I'm not sure if Obama can get the focus of tonite's debate on economic policy, given McCain's intent to keep up an attack on the Democrat's personality and character, but it is certainly the issue that ought to be discussed. I say that as I contemplate the almost $13,000 my retirement fund went down last quarter (I'm trying to get it moved to insured savings today) and figure I'm only one of millions of Americans who are realizing the mess we're in.

After hearing McCain's claims yesterday that Obama was "lying" when he called the Republican a Deregulator (the thing he built most of his political career on), I started researching the past 25 years and found enough evidence to pinpoint the real liar.

A group of independent filmmakers has launched The Wasilla Project

The purpose of the project is to produce a series of short (2-3 minute), video portraits of Sarah Palin and her hometown of Wasilla that can be a valuable addition to the prevailing impressions of her. As time and resources allow, we may do a longer edit as well, one which goes into depth on broader topics raised by Palin and her political career.

The audience for these videos are not the already decided on the right or the left, it's a much as possible people who are undecided, people who want to believe in an inspiring narrative, while voting in the best interests of themselves and the country.

Update: Get audio at Talking Points Memo.

Contradicting his earlier claims that "(there was no discussion with anybody involved in leadership with the Republican Party (or the McCain campaign) about this (voting rule) lawsuit before it was brought," as Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has said earlier last month, WiscPolitics has uncovered new audio (posted at WiscPolitics) revealing Van Hollen promising action on alleged "voter fraud" during an address at the Republican National Convention held in St. Paul, Minnesota.

I am not optimistic that the current hearings involving the likes of Lehman Bros' head is anything more than show of outrage by impotent politicans who think they are important.

Take a look at these two links.

http://www.davemanuel.com/2007/08/07/thi nk-that-the-sec-is-corrupt-meet-gary-agu irre/

http://www.whistleblower.org/template/pa ge.cfm?page_id=179

Here is an excerpt of how corrupt the SEC is and the Democrats did little to punish these bastards. Why don't Democrats use stories like this to fight the Bushies? The Republicans made morons like Paula Jones household names for minor scandals.

In 2006, Gary Aguirre was involved in a flurry of political and media attention following a front page New York Times article detailing Aguirre's investigation of a politically-sensitive insider-trading case. Aguirre is a former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyer who was dismissed by the agency following his attempt to subpoena John Mack, now the CEO of Morgan Stanley, in an insider trading investigation of Pequot Capital Management, a leading hedge fund. Hedge funds are unregulated private investment funds that typically engage in unconventional investment strategies, such as short-selling. Mack briefly served as the chairman of Pequot before being hired by Morgan Stanley as their CEO.  Click here to read the New York Times article!  Click here to read GAP's original statement!  

In September 2005, Aguirre was fired 11 days after being awarded a two-step pay increase. Since coming to GAP, Aguirre testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Hedge Fund and Analysts: How Independent Is Their Relationship?" At the hearing, Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa) expressed his outrage at SEC attempts to silence Aguirre, announcing his commitment to investigate further. Aguirre has provided documentary evidence to Congress which support his assertion that Mack should have been subpoenaed to take his testimony.

Aguirre's battle dates back to June 2005, when he suddenly encountered resistance at the SEC during the course of his investigation of Pequot. A $7 billion hedge fund, Pequot's CEO is Arthur J. Samberg, a long time friend of Mack. Prior to that date, Aguirre had been investigating the case for months, issuing over 90 subpoenas without obstruction.

When Aguirre recommended that Mack's testimony be taken under oath, Aguirre was told by his supervisor that it would be difficult to obtain approval for the subpoena due to Mack's powerful "political connections." Over the course of the next two months, Aguirre's supervisors refused to allow him to issue Mack a subpoena. Aguirre questioned this decision at every level up the chain of command (including SEC Chairman Christopher Cox), reporting his superior's behavior and providing evidence supporting his subpoena request.

Considering how persistent politicians are in connecting Obama with Rezko and other shady figures, why don't the Democrats do a better job making the many whistleblowers in the Bush administration the focal point of a campaign against Republican corruption? Or do they refrain from setting a higher priority on such efforts because they are afraid of indicting their own in the process? There are just so many victims of the Bush administration that the Democrats can use in the name of ethics and political opportunism. But they fail to do so.

Personal stories resonate with voters. Democrats need to do a better job helping out these individual whistleblowers and use them to score political points in the process.

Early news this morning reports that Jerome Corsi, of Swiftboat fame and lately the author of the smear book "Obama Nation" has been detained in Kenya.
According the the Times Online, Jerome Corsi has been detained to answer questions about why he is in Kenya.

It may help to understand how much money Congress just appropriated to bail out the banks if we calculate how many semi-trucks it would take to carry $700,000,000,000.

The dimensionsof a 40-foot semi-trailer are approximately
40' x 10' x 8'
for a total of 3200 cubic feet.

If you make a stack of a hundred $100 bills, it will be approximately 1.5 inches high and add up to $10,000. 8 stacks will be a foot high, and in a cubic foot you can pack approximately 2 stacks length-wise, 4 stacks across, 8 stacks high for a total of 64 stacks.

64 x $10,000 = $640,000 in a cubic foot of $100 bills.

So 1000 cubic feet of $100 bills will add up to
1000 x $640,000 = $640,000,000

That's still only 640 million dollars, so to contain 640 billion dollars you need...

1,000,000 cubic feet of $100 bills.

Each semi-truck can carry 3200 cubic feet of cargo, so to carry 1,000,000 cubic feet of $100 bills, you need
1,000,000 / 3200 = 312.

You still have to add in another $60,000,000,000 to arrive at the total bail-out of $700,000,000,000, and for that you need 30 more semi-trucks...

But even if 300 semi-trucks full of $100 bills isn't quite enough to carry $700,000,000,000, it still gives you a ball-park idea of how much money Congress just gave the banks.

Line up 300 semi-trucks bumper-to-bumper, and you get a caravan of solid money more than three miles long!

Oct. 6, 2008
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(CBS) In a sign that the race for president has returned to about where it was before the first presidential debate, the Obama-Biden ticket leads the McCain-Palin ticket 47 percent to 43 percent among registered voters in a new CBS News poll.

The Obama-Biden ticket led by a wider margin, nine percentage points, in a CBS News poll released last Wednesday, before Joe Biden and Sarah Palin faced off in the vice presidential debate. Obama-Biden led by five percentage points on Sept. 25.

In the new poll, the Democratic ticket leads by 3 percentage points, 48 percent to 45 percent, among likely voters.

Barack Obama holds a 20 point lead in terms of enthusiasm. Fifty-eight percent of Obama voters say they are very enthusiastic about their candidate, while only 38 percent of John McCain voters say the same about the Arizona senator.

Roughly one in five registered voters have yet to commit to a candidate, though they may lean towards one or the other.

PLEASE GO TO CBSNews.com FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE....

Why does Sarah Palin get a free pass?
"I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."
"And I won't be buried under their damn flag. I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."
- Joe Vogler, Founder of The Alaska Independence Party (the former quote is still on their website).

Sarah Palin's association with the AIP:

1. According to Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, Sarah Palin and her husband Todd were members in the 1990's and attended statewide conventions.
   
2. From the AIP website: "Our current governor who I mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected . . . .and there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as mayor . . . "
   
3. Her husband, Todd Palin, was a member until 2002.
   
4. And finally, here is Sarah Palin's address to the AIP convention this year:
   

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrI yI

McCain's campaign slogan is "Country First." By contrast, the AIP campaign slogan is "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."

Would you be associated for decades with a political organization that professes hatred towards America? Or does hatred of America only matter if its espoused by your pastor, as opposed to your political party?

Here is an ad expressing the same sentiment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eu9Z2hXk y0&eurl=http://thecognoscenti.blogsp ot.com/