after the money's gone

Can we hear from the disappointed, bitter decent Republicans who feel like, "This is not my Republican party! My God!... what have I done?" Now that all the money's gone.

Same as it ever was.

Same as it ever was.

During the campaign, I wondered if the GOP would rise up, rise up and toss the lunatic fringe overboard, reclaim their party for the fiscally conservative, socially tolerant among you -- there must be some there, no? -- and make the other ones go form their own party, like Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National in France. A radical, racist, socially conservative, anti-immigration nationalist party merely capable of splintering an election result, not taking over a country as the neocons did for 8 years.

Same as it ever was.

Trust me, George IV did more to make sure that won't happen in France any time soon than Le Pen could dreamed have accomplishing, although he did manage to do a number on those who flirted with fire, showing their frustration with criminality and unemployment by voting for him in round one against Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who should have been in the second round against Chirac.

Perhaps you could take an idea from this country of the Enlightenment philosophy that spawned The United States of America (if you believe it wasn't purely economically motivated; when Enlightenment sheep lie down with the lions of commerce, a great democracy is born) with more than a smidgen of hubris. Ahem.

Believe your principles of social justice, honor your rule of law that protects every citizen from another, maintain a separation of church and state and keep your main political parties aligned with the axis of your constitution and towards the center of the bell-curve of society, rather than out at its screaming extremes.

What's that? The gays are the extreme? When they are asking to marry and raise a family, not have a quickie in the men's room at Minneapolis St.Paul International Airport?

Nah, think again.

Hey, let's look at this together again... then, pst! Do something... sign the petition and send it along before Valentine's Day...


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Stick rather, Barack (sorry, we were classmates, so it's hard to get used to calling you "Mr. President" and "President Obama"), to your sense of what is right and wrong and, as Jericho said, talk not to the politicians, but to those who vote for them. Talk straight from your principles, using your considerable oratorical power to reach them. Tell them why what is uncomfortable is yet right, why what is cause of fear is yet worth finding a little courage for. Be a leader and continue to lead us to a better society, a better country, a finer hour in history like you did throughout the campaign. This is no time for compromise when we are on the threshold of a transformation in our society, and you could be the one to lead it, not to betray it in compromise. You don't need to be afraid. We are your lieutenants (unless you betray too many of us, my gay friends and family members on the top of that list).

We've got your back.

I've got to say, while I am on the subject again, Barack, that I don't agree with Frank Schaeffer when he says that you were right to invite to have Rick Warren to pray at your inauguration. I could start with saying that there is no place for public prayer in government, but tokenism is always wrong. That's like saying, "You were right, Mr. President, for nominating Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the bench. A little tokenism can't hurt. Might mollify the colored people." You fell there. You never promised equality to gays, but you didn't have to put a man up in front of the nation at the moment of your investiture, and have him pray for their damned, craven souls.

You might have been right in a highly qualified sense to indulge in a little tokenism praying, but led by a person who publicly condemns none.

I want to know, from those who are its members but do not consider themselves at ease with either of these factions of the Republican party, who are cast adrift whether you care, how you identify yourselves right now, what it means to you and what you want. I'd be furious if it were my party, and I don't know if it would be enough for me to content myself with voting with the Democrats and calling myself an Independent.

Are we heading to a real three party system, with the Independents picking up the phlogiston of the Republican conflagration?

Are we going to see the extremes in the Republican party lose their hold in the subsequent congressional and senate election cycles with a host of Independents who feel themselves to be Republicans of a pre-Nixon era taking back their party?

Or, are we going to see a continued rise in the Democratic party as it expresses it principles and aims for the nation in this time?

I think there are a couple tiny mistakes in the first couple paragraphs, but you get the idea...

Frank Schaeffer

Posted February 11, 2009 | 05:17 PM (EST)

An Open Letter to President Obama About the Republicans (From a Former Republican)

Dear President Obama: I know that from time to time you read Huffington Post because you've written for it. As a Huffington Post reader you'll know that no one on this web site has more faithfully supported your candidacy and now your presidency than me. As a former lifelong Republican, son of a co-founder of the Religious Right; my late evangelical leader father, Francis Schaeffer, I'm in a unique position to tell you a few things about the Republicans from inside perspective. (As you know I left that movement in the mid 1980s.)

*The lack of cooperation you're getting from the Republican Party will continue. You were right to indulge in a little bit of tokenism when you had to Pastor Rick Warren pray at your inauguration. But if you think that the Republicans in Congress and the Senate are going to do more than their utmost to obstruct everything you are and what you stand for you're dreaming.

As someone who appeared numerous times on the 700 Club with Pat Robertson, as someone for whom Jerry Falwell used to send his private jet to bring me to speak at his college, as an author who had James Dobson giveaway 150,000 copies of my one of my fundamentalist "books" allow me to explain something: the Republican Party is controlled by two ideological groups. First, is the Religious Right. Second, are the neoconservatives. Both groups share one thing in common: they are driven by fear and paranoia. Between them there is no Republican "center" for you to appeal to, just two versions of hate-filled extremes.

The Religious Right supply the kind of people who at McCain and Palin rallies were yelling things such as "kill him" about you. That's the constituency to which your hand was extended when looking for compromise on your financial bailout bill.

There's only one thing that makes sense for you now. Mr. President, you need to forget a bipartisan approach and get on with the business of governing by winning each battle. You will never be able to work with the Republicans because they hate you. Believe me, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the norm not the exception. James Dobson and the rest are praying for you to fail. The neoconservatives are gnashing their teeth and waiting for you to "sell out Israel" or "show weakness" in Afghanistan, whatever, so they can declare you a traitor.

The problem is that when you deal with the Republican Party you're talking to the polished characters in Washington. I wish you could see the hate e-mail's that I have received over the last two years because I supported you, letters calling for God to kill me, telling me that I hate God because I supported you and that I am "an abortionist" and worse a "fag lover" because I've written that I believe that you will be a great president.

What those senators and congressmen are telling you is not what their rabid core constituents are telling them. Their loyalty is to a fundamentalist Christian ideology on the one hand and American exceptionalism of perpetual warfare and hatred and fear of the "other" on the other hand. Between the neoconservatives and evangelical Religious Right Republicans you have no friends.

The good news is that most Americans support you. And if you will just get in the face of the Republican Party and call their bluff you'll be surprised how many individual ordinary Republicans will support you, not to mention the rest of us. America is sick of the Republicans.

The Democratic Party won for a reason: the Republicans failed and have taken us all down with them! You're doing your presidency and America no favor by extending an open hand to the perpetually knotted fist of what has become the embittered lunatic fringe of our country. They would rather go down in flames than "compromise" their ideology.

As you showed us again at your press conference of Feb 9, you are a brilliant, articulate and decent man. Your Republican opponents are not decent people but ideologues bent on destroying you. To quote the biblical adage sir, don't cast your pearls before swine.

Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. Now in paperback.

*Ed. Note: Not to put too fine a point on Mr. Schaeffer's propos -- http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30623

....

And I really like this notion. I really, really do --

Taking Stock in America, or the American Stockholder

America’s horror of “nationalization” could be defused by handing out shares to all American households. President Bush used to talk about building an “ownership society.” Well, giving shares in big banks to all American households would be a terrific way to do that.

I just have to include this from Kristof today, too. Thank you, Sir:

Yes, troubled banks might lose good people to hedge funds that can pay more because they’re not bound by these curbs. But that upsets me less than the idea of single mothers working multiple jobs so that their tax dollars can underwrite million-dollar bonuses at companies getting taxpayer assistance.

But, keep those single mothers out of those hedge funds, for everyone's sake.

So, why not look to Sweden for their bank bail-out model, and to France for national health care?

Why not, America? We weren't exactly screaming, "But that's not American, it's French!" when we were borrowing their philosophical principles for our constitution and relying on their military and financial support to get the job done.

Why not, indeed.

....

once in a lifetime

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
Wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

....

Facing the truth in the garden

Two and a half hours of soaking rain

I'm raking in the rain
Just raking in the rain
What a miserable feeling
I'm soaked again

I'm swearing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun's in Miami
And I'm in Mousseaux sur Seine

Don't ask what got into me. It works that way. It always does. It's not necessarily good, nor anything to be proud of. I let things go until -- I can't anymore. I am propelled up off the sofa and out under the drenching rain to try and light -- a fire.

Yes. A fire. It failed. All I managed to burn were all the sheets of printer paper I filled with the names of everyone who wanted to be on the list for the MYBO Grassroots Inaugural Ball. They burned spectacularly.

The burning pile is down there since sometime last fall, not burned, and I have bin after bin of leaves I never raked to pile on top. If I were smart, I would compost them. I usually stuff them into the tons of empty topsoil bags I have collected over the years, load them into the front courtyard and let them turn to compost before finally getting grossed-out enough to shove them into the Fiat and take them -- carload after carload -- to the dump. I am sick of myself for that, so I am tossing them into a bin, and taking bin after bin to the burning pile, hoping for a break in the wet, endlessly wet weather before I can't burn anymore to be able to set fire to that mountain.

The neighbor will complain -- the one a few houses down, who has nothing better to do that watch to see if smoke is drifting into her garden still at 5 minutes after noon -- as sure as I am sitting here on the sofa losing feeling in my lower legs, tucked up under me to make a nice pillow for Shadow.

I'll tell you what got into me. Fear and shame. I found the following scribbled on my Wall, "Vivement le printemps qu'on revoie ton 'jardin extraordinaire'."

Yup. That'll do it. That will send me out under the rain to work until my head looks like Medusa's and my leather work-gloves squish, the hood of my L.L. Bean Goretex shell gradually filling with rainwater and trickling down the back of my fleece jacket inside.

I never did my fall work in the garden. There was an election about which I was particularly interested in the outcome. You might recall that. Barack Obama was running against Sarah Palin for president. Oh, sorry, that's John McCain. He was running against John McCain for president, and I got a little carried away, allowing myself to come under the belief that spending all day and a good part of the night emailing was going to make sure that Palin got nowhere nearer to bad old Washington, a city she said she hated, but seemed awfully eager to move to with her family, strangely enough.

Did her daughter ever have her baby, by the way?

Ah, yes. I missed that. Tripp. Wasn't one of Palin's own kids named Tripp? Or was that Twig? Got to go Google again.

Ah, Trig. Got it. It's easy to Tripp over that one.

So, wait, who's holding Trig now while Bristol cradles Tripp and studies her trig by correspondence course to complete her high school diploma? Willow? Wait until she gives birth to Twig.

Ok, so, someone who thinks my garden is nice wrote that and electrocuted me off my couch today. My garden is not ready for anyone to revoir it, not even someone disposed to think kindly of it, and of me. I never raked the fallen leaves, and I never pruned the dead lavender. I never pruned, and I never put down mulch in the beds. It wasn't the election alone. It was also the work on the house, captivating me -- in all my hope for it -- and watching the mess grow on the main terrace, and a serious loss of faith.

I was so proud of my garden. Proud that having known nothing whatsoever about gardening that I had managed so much. Prouder of all the work I had done in it without complaining too much. Proudest of what other people thought about that.

Then, one day about a year and a half ago, my mother-in-law asked that I bring the photobooks that I had made of the history of my work in it. She put the sun in my heart and made it sing, delighting in the photos, as she turned page after page, lingering and catching her breath at the site of a burst of color, a patch of emerald lawn. I felt about 5-years-old in the grandeur of my delight and pride when she handed the book to my father-in-law, seated at the table on the gravel of the terrace outside their house that looks down over the Loir from the hillside where it sits these 150 years, not very old for France, but venerable; "Le Chalet", a 19th century hunting lodge with two floors of bedrooms. I waited for him to pronounce my transformation nothing short of a miracle, handing me a ribbon to hang in my room.

"Les photos mentent," he said, sounding more like a photojournalism critic than a mean person, but that didn't stop me from shattering into fragments, lost in the decorative gravel around his chair. I waited. If I said anything, my voice would have betrayed me. I needed to make him sound as kind as he always intends to be, even when he makes a tiny little mistake. My mother-in-law returned from the kitchen.

"C'est vraiment formidable, ce qu'elle a fait, non?" She asked her husband, fully expecting to hear her own praise returned, taken to a new height, and turned to beam at me. She surely caught the tight expression across my lips and cheeks as I stood there, smiling back, the hollowness of panic in my eyes.

"François vient de remarquer, très justement," I provided, "que les photos ne raccontent pas la vérité du jardin mais ont plutôt tendence à embellir, uh -- à souligner ce qui est le plus beau et à, à éffacer les défauts." Like models in a fashion rag, I thought, watching my father-in-law as I spoke the words, preferring that she hear them from me than he so that I could show her that I was just fine. Really. Her face tightened and rotated towards her husband. He wasn't going to get off so lightly; neither was she convinced of my being perfectly fine, by my generous show of tact.

"Mais, c'est vrai, ce qu'il dit. Les photos sont toujours prises au moment quand le jardin nous montre son meilleur -- une lumière magique, la plénitude de ses couleurs de fleurs, ses verts, les plantes bien taillés, sa proprété. Nous n'y voyons dans ces pages le jardin à son pire, ce qui n'est pas fait ou ce qui n'est pas réussi. " But even if the photos didn't show the truth of the ugly moments, the failures and disappointments, the times when it wasn't groomed for a picture, were they a lie? Were there not true moments of success that made them true? Besides, what I had wanted to make was a beautiful set of books about the garden, not only a beautiful garden.

My bubble rose that afternoon over the terrace in the Val du Loir, and burst.

Anytime I cast my gaze around and it didn't take in but loveliness, when it had to make room for an area untouched, something that was better than it was, but far from what it could be, and as I spent more and more time in my growing collection of garden books, preparing the design for our friends' small city garden that they wanted to look like a corner of a wet meadow, where it joins the woods, paquerettes and all, I saw that he was right. I saw my garden for what it was: better than as awful as it had been allowed to become, but far from right.

It's early February. Spring in our friends' minds means June. I have three and a half months to clean it up, let what's there blossom and bring the pleasure that it can, while I get back to learning how to make it really beautiful. Or trying to improve it, anyway.

Heaven only knows that I'll need something to divert attention from the house, whatever stage it will be in then.

Do not ask.

Do.

Not.

"Sun it Rises", Fleet Foxes

Thanks, David.

CSN crossed with a celtic band on this one. So pure, I cried.

And, "Blue Ridge Mountains"...

....

John McCain, if he's the answer, then the question must be ridiculous

By Pistol Tanker Palin

Tomorrow I make my reservation for the all-night party being held by Democrats Abroad at Cinéaqua at the Trocadéro in Paris. My husband might be in attendence, as well, to celebrate the end of a long, long election season, and the recovery of his wife.

He has been warned that he is mistaken. There is legislation to accomplish before we rest.

One thing he has noticed, however, is that I have been noticeably nicer since Obama won the primary.

So, let's take a walk back down Memory Lane with Keith Olbermann to revisit some of the unforgettable moments of an historic, entertaining and exhausting (check out Hillary's black circles by February!) election season.

"An unprecedented election season"




"For the GOP, securing a nominee happened faster"




"The road to the running mate"

Oh, here's where it really starts to get good.




Some highlights

"The work begins anew, the hope rises again, and the dream lives on."
-- Senator Edward M. Kennedy, endorsing Senator Barack Obama, Los Angeles, California.


"We commited ourselves to building the world as it should be. So tonight, in honor of my father's memory, and my daughters' future, out of gratitude for those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment, let us devote ourselves to finishing their work, let us work together to fulfill their hopes, and let's stand together to elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America."
-- Michelle Obama, the Democratic National Convention, Denver Colorado, August 2008

"Case, I think, closed."
-- Keith Olbermann, covering the Michelle Obama speech

And Hillary, wow. She still gives me the shivers. She was simply awesome and powerful.

"On the path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice, 'If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they are shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going. And even in the darkest moments, that is what Americans have done, we have found the faith to keep going."
-- Hillary Clinton, Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado, August 2008

Here is the whole speech, in case that made you feel like listening to her again, from begining to end.


The roll call

Keith Olbermann: California should be interesting.

California: California passes.

Olbermann: And the great state of confusion, casts 60 votes for-- what is goin' on with the roll call?

New Mexico: We yield to the Land of Lincoln.

Illinois: We yield to the great state of New York.

Olbermann: Well, here we go.

Hillary Clinton: I move that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for the President of the Unites States.

Nancy Pelosi: Is there a second?

The delegates: Resouding cheers.

The Democratic party and its supporters: Tears, of joy and relief.


Bill Clinton

"President Bill Clinton is always fascinating to watch."

"Put him on TV for 60 minutes just reacting, and people would watch."

"Just watch his face."

"Last night, Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she is going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us. Actually, that makes 18 million of us."
-- President Bill Clinton, Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado, August 2008

And, signed, sealed, delivered, he is soon to be our president elect.

Olbermann: Vote for [Barack Obama] or do not, but take pride that this nation can produce men and speakers such as that.


"A surprise Republican VP pick"

BOO!

Did I scare you? Oh, sorry, then you might not have the stomach for this.

Oh, here we go... do we have to?

You betcha'!
wink

"The Sarah Palin."
-- Keith Olbermann

"executive experience"
"executive experience"
"more executive experience'"
"experience leadership"

"Sen. MCain has a record as a maverick"
"he's a maverick reformer"
"he is the maverick"
"the maverick McCain"
"Senator McCain's maverick style"

Oh, and don't forget the very first and original Joe, Joe Lieberman,

"What is a democrat like me doing at a republican convention like this?"

Damn good question, Joe. What the hell are you doing there?

The answer, Joe, is all in the democrat that you are not.

And then, she spoke, and we got our first taste of that inimitable pitbull style. Draw them in with that "Gee, golly gee whillickers, I just just don't know" sweetness, add a comma, make a little fist, squint your eyes, then train them into the camera and then bite their heads clean off. Reapply lipstick and -- you got it! -- wink!

"I guess a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, [here we go!] except [here it is!] that you have actual [ah, she's gettin' you good here!] responsibilities [wow! She gotcha'. You betcha'!]."
-- Governor Sarah Palin, Repuiblican National Convention, St. Paul, Minnesota, September 2008

Ouf, as they say here. Pack that pistol back in the holster and take a bow, Annie Alaska.

Olbermann: She clearly gives a great speech. People who like this sort of thing will find this -- the sort of thing they like.

Well, Sarah Palin, you are not the one for whom American women have been waiting for 232 years.

And let me say, you are no Hillary Clinton.

Finally, there was John McCain,

"Stand up. Stand up. Stand up and, fight --"

Oh, never mind.

Here's Stand up! This is what Stand up! sounds like, and it takes courage.

EL-ECT O-BA-MA!

Or this, Wake up! Wake up, America!

That's what it sounds like. That's what I'm talkin' about. We don't need anyone who can't get any passion, anything goin'.
....

Like we said, post-Racial rasicm

By Pistol Tanker Palin

This just in from my sister (I like to think of her as one of my team of highly-paid crack-reporters, or my staff of political cartoonists. Please keep it to yourselves, but my mother thinks that each post is selected from among many Pulitzer-deserving essays after hours of deliberation by my top-rate editorial board) from today's The K Chronicles, from Salon.com.

The K Chronicles

Stories from the campaign trail.

By Keith Knight

I don't know about you, but that sounds just about right on and maybe a whole lot better than where we were 2 years ago.
....

Light and Dark, two Americas

By Pistol Tanker Palin

It's going on 2 in the morning. I am tired. I felt saddened and disgusted this evening by two things that were brought to my attention, among others, after someone else said, "Hey, look at this," and sent a link to the Washington Wire blog of The Wall Street Journal -- http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/18/obama-rally-draws-100000-in-missouri/.

Go ahead. Click on it. You'll see this picture:


One hundred thousand people in St. Louis, MO. One hundred thousand. A friend of mine in Chicago said that all her Democratic friends have left Missouri, all that's there are the Republicans. It looks like something's happening in the bellwether state.

But look farther down that page. Look what is happening in a neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio.



"What," they'll say, "that it's not hate speech. It's just a Halloween ghost, get over it." He'll turn and grin at his pal, then look back at you and add "And so what if I did? He deserves it. Barack HUSSEIN Obama's an uppity n___ Mus-lin Arab."

"Can you imagine living in that neighborhood?" someone typed.

"I'd have to move," I typed back.

It's an effigy. It's a crime, and it is disgusting.

....

Charles Manson was a community organizer

And then, there was this, someone else posted it saying, "Here's something else for you to get disgusted about, Fleur."

Someone hit the link before I did in CHAOS, and the words "They're comparing him to Charles Manson?" came up.

What? I hit the link. There he is, Todd Palin's about to speak, being applauded by Norm Coleman in Duluth, Minnesota, and a guy up front -- right in front of the podium -- holds up a sign, "Charles Manson was a community organizer."




Charles Manson. A serial killer.

....

Disgraceful

I went and I found Keith Olbermann's special comment, posted on the Daily Kos Tuesday:

Special Comment: Control Your Campaign

by Keith Olbermann

Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 03:34:32 PM PDT

"It's not negativity, it's truthfulness," said the Demagogue from Alaska as she drew visions of terrorists and foreigners and hobgoblins across the blank minds of her supporters...

"I've heard the same things said about me at Senator Obama's speeches," said Senator Holier-Than-Thou - ever the real victim, never at fault.

And so, as Senator Obama's lead spirals upwards (14 points over McCain in tonight's CBS News/New York Times poll) we spiral downwards towards the point where anybody can say anything at a McCain or Palin rally - someone else shouted "kill him" today - knowing neither candidate will ever draw a line... will never say enough!...

Because - they do not want to.

• Keith Olbermann's diary :: ::

Tonight's Special Comment actually grows out of the "McCain In The Membrane" segment, but obviously the topic has become far too serious to be treated in the satirical manner reserved for that feature.

That another voice of hate should have emanated from a Palin or McCain event, with not a hint of reproach from either candidate, is appalling enough.

That Senator McCain should have gone on another martyrdom kick - insisting he is the true victim here - is beneath the minimum dignity a political figure must retain to maintain viability as a public leader.

Congressman Lewis, Senator McCain says, "accused me and Sarah Palin of being involved in segregation, George Wallace and even made reference to a church bombing where children were killed. Senator Obama has not repudiated that statement. Senator Obama should do so immediately. Its the most outrageous thing that I have heard since in politics. It is disgraceful."

"Disgraceful?
Obviously, Senator, you haven't heard your own speeches, and Governor Palin's, and what people shout during them.
And you haven't heard your state GOP Chair in Virginia, Jeffrey Frederick, giving talking points to 30 of your field-operatives heading out to canvass voters in Gainesville, Virginia...
With a reporter present, telling them to try to forge a connection between Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden - to emphasize bombings and terrorism.
And you haven't heard those volunteers, your volunteers Senator McCain, shout back "and he won't salute the flag" and "we don't even know where Senator Obama was really born."
Senator McCain -- these people are speaking for you!"

....

One hundred million stronger

And then, I was about to turn off the computer and head to bed, when I saw a new email had come in from mybarackobama.com.

The subject line told me I had contribution to my fundraising page. I clicked on the email, and I saw that shrinkme from CHAOS had not only matched her challenge to my fundraising page, she had gone way past it. She had already made a first tremendous donation through my page, a person known to her only from watching Signkid's Obama sign in Portland, Oregon with CHAOS, and chatting with whoever stops by the room to help and talk awhile (we sometimes rotfl so hard we have to wipe our tears away), for which I was still feeling so grateful, and then she told me that her challenge was still open: when two more people who had never donated to my page did so, and she'd match them.

Michiganmom stepped up to the plate, and then stepped her husband up, too, and shrinkme came through, just like several others had in the past few days, for a total of $300 to the Obama campaign.

We, Sarah Palin, are Americans who love our country, and we have another idea for it.

And, it looks like we have the majority with us.

According to the Washington Wire of the WSJ, the St. Louis event was Obama's largest crowd ever for a US event. It'll make the folks at the Palin rallies hopping mad, but we're standing shoulder to shoulder and we're ready for you.

Right, Jericho4119?

....

Free video streaming by Ustream

Barack means 'That one' in Swahili

By Pistol Tanker Palin

"I screwed up."



OK. OK, so, was he talking about not showing up on the show, or the Palin choice, his entire campaign, or running for the Republican ticket?

What can I say? Maybe McCain should have run his own campaign? I mean, I think he owned up to screwing up and made his congratulatory concession speech all on the same day.

Partial video of McCain's Roast of Obama

This video skips the very beginning, but the only video I could find that includes McCain's opening comments, including what might have been the longest laughter moment of the evening, is an otherwise edited version from a poster seeking to tie Senator Obama to Acorn, Wright, Ayers and Rezko. I post it at the end for the early remarks, to highlight it's intentional omission of McCain's serious tribute Senator Barack Obama, and show that there are some who cannot be as decent as Senator John McCain was last night at the Waldorf Astoria.

The take-off off "American Boy" isn't bad.

But, now, "get ready for 15 minutes of non-stop hilarity," including such moments as,

"From the doorstep, you can see the Russian Tea Room,"

"If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness? It's possible that I'm a little too awesome."

"Barack means 'that one' in Swahili," and "my middle name came from someone who obviously didn't think I'd ever run for president."

Get a box of tissues out to wipe the tears from your cheeks, and be careful not to ingest any beverage for fear of snarfing it on your computer screen and keyboard. Dell customer service stinks here in France, and I'd hate to see you have problems like that. I might feel a little bit responsible.

Obama's roast of McCain

And here is the promised edited version of McCain's roast.

McCain's opening remarks, minus the tribute,
with an effort to discredit Obama

....

American Boy

sex appeal sells votes
not

(I heard his first choice was Paris Hilton, but she said no.)

Put me on the ticket
And we'll win this race.
Take me to the White House
Mr. John McCain.
I really want to
Campaign here with you.
....

On the Cover of the Rolling Stone -- Stealing back your vote

By Pistol Tanker Palin

"If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering."
-- By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Greg Palast

From the current newstand issues of the Rolling Stone Magazine, "Can the Republicans Steal the Election?: The GOP is at it again, deterring new voters and discarding democratic votes"

Illustration, Rolling Stone June 2008 article
"Was the 2004 Election Stolen", by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

"Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted - enough to have put John Kerry in the White House."

-- Rolling Stone Magazine, "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"

I will keep this brief this morning. The articles are long enough to read already, and important enough to bother. I have already written about this here (summary of caging efforts from Obama's Rapid Response Team) and here (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s Sept. 24 warning of 30 Republican scams to get Democratic voters off the rolls, particularly in swing states).

In the cover story of this month's issue of RS, "Obama's Moment", Eric Bates asks Senator Obama about the Republicans efforts to suppress the Democratic vote in Ohio, whether he is worried about that this time out, and what he's doing about it.

In the last two elections, the Republicans worked to suppress the vote, especially in Democratic precincts. Reporting by Bobby Kennedy in Rolling Stone has raised questions about whether the Republicans stole the 2004 election in Ohio. Are you worried about those kinds of tactics this time? And what are you doing in advance to keep that from happening?
Without leveling any accusations about past misdeeds, I can tell you that we're paying a lot of attention to how the election a month from now is going to take place. We've got an extraordinary team of lawyers in every battleground state — hundreds of them — fanning out across these states. A lot of the work is actually being done now: We have organized such a surge in voter registration that there were clerks having difficulty processing the registration, and there was some question as to legal requirements for them to hire more clerks. So there's already been a lot of work done, and I feel pretty confident that if there are any shenanigans out there that we'll be on top of them.

But John Kerry said the same thing in 2004. Lawyers are mainly useful after the fact, when it's too late. Is there anything you can do before the fact to keep the vote from being tampered with?
Well, in Ohio the thing we did was make sure there was a Democratic secretary of state.

Replacing Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican who was in charge in 2004.
Right.

....

An email from contributing investigative
reporter, Greg Palast

Don't worry about Mickey Mouse or ACORN stealing the election. According to an investigative report out today in Rolling Stone magazine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast, after a year-long investigation, reveal a systematic program of "GOP vote tampering" on a massive scale.

- Republican Secretaries of State of swing-state Colorado have quietly purged one in six names from their voter rolls.

Over several months, the GOP politicos in Colorado stonewalled every attempt by Rolling Stone to get an answer to the massive purge - ten times the average state's rate of removal.

- While Obama dreams of riding to the White House on a wave of new voters, more then 2.7 million have had their registrations REJECTED under new procedures signed into law by George Bush.

Kennedy, a voting rights lawyer, charges this is a resurgence of 'Jim Crow' tactics to wrongly block Black and Hispanic voters.

- A fired US prosecutor levels new charges - accusing leaders of his own party, Republicans, with criminal acts in an attempt to block legal voters as "fraudulent."

- Digging through government records, the Kennedy-Palast team discovered that, in 2004, a GOP scheme called "caging" ultimately took away the rights of 1.1 million voters. The Rolling Stone duo predict that, this November 4, it will be far worse.

There's more:

- Since the last presidential race, "States used dubious 'list management' rules to scrub at least 10 million voters from their rolls."

Among those was Paul Maez of Las Vegas, New Mexico - a victim of an unreported but devastating purge of voters in that state that left as many as one in nine Democrats without a vote. For Maez, the state's purging his registration was particularly shocking - he's the county elections supervisor.

The Kennedy-Palast revelations go far beyond the sum of questionably purged voters recently reported by the New York Times.

"Republican operatives - the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics," report Kennedy and Palast, under the cover of fighting fraudulent voting, are "systematically disenfranchis[ing] Democrats."

The investigators level a deadly serious charge:

"If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering."

Block the Vote by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. & Greg Palast in the current issue (#1064) of Rolling Stone. [Media enquiries - Dave Falkenstein, Sunshine Sachs & Assoc, via interviews@gregpalast.com.]

Note - Kennedy and Palast are releasing, simultaneously with the Rolling Stone investigative report what they call, the vote-theft 'antidote': a 24-page full-color comic book, Steal Back Your Vote org> , which can be downloaded or obtained in print from their non-partisan website, StealBackYourVote.org org>

....

Stealing back your vote

I have voted. That's part of a happy story. After a more than gracious exchange of emails with the Republican Assistant Registrar of the Town of Greenwich, Ms. Ruby Durant -- there is also a Democratic Registrar of voters for the town --, and a phone call to the Town Clerk's Office, I received my Connecticut Absentee Ballot, mailed to all requesting it as they promised on October 3, during the next week, and after a moment spent appreciatively with it, I filled it out, scanned it for posterity and sent it back to Carmella Budkins, the Clerk of the Town of Greenwich, with no shortage of fanfare at the post office in Bonnières sur Seine.

I was almost embarrassed by the attention and care my ballot and I received in a crowed post office in France, filled with small children, some guys and a few elderly persons.

On the phone with the the Town Clerk's Office, I had asked the woman on the other end of the phone if they really do count the absentee ballot, her tone just a little weary and bemused.

"That's why we are sending them all out October 3, so we can count them all." She sounded like they get a lot of them, and like the whole thing isn't much of a picnic, but sworn to do they duty, they'll do it. I felt somewhat comforted and thanked her, telling her that my vote is very important to me and appreciate the respect it receives from them.

I didn't have to say that -- it's their job -- but I thought she might like to know what their job means to one citizen, multiplied by millions away from home, or living outside of the United States. She took it in a sort of "Is this caller cracked? Think nothing of it" fashion.

That's Connecticut, though, friends. I have never lived in a Swing State, unless my family's residence in Maryland can be in any way thought to qualilfy. New York and Connecticut (that's all?), with summers spent in California (a blood red part, Orange County) and Massachusetts (no red part whatsoever).

Check your Voter Registration
It cannot hurt anyone to check your voter registration and make sure you are on the voter rolls. You can also check with your secretary of state or board of elections website (I called the local Registrar of Voters).

Make a habit of it if you live in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Obama's bi-racial heritage, coupled with the current political landscape ("Off with their Republican heads!") putting States like Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia in play, with reports of West Virginia begining to feel just a little blue -- acording to Electoral-Votes.com, Insider Advantage has Obama just 2 points under McCain on October 13, and West Virginia Blue's West Virginia Lover reported on ARG's poll putting Obama 8 points up at 50% to McCain's 42% on October 9 --, you might want to check regularly, check often there, too.


Vote early
Check to see if your state permits early voting. This will give you time to act if you find that you are not on the voter rolls before November 4, and it will help ease congestion at the polls on Election Day, Tuesday, November 4, when record numbers are expected to cast their ballots.


Volunteer to help steal the vote back (legally of course)
Whether you are a lawyer, a law student, a paralegal or merely a concerned citizen, there are ways to help. You can use the following links to sign up with:

• The Obama Voter Protection Program, and
• Election Protection with the National Campaign for Fair Elections site. You can still sign up here to volunteer even if you don't have a legal background!

If you are a student, registering to vote for the first time and are planning to vote away from home by absentee ballot
Make absolutely certain to read this Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. piece, if you want you vote to be counted and not end up in the trash bin. His advice for you:

"If you're a newly registered voter... you MUST include your license or some other state I.D. when you come to vote. What that means is that if you're a college kid... if [you] send in the absentee ballot, and [you] don't include a copy of [your driver's] license, [you] vote is going to be thrown into a trash can. And none of these people know this, because you had to have to read the law in order to know it. There is no notification [of this requirement] when you fill out your registration form, so all of those 12 million people that the Democrats have regstered -- those ballot are going to be just thrown out."

If you are an United States Citizen living outside the United States
It is not to late to request a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot from Vote from Abroad, http://VotefromAbroad.org.

They walk you through it. It couldn't be easier.

And for those of you unfamiliar with how the language is applied in the case of US citizens living outside the United States, when we register to vote, it is only valid for that particular Federal Election.

When I left the country in 2002, I was registered in the State of Connecticut in my last town of residence, Greenwich. I voted in the 2004 election, but do not remember how I received my ballot. I had thought that it had been automatically sent to me because of my registration, but I am starting to think that I have forgotten something because I panicked when I used the check your voter registration tool provided by the Obama campaign, and it didn't find my registration.

After making some phone calls, I learned that a card I received and returned to the Registrar of Voters in Greenwich, confirming that my current address is outside the United States caused my name to be legitimately removed from the state's voter rolls. You can only be on them if you are living in your state and paying property taxes. This may vary in some states.

We all know already that we cannot vote in state and local elections.

In order to vote in the federal elections in which we are entitled to cast our vote, you must request a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB) using a Federal Post Card Application (FPCA). If you haven't done this already (the deadline was October 4), go to VotefromAbroad.org, use the wizard, and mail in your FWAB along with your FPCA.

"Every voter who sublits a valid ballot request 30 days before the election is legally entitled to use the FWAB. In addition, some states have later deadlines. You may send the FPCA and FWAB right up until Election Day, but it will depend on your state whether your ballot is deemed valid.

NOTE: The FWAB instructions refer to a 'Security Envelope', which goes inside your mailing envelope. YOu may use any black encelope to serve as the Security Envelope."

Have questions? Vote from Abroad also helpfully encourages you to email them with any questions at VoterCentral@democratsabroad.org, and if you have specific questions about your registration, to do what I did -- pick up your phone and call your Registrar of Voters office directly, "nothing can replace speaking to your local election officials... if you do not agree with the answer they give you, please contact [VoterCentral@democratsabroad.org] -- we may be able to help you."

I Googled "registrar of voters Greenwich CT" to get the phone numbers.

My French husband still cannot get over that this is even an issue in the United States of America and wonders, along with the rest of Europe, what is wrong with our country that we can't insure the most basic of democratic rights. It is a wrong that must be righted and protected indelibly.

Please do your part and make sure you are registered, continue to show as registered on your state's voter rolls, and that your vote is accepted on November 4 and cast by showing up to vote with all possible forms of ID anyone can ask from you.

And then, demand that it is counted and counts by demanding legislation for fairness in voting and ballot receipts.

If you suspect foul play with your voter registration
Contact the office of your Secretary of State and file your complaint. If you have difficulties doing so, contact your Democratic elected officials and state Democratic Committee officials. Consider writing a letter to the editor of your local paper, and contacting the media if your complaint goes without action.

Heck, do it anyway.

You betcha'.
....

Brain overload, day 2

It's not getting any better.

Certainly not with the choices multiplying, but not necessarily giving me more things I like. In fact, I know what I like, and somehow I expected everyone to agree with me.

At least Joachim, but he is the one most in opposition. And he is very energetic.

Sam came home, looked at the colors and had a very definite opinion, which coincided perfectly with my own.

"The dark color and that yellow." The dark color was the paint color, the first one Joachim brought and put on the door. Not the one from today, which is, don't get me wrong, very nice, just not what I want. Sam, however, meant what I did, more precisely. He meant it for the half-timber motif, as well.

That's what I asked Joachim today.

"Il faut que je vous demande car si je ne le fais pas, cela restera toujours une question, peut-être un regret -- " [trans: "I have to ask because if I don't, well, it will always stay in the realm of something I wondered, possibly to become a regret -- "

"Je comprends. Vas y, demandes." [trans: "I understand. Go ahead and ask."]

"La couleur, la première pour les portes et les fenêtres, est-ce qu'on peut la faire en chaux aussi?" [trans: :The color, the first one for the doors and windows, can it be done in chaux, too?"]

"Oui, bien sur," and then he launched into a discussion that was so circuitous and repetitive and full of so many "it's" that had it been a multiple choice question, his answer would have been the equivalent to "all of the above."

Except that it wasn't. It was clear what he wanted: the brick red with the last ochre chaux sample. My heart wasn't in it. It hasn't been in the red for ages.

A couple of things were decipherable, without the useless clarifications.

• One, he felt strongly that the motif color (reds) must be in color saturation about equal with the panels (ochre), and that more than two colors is a mistake (agreed).
  
• Two, if I went to the darkest brown with the hint of cool red, that it would act as outlines and make the ochre pop (this in no way bothers me).
  
• Three, he does not think the motifs should be lighter than the ochre in color value, neither in red nor in beige (I am still not opposed to a faded oak color).

And, one thing was certain by the time Sam got home and the wall had pulled some more of the water out of the brick-red chaux, lightening it -- it was turning to chewed cinnamon gum color.

Do not even ask me about the garden. I will start crying.

Or about Sarah Palin. I can't take it anymore. Not since we started talking about the "anger of the mob scenes" at the McCain-Palin rallies. I cannot abide meanness, ignorance and manipulation.
....

Dolores Palin, Sarah Umbridge

"The ministry of magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. Although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be prohibited -- Teehee!"
-- Dolores Umbridge, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"How lovely to see all your white, shining faces smiling at me."
Dolores Palin/Sarah Umbridge,
Pensacola, Florida, October 6, 2008

Remember, Dolores Umbridge works for Cornelius Fudge:

And who did he serve? You got it, "He who must not be named".



And, for a fascinating look at why Rove must be gnawing at his cuticles these last months as Barack Obama has surged in small campaign contributions, out-Roving the GOP broad-based fundraising drive (a front), as well as the "get out the youth vote" effort of none other than a young Karl Rove.

Be patient, Walter Cronkite's CBS took their time to tell a newstory back in 1972.



How do you like them apples?

....

A little more on Palin in Pensacola:
was that hate speech and incitement to murder?

None dare call it Treason?

a McCain-Palin supporter in Pensacola does.

"Kill him!" someone heard that, too, according to The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, and the secret service has begun a formal investigation, while Joe Biden calls for Palin to "condem supporters hateful attacks."

But, how can she, when she is egging them on?

In Fla., Palin Goes for the Rough Stuff as Audience Boos Obama

By Dana Milbank
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- "Okay, so Florida, you know that you're going to have to hang onto your hats," Sarah Palin told a rally of a few thousand here this morning, "because from now until Election Day it may get kind of rough."

You betcha. And the person dishing out the roughest stuff at the moment is Sarah Palin.

"I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day," she said.

"Booooo!" replied the crowd.

"I knew you guys would react that way, okay," she continued. "So I was reading the New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago."

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama "pals around" with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin's allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago." Here, Palin began to connect the dots. "These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes -- remember that's what Joe Biden had said. "And" -- she paused and sighed -- "I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country."

"Boooo!" said the audience.

Posted at 11:57 AM ET on Oct 6, 2008

Letterman -- Palin debate highlights

I dare you to find more to say than that.
....

Schoolhouse rock -- the bailout bill

Update: OK, so if the international financial markets are any indication of the success of the US Congress' bailout of the US financial king pins, maybe I wasn't so wrong to listen to the economists, good, bad and worse. My succinct opinion? Congress tried to save itself more than the international financial markets, but not for want of caring. That they did, but it's been too late for a $700 billion band-aid applied by Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and company for a long, long time. The horses have long been out of the barn, and the damage runs much deeper into the world's pockets, wallets and portfolios.

Here's a little video from the MSM's NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, and for congress's poll numbers, click here are scroll down to the last video. Good for Biden, good for Obama, terrible for Palin, terrible for McCain, and Nancy Pelosi might need to think about career counseling for herself.



Want to know what's wrong with the United States?

Just watch this (if you feel ill before the end, please stop play):

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
Chairman Financial Services Committee

attacked by another American pitbull, Fox's Bill O'Reilly
(I can't bring myself to say "news" after Fox)

I was watching it as my husband came through the door. He leaned over my shoulder, so riveted that he forgot to kiss me hello (and I even took the time for a shower today before rushing to the CHAOS room and the House debate on CNN).

"Who is that guy?" he asked. Lucky him; he's French and doesn't know Bill O'Reilly. I explained.

"C'est le plus grand connard de tous les temps, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, ou comme on aime bien le dire, Faux News. Tu vois bien qu'on sait parler trés bien en français aux States." [Does anyone needs a trans? Pdp (pas de problème): it's the biggest jerk ever, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, or as we like to say, Faux News. You see? We speak excellent French in the States.]

"He doesn't let that other guy --"

"Le député Barney Frank, la tête du comité des Services Financiers du congrès, celui qui est résponsable du projet de loi du bailout."

"Ah bon, il ne le laisse pas parler." I love France.

"Il est toujours comme ça. De plus, Frank est gai et tout le monde le sait depuis des années, mais O'connard vient de l'accuser de ne pas être assez un homme pour admettre son échec." [trans: He's always like that. What's more, Frank is gay and everyone has known it for years, and O'jerk just accused him of not being "man enough" to admit he failed.]

"Mais ça n'est pas néssesaire. C'est dégueulasse." Dégueulasse is slang for "disgusting". The rest, I think you can work out.

....

How a bill becomes a law

The bailout

So, yesterday I was against the bailout.

I determined to use my time with CHAOS to watch the House debate the bailout bill. I also watched Obama's speech in Abington, PA. He was on fire today. The debate last night did him a world of good (I'd love to see Palin have to debate him, ha!)

I was worried that they had not had the time to work out the things, chiefly that as was the case with the Bush proposition, the bill was basically giving the thief the keys to the safe deposit box.

If you read me yesterday, you know that I, like most people, tend to listen to the news after the vote and feel inadequate to judge whether harm or some good was done. So today, like some fellow sign watchers, including a Dutch guy who is more knowledgeable of US domestic and foreign politics and Capitol Hill than Sarah Palin -- no! wait, that is hardly paying the compliment he deserves. He really amazes me. He was the one who sent the link as he settled in to watch it himself. How could I not?

I wish the video was already up on YouTube. You'll have to rely on my descriptions and look for the video yourself later. You know me, I'll come back and post what I can find, and what I most want to find is Frank's comments after his bill passed the US House of Representatives, with half as many Republicans as Democrats supporting the bill.

I also apologize for not knowing who all the representatives were I watched speak.

So, here are the things I learned watching the House debate:

The first is the one that made me crow with delight. I just knew Jon back at X Capital Management would get his one day, and that day appears to be dawning. I can only hope his share values plummeted and left his off-shore accounts as empty as his party is of values and sense -- the bill now includes a provision to close a $25 billion loophole that permitted hedge-fund managers to shelter their income in places like the Caymans.

I am so very, very happy to hear that, Jon.

And, then, I learned that...

In September of 2008, 159,000 jobs were lost. Even if some were created, who cares? There was a huge net loss, the largest in 5 years. This brings us to a total of 760,000 jobs lost this year in comparison with a comparable period (whatever that means precisely) 8 years ago, when 8 million jobs were created.

This equals a net loss of 2.2 million jobs. I know, I should go look at that in other economic periods, whether the jobs created were sustainable, but y'know, it's still a lot of jobs lost without being able to talk about jobs created. They haven't been in more than 8 years. Downward employment cycle in this gardening, once-architect mother and wife's eyes. Unemployment is bad. Ask me about it, I've been through it as a single mother.

Another congressman told me that this bill reaches out to minorities and small businesses, thanks to Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who focused on this issue.

He told me that it is a plan to buy up bad loans and that taxpayers will be the first to profit if and when loan values rise again. He quoted uber-investor Warren Buffet, who said something like, "If they do it right, and I think they'll do it reasonably right, if we do that, we'll make a lot of money, we being the taxpayers of America." Being a skeptical sort of person, I wondered just how we would get the money we'll make on this gamble. He went on to ask for me.

"How?" He had my attention.

The financial community will be obligated to pay the taxpayers back. Good. An obligation. I like obligations when we are talking about my money going to someone for a risky business.

But, if that financial community doesn't get all better, then what? Will my money, and the money of all the rest of us it will take to get to $700 billion, be divided up between the sharks on Wall Street (I was specifically thinking of guys like my old friend Jon. I am reasonably certain that he is already ruined) to use to go off and sail around the Caymans, sipping Dom Perignon?

He had a reply to quell my concerns -- this bill will ensure restricted CEO compensation and eliminate golden parachutes; no huge salaries or free-rides payed for by the taxpayer. I am a friend to the rich, but not that good. This helps.

He also told me that home owners will receive renegotiated mortgages to prevent the potential flood of foreclosures. This is not only good for those homeowners who need the stability and peace of mind that comes from knowing they can remain in their homes, but for their communities, whose tax revenues have disappeared like wolves in Palin's Alaska.

The FDIC, he continued, was raised Monday to $250,000, which he admitted could be argued "on both sides of the question, but ought to stabilize local banks."

Like Silver State?

Then, he got to the addition of those "several tax cuts" -- sausage, with which he disagrees because "the senate chose to finance them with debt." I believe I am with him there, especially in light of Pelosi's promised mantra, "No deficit spending." He spoke of the "dangers of fiscal recklessness," saying "debt does indeed matter, a lesson the senate has chosen to ignore," adding that this situation requires compromise because "if we don't accept the things we do not like, we won't have the money for the things we do like."

With that said, he "[urged] all of us to pass and to vote for legislation," recognizing that not all of his colleagues in the House would feel that they could, saying "I respect their judgment. We have a difference of opinion."

On Monday, he told us, Americans were deeply divided, and their representative body, not surprisingly, was as well, but since Monday, "Americans have reflected on the consequences of inaction, and while not of universal thought [I think he meant opinion] we must pass this bill, we must rely on the people's house to act in a way that will protect their interests and their dreams."

He sounded sincere to my ears. I listened to others use their time, including
Representative John Baynor (R-OH), who told us that the bill "had been done in bipartisan way, members of both sides came together to build a product that they thought would help" the American and global markets find their footing on these dangerous high seas. "The consequences of not acting," he warned, "are overwhelming."

He spoke of doing this bill on behalf of Americans, and to do this bill "in the middle of an election is complicated enough." Representatives, Republicans most certainly, approached him, he said, asking how this will affect their re-election, and he told us that he looked at them and said, "You have to go home and defend it, and that's a lot easier to do if you just do what you think is right."

He's right.

The time for debate over, the remarks closed, it was for House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to speak.

Speaker Pelosi told us, with a smile of satisfaction -- and probably relief (gas?) to have arrived at this point -- , that the bill was "much improved, with an eye to the future." She, too, sought to reassure the American people that the legislation will "lead to reforms", and that it will "ferret out abuses," once President Obama occupies the White House.

No, she didn't say that last part about President Obama. She just thought it really, really loudly. You heard it, too, if you were listening today.

She told those of us listening that the urgency is clear, and she "calls for legislation to avoid "economic catastrophe," repeating "catastrophe", in case anyone didn't get it. She told us that governors from across the country, including her own (that would be Arnold Schwarzenegger, and how pleased indeed I am to be able to mention him in the pages of my blog, for surely he would never have come up, not ever, had he not become the (fairly and surprisingly decent) governor of California), Democratic and Republican to urge the House to take action, "We are addressing real pain felt by Mr. and Mrs. Jones of Main Street," she told us.

She, like many before her, told us about ourselves, the seniors watching their savings dwindle, their pensions evaporate, entrepreneurs turned away form credit, people who can't get a car loan, those selling cars who can't get one to purchase inventory, people wondering if the money they have worked to put in savings for college for their kids will still be there.

She told us about the jobs lost, too.

And, she said that the original bill Bush submitted was unacceptable. It asked to commit $700 billion "with few strings and no safeguards," and it was rejected in a bipartisan way and changes were demanded in a bipartisan way, too, such as:

• protection for the taxpayer,
• over-site and accountability,
• make sure, as Treasury Secretary Paulsen talked about investment capital, that the bad paper bought will profit the American taxpayer. She mentioned Rep. Bachus' question why not just invest the capital directly in the companies -- here she made a mention of Tanner of Tennessee -- and if it doesn't pay for itself, if there is a shortfall, then the taxpayer will be paid back from fees imposed on the companies that benefit,
• reformed CEO compensation and the elimination of the "golden parachute", "the party's over. If you drive your business into the ground, then you won't pick up your golden parachute and save yourself paid for by the taxpayer",
• mortgage renegotiations, thanks to the efforts of Maxine Waters,
• a benefit to middle income families in the form of a $1000 state and local property tax deduction for those who do not itemize,
• the tax cut for clean and renewable energy to save jobs that "did not survive the senate, is now become part of the legislation -- it is paid for, it is paid for", and
  
• thanks to the efforts of David Wellstone, son of Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, after 12 years the Wellstone Mental Health Parity Act of 2008 became law in this bill.

Where's the mention of wooden arrows and development credits for American Samoa? I Guess there are some things even the House Speaker is too embarrassed to mention.

Bundling of bills. Not my cup of tea. As Speaker Pelosi put it, the bailout bill "turned out to be the vehicle" (piggyback) for these bills that should have passed on their own but "couldn't make it though the senate, but now [do]."

"We were dealt a mighty bad hand," said Speaker Pelosi, "but this is that start to solve it," to protect the future of the American people.

"We have seen," she said, "things we never before thought we would see," and "we have broken new ground on how we deal with this crisis, but we will not leave it broken," she vowed.

There will be hearings held by Barney Frank and the members of the Financial Services Committee to determine the origins of the crisis, and "we must look ahead, protect America from unsavory lending practices... we must keep in mind our commitment to fiscal discipline, not increasing the deficit... will it work? We'll see what it does do, and if it doesn't, fees will be there to cover [the $700 billion]. We can't put out all this money, heap a mountain of debt on our children, unless there are protections. No new deficit spending must be our mantra... the economic security of our people.... it is important to vote, a difficult vote, but we must win it for the American people, the Mr. and Mrs. Jones of Main Street."

The bill passed, 263 - 171.

President Bush appeared on television, thanking Speaker Pelosi and both parties in the House, and pledged to sign the bill as soon as it arrives on his desk.

Tonight, I go to bed and think on it in my sleep.

Tomorrow, I do some more reading (link to H.R. 1424 eas at bottom), and I decide further whether I am right to be assuaged by the bill and all the sausage.

Yesterday, I said this was no reason to call out the NYFD. Today, a black woman representative, from California argued in impassioned and stern terms that she agreed with Senator Barack Obama; we must act. The house is on fire. You don't say, well, they were irresponsible, you help them put out the fire, and then you determine fault. This fire, she said, must be put out to calm the fears of Americans and the global financial markets, show them that the United States of America will tend to its problems, and then we'll hold the hearings and people accountable.

Enshallah.

From a friend... " So if you want to read about the "extension of economic development credits for American Samoa," the "exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children," the "provisions related to film and television productions," etc., etc., you'll have to go to the GPO website GPO - Congressional Bills Main Page, search for "H. R. 1424" and download the eas version."

Enjoy!

"But today I am still just a bill."
....

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