Although no one in my household is crowing about our economic failure and the plight of individual households, I strongly agree with this paragraph from beyond our shore: John Gray/Guardian/The Observer

Ever since the end of the Cold War, successive American administrations have lectured other countries on the necessity of sound finance.

Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina and several African states endured severe cuts in spending and deep recessions as the price of aid from the International Monetary Fund, which enforced the American orthodoxy.

China in particular was hectored relentlessly on the weakness of its banking system. But China's success has been based on its consistent contempt for Western advice and it is not Chinese banks that are currently going bust.

How symbolic yesterday that Chinese astronauts take a spacewalk while the US Treasury Secretary is on his knees.

McCain campaign on McCain:

"There was one man who was presidential tonight, that man was John McCain."

Let's see ... McCain never looked at Obama during the debate.

Not looking at your opponent is "presidential?"

This very much was the "don't talk to your enemies - don't look them in the eye" foreign policy expert practicing his "presidential" craft for a nationwide audience.

McCain campaign continues:

... or pretend that it's not important or necessary? As I write this, extremely legitimate and quite serious people are looking for ways to set right America's recent global and social criminal history

I seriously doubt that even half the readers here could spontaneously declare who Robert Jackson was.

Two months ago on this very blog Lietta Ruger brought up the same theme. To no one's surprise, the response was essentially "ho hum" and "yea so?" Yet we bloggers really are among the most civically active members of society and I wonder how it is that we got so sophisticatedly wise about political campaign strategy and remain so inept, ignorant and apathetic about genuine civic responsibility? There are duties required by that  responsibility when things go wrong or when some among us seriously harm the rest of the world in our name.

So says Joe Sudbay (DC) at AMERICAblog

and ain't that the truth?

It's of course also a truth that many prominent Democrats seem to fear bar fights with bullies as much as they fear a supposed backlash that might occur should they flat out tell Bush, "no more funding."

... or if they justifiably pursue impeachment of presidents, vice presidents and the most incompetent attorney general in our history.

I don't know who they are afraid they will offend and why such an imagined offense might be catastrophic  to their political futures. Backbone is not birthed out of indecisiveness and courage does not emerge from timidity and a failure to act.

Remember the videos last week of the mugger behind the open car door reaching around the door to punch a helpless 90-year-old  car-owner in the face before stealing his car?

I applaud Newsweek's big-time stinging rebuke and put-down of our lame duck president:
(Father Knows Best)

On my piano sits a hymn book I've kept there since my days as an active Mormon when, among other things, I played the organ every Sunday in church. One of the hymns in that book is entitled, The Morning Breaks, The Shadows Flee."

Such describes my mood today. Once again those of us who've been actively involved in what we were taught in our civics classes - and believed -  enter into this bi-annual day of hope with a prayer that by the end of the day we will have taken giant steps back toward social, economic and political sanity.

Many like me re-entered our political process with reluctance, not wanting to be bothered ... until it became clear that those driving the vehicle of democracy had their pedal to the floor, little concern for steering through hair-pin curves and no concern for the safety of America's citizens and the cargo of constitutional protections and freedom.

We clearly saw madmen at the wheel.

Any change from our current circumstance - from having exchanged citizen priorities for corporate priorities to having lost the most powerful global influence for good in the name of greed, corporate capitalism and undifferentiated power - will be a giant step backward toward sanity.

I see where the VFW chose to endorse a Republican candidate who has never served in the military and repudiate a Democratic candidate who is not only a Vet but lost both legs in the Occupation of Iraq. If the local VFW comes calling to recruit me into membership, they need to send someone like Bill Moyer, a 73-year-old vet who wore the "bullshit protector" in his ear while at the VFW convention.

The apparent thinking as voiced by the VFW endorsing entity had to do with the Repug's track record of cheap talk and votes in support of military and or veteran issues ... as if a Veteran in Congress would not vote with an even greater wisdom.

There is a horrendous naiveté in this action in that VFW veterans who have been there and done that have taken a coward's route perhaqps voting more their pensions and benefits than a veteran's genuine desire for national well-being. If so, this in a way makes of the VFW, the same corporate capitalists as jokers like Norquist and others who accept money from business in exchange for votes and endorsements.

Tomorrow the Air Force Times, The Army Times, The Navy Times and the Marine Times are publishing an editorial calling for Bush to fire Rumsfeld. The editorial says Rumsfeld has "lost credibility" with top officers. As a legitimate action of genuine political support of our sons and daughters at war, the implication of these editorials is enormous. They  accomplish more in one moment than 6 years of presidential appearances on military installations, in military communities and at VFW and American Legion Conventions.

In addition, the military "Times" editorials effectively counter the shabby and foolish decision of the VFW to endorse a did-not-serve cheap-talking Republican candidate rather than Democratic Congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq veteran who lost both legs to the Republican Occupation of Iraq.