Looks like the oil industry has record profits in the billions.
(We’re talking several hundred BILLION dollars!)
The big three auto makers, Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, are asking congress for a bailout.

Hey, I’m no genius, but why don’t we make the windfall profits taxes on the oil companies come out to about $25 billion and give THAT money to the auto industry? Certainly the two cannot live without each other, and certainly the oil companies can afford it.

Go figure!

Let Big Oil bail out Big Auto

Obama was VERY impressive in his 60 Minutes interview this evening. He is obviously thoughtful, intelligent, and personable. His answers reflected a grasp of the gravity and significance of the decisions he will have to make in his first days in office. He has a scope and depth of knowledge on the key issues of the economy, military power, and the will of the American people, both in the present situation, and with the backdrop of our national history.

We’ve heard people commend the current president as “someone you could sit down and have a beer with.” Fortunately, most Americans feel the leader of the free world should be perhaps a bit more intelligent than the average Joe, or the typical hockey mom, for that matter. I would hope the president would be MUCH smarter than I am, with a thorough knowledge of our Constitution, our national priorities, and a full comprehension of the political atmosphere. What a refreshing impression Obama made on 60 minutes, showing his character, sagacity, and intelligence.

A president with a brain

Lame Duck Bush, in his final days, is pushing for even more deregulation of industries that cause pollution.  Even as the GOP ship sinks, he continues to drill holes in the hull.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jy7p9F…I7NhXDWmu5qMGSQ

According to government watchdog group OMB Watch, the Bush administration is currently working on dozens of regulations that would loosen rules on emissions of pollutants, mining exploration and commercial fishing, and could have a lasting impact for years to come.

“It is impressive in how many different issues this sort of campaign covers,” OMB Watch’s Matthew Madia told reporters.

“It’s environmental regulations, it’s workers’ safety, it’s reproductive health, it’s traffic safety, but the common theme is in a lot a cases the Bush administration is trying to remove restrictions on business and allow them to operate without any kind of government oversight,” said Madia, a regulatory expert.

- – -

On this evening’s news, Katie Couric called the GOP “toxic”, and it is
stories like the above that have caused voters to turn against the
Republicans.

One has to wonder if Bush is not just incompetent, but is
actively contemptuous of his own citizens

Alan Greenspan, in testimony before Capitol Hill, admitted today that lack of regulation in the financial markets created a “once in a century credit tsunami.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/23/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4540881.shtml

Greenspan and the Republicans had long advocated unregulated markets, which now almost everyone admits led to the financial crisis we are now experiencing.

Obama Dream Cabinet

(Well, some of it may be tongue-in-cheek.)

Secretary of State: Christopher Dodd, senior statesman
Treasury Secretary: Paul Krugman, Nobel prize in economics
Secretary of Defense: Wesley Clark, clear vision in Iraq
Homeland Security: Richard Clark, counter-terrorism expert fired by Bush just before 9/11

Attorney General: Henry Waxman, investigated abuses by Bush cabinet
Press secretary: David Gregory, one of the few reporters with real questions
Senior White House Advisor: David Gergen, expert analyst
Chief of Staff: Dennis Kucinich, great idea man

On the lighter side:

Veterans Affairs: Cindy Sheehan
Housing & Urban Development: Al Sharpton
Special Assignments:
- Karl Rove, Envoy to Zimbabwe
- Rush Limbaugh, Envoy to Somalia
- George Bush, new solid waste management czar

Obama Cabinet

And just for fun

Just something to think about.

Todd Palin sits in on many of the Governor Palin’s official business meetings.
John McCain is 72 and has had a few bouts with cancer.
One has to wonder, if Palin becomes president, what the role would be of Todd Palin.

http://www.alternet.org/election08/102995/todd_palin:_if_you_thought_cheney_was_bad,_watch_out_for_the_%22first_dude%22_/

Todd Palin seated behind a White House desk and shaping national policy could be one of the most dangerous aspects of a potential Sarah Palin presidency.

The telling vignette shows Todd Palin’s position in the governor’s office. Dressed in a business suit, seated behind a big conference table with state documents in front of him, he tried to tell the state’s top cop how to do his job.

This is a man who was a member of the  Alaskan Independence Party, a radical group advocating Alaskan secession from the United States.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/10/palin_too_close_for_comfort.html

The role played by Todd in carrying out his wife’s vendetta was highly unusual. He had no official duties in government. He acknowledged, however, that he made numerous calls to state officials to press his case against the governor’s ex-brother-in-law.

First Dude

We live in a climate of vicious extremism that doesn’t tolerate moderation. If the Golden Rule had been followed by the
business sector we would be seeing capitalism flourish with just a touch of regulation to prevent abuse of the system. Instead, the extremists demanded unfettered control by money interests and threw off any form of monitoring or regulation. This allowed the money-changers to rule the economy. The current economic collapse is the end result of a policy of greed and irresponsibility.

There seems to be a kind of national karma at work now, that pushes the pendulum in the opposite direction. Instead of free
markets, Bush and his cronies must now resort to massive socialist-like over-control, just to avoid total disaster. The real damage was done when the
trickle-down fat-cats insisted on no control at all. Now, those who worshiped the golden calf of capitalism are forced to resort to government intervention in every aspect of the financial markets.

The “uniter, not a divider” openly scorned
the opposition, and tried to eliminate the competition. Look at the “K-Street” project, which allowed only Republicans to get government contracts, or the stacking of the Justice Department with Bush-only loyalists. Now, the chickens have come home to roost, and the GOP is paying for it at the polls. Doesn’t this
teach us a lesson about tolerance?

The people speak: They want change.

Looks like the failed Bush policy of letting
corporations and the wealthy run the country is backfiring, as the
money-changers in the temple have gambled away the fortunes of the middle class.
Bush, Cheney, and their cronies have for the past 8 years set a course of
deregulation, engineered by Phil Gramm and the trickle-down crowd, and now Wall
Street, with your money, is down over 40%. Bush’s solution? Massive socialism.

All this translates into immense dissatisfaction
with the Republican administration.

And people vote.

It may be too early to predict, but it looks like a
landslide is shaping up to bring victory to Obama and the democrats.

Both the electoral map and popular vote are swinging heavily towards Obama.
Democrats already control the House of Representatives, but may increase their
lead in both the House and the Senate.

Some supportive web sites: Electoral vote

http://www.electoral-vote.com/
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/

http://www.270towin.com/

Some supportive web sites: Democratic Landslide

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/economic-collap.html
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/89638/3/3/An_Obama_landslide

Beware the worship of the golden calf
(Exodus 32), which is known nowadays as
worshiping money.

I say “beware” because now the politicians are using key words that are equivalent to the worship of money, although they clearly hide the real meaning.

You’ll see it in terms like “helping small business” or “job creation” and it usually masks the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest Americans. The politicians have long claimed that
by helping small businesses, the wealth will trickle down to workers. This is far from the truth. Business owners keep wages low, and keep most of the profits for themselves. The push to deregulate industries was based on this false theory. They claimed that as wealthy businesses got bigger, the little guy would benefit. Instead, what we see is the current financial mess that is costing taxpayers another $700 billion. The trickle down theory is a smokescreen for greed and worship of money.

Is 5 minutes with a few hand-picked right-wing dignitaries the same as years of experience in foreign affairs? Well, maybe in Hollywood.
I don’t know . . . something about this just doesn’t pass the smell test.

Meanwhile, I love this photo – - maybe we could get some jokes or one-liners out of it.

In a world far, far away . . .