check your briefs

hillary clinton doesn't know what it's like to be a black man in america!

that news flash from barack obama's "controversial" chicago pastor rev. jeremiah wright jr. i'm guessing it's probably true. unless...remember the eddie murphy sketch from the old saturday night live, when with extensive make-up he "became" a white man? maybe clinton's already done that! maybe she's become a smart, black woman (or man, for that matter!) gone out there and tried to get a car loan!

first of all, if you took the text one of wright's sermons and put it in the mouth of a "calmer" white man, would anyone be discussing it? would anyone notice? and aren't they topics we should be discussing?

and why is the wright stuff back out there? these are comments made quite some time ago, and suddenly they're being covered like breaking news on all the media outlets. "will barack distance himself from these remarks?" hasn't he already?

five severed fingers have been delivered in iraq.

they belong to five prisoners / hostages in iraq. four u.s. security contractors, and one austrian. apparently receiving fingers in the mail is proof that a hostage is alive. (couldn't you chop fingers off a dead hostage?) maybe this horrible express mail package will remind us that we're still at war, and we're closing in quickly on 4000 men and women killed in iraq. are any of us even aware that these five hostages have been in captivity for more than a year?

the iraqis can deliver severed fingers correctly, but my omaha steaks consistently get sent to the wrong address.

president bush appears in green and white mini-skirt with pom pons!

he's about to hold a news conference at the economic club in new york, to tell the country (again) that our economy is in good shape! he's going to tell americans to have confidence in the economy! u-rah-rah con-fi-dence! isn't this close to saying "it's your fault our economy is in the tank! you don't have confidence in it!"

as i write this, the dow jones is down 172.50 points, families are in forclosure across the country, the fed may slash interest rates again next week, oil prices have consistently been hitting record highs, and the dollar is at record lows. go-ooooooooooh economy!!

is there anyone else out there that finds it absolutely beyond belief that this man is going to give a speech to the leaders in business, industry, and finance?

"seems like i showed up at...an interesting moment...he-he-he," bush just said, standing at the podium and snickering.

less than 30 seconds into the speech and bush has already mentioned 9/11 and confronting terrorists. he also says that after "natural disasters" like katrina, the economy has bounced back like never before. really? aren't there people still living in the superdome?

UPDATE 3/17/08 -- former federal reserve chariman alan greenspan in today's financial times:

"The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war.