The $7 billion "October surprise"
It's a conspiracy theory as old as time itself: Powerful men will seek to control world financial markets to their own grand advantage. The latest version appears in the Florida right-wing news outlet NewsMax, but this time it's driven by purely political rather than financial gain. In fact, liberal multibillionaire George Soros may intentionally bankrupt himself, reports NewsMax staffer Jon E. Dougherty, with a plan to sink the stock market in October -- in order to oust President Bush in November.

"International financier George Soros is worth $7 billion -- and he so desperately wants to oust George Bush from the White House he says he would even give away his whole fortune to do so. Soros did not make this comment glibly, telling the Washington Post it would be a real consideration 'if someone could guarantee' Bush's defeat.

"The billionaire's zeal to unseat Bush has caught the notice of top policy-makers in Washington who worry that Soros would not need to risk his whole fortune to cause mischief. Here's the real worry: Could the master currency trader manipulate the financial markets to create a panic, collapsing the stock market or the U.S. dollar on the eve of the November election? The thought of such a scenario -- dubbed a 'Financial October Surprise' -- has some worried."

Conservative Republican Donald Luskin, a seasoned economist who arguably understands free market principles, chimes in to back the conspiracy theory:

"'Soros believes that if he can force the market down, he will have an effect in the real world,' Luskin says, according to NewsMax. "'If it happens on Oct. 31, people might go into the voting booth with fear in their hearts.'"

(So does Soros' nefarious plan mean that even Democrats should consider unloading their portfolios by summer's end?)

Can George W. Bush get anything right?
There is no shortage these days of angry Republicans who are convinced that President Bush has gone AWOL from the true conservative agenda -- an interesting trend, considering the degree to which liberals loathe Bush for what they view as his extreme right-wing agenda. But Venomous Kate, author of the Electric Venom blog, shows just how far and wide the sense of betrayal runs for conservatives. A self-described "martini-swilling, tobacco-smoking, SUV-driving, coffee-guzzling, card-carrying member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy armed with a Smith & Wesson and a great pair of breasts," Venomous Kate (who also notes she's a 36-year-old former lawyer with a husband in the Army) first makes clear she has no love for any of the Democratic contenders. But it's Bush who gets a toxic dose of her frustration:

"Let me say that although I am a registered Republican, although I contribute regularly to the Republican National Committee and proudly display my personally-signed portrait of George and Laura Bush in my den, although I have voted Republican in every election since turning 18 ... I can't honestly say that I'm entirely pleased with President Bush's performance. The Republicans re-entered the White House under the guise of 'compassionate conservativism' and yet compassion seems to stop where Administration members' personal morality begins, to-wit: the President's notion of a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage while planning a billion-dollar drive to promote heterosexual marriages. In a nation where the separation of Church and State are held sacred (for lack of a better word), social progress demands an end to using the law as a means to disenfranchise a large, productive segment of our society. We, as Republicans, are failing there.

"I despise what I sense is our slow loss of personal privacy, all in the name of national security (read: "Big Government" under a different disguise). There was a time when I disregarded those who warned that the Administration would abuse its power. I've had to eat my words, an experience which left a bad taste in my mouth.

"The level of deficit-spending over the past four years shocks me, and the recent reigning-in is tardy, to say the least. The notion of amnesty programs for illegal alien workers, loans to the U.N. and thinly-disguised federal management of public school systems seems ... well, liberal. Where is the conservative President I elected?"

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