In Case You Missed the Debate Last Night....

Well, it wasn't the train wreck that we had all hoped for, but Governor Palin's debate answers were vapid, shallow and completely void of any substance. Senator Joe Biden (D - DE) did a respectable job and did show some real knowledge and some detail in his answers. Of course, he didn't announce at the onset that he reserved the right to ignore any questions and not answer a question in the way that the moderator or the audience might expect. Meantime here's a nice summary of Palin's thought-process during the debate (courtesy of Daily Kos).

Senator Bernie Sanders Offers a Bit of Sanity

"Having mismanaged the economy for eight years while continually insisting that the 'fundamentals of our economy are strong,' the Bush administration now wants the middle class of this country to bail out Wall Street. Meanwhile the wealthiest people, those who have benefited most from Bush's policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd."

Senator Bernie Sanders, October 1, 2008

Okay, okay, I admit that I have probably crossed the line from having a passing interest in politics to being a full-blown political junkie. Here's the proof - it is 4:45pm (CST) and I am watching C-SPAN2. At the moment Senator Bernie Sanders (I - VT) is offering an amendment that actually makes sense - it would place much of the burden of this colossal bailout on those who are responsible for creating this mess. Here is the most salient detail of the Sanders Amendment: "In the case of a taxpayer other than a corporation, there is hereby imposed (in addition to any other tax imposed by this subtitle) a tax equal to 10 percent of so much of modified adjusted gross income as exceeds $500,000.00 ($1,000,000.00 in the case of a joint return or a surviving spouse."

I hope that this amendment is taken seriously and attached to the bill that the Senate is debating today, but I don't hold out much hope for that. I have heard many senators talk about how this piece of legislation may return a good part of the $700 billion tab to the taxpayers who are being asked to front this astronomical amount of money, it may even generate a profit for taxpayers. That makes me laugh if we weren't talking about such a huge sum of money. It brings to mind remarks that we heard during the run-up to the Iraq war that the oil from Iraq would pay for this incursion into a country that had not attacked us. Now almost a trillion dollars later, the Iraq war has not paid for itself. In fact, the Iraqi government has over 10 billion dollars in a New York bank, no lawmaker has susggested that that money be used to pay for the costs of rebuiliding a country that is in shabbles.

So I despair that taxpayers will ever see any reward or repayment for their largesse. American taxpayers will be played the fool again, and again, and we will take it, because our voices are so easily discounted. I am angry at Senator Obama, Senator Dodd, Senator Schumer, and many other Democrats who are so eager to pass this admittedly-flawed legislation. I applaud Senator Bernie Sanders who at least attempted to put the responsibility of this fiasco at the feet of those who caused it. I will hold my breath and wait and see if his amendment passes and makes this bailout a little more palatable to those who will ultimately feel the sting of this bill. I fear that I will pass out when the vote is taken.

Read a Banned Book This WeekMake a Librarian's Day :)

Some of the Banned Books of 2006:

This week is the week that the American Library Association marks Banned Book Week. It is a week to focus on many of the books that at one time in the history of this country have been censored or outright banned and even burned in the public square. We have all heard the story about how then Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin approached the public librarian in that town and asked her about the process of removing certain books from the shelves. Mrs. Palin subsequently fired the librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, who was later reinstated after a public outcry over Palin's actions. See Palin pressured Wasilla librarian TOWN MAYOR: She wanted to know if books would be pulled.

Also see ABC Investigates Sarah Palin's Book Censorship:


Book banning is nothing new, but the stalwart defense against censorship has often been taken up by librarians who by their very profession, understand the value of an informed citizenry in a robust democracy. This morning on NPR they presented information about the short-term successful banning of The Grapes of Wrath - a book that the proponent of its banning had apparently never read. See 'Grapes Of Wrath' And The Politics of Book Burning

Here is a list of books that have been subject to bans or community controversy (from the ALA web site):
The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2006” reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:
“And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group;
“Gossip Girls” series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language;
“Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language;
“The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
“Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity;
“Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language;
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group; and
“The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence.
Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.

Here is a link to the background of the situation in Kerns Country in Califormia that instigated the banning of "The Grapes of Wrath."

Here's a great review of a book that chronicles the sage of the banning of "The Grapes of Wrath:"
Forbidden Fruit: The Banning of The Grapes of Wrath in the Kern County Free Library

Thank god for the steadfastness of librarians across the country who hold the line against censorship and book banning.

Bi-Partisanship Be Damned - Do the Right Thing !!!

So here's the way the deal (didn't) go down: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson comes to Congress with a two and a half page Bill that he exclaims that Congress must pass, "without clutter" as soon as is humanly possible. Congress is taken off-guard and in their stunned state agree that there is a CRISIS and begin to work with what Sec. Paulson handed to them (mistake number one - they should rather have taken a few deep breaths, sat down and looked at the financial situation). This is especially true since the Bill contained language as cited below:["Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Talk about a recipe for a disaster. (emphasis mine).]

At that point the Democrats should have called upon their best minds and gone to their drawing boards and crafted a plan of their own - a plan that would include a bailout for people who are about to lose their homes because of lousy loans that they signed, but may have been presented to them in suspect terms at the onset. All the while, we can't forget to point to the source of this fiasco. That is the Republican Party, specifically the Bush/Cheney administration who are responsible for this disaster. So that was the Democratic congress's second big mistake, but the good news is it is not too late to correct it. Rather, the ball is in the Democrats court and I suggest that they go for an overhead slam,. It will be an easier sell now that they have tried to walk the bi-partisan path and for their efforts they got a one huge Bronx cheer.

The Dems need to see this as a fabulous opportunity, not something about which to throw up their hands. The GOP owns the mess - the Dems need to own the solution. They need to create a Bill that is palatable to most Americans - give a break to those who are about to face foreclosure, they need to give bankruptcy judges the power to rework people's balance sheets so that their debtors get something (which is almost always better than nothing), and give people a way out. All of this needs to be done before Congress ever even turns its attention to the fat cats on Wall Street. In fact, giving the people of this country those tools and that kind of flexibility just might solve the problem or at least buy us enough time to work on the credit/financial big money trouble that we all see is out there.

If ever there was a time for the Democratic Party to stand up and stand tall and take the reigns and show the country who the true leaders of this country are, now is the time. They need to put a cap on CEO pay, not take up the mantle of the government, thereby putting the true conservatives in a bind - I don't believe that they want to see the government involved in the market place any more than the Democrats want to interject themselves on behalf of the government (which may I remind you is still the Bush/Cheney administration.) So the Dems need to place the problem squarely where it belongs and that is in Bush, Cheney, and Paulson's lap.

So what we need in this bill is to regulate the industry whose gross excesses got us into this mess. Regulate, regulate, regulate. Got that Dems? Democrats - YOU ALL have a majority - use it. So it may not pass the Senate, at least you'll be working from your perspective, NOT THEIRS. You can point to the Republicans as the roadblocks, the obstacles, the PARTISANS :D Get to work Democrats and if you need us you know where to find us... out on Main Street.

It's Always Been "McCain First,"Country Be Damned

"It’s that utter power vacuum that gave McCain the opening to pull his potentially catastrophic display of economic “leadership” last week. He may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office."

Frank Rich, McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere, NYTimes, September 28, 2008

As Frank Rich has so cogently written in this morning's NYTimes, John McCain will do or say absolutely ANYTHING to become president of these United States. Allow me to count the ways in which this "maverick" candidate has sold his soul for a ticket to the White House and explain why all his twisting in the wind, flip-flopping to a greater degree than any other candidate in modern history, and resorting to sheer gimmickry has or at least should have lost any support for his candidacy that he may once have legitimately had.

It has always been "McCain First," as a story by a fellow POW in Hanoi pointed out, McCain was not the only soldier to be offered an early release. It was a common offer and one that all men imprisoned by the North Vietnamese rejected. Although that does not mean that all POWs were released. See McCain and the POW Cover-Up (originally appeared in The Nation). It seems that one of the hallmarks of McCain's hero status and a huge rationale for his qualifications for president are built on a sham.

This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the scams, deceit and outright lies McShame has told on his path to the White House. Back in the 2000 presidential campaign McCain called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance." On April 2, 2006 John McCain said on Meet the Press very clearly that he no longer believed that Jerry Falwell was an agent on intolerance. Had Falwell changed? Or did McCain decide that he needed the support of the right-wing religious fundamentalist nutjobs to win the presidency? If this were an isolated incident, I might be willing to give McCain the benefit of the doubt, but it was rather the first in a long line of political about-faces that were transparently done to get McCain elected.

As the time to cast our votes draws nearer, the flip-flops have a stronger smell of desperation, and the gimmicks seem to be getting even more incredible and obvious. From the selection of the highly unqualified Sarah Palin for his vice-presidential choice to his latest theatrical move to "suspend his campaign," it has become clear to me that the only element John McCain has ever put first is himself.

As for the role of the Main Stream Media (the group that McCain used to refer to as "his base"), they seem to be slowly coming around to the realization that the "Straight Talk Express" has been delivering anything but straight talk for some time now. And as nobody likes to be played as a fool (even the press corps), they have finally started pointing out some inconsistencies in McSame's policies. McCain, who has not voted since April 8, has now missed five-and-a-half months of roll calls in the Senate, during which 115 votes have been held. According to a database created by washingtonpost.com, McCain has missed more than 64 percent of his votes in the 110th Congress, more than any other senator. (Washington Post, 09/27/08). Is it any wonder that McCain is having trouble running a presidential campaign and keeping up on the crisis du jour at the Capital? That's all the proof I need to vote for Obama in November. Obama can walk and chew gum at the same time - a challenge that eludes Grampy McSame.



Here's a link to the full text of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Read it and weep :(

Read David Sirota's Top 5 Reasons to Vote Against Wall Street's $700 Billion Bailout

For a much more palatable solution, read: Trickle-Up: What a Progressive Bailout Would Look Like