Paradox at TheLeftCoaster writes:

Surfing the net these days will garner financial advice from almost any site, folks are rightly worried sick in these troubled times and want to know the best practices for their money. The articles always say to keep investing in your 401k, no matter what. Yuck.

I rolled over my 401k funds this year and now I’m extremely sorry I did; it’s not that the value has been chopped by 35%, I don’t trust Wall St. or American business in any sense, and I don’t want my cash supporting Wall St. companies and institutions.

I, like most Americans, are stuck with this lousy 401k system, more and more companies are abandoning even any contributing matching funds. In theory I could get out, I don’t mind paying the taxes, but the IRS penalty is a killer. Still, I’m thinking about it.

What are your thoughts on retirement funding?  I know that my latest statement shows about a 15 percent decline (I'm in a conservative option on my 401k).

Money market?  Bonds?  T-bills?  Pork bellies?

The McCain Campaign is out answering the internet blogosphere again.

A continuation of the policy of smoke and mirrors...

"SO, Mr. McCain, what about the Economy?"

  "uh, uh, HEY! Look over here...Obama stubbed his toe and he didn't bleed - proves he's a vampire!!!
Afterall,we knew he had to be...

He runs with alien terrorists from MARS!!!!!

The Washington Post has films of the landing and met with their leader.....

We are demanding right here and now....RELEASE THE FILM!!!!!"

YES McCAIN and his Campaign are LIKE BUSH in one major way...

They will SAY anything (LIE); They think WE are STUPID; And when all else fails, blame the Democrats!

Is this what ABC should be doing?  Asking people if a fantasy show is more important than the reality of who should be our next president?  This exposes the essential greed of corporate television because high ratings translates into bigger advertising fees a network can charge for a show. 

See ABC's promo here.

The "right-to-life" movement that elevates embryonic life above women's lives is more accurately termed "right-to-prenatal-life." One of the most extreme 2008 anti-abortion, anti-contraceptive ballot measures is the so-called Colorado "Personhood" amendment - number 48 - defining fertilized eggs as "persons" with Fourteenth Amendment rights to "life, liberty and due process of law." Simultaneously, rightists have opposed the same rights for women as "reading feminism into the Constitution."

Both Amendment 48 and a rule change proposed by the Bush administration Department of Health and Human Services would re-define pregnancy as the point of conception, disregarding the medical definition of pregnancy - "the implantation of a fertilized egg." They would effectively categorize as abortion any contraception (e.g., the pill, IUD, emergency contraception, contraceptive patch) that interferes with the implantation of a fertilized egg, thus outlawing most contraception - the primary means to reduce the need for abortion.

In a slippery slope to 19th century status for women, rightists have promoted "conscience clauses" permitting pharmacists' and others' refusal to fill prescriptions or provide health care for women. The HHS proposal states, "[T]he conscience of the individual or institution should be paramount in determining what constitutes abortion..." - holding women's health hostage to anyone's professed religious/ideological beliefs.

It is time to recognize that abortion serves as surrogate for a spectrum of unspoken issues related to female personhood and male entitlement. The anti-abortion political litmus test was introduced by Paul Weyrich, who dictated that women step aside and "make way for new life." It serves dual purposes - the marginalization of women and the lightning rod around which to mobilize political coalitions, notably, Evangelicals and Catholics. The elevation of fetal life over women's lives, coupled with conservative strategist Howard Phillips' euphemistically described goal of return to "one-family-one-vote," is calculated to marginalize and disenfranchise women, consistent with the ultraright tenet that ultimately, only select white Christian males should retain the right to vote or hold office.

Rickie Solinger concluded from her historical research of women's health care that women's rights have often been held hostage by politicians and others with "political agendas hostile to female autonomy and racial equality" (Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade, 1992). The criminalization of contraception and abortion, and the widespread U.S. adoption black market that assigned value to babies and punishment to women based on race, were some effects of pre-Roe efforts to control women's reproduction.

At core, Weyrich's anti-abortion, anti-contraceptive and abstinence-only ideology serves as cornerstone of an anticipated male supremacist theocracy. It is the platform upon which the majority of Republican candidates continue to run in 2008. The greatest conceit - that pregnancy is not a health issue and women's lives are expendable - underlies the dual standards of Republican Party pronatalist policy demanding female submission to males who presume the right to hold women hostage to personal beliefs.

This ongoing negotiations between US and Iraq is not being reported by US corporate television or, especially, local television but it certainly is being followed by the rest of the world's nations.  Since Mr. Bush is leaving office he simply doesn't care about what this nation used to stand for because he wants to lock in the US to Iraq for the next president. 

From McClatchy Washington Bureau, reporters Roy Gutman and Leila Fadel write:

BAGHDAD _ The U.S. military has warned Iraq that it will shut down military operations and other vital services throughout the country on Jan. 1 if the Iraqi government doesn't agree to a new agreement on the status of U.S. forces or a renewed United Nations mandate for the American mission in Iraq.

Many Iraqi politicians view the move as akin to political blackmail, a top Iraqi official told McClatchy Sunday.

In addition to halting all military actions, U.S. forces would cease activities that support Iraq’s economy, educational sector and other areas _ "everything" _ said Tariq al Hashimi, the country’s Sunni Muslim vice president. "I didn’t know the Americans are rendering such wide-scale services."

While readers on this site will be outraged.  It is time for our Senators to become involved.  In the past Mr. Bush has tried to circumvent the Senate's confirmation of treaties power.  This "Status of Forces Agreement" should roundly be condemned by Senators as a whole. 

The only way this will happen if we put some pressure on our Senators to make this an issue.

Ask them is it ethical to blackmail Iraq "partner" into a new agreement by the torture and blackmail President?  Ask them if "status of forces" agreement is a transparent attempt to circumvent the constitutional duty of the Senate to confirm "treaties"?

What do you think Senator Salazar would say?  Allard?  How about candidates Udall or Shaffer?

It is time to deny the 70 billion USD bonuses with the 700 billion USD bailout package being paid for by us.

UKGuardian.com has this:

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government's cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.

Perhaps we should be doing this as per the Merkel government.

Chris Carey notes:

The German government has taken a more stringent approach with banks participating in its bailout program. Companies there would have to cap salaries for top executives at 500,000 Euros, or roughly $635,000. The German plan also would prohibit them from receiving bonuses until the debt to the government is repaid.

Digby says:

Have you ever watched people identified on TV as a "political consultant" and thought to yourself, "geez, I could do better than that." Well, now you can prove it...

This is a really fun concept. The ads are great and the idea that we can all contribute directly to put these ads on the air is a fantastic new empowerment tool.

And it's going to drive the insiders nuts ....

Here is the Blue America - SaysMe TV homepage to get started.

The ad will be narrowcast on cable channels NOT broadcast.

Amy Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely recognized as the world’s premier award for personal courage and social transformation. The annual prize, also known as the Alternative Nobel, will be awarded in the Swedish Parliament on December 8, 2008. [From the Democracy Now! website.]

Show your love by supporting Democracy Now! on Channel 12 KBDI.  Let KBDI know by calling them and telling them you watch Amy Goodman.

This will make her "untouchable" to the anti-abortion wingnuts.  Courtesy to Ms. Couric, CBSNews:

Couric: Do you think there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution?

Palin: I do. Yeah, I do.

Both dday, Digby's blog, wrote:

I don't know if she believes in the right to privacy or if she believes in the words "right" and "privacy" and saw them together and took a stab at it. But this is a major, MAJOR no-no for the fundies and the wingnuts. She undermined the entire intellectual argument against Roe without even recognizing it. Taking her logic (if it can be called that), if there's a Constitutional right to privacy then there's a right to keep medical decisions confidential, not a state's right but a fundamental Constitutional right....

and Johnathon Singer, MyDD.com, noted:

Nevertheless, at a time when the conservative cognoscenti is beginning to abandon the GOP Vice Presidential nominee in the wake of serious misstatements and a glaring inability to engage on even the simplest issues of policy -- which does have the potential of trickling down to the electorate (if the Republican base, which is still less enthused than the Democratic base, becomes dejected over Palin's weaknesses, a real rout could be a possibility)

Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake.com, looks to failed Supreme Court nominee and Federalist Society ranter Robert Bork, quotes:

'Judge Bork said, but the Court's remedy was worse. ''It comes out of nowhere and doesn't have any rooting in the Constitution,'' he said, maintaining that lacking such a rooting in text or the Framers' intent, judges invite ''disastrous'' consequences...'

Way to shore up the base, Sarah -- heckuva job! And I mean that!

In reading the comments section on John Aravosis' AmericaBlog.com about this "gaffe" by Sarah is akin to what I find in kids taking CSAP.  There is a lot of facts the kids know but there is nothing to connect those "facts" into a coherent whole.  The facts are just there for questions to a test that they have to take. Understanding the theories which these "facts" support is missing.

This one of the key comments made:

sukabi1 13 hours ago 1 point I think her "trainers" have tried to cram in too many of their talking points / positions and she's getting them all mixed up... she's basically repeating McCain's supposed positions and doesn't really understand what she's saying. Chances are her "trainers" haven't bothered to take the time to explain them to her...

Really, how much can you really learn AND UNDERSTAND in a couple of days of "cramming"? This really is a failure of McCain, for picking a grossly unqualified person. And a failure of his campaign staff for trying to cram in "talking points" without taking the time to explain the terminology they expect her to use.

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