A category 5 blamestorm

As the monster continued to wreak havok on both Main and Wall Street, everyone was looking for someone to blame in the wake of the failure to pass the $700 billion bailout package. First up, the leadership in the House is being blamed, partly for a lack of leadership and partly for not taking the fiscal crisis seriously enough. Next up is the media. Did the media in general, and the business media in particular, drop the ball and fail to clearly explain both the mess and the bailout bill that was meant to clean it up? But the voters have made their own decision on whom to blame: the GOP and the Gentleman from Arizona (and the horse he rode into Washington on). It seems his scheme to play the hero has backfired on his campaign. It seems the only one to gotten in right was faux pundit Stephen Colbert, having offered a pitch perfect description of Cthulunomics.

Oops! Bailout fall down go kaboom.

The House choked on the bailout bill, with the holdouts being Republicans. The markets collectively choked with the Dow crashing 700 points before bobbing up to a 500 point downturn. And King George's appeal fell on deaf ears in the House, though it is expected to pass the Senate. The House leadership was scrambling for a second vote, but even if they succeed, a vote on the bailout bill in the Senate will be held up by the Jewish High Holy Days. And the problem was even more widespread as European banks scrambled to bailout banks that caught the contagion. So the question now remains is who will administer the necessary Heimlich maneuver to save the economy from choking on its own bile?

In case you missed it

The pirates of Somalia did not know who they were dealing with: CNN

Sinonauts steppin out: NYTimes

And the new prime number is ...: BBC

A bird in the hand is worth 200 in the bag: Reuters

Wasting away again in bailoutville

The oracle has spoken. Warren Buffett has declared that the nation could face it's greatest financial meltdown in all of history if it doesn't pull it together and hammer out a bailout. Apparently the man worth $50 billion (all in Euros) was consulted on the phone by Senate supplicants. But the economy was unravelled by the intricacies of derivatives which spread the housing market meltdown across the financial markets like the black plague. But Congressional leaders swear they've arrived at a compromise and that their peeps were going to pull an all-nighter to post the proposed stone tablets comprising the bailout plan in the series of tubes that is the Internets for all to look upon and despair.

Never rains but it pours

While the monster continued to eat the economy, the Gentleman from Arizona was seeking a stay of his own electoral execution, the U.S. government rushed head first to bring the nation closer to insolvency, U.S. Naval personnel were engaging in target practice in the newly renovated Somali firing range, North Korea has helpfully decided to bar inspectors, removed seals and shut off cameras at its main nuclear plant. This newest spat couldn't come at a worse time for the GOP. King George is set to try to convince the American people (those who still have homes, televisions and the time to watch them) this evening that this bailout plan is in their best interest, even as Captain Hope's poll numbers begin to advance both beyond McCain's and beyond the margin of error. The net result is likely to be that the monster presently squishing the economy under foot is likely going to eat the GOP's presidential hopes.