Forget the Gas Pump -- Heating Bills May Be the Killer This Winter

Simran Sethi, AlterNet

Environment: Rising oil and natural gas prices may be devastating this winter. But there is something we can do about it.


Is This Election the Major Historical Turning Point It Seems to Be? Yes

Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com

Election 2008: A small election victory won't drastically turn around any of the darker challenges our country faces -- only a massive victory can do that.


Will the Economic Meltdown Undermine Interest in Health Care Reform?

Niko Karvounis, Health Beat

Health and Wellness: The current bailout is costing us only a third of what we pay each year for chronic illnesses like cancer, diabetes and obesity.

John McCain's Rage Is a National Security Issue

Post by Robert Greenwald
Video: Help everyone get to know the real Senator Hothead. More »

• Full Post

Why It's Hard to Change People's Minds

Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet

A new study shows that after being exposed to information contradicting their ideas, most people still cling to their prejudices.


Top 5 Things That Might Keep You From Voting

Allison H. Fine, Huffington Post

Election 2008: Hurry up and register -- it might already be too late in your state.

The End of American Capitalism? 5 Short Takes on Where the Financial Crisis Might Be Headed

Al Jazeera

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Five prominent economists share their thoughts on what's happening and how bad the situation really is.

McCain's Buddy Brokaw's Unfair Debate Performance

by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville - 8:01 AM

Sarah Palin: The Living Embodiment Of Everything That Has Gone Wrong With America in the Past 35 Years.

by DCap - 2:35 AM

McCain Reveals His True Colors: "That One"

by Hilzoy, Washington Monthly - 2:26 AM

Fox, CNN, CBS Reaction Groups: Obama Won

by Sam Stein, Huffington Post - 9:02 PM

Obama Coolly Dispatches Punch-Drunk McCain

by Ian Welsh, Firedoglake - 8:17 PM

DEBATE ANALYSIS: A Minute by Minute Look at McCain vs. Obama

by Staff, Think Progress - 7:39 PM

Races to Watch:
Ohio 15
Holly Yeager
October 7, 2008 | web only
Mary Jo Kilroy is running again for Congress, after losing to a Republican incumbent by just 1,055 votes in 2006. But this time around, the incumbent is gone, and the largely suburban district, like many across the country, is trending Democratic. Can she pull it off?

Mary Jo Kilroy at a news conference in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Who Will Look After the Economy Until January?
Robert Kuttner
October 8, 2008 | web only
Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, and the incoming president would do well to avoid the mistakes of the Hoover-Roosevelt interregnum, a stand-off that made it even more arduous to climb out of the Great Depression once Roosevelt finally took office.

The group blog of The American Prospect
McCain's housing surge.
Posted at 11:09 a.m.



A respectable liberal blog
Carbon pricing.
Posted at 10:55 a.m.



Dean Baker's economic commentary
A low stock market is good for young workers.
Posted at 7:48 a.m.

Obama the Facilitator
Joseph Rosenberger
Candidate Barack Obama is not an executive, by profession, but a facilitator. And therefore, he is not fit to be Commander-in-Chief. More

The Crime of the Century: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Lance Fairchok
America, we just got suckered. We fell for the biggest money grab in modern politics, possibly in the history of the nation. More

What If Obama Doesn't Have America's Best Interests at Heart?
A M Siriano
I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt. I'm not so sure about Obama. When I compare him to other prominent Democrats, I come away with a very different appraisal. More

What Newspapers Does Obama Read?
October 08, 2008
The facially preposterous claim by Obama's campaign that he did not know of Ayers' past raises an interesting question for the perky one. More

McCain fails to alter the dynamic of race in debate
October 08, 2008
McCain didn't lose - but he didn't win either. More

Tom Friedman's confusion on taxes being 'patriotic'
October 08, 2008
The difference between liberals and conservatives More

God Bless Our (Banana) Republic
October 08, 2008
ACORN up to their old tricks. More

Is Ayers really a "reformer" as the MSM paints him? (updated)
October 08, 2008
What Obama/Ayers are proposing is nothing less than changing the way teachers teach and relate to our children. More

Obama in Vogue
October 08, 2008
Nauseating sycophants in the fashion press. More

Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War
October 08, 2008
Israeli's recall their dead. Arabs celebrate their "victory" More

Fed, EU cuts interest rates by 1/2 point-it is about time!
October 08, 2008
Markets did an incredible about face -- futures substantially up, of course. More

The Premise of Obama's Brand of Socialism
October 08, 2008
One quick exchange happened during yesterday's presidential debate wherein Senator Barak Obama revealed his understanding of the nation's economy. Many missed it. More

After the debate: reactions
October 07, 2008
Further thoughts on the town hall presidential debate. More

Live blogging the presidential debate
October 07, 2008
Join us for instant reactions to the town hall forum meeting of Barack Obama and John McCain. More

In case of debate distress
October 07, 2008
Fasten your seatbealts! More

• What if McCain knows what he's doing? - Charlie Martin

• Sowing ACORNs to reap the biggest oak tree in Washington, DC - James Lewis

• The Great American Crapshoot - Jim H. Ainsworth

• How McCain Can Win - Patrick J. Casey

Have No Illusions: Justin Raimondo

Good Morning, Ehud!: Uri Avnery

Judge Releases Gitmo Uighurs: Ali Gharib

50-Yr-Olds Freed From Gitmo: Andy Worthington

Pak 'Biggest Challenge' to Next Prez: Jim Lobe

Oil, war, lies and 'bulls**t'
Claims that oil was a cause of the US invasion and continued military presence in Iraq arise from a profound failure to understand oil's underlying pricing mechanism and distracts from a proper insight into the goals of the George W Bush administration. - Cyrus Bina (Oct 8, '08)

THE MOGAMBO GURU
The Russians get on message
The impossibility of the US ever paying off its vast debt obligations and the prospect of a continually devalued US dollar have the Russians wondering just how to bill others for their gas and oil sales. The logic of gold shines through. (Oct 8, '08)

Political courage the missing link
The global economic and financial crisis is not a work of nature but the predictable result of overly expansionary monetary and fiscal policies and a deregulated and disorderly financial industry. Political courage is needed to implement the most appropriate, perhaps the least popular, policies.- Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene (Oct 7, '08)

THE BEAR'S LAIR
Market-place gods had it right
The folly of treating traditional market truths as outdated and irrelevant in the modern world is now all too apparent. Economists, financiers and regulators must return to such fundamentals as they view the wreckage their hubris has encouraged. - Martin Hutchinson (Oct 7, '08)

THE MOGAMBO GURU
Government spending spree
Banks are the focus of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's vast bailout plan but it is the government that needs the cash because it employs half the workers in the country - and the Federal Reserve prints the money the government wants. (Oct 7, '08)

Sharp Tone, No Gaffes in Town Hall Debate - Susan Page, USA Today
A Status Quo Debate - Chris Cillizza, Washington Post
Stalemate Works to Obama's Favor - Vaughn Ververs, CBS News
Boring Debate Ends in a Lot of Bad Feelings - Byron York, National Review
Mud Pies for 'That One' - Maureen Dowd, New York Times
Obama's Friends and the Truth - Maggie Gallagher, New York Post
For New Contagion, Same Old Prescriptions - Steven Pearlstein, Wash Post
Competition and Economic Openness is the Answer - Lee Ohanian, WSJ
Ignoring Reality Has a Price - David Leonhardt, New York Times
The Bailout & the Vanishing Taxpayer - Steven Malanga, RealClearMarkets
The GOP Peddles Economic Snake Oil - Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal
Over-Regulation is Not the Answer - Alvaro Vargas Llosa, The New Republic
Prepare for the Worst - Peter Ferrara, American Spectator
Asia's Fear of a Weak America - Philip Bowring, Int'l Herald Tribune
Sarah Palin is Nobody's Dummy - Camille Paglia, Salon
How Can This Woman Be Vice President? - Tom Friedman, New York Times
Religion, Bill Maher Style - William Murchison, Dallas Morning News
RCP Nat'l Average: Obama +4.7% / RCP Electoral Map: Obama +101 EVs
RCP Blog: A Town Hall About Nothing | A Contrary View | AM Report
Editorials
Pocketbook Issues Take Center Stage - USA Today
An Unenlightening Night - New York Post
McCain's Dilemma - Los Angeles Times
Taming the Tumult - Baltimore Sun

Political News & Analysis
Obama and McCain Clash Over Economy - New York Times
Candidates Say Financial Crisis Threatens U.S. Power - Wall St. Journal
McCain Struggles to Derail Obama - The Politico
Long History for Proposal on Mortgages by McCain - New York Times

Transcripts & Speeches


The Second Presidential Debate - McCain & Obama
Roundtable on the Economy & Candidates - Special Report w/Brit Hume
Analysts on the Debate Performances - The NewsHour
Obama's Robert Gibbs on "Hannity & Colmes" - Hannity & Colmes
Chairman Bernanke on the Current Economic Conditions - Ben Bernanke

Best of the Blogs
We Have a Disaster Here - Andy McCarthy, The Corner
There Was No Game Changer - Chris Cillizza, The Fix
The "Handshake" That Wasn't - Josh Marshall, TPM
Trapped in Maverickworld - Patrick Ruffini, Next Right
McCain Flip-Flopped on Mortgage Crisis - Alan Colmes, Liberaland

Highlights From 'That One'
Last night, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) participated in a town-hall style debate at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. The debate came after a week in which the financial crisis seemed to be worsening and on a day when the Dow lost over 500 points, despite the recent passage of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package. Given economic turmoil focused the two candidates primarily on domestic issues including the economy, safety net programs, and health care. McCain used the debate to seemingly abandon his previous opposition to mortgage relief for struggling homeowners and to play up false fears of crisis-level budget problems in federal entitlement programs. The AP notes that McCain's American Homeownership Resurgence Plan bears a striking resemblance to a plan proposed by the Center for American Progress, which has "been pushing a similar idea for some time." Unfortunately, McCain has spent the better part of the last few weeks working with his conservative allies to kill any effort to pass such a proposal.

A MODEST PROPOSAL: McCain's campaign said in a statement that the plan is designed "keep families in their homes" and "stabilize the housing market" by purchasing mortgages "directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers" and replacing them with "manageable, fixed-rate mortgages." It is still unclear exactly which homeowners would benefit from his plan, how he would pay for it, or why he had previously rejected similar mortgage relief efforts. But as the AP notes today, the few details of the plan McCain does provide suggest that he is now embracing an approach to alleviating the financial crisis put forward by CAP in December 2007. At the time, Andrew Jakabovics, the Associate Director of CAP's Economic Mobility Program, explained that while a variety of mortgage relief programs already exist at the federal level, there are a significant number of families with "decent credit" who don't qualify for mortgage relief because their mortgages are "under water" --in other words, the housing market decline has left them owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Jakabovics proposed reviving the New Deal-era Home Owners Loan Corporation in the form of a new institution, the Federal Foreclosure Rescue Corporation (FFRC). As CAP envisioned it, the FFRC would be empowered to buy "up the old adjustable-rate mortgages from lenders and investors and replacing them with new, tax-friendly government-rated bonds equal to the current value of these homes," while issuing "new fixed-rate mortgages to those borrowers facing default."

FALSE THREATS: As a segue into the social safety net portion of the debate, moderator Tom Brokaw claimed that "in a bipartisan way, everyone agrees" that entitlement programs are "a big ticking time bomb that will eat us up maybe even more than the mortgage crisis." McCain echoed Brokaw's sentiment saying with regard to Social Security, "We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are," but declined to name either the "problems" suggest any "fixes." Despite Brokaw's alarmism and McCain's empty rhetoric, there is no Social Security crisis. As economist Paul Krugman lamented recently, "No matter how many times you try to kill the mythical Social Security crisis, it just keeps coming back." With regard to Medicare, McCain said, "[W]e are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for future retirees that we have today." He called for a "commission...come up with recommendations" on how to address those declining benefits. Earlier this week, McCain's economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin admitted that the reason why McCain believes the United States will be "unable to provide" the same level of Medicare benefits in the future is because he needs to slash $1.3 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid to pay for his radical health care plan.

FORTHRIGHTNESS IN FOREIGN POLICY: In the foreign policy portion of the debate, McCain distinguished himself by making several puzzling misstatements and false claims. He began by arguing that if U.S. forces had withdrawn from Iraq, Iranian influence would have increased and al Qaeda would have ballooned. In reality, both of these things happened because we invaded Iraq. McCain argued that the U.S. needs to execute the "same" surge strategy in Afghanistan as we've had in Iraq, but Gen. David D. McKiernan, the new top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, "stated emphatically that no Iraq-style 'surge' of forces will end the conflict there." McCain incorrectly referred to Gen. David Petreaus, the commander of Central Command, as the "chairman of the joint chiefs of staff." McCain also chastised Obama for "announcing" that he would strike Osama bin Laden in Pakistan without Pakistan's permission, if need be. Just recently, however, McCain defended his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), when she said essentially the same thing.

IRAQ -- SEN. KENNEDY REQUESTS RAND CORPORATION STUDY ON WITHDRAWING TROOPS FROM IRAQ: The Hill reports today that "a little-noticed earmark tucked into the 2009 defense-spending bill by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) would fund a $2.4 million independent study on withdrawing troops from Iraq." The RAND Corporation has been assigned to conduct the study, "which is expected to be completed within four months to coincide with the inauguration of a new president." Though the provision does not describe exactly what the study would entail, both Kennedy and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) "suggest the study would determine the impact of withdrawing troops from Iraq." "Sen. Kennedy believes that the best way to protect our troops and our national security is to set a realistic timetable that encourages Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future," Kennedy spokesman Anthony Coley told The Hill. "This analysis will provide an objective and independent perspective on how best to do that." "This new RAND study will publicly and independently help chart the responsible course ahead," said Byrd in a floor speech on Sept. 27. Though "the outcome of the study would not be binding," it could give ammunition to withdrawal proponents while putting "pressure on the Pentagon to accelerate its plans on withdrawing troops." Read the Center for American Progress's report on how to redeploy from Iraq here.

CIVIL LIBERTIES -- DOCUMENTS SHOW MILITARY WARNED PENTAGON ABOUT AMERICAN DETAINEES' SANITY: Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Yale Law School show that the military "warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation" while held in a military brig off the coast of South Carolina. The administration ordered the military to treat Yaser Hamdi, an American, the same way Guantanamo bay prisoners were treated -- outside the reach of the U.S. Constitution. "These documents are the first clear confirmation of what we've suspected all along, that the brig was run as a prison beyond the law. There was an effort to create a Gitmo inside the United States," Jonathan Hafetz of the ACLU's National Security Project in New York said. The documents show military officers growing increasingly uncomfortable with the treatment of the Hamdi. "I fear the rubber band is nearing its breaking point here and not totally confident I can keep his head in the game much longer," one officer wrote in 2003. Another requested an "an incentive program" to reward Hamdi's good behavior. The Bush administration had ordered these Americans held "indefinitely without charges, without bail and without access to lawyers." Defense lawyers for Guantanamo detainees have described the difficulty of defending someone driven "insane" by his captivity.

ETHICS -- AIG EXECUTIVES WENT ON LUXURIOUS RETREAT ONE WEEK AFTER RECEIVING $85 BILLION BAILOUT: Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee revealed that just one week after the federal government bailed out insurance giant AIG, company executives went on a retreat to a luxury resort. The executives spent nearly $500,000 on manicures, facials, pedicures, and massages, among other things. During a hearing today, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) asked, “Have you heard of anything more outrageous?" "AIG spent $200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon. They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don't know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?" Cummings said. Earlier this week, Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld admitted to Congress that he has taken home over $300 million since 2000, "some $60 million in cash compensation." Furthermore, "executives who feared for their bonuses in the company’s last months were told not to worry," even as Lehman plead for a federal bailout. Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) revealed that "“the board give three departing executives over $20 million in ‘special payments.'"

The Congressional Budget Office's top budget analyst said that the prolonged downturn in the stock market "has wiped out about $2 trillion in Americans’ retirement savings in the past 15 months, a blow that could force workers to stay on the job longer than planned, rein in spending and possibly further stall an economy reliant on consumer dollars."

"The federal budget deficit hit a new record in the just-completed 2008 budget year under the latest estimates from the CBO. The record $438 billion shortfall for the budget year that ended last week is up from $162 billion posted last year. The previous record of $413 billion was posted in 2004." Next year's deficit was recently projected to be as high as $600 billion.

Nearly one in six American homeowners owe "more on a mortgage than the home is worth, raising the possibility of a rise in defaults -- the very misfortune that touched off the credit crisis last year." So many homeowners "under water" is "likely to mean more eventual foreclosures" and increased pressure on an economy already in a downturn.

Gen. David Petraeus, the soon-to-be commander of U.S. Central Command speaks at the conservative Heritage Foundation today at 11 a.m. ET. You can watch live online here.

A U.S. military investigation has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in an Afghan village killed 30 civilians -- far more than the five to seven casualties that American commanders there has previously acknowledged. The Afghan government has insisted that 90 civilians died in that attack.

The Treasury Department is moving quickly this week to "start outsourcing the management of up to $700 billion in troubled securities, using special contracting authorities that enable it to retain private portfolio managers, custodians and other financial services consultants without following standard acquisition procedures."

Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte said Tuesday that "American and Iraqi negotiators were close to resolving issues” that have kept to two sides from an agreement “governing the continued presence of American troops in the country."

And finally: Let's learn judo with Vladimir Putin. After being pictured fishing shirtless and "shooting a tiger in the Siberian forest," the Russian Prime Minister has now released a 90-minute DVD instructing young people in the Japanese martial art of judo. In the video, Putin, a black belt champion, talks "about the history and philosophy of judo" and demonstrates "moves against a practice partner."

ALAN JENKINS
Pre-Inventing History ourfuture.org — You've got to admire the conservative echo chamber. In the shadow of a financial meltdown that McCain and Obama both (correctly) agree stemmed largely from a lack of governmental oversight of irresponsible corporate behavior, conservative spinmeisters are blaming the meltdown on too many loans to minorities, the Community Reinvestment Act, and the heavy hand of...wait for it...community organizers.

JOE WANTZ
A Real Solution for our Economy ourfuture.org — The national conversation has been focused squarely on the economy in the last several weeks, with pundits and experts breathlessly declaring a financial catastrophe of epic scale. Of course, those of us who live in the real world knew the economy has been in trouble far before Wall Street failed.

JONATHAN FREEDLAND
This is a Crisis of Democracy guardian.co.uk — The solution is surely for governments to realize that if they are weak, the high priests of high finance are even weaker. The politicians should provide the help the banks need, but with the tightest of strings attached, regulating finance so closely that it can never again gorge itself the way it has these past few years. Democracy has to assert itself once more — and tame this beast.

ADRIANNE APPEL
Bailing Out a Boat Full of Holes ipsnews.net — The U.S. Treasury's bonanza from Congress to hand out 700 billion dollars to Wall Street is not what the country needs to right its shaky economy.

NICHOLAS VON HOFFMAN
The Dow's Decline and Fall thenation.com — This is one of those days your financial adviser never told you about. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 10,000, taking with it the savings of millions. How the money runs out and goes who knows where!

HENRY BLODGET
So What Happens Now? alternet.org — Now that the government has been terrified into rubber-stamping the Wall Street bailout, what happens now?

AL JAZEERA
The End of American Capitalism? alternet.org — Does the crisis signal the end of U.S.-style capitalism? And if so, what are the lessons learned? Five prominent economists offer their short take.

SAM PIZZIGATI
Wall Street's Meltdown: How America Caught Speculative Fever alternet.org — To fix the U.S. economy, we don't need a bailout that rescues the rich. We need a bailout that soaks them.

GIDEON RACHMAN
Conservatism Overshoots Its Limits ft.com — The market for ideas — like the market for shares — always overshoots. Ideas become fashionable and get pushed to their logical conclusion and beyond, as their backers succumb to "irrational exuberance." Then comes the crash. What we are experiencing now is the bust that has followed the 30-year bull run in conservative ideas that began with the Thatcher-Reagan revolution of 1979-80.

SUSAN J. DOUGLAS
The End of Aggressive Ignorance? inthesetimes.com — There is a war being waged now, in the waning days of the Bush administration and the campaign, against the triumph of aggressive ignorance. Aggressive ignorance defiantly shoves its utter lack of knowledge in your face and brays: "Facts? We don't need no stinkin' facts!"

DANIEL GROSS
Subprime Suspects newsweek.com — The right blames the credit crisis on poor minority homeowners. This is not merely offensive, but entirely wrong.

Professor Obama Schools McCain
The former law prof. dominated McCain's favored format.
by Noam Scheiber

• Chait: This Wasn't Even Close
• Kusnet: McCain Debated Like Dole
• Fairbanks: The I-Told-You-So Debate
• E.J. Dionne: Who's The Real McCain?
• Cohn: Obama Nails Health Care

Barack Is Finally Getting Comfortable With The Idea Of President Obama
by John B. Judis
If McCain Wants To Sling Mud, He Needs To Get His Own Hands Dirty
by Franklin Foer
TNR EXCLUSIVE: More Unpublished Palin-phernalia, Including A Strategy Memo She Wrote To Her Would-Be Supporters
by Noam Scheiber
The Biggest Myth To Bust Before We Start Devising Our Post-Bailout Economic Future
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa

Progressive Voter Guide to the Economy

By AlterNet

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: From the housing crisis to the minimum wage, a look at where the candidates stand on nine important economic issues.

Let's Just Say You Had $700 Billion to Spend

Allison Stevens, Women's eNews

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: A look at what we could do instead with $700 billion to spend fixing up our world.


How Low Will Palin Go in Her Mudslinging?

Robert Parry, Consortium News

Election 2008: Palin may not even understand the significance of her baseless attacks on Obama that are straight out of the neocon playbook.


Can the People Who Live in Coastal Towns Ever Be Safe From Hurricanes?

Lizzy Ratner, AlterNet

Water: Environmental destruction is making it harder and harder to protect coastal dwellers and their communities.

How T. Boone Pickens' Energy Plan Just Got Killed
David Morris, AlterNet

Environment: The new bailout plan passed by Congress may have put the nail in the coffin on Pickens' dangerous energy proposal.


Stuff White People Like

Samhita Mukhopadhyay, The American Prospect

What does an extremely popular blog about white culture tell us about race in America?


Sarah Palin: The Rape Kit Controversy

Staff, Wasilla Project

Video: If someone's home is burglarized, the tools of investigation are not paid for by the victim. Why was rape considered different in Wasilla?

• GOP finds Toppling House Democrats Difficult
• Economy Heats Race in Ohio ’Barometer’ County
• Taxpayers, Not Lenders, Would Bear Costs of McCain’s Mortgage Proposal
• Two Words Touch Off a Lot More of Them
• Voter Purges in 6 States May Violate Law

That Viper, Katie Couric: The World According to Camille Paglia

by Kathy G, The G-Spot - 3:00 AM

Conservatives Hate That Obama Pronounces Words Correctly

by Staff, Think Progress - 5:02 PM

Is the McCain Campaign Behind the Hate Speech at Rallies?

by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly - 4:01 PM

GOP Backs Off Montana Voter Challenges

by Steven Rosenfeld - 3:03 PM

Presidential Debates are an Insult to Our Collective Intelligence

by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake - 1:52 PM

AIG Execs Receive a Flogging from Congress

by Lagan Sebert, American News Project

Sympathy for McCain
Mark Schmitt
October 8, 2008 | web only
Negative campaigning has destroyed the McCain brand. But it was always more fragile than McCain had let himself believe.

McCain's Ideas Fell Flat
Harold Meyerson
John McCain tried and failed to remake himself as an economic populist during Tuesday's debate.

The debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The group blog of The American Prospect
Are states illegally removing voters from the rolls?
Posted at 9:05 a.m.



A respectable liberal blog
The roughest press conference ever.
Posted at 1:24 a.m.



Dean Baker's economic commentary
Almost one in six homeowners underwater.
Posted at 5:58 a.m.

Can We Have a New Deal Without the New Dealers?
Eric Rauchway
October 9, 2008 | web only
Can a massive government intervention in the economy work if it is being run by people who don't believe in government?

Man Without a Shadow: An Interview with Barton Gellman
Tara McKelvey
October 9, 2008 | web only
Barton Gellman, author of Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, reveals the inner workings of one of the most secretive offices in history.

Who Will Look After the Economy Until January?
Robert Kuttner
October 8, 2008 | web only
Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, and the incoming president would do well to avoid the mistakes of the Hoover-Roosevelt interregnum, a stand-off that made it even more arduous to climb out of the Great Depression once Roosevelt finally took office.

Who Wrote Dreams From My Father?
Jack Cashill
Prior to 1990, when Barack Obama contracted to write Dreams From My Father, he had written very close to nothing. Then, five years later, this untested 33 year-old produced what Time Magazine has called -- with a straight face -- "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician." More

Can McCain Come Back?
Richard Baehr
It's all about the Electoral College and a referendum on Obama. More

Polls: Obama or McCain Is Winning
Steven M. Warshawsky
Widespread, and indeed intentional, misreporting about what the polls allegedly show is one of the most frustrating -- and ultimately harmful -- aspects of the presidential campaign season. More

Afghanistan in 'downward spiral' - NIE
October 09, 2008
Nothing really new in the National Intelligence Estimate but it will paint a grim picture of the situation More

Obama supporters violated the act he proposed on 'electronic jamming'
October 09, 2008
Senator Obama piously proposed a law in 2006 to outlaw the sort of intimidation his own campaign has been practicing this year. More

Here comes the race card
October 09, 2008
What must McCain do to counter? More

Wonder How the Dems Will Finance All the New Giveaways?
October 08, 2008
Cutting out every single tax break they can get their hands on, including your 401(k) More

Archives prove Obama was a New Party member
October 08, 2008
Another piece in the puzzle of Barack Obama has been revealed, greatly strengthening the picture of a man groomed by an older generation of radical leftists for insertion into the American political process More

What Newspapers Does Obama Read?
October 08, 2008
The facially preposterous claim by Obama's campaign that he did not know of Ayers' past raises an interesting question for the perky one. More

McCain fails to alter the dynamic of race in debate
October 08, 2008
McCain didn't lose - but he didn't win either. More

Tom Friedman's confusion on taxes being 'patriotic'
October 08, 2008
The difference between liberals and conservatives More

God Bless Our (Banana) Republic
October 08, 2008
ACORN up to their old tricks. More

Is Ayers really a "reformer" as the MSM paints him? (updated)
October 08, 2008
What Obama/Ayers are proposing is nothing less than changing the way teachers teach and relate to our children. More

Obama in Vogue
October 08, 2008
Nauseating sycophants in the fashion press. More

Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War
October 08, 2008
Israeli's recall their dead. Arabs celebrate their "victory" More

• Obama the Facilitator - Joseph Rosenberger

• The Crime of the Century: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - Lance Fairchok

• What If Obama Doesn't Have America's Best Interests at Heart? - A M Siriano

• Dirty tricks for a higher cause? - Paul Shlichta

Robert Scheer:
A Plague Upon the White House


Peter Costantini:
This Sucker Could Go Down


Dave Zirin:
Sarah Palin's Extreme Sports


Donna Smith:
Wall Street Flops Cannot Become Patient Swaps


Mark Morford:
Planet Obama


Sam Oliker-Friedland:
Make Absentee Voting Easier for All

GOP Judges Aid White House Cover-up
A Republican-dominated federal Appeals Court panel blocked Congress from getting testimony from top White House aides about the political firings of nine prosecutors, reports Jason Leopold. October 7, 2008

McCain Shows Disdain for Obama
Falling behind in the polls, John McCain gets nastier toward Barack Obama. Watch TheRealNews.com's video. October 8, 2008

Wall St.'s Iraq-War-Sized Bailout
The $700 billion Wall Street bailout was a moment of Iraq War-style haste on a domestic problem. Watch TheRealNews.com's video. October 8, 2008

Election '08: Here Comes the Sludge
Sarah Palin's new guilt-by-association attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism mark Campaign 2008's long-expected descent into the sewers, reports Robert Parry. October 6, 2008

Alaska GOP's Last-Ditch Palin Defense
Only days before a scheduled report on Gov. Sarah Palin's "Troopergate" scandal, Republican allies in Alaska are trying to shut down the inquiry, Jason Leopold reports. October 6, 2008

Paying the Piper, Big Time -- Video
To understand how the United States lost its way, you must go back three decades. Watch TheRealNews.com's video. October 6, 2008

Congress OKs Huge Pentagon Budget
With the focus on a $700 billion Wall Street bailout, the Pentagon hauled in $615 billion. Watch TheRealNews.com's video. October 5, 2008

Will 2008 Be a Major Realigning Election? - Steven Stark, Boston Phoenix
McCain in a Bear Market - George Will, Washington Post
Can McCain Come Back? - Richard Baehr, American Thinker
The Obama Surge: Will It Last? - Joe Klein, Time
Dem Strategists See Landslide in Making - David Paul Kuhn, The Politico
It's the Culture, Stupid - Quin Hillyer, The American Spectator
Voting the Fate of the Nation - Chalmers Johnson, The Nation
News Flash: The Media Back Obama - Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall St. Journal
Resilient America Struggles - Frida Ghitis, Miami Herald
Meltdown Has Many Culprits - Rick Santorum, Philadelphia Inquirer
Our Choice: Recession or Depression - Nouriel Roubini, Forbes
Fannie and Freddie Must Go - David Oedel, Christian Science Monitor
Wall Street 101 - Victor Davis Hanson, RealClearPolitics
Saved by the Deficit? - Robert Reich, New York Times
Financial Apocalypse Not as Scary as Nuclear One - John Diamond, USAT
Running From Reality - David Broder, Washington Post
Dem Chances in Congress Rise on Economic Woes - Wilson & Trygstad, RCP
RCP Blog: Mac Web Ad: Ayers | AM Report / Politics Nation: Strat Memo
Editorials
Looking for Leadership - Newsday
John McCain Wants Your Mortgage - Wall Street Journal
McCain, Obama Misjudge Voter Appetite for Spending - Detroit News
AIG, Party On! - Chicago Tribune

Obama Wraps His Hopes Inside Economic Anxiety - New York Times
McCain Reshuffles Rescue Deal - Wall Street Journal
McCain's Mortgage Plan Draws Fire from Obama, Economists - McClatchy
Obama Rallies in Indiana - Chicago Tribune

Transcripts & Speeches


Obama's Speech in Indianapolis - Barack Obama
McCain, Palin Interview with Hannity - Hannity & Colmes
Obama Interview with ABC News - World News
Roundtable's Post-Debate Analysis - Special Report w/Brit Hume
McCain Talks About Mortgage Plan in PA - John McCain

Best of the Blogs
Back to the Future - John Cole, Balloon Juice
Obama in the Corner - David Frum, Frum's Diary
Should Cindy McCain Be Fair Game? - Steve Benen, Political Animal
My Fellow Prisoners - Dave Ross, Big Lizards
Indianapolis Voter Registration at 105% - James Joyner, OTB

How Can This Woman Be Vice President?
- Tom Friedman, New York Times
President Barack Hoover
- Hugh Hewitt, Townhall
Paging Rick Warren
- Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
Boring Debate Ends in a Lot of Bad Feelings
- Byron York, National Review

ROBERT KUTTNER
Who Will Look After the Economy Until January? prospect.org — Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, and the incoming president would do well to avoid the mistakes of the Hoover-Roosevelt interregnum, a stand-off that made it even more arduous to climb out of the Great Depression once Roosevelt finally took office.

ROBERT B. REICH
Saved by the Deficit? nytimes.com —If the nation plunges into a deeper recession, the deficit will be even larger as a proportion of the economy. Yet all is not what it seems.

JUSTIN FOX
Treasury Prepares for a TARP-and-Switch time-blog.com — Did anybody else notice that when Hank Paulson was describing in his press conference what the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act enables Treasury to do, the first thing he listed was "to inject capital into financial institutions"?

THOMAS FRANK
The GOP Peddles Economic Snake Oil online.wsj.com — Conservative misrule, prompted by conservative disdain for government, proves that government cannot be trusted — and that the only answer is to elect another round of government-denouncing conservatives. "Cynicism" seems too small a word for this circular kind of political fraud. One reaches instead for images of grosser malevolence. It's like suggesting that the best way to recover from pneumonia is to stand in the rain for three hours.

SEUMAS MILNE
The Crashing of Market Fundamentalism guardian.co.uk — After a generation during which any suggestion of interference in the magic garden of City finance has been treated as destructive heresy, the rescue plan is a telling demonstration of the vast potential of public action — as well as that, in the words of the celebrated former British industrialist Arnold Weinstock, "there is no such thing as a free market."

ROBERT WEISSMAN
Time For a New Model of Global Trade boston.com — Now come the second thoughts on globalization. Never before have world markets been so integrated. And yesterday's concerted interest rate cuts by central banks in the United States and other countries from Britain to China was a signal that the financial crisis rippling around the globe has grown too big for any one of them — even the US Federal Reserve — to contain on its own.

BOB HERBERT
A Fool's Paradise nytimes.com — The economy won't be saved by bailing out Wall Street and waiting for that day that never comes when the benefits trickle down to ordinary Americans. It won't be saved until we get serious about putting vast numbers of Americans back to work in jobs that are reasonably secure and pay a sustaining wage.

VAN JONES
After the Platinum Parachutes, A Green Lifeline gristmill.grist.org — At best, the federal government's bail out of Wall Street will help the U.S. economy — which is already in a ditch ̵ avoid a total meltdown. Fine. Now we need a plan to jumpstart the economy and actually get America moving again.

AARONSW
An Economics Lesson: Expansionary Economics openleft.com — There's a pervasive frame that when times get tough, we've got to tighten our belts. But while this might make some sense for families, it's nonsense for the government. Belt-tightening means pulling even more money out, which means even more jobless and weakened. The only way to get things moving again is if the government counteracts these trends by investing — getting more money into the economy so that it starts bulking up instead of cutting back.

DAVID GUMPERT
Toxic Loans, Tainted Food thenation.com — What do American collateralized debt obligations have in common with Chinese dairy products? Both the distressed loans and the distressed food are teaching us important lessons about the limits of scale and regulation that support the massive globalization of the last decade.

GREG COLVIN
Ten Sacrifices We, and the Next President, Will Face At Tuesday night's debate, the presidential candidates were asked a question that deserves much more attention.

LEO GERARD
Joe Sixpack Demands Answers From McCain & Co. Sarah "Joe-Sixpack" Palin pulled her labor union roots out of the frozen Alaskan soil and started shaking them at normally union-allergic Republican crowds from the day John McCain announced her as his running mate.

ISAIAH J. POOLE
The Obstructionist Gang of 21 Our latest report on the block-and-blame game in the 100th Congress identifies 21 senators who voted to filibuster on each of 12 key votes on bills that passed the House and which had significant popular support.

BILL SCHER
Economic Crisis Beats Racial Divisiveness Perhaps the first sign that racism may not play a determining role in the general election was when the McCain campaign gave up on Michigan.

RICK PERLSTEIN
Follow the (Very Small Amounts of, From Ordinary Politically Engaged Citizens) Money Not to overload you all with NIXONLAND references, but man is the media carousel stuck on stupid. Mob Law (UPDATED with Video) There's been a lot of discussion of the terrifying lynch mob mentality that has begun infesting John McCain presidential rallies (even Fox News is worried). Nothing new, of course.

More of the Same
Conservatives respond to the public's rejection of conservative governance by retroactively declaring the conservatives in power as "false" conservatives — then ask for another chance with the nex

more talking points >>

In answer to the question, 'Are you better off today than you were before George Bush took office more than seven years ago,' if you look at the overall record and the millions of jobs that have been created since President Bush took office, you could make an argument that there's been great progress economically over that period of time.

Here are the facts:

Between March 2001 and March 2008 the nation lost almost 3.3 million manufacturing jobs, and only gained 5.3 million jobs overall — just slightly more than half the number of jobs needed to keep pace with the 9.8 million people added to the labor force during that period. That's why the unemployment rate is 15.7 percent higher in March 2008 than it was in March 2001. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

The share of the population with jobs declined from 64.3 percent of the population in March 2001 to 62.6 percent of the population in March 2008. It's the first time on record that a period of "economic recovery" has been marched by an actual decline in the employment rate. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic Policy Institute)

Hourly wages rose 3.6 percent over the past year, the slowest growth rate in two years, and well behind recent inflationary readings, which have been around 4 percent. What's worse, employees on average have been keeping their workers on the job for fewer hours in the past year, so weekly earnings are up only 3.3 percent over the past year. (Economic Policy Institute).

Since the late 1990's, average incomes fell by 2.5 percent for those in the bottom fifth of the income scale and rose by just 1.3 percent for those in the middle fifth. Meanwhile, incomes climbed 9 percent for those in the top fifth, not counting income from capital gains. (Economic Policy Institute)

At the same time, the consumer price index from March 2001 to March 2008 has increased 17.5 percent. (Inflation Data.com)

People in the top 1 percent of the income bracket captured about half of the overall economic growth between 1993 and 2006. (Emmanuel Saez, University of California, Berkeley)

DAVID SIROTA
Crony Communist or Businessman? Is Henry Paulson a crony communist or a businessman? The answer could be the difference between economic disaster and recovery.

Are New Nuclear Bargains Attainable?
Deepti Choubey, Carnegie Report If the United States and other countries with nuclear weapons take action toward further disarmament, they hope that countries without them will support additional efforts to prevent the further spread and use of nuclear weapons. But non-weapon states take a different view. Citing the unfulfilled promises of nuclear-weapon states, they declare such a bargain to be unfair and a misreading of the political landscape.

A better understanding of the views of non-weapon states would provide the next U.S. administration with a serious opportunity to lead the rebuilding of a dangerously damaged nonproliferation regime, explains Deepti Choubey in a new report (PDF).

Bush Signs US-India Nuclear Law Agence France-Presse US President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed legislation to enact a landma