In a move universally seen as ridiculous, Sarah Palin resigns as Governer of Alaska. Not during the good times does she hand it over to a well groomed successor, no epic battle, no scars, no situation. Just givin’ up is all.

She was elected to office somehow by someone, and so instead of doing that, she runs for President and now she plays her final ace and resigns as Governor of a State, united with the other 49 that make up America. Like 1/50th of the responsibility of the Office of President. She appears unable to cope during this terrifying financial abyss. She would rather undermine and parry with President Barack Obama than let the Republicans form a credible opposition she sees her self as the Rightful Owner of the Republican ticket. They could do so much better.

God help them if she suceeds. President Barack Obama vs Sarah Palin the Governer that quit?

For her to win, President Obama is going to have to do something very wrong. So, if the situation is still dire who is going to vote for her when she ran from Alaska? Thus far he has done fairly well without having to consult with and poll his children for important decisions. The man respects his well earned responsibility.

See Vodkapundit for a more Right-Wing view. The question is not whether Sarah Palin grand strategy is going to work or not, but if anyone can vote for a “quitter”?

I certainly do not think they will. I agree. Stupid stupid stupid.

Letters from school children to Mr Obama published in the NY Times included this:

Dear President Obama,

I am small, quiet, smart. I love to swim and play basketball. My mom and dad are from the Dominican Republic. I am going to the Dominican Republic next year. I think you should try to change the world by building shelters for the people who live in the streets. It’s the beginning of January, and it’s cold. Good luck being the president.

— Pamela Mejia, age 11, Boston

Something tells me President Obama will read this letter.  Something tells me it is a very good idea.  People keep saying “clean up the streets”.  This 11 year old smart girl is pointing out that the homeless are people.  It is not that they dirty the streets, but how would you like to live out of rubbish bins and sleep in cold hard places you can hide in?  It is that homeless people suffer that makes it worth while to give them shelter.  Slavery was abolished, but a homeless person has no shoestrings upon which to change their state.

It is one of the more extreme instances of enabling people to do more, rather than protecting the wealth of the very wealthy from risk.  The kind of reconstruction that Mr Obama is considering could be game changing for American society in the same way that any liberation is.  By shoring up the lives of the many and not enabling the very wealthy free reign to essentially gamble or the bankers to over-leverage our money at extreme and definite risk.

The world does not need mega oligarchs to run things.  It needs the productivity of its greatest nation.  Another letter suggested “free university for all”.  These 9 year olds understand the price of freedom is to support progress.

The overwhelming election of Barack Obama to the Office the The President of the United States of America has electrified the world. Congratulations are due to the campaign that was itself an extraordinary one. And with extraordinary dignity John McCain’s delivered his speech to his faithful to signal the end of the campaign and the start of cooperation. During the campaign the gloves were off, anything went – but now America can be once again be United – and enact new policy that has some chance of correcting the imbalances the Bush adminstration created that have so long divided and disappointed Americans. The Bush years will be remembered as tragically aggressive and government perhaps by poor instincts – that decided it was best to “go it alone” (the Iraq war) after destroying it’s opposition (the impeachment of Clinton) and not acting to protect the security of its people (9/11 and the war in Afghanistan).

We do hope against hope that DisturbingTrends.org can relax – the Bush years were a time that required constant logical criticism. We hope that the future of the great nation, the USA is one that benefits all humanity and that the currents of change result in the following:

a) the end of Al Qaeda as a force for mindless violence destroying the lives of many young men and women in a war that really has no point.
b) the end of racism, everywhere
c) the begining of a new deal in economics where value is represented in reality with some speculation, instead of being driven by speculation.
d) enabling people to end poverty
e) an end to the pollution of the Earth as an accepted “normal reality”
f) nations who realize their own well being is partly dependent on the well being of other nations

Of course this is all very optimistic. Having a USA government that works for its people instead of commiting economic war against them – well it may transform the richest country in the world. And it may reach out to other communities as it always has. But it is the end of religious extremism between Pakistan and India, the end of expansionalism and threat from competing philosophies, the end of criminality trumping the authority of government – the end of war – these goals are still way ahead of us. As the human race turns a page in this thing we call history, it is up to each one of us to write on that page the future.

At the start of the run up to the campaign, we predicted that Joe Biden would win. Watching him on the victory stage with President Obama – was both inspiration and relief.

A prediction about the hand over – GW Bush has not finished creating havoc. His popularity will continue to dwindle, but he will make another fantastic mistake, I think it will be another attempted “bail out” manouvere of about 1 – 2 trillion dollars, but it will simply fail.

President Obama, welcome to the world stage.

In order to fulfil campaign claims to continuing war in the Middle East, John McCain would have to install a draft policy. Millions of US children are therefore in the firing line as drafted military fodder. What a waste that would be. See more here

Get out and vote, overwhelm those damn voting machines.

The Obama campaign proving it can dig the dirt. Warning: this is more scary than Dick Cheney.

Another one. Even more explicit.

It was inevitable that we would read this story African-Americans in Florida feeling that their votes will not be counted and that somehow things will go wrong for Obama. It is more than a sensitivity here – it is not that they are taking issue or protesting it, but the slouching apathy that disenfranchisment naturally would create may itself the the greatest enemy of voters. If the Republicans win this one as even I have predicted (due only to unauditable voter machine deceit) – the one prediction I can firmly state – I very much hope to be wrong about! Not all the predictions on this column have been accurate, just most of the big ones, perhaps. Seeing GW Bush as a disaster before he took office I can attribute to a warning from a very wise friend that prompted me to understand the Bush family dynamics playing out in the American government. Invasion of Iraq was inevitable. The ego of GW Bush seemed to have a lot to do with that. But the world was not helped no matter the justification. The USA feels a “responsibilty” to intervene in the world. But it becomes its own worst enemy as it starts to resemble that which it rails against.

An Obama presidency would make for more interesting times, but watch out for them voting machines misrepresenting the will of the people.

and
La Clinton

and
La Palin


Perhaps this is the most brutal view of the debate yet, cut up by Mr Letterman.

and
Miss Fey

NZ Herald article

Palin has to carry the VP debate, or be exposed as a fumbler who seems to not know what she is saying, in the same dyslexic mould of GW Bush that appealed so strongly to the illerate “belt-way” – that he could hold power even though what he was saying made little sense.

Palin’s interview with Kate Couric – it showed that she could well be using a ploy – look stupid – until the debate. If Joe Biden does not unleash the full force of his wit and ability in the debate, is prepared to hold back so he does not seem to be a sexist bully – then her tactic in shaping debate around a gender issue is playing the oldest trick in the book. Her first interview was probably a bit of a ploy. Biden should assume all her marbles will connect on debate night.

Perhaps the VP debate will be more interesting than it seems.

NY Times – Editorial opinion points out that the 700 billion Wall St bailout plan advocated by Henry Paulson should not be necessary if they allow mortgagees to be managed with reduced loans by the bankruptcy court system. i.e. the lender gets 50 cents in the dollar but the borrorower can go on paying under strict management at an affordable rate, keep the home and send the kids to college. In the next generation shines hope, if they get to school.

The bailout is the biggest con and not at all “socialist” – it is an attempt to muddy the fabric of political economics. It is wild theft on such a grand scale – it is almost hard to contemplate its audacity. The firms on Wall Street are vehicles for investment. Banks themselves are like portable reservoirs of cash – they are not like people who have lives and children. Yes they employ thousands but so does coal mining. The Bush years have seen no growth in the Dow Jones, and his inept management has caused the meltdown this bailout seeks to cement into process – further financial degradation that is not necessary.

Protections for blantent abusers of the public good are a deliberate socially destructive terrorism and compound the social abuse of the Bush Tax cuts and lousy war. Impeachment was never more necessary.

Instead of discounting and carrying on, the inane faith in human greed is starting to sound more than merely hollow. It is criminal on a scale that is so large it is hard to discuss. Like going to war needlessly. This could cripple the next twenty years of American progress.

President Bush appears poised to shuffle the financial reality under the carpet, whistle dixie as he adds a cool 700 billion to his ideological war chest. The bail out should never occur. It is interesting that the McCain camp oppose this. I think the Obama campaign will approve of only bailing out the ones that affect the public at large. AIG – the insurance giant – if it collapsed would mean the loss of investment funds. The Bush faith in the market machine to grind out the problems created by the great property spirial is simply back to front. He is a creationist, and that means he can not abide by the concepts of evolution.

Corporate destruction, the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy has wiped the smiles and financial ability of a large number of people who trusted an organisation that simply became far too greedy and started essentially selling the same asset twice. Morgage funds represent a state of debt. When they are financed by a secondary market – well – it is like taxing taxes on the other side of the political equation.

Bush is conducting the most extraordinarily socialist style intervention, possibly ever. It is the wrong thing to do, and why he should have been impeached years ago. The reason is simple enough. The banking system requires immediate and far reaching reform. It is over deregulated and Bush’s pumping up the volume with his infamous tax cuts for the very rich has created hidden inflation. It’s sudden exposure – as the machine can not recycle debt backwards – is a very severe correction. Adding more capital to the basis of the issue is treating banks as a charity.

It will cause another collapse later on. Unless they add regulations which the rather disappointing Pelosi Demorcrat Congress is probably salivating over, thinking they have won the day. Actually nobody will win. They are scared of the political fallout – and bail out a broken model that does not provide real hope. Like nuclear weapons – it may not kill you – but it may kill your grandchildren.

The public do not want to own the banking system. The banking system in Bush’s hands seems part of a sinister jigsaw.