Good luck, America - but if luck fails you, there's always St Louis!
by Jane Stillwater
Many years ago, a soothsayer once told me, "Wherever you go, you will always bring good luck to the people you meet.""Oh yeah sure really?" I was skeptical. "And just exactly what do I have to do to make all this happen once I meet all these people? Hand out four-leaf clovers, horseshoes and rabbits' feet?" |
Today's vocabulary word: metastasized.
by Matthew Hubbard
Here's what I'd like Obama to say tonight."John, could you look at me for a minute? This year, the Republicans in power and those who ran for president told us again and again how well the economy was doing. You said and Bush said the fundamentals were strong. Your friend Fred Thompson said the American economy was the greatest story never told. People who disagreed were alarmists and extremists. Then comes September, and Bush tells us we are facing the largest economic crisis in eighty years. |
Election '08: Here Comes the Sludge
by Robert Parry
Sarah Palin’s charge that Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists” may mark the descent of Campaign 2008 into the sewer that has marked so many other recent U.S. elections. But her comments operate on another level, too, continuing to brand anyone who criticizes George W. Bush’s neoconservative foreign policy as un-American. |
Seven Years in Afghanistan: From "War on Terror" to "War of Terror"
by Gary Leupp
October 7, 2008. Seven years ago today the U.S. began the assault on Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban regime and produced the present mess. Abetted by U.S. bombing and commando operations, the Northern Alliance took Kabul on November 13, 2001. This was the initial U.S. response to 9-11, an assault on the U.S. by Saudi Islamist fanatics based in Afghanistan. The al-Qaeda attacks killed 3000 people. By March 2002 the U.S. bombing had produced that many Afghan civilian fatalities. This was just the beginning. |
For a trillion to Wall Street, look at these strings of shiny beads
by Pierre Tristam
Wall Street's genesis in a nutshell: Property acquired by wiles, a wall of defenses that proved useless, a financial system built on bail-outs at taxpayers' expense. It's not exaggeration. It's history, though it might as well have been prophesy.Before Wall Street was cobblestoned in 1699 there really was a wall there, 12 feet high, made of wooden posts and running about a mile between Lower Manhattan's two flanking rivers. It was the New World's first gated community. |
Hanging Ourselves With a Chinese-Made Rope
by David Sirota
Whomever the next president is, he will have to confront economic, human rights, national security and environmental issues on a global scale. It isn't just the financial sector that has gone planetary - it is everything. And that gives progressives the opportunity to expand the political discussion to the one issue that ties all of these together: International trade. |
The Bush Bullydozer Strategy To Preempt His Successor
by Danny Schechter
The Bailout Scheme Sold As An "Emergency" Has Become "Hurry Up And Wait"One of the tactics of high pressure selling is to set a deadline, and make it clear if you don't chose the offer by the date set, you lose it. The strategy fuels a sense of urgency to get buyers to make decisions without seeking advice or doing too much thinking. Sometimes, a bribe or a threat adds pressure to reinforce a sense of disorientation. Recall President Bush's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein and his sons. They were given 48 hours to get out of town. Or else! Does anyone really think that had they left they would have been left alone? |
Environment: Twisted As Unnaturally as the Banks
by Julio Godoy
The financial meltdown in most of the industrialised world presents an opportunity for a new economic model that would end short-sighted search for high returns, according to leading economists attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress here."Right now, the most conservative leaders in the industrialised world, such as George W. Bush of the U.S. and Angela Merkel of Germany are allocating public money to save the banks from bankruptcy," Alejandro Nadal, a Mexican economist attending the congress told IPS. |
Secrets of Iraq's Death Chamber
by Robert Fisk
Like all wars, the dark, untold stories of the Iraqi conflict drain from its shattered landscape like the filthy waters of the Tigris. And still the revelations come.The Independent has learnt that secret executions are being carried out in the prisons run by Nouri al-Maliki's "democratic" government. |
The pain of being John McCain
by CapitolHillBlue.com
The old man took on the new kid on the block for the second of three Presidential campaign debates Tuesday night and planned to expose the kid as a wild-eyed radical with dangerous ideas that would destroy the United States of America.He failed.Barack Obama beat John McCain handily in a “Town Hall” format that was supposed to be McCain’s strength. He won by keeping his cool and being…well…boring…and, by contrast, exposed McCain as the hothead with dangerous ideas: Which was one of the few moments of truth to come out of the extended hyperbole that passed as serious debate. |
Peeks Into the Diaries of the Candidates and Hank Paulson
by Bernard Weiner
Don't ask me how many palms I had to grease or how I gained access to certain locked drawers, but over the weekend I was able to peek into the personal journals of the four major candidates, along with the diary of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Here are some juicy excerpts, which provide some insight into their states of mind. |
Judge: Let Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo into US
by Hope Yen
A Federal Judge ordered the Bush administration Tuesday to immediately free 17 Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay into the United States, rebuking the government in a landmark decision that could set the stage for the release of dozens other prisoners in Cuba. |
Mud Pies for ‘That One’
by Maureen Dowd
Some of John McCain’s friends, from the good old days when he talked straight, feared that his Greek tragedy would be that he would be defeated by George Bush twice: once in 2000, because of W.’s no-conscience campaigning, and again in 2008, because of W.’s no-brains governing. |
Jewish voters may be wary of Palin
by Politico.com
Barack Obama has struggled for 18 months to lock down the support of a traditionally Democratic group, Jewish voters.In the past week, John McCain may have helped Obama with his Jewish problem by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.McCain and Obama are battling over a portion of the Jewish community: older, conservative Democrats, largely in South Florida, some of whom backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. McCain’s secular, hawkish credentials appeal to many in that group, who are skeptical of Obama’s relatively short record and have been deluged with rumors about his pro-Palestinian leanings. |
Biden: McCain camp's 'fear and loathing' is 'mildly dangerous'
by David Edwards and Ron Brynaert
CBS' Early Show attempted to get both vice presidential candidates on the show Wednesday morning to discuss their colleagues' debate the previous night, but only one showed up."Joining us now is Senator Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running mate," host Harry Smith told his viewers. "We also invited Governor Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, but the McCain campaign declined." |
What did McCain mean when he called Obama 'that one'?
by Nick Juliano
A growing perception that Republican presidential candidate John McCain is outright disdainful of having to share a stage with -- let alone losing to -- Barack Obama is gaining more traction after McCain dismissively referred to his opponent as "that one" during Tuesday's debate. |
CNN compares winking Sarah Palin to Betty Boop
by David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's exaggerated winks during her debate with Democrat Joe Biden last week have received a great deal of attention and inspired a considerable amount of comedy.CNN's Jeanne Moos surveyed some of the reactions to Palin's winks, from Alec Baldwin's imitation on Real Time with Bill Maher to Tina Fey's impersonation of Palin on Saturday Night Live. |
Poll: Florida gay-marriage ban likely to pass
by Marc Caputo
Florida voters look close to passing a gay-marriage ban and rejecting a community college tax and are largely undecided about a handful of property-tax issues, according to a new statewide poll concerning the state's proposed constitutional amendments. |
US should talk with its enemies: Petraeus
by AFP
General David Petraeus said Wednesday that attempts are being made to open talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan and that the United States should be prepared to engage with its enemies.His comments came a day after US presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain tangled over the question of directly engaging Iran in their second one-on-one debate. |
Surge in younger voters seen favoring Obama
by Andrew Stern
Young Americans could turn out in record numbers in the November presidential election and all signs are that Democrat Barack Obama stands to benefit.Coming of age during the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton, Americans born between 1979 and 1990 -- labeled the "millennial generation" -- may shed a collective reputation as apathetic slackers when it comes to casting a ballot. |
