Yowza, Corwood, that was painful.

In point of fact, all of the people I personally know who are worried about paying their mortgages could fairly be described as rich. Certainly above the median income.

Emily - if you are still looking: [link]

Thanks Corwood.

M.T.: Oh, come on. Tell me you're not ashamed to put this gigantic international financial Krakatoa at the feet of a bunch of poor black people who missed their mortgage payments. The CDS market, this market for credit default swaps that was created in 2000 by Phil Gramm's Commodities Future Modernization Act, this is now a $62 trillion market, up from $900 billion in 2000. That's like five times the size of the holdings in the NYSE. And it's all speculation by Wall Street traders. It's a classic bubble/Ponzi scheme. The effort of people like you to pin this whole thing on minorities, when in fact this whole thing has been caused by greedy traders dealing in unregulated markets, is despicable.

That's a brutal bitch slap. With stats!

(Although I feel I must admit I'd never heard of credit-default swaps until about a week ago when I heard them explained on MarketPlace.)

Matt Taibbi taking The National Review's Byron York to school. Hey, it made me happy since I've heard quite a few of my co-workers talking about how the financial collapse was caused by poor people who couldn't pay their mortgages.

I don't know what your co-workers are talking about. It isn't the fault of the person who took the loan if the risk was not assessed correctly, then hidden in financial instruments, and traded by over leveraged financial companies. It's like going broke playing the slot machines and saying it's the fault of the slot machines for not paying out enough.

That's a brutal bitch slap. With stats!

That's exactly what I love about it. These National Review and Fox News guys have been repeating this horseshit over and over so frequently that my right-wing spam-forwarding cousin has already sent me three separate emails detailing how the Ds are responsible because they tried to ensure that disadvantaged people could own their own homes. Despicable is right.

Remember earlier this week when the stock market went up 10%? Good times, good times.

In point of fact, all of the people I personally know who are worried about paying their mortgages could fairly be described as rich. Certainly above the median income.

bears repeating. you didn't buy a house in NoCal in the 5 or 6 years without being in the closer to rich than poor category.

A strange Republican publicity stunt thingie... from Wonkette: ACORN Squirrel Furries Attack New York City

GAHHHHH what the hell, why is this furry with a massive throat cancer oxygen hole thing in its neck allowed to prey on innocent New York CBS anchor Harry Smith? Because it’s a Republican furry, of course! Remember in 2004 how all lobotomized college/young Republicans would walk around like fucktards in FLIP FLOP COSTUMES because of, what, something about that fag peace-slut John Kerry from France? Well this is the 2008 version and yes, be scared, because these furry squirrels are protesting ACORN. GAME OVER n00bama go back to INDOCHINA with your FAKE DAD from OUTER MUSLIM SPACE. The furries have a blog called [Acorns Don't Fall Far From The Tree]

I managed to not fret for 2 whole hours.

Of course, I was immersed in a tangled problem that I still haven't figured out.

Heh. Who needs newspapers? [link]