citizens made a difference for once

I'm not sure if I should be hopeful or not, but it seems that at least in part American citizens (like me) prolifically emailing and calling their Congressmen/-women (and Senators, but it didn't get that far obviously) helped defeat the first version of the Wall Street bailout plan. The possibility that A. people can get restless and do something, and B. their action can make a difference has me just a little bit giddy.

It may not matter so much that a lot of the Representatives - mostly Republican - who voted it down are up for re-election. That's good actually. It shows that they are listening to their constituents and actually might make a connection between how they vote and what their constituents want. What a concept!

Even though a bailout that will likely happen is not going to solve the root problem of greed gone wild (read some good arguments here why that's the case), I hope that people will notice that in this case their voice made a difference. Sure, our pocketbooks were/are threatened, but so far we didn't let the fear factory convince us to make a stupid move . . . . yet. Maybe, just maybe, that little bit of empowerment will get people more engaged with other things that matter, that don't have as direct an impact on our comfortable American lifestyle, like illegal wars.

It won't be easy for the average American to resist fear, when you get front pages like this:

Check out Garrison Keillor's take on the bailout at salon.com: Where is the Outrage?

Colbert on Wall St meltdown

Please also go over to John Ackerson's Looking for a Future blog and listen to the 32-minute video of Bill Moyers' speech about Media Reform, and be inspired.

McPain: my 10 seconds of fame?

Whether it was someone seeing it here, or coming up with it separately, a poster of this slogan was at the Anchorage 'Alaska Women Reject Palin' rally last week, where Maureen Dowd saw it and put it in her column at the NYTimes Tuesday:

"I covered a boisterous women against Palin rally in Anchorage, where women toted placards such as 'Fess up about troopergate,' 'Keep your vows off my body,' 'Barbies for war!' 'Sarah, please don’t put me on your enemies list,' and 'McCain and Palin = McPain.'"

But my favorite placard slogan was by RunninL18 at the Meet Sarah blog:

"Hey Hockey Mom, keep the PUCK out of Washington!"

UPDATE: I Googled "McPain" and there were lots of hits, at least one August 30, six days before I first discovered the math equation.

Shape shifting

We can criticize politicians - and we do - for bending their own convictions in order to get elected. They all do it. Even my preference for President this election, Barack Obama, has had to duck his head and squeeze through the door into the room called Compromise, for example his intentions to raise taxes on the rich have changed a bit. In order to start the kind of step-by-step change that needs to happen in this grossly misaligned government of ours, change too radical at the outset will be squashed.

But I'm hearing more and more about how McCain has shape shifted drastically since his earlier days when he was admired by people from both primary parties as well as independents. I myself said he was one Republican I could vote for back in the day! Here is an article called "McCain's Integrity" by Andrew Sullivan, originally published in The Atlantic, showing how Sullivan, his friend and supporter, has abandoned allegiance to McCain because McCain abandoned his allegiance to his own values in order to become President.

'feminist ideal'?

I would like this maelstrom around Sarah Palin to calm down, no doubt it will eventually. I guess when you insert a pretty young woman into the run for VP, after all those rich, old white guys, Republicans finally have something to get excited about.

But are they getting excited in appropriate ways? Excited about what she brings to the office of vice president with her record, her policies, her interest in the needs of average Americans? Maybe it's a media blitz that isn't representative, I'm open to that possibility, but what I'm seeing out there A LOT is that Sarah Palin excites Rep men sexually.

Case in point, check out ad exec Donny Deutsch in this video on CNBC, she's sexy, unlike Hillary she put a skirt on, "I want her laying next to me in bed.":



Rebecca Traister in salon.com says: "Welcome to 2008, the year a tough, wonky woman won a primary (lots of them, actually), an inspiring black man secured his party's nomination for the presidency, and a television talking head felt free to opine that a woman is qualified for executive office because he wants to bed her and have her watch his kids! Stop the election; I want to get off.

What Palin so seductively represents, not only to Donny Deutsch but to the general populace, is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It's like some dystopian future ... feminism without any feminists."

my math today