Obama's Speech to the Muslim World

As usual, the NY Times has an interactive transcript with video.

The White House is making translations of the speech available in 13 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Dari, French, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish and Urdu.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu weighs in with a statement:

"The government of Israel expresses hope that President Obama's important speech will lead to a new period of reconciliation between the Arab and Muslim world, and Israel. We share Obama's hope that the American effort will bring about an end to the conflict and to pan-Arab recognition of Israel as the Jewish state.

"Israel is obligated to peace and will do as much as possible to help expand the circle of peace, while taking into consideration our national interests, the foremost of which is security."

Transcript from the White House.

YouTube - President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo, Egypt

CONTINUE READING...

President Obama’s Address to Congress

The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities, in our fields and our factories, in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth.

Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."

Dang, Poor Nancy Pelosi must have been exhausted after jumping up and sitting down all night.

Other precious moments:
"We can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold." Cut to Hillary Clinton in hot pink in the front row.

"...with the name of Orrin Hatch...." Cut to Orrin, looking down reading his program... Hullo....

Joe Lieberman, slow-clapping at "eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq..."

"I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war." Even John McCain gets up for applause.

"I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture." John McCain is up again. (And yes, he should have led on that issue.)
More stuff:

• Video from the NY Times.
• Transcript from the NYTimes.com.
• HuffPo's take on the applause lines and the laugh lines.
• Reaction from insta-polling, "A CBS News poll of approximately 500 people saw approval of the president rise from 62 percent before the speech to 69 percent afterward."
• Pundit reaction roundup from HuffPo.
  
• CNN calls it Obama's "Morning in America" moment.
• GOP response from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. "Dude, Bobby, hello? This is a rebuttal. BOBBY! Stop nattering on about your childhood. Seriously, WTF? Stop telling stories. Stop it. Now."
  
• "After watching Jindal," one Democratic strategist emailed, "I'd pay a lot of money to be back watching a Palin speech."
• And MSNBC host during the Jindal debacle with an editorial "Oh God."
• The Miami Herald story of Leonard Abess, the Bank CEO who took his $60 million bonus and distributed it to his employees.

CONTINUE READING...

Obamapallooza continues

The Obamapallooza continues well into the week. All the buzz is about Obama, and McCain? Well, he might as well go back to chasing applesauce jars in a grocery store for all the interest there is in hearing him speak. Just as a little needle, Obama has actually bought ad time in Arizona. Hey, the race is close there... why not....?

Obama talks about the way to bi-partisanship with Rachel Maddows. "What I'm interested in, is how do we build a working majority for change? And if I start off with the premise that it's only self-identified Democrats who I'm speaking to, then I'm not going to get to where we need to go. If I can describe it as not a blanket indictment of the Republican Party, but instead describe it as the Republican Party having been kidnapped by a incompetent, highly ideological subset of the Republican Party, then that means I can still reach out to a whole bunch of Republican moderates who I think are hungry for change, as well." Could it really be that we'll have the first president who says he'll be bipartisan and then ACTUALLY DOES IT? Video of Obama on Rachel Maddows show.

33 million people watched Obama's infomercial on Thursday. Plus, Obama's appearance on the Daily Show on Thursday night gave Jon Stewart his highest ratings ever. "The 11 p.m. episode, which featured an appearance by presidential candidate Barack Obama, averaged 3.6 million total viewers, beating by 600,000 viewers the previous record set October 8 when his wife Michelle Obama appeared on the show." Call it the "Obama Bump."

And just this afternoon, Obama's interview with Wolf Blitzer aired on CNN. "Obama was asked to name his top priority from a list of issues, including taxes, health care, education, energy policy and immigration.

"[The] top priority may not be any of those five. It may be continuing to stabilize the financial system. We don't know yet what's going to happen in January," he said. "None of this can be accomplished if we continue to see a potential meltdown in the banking system and financial system. So that's priority No. 1: making sure the plumbing works."

Obama said priority No. 2 is energy independence: "We have to seize this moment, because it's not just an energy independence issue; it's also a national security issue, and it's a jobs issue. We can create 5 million new green energy jobs."

Priority No. 3: Health care reform.

Priority No. 4: "Making sure we have tax cuts for the middle class as part of a broader tax reform effort."

Priority No. 5: Reforming the education system.

Apparently Obama has picked up more Reagan support, as Ken Duberstein, Reagan's former Chief of Staff announced today on Fareed Zakaria's show, that he'll be pulling the lever for Obama this year. "Well let's put it this way - I think Colin Powell's decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama."

And in an NPR interview, former Sec. of State Lawrence Eagleburger, whom McCain has touted for his endorsement of the Republican, admitted that Palin is not ready for the presidency: "Asked by the host whether Palin could step in during a time of crisis, Eagleburger reverted to sarcasm before leveling the harsh blow. 'It is a very good question,' he said, pausing a few seconds, then adding with a chuckle: 'I'm being facetious here. Look, of course not...Give her some time in the office and I think the answer would be, she will be [pause] adequate. I can't say that she would be a genius in the job. But I think she would be enough to get us through a four year... well I hope not... get us through whatever period of time was necessary. And I devoutly hope that it would never be tested.'" Let me help you out, Larry, I can say, SHE WOULDN'T BE A GENIUS AT ANYTHING. Of course, as soon as the words were out of his mouth he thought...ooops. And in an interview on Fox today, he tried to backtrack. "'I made a serious mistake yesterday. I was quoted correctly,' Eagleburger said. 'I wasn't thinking when i said it -- in fact, I was discussing foreign policy, and this was in that context, and I was just plain stupid, and if I had given the flim-flam artist Barack Obama some success with this I am deeply apologetic.'" Yeah, that's what we call a "Freudian slip."

CONTINUE READING...

Policy: Work and the Workplace

(again from candidates' own websites)
Obama:

• cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize.
  
• cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River" decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction, and professional workers as "supervisors" who are not protected by federal labor laws.
• ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.
• raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.

McCain:

• is calling for National Commission on Workplace Flexibility and Choice to bring together a bi-partisan set of leaders representing workers, small and large employers, labor, and academics. The Commission would make recommendations to the President on how modernizing our nation's labor laws and training programs can help workers better balance the demands of their job with family life and to enable workers to more easily transition between jobs.

  The Commission would examine the following issues that McCain believes are important to workplace flexibility and choice:

• Modernizing the nation's labor laws so that they allow for more flexible scheduling arrangements
  
• Ensuring that the nation's labor laws don't get in the way of working at home
  
• Promoting telework so that workers can spend less time commuting
  
• Making health more portable so that workers don't lose their benefits when they switch jobs
  
• Ensuring that workers can choose retirement plans that best suit their needs
  
• Providing workers with more choice in job training assistance so that they can build the skills they need for new and better jobs

CONTINUE READING...

Policy: Where do you get the Energy?

So I've been trying to get to Energy policy for week now. But I'm a bit caught up on other things in life (just barely) so here we go. I'm going to try to fit in the last looks at policy in the last few day before the final debate! (Assuming McCain even cares to talk policy at the next debate.) In case you're interested,

Much of the following is taken from candidate websites: Barackobama.com and JohnMcCain.com. Also you can get more info at the NY Times' site.

OIL AND NATURAL GAS

Obama:

• Wants to eliminate our current imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years
  
• Prioritize the Construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline. Obama will work with stakeholders to facilitate construction of the pipeline. Not only is this pipeline critical to our energy security, it will create thousands of new jobs.
• Swap Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Cut Prices. With oil prices doubling in the past year, Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we have an economic emergency that requires a limited, responsible swap of light oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for heavy crude oil to help bring down prices at the pump.
• A "Use it or Lose It" Approach to Existing Oil and Gas Leases. Obama and Biden will require oil companies to develop the 68 million acres of land (over 40 million of which are offshore) which they have already leased and are not drilling on.
• Oppose drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and lifting the federal ban on new offshore oil exploration.
• Establish a process for early identification of any infrastructure obstacles/shortages or possible federal permitting process delays to drilling in the Bakken Shale formation, the Barnett shale formation, and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
• Enact a Windfall Profits Tax on excessive oil company profits to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families. Would use some of the money to pay for his middle-class tax cut, for people earning less than $75,000 a year, and for eliminating federal income taxes on elderly citizens who make less than $50,000 a year.
• Crack Down on Excessive Energy Speculation. Obama and Biden will close energy industry market loopholes and increase transparency to prevent traders from unfairly lining their pockets, while driving up oil prices at the expense of the American people.

McCain:

• Lift the current federal moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, which stands in the way of energy exploration and production. We have trillions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves in the U.S. at a time we are exporting hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas to buy energy.
• Keep more of our dollars here in the U.S., lessen our foreign dependency, increase our domestic supplies, and reduce our trade deficit - 41% of which is due to oil imports. John McCain proposes to cooperate with the states and the Department of Defense in the decisions to develop these resources.
• Promote and expand the use of our domestic supplies of natural gas. Within the United States we have tremendous reserves of natural gas. The Outer Continental Shelf alone contains 77 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.
• Supported the ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2000. Sarah Palin does not support the ban.
  
• Reform the laws and regulations governing the oil futures market, so that they are just as clear and effective as the rules applied to stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments. Congress already has investigations underway to examine this kind of wagering in our energy markets, unrelated to any kind of productive commerce, because it can distort the market, drive prices beyond rational limits, and put the investments and pensions of millions of Americans at risk.
  
• Does not support a windfall profits tax. A windfall profits tax on the oil companies will ultimately result in increasing our dependence on foreign oil and hinder investment in domestic exploration.
  

CLEAN COAL

Clean coal is an oxymoronic umbrella term used in the promotion of the use of coal as an energy source by emphasizing methods being developed to reduce its environmental impact. These efforts include chemically washing minerals and impurities from the coal, gasification (see also IGCC), treating the flue gases with steam to remove sulfur dioxide, and carbon capture and storage technologies to capture the carbon dioxide from the flue gas. These methods and the technology used are described as clean coal technology. Major politicians and the coal industry use the term "clean coal" to describe technologies designed to enhance both the efficiency and the environmental acceptability of coal extraction, preparation and use,[1] with no specific quantitative limits on any emissions, particularly carbon dioxide.

Obama:

• Enter into public private partnerships to develop five "first-of-a-kind" commercial scale coal-fired plants with clean carbon capture and sequestration technology.
• Would consider banning new coal plants without "clean coal" technologies.
  
• Sponsored a bill with subsidies for development of liquid coal but later said he would support subsidies only if the fuel could be produced with 20 percent lower emissions than gasoline.

McCain:

• Commit $2 Billion Annually To Advancing Clean Coal Technologies. Coal produces the majority of our electricity today. Some believe that marketing viable clean coal technologies could be over 15 years away. John McCain believes that this is too long to wait, and we need to commit significant federal resources to the science, research and development that advance this critical technology. Once commercialized, the U.S. can then export these technologies to countries like China that are committed to using their coal - creating new American jobs and allowing the U.S. to play a greater role in the international green economy. Says coal-to-liquid may be viable if carbon capture and pollution control technology advances.

NUCLEAR POWER

Obama:

• Cites cost and safety concerns, but has not ruled out nuclear power as part of the energy mix.

McCain:

• Construct 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 with the goal of eventually constructing 100 new plants. Nuclear power is a proven, zero-emission source of energy, and it is time we recommit to advancing our use of nuclear power. Currently, nuclear power produces 20% of our power, but the U.S. has not started construction on a new nuclear power plant in over 30 years. China, India and Russia have goals of building a combined total of over 100 new plants and we should be able to do the same.
  

ETHANOL, BIOFUELS, WIND, SOLAR

Obama:

• Support a goal of 20% renewable energy by 2020. We have vast potential in this country to produce clean renewable energy and reduce our reliance on dwindling domestic natural gas reserves. The investment certainty provided by a significant RPS will encourage innovation, bring down the costs of renewable power, encourage necessary investment in new transmission, inspire new domestic industries, and strengthen rural economies.
• Set benchmarks for production so that more companies will invest in production and create distribution facilities where the average consumer can access biofuels for cars designed to run on them.
  
• Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.

• 

  Would require 60 billion gallons of biofuels to be produced in the U.S. each year by 2030.
• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.Create the 5-E (Energy Efficiency, Environmental Education and Employment) Disconnected Youth Service Corps. This program will directly engage disconnected and disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency and environmental service opportunities to strengthen their communities while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected high-growth employment. The program will engage private sector employers and unions to provide apprenticeship opportunities.
• Devote significant resources from a permit auction toward accelerating the development and deployment of low carbon technologies and addressing the economic challenges imposed on key industrial sectors.

McCain:

• Issue a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers of America, in the form of a single and $5,000 tax credit for each and every customer who buys a zero carbon emission car, encouraging automakers to be first on the market with these cars in order to capitalize on the consumer incentives. For other vehicles, a graduated tax credit will apply so that the lower the carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit.
• Establish a $300 million prize should be awarded for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars. That battery should deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs.
• Call on automakers to make a more rapid and complete switch to Flex Fuel Vehicles. American automakers have committed to make 50 percent of their cars FFVs by 2012.
• Believes alcohol-based fuels hold great promise as both an alternative to gasoline and as a means of expanding consumers' choices.
• Eliminate mandates, subsidies, tariffs and price supports that focus exclusively on corn-based ethanol and prevent the development of market-based solutions which would provide us with better options for our fuel needs.
• Effectively Enforce Existing CAFE Standards--the mileage requirements that automobile manufacturers' cars must meet. Some carmakers ignore these standards, pay a small financial penalty, and add it to the price of their cars.


• Establish a permanent tax credit equal to 10 percent of wages spent on R&D. A permanent credit will provide an incentive to innovate and remove uncertainty. At a time when our companies need to be more competitive, we need to provide a permanent incentive to innovate, and remove the uncertainty now hanging over businesses as they make R&D investment decisions.
• Encourage the market for alternative, low carbon fuels such as wind, hydro and solar power with an even-handed system of tax credits that will remain in place until the market transforms sufficiently to the point where renewable energy no longer merits the taxpayers' dollars. According to the Department of Energy, wind could provide as much as one-fifth of electricity by 2030. The U.S. solar energy industry continued its double-digit annual growth rate in 2006. To develop these and other sources of renewable energy will require that we rationalize the current patchwork of temporary tax credits that provide commercial feasibility.
  

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

What is Cap-and-Trade?

A cap-and-trade system harnesses human ingenuity in the pursuit of alternatives to carbon-based fuels. Market participants are allotted total permits equal to the cap on greenhouse gas emissions. If they can invent, improve, or acquire a way to reduce their emissions, they can sell their extra permits for cash. The profit motive will coordinate the efforts of venture capitalists, corporate planners, entrepreneurs, and environmentalists on the common motive of reducing emissions.

Obama:

• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.The Obama-Biden cap-and-trade policy will require all pollution credits to be auctioned, and proceeds will go to investments in a clean energy future, habitat protections, and rebates and other transition relief for families.
• Increase fuel efficiency standards by 4% per year while providing $4 billion for domestic automakers to retool their manufacturing facilities in America to produce these vehicles.
• Create a new $7,000 tax credit for purchasing advanced vehicles.

• 

  Lift the 60,000-per-manufacturer cap on buyer tax credits to encourage more Americans to buy ultra-efficient vehicles, and encourage automakers to make fuel efficient hybrid vehicles.
  
• Offer domestic automakers either assistance shouldering their health care legacy costs in exchange for investing 50 percent of the savings into technology to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles or generous tax incentives for retooling assembly plants.
• Put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.
• Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to reduce the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of passenger vehicle fuels sold in the U.S. by 10 percent in 2020 and require additional reductions of 1% annually thereafter.
• Weatherize one million homes annually. Obama and Biden will make a national commitment to weatherize at least one million low-income homes each year for the next decade, which can reduce energy usage across the economy and help moderate energy prices for all.
• Set an aggressive energy efficiency goal -- to reduce electricity demand 15 percent from projected levels by 2020.
• Re-engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) -- the main international forum dedicated to addressing the climate problem. They will also create a Global Energy Forum of the world's largest emitters to focus exclusively on global energy and environmental issues.

McCain:

• "Green" the federal government. The federal government is the largest electricity consumer on earth and occupies 3.3 billion square feet of space worldwide. By applying a higher efficiency standard to new buildings leased or purchased or retrofitting existing buildings, we can save taxpayers substantial money in energy costs, and move the construction market in the direction of green technology.
• Move the United States toward electricity grid and metering improvements to save energy. John McCain will work to reduce red tape to allow a serious investment to upgrade our national grid to meet the demands of the 21st century - which will include a capacity to charge the electric cars that will one day fill the roads and highways of America. And to save both money and electrical power for our people and businesses, we will also need to deploy SmartMeter technologies. These new meters give customers a more precise picture of their overall energy consumption, and over time will encourage a more cost-efficient use of power.
• Establish a Cap-And-Trade System that would set limits on greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging the development of low-cost compliance options. A climate cap-and-trade mechanism would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit, similar to the successful acid rain trading program of the early 1990s. The key feature of this mechanism is that it allows the market to decide and encourage the lowest-cost compliance options. The cap-and-trade system would encompass electric power, transportation fuels, commercial business, and industrial business - sectors responsible for just under 90 percent of all emissions. Small businesses would be exempt. Initially, participants would be allowed to either make their own GHG reductions or purchase "offsets" - financial instruments representing a reduction, avoidance, or sequestration of greenhouse gas emissions practiced by other activities, such as agriculture - to cover 100 percent of their required reductions. Offsets would only be available through a program dedicated to ensure that all offset GHG emission reductions are real, measured and verifiable. The fraction of GHG emission reductions permitted via offsets would decline over time.
• Greenhouse Gas Emission Targets And Timetables:
• 2012: Return Emissions To 2005 Levels (18 Percent Above 1990 Levels)
• 2020: Return Emissions To 1990 Levels (15 Percent Below 2005 Levels)
  
• 2030: 22 Percent Below 1990 Levels (34 Percent Below 2005 Levels)
  
• 2050: 60 Percent Below 1990 Levels (66 Percent Below 2005 Levels)
  

Obama's Policy Speech in Lansing in August 2008 on Energy Policy.

CONTINUE READING...

What the F**K Edition

Main portion of the post

Rest of post here.

Flabbergasted. Really. FLABBER. GASTED. I am. I had to spend some time drinking wine and reading some calming poll numbers to keep my brain from spinning in all directions.

Helene came into class today and said, "Hey, did you know John McCain wants to cancel the debate on Friday?" Whuh-HUH??

But wait! There's more! He also wants to suspend his campaign so he can work on the $700 billion bailout plan.

But wait! There's more! He hasn't even read the plan yet-- and it's only three pages long. (Fer the love of Mike! I've read it -- didn't understand it, but I've READ it.)

But wait! There's more! Senate members are confused because THEY'VE ALREADY WORKED OUT THE PLAN. (Barney Frank says that McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona who has spent much of the year away from the Capitol campaigning, could end up slowing down work on the bill. The Massachusetts Democrat noted that a meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday will be interrupted for a "photo op" at the White House with congressional Democrats and Republicans as well as Bush.")

But wait! There's more! He also want to suspends the VP Debate too. Ohhhhhhh... I get it now...

CLEARLY, he is doing his level best to LOSE THIS ELECTION, and the 46% of you people who insist on supporting him through thick and thin--you're MESSING UP his plan!!! (Okay, maybe it's only 43% of you.)

And when you've gotten up off the floor, there are people trying to make the argument that this was somehow "brilliant strategy" on the part of McCain. Seriously. Only if McCain's brilliant strategy was to start another Twitter Meme (Yep, here's my contribution...)

So. Cancel the debate Friday? Whaddya think? Obama says, Uh... Let me think...No. "There are times for politics and there are times to rise above politics and do what's right." But he said he saw no need to cancel the debate, scheduled for Friday night at the University of Mississippi. "This is exactly the time when people need to hear from the candidates," Mr. Obama said, adding: "Part of the president's job is to deal with more than one thing at once. In my mind it's more important than ever."

Oh, and in the process of "suspending" his campaign and "rushing" back to DC, McCain dissed David Letterman, on whose show he was supposed to guest this evening. Watch Letterman's hilarious and RATHER affronted spiel. Yeah, nice way to treat Dave. You might recall that it was on Letterman that McCain ANNOUNCED that he was running for president back in February 2007. I guess that was also back when he used to talk to the national press too. (By the way, since McCain cancelled, Dave got Keith Olbermann to sit in instead.) After saying "something doesn't smell right..." Dave points out that if the economy is in such a tailspin, and you personally must be in Washington to fix it (which you don't), why don'tcha leave your second-in-command VP nominee in charge of campaigning and get on your flight? Oh, Dave, Dave, Dave...you forget that he can't leave her unattended even for 30 seconds.

This WAS my favorite video of the day...until the McCain campaign imploded: Campbell Brown goes OFF on the McCain camp's sexism in shielding Sarah Palin from the Big Bad Media: "Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment...you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now."

Even Fox News reporters are starting to get testy about the Palin Media Shutout. And Maureen Dowd refers to Palin's recent rush through Top World Leaders plus a bonus Henry Kissinger Round as "speed dating diplomacy."

Perhaps the reason they keep her under wraps is that--uh, pardon me, Governor Palin? Your ignorance is showing.

Here is my SECOND favorite video of the day: the BIG interview, with Katie Couric of CBS playing "Stump the Candidate." I love that right at the top of the interview, Couric asks Palin about McCain adviser Rick Davis's Freddie Mac involvement. Palin answers that her understanding is that he recused himself from any dealings with the company and that she would hope that that's the case. To which Couric says, "But he still has a stake in the company, so isn't that a conflict of interest?" At which Palin says that her understanding is that he recused himself from any dealings with the company and that she would hope that that's the case-- Whoa, deja vu! I guess that's the only talking point they gave you, honey? Particularly delicious is the moment when Couric asks Palin to cite "specific examples in [McCain's] 26 years [in the Senate] of pushing for more regulation."

Couric, incidentally also does a series called Presidential questions, in which she asks the same question of Obama and McCain. One of the questions was "When is it appropriate to lie to the American people?" Both of them give the same answer, but McCain's interests me, given the questions and statements made about his running mate. Next week we ask: "When is it appropriate to manipulate the political process?"

Oh, and not that anyone is paying attention to the Sarah Palin Troopergate story NOW, but The Plank pointed out that even the AP newswire is getting snarky, putting out this lead in a story covering the investigation: "Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature's investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire."

By the way, about the "Is Sarah Palin qualified?" poll on PBS NOW's website. I sent it out, and many of you have sent it to me. Well, the poll, which only ran a week in early September on PBS' homepage, became the single most viewed page on their entire site, even though nothing links to it now that the homepage link is gone. But it's remained so popular via email that PBS was moved to post this notice. As many people noticed, voting "da Chicago way" seemed to be entirely possible, and apparently was (thank god, I didn't really waste that half hour clicking and refreshing....!) until yesterday, when they embedded cookies so you can only vote once per computer. (Naturally, I have voted from every computer in the house...)
Econ 101

Yeah, I wrote all this this morning-- before all the fun began.... Best not to waste it though. Who knows what we still have brewing ahead in the overnight hours!

So over the last couple of days, I've spent about a half an hour looking at Paul Solman's very informative and yet amusing videos for PBS's Lehrer Report. Solman used to be a kindergarten teacher which maybe accounts for his simple, yet not condescending explanations.

• Back in 2007 after Amaranth Financial lost $6 billion betting on natural gas futures and collapsed, Solman explained what a Hedge Fund is (EXTREMELY enlightening for non-econ types like me). It has the bonus explanation of what a "Black Swan" event is -- actually no surprise to those of us who have seen Swan Lake.
• In March 2008, Paul explained how the subprime mortgage caused the Bear Stearns collapse (hilariously using green Monopoly houses and Monopoly money). Paul and his team of expert explainers have a clairvoyant moment and "see" the domino effect of cascading failures causing a crisis of confidence for financial institutions.
  
• And yesterday, he explained what triggered the "Credit crunch." Why is credit so important that we had to bail out giant financial organizations?
  

Betty also forwarded to me the very funny "Urgent help needed" spam that's making the rounds: "I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America . My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe...."

Apparently, McCain is not the only one having a crappy day. It's all falling apart for BushCheneyCo too: "House Republicans who walked into a closed-door meeting with Cheney steaming over the plan walked out just as angry, and they described what happened in between as both 'a bloodbath' and 'an unmitigated disaster.' 'It's a sad fact, but Americans can no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this administration,' South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint said in a comment posted on Politico's Arena forum."

Last word on those thousand dollar bills: Jeez, it's like being a candidate. Every time I open my mouth--or laptop as it were--I generate a new misstatement. Hah! So I noticed that I said the US stopped printing $1000 bills in 1969 but in fact they stopped printing them in 1945. The bills were pulled from circulation in 1969.

=================
Debate Prep
The League of Women Voters has a handy worksheet that you can print out and use to take notes while watching the debate this Friday, September 26 at 9pm EDT (8 pm local Mississippi time, 6 pm PDT). Well, you know... if we get to it....Jesus, Mary, Joseph.

Some more Foreign Policy statements from the candidates' own websites:

Obama's Record: As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Barack Obama has fought to focus America's attention on the challenges facing Africa – stopping the genocide in Darfur, passing legislation to promote stability in the Congo and to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia, mobilizing international pressure for a just government in Zimbabwe, fighting corruption in Kenya, demanding honesty on HIV/AIDS in South Africa, developing a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia, and travelling across the continent raising awareness for these critical issues. He has also increased America's focus on the long term challenges of education, poverty reduction, disease, strengthening democratic institutions and spurring sustainable economic development in Africa.

Barack Obama would like to:

• expand prosperity by establishing an Add Value to Agriculture Initiative, creating a fund that will extend seed capital and technical assistance to small and medium enterprises, and reforming the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. He would launch the Global Energy and Environment Initiative to ensure African countries have access to low carbon energy technology and can profitably participate in the new global carbon market so as to ensure solid economic development even while the world dramatically reduces its greenhouse gas emissions. They will also strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act to ensure that African producers can access the U.S. market and will encourage more American companies to invest on the continent.
• take immediate steps to end the genocide in Darfur by increasing pressure on the Sudanese and pressure the government to halt the killing and stop impeding the deployment of a robust international force. He and Joe Biden will hold the government in Khartoum accountable for abiding by its commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Accord that ended the 30 year conflict between the north and south. Obama worked with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006.
• double our annual investment in foreign assistance from $25 billion in 2008 to $50 billion by the end of his first term and make the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, America's goals. He would fully fund debt cancellation for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries in order to provide sustainable debt relief and invest at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including our fair share of the Global Fund.
• in Cuba, empower our best ambassadors of freedom by allowing unlimited Cuban-American family travel and remittances to the island. If a post-Fidel government takes significant steps toward democracy, beginning with freeing all political prisoners, the U.S. is prepared to take steps to normalize relations and ease the embargo that has governed relations between our countries for the last five decades.
• bring together the countries of the region in a new Energy Partnership for the Americas to forge a path toward sustainable growth and clean energy. He will call on the American people to join this effort through an Energy Corps of engineers and scientists who will go to the region and beyond to help develop clean energy solutions.
• target all sources of insecurity through a new hemispheric security initiative. This initiative will foster cooperation within the region to combat gangs, trafficking and violent criminal activity. It will strive to find the best practices that work across the hemisphere, and to tailor approaches to fit each country.
  

John McCain's National Security policy: "Strong Military in a Dangerous World"

The global war on terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, threats from rogue states like Iran and North Korea, and the rise of potential strategic competitors like China and Russia mean that America requires a larger and more capable military to protect our country's vital interests and deter challenges to our security. America confronts a range of serious security challenges: Protecting our homeland in an age of global terrorism and Islamist extremism; working with friends and partners overseas, from Africa to Southeast Asia, to help them combat terrorism and violent insurgencies in their own countries; defending against missile and nuclear attack; maintaining the credibility of our defense commitments to our allies; and waging difficult counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

John McCain:

• to protect our homeland, our interests, and our values - and to keep the peace - America must have the best-manned, best-equipped, and best-supported military in the world.
• has been a tireless advocate of our military and ensuring that our forces are properly postured, funded, and ready to meet the nation's obligations both at home and abroad. He has fought to modernize our forces, to ensure that America maintains and expands its technological edge against any potential adversary, and to see that our forces are capable and ready to undertake the variety of missions necessary to meet national security objectives.
• wants to strengthen the military, shore up our alliances, and ensure that the nation is capable of protecting the homeland, deterring potential military challenges, responding to any crisis that endangers American security, and prevailing in any conflict we are forced to fight.
• want to ensure that America has the quality intelligence necessary to uncover plots before they take root, the resources to protect critical infrastructure and our borders against attack, and the capability to respond and recover from a terrorist incident swiftly. McCain fought for the creation of an independent 9/11 Commission to identify how to best address the terrorist threat and decrease our domestic vulnerability. He fought for the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the creation of the U.S. Northern Command with the specific responsibility of protecting the U.S. homeland.
  
• strongly supports the development and deployment of theater and national missile defenses to protect America from rogue regimes like North Korea that possess the capability to target America with intercontinental ballistic missiles, from outlaw states like Iran that threaten American forces and American allies with ballistic missiles, and to hedge against potential threats from possible strategic competitors like Russia and China
• believes we must enlarge the size of our armed forces to meet new challenges to our security. For too long, we have asked too much of too few - with the result that many service personnel are on their second, third and even fourth tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. There can be no higher defense priority than the proper compensation, training, and equipping of our troops.
• reform the defense budgeting process to ensure that America enjoys the best military at the best cost. This includes reforming defense procurement to ensure the faithful and efficient expenditure of taxpayer dollars that are made available for defense acquisition.

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41 days to the election, God help us, we must survive the circus to VOTE! Reminder again that, for many states, would-be voters must register well in advance of the elections. RockTheVote's list of voter registration deadlines. And if you're voting absentee, Declare Yourself has links to each state's voter information page where you can find out how to get your absentee ballot. Feel free to harangue your friends in the swing states.

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Social Insecurity Edition

Everyone, center yourself in your Temple of Positivity...Go on and find it. I'll wait. You'll need it, 'cause the Fed just committed $85 billion of your tax dollars to bailing out AIG.

Yup, that's billion with a "b." I like how the "billions" just rack up as if every billion was just pocket change-- "How much was it? Oh, $40 or $85 billion...." Sunday, they were looking for a $40 billion bridge loan. Monday they were trying to get JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs (Goldman? Really? Don't they have enough to worry about on their own??) to cobble together $75 billion to help tide them over. Tonight, after two tense days, with FedHead Bernanke (there he is, Mary Ann!) and Cashbox Secretary Paulson looking grim, they get $85 billion. Extra, you know, just in case they need a little pizza money. Oh, I see what the problem was-- they weren't asking for enough money!

Earlier in the day, McCain came out strong about not using taxpayer dollars to bail out AIG. Now let me just say here (and I wrote this yesterday morning, before the bailout news), I'm not exactly in favor of taxpayer money being used to prop up organizations mired in despair-laden pits of their own making (as is probably clear from my last rant). But it's easy to say, "Oh, we can't have taxpayer dollars going to a bailout!" when you're not the one making the decision in the moment.

AIG is the 18th largest corporation in the world, with holdings that include not just financial services, asset management and life insurance, but telecommunications and market-making. I looked them up on Wikipedia (And only learned this week that AIG stand for "American International Group." Sexy, no?) . They are the world's largest leasers of aircraft, and the largest underwriters of commercial and industrial insurance in America and having them head into bankruptcy does not affect just the US and Wall Street, it moves into world markets. So I think it's a little too pat of McCain to just come out with the easy statement when examining a situation this complicated. I don't claim to understand what's going on, but I think I understand enough to know there are no simplistic answers.

The little elves in the "Ad-making" workshop must work overtime on days like these. Obama's campaign already has an ad out attacking McCain's statement about the "fundamentals of the economy" being sound.
Meantime, McCain clarifies what he meant he thought he was about to try to say: "Well it's obviously true that the workers of America are the fundamentals of our economy, and our strength and our future,'' he said. "And I believe in the American worker, and someone who disagrees with that – it's fine. We are in crisis. We all know that. The excess, the greed and the corruption of Wall Street have caused us to have a situation which is going to affect every American. We are in a total crisis.''

The New York Times financial columnists have some interesting things to say about how the crisis actually affects the average Joe, so you need to be worried about your 401k or your mutual fund investments? "It also might be time to review your risk tolerance: if you're tempted to move your money around on a difficult day, it might be time to rethink your stock allocation (in other words, you might want to lower it)."

However, just this morning, a major money market fund is warning that depositors could lose money. "The fund said that because the value of some investments had fallen, customers now have only 97 cents for each dollar they had invested.This is only the second time in history that a money market fund has "broken the buck" — that is, reported a share's value was less than a dollar"

Betcha didn't know McCain invented the BlackBerry-- and that was BEFORE he learned to use email....Says the NY Times, in a droll, one-sentence aside: "The original BlackBerrys were made by a Canadian company, Research in Motion."

And on the subject of one of my bugaboos about the "McCain: Hero for All Time" stories, Mary Mitchell points out that if we're being asked to evaluate candidate McCain on his character based on his war-hero years, then we should also be told the the story of the shabby way he treated first-wife Carol. Maybe that's what attracted him to Cindy. Ariel Levy's profile of Cindy McCain in the New Yorker looks at her family matters. "Cindy McCain regularly calls herself an only child. In fact, she has two half sisters: Kathleen Portalski and Dixie Burd, Marguerite's daughter from a previous marriage. 'I feel bad about having a father that wasn't there, and then having my face rubbed in this—having her stand up and say she's an only child—makes it even worse,' Kathleen Portalski told me." Kathleen Portalski visited her father almost every day in the months before his death. When he died, Cindy McCain inherited the Hensley empire; Kathleen Portalski and her family received ten thousand dollars. Stephanie Portalski found that a credit card her grandfather had given her had been cut off days after his death.

PALINDROMES

Oh, ya gotta lot the Brits. Wordplay is just in their blood. Andrew Sullivan, a conservative blogger (actually he's a libertarian conservative, who thinks the Republican Party has lost the true meaning of "conservatism." Ya think?) at The Atlantic has turned out to be no Sarah Palin fan, and is now cataloguing her Palindromes(For the Bridge to Nowhere and against the bridge , for instance) with his series "The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin." See, "palin" in Greek means "reversal," Thus the word "palindrome," a word or phrase that is the same forward as it is reversed. This is what you get if you give people a Classical Education. I know, I know, people have been sending me the piece floating through the Ethernet about how Sarah Palin is a distraction from the real issues, how we shouldn't pay attention to her. How we shouldn't fight her, but fight McCain. And I can easily go with the first and third points. But I can't agree that we shouldn't pay attention to her. She is the symbol of how ignorant the Republicans expect the voting public to be, and she is the warning as to how dangerous a John McCain presidency would be and what kind of man this "War Hero" has become. Says Eugene Robinson: "We're beginning to discern an ambitious, opportunistic politician who makes no bones about rewarding friends and punishing those who stand in her way -- and who believes that truth is nothing more, and nothing less, than what she says it is."

In the Well-Worth-a-Read Dept.: Even the most forgiving conservatives are turning against McCain. Richard Cohen, conservative columnist of the Washington Post writes: "The John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised...His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that." Read it--seriously, it's a good piece.

Anyway, on to our Issue of the Day. Given the tanking markets, I thought it might be fun to visit Social Security policy-- and consider the wisdom of privatizing Social Security-- you know, cause we workers have been missing out on putting that money into the stock market and earning those high rates of return.

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Social Security

A recap for those who don't remember: debate has raged over how to fund Social Security because if it continues at current rates, "starting in 2017, program expenses begin to exceed revenues." President Bush has pushed during his second term for a plan in which "up to four percent of taxable wages, up to a maximum of $1000, could be diverted from FICA and voluntarily placed by workers into private accounts for investment.... These personal accounts could be invested in various managed investment funds similar to the government employees' Thrift Savings Plan, in which the investor can choose between Treasury Bills, Corporate bonds and a stock market fund."

• Barack Obama - His website indicates that he "will work with members of Congress from both parties to strengthen Social Security and prevent privatization while protecting middle class families from tax increases or benefit cuts. As part of a bipartisan plan that would be phased in over many years, he would ask those making over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it sound." He has opposed raising the retirement age, privatization, or cutting benefits.
  • opposed President Bush's privatization scheme because it would have undermined -- not strengthened - Social Security. "We should not add greater risk or debt to the system. Otherwise, workers who contribute to the Social Security System may face the prospect of inadequate benefits when they retire or if they become disabled if their investments go sour. Workers have lived up to their end of the bargain. Surely, the federal government can do the same."
  • "Social Security is one of the most important government programs ever created; it provides a vital safety net to millions of seniors and Americans with disabilities...It is a great reflection of our values and commitments, and I want to make sure it is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the future."
  • "The focus of reform options should be on protecting the basic integrity and fairness of Social Security.... We can close the gap with an equitable mix of benefit and tax changes similar to those recommended by the bipartisan Greenspan Commission in 1983."
    
• John McCain - Has indicated resistance to raising taxes, but otherwise is willing to work with a bi-partisan commission to address the program's solvency issues. He has indicated that current benefit promises "cannot be kept," indicating he prefers to reduce benefits at some future date, rather than raising taxes. He supports private accounts as a supplement to Social Security.
• In addition, McCain' position has been unclear and inconsistent on Social Security privatization. In March, he campaigned heartily in support of Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. But here he is in June while at a town hall in Nashua: "I am not for quote 'privatization of Social Security.' I never have been, never will be. That is a great buzzword for an attack," McCain shot back.

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Speaking of electoral votes ('cause you know you were thinking about them...) ever wonder who the electors are and how this electoral college thing works? In case you've blocked it out after the 2000 and 2004 elections, here's an explanation. Basically each state gets the number of electors equivalent to the number of people you have in congress, so the number of representatives in the house, plus two for the number of Senators. The elector selection process varies from state to state, but here's the deal in California, The Democratic Party in CA submits a list of 55 possible electors as does the Republican Party. If Barack Obama wins, the Democratic list of electors gets to go to Electoral College, and if McCain wins (hah!) it;s the Republican list of 55 that goes. Mostly of course, the role is ceremonial. How to become an elector.

A reminder that although they raised $66 million last month (!!), Obama's campaign says their goal is to have 50,000 new donors by Friday at midnight. As I see it, it's about the cash of course, but also a sign to the campaign that there are more people out there than are counted in polls.

P.S. As you might be able to tell, I've been spending some time trying to dull the pain of economic disaster on a humor website called Pundit Kitchen, which is where most of the photos come from.

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