My economics maven cousin's analysis. Sounds correct to me but then again I'm no math/economics wizard as most of you know!

The Goose and the Gander

The major, overwhelming mistake our government made in the so-far failed bailout is not including the American public in their deliberations. The administration, Paulson and Bernanke, and our legislators, while totally willing to saddle the taxpayers with almost a trillion dollar debt, meet behind closed doors, offering us no transparency on their decisions.

This is exactly what we have been subjected to over the last eight years, especially with the war in Iraq: secrecy, smoke-filled room decisions. There have been no explanations of, or accountability to, their many special interests and corporations who reaped the only rewards from these murky, hasty decisions. So now Joe and Jane America have loudly voiced their disapproval of any bailout. Their (mainly Republican) lawmakers have heeded those warnings because we do have an election right down the road.

This is perhaps the ultimate irony. After Bush, crying “wolf” one time too many, has warned us repeatedly about this crisis or another, the public is very reluctant to believe him about the imminent financial unraveling now. Truth be told, and believe me I DO NOT have a great grasp of this situation, we probably DO need some kind of governmental, regulatory package. Many freighters are sitting in ports all over the globe waiting to be refueled, which can not happen until their line of credit opens up again. The same holds true for commercial airlines: their constant need to refuel is based on a line of credit from their suppliers. Also, many municipalities can not raise the funds needed to make new infrastructure investments or repairs to the existing ones. They need to fund these projects with new bond issues. These new municipal debentures, in this tightened and iffy credit reality, can not get funded. Thus, the repair and new construction of schools, roads and other municipal obligations are not happening. Also, this drying up of municipal funds has serious effects down the road with respect to job creation. So without knowing the extent of specific repercussions of this credit crunch, there is and will be some very negative effects. The severity of this crisis is probably somewhere between the dire predictions of the Feds and the “screw Wall Street” attitude of the public. But how ironic is it that now, when we most likely really DO have a crisis on our hands, the members of Bush’s party refuse to believe him and take action?

Which brings to mind another observation: yes, an unaccountable and greedy government and Wall Street definitely must take a large part of the blame. BUT SO MUST MAIN STREET. Their mindset of take while the taking is good has been just as culpable. Not only has the government been irresponsibly spending money it doesn’t have, but so too have individuals. What is the average American’s credit card debt? $10,000? $20,000? When offered a mortgage that seems too good to be true (damn the small writing that makes those mortgage payments double, even triple, in three to five years), Joe and Jane signed on the dotted line without first doing their homework.

So now Joe and Jane want a bailout too. I do believe that after all of these years of trickle DOWN economics, we should try the trickle UP sort. So start with the public, instead of Wall Street. But know, that just as their must be CONSEQUENCES for greed based, stupid behavior on the monumental scale of the government or corporation, so there must be CONSEQUENCES on an individual basis. It is just like a bratty kid who, in order to change his horrible behavior, must suffer some consequences followed by consistent vigilance.

So of course, help out the average American. Give him some peace of mind by raising the FDIC insurance on bank accounts to $250,000. Do away with some of those taxes that unfairly hit the middle class. But by all means, do not remove all the consequences of his naive, if not greedy, behavior that got him into this predicament in the first place. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If the government and corporations need to be accountable for their irresponsible behavior, so must the average American.

Let us institute new regulations to stem the possibility of future debacles and do our best to enforce them. For the short term let us indeed put into place those policies that would safeguard our economy and financial well-being. But the greed and foolhardiness, exhibited on a governmental, corporate and individual level can not, MUST NOT be totally erased. Some pain must remain, some consequences must result.

The government, big business AND the regular American must work together on these issues. The American taxpayers must be included on the debate and policy formation, not just handed the bill for it. When that happens, IF that happens, maybe the resulting shared responsibility can lead to shared goals and shared prosperity. Or at least, government, corporate and individual solvency. I would settle for solvency, wouldn’t you?
The goose would, and so should the gander.

The sickening views or -- LACK OF THEM -- of Sarah Palin are astounding. Even I, an amateur, formed political opinions after honing them over decades. The opinions I maintain have been determined after much study, much interest and a HUGE amount of continuous reasoning. I did much study in college but continued that study life long. My opinions, too, required standing on the shoulders of many giants who make up authoritative thought on different sides of the political debate. How a Vice Presidential candidate could be SO ignorant and so unable to enunciate a complexity of thought or of any thought is incredible to me.

Some of the questions she was asked could have been finessed easily. She was asked what Supreme Court cases she considers important BESIDES Roe v. Wade. She could not answer. I would have thought the FIRST Supreme Court case for her could have been Bush v. Gore. This case is probably the rationale that she is running on the McCain ticket today.

How about Marbury v. Madison? Any student of government knows this was THE landmark case during the nascent years of our nation in 1803 which made possible the right of judicial review and established the Supreme Court as an interpreter of our Constitution. There are, of course, EASY ones known to high school students such as the Dred Scott Decision reinforcing our most long-lasting racial divide which lead eventually to the Civil War, one of our country's most defining moments.

I thought of the 1962 decision of Baker v. Carr which began the judicial mandate of one person one vote. I also thought of Griswold v. Connecticut establishing a right to privacy not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Of course, one of the MOST important landmark cases Brown v. Board of Education which overturned the long standing separate but equal decision of Plessy v. Fergusson she SURELY should have known. These cases are basic to the foundation of our Republic. CERTAINLY a vice presidential candidate should know them and it is nothing less than staggering that she knew none.

MOST unbelievably, though, she could NOT name MAGAZINES when Couric asked her which ones she read. At least she COULD have said Time Magazine or Newsweek. Okay, maybe the New Yorker or the Atlantic would be too liberal or Reason Magazine, Foreign Affairs or Le Monde would be a bit cerebral. HOWEVER, Sarah Palin is a Vice Presidential candidate one heart beat away! Perhaps she could have said the conservative National Review reflecting her own alleged point of view. Maybe she does read Field and Stream. What does that magazine have to do with being a Vice Presidential candidate? It has as much to do with being a VP candidate as the foreign policy experience she said Alaska's geographical proximity to Russia gave her. I rest my case.

The following is a post written by my cousin. It says it all. I wholeheartedly concur and hope she is correct. Sarah Palin/Joe Biden debate here we come. I cannot wait!

Taking Back America: Over the last eight years, Bush/Cheney and their Republican cohorts have stolen this country from us. Last night we got a piece of it back.

The first Presidential debate of 2008 showed an urgent need for a forward-looking, future-oriented America. Obama is our future, knows it and will win the fight to take back our country for the benefit of our own people. As part and parcel of this process, America will have a renaissance at home in areas of its economy, heath care benefits and ethics reform. Once we take care of ourselves here at home, out international viability will automatically regrow in stature. Strength on the home front is an absolute prerequisite to strength abroad.

As far as content went last night at the debate, both men did well. One’s opinion hinges on whether or nor not one is backward looking or forward looking. This “tie” is a win for Obama, because many people thought he would not be able to hold a candle to McCain’s foreign affairs experience. Obama did a whole lot more than just hold a candle; he wiped up the floor with McCain’s outdated vision of world events. And for the record, Henry Kissinger DID say that we should have a sit-down with Iran:

http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2008/09/iran.html

War is outmoded. War not only destroys globally, but also decimates the aggressor domestically. The time has come to use our brains, our reasoning capacities, to effect changes for peace. THAT is our future. Barack Obama demonstrated last night the capacity to LEARN, to use his incredibly evolved intellect to soak up the facts and then apply them to affect change. McCain is of the old school. a student of the past. He refused to even look at Obama directly last night. McCain did not say Obama’s name once. An issue can not be solved by ignoring it, by making believe that it does not exist. That is isolationist, not peace-fostering. These actions are indicative of a philosophy of the past, not of the future.

As for the follow-up festivities to the debate, they too were representative of the old versus the new, the past versus the future. Biden was a participant in many post-debate interviews; Palin was nowhere to be found and yet, people still believe that she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. In her stead, the Republicans offered up Guiliani, the hatchet man, reminiscent of Bob Dole when he ran for the Presidency (his antics didn’t get him very far either in that run). The past versus the future.

So good job, Obama. Keep on studying, speaking and laying down the foundation for our future. Your reasoning ability, coolness in the face of adversity and realistic conciliatory demeanor will lead the way . You are a man of the future, not of the past.

The time has come to TAKE BACK AMERICA!

A Question of Heroism: John McCain cares about one thing...John McCain. Is he a hero? I am not so quick to accept propaganda that comes out of extreme nationalism. Our country, as most all nations do, commits certain atrocities which cannot be denied. American exceptionalism in many cases is illusory. Vietnam was one such instance. How wonderful, how heroic was it to drop a ton of explosives on a people killing about a million, defoliating their country to save them from what was a civil dispute? Now they trade with us. So what was that war for?It was for nothing and got nearly 60,000 Americans and one million Vietnamese killed as well. I do NOT see dropping tons of bombs on people who cannot defend themselves as heroic. I see it as unnecessarily risky as well as immoral and I see it as putting us in the mess internationally we are in today. We MUST control our power. Our military power kills. As we go to Starbucks, Wall Mart or a movie we do not see the mess we make. John McCain refused to refuse to drop bombs in Vietnam in that era and voted in this era to fund the Iraq War our nation's present day Vietnam quagmire. The probable perpetual war as the US stays in Iraq, as McCain would have it, a thousand years will cost trillions and millions of ruined lives.

Our actions have consequences. While I understand McCain's suffering and loath anyone suffer what he did, our nation cannot call the proverbial kettle black. In my opinion, it would have been more heroic had John McCain come out in vehement opposition, as John Kerry did, to a war that cost so much, killed so many and was ultimately waged for no damn good reason. Just my opinion.

Postpone the Debate? Phooey: I emphatically state my unequivocal opposition to the utter brazenness of the McCain campaign to postpone the debate. Postpone the debate are you kidding me? To when exactly should we postpone it? Perhaps the debate will ultimately take the place of a SarahPalin/Joe Biden debate since Sarah Palin is so stunningly unqualified for the presidency. The fear, of course, is that she would be demolished in a debate with a seasoned Joe Biden. We do not need a fast learner we need a knower now of the issues?

Obviously, it does not take genius to realize what John McCain is doing as his poll numbers sink. Yet again and again and again John McCain's decisions show just why John McCain does not put country first. From his decision to put Sarah Palin, a colossally, incompetent choice for the number 2 presidential spot to John McCain's suspension of his campaign under the guise of national emergency, John McCain shows he puts country last. May I remind John McCain he is NOT the president. Barack Obama so eloquently enunciated the truth yesterday. He said this is PRECISELY the time in which Americans should and, indeed, MUST see the stuff of which their presidential candidates are made. It is EXACTLY in times of upheaval or crisis that the American public should know exactly who they are getting. This country has gone through many crises during presidential campaigns and the country's agenda continued. May I remind Senator McCain of the Lincoln/Douglas debates. Lincoln danced to the music despite our country's cacophonous discord.

Shame on John McCain as he yet again must think that the American public is utterly ignorant. Yesterday, as Barack Obama spoke of our country's economic woes and as he stood steadfast that he would be there to debate, I truly saw him as presidential. If I had any doubts before they are erased now. The final vote, for me, will be cast after the University of Mississippi debate. I have no doubt who is the better more presidential of the two candidates especially if the Republican candidate's chair is empty!

The Mad Men of Wall Street: "Mad Men" is a popular television series which takes place in the early 1960s'. It is about the people in the New York City Madison Ave. advertising firm fictionally called Sterling Cooper. I love this series for many reasons not the least of which is that I experienced the early 60's and understand the cultural context of that era. There is, in the beginning of each episode, foreboding and ominously sad introductory music. Its sad and haunting melody shows with it a business-suited man in cartoon form falling out of a skyscraper. The song has something musicologists call "chromatic descent" that is it contains notes which move from high notes to low notes a half step at a time. This is indicative, some say, of death.

The song of Mad Men, therefore, is a metaphor for a kind of internal death the characters feel in their me-first, empty, back-biting world. I thought, though, this metaphor applied to the death Wall Street today as it melts down in its own toxic stew. The concept of rugged individualism, the bricks upon which our economic culture is built stirred into a pot where government allows business a free hand without regulatory restraint may be, incredulously enough, the cause of our system's own demise. In a laissez faire system the individual is paramount and the group is cared about only in so far as it can help the individual achieve his ends of money and power. Business regulation by government is to be crushed at all costs. When big business is in trouble, though, now it seems it counts on those whom it does not care a wit about to help restore its confidence. Truly, though, if someone does not care about me why should I care about him? In the wonderful F. Scott Fitzgerald novel which spoke so much to the culture pre the Great Depression with its tremendous material excesses and economic anarchy relevant today, the narrator says of Daisy Buchanan and the 20's rapacious culture in which she lives -- "they smash things and then leave others to clean it up." Yet again, history repeats.

Death is the one thing we will all do alone but in our marketplace filled with other beings we are not units and, indeed, should not be loners. All of us, including the very leaders of our ecoomic opulence, should be in this together. Now, at the moguls' greatest hour of need they rely on us, everyman, to bail them out. Who will bail the everyman out? Will Washington bail us out? No, Bush, with John McCain's consent, remember made bankruptcy even harder for individuals but easier for the corporation. The ones who have most all the money depend on those who do not to free them from debt. We all know, too, these company CEO's will have their golden parachutes to create for them a soft landing. Millions upon millions of dollars have been given to them when they leave the company before and after the company fails and then they simply walk away. Where is our paracute though? Where is our safety net? What happens to us the little guy when his home is foreclosed or his retirement is non-existent? What happens when he takes to the street, lives out of his car in a flop house or even a tent? Where will his children go? Unfortunatelly, not many moguls or those in the seats of government power seem to care.

No matter who is in power, when the state or the corporation does not consider the needs of its people who help create its success it is doomed. Wall Street needs, above all, ethics, regulatory guardians and the will to care about more than just themselves. A partner at a large business for which I once worked many years ago said to me that the other partners in the business resented having to pay the support staff they depended on to make their company run. They, he said, hated to pay them because they were their company's biggest expense. I never forgot that. It mattered not that without these necessary cogs in the wheel of their car their car would not run. That, is the problem. The culture of our business philosophy from the very beginning of our country's history makes the worker feel utterly devalued while his hard efforts make the moguls of that company very very rich. Where is the fairness in that? There is none and there will be no smooth sailing in the ship of state that does not care equally about the group as much as it does about the individuals who possess most of the money and power.

When it's dog eat dog every man for himself world, one dog will eat the bone and leave nothing for the rest of the pack. If this country does not change its logo and care about whether the masses live or die and not simply pay transparent lip service during a presidential campaign it just may end up causing our country's death as well. I greet next week with fear and trepidation as I wonder who will care about me.

A Disaster Waiting to Happen: Placing John McCain and Sarah Palin into office is utterly impossible to comprehend. The qualification of the Democratic ticket is so far and above what the Republican party can offer it extends into the stratosphere. The Republican party has shown its true face over and over again. Some part of the American public fails to see. Voting Republican, for all but a tiny few of the very wealthy, is national suicide. Here is a party who has maintained power over the last eight years, touting the glories of a free market economy but has created one of the worst financial debacles in the modern history. Now all of a sudden they are willing to suspend the cerebral high of its free market philosophy and happily take what could be a trillion bucks from us, the taxpayer, to bail out Wall Street. The blunderings of the financial sector with a nod from a Republican Washington could now, if left unregulated, lead to not only systemic recession but to a worldwide Depression as well. Keep electing those men behind the curtain. They want us to THINK they are country first but they are really themselves first and country last.

Phil Gramm, one of John McCain's dearest friends and advisers and possible Treasury Secretary if McCain should win, has been advocate and architect supreme for the deregulation of the financial industry. According to journalist David Corn in the July/August edition of Mother Jones magazine "in 1999, Gramm pushed through a historic banking deregulation bill that decimated Depression-era firewalls between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and securities firms. ... But Gramm's most cunning coup on behalf of his friends in the financial services industry was slipping in a 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists." This has been a huge factor in our current financial mess. In addition, as McCain has said many times he "doesn't really understand economics." He would probably rely on those foxes who guard our very vulnerable chicken coop to monitor our money. McCain is about people like McCain and people who would advise him are a mirror reflection of him.

Stir into this toxic brew the extraordinarily unqualified Sarah Palin one heart beat away from this elder presidential hopeful, well, the ramifications are more than catastrophic. This No. 2 woman on the ticket touts openness but she and her cronies, including her husband, refuse subpoenas, go against the law and do not testify before the Alaska legislature on a subject matter about which she heretofore said she would have no problem openly discussing. What does openly mean? It means have Washington high power Republican attorneys shut down the information before the presidential election because ethics and other violations possibly committed in Alaska by Governor Palin might prove dangerous to the McCain/Palin ticket. Why won't they testify if they have nothing to fear on a so called-by-them trivial matter. How many times do we need to see the flagrant abuse of the law? How many times can a party get away with illegalities? How many times will it pull the wool over the eyes of a public not wanting to see? There are no appropriate words in our English language to describe the disaster of the Bush years and yet more years to follow if the McCain/Palin ticket succeeds.

If the McCain/Palin incompetents are elected we will shake our heads in dismay once again and think how on earth did we get into this same mess yet another time. Now the lives at stake, though, may be our very own.

The following is an opinion on our potential if not already occurring economic near collapse and the disastrous Bush/McCain policies. It was written by a relative of mine whose particular specialty is economics and knows FAR more than I on the subject. Feel free to forward to whomever you choose especially if they are on the fence or live in states of Ohio, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire. Her analysis:


Buckle Up:

It will be a wild ride to day when the financial markets open.

The last eight years, the Bush Administration, has “led” our country with irresponsible abandon both abroad and at home. The war in Iraq was entered into based on a lie and then carried out without forethought or management as to rebuilding and withdrawal. All of this with government experts and appointees who were going to guide us correctly. [McCain voted with Bush on the war] The President has no taste for details and his judgment of personnel was atrocious. All of this AND we have the loss of almost 4500 of our troops. Then, when injured and maimed soldiers arrive home, they are faced with a lack of medical care and mental counseling. Fact: the National Guard forces, who enlisted thinking that their service would be in this country in times of domestic emergencies, have NO MEDICAL COVERAGE for their sustained injuries in Iraq once they arrive home. So Bush, do not talk to me about the patriotism and honor of our troops. Put your money where your mouth is and get these kids better.Furthermore, our international reputation, in the past coming from a real position of strength, is in shambles. Not only is out reputation shot, but our actual standing and influence has dwindled to a slow drip. [McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time including on health aid for our troops]

On the home front, what a disaster! I have written in the past how the Republican’s policies of deregulation will be the downfall of our economy. Buckle up. By reckless policies starting in the lending industry, we have seen repercussions in the real estate market, the banking industry, the investment industry ad infinitum. The lack of oversight, described by Republicans as “capitalism” at work, has hit America in its heartland and will take years to reverse.

Bush, and now McCain, like to use catchwords such as “patriotism” and “honor” as the basis for all their policies, both international and domestic. They never speak of the necessary DETAILS that must underlie possible solutions. Is that because they just have a distaste for any thinking, or are they not at all concerned about finding solutions?

Even those that tutored Palin for her interview with Charlie Gibson taught her big girl words, but as for real details of America’s problems and possible antidotes, well, that seems to be below those who are seeking office. The attainment of office appears to be the end goal.

The Bush administration has essentially raped our foreign policy of any meaning, and is now, through its ignorance of any real economic policy, dismantling our national economy. There has been no oversight, no forethought of what our current deregulation might bring, and then a denial of disaster once the bottom fell out of the markets. Once again, as long as Bush and now McCain get to keep their high office, once Big Oil gets to keep their obscene profits, and once the arms corporations get to make their trillions based on a trumped up war, then and only then is this country described as “the best”.

It is all a facade, a masquerade. Our foreign allies realize this now and our educated masses are aware of this greedy winner-take-all government. However, irony of ironies, it is the downtrodden in this country who are bucking the facts. They think “patriotism” and “honor” will put food on their tables, get them jobs, provide them with heath insurance and put gas in their cars.

Barack Obama, in a sad statement for this country’s present standing, might just have the opportunity of the ages to put back together out international standing and out national economy. What might be needed is a complete overhaul, just like FDR did with the New Deal. I know one thing for sure: that the “old deal” has come apart at the seams. For the life of me, I can not imagine why Obama wants this job. But I believe that he is up to it. I believe he can reinstate out international strength and our domestic viability.

One small example of the conning of Americans by Republicans: McCain came out today and said that his lack of knowledge of computers and technology is due to his disability in his hand stemming from injuries suffered while he was a POW. Isn’t it a fact that senators receive quite a number of administrative assistants who actually do the typing? McCain has taken a hand injury and elevated it into a philosophy of technological stupidity and ignorance. A useless hand has turned into an even more useless brain.

I am going to check on the financial markets now. Buckle up. It is going to be a bumpy ride.

The Perils of Palin: Sarah Palin's ear-piercing but insufficient responses to Charles Gibson's introduction to foreign policy questions were astounding. What astounds me, however, is not the fact that she did not know what was meant by the Bush Doctrine, the foundation of the Bush administration's foreign policy fiascoes for the last eight years. I am astounded that John McCain's first most important decision especially due to his age and bouts with cancer, was the choice of Sarah Palin for the number two spot on the Republican ticket. I am stunned how a man whose campaign motto is "Country First" could put his country last. I understand how the average person might not know the answer to the Bush Doctrine question but I do not understand how a vice-presidential candidate running with a man whose actuarial chances of dying in office are fairly high does not know the answer to that question. It is further indication of my belief, that she knows absolutely nothing about foreign policy issues.

She would, no less, if she felt it justified, go to war with Russia over Georgia. Is she kidding me? Given George Bush's debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan, our forays now into the Pakistan border, compounded by our current economic crises this country does not have the army, the manpower, the money nor the national will to invade yet another country and court a massive confrontational war with a gargantuan Russia. Sarah Palin would take us to war at the bat of her blinking eyelashes and have her fingers on the nuclear button to boot.

Further, it would be laughable, if it were not so devastatingly important to the security of our nation, to think that both John McCain and Sarah Palin think that geographical proximity to Russia entitles them to say Sarah Palin has foreign policy experience. That is like saying I have medical experience because I can see Metrowest Hospital through my window.

This nation is in serious existential trouble if McCain/Palin prevail in November. Think about the fact of more war and the necessity that that would ultimately mean for the re-institution of the draft. Your sons AND daughters would have to go to war. If the aged and infirm McCain is unable to fulfill his role as president, would YOU want a Sarah Palin foreign policy novice extraordinaire to determine the life or death of your child? Sarah Palin is outrageously unqualified to be Vice President much less President if the situation should arise.

Truly when I see Sarah Palin and hear that piercing and sharp horrific-to-listen-to voice of hers, I am outraged. That is what those unpatriotic excuses for humanity who SUPPOSEDLY put country first WANT me to feel. They are gloating at my anger. So a cooler head MUST prevail and examine things rationally.

Sarah Palin is OUTRAGEOUSLY unqualified for the position of Vice President much less for President if the situation arises.

In her Gibson interview, Palin CLEARLY did not know what the Bush Doctrine was. Admittedly, I am a politically absorbed and pay particular attention to our larger foreign policy issues so it is not surprising that I knew, OF COURSE, what the Bush Doctrine was. HOWEVER, THIS IS A VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate running with a man who has had cancer FOUR times. I understand if the average Joe on the street doesn't know the Bush Doctrine BUT I SURELY SURELY do not understand a VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate not knowing that. It is FURTHER indication of my belief, that she knows NOTHING absolutely NOTHING about foreign affairs issues.

Moreover, SHE WOULD TAKE US TO ANOTHER WAR AND WITH RUSSIA NO LESS if Russia does something she doesn't like or PERCEIVES it does something she doesn't like. These people who support someone like she not only WANT war they LOVE war as much as they would deny that fact. I wish Gibson had been a little more pressing on the issue of Russia. Russia DID invade Georgia BUT Charlie Gibson should have asked her if Russia was in any way provoked by Georgia invading South Osessia which some allege was prodded by team Bush for it to do. The US then said to Georgia don't worry we'll assist you if anything happens. WE DIDN'T ASSIST BECAUSE WE CANNOT ASSIST. We DO NOT have the army manpower, the money or the national will to help with a flood much less another massive confrontational war with Russia no less.

Here is a woman who would take us to war at the bat of her blinking eyelashes and would have her fingers on our nuclear arsenal. We are in SERIOUS SERIOUS trouble if the McCain ticket wins. We are in EXISTENTIAL trouble. A better articulated more well thought out piece will follow for my local papers. Pass this around if you like. Everyone who has an inkling of love for this country and who cares about the safety and security of it, of ourselves and our posterity should do EVERYTHING they possibly can to get this word out to stop this outrageous woman from having a shot at the presidency. Think about the fact of more war and the necessity of the institution of the draft. Your sons AND daughters would HAVE to go to war. If you have contacts in states such as New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan -- all swing states -- I URGE you to contact them and spread this word. Feel free to use this email or anything I have written on my blog below. This is a SERIOUS SERIOUS thing and these are, indeed, no ordinary times.

Natalie Rosen
www.natalierosen.blogspot.com

I must say that if I had a shred of doubt about how brilliant, articulate and inspiring Barack Obama is his appearance at Columbia talking about national service convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was a pleasure to listen to him. John McCain too presented his case, but clearly, Senator Obama has the youthful enthusiasm, phenomenal command and grasp of just what he wants to do and the ability to convey it. I can compare him to JFK. He was in his element and showed how moving and how succinctly and forceful with great knowledge aforethought he can be.

I think he that, as even Pat Buchanan admitted, it was good for McCain BUT AN ESPECIALLY great night for Barack Obama.

YES IT WAS!

This is a bit of prose/poetry that I created at 12 midnight when I could not sleep. I usually do not wax poetical at all as it is not my forte but I was responding to a relative's blog which contained rather ominous thoughts. Things, at that hour, seemed frightening as events are unfolding in a way that, as I see it, may bring man-made Apocalypse. My relative's link is: http://yomamaforobama.wordpress.com/ and my stream of thoughts at midnight were:

Into the Night: It is midnight and yet again, night two I cannot sleep because electoral insanity captures and holds prisoner my thoughts. The injustice of the last eight years presents a mountain which I cannot climb. Another mountain is placed in the way. Yet again incompetent leadership awaits. Will we ever climb the heights this nation can reach? I know we can, yes we can as we have climbed it before but not in a very long time.

When will sleep come? Perhaps, after McCain/Palin are empowered the country still besieged by insurmountable debt, war endless war, and a collapse of markets, our adversaries will try ever so hard to find the bulls eyes on our back, take aim and fire because our leadership will be, so rancid, so corrupt and so uncaring of the masses they feign to care about that the sleep I fear will be the sleep of death. Maybe it will only be then that I will get the rest I need.

This country is, I worry, about to take a turn to an eternity it did not foresee but, perhaps, subliminally some want. The Revelation they yearn for so longingly they just may obtain. They will surely not encounter the myth of heaven, nor Jesus nor anything but the still of death. I am death says the Hindu Bagavad Gita, the destroyer of worlds and through our unfathomable stupidity we are heading in that direction presciently seen and said by yesteryear's nuclear bomb creator Oppenheimer as our ultimate life destroying weapon was trotted out for all the world to see. Our adversaries know no mercy now and we are at the mercy of the utterly unqualified yet again.

Go ahead, America, eight years of sick, putrid policy is not enough. Yet again the abyss awaits. It beckons you to the rim of eternity. This time 9/11 may not be the only gift your policies bestow. This time it could indeed be worse. You could choose life or death, it’s up to you. What you sew is surely what you will reap.

It is an alarming time to breath the night. The night turns not into dawn but to eternal night. Beware, the end times could surely be at hand but you and you alone create the nightmare. You alone have the power to reverse the night to day but will you? The master of man, time, will tell. The night now grows short and I am so very tired but I cannot sleep. I am afraid.

Palin charges oodles: Sarah Palin charged HUGE amounts of money for family travel all over the state of Alaska but the most egregious fee she charged to the state was PER DIEM to STAY AT HER HOME! According to the Washington Post "in two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem." This CANNOT be ignored as so many other unethical behaviors of the Republican party have been. She will say, of course, this is all in a day's work for the state. Every day is another revelation that she needs and I HOPE will have to explain IF -- big IF -- the media will ask it. Republican operatives, though, keep her cloistered and unavailable for interview except by one specially selected journalist.

I have no doubt, there is more to learn about Sarah Palin which will show her to be and has already shown her to be of questionable character. Why was state money going to her church? The separation clause is, in my opinion, one of the most important Constitutional mandate. Without it we are no better than those countries we criticize for being a theocracy. The Founders did not mean that clause to be blurred and church FUSED with our government. Why was the state according to the Washington Post "giving her fundamentalist Evangelical center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo?" These questions are important. Our people's form of government is at stake.

For Jewish people church state separation is particularly vital. Jews ALWAYS suffer and die when a state is melded with religion. That is why this country has been a haven for the Jewish people because it has kept those two institutions separate.

The nature of who the Republican party is, given more power, will ultimately compromise if not end our nation's leadership in the world. The safety of our country is at stake. We MUST not allow this rancid, lying, immoral, unethical, existential threat to our country go unchallenged. Do you want to allow these unethical, devious, war-like, yearning for Armageddon, trigger happy Cretans to have their proverbial finger on the nuclear button with the ability to launch a nuclear attack?

I attach the link below and urge you to read and forward this to anyone you know who are fence sitters, women and independents. This regime would be Bush PLUS. Today, the polls are ominous and Barack has lost some ground. It is still, though, very close and the election could turn. The time is now. We cannot wait.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008090900325&s_pos=

This is a stream of conscious opinion. I have NOT refined it and checked for proper syntax and grammar because the time is short and it takes a long long time to get things perfect. I send it for you to read, if you chose or send it off to someone else. Here are my very roughly honed thoughts. This word MUST be spread now as the time is short. Forgive the less than excellent prose.

Those alleged crowds gushing enthusiasm for McCain/Palin? Don't believe it. Republicans lie about EVERYTHING. They most likely rounded up all they could, probably paid them to appear as they did in the 2000 election as IF Republicans were so adored. Lies,lies,lies, lies nothing but lies. They lie about EVERYTHING and I would bet that this is NO exception. McCain does not give a damn about this country. If he did he would NEVER NEVER NEVER knowing his age and health issues ever want an utterly inexperienced troll who did not even share most of his views (except that oh so important to the safety and security of this country issue abortion) to share the ticket and get kicked and brow beaten by an anti-intellectual ridiculous base of religious zealots. He is NOT even religious! He NEVER would if he truly loved this country and wanted to unite it place on his ticket someone who will only divide. The anger AND the fear of this woman from the other side is HUGE. Good, John Country First McCain, good going...four more years of the same ole same ole anger driven division.

She is utterly incompetent and ill equipped to assume the mantle if McCain gets sick and is unable to finish his term. So you want this trigger happy harpy to have her happy trigger finger on the nuclear bombs. She lies. She wanted the bridge to nowhere until it became unpopular, she WANTED books banned from a library, she has NEVER ordered anything of the National Guard, she removed employees from the State Police because she had a personal vendetta, she LOVED government handouts and proclaimed on a memo how COOL it was Alaska was getting millions from the Feds, she belongs to a church who thinks Jews are eternally damned because they do not accept Jesus, she wants to tell YOU that if you get raped by your father and are pregnant with your father's baby TOO bad you gotta have that unnatural child, or if you have a deformed or very sick baby you GOTTA have it and PAY for it too. She's not gonna help you pay though and neither is anyone else.

Folks, it's about MONEY. That's ALL it's about. When does middle America get that Republicans are NOT about you they are about BIG money and keeping it ALL for themselves. Forget you, you don't matter but their genius is they have captured that religious illiterate sad segment of our population that THINKS Republicans are about them. THEY ARE NOT about them and never have been.

As your bank accounts dwindle in this rancid economy, as your jobs disappear, as you can't get medical attention because you have NO insurance, as this country becomes a second rate power because our educational system is in the tank or because the Harvards, Yales and those of intellect are put down and made fun of, as our planet dies maybe then and ONLY then will Americans vote prescient, INTELLIGENT people into office and not court the possibility of having a vice president who is as qualified to be president if McCain is ill as my local dog catcher!! Palin is a foreign affairs expert says John McCain and Cindy McCain because her state is near Russia is comical if it weren't such madness. Wake up America before the time is too late and our country is in deeper trouble then it already is. Get rid of these rancid Republicans in leadership who are lying vile excuses for humanity and who hold immense power over your life or your death. GET OUT DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS TOO AND VOTE VOTE VOTE AND SEND MCAIN AND PALIN THE MESSAGE THAT WERE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THEIR LIES ANY MORE!!!!! We WILL do it. YES WE CAN!!

Why it matters -- Palin's unmarried 17 year old pregnant daughter. Ordinarily I couldn't care less about someone's personal sexual life. I did not care about Bill Clinton's escapade nor did I care about John Edward's liaison. I DID care about Larry Craig's indiscretion as I did care about representative Vitter's relationship with prostitutes and I did care about Representative Foley's emails to House pages and I did care about Ted Haggard's liaison with a male hooker. Why? Obviously, because these Republican right wing religious extremists are HYPOCRITES of a huge order. They are the ones to deny rights to others whose sexual morality they do not approve. It's not the act that they commit it's the utter HYPOCRISY it establishes. When one's political party, especially a major party in a national election, has party platforms that are extraordinarily judgmental, restrictive and punishing of those who do not conform to their sexual moral religious commands then they open themselves up for intense scrutiny and criticism when they do not live up to their own beliefs. It is as I call it, the Scarlet Letter syndrome.

Sara Palin's daughter is of interest because her mother touted home schooling, because her mother is anti-abortion and anti-science, most probably against sexual education in schools, pro abstinence and against a whole host of other moral behaviors to which her OWN family obviously did not conform. If her advocacies are so effective then how come a young 17 year old was having sex as an unmarried high schooler?

When these people demand the utmost sexual purity by religious order for other's lives, inscribe it into public policy, force it down everyone's throats but do NOT live up to their own proscriptions then they are up for condemnation and intense scrutiny. Sarah Palin is not running for dog catcher or town council or even governor. She is running for an office a heart beat away from a 72 year old cancer victim's presidency. Democrats do not suffer from those moral hammers which want to create policy by forcing people to conform to a religious sexual moral code. That is the huge difference between the two parties and that is why I believe Sarah Palin's family's personal lives are fair game to place under the microscope of public scrutiny.

The Unrecognizable Republican Party-the Palin Pariah : The staggeringly morphed Republican party is a poor relative of the once cerebrally adept party of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. At least that party stood for something -- the mantra of smaller government whether in the bedroom, the boardroom or the international arena. The ghosts of that party's former leadership must be doing some six feet under revolvings. If they phantasmagorically returned to life they would not recognize their party. It has been taken over by religious fanatics who threaten the Constitutionally vital separation of church state doctrine, the very phenomenon our Founders, men of the Enlightenment, feared.

George Bush is the pariah now of his own party so much so that many think Hurricane Gustav a blessing as it forced the cancellation of his appearance at the Republican Convention. McCain/Palin now his improbable heirs are an outrage to many sagacious Republicans of intellectual credence. It is obvious that McCain cares about McCain and used a hail Mary pass as a last ditch effort to win the presidency for himself by choosing the extremist of extremists, Sarah Palin, to appeal to Hillary's supporters and/or his Republican fanatically religious base. To heck with national security and the country if a 72 year old man with two cancer bouts dies and this presidentially unqualified Sara Palin, science denying soccer mom and procreator supreme, is catapulted to the throne.

It is a sad commentary, indeed, if Republicans think that Hillary's supporters, most especially, are that stupid that they would flock to McCain because of his choice of Palin as VP. Palin is the 360 degree opposite of everything for which Hillary Clinton stands. Palin is an anti-feminist who capitalizes on the dogged determination of feminists who preceded her first in the suffrage movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries to achieve the vote and then in the late 1960's to throw off the final yokes of male supremacy in other cultural venues. Without those leftist progressive movements Palin would be knitting in her living room today. To think that women who supported Hillary and who occupy positions of great influence in the Democratic party, would vote for an anti-choice, pro gun, anti-science, creationist promoting religious extremist is utterly insulting to the intelligence of Hillary's supporters.

The fact that Palin has breasts has nothing absolutely nothing to do with the 18 million cracks hewed by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Those who think Palin represents those cracks have cracks in their own ceiling. The choice of Palin is an outrage to thinking women and men everywhere. I hope the only ceiling Sarah Palin sees is the one in her own living room!

An Unconventional Convention: The 2008 Democratic convention has, I believe, captured the American mind and spirit in a way that no other single event in modern political history ever has. It has been a mirror of our country and a yardstick for our time. America has been called to greatness once again and once again America can, if it wants to, respond. Once in a lifetime a leader crosses our path who can lift us up, inspire us, give us courage, provide us hope that better days are ahead. I believe Barack Obama is no ordinary man for our no ordinary time.

Great leadership has been, I believe, illusive. Perhaps it took the systemically foul leadership of a George W. Bush presiding over the most corrupt political machine in US history for a leader to emerge who can provide a new way. George Bush's egregiously inept leadership has been well documented. He was a leader who took this nation to war based on lies, imbued himself with unconstitutional powers; he was a man who did not protect us from the onslaught of 9/11, and a man who botched badly the ensuing war on terrorism soon to cost trillions catapulting us into recession or worse. He sanctioned torture, squashed science and committed other immoral acts. George Bush, too, provided us with a Justice Department by unethically stuffing its ballot box with political cronies so that allegiance to George Bush was the only qualification for admittance into his restricted club of extremist Republican politics. His oligarchic love of unregulated crony capitalism and a loathing of government regulation has made George Bush into arguably the worst president in US history. He has run the ship of state aground. His leadership was not about the many. It was about the few. John McCain voted with George W. Bush 95% of the time.

Instead of basking in the sunlight of great leadership George Bush squandered that leadership and relegated it to the darkness of a secret presidency conducted behind closed doors and out of the people's view so that his secret meetings with the minions of millionaires could never be seen. Perhaps, though, his presidency existed so that finally this nation can undergo systemic transformation.

I have always yearned for the FDR experience that my parents adored. I have heard it said as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's casket rolled past tearful onlookers one black man who shed tears for FDR was asked if he knew him. His answer was "I did not know him but he knew me." I hope in the coming few months this country sees that Barack Obama knows us so that we propel him into the great leadership I know, if given a chance, he can provide.

"That's a negative": I could not agree with the Boston Globe more in its August 27, 2008 editorial. Jim Leach, the Iowa Republican, who spoke at the Democratic convention was one of the best most informative speakers of the night. It was well worth listening to him as he articulated so well the rationale for why Republicans ought to eschew their party. His reasons for abandoning his party were exactly correct. The Republican party, as it exists today, bears absolutely no resemblance to the ideals it once articulated. Unfortunately, it is sometimes testament, I believe, to the nature of the American public who needs fiery speeches, heavy on platitudes, which say little, to capture its attention. Jim Leach said so much albeit with not too much pizazz. Everyone could have learned something if they only listened!

Herculean Hypocritical Heights: Jeff Jacoby had me right up until the last sentence of his op editorial "China's totalitarian games" in the August 24, 2008 Boston Sunday Globe. His last sentence in that editorial reads "As in 1936 and 1980, the 2008 Games were a showcase for a dictatorship. In such a travesty, Americans should have played no part." China's human rights abuses and its many behavioral crosses into unethical territory are no doubt worthy of intense criticism. The US with its eight years of a Bush presidency which has crossed so many ethical boundaries unpunished make us a paragon of hypocrisy when we criticize other nations for their abuses of power. It is a black pot calling another black pot blacker. Where does the US get off holding its head in the clouds of the moral high ground when it has taken a country to war based on lies and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people? Where was the US moral compass as it created 2 million refugees, blew apart infrastructures and destabilized an entire Middle East under false pretenses?

In addition, team Bush demolished Constitutional rights here at home, neutralized habeas corpus, spied on Americans without warrant, exposed a US CIA agent, countenanced and, indeed, created so many other illegalities and abuses of power which question commitment to our own democracy that we have zero -- I repeat zero -- credibility with which to criticize other breaches of democratic values by other countries. It is possible (perhaps not probable) that because of the Bush administration's various Protect America Acts that even Jeff Jacoby could be plucked from behind his computer, whisked off to a place unknown, and, perhaps, even tortured simply on the whim of one single man. To me that is tyranny. Because that is possible in the heretofore world's greatest democracy makes any criticism of any other state on those grounds absurd.

Another Man for Our Time: What a marvelous VP choice Joe Biden is. The family values crowd should be so pleased. I cannot think of one individual who is more representative of that. Joe Biden, as most know, lost his wife and daughter in a terrible automobile accident. His sons were badly injured. He went home from Washington on Amtrak every single day to be with his sons.

Most importantly he is a man of great ability and foreign policy experience. He balances the ticket beautifully. I hope with all my heart they prevail in November. It will be a tough road because the other side is employing Rovian tactics which sucker punch without conscience. This ticket though, will withstand the onslaught and can play, I know, the same game. Moreover, they can play a better game. I am extraordinarily hopeful. Perhaps it is morning in America again!