includes the wonderful baroque soundtrack.

california proposition 8, gavin newsom, and a bunch of first graders

gavin newsom, mayor of san francisco, and arguably the man who handed george w. bush his second term in office during the culture wars of 2004, is in hot water again for officiating at a wedding. first graders skipped class to see their teacher get married to her long-time girlfriend as an apparenta civic lesson. needless to say the focus on the family types are a bit bent out of shape for all sorts of reasons. so the question one forum poster on sfgate.com asks if if the school would’ve let the kids off to visit a church to witness an exercise in religious freedom. will this coupled with newsom having become the posterboy for propostion 8 prohibit him from running for the office of governor and open a clear pathwa for meg whitman, the former CEO of e-bay?

gala clickable stars angelina jolie b-listed

gala, the german celebrity fluff magazine, has angelina jolie listed as a b-star. that’s according to online voting. 40% of users voted her to the a-list while equally 40% believe she’s a d-list star. so the average should be somewhere between a b – and c +.

angelina jolie, the woman who shamelessly opens her life up to the world when time to plug her movies, is joined on the list by other falling stars such as beyonce knowles, ryan phillipe, david duchovny and franka potente. at the time of posting, d-listers include stella mccartney and nicky hilton.

mccain’s new ad with obama and bill ayers

the new york times recently ran an article connecting barack obama with bill ayers, a 1960s left-wing radical. ayers and his wife were part of the weather underground, a group that terrorized the u.s. in the 60s. it’s almost a parallel tale to how the baader-meinhof group terrorized germany during the same period.

the weather underground may sound like a industrial band or a sister group to the weather girls. but it defintely wasn’t. bill ayers and his wife went on the run for 20 years while they were on the FBI’s most wanted list. apparently the ayers family is part of the chicago neighborhood barack and michelle obama live in and they have moved in some similar circles. which could be analogous to holding john mccain responsible for the actions of any number of people. or who knows.

how much of an influence will this have on voters? the real question is, why was this glossed over by the media during the primaries when the clintons brought it up? and since it didn’t gain any traction then, will it gain any traction now? the video has been up on youtube for about 2 or 3 days and already has over 500K views.

mccain letter demanding action on frannie and freddie

here is a link to the letter john mccain wrote in 2006 demanding action on frannie mae and freddie mac, the two institutions at the heart of the current economic crisis.

duran duran’s andy taylor writes tell-all book

click here for more information.

controversial austrian politician dies in car accident

joerg haider, the controversial austrian politician died today, like falco, in a car accident. the 58 year old politician died in the early hours o the morning.

gordon brown jokes about u.s. banking crisis

while iceland’s government’s wondering why gordon brown put a freeze on all icelandic business accounts in the uk, prime minister brown took a moment to poke fun at the u.s. and prove to the world that he has a sense of humour. click here to view the video.

moritz bleibtreu and baader meinhof komplex

the baader meinhof komplex, produced by bernd eichinger, is the sensation of the moment in germany. directed by uli edel, the film seemingly goes out of its way not to express an opinion about the subject matter. it painstakingly dodges praising the acts of andreas baader, ulrike meinhof and gundrun ensslin. as it probably should. yet nor is it directly or indirectly a criticism of the group. it’s more of a presentation of them and their acts, warts and all without pressing our buttons and pulling our strings. the sets are realistically lit. and the backdrop of 60s and 70s berlin is stark and gray.

martina gedeck, who gave a star turn in the oscar winning film ‘das leben den anderen’ (the lives of others), plays ulrike meinhof who was part of the baader meinhof first generation anti-capitalist RAF gang that terrorized germany from 1968 to their deaths in 1977. moritz bleibtreu, who first made his name with ‘run lola run,’ portrays andreas baader, the high school drop out. johanna wokalek gives a solid performance as gudrun ensslin, who according to the ever reliable wikipedia was a descendent of philosopher georg wilhelm frederick hegel.

this film about the group that spawned far too many industrial and punk rock tunes is more of a series of events than a plot driven film. it comes out in november in the uk. and is already getting solid reviews. although this one from the independent asks if its a tasteless action film. due to the insularity of the u.s. film industry, this probably won’t make it to the u.s. anytime soon, if ever. but the film does a good job of showing a 10 year period of german history from the student demonstrations of 1968 to the end days of the founding members of the RAF. you can watch trailers and clips at kino.de.

for those who are weary of hearing about world war 1 world war 2 and would like to know a little bit about modern german history and the 68 generation, which spawned germany’s ex-foreign minister joschka fischer, this film is a definite primer.

katie couric makes fun of sarah palin

katie couric’s no tim russert.

germany backs 100% of savers’ deposits

on sunday, angela merkel announced that the german government is insuring 100% of bank deposits which covers existing and future accounts. formerly, the government only guaranteed 90% of all bank deposits up to 20,000 euros per account. germany is a very liquid country. people are leery of credit cards and shy away from debt. it’s one reason why just under 42% of germans own property. most prefer to rent. as of 2004, the savings rate per household income in germany as a percentage of disposable income was 10.4%. while in the uk, the rate is 6.0 and in the u.s. 4.7.

according to the federal reserve bank of san francisco, “from 1980 through 1994, the U.S. saving rate averaged 8%; thereafter, it fell steeply, and since mid-2000, with allowance made for the tax rebates that boosted household saving in the months of July, August, and September 2001, it has averaged approximately 1%.” while in terms of japan, germany, the u.s. and the uk, “by contrast, the personal saving rates from 1980 through 2001 averaged 13% in Japan, 12% in Germany, and 15% in France, with no steep declines after 1994; in fact, in France, the saving rate rose slightly. For the United Kingdom, the personal saving rate was close to the U.S. rate during the 1980 to 1994 period, averaging 9%, but it has since declined only modestly to an average of 7%.”

which might explain why the german government is more inclined to insure 100% of deposits than other countries.

congess $700b bank bailout bill includes $10 mill for film and television productions

according to cnet, the bill that passed the senate on thursday and the house on friday went from the 3 pager that secretary of treasury paulson handed in, to an amazing 442 pages. the new law that george (i’ve never seen a bill i didn’t like) w. bush signed on friday includes $10 million for small and medium sized film and television production companies. and according to a cnet forum poster another $192 million for puerto rican and virgin island rum producers.

hillary clinton, failed DC bar, wants supreme court appointment

is this even possible? according to the ever reliable new york post, billary clinton are doing the bare minimum to get obama in the white house because mr. obama won’t guarantee that he’ll nominate hill to the supreme court. given that she has never served as a judge and failed the dc bar. what are the clintons thinking?

rick astley nominated best artist ever for mtv europe

go online and vote for him so george michael won’t win.