THE VERB TO CRATER

As the economic train veered around a curve Monday the Washington Post and ABC Sampled opinions of US citizens. There are some intriguing data in the poll. According to the poll 90% of Americans now believe that Mondays bailout failure could lead to a more severe problems in the economy. An interesting factoid; the difference in the way that those polled perceived the national economy and their own families financial well being. 60% remain pessimistic about the state of the economy however, 60% are optimistic about their families well being. This in the face of a crumbling housing market and the continued jitters in international financial markets.

As we wait for the next phase in the bailout rescue plans it is important to understand how much polling data like this influences your elected officials. Let them know what YOU THINK

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST
Wall St. Problems Viewed as 'Crisis' in Latest Poll"

By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 30, 2008; 10:10 AM

Most Americans see the current financial situation as a "crisis," and there is overwhelming concern that the failure of the House of Representatives to pass the economic recovery package will deepen the problem, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.


But the poll also revealed significant public concern with the bill Congress rejected yesterday, as few voters said the package did enough to protect "ordinary Americans," and nearly half said it did not go far enough to shore up the nation's economy.

Nevertheless, nearly nine in 10 expressed concern that the failure of the bill could lead to a more severe economic decline, including a slim majority calling themselves "very worried." High levels of concern cross party lines, but Democrats and Republicans have contrasting views of the urgency of the situation. In the poll, 60 percent of Democrats call the economic woes a crisis, compared with 44 percent of Republicans. - Read The Article -

Washington Post-ABC News Poll (RAW DATA)

This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone September 29, 2008, among a random national sample of 520 adults and 424 registered voters. The results from the sample of registered voters has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points. Error margins are higher for subgroups. Sampling, data collection and tabulation by TNS of Horsham, Pa.

*= less than 0.5 percent

1. (ASKED OF REGISTERED VOTERS) Thinking about the next 12 months, would you say you feel (optimistic) or (pessimistic) about (ITEM)?

9/29/08 - Summary Table

Optimistic Pessimistic No opinion
a. the state of the national economy 43 53 4
b. your own family's financial
situation 61 34 5

Trend:

a. the state of the national economy

Optimistic Pessimistic No opinion
9/29/08 RV 43 53 4
4/13/08 RV 40 58 2
2/1/08 45 51 4
12/9/07 45 52 3
12/11/06 64 33 3
5/15/06 52 46 1
12/18/05 55 44 1
12/19/04 58 40 2
6/20/04 64 34 2
1/14/03 63 35 2

b. your own family's financial situation

Optimistic Pessimistic No opinion
9/29/08 RV 61 34 5
4/13/08 RV 66 31 3
2/1/08 67 30 3
12/9/07 72 25 3
12/11/06 82 16 2
5/15/06 79 20 1
12/18/05 73 26 1
12/19/04 75 23 2


2. (ASKED OF REGISTERED VOTERS) In terms of its potential impact on the broader economy, do you think the country's current financial situation is a crisis, a serious problem but not a crisis, a problem but not a serious one, or not much of a problem at all?

------ Problem ------- --------- Not a problem -------
Serious Not serious Not much of No
NET Crisis problem NET problem a problem opin.
9/29/08 RV 94 52 43 5 4 * 1

- M O R E -

KUCINICH STEPS UP

- FROM COMMON DREAMS -

"An Appropriately Populist Anti-Bailout Rant"

thanks to our roving editor JM

FactCheck.org (First Debate)

You can get the full debate FactCheck - H E R E -

In Other News

OK OK OK OK OK - Palin

After trying to forget Palin and move on to loftier topics, several people sent me this, this morning. I must say that it is frightening that someone who gives new meaning to the the phrase asleep at the wheel, might in fact some day be our president. It proves that despite all of the evidence, a stubborn temperament will not allow John McCain to ever ask her to step down, even for the good of the country. She is as they say a couple of intersections from a train wreck, it is painful to watch, but you just can't take your eyes off of it. So rather than take up space with more pressing issues like the bailout, I give you this:



Thanks to RH & JM for this... I think. As the kisds say if you find this interesting "Hollar Back."

An Economy On Thin Ice

"We are buying a lot of housing at rising prices, but home ownership has become a vehicle for borrowing as much as a source of financial security. As a nation we are consuming and investing about 6 percent more than we are producing."

Another case of deja vu here, Paul Volker in 2005  foreshadowed the housing implosion and consequent Wall Street melt down, by looking at sectors of the economy. Some things you would like to forget, but your friends keep you honest. Thanks to surf master and at large editor DA for sifting through the past for this one.
By Paul A. Volcker
Washington Post
Sunday, April 10, 2005;

The U.S. expansion appears on track. Europe and Japan may lack exuberance, but their economies are at least on the plus side. China and India -- with close to 40 percent of the world's population -- have sustained growth at rates that not so long ago would have seemed, if not impossible, highly improbable.

Yet, under the placid surface, there are disturbing trends: huge imbalances, disequilibria, risks -- call them what you will. Altogether the circumstances seem to me as dangerous and intractable as any I can remember, and I can remember quite a lot. What really concerns me is that there seems to be so little willingness or capacity to do much about it.

We sit here absorbed in a debate about how to maintain Social Security -- and, more important, Medicare -- when the baby boomers retire. But right now, those same boomers are spending like there's no tomorrow. If we can believe the numbers, personal savings in the United States have practically disappeared.

To be sure, businesses have begun to rebuild their financial reserves. But in the space of a few years, the federal deficit has come to offset that source of national savings.

We are buying a lot of housing at rising prices, but home ownership has become a vehicle for borrowing as much as a source of financial security. As a nation we are consuming and investing about 6 percent more than we are producing.

What holds it all together is a massive and growing flow of capital from abroad, running to more than $2 billion every working day, and growing. There is no sense of strain. As a nation we don't consciously borrow or beg. We aren't even offering attractive interest rates, nor do we have to offer our creditors protection against the risk of a declining dollar.

Most of the time, it has been private capital that has freely flowed into our markets from abroad -- where better to invest in an uncertain world, the refrain has gone, than the United States?

More recently, we've become more dependent on foreign central banks, particularly in China and Japan and elsewhere in East Asia.
- M O R E -

Thanks to DA for this post.

The Art of Apology Two $700 Billion Words—I’m Sorry

GUEST EDITORIAL

by Valerie Haynes Perry

Seems like everywhere you go, there is misery. In this country, for many of us (but not all), that misery is relative. The film, Trouble the Water, about the Hurricane Katrina disaster offers those of us who were not there a powerful visual of what it was, is, and will be like in one of many severely and shamelessly neglected areas of this great country.

A troubling force threatens this greatness. Anyone with feelings, conscience, and a heart is finding difficulty escaping the growing reach of this troubling force. Common sense is no longer common. Conscience no longer appears to be a given, making the likelihood of reconciliation and healing dimmer as panaceas for nudging life toward healthy balance.

In the midst of all this turmoil, could there be the beginnings of a simple remedy? Some of us believe that nature provides all cures for all maladies. Could two words, were they to dare their own expression by the powerful, be worth $700 billion? Could those simple words, a total of three modest syllables be—I’m sorry? Clearly, they would have to be uttered with unparalleled sincerity.

Imagine all of the possibilities that could unfold from there. Here are two potential groups of people who could change the world if something in them was stirred to make them give this fresh approach a try:

World leaders who know the errors of their ways.
CEOs and managers who need to see employees as people rather than means to hold on to power at all costs, adding to it, and ruining everyone.

To say the obvious, any world leaders or CEOs who are benevolent should not take offense because in their heart of hearts, they know they have a heart. They have a conscience. It is only the guilty who should feel defensive. Then, if they will bring themselves to apologize, there will be opportunities to enact positive change.

It seems that this notion of apology is an entirely foreign concept to many among us. Perhaps its power can be communicated best by recalling what it means, according to the tenth edition of Webster’s dictionary.

Wait a minute. You know how you’re looking up one word and another grabs your attention? That just happened, so let’s begin with the following word:

Apodictic: expressing or of the nature of necessary truth or absolute certainty.

Now for apology:

A formal justification: defense (apologia).
An admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret.
A poor substitute.

So it seems that many of those yielding the most power over others confuse apologia (defense) with apology (remorse). What can be done about this mess?

I’m sorry. I just don’t know.

By the way, apology also works well on the individual level—one on one.

PUT THE ELECTION ON HOLD McCain HAS TO THINK!

What follows is Senator Barack Obama's response to Senator McCain's request to suspend the debate this Friday, September 26, 2008. Partisanship aside this video draws a sharp contrast in the two men's styles. It also gives some insight into Senator Obama's view of the economic crisis and his solutions to fixing it.




See the FactCheck.Org article KEEPING QUIET refuting the claims that Obama had been silent on the economic crisis to this point. It puts the events of this week in bold relief.

---

SOME THOUGHTS ON STYLE AND SUBSTANCE
Back in the day, before the mega mergers, before computers spilled OED size dumps onto our desks everyday -- there was not as much need for multitasking. Most of us have had to learn how to do it, because the pace of modern society requires it. It takes study and practice to learn how to prioritize and attack several problems at the same time. Unfortunately, John McCain skipped that class and majored instead in delegation surrounding himself with experts (read that lobbyists).

Faced with a tight presidential race, two parallel wars, lagging campaign numbers and an economic crisis that is just chewing up the economy.... John McCain in an attempt to appear presidential decided to suspend his campaign and skip Friday's debate so he could focus on the economy. Which proves once again that what you can't do says as much about you as what you can. It is like McCain has to get back on track and now focus on the economy and his main job his senate career . But dig this according to the Huffington Post, "John McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any member of the Senate except for Tim Johnson, who had major brain surgery. He hasn't cast a single vote in five months, since April 9. All of a sudden, McCain is demanding that the presidential race shut down so he can return to Washington?"

From all of those people who go to work everyday who are immediately greeted with a changing menu of tasks: Get a grip John this is the information age multitasking is required, we do it and we expect noting less from our president.

Thanks to dj for the video link

THE SANDERS SOLUTION

Burried in the bailout bill are these 32 little words: "Decisions by the Secretary 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." A veritable impregnable kingdom for Secretary Paulson. See: Dirty Secret Of The Bailout: Thirty-Two Words That None Dare Utter
Get outa here please... No really!

Join the thousands who have already signed Senator Bernie Sanders' petition. You can find the petition -HERE-

More Say No to Wall Street Bailout by Middle Class -- 09/24/2008

Senator Bernie Sanders IND/VERMONT has been joined by more than 23,000 citizens in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson calling for a surtax on the very wealthy to bankroll any bailout of Wall Street. “Any plan to clean up the mess on Wall Street must ensure that middle income and working families are not the ones who are paying for this bailout,” the letter says. The phenomenal outpouring of support came in the two days since the letter was posted on Sanders’ Senate Web page.

Meanwhile, House Banking Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) reiterated his support for Sanders’ proposal for a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers.

Frank and Sanders were interviewed today on the National Public Radio program “On Point.” The banking committee chairman said he first voiced support for Sanders on Sunday on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

“I think this strengthens the argument for a surtax on the wealthiest people in this country who are among those who made these mistakes. We are unfortunately in a situation -- it’s almost as if we let them take the economy hostage but not having appropriate financial regulation,” Frank said. “I do think at this point the people who make over $1 million a year, a surtax on their incomes, that’s one way to get the people who made these mistakes to contribute to the cost of undoing it.”

Sanders proposal is for a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would yield more than $300 billion in revenue to cover losses the government will incur when it resells troubled mortgages it acquires from banks.

He also called for a major economic recovery package to put Americans to work at decent wages, a return to stronger regulation of businesses, and the breakup of giant corporations like those that got the country and Wall Street into the crisis. “If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist,” Sanders said.

THANKS TO VC for this petition post & DV for making me research the 23 words.

LEAVE IT TO CHRIS ROCK

On September 23, 2008, Chris Rock followed President Bill Clinton on the David Letterman show. As usual he cut right to the heart of the matter at hand.

THIS IS YOUR NATION ON WHITE PRIVIELEGE

This is one of those emails that seem to swirl like papers in an up draft. I have gotten it from more people than any other email this year. At first I didn't want to publish it because this has been a Palin free zone for the last week or so but is not working. As a thought piece this brings the polarities of race relations front and center. My hope is that by raising these issues and bringing them to the surface in our hearts and minds we just might open up a an honest national dialog. This is one piece I would love to hear your comments.

Parental advisory there is some strong language here.

This is Your Nation on White Privilege (Updated)
September 13, 2008, 2:01 pm
By Tim Wise

"For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

"White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

"White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

"White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action. - M O R E -

For those realy interested in the substance of this piece you may also want to view these VIDEOS

Thanks to DJ and AS who sent me my orgianl copies of the email. To all of the others who continue to send it and to my friends at World Trust who are working on solutions.

FACT CHECK.org

I have found FACTCHECK.ORG" Invaluable as I try to navigate through the stormy waters of this political contest. When you hear a claim that seems to good too be true Check your Facts!

AS HOMES ARE LOST, FEARS THAT VOTES WILL BE, TOO

This article comes from the New York Times and points out a nasty Catch 22. Imagine if you will that you lost your home to foreclosure and you wanted to vote, but you never received your voter pamphlet in the mail, because, well your mailbox and your house has been taken over by the bank. You have no address you evaporate into the land of the disappeared, the missing, the disenfranchised who have no say... I'll let them tell it:

"More than a million people have lost their homes through foreclosure in the last two years, and many of them are still registered to vote at the address of the home they lost. Now election officials and voting rights groups are struggling to prevent thousands of them from losing their vote when they go to the polls in November.

"Many of these voters will be disqualified at the polls because, in the tumult of their foreclosure, they neglected to tell their election board of their new address. Some could be forced to vote with a provisional ballot or challenged by partisan poll watchers, a particular concern among Democrats who fear that poor voters will be singled out. That could add confusion and stretch out lines that are already expected to be long because of unprecedented turnout.

"Federal election officials say they are concerned that voters are not being properly informed of how to update their addresses.

“Our biggest concern is that many of these voters will stay home or that poll workers will give misinformation,” said Rosemary E. Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which oversees voting."

- M O R E -

The link to this story was contributed by DA

OBAMA ~ THE OLD BOYS NETWORK

TURN AROUND AMERICA

I discovered this video on Joe's Union Review

OBAMA ~ ON THE BAILOUT

BAIL OUT ON DEMOCRACY NOW

THE HOT FILE

EXCUSE ME

EDITORIAL

700 billion dollars is a lot of money! Last night on the Newshour one of the talking heads was quoted as saying that is more than we have put into the Iraq war. It is tragic that a policy developed in the Regan administration that nearly bankrupted the country in the 1990's and in large part sent the first Bush packing has been allowed to drip like acid and dismantle our economy. Deregulation sounded so good to this country the constant resonant mantra of get the government off our back. Where were the voices begging caution to the the wrecking ball on our national infrastructure. Where were the voices screaming that regulations were put in place because of the Great Depression. Where were the people in the darkened theater whispering don't go into THAT door.

Working Americans who should have known better voted in droves for candidates and policies that gutted any protections we had and left the fox guarding the hen house. The overall effect has been the collapse of the markets, falling housing prices, the creation of debt on a heretofore unheard of scale. In addition to this the relative value of working folks retirement accounts have plummeted to pre 2007 levels. Ironically it is these same robber barons who moved many of us from pension accounts to 401K/403B and wanted to privatize Social Security.

How much longer wil we have to listen to the finacial sector tell us that the probem is that we can't balance our budgets? Cut to shots of them them walking around like pan hadndlers at a subway station? Blame? How about watching them with no cumpucntion stand like pushers in front of a school yard addicting our children, grandchildren and unborn generations to years crushing years of debt. Wrapping themselves in the flag and declaring that it was only the meritocracy that would save us -- it is a travesty a squandering of intellectual ability. Now they come to us wanting OK a no cut contract numbers spewing out of their mouth -- scary horrifying numbers if there are not laws against this there are laws against blackmail. Oh we are just going to liquidate bad debt they say, but there is no releif for people ensnared by their "finacial products" dishonest morgatge schemes, and strong armed foreclosure schemes. The result of these practices have not only hurt individuals but savaaged many municipal tax bases.

Though we now know that this has been a bipartisan problem, I must again point out that the Clinton administration left a surplus. Did I say 700 million dollars? Must I remind you that Paulson is the former head of Goldman Sachs? EXCUSE ME! I wish I could help out all of my friends who are in hard financial times.

Here are some interesting articles to look at:

From the Febuary 20th additiion of NAKED CAPITALISM
"We are so bold as to predict that another quote will come back to haunt its source. From the Wall Street Journal's Economics Blog:
Following the U.K.’s surprise move to nationalize mortgage lender Northern Rock, will the U.S. need to make similar moves?

“Absolutely not,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told CNBC, dismissing talk that the Bush administration needs to initiate a widespread bailout program to assist the financial industry and restore investor confidence."

* Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle by: William Greider, The Nation

* What is the biggest flaw in the administration's bailout package? What's the remedy? by Robert Reich Politico

* The Middle Class Must Not Be Forced to Bail Out Wall Street Greed by Senator Bernie Sanders IND-VT, Huffington Post

A NATION OF VILLAGE IDIOTS

BY JAMES MOORE
From The Huffington Post

Don't let them tell you this economic meltdown is a complicated mess. It's not. Our national financial crisis is readily understood by anyone who has seen greed and hypocrisy. But we are now witnessing them on a profound, monumental scale.

Conservative Republicans always want the government to stay out of business and avoid regulation as long as they are making lots of money. When their greed, however, gets them into a fix, they are the first to cry out for rules and laws and taxpayer money to bail out their businesses. Obviously, Republicans are socialists. The Bush administration has decided to socialize the debt of the big Wall Street Firms. Taxpayers didn't get to enjoy any of the big money profits on the phony financial instruments like derivatives or bundled sub-prime paper, but we get the privilege of paying for their debt and failures.

Let's just consider the money. The public bailout of insurance giant (becoming a dwarf) AIG is estimated at $85 billion. According to one report, that's more than the Bush administration spent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children during his entire time in office. That amount of money would also pay for health care for every man, woman, and child in America for at least six months.

-M O R E -

FROM CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JM

TROUBLE THE WATER

Trouble the Water

I’m a writer, so I can’t help analyzing and sometimes over-analyzing films and books. Because of this built-in tendency toward critiquing, I often come away from stories feeling empty handed. So, when this is not the case, I’m energized and somehow renewed, which is how I feel after seeing Trouble the Water. This film was educational on so many levels. First, I have tremendous respect for musicians who communicate effectively through their art. Black Kold Modina’s “Amazing” decoded the core power of rap for me. I now perceive rap music, at its best, as the modern blues. Blues singers are storytellers. Rappers are storytellers as long as their content stands on substance. Something about the name, Black Kold Modina, makes me think of the name, Son House. Black Kold Modina—that sister’s story comes from her soul.

Trouble the Water is a hero’s journey in the Joseph Campbell sense of the term. Not only did Kim and Scott, the protagonists, weather the storm, they filmed it from its middle. They showed respect to those who disrespected them by “following orders” that would have broken lesser human beings. Their relationship with each other, and the ones they formed with others are nothing less then exemplary.

One must ask how many others in their shoes—their bare feet robbed of leather by nature’s wrath at the folly of the greedy and those who have trespassed on the crossroads, never looking back over their shoulders to ‘fess up to the wrong turn that makes anything go—could walk through that life “with ease and grace,” as I heard a reverend say.

Amazing.

VHP

http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/
September 2005, New Orleans Louisiana, a massive hurricane lashes ashore. The name Katrina becomes synonymous with a lethal form of benign neglect, leaving the poorest of the poor victim to the rising waters and plummeting hope. All of the wheels of the federal government grind to a halt leaving people stranded and alone. Bodies float in the fetid water, shelter is no where to be found, and promised services evaporate into the swollen rain clouds. The Bush administration waits in the wings,FEMA is immobilized by the volume of suffering. Slowly unlikely heroes emerge. In the 9th ward a group of survivors were determined they were not going to go out like that. On the scene footage draws us into their lives -- and it won't let go!

Go see this beautifully layered, brooding, thought provoking film, this is some of the best film making I have seen in years! Well rounded compelling characters wound in a tight gripping story.
FDP


Thanks to RR for this link.

HARRY REID ~ CALL THE QUESTION

Our retirement is at stake -- if we don't pay attention our jobs and our economy will lay prostrate on the alter of greed. The names of Lehman Brothers & AIG once proud bastions of Wall Street have followed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Mae into the abyss of financial under regulation. When the smoke clears everything we have worked so hard for may lay in the dust of the marble hallways. We are so attracted to reality TV and the clash of padded jerseys we are letting our life's work be ripped from our fingers. Put down the remote and repeat after me this is not just a movie... it is our life!

Harry Reid picks up the gauntlet and holds a bright light to Senator McCain lack of economic acumen. "For whom are the fundamentals of our economy strong? Not for the 606,000 Americans who have lost their jobs this year alone. Not for the commuters and truckers who are sending more and more of their hard-earned dollars to pay for fuel. Not for all those struggling to make one pay check last until the next, with record hme heating prices looming in the coming winter months. Not for cities and towns that have been forced to cut back on police, schools and firefighters because their tax base is shrinking. And certainly not for the millions of families who have or may soon lose their homes, or for the tens of millions who are seeing their home equity plummet."

Listening to this may enlighten or enliven you -- the smoke screen is lifting and the central theme of this contest is emerging.

THE DEBATES ARE ON ~ THE ELECTORATE SPEAKS

From PBS VOTE 2008 this is an interactive tool that samples opinions of average Americans about the upcoming elections. Click on the MENU icon below the main window, this will reveal small images, click on them to sample more opinions. 

The opinions expressed are those of the speaker and not necessarily those of "Decision List." We welcome your ideas here at Decision List please send us your thoughts.

If you like what you see please consider supporting PBS and your local PBS station.

Full disclosure I work for a PBS station and I think PBS is a national treasure always educating, always digging into the issues.

WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

The Video above is the work of the fine people at DipDive.com.

---

We will not be bullied and brow beat into submission, we are building a movement that will enable us to take this country back. We are building a movement that will remember our victories and our temporary defeat. We have stood together and we will continue to stand together against the lies and and intimidation. We will not allow the swifter boaters, grifters and quick change artists to work their magic this time.

We must turn on the forces of reaction that have descended on this country for the last eight years, who now claim to be the agents of change and tell them that there is not a dimes worth of difference in what they are proposing from the last failed administration. We will never turn back, we will not turnaround, we know what it takes to win

Like the masthead says, you must always ask your self.... Which side are you on? HOPE or FEAR, INCLUSION or EXCLUSION, PROSPERITY or ECONOMIC CHAOS, WAR or PEACE? No one else will do your part! Got hope? - Get involved. Please take a moment and watch this video.

In the words of the 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass:

"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced."

Frederick Douglass
"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" July Fourth 1852

If not now when?

Quick Takes

IF I DON"T HAVE A VOTE I DON"T HAVE A VOICE

Please take a couple of minutes and watch this video from McComb Mississippi where they have a direct connection to the past that runs pure and deep. The next time you talk to your friends and coworkers tell them that this is what it is all about the struggle to vote and the precious blood that has been shed for it. In this election year where the clouds of deception, miss direction and illusion have taken center stage one thing must be clear.

This is an election about change real change and it is linked through the years to all those who have sacrificed and never seen their dreams unfold. But like a flower pollinated on the wind, their dreams live on. Like Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner plucked in their tender years and left to rot in and earthen damn. Like Medgar Evers felled by an assassins bullet as he walked up his driveway. Like Dr. King turning back to tell us of the glorious view from the mountain top. Like Susan B. Anthony passing from this life into the next never having seen the fruits of her struggle but knowing that her righteous work would unleash the power of women in this country, her final public statement "Failure is impossible."

We will not be deterred this year, because we know what it has taken to achieve the many victories We know that the right wing would do away with with what we have fought so hard to get with a wrinkle of their noses like the character Samantha in "Bewitched" if they could. We know that we have shaped this world inch by inch against impossible odds. We are the ones who have brought the benefits of Civil Rights, Voting Rights, the eight hour day, the weekend and social security. We are the ones who have made it possible to send our kids to schools, so that they could go on and create the space program and computer technology. We have sacrificed our children on the alter of this country, both on the battlefields of foriegn lands and here at home in the ghettos, in the barrios and in the hills of Appalachia. Many have passed before us famous and nameless in the struggles for human rights. We are the direct link - to those who created and expanded the American middle class. We will protect our gains and yes we will expand them. We represent inclusion we are the note and the harmonic.

We must raise up the heroic people who have been relegated to the mist of the past and present them to our young people tell them what the price of their freedom costs. What they are telling us in McComb is that voter suppression wears a new face, but that they have been building a movement that can defy the odds, bring hope to our country, and heal the divisions.

Like the masthead says, you must always ask your self.... Which side are you on? HOPE or FEAR, INCLUSION or EXCLUSION, PROSPERITY or ECONOMIC CHAOS, WAR or PEACE? Please take a moment and watch this video.

WOMEN AGAINST SARAH PALIN ~ THE WEB SITE

WOMEN AGAINST SARAH PALIN

From the website:
"It's been one week since we sent out a letter to a few friends and family members asking them to respond to Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice President. We had never done anything like this before. What motivated us? It's pretty simple: we were tired of feeling angry and helpless. We were thrilled to receive the first 100 letters in reply. Their eloquence and passion were inspiring, their rage and frustration palpable. Our disbelief began to mount as those 100 letters turned into 1,000 letters, which then turned into 10,000 letters. And as we sit here writing you now, we have reached nearly 100,000 letters."

I think this is a pretty amazing story, thousands of new voices speaking with one voice. Among the hundreds of stories that made this web site: For some reason I landed on this one:

I'm a proud member of SEIU 668, a civil servant prevented by law from taking a position on candidates. However, we are able to express our position on issues and talk about how people stand on those issues. I previously spent 15 years from 1976 to 1991 working as a community organizer, all of those years for minimal wages, all but one of them with no pension plan. Those years were spent fighting for the rights of women, lesbians and gay men, racial and ethnic minorities, persons with AIDS, senior citizens, union members, children, families living in poverty... on issues like utility rates, toxic waste dumps, workplace hazards, health care costs, fair wages and housing, Social security and Medicare and medicaid, funding for AIDS research, addiction, the list goes on.


"I can hardly begin to express the depth of my anger at hearing Ms. Palin denigrate the many community organizers I worked with and proudly call my friends. Community Organizers make the world a better place, doing God's work day in and day out, night after night. To hear that convention audience laugh in response to her snide remarks really pissed me off. I didn't realize just how steamed I was until a dear friend (another longtime community activist) sent me an e-mail with this message: Jesus was a Community Organizer. Pontius Pilate was a Governor.
–Dixie W., Bethlehem, PA"

Thanks to HB for the link

MATT DAMON ON SARAH PALIN

From the Huffington Post:
09/11/2008
Mr. Damon cuts straight to the point. His perspective is as refreshing as it is straightforward. Please listen to this and then read the response of the McCain camp. It is time that someone, starting with Mr. Obama, address these questions in a plain, straightforward manner.



E D I T O R I A L
On the day before we commemorate the thousands of Americans who lost their life in a cowardly act September 11, 2001n we find the Republicans think it appropriate to pull out a quote from the Democratic candidate about lipstick on a pig. It is something that should never have been dignified with a response. Obama has always been careful to try to elevate rather that diminish the dialog. It is becoming clear that even on a day that should have been about national security and national unity the McCain/Rove thought that it was OK to trivialize all of the lost lives both on our soil and in far flung regions of the world. This is absurd, I think we have had enough our national pain is being swept aside by the spin doctors. Now they are playing to fears that we didn't know we had -- like can Sarah Palin defend her personal honor. this is disgusting, and it is time we stop it. I am not Matt Damon and therefore do not have his blessing or curse of celebrity. I'm just a guy trying to make my way in the world and pay my mortgage and plan for retirement. I am trying to understand the issues and I have had enough!

If we don't act and begin to point out the absurdity of Palin's potential "leadership" we will have a horned rimmed wearing Rove sock puppet running this country. I would say this if she were a man with equal experience, this has nothing to do with gender this is about experience. It is the cynical McCain folks who continue to shift this back to the gender issue. We out here in the working world have had many opportunities to work with and yes for capable smart women who have built their careers one challenge at a time.

Working folks can't take much more of this economy not to speak of the war, which is being pushed slowly from the main stage. Mortgage companies are folding on what seems like a daily basis, and new military crises are breaking out all over the world. The country is being littered with mortgages that is are no longer worth the paper they were written on while the CEO's fly by with platinum parachutes. Sarah touts her administrative experience, yet she is plagued by lapses in judgment (the bridge to nowhere) and a vindictive streak (state trooper gate), that spell a disaster in the making equal to or worse than the last four years This is no time to have on-the-job training for arguably the most important job in the world. It is no time to get mean--it is time to get honest. Start here:

Ask yourself while you still have time to push back from the brink, is this woman ready to govern? Is native intelligence enough to make decisions where a thorough knowledge of the geo-political, economic and enviornmental consequences of her actions could tie us down in endless war? Her world view is very important, especially when she challenges the fundamental underpinnings of modern science. I am not saying that this has to be a divisive or mean debate, but vetting a potential leader of the free world is important business - and no amount of clever deflection can change that.

MORE~HERE

Then it hit me watching the underhanded tricks played in the last election. I was reminded of the
Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready to Make Nice:"

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

Hope they don't think it is going to be that easy this time.

BLUE - COLLAR AMERICA IS SMARTER THAN YOU MAY THINK

By Mike Rose
9/1/2008
Christian Science Monitor

"Los Angeles - 'They treat us like mules,' the guy installing my washer tells me, his eyes narrowing as he wipes his hands. I had just complimented him and his partner on the speed and assurance of their work. He explains that it's rare that customers speak to him this way.

"I know what he's talking about. My mother was a waitress all her life, in coffee shops and fast-paced chain restaurants. It was hard work, but she liked it, liked "being among the public," as she would say. But that work had its sting, too – the customer who would treat her like a servant or, her biggest complaint, like she was not that bright.

"There's a lesson here for this political season: the subtle and not-so-subtle insults that blue-collar and service workers endure as part of their working lives. And those insults often have to do with intelligence.

"We like to think of the United States as a classless society. The belief in economic mobility is central to the American Dream, and we pride ourselves on our spirit of egalitarianism. But we also have a troubling streak of aristocratic bias in our national temperament, and one way it manifests itself is in the assumptions we make about people who work with their hands."

MORE HERE

Politics and the English language, GOP-style

LEONARD PITTS
Syndicated columnist

“We need change, all right. Change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington. We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington—throw out the big-government liberals.”—Mitt Romney, Sept. 3, 2008

And then the gorilla run knee socks paint porno on the Cadillac. But school laughed and didn’t we sing hats? Ahem.

Maybe you wonder what the preceding gobbledygook means. I would ask which gobbledygook you mean: mine or Mitt Romney’s? If he’s allowed to spew nonsense and people act as if he’s spoken intelligently, why can’t I? If he gets to behave as if words no longer have objective meaning, why can’t I?

If you’re a regular here, you’ve heard me rant about intellectual dishonesty. By this, I mean more than just your garden variety lie. No, to be intellectually dishonest means to argue that which you know to be untrue and to substitute ideology for intellect to the degree that you’ll do violence to language and logic rather than cross the party line.

M O R E - H E R E

More of his columns
Pitts is a columnist for the Miami Herald,
1 Herald Plaza
Miami, Fla. 33132
Email at lpitts@miamiherald.com

LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

Hey, the race is on... Now to the latest in the culture wars, the cynical merchants of shame, meet their mirror image and they show us who are the the real flip floppers. The days of instant amnesia, are over. The truth won't fade from our computer screens like it did in the past.

As Junior ( Ted Lange ) in "That's My Mama" used to say.... "I got it and I got to report it!"

"The mere formulation of a problem is far more often essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science."

- Albert Einstein

WAKE UP AMERICA!

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) addresses the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Here is one you many not have seen or heard Congressman Dennis Kucinich former Democratic candidate for president works on the theme "Wake Up America.".