Dying For Dollars

There are jobs that people take on, like becoming a police officer, firefighter or soldier, where you know there's a good chance you could die while at work. You know this. Everyone knows this.

That's why there are fund raisers for the families of those who have lost husbands and wives in shootings, fires fights or in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were doing dangerous work that saves and protects people. You could say you can never pay someone enough for that.

Then there are the jobs that aren't worth dying over -- for anyone. Your minimum wage, "not my problem" jobs. Horrible, sometimes hard, sometimes mundane jobs that happen to many people at some point in their lives. There are no benefits. The hours can be brutal. But you need the cash for yourself or your families, so you put up with it. And if someone ever put a gun in your face for the register you give them the cash because -- seriously -- you're not dying for $7 an hour.

But the reality is many people working low paying service jobs do find themselves, unwillingly, in the line of fire and some do wind up dying for simply showing up at work that day. And it is in these tales of ordinary people who get killed working mundane jobs where you learn why and how corporations, and people serviced by them, get their reputations as being cold, soulless entities.

Take the case of Taneka Talley.

In March of 2006 she was stocking shelves at a Dollar Tree in Fairfield, Calif. when a man came into the store and shot and killed her. According to California law, businesses have to pay death benefits to the families of people who lose their lives while on the job, with an exception for employees killed by individuals they have a "personal" relationship with, i.e. spouses who kill their husbands or wives at work. But Dollar Tree contested paying Talley's 11-year-old son death benefits because Talley is black and was killed by a white man who said he was looking to kill a black person that day.

He just happened to choose Talley.

In the eyes of the lawyers for Dollar Tree and their insurance company, that counted as a "personal relationship." That act of extreme racism that lead to murder was tantamount to an abusive spouse executing their not-so-loved one. Now facing a boycott, a court case that they stand a good chance at losing and some extremely ugly press, Dollar Tree is offering to pay the full benefits.

Of course they are. It only took them two years.

In a statement Monday, Dollar Tree said it was acting voluntarily because "we feel this is the right thing to do." But a lawyer for Talley's mother and guardian of her 11-year-old son said the company was clearly responding to the public anger that followed news coverage of the case.

"I think they would like this to be done with," attorney Moira Stagliano said. "The media helped settle this claim."

Stagliano said she's optimistic about resolving the case but isn't there yet. "What they have offered is not quite the full value," and negotiations are continuing, she said. (San Franscico Chronicle)

Then we have the more recent tragedy of Jdimytai Damour, the temporary worker trampled to death on "Black Friday" at a Long Island Wal-Mart.

The store was set to open early at 5 a.m. but not early enough for the shoppers who smashed the glass doors and ran right over Damour to get their discounted Nintendo Wiis and digital cameras.

His death was so profound for Wal-Mart that they had to close for a few hours, but somehow were able to put the grief aside and ... those brave little soldiers ... reopen the store when Damour's body wasn't even cold earlier that same afternoon. Who knows if the other employees working that day even got to grieve in those few hours the store was closed. Never mind the fact that some shoppers refused to stop shopping as Damour's body remained on the floor. Even when the cops asked them to leave they were indignant. They'd been waiting outside all night, after all, and needed to buy their cheap crap. Who cares if someone died in their pursuit of manufactured bliss? He was just a temporary worker with family and friends who loved him and affectionately called him "Jimbo" for short.

Obviously not human.

Or at least not deserving of any dignity and humanity in death. Not when the game of death for dollars is being played in America. Four other shoppers, including a pregnant woman, were also injured in the melee.

Damour's family is now suing Wal-Mart because ... well, who can blame them? They obviously weren't prepared to handle the 2,000 person mob that spelled Damour's demise. Many believe he was placed at the door because he was so big and tall (Damour was 6-foot-5 and weighed 270 pounds), and that his death was a combination of "mob mentality," poor crowd control and Wal-Mart's low, low prices.

(Terry) Hemeyer, who also teaches marketing, public relations and advertising at the University of Texas at Austin, places the onus on retailers to prevent such accidents. He said that throughout history, consumers have been attacking each other to get sale items that are in short supply, even when people are lined up waiting for the doors to open.

Hemeyer, who made a point not to attack Wal-Mart, said if store managers don't understand the "herd mentality," then they are not doing their jobs.

"In other words," he said, "if you do something that the doors open at 8 and that's when the sales start and it's a limited supply, I think that's a formula for a problem because everybody has to be there at the same time." (Houston Chronicle)

Pictures of Damour, a 34-year-old Jamaican, were rarely seen as this story was reported on in the press. Even online it's hard to find an article about him. Most stories focus on Wal-Mart or whether our society is decaying because people are dying for cheap Chinese-made goods at big box retailers. But people have always died working retail. It doesn't happen often, but ask anyone who works at a gas station, liquor store, late night diner or fast food restaurant or 7-11 how they feel about their safety and you'll know that you don't have to be a police officer to face death at work.

I just hope Wal-Mart, which doesn't have the best record on this, does the right thing in Damour's case. If not out of the goodness of the heart I know Wal-Mart doesn't have, out of the the good PR they would get in a time where Wal-Mart is blamed for pretty much ever evil in our society. It's true he was a temporary worker, but he died for their dollars.

Let them know why they should care.

To contact Dollar Tree, click here.
To contact Wal-Mart, click here.

Barack Obama, Bad Economy Inspire New Era of the Hustle Man/Woman

I'm still waiting on my Michelle Obama Barbie. Seriously. Where is she? I'll buy 20. But do you want to know what I won't buy? All this crap created in the time honored tradition of the enterprising North American "Hustle Man/Woman."

From tacky President-Elect plates to tacky President-Elect gold plated coins, if you can slap Obama's smiling, inspirational mug on it, you can profit from the latest piece of swag to move aspiring hustlers from rags to Obama riches.

There's gold in them there Obamas! Whether it's book sales (Both pro and anti-Obama books are selling like crack rock on the block!), TV ratings (Barack and Michelle gave 60 Minutes its highest ratings in nearly a decade) or magazines covers (I don't think they've been on Soldier of Fortune yet, but I'm sure they're working on it) -- people are buying visages of the Obamas. Even the fashion industry is hoping Michelle Obama will become their prêt-à-porter deity and keep sales going while the nation goes to the poorhouse.

From ABC News:

"We're all obviously trying to look at the silver lining," designer Norma Kamali told ABCNews.com. "Where do we look for hope, an opportunity to create good feelings for the customer? There is real hope with Michelle Obama. I think she can keep women interested in purchasing."

Obama's name surfaced at a recent meeting of The Fashion Group International, a professional organization for members of the fashion industry. The topic of discussion was the economy, and one member wondered aloud whether Obama could bolster the industry during the current economic downturn.

Networks are cobbling together half-assed documentaries. Books are being rushed to presses. Even the tabloids have put down running pictures of Brangelina (or Jennifer Aniston still upset over Brangelina) to boost their sales with Michelle and Barack. Where will the girls go to school? What is Michelle wearing? Why is Barack the "bee's knees?" What is this "hope and change" thing he keeps talking about? People want to know and the media is willing to provide knowing it all leads to the dollars.

From The Washington Post:

Perhaps it was the announcement that NBC News is coming out with a DVD titled "Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story." Or that ABC and USA Today are rushing out a book on the election. Or that HBO has snapped up a documentary on Obama's campaign.

Perhaps it was the Newsweek commemorative issue -- "Obama's American Dream" -- filled with so many iconic images and such stirring prose that it could have been campaign literature. Or the Time cover depicting Obama as FDR, complete with jaunty cigarette holder.

Each writer, each publication, seems to reach for more eye-popping superlatives. "OBAMAISM -- It's a Kind of Religion," says New York magazine. "Those of us too young to have known JFK's Camelot are going to have our own giddy Camelot II to enrapture and entertain us," Kurt Andersen writes. The New York Post has already christened it "BAM-A-LOT."

But the real stars of this effort to capitalize and monetize history are not the media or the book publishers, but the hustlers, the peddlers, the eBay specialists who are the true heroes of crass capitalism.

America is a country founded on the ability to hustle. It was the founding fathers who hustled themselves out of being a colony, hustled the Native Americans out of their land and hustled slavery until that little Civil War happened. But this has always been a place where many business people who saw opportunity where other people only saw crap.

Take the inventor of Barbie.

Former Mattel, Inc. president Ruth Handler modeled the doll off of a German doll marketed to adults as a sexually fused gag gift, explaining Barbie's impossible waist- and bustline.

Or, Madam CJ Walker who became the first black and female millionaire through the invention of the pressing comb and creating the black hair care industry.

When others say why, the hustle man/woman says "Why not?"

From poorly bootlegged DVDs of new films the same day they come out to Steve Jobs pushing iPhones you can't afford, America is built on the backs of folks who can put up a mean hustle. It's only natural that the hustler would celebrate our fair Hopey McChangey by pimping his message in the most garrish, ridiculous, tackilicious "hang your portrait of Barack and Michelle between the MLK/JFK/RFK memorial plates/paintings and the giant, wooden "Tiki" (or African) fork and spoon in your dining room" fashion.

Before he won, Obama had already created a hustler's economy of buttons, jewelry, T-shirts, hats and all kinds of weirdness that I have chronicled on this blog over and over and over again. From his likeness in chocolate to indie designer label trousers, these were Obama items that sometimes came in "extremes," but the money was always right.

Aw shizz! A shirt of Barack dunking on McCain? Order me fifty, son!

"Folks want to buy it," recognizes the hustler, "No matter how cheesy." From lame Obama action figures (this doll is no where as talking Ken doll-riffic as the talking George W. Bush doll I have in the basement somewhere. Lame! Give me a Barack doll worthy of making out with my old school Barbies!) to Obama themed skins for your iPhone, who knows which tchotchkes will be those Eddie Money-esque two tickets to (financial) paradise.

As a child I sat in the homes of many relatives staring at framed photos of John F. Kennedy next to Martin Luther King Jr., typically mounted near the wooden Tiki fork and spoon wondering "why?" How did these particular items become the tributes of choice for black people? I've moved past that wondering to now expecting gigantic, gawdy-to-gorgeous portraits of the Obamas smiling at me, symbols of both pride and the North American hustle man/woman's entrepreneurial spirit.

In crap we trust. Some gaze at the Grand Canyon or Sierra Nevadas to understand America's beauty. Save the money, turn on QVC and do nothing but slow claps. Bravo, hustlers. Bravo. You truly are recession proof.

The Economist Endorses Obama

Apparently the magazine didn't get the memo on Barry being a "spread the wealth," socialist, anti-capitalist red. Shame when that happens. Obviously McCain Campaign flack Tucker Bounds is not doing his job in getting the smears out n' stickin'.

From The Economist:

(T)his cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

This doesn't mean The Economist is in love with Obama. They're concerned about how he'll handle the Congressional Democrats if they start pushing protectionist economic policies and acknowledge that he doesn't have a lengthy resume to do extensive tea leaf readings on. But like many members of The George Will Revolt, The Economist's editors couldn't get over how different the John McCain of 2008 was from the John McCain of 2000. And Gov. Sarah Palin? She almost made them spit up their blackberries and brie.

The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness. It is not just that she is an unconvincing stand-in, nor even that she seems to have been chosen partly for her views on divisive social issues, notably abortion. Mr McCain made his most important appointment having met her just twice.

The Republicans really left them with no other choice ... and somewhere Mitt "Mittens" Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, is rubbing his hands together, prepared to pull the lever for Obama -- not because he likes the candidate (Heavens no!), but to make sure it's his economic phoenix who will emerge from the ashes of what he hopes will be a crash and burn one-term presidency to give The Economist the free market, ship your jobs to China, lower your tariffs and raise your dividends, lover candidate she deserves in 2012.

Now he just has to get that woman out of the way.

Geto Boys Meet Wall Street, Wall Street Meet Geto Boys

To see the full cartoon click here at Sinfest. To hear the original jam "Office Space" style, click here. (I heart that scene!)

And here's a YouTube parody featuring the past presidents of the United States, Clinton, Bush and Bush. Personally, I only consider Bill Clinton, Pimp of America, and GWB, the War Machine OG.

Thanks to Greg Fuller for the tip!

Snapshot Thoughts Before Heading Off to Work

1) Gov. Sarah Palin going dirty with her accusations that Sen. Barack Obama kicks it with crusty, 1960s counter-culture terrorists who are now reformed education specialists and live in his neighborhood. Nice. Guilt by association. Does that mean I get to associate Sen. John McCain, her dream mate, with his various parade of lowlifes? The shady pastor he kissed up to. The Keating 5. Various racists and anti-semites? He's been in the senate 26 years. That's a lot of hanging out with the far right fringe to get their votes. Never mind his opposition to a holiday for Rev. Martin Luther King, him condemning "agents of intolerance" just to cuddle up to them for votes. Etc. Etc.

This move is pretty pathetic. I mean, William Ayers? That's the best they can do? An old reformed hippy? I'm expecting they're going to bust out the fringe's greatest hits, including Louis Farrahkan (who Barack also has little to do with and doesn't know), Rev. Jeremiah Wright (who's been pretty much MIA after the drama in the spring, but I guess they could break out his greatest hits), Tony Rezko (who he apologized over already for taking the land deal, and went to trial where Obama's name never came up) and other random nobodies that they'll slime as "Chicago-style" politics.

I don't get how the Daly machine is worse that the other political powerhouses throughout major cities and counties across the US. McCain got where he is because he married the daughter of a highly connected billionaire in Arizona. Um ... lame! I'm two seconds from dubbing him McLame. If he and Punky Brewster go this route, you read it here first -- John McCain's gone mad with lust for power and is dead inside. Actually. I could argue that this happened the moment he hugged and Bush and Bush gave him the kiss of political life in the party.

Love thy enemy, indeed.

More on that later.

2) That Wall Street collapse? Us Negras did it. Or at least that's what they're selling on FOX News. You see, apparently we hood-winked and bamboozled those banks into giving us risky, shitty loans, then brought down the economy. Wow. What a lazy ass way to Blame-A-Negro. Especially since it was not us darkies who suggested that the banks sell our (and many, many white folks) crappy loans, chop them up and sell thim as securities and back them up with some other shady garbage. Last night 60 Minutes scared the crap out of me talking about the financial crisis, saying there maybe more than $60 trillion in shady debt floating around. The United States economy is only worth $14 trillion. Um ... who the hell can pay that? We can't pay that. Lord, please let Steve Kroft be wrong!

More on that later.

3) More Obamamania is a cult.

Oh no! Obama is inspiring Negroes! Dumb it down!

You've been shedding too much light, Obama (Dumb it down)
You make'em wanna do right, Obama (Dumb it down)
They're getting self-esteem, Obama (Dumb it down)
These girls are trying to be queens, Obama (Dumb it down)
They're trying to graduate from school, Obama (Dumb it down)
They're starting to think that smart is cool, Obama (Dumb it down)
They're trying to get up out the hood, Obama (Dumb it down)
I'll tell you what you should do (Dumb it down)

Thank you, Lupe Fiasco. Still, people are fearsome, why? Because all good, crazy white people know that it is our secret desire to enslave them out of revenge, nationalize all industry and force them in to poverty. Mmmkay. Commented one fearful moppet

All Hail the Dear Leader! If this doesn't put you in mind of the Hitler Youth, you're not paying attention. Or, maybe you're stuck in denial, or brainwashed yourself. Wake up, America! - amkaen

Who cares that this is simple part of a history of military style stepping that exists throughout black Greek culture. This is scary to the ignorant. Thanks for the tip Dorothy.

More on that later.

4) Don't let this happen to you! (Thanks Vonn)

Who's Party Is This Anyway?

This segment from The Rachel Maddow Show Monday night was illuminating. If you're a Democrat you know who to blame when things go wrong -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. For good or for bad, the buck often stops with them. Lord knows I find Harry Reid especially maddening. But this recent vote that doomed the bailout was an eye-opener about who "the man" in the Republican Party.

It's not John McCain, whose campaign suspension to get to "work" in Washington, D.C. resolved nothing. Or Rep. John Boehner, the minority leader in the House who took his coalition to the floor on a prayer that they had the votes only to find they did not. And it's definitely not President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney who could no longer Billy Goat Gruff the freepers into submission.

Politico.com is running a host of stories on what a death knell this could be for McCain, Boehner and the progressively lamer than lame duck presidency of George W. Bush.

Boehner's story was actually sad to me. While I typically abhor the man, I even moreso hated how the man before him, Texan Tom DeLay. DeLay bullied, lied, emasculated, double-crossed, threatened and beat down any Republican who dared to air a different opinion. Boehner retired the wrath of The Hammer, but his reluctance to be a blood-thirsty, crooked orge didn't help him in this debacle.

From the beginning, Boehner has let his members do what they want. He campaigned for the top job by telling Republicans he would not lean on them as his predecessor, former Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, was wont to do.

But that long leash has been problematic at times — never, though, like it was on Monday.

Democrats were quick to dance on Boehner’s grave on Monday — even though some of the Republicans who could someday replace him might be less gracious in negotiations than he has been.

“I guess the Republican leadership is so weak John Boehner couldn’t deliver 50 percent of the votes,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) told a scrum of reporters shortly after the vote. “I thought these were big boys.”

It's understandable to be frustrated with Pelosi, who despite delivering two-thirds of her contingency couldn't sign on some of members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus. But she only promised half on a bill proposed by a Republican president and individuals appointed through a Republican administration. To get two-thirds of Democrats to even touch something with eau de toilette de Bush on it is an accomplishment in itself. But to have Republicans balk on their once infallible leader who is still popular amongst their constituents (if you believe the polls) says something profound.

And think of McCain, the man who wants to succeed Bush. He bet the most on this gamble and lost. Now he's in the midst of digging himself out of a potential political grave, declaring he will not be undone by his own doing.

Reluctant Republicans ignored Sen. John McCain, undermining the Republican presidential nominee’s efforts to cast himself as a problem-solving legislative leader ... (I)t was the House Republicans, whose support McCain had returned to Washington to seek, who drove a stake through the bill’s heart: Two-thirds of the Republicans voted against the bill; nearly two-thirds of the Democrats voted for it.

The failure to pass the measure, and the commensurate historic drop in stock prices around the world, overshadowed the presidential campaign, as it has for a week, and swamped McCain’s attempts to turn the conversation toward a more general argument about taxes and spending. The election remains squarely situated on the economy, turf on which polls suggest McCain is far less trusted than Obama.

Now McCain wants to call the publicly unpopular "bailout" of Wall Street a "rescue," but I don't think nomenclature is the problem. From day one, the administration has been reluctant to take this crisis seriously or even admit there is a crisis. Then, on a dime, they turn from "there's nothing to see here, ma'am" to "EVERYBODY PANIC!" It's only natural people would be skeptical, wondering what was the rush. The Patriot Act was rushed. The war in Iraq was rushed. Americans have routinely been told to panic then rush towards the benevolent leader's guidance and to never doubt him or his followers.

Now even the once "true believers" are looking twice. Of course the public is balking.

Other than Bush's pathetic doom and gloom prime time speech, no one has explained anything. No one understands the magnitude of the crisis or how acting (or not acting) would affect the average voter. I'm a regular follower of politics and I don't understand. I've read all sorts of materials and I'm not sure what's the right thing to do. But I do know my votes and my tax dollars are based in my reluctant faith on Congress, the White House and the federal government to catch a clue and find a way to fix this thing other than picking the second largest sum they could guess and asking the taxpayers to fund it (via China).

If Bush, McCain and Boehner can't convince their own party of the severity how can they convince a "fool me once, fool me twice" public?

Who's Zoomin' Who?

Rep. Barney Frank is not feeling the Republican response to why the bailout bill failed Monday. The Republicans came twelve people short in a vote where the Democrats brought two-thirds of their team.

Give me those twelve people's names, and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them, and tell them what wonderful people they are, and maybe they'll think about the country.

Insiders say the Republican leadership made the mistake of going to the floor of the House not knowing if they had enough votes.

There Goes The Money, Pt. II

It's the end of the money as we know it and I feel fine (largely because I didn't have any to begin with).

A deal has been made (so they stay) and the carnage continues (Citigroup just bought out Wachovia's banking interests ... but wait? I thought Citigroup was in trouble? Never mind. We're all screwed.)

As I type, Congress has failed to pass the $700 billion plus bailout. Stocks have plummeted. Down goes the markets 470 points! Make that more than 600! Wait, it won't stop changing on me. Now it's around 500. We're all DOOMED!

Seriously.

We're all doomed, but I'm not one to scare the jeepers creepers out of people. I'm not going to "suspend" my blog as a result of the crisis like ol' Scrooge "War hero" McDuck over there. I only say we've got serious problems because they was never any guarantee this bailout would work and there's a good chance it could have made things demonstrably worse, but per usual the Bush Administration waited until the last possible minute to do something about this crisis (I think they spent the latter of two years denying there was even a looming crisis), therefore leaving everyone -- Democrats and Republicans -- with little time to come up with jack shit.

Leaving us with Henry "Munster" Paulson and Ben Bernanke and their no oversight, "give us the cash or we'll crash the economy" plan. And both parties tried to make it as palatable as possible, but apparently not enough. The official vote tally was 205 for and 228 against.

On both sides, most vocally amongst the resurgent Libertarian-leaning fiscal conservative Republicans, there was some major balking at bailing out companies who got themselves in this mess. (Ninty-five Dems and 123 Republicans voted "hell no!") But then there is the horror scenario being pitched by everyone from Paulson to CNBC's Jim Cramer that VERY BAD THINGS will happen if Wall Street doesn't get this bailout.

I'm going to translate a recent conversation I heard on MSNBC's "Hardball" between Cramer and Chris Matthews on this very "no bailout" possibility.

Cramer: This economy is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Matthews: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Cramer: What I mean is Old Testament, Chris, real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes. The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!*

No lie. That's what I heard, or interpreted. For reals.

The reality is if no bill is passed more banks will fail, more international financial markets will fail and credit will freeze for everyone, not just other banks. Eventually it would become increasingly hard for invidiuals to get loans for homes, cars and small businesses.

From CNNMoney:

The frozen markets mean banks are hoarding cash, making it difficult for businesses and individuals to get much-needed loans. (Full story)

Also in play: news that troubled Wachovia had to sell its banking assets to Citigroup as the financial market crisis raged. A number of European banks also collapsed.

But if the bill had passed the OTHER nightmare scenario would have included the banks getting bailed out, but inflation skyrocketing as the US Treasury prints more money to flush into the lending system, weakening the dollar ever further and raising the prices of everything.

Sure, CEO's would get paid and banks would stay in business, but if everyone stops spending because they can't afford anything I don't know how THAT helps the economy either.

Obviously, there was some cajoling, arm twisting, begging, crying, whatever it takes to get votes changed from no to "yes, take the tax payers money," at first leaving me to wonder if this is going to turn into a daylight version of the less critical, but highly messed up drug benefit vote where thousands of lobbyists and House Enforcer Tom "The Hammer" DeLay were brow-beating recalcitrant Republicans into backing a plan they barely understood and would learn later, they never would have voted for.

But there's no Hammer. And Bush, Cheney, et al, don't scare anyone. Even potential president John McCain, despite "suspending" that campaign wasn't able to do shizznit to get his team on board. He flirted with joining the revolt, but at the debate admitted tersely that he would vote for the behemouth bailout. And apparently, the house Republicans were upset before over what they called a hyper-partisan speech Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave before the vote.

You potentially doom the country over a speech hurting your feelings? Let's be real. Those Republicans just didn't want to vote for that thing. Some Democrats didn't want to vote for this. Don't blame Pelois. Did her speech affect those 95 Democrats who said no, too?

The president is all sour patches over the no vote. Congress is all sour patches. I'm all sour patches, but I don't have much money in the market (just a paltry 401K that is probably worthless right now). But I'm sour patches because this is it. The Bush Administration truly has the opposite version of the Midas touch.

Everything they felt up turned to shit. From the terrorist attacks on 9/11, our relationship with the world, to going to war with the wrong country, inadvertently strengthening Iran and upsetting the power balance in the Middle East by taking out Iraq, to letting people die in the Superdome and drown in the streets of New Orleans, to the spiking of gas prices to "I'm taking the bus" levels, to now the housing crisis which has taken out Wall Street.

Bravo, idiots! Bravo! You ruined everything. I won't say that Bush is the worst president ever. That title will forever belong to James Buchanan who allowed the South to secede under his watch, eventually causing the Civil War. Last time I check, the Bushie's have NOT been successful at causing the South to rise again.

But he's got three-and-a-half more months to find a delightful way to restart what was the most deadly war in United States history!

There's still no deal, but McCain is gonna get his debate on. And oh, by the way we're all screwed.

John McCain has change of heart! Washington really doesn't need him after all!

From Politico:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ended three days of suspense on Friday morning and announced that he will leave bailout negotiations in Washington and fly to Oxford, Miss., for tonight's opening presidential debate

McCain had previously said that he would suspend his campaign—and so would not attend the debate—until an agreement was reached on the administration's $700 billion mortgage proposal.

No such agreement has been reached, but Republicans said the standoff was hurting McCain's campaign and that he would look terrible if he didn't attend the nationally televised, eagerly anticipated debate, while Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was ready to go on stage.

There's no agreement. No plan. Talks broke down so bad last night Secy. of the Treasury Henry Paulson was on one knee "half-jokingly," begging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to not go before the press and call out the House Republicans for stalling on the bill.

As he got down on one knee to lighten the mood, Pelosi joked back, "I didn't know you were a Catholic."

Paulson was afraid her statement could cause the markets to go into free fall Friday.

After all that "straight talk," McCain has found himself on a plane straight to Mississippi for a debate of destiny with Barack Obama. In this game of chicken of McCain versus Obama, the presidential debates commission and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, it was McCain who blinked. Despite his staff (surprisingly still working despite his campaign being "suspended") who came out to say that it was Obama who's "grandstanding" derailed the White House talks

McCain's campaign said the meeting "devolved into a contentious shouting match" and implied Obama was at fault — on a day when McCain said he was putting politics aside to focus on the nation's financial problems.

But, yeah. This battle was always his to win or lose and Nancy Pelosi has (of course) declared McCain the loser.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took on the notion that John McCain has helped in the federal bailout negotiations Friday, calling the Arizona senator’s involvement “a blip.”

“He hasn't been involved in this, and now, as there's some discussion about putting this off, I don't think that we can do that,” Pelosi said on “Good Morning America.”

“I think Sen. McCain's involvement is sort of a blip.”

Pelosi called Thursday's meeting with the president, congressional leaders and the presidential candidates “disruptive” to the negotiations “because we had to begin writing the bill.”

“We can't take the bill to the floor until the bill is written, and we were on a path to that. It took a whole afternoon. And that time is important to us,” Pelosi said.

Describing the phone call she received from McCain shortly before he suspended his campaign, Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press conference that the Arizona senator “said that he was calling because nothing was happening, and there was no progress being made on all of this; he was calling a meeting, and would I come” ...

“Well, Senator, I have good news for you,” Pelosi responded. “Quite a bit has been done. The deliberations are going forward, and we make progress every day, and I don't see any reason for us to come to a meeting based on a premise that nothing is being done, because plenty is. We're moving in a forward direction, and we'd like to keep on our path to get that done.”

Others agreed, saying McCain did little-to-nothing to help the process. Some even accusing him of hindering progress. But it may be that this was all just a Category 5 failure among all the rebelling GOP members.

From Think Progress:

Bailout negotiations “dissolved into a verbal brawl” at the White House yesterday, as some House Republicans, led by Eric Cantor (R-VA), said they wouldn’t back a bipartisan negotiation on the package. The House GOP faction stunned the participants at the meeting yesterday by announcing their own plan which “advocates tax cuts and relaxed regulations.”

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said the House GOP proposal would not work. “Democratic leaders questioned McCain’s involvement in the House Republicans’ opposition to the plan.” McCain met with House GOP leaders before heading to the White House, but neither party seemed to know what they were talking about:

Boehner and McCain discussed the bailout plan, but Republican leadership aides described the conversation as somewhat surreal. Neither man was familiar with the details of the proposal being pressed by House conservatives, and up to the moment they departed for the White House yesterday afternoon, neither had seen any description beyond news reports.

Think Progress reports that at the bipartisan meeting McCain didn't speak "until 43 minutes into” it. That the candidate “sat silently for more than 40 minutes ... then offered only a vague sense of where he stood.”

Sen. Chris Dodd said, “Instead of being a rescue plan for our economy it was a rescue plan for John McCain.” Sen. Chuck Schumer urged Bush to “respectfully tell Sen. McCain to get out of town. He’s not helping.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added, “We had [Republican] Senator [Bob] Bennett, a high ranking official, who said these are the principles. And then, guess who came to town? And it all fell apart.”

Fellow Republicans, White House Press Secy. Dana Perino and Independent Democrat and McCain BFF Joe Lieberman all tried to talk up the work McCain did in half-ass suspending his campaign and sort of rushing to Washington on his white horse to save the day.

Lieberman said McCain “felt that yesterday the best thing he could do is to listen and then try to work with all sides to make that happen. That's what he was doing all day yesterday.”

But some folks had to admit, the turnabout did not look good.

The action contradicted the position McCain had taken Wednesday, when he announced, "I'm directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the Commission on Presidential Debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis."

McCain had also said he would suspend all campaign activities, but in reality the campaign just shifted to Washington while the work of trying to win the election went on

McCain had taken a gamble with the move, trying to appear above politics and as a leader on an issue that had overshadowed the presidential campaign and given him trouble. But Democratic rival Barack Obama had not bowed to McCain's challenge, and instead questioned why the Republican nominee couldn't handle two things at once — the debate and involvement in the bailout negotiations.

An Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll out Friday just before McCain's announcement showed the public overwhelmingly wanted the candidates to debate, 60 percent to 22 percent, with the rest undecided ...

By Friday morning, it appeared McCain was looking for a face-saving way to get to the debate even though a deal had not been reached. He met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, before heading to his campaign headquarters and issuing a statement that blamed others in Washington for the failure to reach an agreement ...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a McCain supporter, said the Republican made a "huge mistake" by even discussing canceling the debate.

John McCain blinked and as Sarah Palin has taught us you cannot blink. There is NO blinking allowed. But don't fret. Not everyone thought McCain batted his eyelashes at the matter.

"It's tempting to say that he blinked, but it's not like he was squaring off against someone and finally gave in. If anything, he was squaring off against himself," wrote Jed Lewison in his piece for The Huffington Post, aptly titled, "Humiliation."

What will this change of plans mean? And what does it mean when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is calling you out saying it was a "huge mistake" that McCain even discussed skipping the debate?

"You can't just say, 'World, stop for a moment. I'm going to cancel everything,'" Huckabee told reporters Thursday night in Alabama before attending a benefit for the University of Mobile. He said it's more important for voters to hear from the presidential candidates than for them to huddle with fellow senators in Washington

I actually feel a little sorry for McCain because there was not a lot he could realistically do (nor could Obama). Neither were on the commerce committee. The most they could do was try to rally the troops and vote. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had their team in place and on message (which is shocking considering we're talking about Democrats. These people tend to either eat their young or butcher it all).

McCain talked favorably of the plan on the trail, but returned to Capitol Hill with a House Republican mutiny on the President's hands. George and Vice President Cheney no longer have the cache to whip them into line. The Hammer, bka Tom Delay wasn't their to make them cry and vote the way he wanted. And former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich seems to be cheering on the mutiny.

So what was McCain to do? The recalcitrant, somewhat newish House Republicans weren't interested in bowing to him. House Minority Leader John Boehner is accusing the White House of trying to bully them into voting for a bill they don't believe in. So who does McCain side with? The populist Republican rebellion in the House or the White House, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke? Both come with risks.

Choose the rebels and he gets to maintain his maverick cred, but he also has to face the uncertainty of what the markets will do the longer Congress goes without passing a plan. Overnight Washington Mutual became the largest bank to collapse in US history. More banks are set to fail the longer this goes on. If the market goes into free fall he could get blamed.

But on the other hand, if Johnny Mac goes with the President and the plan the Democrats negotiated for, he could anger his base, alienate a sizable chuck of House Republicans and once again, be tied to President Bush. And it doesn't matter that Obama is signing on to this same crazy plan. Obama has a (D) after his title. It's McCain who gets hung by Bush every time -- especially if the bailout doesn't stop the bleeding.

And the reality for all of us, whether you're pro- or anti-bailout -- there are no good options. Do nothing, the markets will fall and more banks will fail. Do the bailout and inflation could skyrocket as we would have to devalue our currency as the Treasury prints more money to flood our market with, making the dollar ever more worthless. This could have dire consequences for food and fuel prices. But do nothing and the credit industry will lock up. Banks won't loan each other money. Banks won't loan us money. And without credit businesses would find themselves unable to meet payroll and then, God only knows.

We're in it bad whether you only have a pound or a ton. If you've got a 401K or a pension, you're in trouble. If your place of employment is having a tough year, you're in trouble. If you're banking some place other than Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, you're in trouble. If you're still paying on a mortgage, you're in trouble.

I hope McCain and Obama will discuss the economy at length tonight. I've got questions. I hope they have answers.

Photos by The Associated Press and The New York Times

You Don't Dump David Letterman, Johnny Mac. David Letterman Dumps You!

Hmm. I don't think David Letterman appreciates being stood up, nor do I think he believes John McCain's sudden "urgency" theory about why he needed to suspend his campaign. Hmmm. Not good. You don't want to piss off the court jesters, Johnny Mac. They are brutal! And to dish on you in front of Bill O'Reilly's sworn enemy Keith Olbermann and to make the Olbermann giggle and invite him to partake in zingers? Consider my jaw unhinged. The boldness! The lack of shame!

Still Waiting For "The Prestige" At the End of McCain's Smoke and Mirrors Third Act

Above: A scene from the 2006 Christopher Nolan directed film "The Prestige." Below: John McCain give us the two-thumb salute.

How many card tricks and fluffy white, moose-hunting-bunnies can John McCain pull out of his hat before Nov. 4?

Seriously. I want to know because now I am riveted.

Johnny Mac hasn't been to work since early April. Since 2007, he has been at his day job less than Sen. Tim Johnson who had a stroke late 2006. But now McCain's ready to get serious about the economy that he only acknowledged was in free fall six days ago.

This David Copperfield-by-the-way-of-prop-comic-Carrot Top act has me on the edge of my seat. What possibly will he think of next to delay the damage?

When McCain was down in the dumps because people were all dazzled by Barack Obama's ability to show up and just be Barack Obama and get people to pledge their fidelity to him as well as donate money, blood, their first born, whatever it takes, to get him elected, McCain made a mad dash for the first hot ultra conservative number with a gubernatorial reign. Presto-change-O, re-O strange-O! And suddenly McCain is talking about how he's the real change agent and he, and his new magic assistant, are the "original mavericks" who are going to "fix Washington."

The same Washington he's been in for the last 26 years. How do you "abracadabra" more than two-and-a-half-decades away?

When did this go from a presidential race to the plot of the film and novel "The Prestige?"

An epic, intense tale of two obsessed, hyper competitive to the point of trying to kill each other magicians, "The Prestige" is actually a favorite of mine because of its heavy dose of darkness, illusion and "real" magic. Sometimes this whole election feels like an elaborate trick where I'm anxiously waiting to see the third act and be shocked, so dazzled by the result that I'm left wondering what could happen next.

The film explains all the things you need to pull off a good magic trick --

Act One: Introduce something ordinary
Act Two: Make it do something extraordinary
Act Three: Surprise, surprise you had no idea what I just did, ergo "The Prestige

The star magic trick of the whole film, The Transported Man, is an illusion that makes it appear that a man has been transported from one place on stage to another. One magician who much more committed to the craft develops it first and the second becomes obsessed with co-opting it, improving upon it and claiming it as their own.

I've often wondered if Barack is doing his own version of The Transported Man and McCain, in a fit of pique, has pilfered a bootleg version of it designed by Apple and that somewhere there is a horrible beyond belief surprise ending to McCain's method.

Because if so -- great. Under the plot of that book and film, Obama, the more committed politician, would win the election ... after he was executed for murder. (If you don't get it you'll just have to sit through the three-hours of Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman trying to murder each other.) But I don't think there's any real magic going on at McCain's end. This is more like, "Razzle dazzle, look over there! Don't look at how inadequate I am in every way!

Gov. Sarah Palin's surprise selection as McCain's vice presidential pick was the world's greatest fake-out. It got everyone off-topic. But McCain couldn't pull another Palin. We'd seen that trick already. That's why he had to unveil the "I love this country so much I'm willing to lose an election to go solve a problem I know absolutely nothing about."

If McCain wanted to "keep it real," he should have just said he needed to go figure out where he stood on the bailout then decide whether he was going to help Dubya and Cheney bust out the kneepads and get to begging to get the bill passed. Because it's the Republicans in Congress who are truly balking at the Wall Street bailout. The Democrats are likely to get everything they wanted because Bush, the Fed Chairman and the Secy. of the Treasury are so desperate to get this through both houses by any means necessary. But the Republicans are fighting with themselves in a showdown between the Bushies and the "The Bushies ruined my conservatism" crowd. I suppose you have to make a stand for the philosophy you purport to believe in at some point. If you wanted to stop socialism, this is your chance, Boehner!

In reality, that's what Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid meant when they said it was time for McCain to man up and do something. They wanted him to make a stand on the issue and tell his party to get on board lest the whole nation get hit by "The Great Depression 2: Now More Depressing Than Ever!" bus.

But to act like you can't walk over and "Go pretty, pretty please! I'm your defacto leader! Help a brother out here! You're killing me!" then turn around and debate Barack Obama for 90 minutes. That logic is absurd. But I get why he did it anyway. He needed a new trick and this was it.

Bravo.

Now what?

Seriously. Now what? Because Obama, ever-so-slyly, inferred that McCain wasn't a man of his word since they'd talked about making some joint, bipartisan announcement and McCain made the mad dash to the cameras to pull an Effie White and declare he was not going to the debate on Friday. But the commission who handles the debates said the debate was still on. And Obama pointed out that presidents have to juggle a lot of things. If you can't go work on the financial crisis and go to a 90 minute debate in Mississippi what can you multitask? And you walk and chew gum? McCain is already going to the Clinton Global Initiative this week and what does that have to do with the financial crisis?

The big meeting George invited both McCain and Obama to happens Thursday. The debate is Friday. But Johnny Mac claims he's put his foot down and he's giving us the leadership we deserve through avoidence. If there's no deal, he's not going.

If this is a game of chicken between McCain, the commission and Obama I call bullshit. Someone's blinking and it's the man who has the most to lose by either A) not being able to get his party to vote for the bailout and B) looking like he's scared of a debate.

McCain better do some fancy tap dancing to get those recalcitrant Republicans on board because Obama's either debating him or an empty chair. It's six weeks until Judgment Day. You can claim to suspend your campaign, but there's no such thing as campaign suspension this late in the game. This whole stunt is about the game. I don't doubt that either candidate cares about the economy collapsing. That happening would bode terribly for everyone involved. But to pretend like he can put the House Republicans in a box and saw them in half and we'll all just be sparkled by it -- well, I'm sorry. I'm going to need more than that.

I was surprised by the Palininator and I was surprised by McCain suddenly remembering he's a senator. But where's the trick in an empty chair? Who will look worse? The man debating the chair or the man not there? Maybe that's the trick? Maybe our reaction is the surprise this time around.

The George Will Revolt

John McCain is mad as hell and conservative curmudgeon George Will isn't going to take it anymore.

The words are startling.

He starts out with quote, an allusion to John McCain being like the queen in Alice In Wonderland wildly shouting "Off with their heads!" at every perceived tormentor. Howling it over our financial crisis and conservative columnist George Will's critique doesn't get any better from there.

Will writes:

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

George Will is through with the Straight Talk Express. Especially as it evolves into the Befuddled Talk Express. Will is exasperated with McCain and writes as much so in his column Tuesday. It's a vigorous literary battering that never lets up as Will exerts his frustration and disappointment with McMaverick.

McCain's smear -- that Cox "betrayed the public's trust" -- is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people. McCain's Manichaean worldview drove him to his signature legislative achievement, the McCain-Feingold law's restrictions on campaigning. Today, his campaign is creatively finding interstices in laws intended to restrict campaign giving and spending

An old school conservative, Will stands on the side of smaller government. Like many fiscal conservatives, he questions the necessity and rectitude in a possible $700 billion-plus bail out of private companies who caused the market meltdown by taking duplicitous mortgages and selling them as investment funds.

On ABC's This Week, Will called the move to buy up the bad debt of wayward companies the dreaded "S" word -- socialism. The prudish pundit doesn't want to reward the bad actors in this drama, but he also doesn't want a potential president of the United States running around half-cocked calling for men to be fired and heads to be chopped. It was a frustration that Will unfurled previously on the show Sunday. He surprised the writers at The Huffington Post with his sudden frankness about McCain's temper, rashes and the "age issue."

In the Sunday morning quintet Will assesses that John McCain has shown his true personality and "it has made some of us fearful." Sam Donaldson knocks McCain around about his gaffe riddled week where he repeated numerous times that the economy was fundamentally sound as the markets went into free fall. Within the span of a few hours in one day McCain went from being mute on the crisis to suddenly acknowledging the collapse and turning into a populist.

The panel called in pandering.

By the end of Will's column he poses a question that he believes every voter must consider.

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

I find Will's doubting of McCain's ability to lead fascinating because he is seeing what other Republicans foretold during the primaries. That McCain had temper issues. That it concerned them that he could be president with his tendencies to go with gut and heart over substance and fact.

It is McCain's love of risk over reward that lead to an "almost" endorsement for Obama from the conservative. A de facto endorsement for a man Will is ideologically opposed to but may be a safer bet as Will argues that voting for a president has to be about more than judicial appointments.

What's the point of electing McCain if his temperament and nature make him unfit for the position? What if the same unpredictable nature that caused him to select a political novice/novelty act, Gov. Sarah Palin, as his running mate, that precociousness that caused him to call for a man to be fired when it was the entire financial regulatory system and private industry who caused his mess, what if that same personality was applied to the world we live in today? What would a McCain presidency wrought?

Would McCain roll the dice on Iraq? Nuclear disarmament? Our relationship with China? Our relationship with Russia? In our adviser and protector role with Israel? In our crises at home with finances, ballooning budgets and deficits, wounded soldiers returning home, unemployment, health care, problems in the Food and Drug Administration and education? Would he go for parlor tricks, gimmicks and pixie dust? Would he go for having Cindy McCain blow a kiss on the dice before McCain shouts "Come on seven, eleven!" on America?

Can McCain control McCain and will others begin to ask this same question if George Will is asking this question? Is McCain's maverick streak merely the side effect of the gambling addict? A sign of mania and lack of impulse control?

Does maverick equal reckless?

We already know George Will's answer. But what does the rest of America think?

And There Goes the Money

You know shit is about to get worse when rich folks are losing their money.

In case you didn't notice -- Monday the Dow Jones dropped by more than 500 points.

In the scheme of how the markets fluctuate regularly, the affects of this probably won't resonate with most of us, but the overall volatility of the markets in 2008 should be of our concern.

While some may not care if a bunch of hedge fund managers bite the big one, seeing 100 years plus institutions like Lehman Brothers file for chapter 11 and seeing the Death Star of banking, Bank of America Corp.*, swoop in to buy the relics Merrill Lynch & Co. and Countrywide makes you a tad concerned.

Everyone on CNBC (with the exception of that screaming dude with the sound effects, Jim Cramer) is telling folks to stay calm. CNN's finance people are telling you to stay calm. The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and President Bush are telling you to be calm. But pardon moi, I don't feel calm.

When you look at the long list of other banks and investment houses in disarray you do the math and realize, The Evil Banking Empire of Bank of America can't and won't buy all these people out and take on their massive debt. Secondly, the government can't bail all of them out. If Washington Mutual and Citigroup don't find ways to raise cash or be absorbed by a larger institution they'll be going down hard too.

Then there was the government swooping in to save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While I found the government saving the quickly crashing Bear Sterns to be suspect, if Fannie and Freddie were allowed to fail it would be catastrophic due to the sheer number of mortgages they are sitting on.

Anyone want the value of their house to drop like a rock? Let Fannie and Freddie collapse under their massive debt. Enjoy the insta-housing depression leading to a possible, actual depression.

And now there's the fate of American International Group, Inc. -- better known as AIG -- today's financial enfant terrible.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks fluctuated Tuesday following a report that the government is considering extending aid to troubled insurer American International Group Inc. - the latest in a string of companies that investors worry could be undone by a shortage of cash.

A partial recovery in several other financial companies helped the sector show signs of life a day after leading Wall Street to its worst session in years. Investors also grew hopeful about a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.

Worries about AIG's well-being intensified Monday and early Tuesday after several ratings agencies downgraded the company. Lower ratings can add to the amount of money the already cash-strapped company has to set aside. Investors fear that a failure by the world's largest insurer would touch off a wave of financial turmoil.

Crazy Jim Cramer has proclaimed that AIG "is too big fail."

Cramer urged both the company and Washington to take the actions necessary to save the firm.

“This would be a tragedy if they just let this company fail,” he said.

“I would radically have to change my view about where the market’s going to go if AIG failed,” Cramer continued, “because it’s so unquantifiable what they have.”

The rest of the story isn't much prettier.

(A) CNBC report said the government is at least discussing extending a financial lifeline to the company; it cautioned that an agreement is far from certain and also that the company isn't likely to find help from the private sector. AIG fell $2.07, or 43 percent, to $2.69 after being down nearly 75 percent in earlier trading.

Add to that to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the largest independent investment bank on Wall Street posting its biggest slash in earnings since becoming a publicly traded company in 1999. Their quarterly earnings fell to 70 percent from last year. Dell is having its own slowdown and money woes. Hewlett-Packard is laying off eight percent of its work force, 24,600 people.

Being a journalist I felt the great media holocaust of print reporters two years ago when numerous newspapers began round after round of buy-outs and lay-offs. Old friends of mine who've worked as reporters and editors for years are starting over from scratch. I wonder if my old newspaper, The Bakersfield Californian, will be able to stay a locally-owned, family-owned newspaper in this environment. For years larger newspaper conglomerates have wanted to purchase it but it's still owned by family matriarch, Virginia "Ginger" Moorhouse.

Nice woman. Had the uncanny ability to remember everyone's names even if you just started that day.

But with the lay-offs, the banks collapsing and Bank of America becoming ever corpulent, I think the only good thing that came out of the Dow drop was it got everyone to stop talking about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It was like she never existed. Other than short pieces on Tina Fey's marvelous portrayal of her on Saturday Night Life, and a brief discussion of her campaigning without the Mac man, CNN was packed with "Holy shit! What's happening to the economy?" and footage of the devastation Hurricane Ike left behind in a destroyed Galveston and the flooding it has caused in Missouri because Ike remnants decided to dump a surprisingly large amount of rain on us, giving more meaning to the term when it rains it pours.

Car plants have slowed down and shut down in the greater St. Louis area. My own inability to land a job -- any job -- despite my abilities is bordering on tragic. But at least the media is talking about the economy again. Not lipstick on pigs or personality cults. They're finally examining and discussing the economic policies of both candidates and I welcome that debate. I want to know what they think about free markets and protectionist policies, fairness for workers, jobs going overseas, the global economy and the weakening dollar, about regulation and what the government can and cannot do to solve this crisis.

The Fed is rushing $70 billion in cash into the markets as a stop-gap, anything to stop or slow this slide into financial meltdown. But how many times can the government do this? And where is the money coming from with our many entitlement programs, two wars and other obligations?

A debt is going to come calling someday, demanding to be paid. I don't know who's going to pick up that bill, but whoever gets stuck with it is going to be none-too-pleased.