I leave you with this for no particular reason:

Obit anus, abit onus.

*I wasn’t born yesterday.* I had heard of the Middle East before September 12, 2001. I knew that many of the loudest advocates for war with Iraq were so-called national-greatness conservatives who spent the 1990s arguing that war was good for the soul. I remembered Elliott Abrams and John Poindexter and Michael Ledeen as the knaves and fools of Iran-Contra, and drew the appropriate conclusions about the Bush Administration wanting to employ them: it was an administration of knaves and fools.

Via TPM.

This was recorded last week. One wonders if Cramer thinks he’s doing the markets favors by preaching calm. Or did he have friends at Bear? I keep going back to this clip where Cramer blows his top at the Fed for not acting sufficiently quickly to bail out his hedge fund buddies. Why do people turn to him for advice? Because he’s entertaining?

Addendum: I’d love to see the rating criteria of the Emperor’s Club. What makes Sydney more than twice as desirable (and five times as expensive) as Sienna?

And finally, rounding out my Spitzer/prostitution post for the day, we go to the governor’s replacement giving a presser earlier:

Paterson also displayed a rather awesome sense of humor. “Just so we don’t have to go through this whole resignation thing again,” one ballsy reporter asked, “have you ever patronized a prostitute?” Paterson thought for a minute. “Only the lobbyists,” he said.

If I wrote an elementary logic textbook, I would use this from last night’s debate:

Mr. Huckabee, for his part, responded with trademark humor. “The Air Force has a saying that says if you’re not catching flak, you’re not over the target,” he said. “I’m catching the flak; I must be over the target.”

Similarly, if you’re not an American citizen, you’re not President of the United States. I am an American citizen, so I must be President of the United States.

Ahh, nerdiness, I bask in your glow. I hasten to add that the above-cited Huckabee statement bugged me when I first read it, but I didn’t really dwell on it. I guess that’s one more thing that separates me from being a brilliant Harvard academic.

But the most sensible interpretation of the upward move on Tuesday and Wednesday this week… is that this is the last leg of a sucker’s rally (or dead cat’s bounce) driven by wishful hopes that the Fed easing will prevent a recession.

Dead cat’s bounce: it’s a real term! I love economics.