Who's laughing now?

Right now, four of the top six videos viewed today on YouTube are related to the Sarah Palin/Katie Couric sketch from the Sept. 27 episode of "Saturday Night Live."

At the same time, the stock markets — already taking a huge hit over the past few weeks — was in freefall today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 325 points in less than 10 minutes, and any gains made after it bottomed out have since trickled away. The closing bell can't come soon enough. And all of this is over word that the bitterly divided House of Representatives did not pass the financial rescue bill.

While I still don't know definitively how I feel about the bailout plan yet, I have to wonder at what point people begin asking if forgoing the $700-billion plan will be worth it when their retirement accounts dwindle to next to nothing thanks to the markets' woes. Is making this ideological stand against a relatively socialist economic plan in a time of emergency really justifiable when the US Congress and the Bush administration have shredded key parts of the Constitution during the past seven and a half years in the name of national security?

Maybe those statements are a bit harsh, but I don't necessarily endorse them just yet. There's a large part of my being that just wants to say, "Burn, Wall Street, burn," and let's build things back up properly once all the failed financial gambles have come to pass. Maybe then those who play with the markets will do so with less reckless abandon, knowing that there will be no government handout waiting for them, no safety net resting to catch them as they fall from grace.

But whatever the case, these times are almost too serious for us to be caught up with "SNL." And for the record, Tina Fey is easily the most over-rated comedian on television today — and Amy Poehler hasn't been funny since "Upright Citizens Brigade." There, I said it. The hoopla over Fey/Poehler has reached JibJab-ish levels — they could spend all 90 minutes of "SNL" reading a William Makepeace Thackeray novel backwards and in Yiddish and people would still run to their co-workers on Monday morning and exclaim, "Oh my God, did you guys see what they did this week?" Sure, Tina Fey has a great impression and Palin's interview was ripe for parody and/or satire, but sometimes people just get way more credit than they deserve — and that may be the best explanation of why we're in this financial emergency.

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In Case You Missed It...

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Sir! We have a plan!

UPDATE: Looks like the House Republicans finally have something to say and are holding up any deal that exists to be done. I figured these guys would be treated as if they'd gone off the reservation for standing up to the bailout, but apparently John McCain joined them in spirit, using the old "Main Street folks will suffer" line. I know how I feel about the prospects of the federal government bailing out these companies, and I know there's more than a few political leaders who shudder even thinking about enacting that kind of legislation, but I never guessed it would amount to anything. Consider my political radar completely off the mark — but this is coming from someone who thinks John McCain has a very good chance of becoming the next President of the United States. Anywho, enjoy my earlier ramblings and the "Strangelove" clip.

So the cream of our political crop has done something today in regards to the "serious economic crisis" facing the United States.

If anyone can explain to me what actually got accomplished today, I'd appreciate it.

Here's a list of verbage I've heard or seen for what's been achieved:

• A "tentative accord"
• A "tentative meltdown deal"
• An "agreement in principle"
• A "rough outline"
• A "framework"
• A "rescue plan"

What does it all mean, Basil? It means that Bush, McCain, Obama, Pelosi, Boehner and Reid all got together to make sure everyone was clear on one subject: Everyone will secretly hate the bailout plan but ultimately push it through, swearing not to call any political rivals for their support of it despite everyone thinking its the most socialist act by the federal government since The New Deal era.

Still confused? The bailout package, whatever it ends up being labeled, is the new Patriot Act. Everyone will vote for it without really reading it as thoroughly as they should. It will be heralded as an unquestionable piece of legislation that only a communist would dare think about pondering its worth. Then in a few months when the obvious flaws of the plan come to light, half the politicians involved will renounce it a la voting for the authorization of force in Iraq — the administration duped us, the intel was bad, everyone else did it, etc.

So how should you proceed in this new political landscape while the US economy remains in turmoil? The photo at the top of this post should give you an idea:

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