This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession – showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been.

via The Gavel » Blog Archive » What 3.6 Million Jobs Lost Over 13 Months Looks Like.

The green arrow is us, today.  This is a US picture, but the Canadian graph may be even steeper.

via JWalk

Garth says the corner has already been turned.  Boy he’s turned into quite the doomsayer.

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Welcome to the 44th President of the USA.  Good luck with the mess that is the economy.  The above photo is the first official digital presidential portrait.

Gadget History: The First Official Presidential Portrait Taken With a Digital Camera.

It’s time to kill the geese.

via GEESE BE GONE – New York Post.

This photo will always amaze me:

Then there is the raw video of the plane landing:

Finally, if you want to send a congrats (like I did) to the world’s best pilot, here is his email: sully AT safetyreliability.com

It’s been a tough 8 years, but I still think GWB gives a good speech. Clearly, he’s the 9/11 President, for better or for worse.

Enter Palin, who was embraced with a bear hug by the party’s conservative base. All of a sudden, cultural conservatives were thrilled at the chance to put “one of their own” in the White House.

5 Myths About an Election of Mythic Proportions – washingtonpost.com.

Image by The Visions of Kai via Flickr

The Post’s resident felon missed the election call down south, but wishes Obama well.

Having confidently predicted the victory of John McCain, and having stuck with that until his blunderbuss campaign blew up,

Conrad Black: Obama’s victory marked by a wealth of opportunity – Full Comment.

Image by circulating via Flickr

The establishment is victimizing Sarah Palin – because she isn’t part of the ruling class.  This is one of the best analysis I’ve scene of the situation.

America has a political ruling class, to which Senator Obama earned admission. That ruling class does admit newcomers, if they go to the right schools, come from the right family, inherit or marry money or last long enough in an old-boys political culture. All of which also sheds light on the other arresting personality in the current election, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.

Father Raymond J. de Souza: Sarah Palin, candidate from the real world, learns a lesson about elites – Full Comment.

It’s hard to know what to make of this Palintology. It’s hard to make a reasoned and fair judgment about the Alaska Governor because she has been the victim of one of the nastiest, most sustained and comprehensive slime-jobs ever performed by a hyper-partisan national and global media.

Palintology will dominate the post-mortems | Gerard Baker – Times Online.

Image via Wikipedia

Fred is worried about McCain’s temper.  I also didn’t know he tried to hang himself while in Nam, but who could blame him?

Not all. Some manage to hold it together and become things thought to be respectable, such as senators or writers or defense attorneys. A subsurface lode of hostility can be useful in a trial lawyer. Anger is energizing. It can fuel a career.

Fred On Everything.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Is this bailout an end run for the rich?  Michael Moore thinks so.

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this.

Link

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Future president John McCain is well spoken, humble, and sincere.  He also served his country like no other in recent memory.

This 60 Minutes interview has made him a sure vote for me.  How he doesn’t win after this is beyond me.

Related: Palin draws 60,000 in Orlando … can you see how McCain plays to win?  The left is running scared now.

I was talking to a friend of mine’s little girl the other day. I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she replied, “I want to be president!” Both of her parents are liberal Democrats and were standing there. So then I asked her, “If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?” She replied, “I’d give houses to all the homeless people.” “Wow – what a worthy goal.” I told her, “You don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where this homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward a new house.”

Since she is only 6, she thought that over for a few seconds. While her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”

And I said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”

Her folks still aren’t talking to me.

The difference between Democrats and Republicans, in one simple anecdote – Full Comment.

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• Sarah Palin: Can You Feel The Energy?

Worthington thinks Palin has only helped the slightly wooden McCain – and caused him to open up a bit, and tell us what really motivates him.

This is an exciting concept – getting everyone on the McCain them to help the country.  Let’s face it, many get into politics to do just that, but the system changes them. That’s the truth about all organizations.  They are very unkind to mavericks.

“They broke me,” he said, and recalled fellow prisoners giving him emotional support. “I was blessed by this misfortune as I served in the company of heroes … every day they fought for me … I was never the same again.

“I was not my own man any more, I was my country’s. My country saved me, and I will fight for her so long as I draw breath, so help me God.”

To some this may sound corny, but it’s what motivates John McCain. Few hearing him could doubt his sincerity. He and Gov. Palin seem to have done the improbable: Unite the Republican party behind a leader who will cross the aisle to persuade opponents to work on behalf of the country.

TorontoSun.com – Comment – Republicans rejuvenated.

It wasn’t a real barnburner of a speech, but McCain gave a streadied and sincere explanation of who he was and what he’d do as President.  I like the guy, and it’s clear he deserves to be President.

“I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people.

“I was my country’s.”

“I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for.

“I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man any more.

TheStar.com | USElection | McCain’s victory speech caps a storybook comeback.

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• Colleagues portray McCain as selfless, tough, proven
• Without a teleprompter?

FC Abroad: Palin versus the elite leftwing media – Full Comment.

Welcome To The PalinDrome: Sarah Palin’s Blog: What it was like to meat John McCain

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• The Palin-McCain Chemistry (Or Lack Thereof)

Seems like Obama-fan Diane Francis (who I like somewhat) is slowly coming around to McCain.  I watched some of her speech, and damn, she speaks well and is cute.

Sarah Palin’s delivery was impressive, and she did her job, along with the other Republican heavyweights who spoke tonight at their convention.

But the real star, or rather five-stars, belongs to Annapolis-grad John McCain whose strategy is to open up more than one front in his war to win the White House. This shift also results in beneficial diversionary tactics designed to confuse and mislead his “enemy”.

Palin: McCain’s Weapon of Mass Distraction – Diane Francis.

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Powerful stuff at last night’s RNC.  The torture McCain went thru is extraordinary, as outlined in Fred’s speech last nite.  Fred says it doesn’t give him an automatic pass to the White House.  I say it does.

Stepping up.

Putting his ”Country First.”

Three months later John McCain was a Prisoner of War.

FT.com / In depth – Fred Thompson’s speech.

Who knew there was a whole website devoted to this and more buildings.

The presumed Republican nominee on Monday proposed a $300 million government prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology. The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country, “a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency,” McCain said at Fresno State University.

We need more ideas like this to spur innovation.  It’s about time!