I wish I lived in the States so I could vote! I normally don't get involved in politics, but this election, I really want to vote. Lucky you~ hehe.

agreed!!

"That said, McCain had better show his ass at the debate tonight."

Maverick ain't got time for debate, he's too busy saving the free world! I feel the need, the need for speed!!

"If you don’t vote, you officially waive your right to complain about anyone — and anything — for the next four years."

that's right...so ya'll better register and vote cuz i KNOW everyone here's got an opinion on everything! :) i have WAMU too and logged into my account to see "welcome to jpmorgan/chase". maybe i should pull out my whole $10 and go somewhere else. :P

I hope the debate becomes a McCain versus McCain thing....so Obama can just cruise as new material is given to Jon Stewart to make "wtf" faces with.

p.s. while I don't really mean it....politicians over 50 shouldn't run for power and people over 65 shouldn't be allowed to vote for them.

Yeah, sucks about WaMu. You never know what bank is next. But I think it's all good, just as long as there's still free checking and free stuff. That might not happen. Now about the election. I still don't know who I should vote for.

How about registering, but choosing not to vote? Does that still give me rights to complain after the election? I'm just not compelled enough to vote for either of them, especially with their VP running mates.

If you don't actually cast a vote, you're opting out. Consider complaining rights waived. :)

If you want another 4 years of Bush and think everything is fine and dandy the way things are....you know, with the big lie in Iraq, our soldiers dying for basically nothing, thousands of Iraqis killing each other, further isolation from the world, and a crappy economy.....vote for John because he's basically another Bush. Even his speeches are like Bush when he's not forgetting what he said at some other point in time.

If you want change and new blood ousting people out of power.....you'll vote for Obama. For me, it's not actually about the candidates....even though I think John McCain is an old tool.....it's about the overall change in our government.

Our government as a whole needs a new body of leaders.

I didn't get an election booklet...how long ago did you register?

I'd rather people not vote than make uneducated, "hmm-ok-eenie-meenie-minie-mo" types of votes.

I can't wait for this debate tonight, holy crap!

Gotta agree with javabeans, if you waive your vote, someone else will take it, and that's less empowerment towards yourself and the country you live in.

Like Sevenses said, here in Canada we're also preoccupied with the general election and the US election since it'll affect us greatly both economically and financially. So vote if you want to have a better future, else you might regret it!

God I wish I was 18, if only I was born a year earlier. I have to wait 4 more years now!!! (Crying)

As I'm not a US citizen I don't get to vote! So it's up to you guys and gals! I don't care for either choice but I'm prepared to let Obama have a crack at it and see what happens. Change is a slow process, easier said than done and not always better!
Don't worry about WaMu going under unless you have more than $100,000.00
saved there. Looks like your money is better off with Chase, they seem to be solvent.
Maybe its time I became a citizen after living here 25yrs!!!

I'm a bit bumped my wamu acct is now chase too... *sigh* I like wamu, it was good while it lasted... I'm not worried about my pennies going anywhere now that it's under jpmorgan/chase, but lets just hope those higher interest rate will stay that way. It's my blood and sweat.

I did guiltily vote for Bush for his very first term 8 yrs ago. My bad. Have been kicking myself since but still I refuse to give up my right to complain and rant. I did my duty to vote for my very first time then, but a small potato really cant do much after whomever was IN the white house. It's always been a lesser of 2 evils for me as an independent.

Looks like McCain is going to debate afterall!! He's been seriously smelling fishy lately with all the shenanigans last couple days. Palin is just the scariest choice ever even as VP, let alone the thought of her having a shot to run the country. Seriously girls, we cant vote for Palin (ie McCain) if we r serious about issues concerning us and our rights.

Cant wait for tonight.

Chiming in again to recommend watching Painter of the Wind. It's probably one of the most anticipated dramas of the year and some would argue overhyped as well. Although, I don't know if it was overhyped, but certainly a lot of interest in the drama, not only because of its actors, but the novel it's based on is popular. Overhyped (and overrated) would be East of Eden, IMO.

Anyways, Painter of the Wind is so worth the wait and the buzz.

"Overhyped (and overrated) would be East of Eden, IMO."

The show's fun, and almost every episode has maybe one or two scenes that hint at what it could have been, if they had really want to do a EoD/Sandglass-style daeha. Actually I was watching a few clips of EoD the other day, and dang it's aged really, really well. Also of note: Han Ji Hye delivers hysteria worthy of Choi Ji Woo in her prime. Wow, I had to cover my ears half the time! :D

Kingdom of the Wind, though. THAT show is love. It's Jumong with brains. It's Sea God with an aching, adolescent heart. It's . . . still not hitting 20s?!?

"Chiming in again to recommend watching Painter of the Wind. It’s probably one of the most anticipated dramas of the year and some would argue overhyped as well."

I was really dismayed with its low ratings (esp. since neither BV nor KotW has crossed the 20s yet), but it seems the actual response to the show was very positive.

I'm definitely waiting on subtitles for PotW, to watch it properly. I have extremely high expectations for this show, not just because of the cast, but because of the story and what seems to be a serious intent (SBS?!?) at a true character-based drama drawing from feminist subversion of patron/mentor romances.

HA!
Registering?! What's Registering?
I raise you registering to vote with an actual Vote!
I live in GA and early voting started this week. Almost everyone at my office (including myself) has already voted. Sadly they almost all voted for McCain.

@Shaenna --You wont have to wait 4 more years. Presidential elections aren't the only time to vote. Don't forget the mid-terms and local and state elections. Don't just show up at the polls every 4 years. Too much stuff happens in between.
@mookie--You can still complain if the person you voted for turns out to suck. No one can tell the future.

I agree! Don't vote, don't complain.

Just a reminder to all the peeps in Canada as well. October 14 is election day so remember to vote! And don't complain that there are no good candidates. Well, that may be true, but you should still vote for the best available option. Lesser of two evils.

And if you're not old enough to vote, you can still remind your parents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sister, grandparents, etc. to vote.

Stay on your soapbox javabeans! I'm liking the political commentary I'm hearing for once lol.

And thanks for the reminder! I need to change my address!

God, politics shit everywhere. So depressing.... but it's cool. I don't mind. [I wont be 18 by the time elections roll around. why wasn't i born a few months earlier? RAWR to my parents for not trying hard enough!!! haha. i think i just crossed a line into TooMuchInformationn territory...] I agree so much with whoever said that they'd rather people didnt vote than making uneducated, random, eenie-meenie-my-knee-mo [i wasnt sure how to spell it. lol] votes. So vote wisely, hoes. Because yeah, change would probably be really good for the country right now (it might dig us out of the craphole we've dug ourselves into. I mean, huge deficit -and btw, where do we borrow money from? we owe so muchh & i always wonder who we're getting our ginormous loans from in the first place - controversial war, housing crisis, banks failing, job shortage, crappy economy. I'll be working the polls [rofll. many jokes about "workin' the polls" have been thrown around my american gov't class. hm.wonder whyyyyyyyy?] which is exciting. ish. [: so hopefully i see a lot of people in my area out there, voting. i encourage anyone whogives a shit about politics to go & vote, &register if you havent already. do it for sad girls like me who don't turn 18 until december!

are you watching the debate that's on right about now? :D mccain blinks a lot.

I'm proud to say that I registered to vote the day I turned 18. To me, voting is the most honorable thing I can do for my country right now. You're right, Java. If you don't vote, you can't complain.

That being said, I've started to look at other countries I could live in if the election doesn't go our way. I hate to be one of those people, but honestly, I don't think my heart could take a third term. Between that, and the economy, I'm thinking Norway sounds pretty nice now. Hey! I could see Russia from my house!

^Katy Rose--it's my understanding that the $700 billion we *might* get to dig out the economy would mainly be from China. Frightening, isn't it? This is of course, on top of the countless billions they've ALREADY loaned us T_T

hi dramabeans!

i really like your song choices and was wondering if you have ever heard of Penny Dai/ Penny Tai? (she sings in mandarin) check her out, i think you might like her. ;)

here's one of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFSmscOvrUA

and Obama '08! (i can't, for the life of me, see Palin as our president if McCain dies)

here's one more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNNc8e6iDc

belleza, East of Eden's attempt in becoming the successor to Eyes of Dawn and The Sandglass is downright laughable to me. I have nothing else to say about
it. Oh, except, Park Hae Jin is one of the worst actors ever. EVER.

For the moment, I'm putting Kingdom of the Wind on hold. Too much Song Il Guk in sageuk can, surprisingly, be a bad thing. I'm going to wait it out for another month so I can fast-forward through all the tedious battle scenes that always come in the beginning weeks of a sageuk.

I agree with the numbers for PotW being on the low side, especially since the competition isn't that much of a challenge. But, the numbers did improve from Wednesday to Thursday and it's been all positive to glowing reviews so hopefully, all signs point up for this drama.

Yeah, subs would be a great benefit if Korean isn't your first, or even second, language. X wrote a great first look review at twitchfilm.net that you might want to check out. He is the most saguek drama informed, English speaking person I've ever met on the internet (possibly even among the Korean speaking). I think he hits the nail perfectly when talking about the acting. Park Shin Yang in PotW is the same as Park Shin Yang in War of Money. Whereas, Moon Geun Young is giving the performance of her acting career. She's showing leaps of growth as an actor. Enough to have the doubters who say she's become another name brand actor retract their words.

ndegeocello? Love your work as a bassist. ;)

"Oh, except, Park Hae Jin is one of the worst actors ever. EVER."

Actually like Park Hae Jin . . . just not so much in this series. :D Overall the acting from the younger actors is shrill, but it seems like this was intentional from the director's chair. (And this is definitely the first time I've seen PHJ's eyes go THIS beady.)

"belleza, East of Eden’s attempt in becoming the successor to Eyes of Dawn and The Sandglass is downright laughable to me."

Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not really saying this is an attempt at that kind of daeha. That would be like me expecting Coffee Prince to be Queer as Folk But Not Really. But I really took to the student protest bits and the details of the mining work. And I really took to some of the micro stuff, like two characters doing some weird sort of Karate Kid-at-Woodstock dance bit while under the surveillance of dudes with guns. Or the card legerdemain stuff. Or how the boat man chews on raw squid with soju while the boy goes underwater. Or Han Ji Hye flips out from one end of the mining town to the other. Charming.

The show is actually MUCH better (and as a kind of Korean homage to HK 90s gangster melodrama, it's crazy fun) than I'd though it would be. :D But whenever Song Seung Heon runs aways from bad guys, this show definitely needs Flock of Seagulls playing in the background.

"I think he hits the nail perfectly when talking about the acting. Park Shin Yang in PotW is the same as Park Shin Yang in War of Money."

Not surprised, though. Park Shin Yang is more a "style" than a character actor. I just really, really take to that style . . .

"I’m going to wait it out for another month so I can fast-forward through all the tedious battle scenes that always come in the beginning weeks of a sageuk."

I was expecting more fantasy stuff, actually, considering all the magic and spirit bits in the original source. I also imagine most people would associate the title with the MMORPG. The elements of the story are straight comic book material (Can Jumong win the heart of Jang Geun, find out!!), and there's a slight whiff that this maybe at heart a role playing game, but that they're intentionally dialing down the fusion bits and make this look more sageuklicious. The execution of those elements is just so well done, though. Even the well-worn horseback riding sequences vaguely recalls something from the Magnificent 7.

"Whereas, Moon Geun Young is giving the performance of her acting career. She’s showing leaps of growth as an actor."

Yeah, but to an impartial audience not biased one way or the other way about her noona status, that was already expected. PSY can just be PSY, but if Geun Young isn't GREAT, the drama will collapse. I like Moon Young, but at the same time, it wasn't even about the casting for me. The fact that they were going to do Painter in the Wind and adapt the original material with integrity and genuine artistry, all that sold me.

". X wrote a great first look review at twitchfilm.net that you might want to check out."

Also worth noting that SBS blockbuster dramas tend to age quickly for the reasons X cited. I HAVE Asphalt Man, and Choi Jin Shil's makeup (as well as the scenes in the States) gives me chills. CHILLS. Takes me straight back to my high school days! :D

We borrowed money from China? o_O;; that is pretty frightening, in a way.

Oh, how refreshing you all are! I've been trying to get a better handle on what the heck is going on and have been appalled at the hateful comments everywhere else. Truly scary. I'm an independent with strong liberal tendencies that go back to when Roe v Wade didn't exist (my mother raised me this way), and when Bush got re-elected, I started thinking today's women didn't really care anymore, so your comments have been encouraging. And entertaining. I especially loved, in addition to how generous you all are regarding people's opinions, that you've moved on to the latest shows.

But it's the financial problems that are worrying me tonight. Wachovia fell today, although they maintain they did not fail. Citigroup bought them (someone on TV called it a shotgun wedding) and I think I heard they had received funds from an Asian company -- I could be wrong. Citigroup declined in value today with everything else, but at least not a lot. My background, by the way, is 25+ years in the mortgage industry, when there was one. I worked with and sometimes for all of these companies that are failing: Countrywide (bought by Bank of America), Bear Stearns (bought by JPMorgan Chase), IndyMac Bank (seized by Federal regulators after a "run on the bank"), WaMu (also bought by JPMorgan Chase), Fanny Mae, and Freddie Mac. Without these companies, if they all fail, who is going to provide mortgage financing? FHA? What about student loans? Car loans? If a car dealer can't get credit, they can't buy/sell cars, so the auto industry will suffer. Jobs will be lost. Can you imagine the job market if all of these companies have to close?

Today I finally found what people, i.e., politicians, meant when they said the banks are failing because of deregulation. In November 1999 the Bush administration repealed the remaining part(s) of the Glass-Steagall Act that was part of the "New Deal" (as a result of The Depression in 1929). That's when the company I worked for started doing Subprime, Creative Options (no income verification, no down payment, no principal payment) loans which they sold to Bear Stearns. Part of this Act was repealed in 1980 during the Reagan/Bush administration and apparently resulted in the Savings and Loan problems which ended with the biggest federal government bailout ever, at least up to now. Coincidentally, the Bush family was involved in a scandal regarding the S&L problems (Google "s&l bush scandal" for an eye full) which is one of the reasons I was so dead set against GW in the first place. And now we're facing another bailout. Talk about not learning a lesson!

Anyway, I listened to all the reasons Congressmen gave for not supporting the bailout/rescue/whatever bill plus the comments from the public and kept hearing the Secretary was being given too much authority, the CEOs were still getting their "golden parachutes" (yeah, that burned me, too), there was no guarantee the taxpayers would get their money back, bankruptcy judges were not given the authority to modify foreclosures, and one Congressman kept saying he didn't want his daughter to have to pay for it. So I went to cnn.com and pulled up the actual bill. And read it. What I got out of it is as follows:

The Secretary would not be able to do much of anything without Congress' approval, including being appointed. Some awesome agencies, such as the Federal Reserve, HUD, FDIC, OTS, OCC and even the FBI, plus a new Congressional Oversight Panel consisting of 5 members of Congress, would be watching his/her every move. Oh, I forgot, an Inspector General would also be appointed, with Congressional consent, to audit the whole process. (When working, I was involved in audits by HUD, OCC and an Inspector General and it's wasn't fun. They are very thorough.)

If a company becomes part of the bailout, the CEOs would not get their parachutes, might have to give back what they'd received, and the companies would not be able to deduct as a loss any paid parachutes, but I think we all realize the chutes have been paid and there's not much that can be done about that since anything done prior to passing the bill won't count.

At the end of 5 years, when the bailout is to end, unless Congress agrees to extend it 2 more years, if the taxpayers have not gotten their money back, meaning if the money spent has not been recouped from the interest paid on the mortgages or paid for them if eventually sold, the companies helped by the bailout will have to give the money back. So the Congressman's daughter shouldn't have to pay for the bailout. That's a better deal than I got for the S&L bailout.

Because the government will own the mortgages that are or are going into foreclosure (finally, something I understand from all those years in the mortgage industry), the government will be handling the servicing of these loans, which means they can authorize loan modifications, reduction in interest, partial payments, reduction in principal to be paid, etc. -- all the things people wanted the bankruptcy courts to handle on the fly. (Why would you want to file bankruptcy to get mortgage relief?)

Oh, and initially only $250 billion can be used. The then President would have to go back to Congress to get the next $350 billion, and the funds can only be used for USA companies. (Someone said the Secretary could "bail out" foreign companies, too, which isn't true, but if a foreign company had invested in a USA company, then they would benefit from the bailout which only seems fair to me. Besides, the Secretary would have to provide Congress with reports justifying a bailout before bailing them out.)

Is this bill really that bad? Or was it politics?

Something I used to always tell myself when the person I wanted for President didn't get elected was that there's more to government than just the President. There's the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the President usually has many qualified advisors -- just like on The West Wing, right? It's been really difficult to reassure myself with this thought during the past 8 years and today especially.

But you all are correct. Your advice is sound. Just because you can't vote this year, doesn't mean you shouldn't be involved, or that you shouldn't vote for your Senator and Representative, or your Governor and Mayor when you can. Even if you can't vote this year, you can be heard. Use your voice. And get the facts and not just the sound bites.

Sorry this was so long. Consider it my therapy. Oh, and btw, some of those issues McCain voted on were issues where Obama didn't vote at all. If he disagreed, why didn't he vote "No"?