Follow this link to the interview with Sarah Palin conducted by Katie Couric.
I thank reader mixrecords for suggesting this link. I had not seen the interview until mixrecords sent me the link. I had given up on Katie Couric based on some of her earliest inteviews on the CBS Evening News. After seeing this interview I will have to re-evaluate what had been a low opinion of Couric’s interviewing skills.
Follow this link to see the video reaction of David Letterman after John McCain canceled his appearance on the show. If there is anyone who can beat a dead horse, it has to be David Letterman.
Follow this link to Letterman’s Top Ten Questions.
On Sep 26th, RichardH sent me this link to the Letterman Show the day after McCain bailed. If the horse isn’t quite dead yet, it soon will be.
There seems to be a deafening silence from the CEOs of many Wall Street firms about their golden parachutes. When they start coming foreword in droves agreeing to take only $1 per year in salary until this mess is cleaned up, then we will know that they think that the country is in dire enough straights that they are willing to make a scarifice for their country.
Why is it that mostly middle and lower class citizens are willing to give up their lives to save the country in war, but the CEOs aren’t willing to give up anything in a financial crisis?
I always believed that when you give someone a gift, you should not expect anything in return. That is the true meaning of a gift.
Did the American people know the conditions in which they gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy? Did they realize it was a gift for which they would receive nothing? Do they still want to keep on giving?. Why is it that only lower and middle class feels the need to give, but the people who benefit most have no moral compunction to contribute anything?
If the U.S. Government does not agree to a $700 billion, no strings attached bailout, what will these companies do? Will they seek capital from the governments of China and Saudi Arabia? What kind of deal do they think they will get from those governments?
If it is morally wrong and uncapitalistic for the U.S. Government to get something in return for its investment, why do we think it would be better for China and Saudi Arabia to make that investment?
If the only choice for our country is between American run socialism and Chinese or Saudi Arabian run socialism, which choice do you think the American people will make?
Follow this link to a story from the Miami Herald about health questions and presidential candidates.
There are some revelations about past Presidents that amazed me. Of course, how this issue relates to the current candidates is most important.
There is a comment labeled 09:09:49pm 09/23/2008 texantom that I found particularly interesting. Since the site does not offer permalinks to comments, you’ll have to read all the comments or search for that label with your browser’s find mechanism.
Follow this link to see Gene Sperling, Obama’s economic adviser, on C-SPAN discussing Obama’s economic plans.
This being C-SPAN, you get to hear a lot more information without the constant interruption of a news person. The format is that a caller asks a question and the interviewee gets to give a full answer. When the interviewee happens to be an economics expert, you don’t get an anchor person pretending to know more about economics than the interviewee. I am not claiming that you have to believe everything that Sperling says. What you do get is his full explanation that you can then judge for yourself.
I have also added the C-SPAN Politics web site to the Links section at the right of my blog here. I am sorry I didn’t discover this site much sooner.
Follow this link to a video describing CSPAN’s planned political debate hub on the web.
I always use CSPAN on cable TV to watch these political events. It is always such a pleasure to see the event itself rather than hear someone interrupt the event to tell me what I am seeing.
For those few of my friends who don’t have access to CSPAN on TV, you can access CSPAN by computer.
Even if you do have cable, the web site can provide you with more than you can get on the TV alone. The above video explains some of this.
Thanks to one of my blog readers, SimonO, for bringing this informative YouTube video to my attention.
Now for a little musical interlude.
Follow this link to hear the new song The Lady Is A Sham.
Follow this link to hear about Senator Bernie Sander’s plan for the bailout. You can also sign his petition to Treasury Secretary Paulson.
Follow this link to an urgent request for help from the Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America.
RichardH told me that my blog posting was #2 if you did a Google search for this topic. By the time I tried the search, this blog had dropped to #3. The #1 spot is now this link on Dennis Kucinich’s web site. Rather than removing my copy, I’ll leave it here for the historical record.
Protecting the public interest in any economic “bailout”
Dear Friend,
The U.S. government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, that’s half a quadrillion dollars. Our first trillion dollar compression bandage will hardly stem the hemorrhaging of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme built on debt “de-leverages.”
Does anyone seriously think that our public and private debts of some $45 trillion will be paid? That the administration’s growth of the federal debt from $5.6 trillion to $9.8 trillion while borrowing another trillion dollars from Social Security has nothing to do with this? Does anyone not see that when we spend nearly $16,000 for every family of four in our society for the military each year that we are heading over the cliff?
This is a debt crisis, not a credit crisis. Just as FDR had to save capitalism after Wall Street excesses, we have to re-invigorate our economy with real – not imaginary – growth. It does not address the never-ending war on the middle class.
The same corporate interests that profited from the closing of U.S. factories, the movement of millions of jobs out of America, the off-shoring of profits, the out-sourcing of workers, the crushing of pension funds, the knocking down of wages, the cancellation of health care benefits, the sub-prime lending are now rushing to Washington to get money to protect themselves.
The double standard is stunning: their profits are their profits, but their losses are our losses.
This bailout will not bring real jobs back to America. It will not bring back jobs that make things. It does not rebuild our schools, streets, neighborhoods, parks or bridges. The major product of this financial economy is now debt. Industrial capitalism has been destroyed.
In the next few days I will push for a plan that includes equity for every American in any taxpayer investment in this so-called bail-out plan. Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, I have proposed the creation of a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American.
I will also insist that all of the following issues be considered in whatever Congress passes:
And, most importantly, some mechanism for direct assistance to homeowners saddled with unreasonable or unmanageable mortgages, as well as protection for renters who have lived up to their obligation but fall victim to financial tragedy when the property they live in undergoes foreclosure.
These are just some thoughts on the run. You will hear more from me tomorrow.