The Cost of Democracy

Gross National Product:

Malta: $5.49 billion

Madagascar: $5.37 billion

Cambodia: $5.34 billion

Spending on Fall 2008 U.S. Elections: $5.3 billion

Burkina Faso: $5.24 billion

Mali: $5.12 billion

Nicaragua: $4.97 billion

Bahamas: $4.92 billion

[from Ken Silverstein]

Nader for President

McCain Edit

So a hacker broke into Sarah Palin's email account, and exposed the fact that (as Governor) she subverted the Open Records Act by using private email accounts to conduct public business.

From Harper's:

The prosecutors in this case owe us some explanations. And they should start by disclosing who at the Justice Department concluded that a bigger manhunt should be launched against a University of Tennessee computer hacker out to embarrass a Republican political candidate than the Bush Administration sent out after Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora. At a minimum we’re looking at some seriously twisted priorities.

Maine Senator Watch

I was recently (somewhat) excited to see that Snowe and Collins are (according to the National Review) the most liberal Republican Senators in Washington.

On the other hand, they did both just vote for the lame-ass bailout bill. Which is a lot of our F-ing money to be spending (on shite securities) without any real idea of what the hell is going on. $700 million could save a hell of a lot of Americans from bankruptcy and foreclosure.

[Obama and McCain also voted for this bill. Both are clueless.]