Today's Stories

October 14, 2008

Robert Richter
McCain: War Hero or War Criminal?

October 13, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Farewell to Daniel Cassidy

Michael Hudson
Rescue for the Few, Debt Slavery for the Many

Patrick Cockburn
Pogrom Against Mosul's Christians

Chris Floyd
The God That Failed: the 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult

Fidel Castro
The Law of the Jungle: Racism, Obama and the Fall of the American Economy

Robert Weitzel
Olmert's Depths of Reality

Derek Wright
How Chrysler Killed My Uncle

Stephen Soldz
Guantánamo's SERE Standard Operating Procedures

David Michael Green
Greed is Not Good

Norman Solomon
Requiem for the Bailout: a Storyline

Charles R. Larson
Toni Morrison on Her Own Terms

Lisa Massaciuccoli
The Shoplifting Association of the Americas

Website of the Day
Arlo Guthrie: "I'm Changing My Name to Fannie Mae"

October 10 / 12, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Is McCain a Lot Sicker Than We Know?

Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Obama's Nuclear Ambition

Douglas Valentine
Mission CREEP: From John Mitchell to John McCain

Noam Chomsky
Exposing the Un-Democratic Face of Capitalism

Ralph Nader
The Derivatives Game

Syed Saleem Shahzad
Why the Neo-Taliban is Winning

Patrick Cockburn
War in the Time of Cholera

Paul Craig Roberts
A Possible Solution to the Economic Crisis

Mike Whitney
Run on the System

Peter Morici
The Deficit and the Damage Done

Christopher Ketcham
The End of the Economy

Stephen Martin
Shock and Awe in Economic Warfare

Chellis Glendinning
Wireless Mind, Gullible Mind

Saul Landau
All Guns, No Butter

Ahmad Faruqui
21 Days to Baghdad

Adam Turl
Sheriff Tom Dart vs. the Banksters

Serge Halimi
The Battle for the West

Anthony DiMaggio
Making a Killing: the Business of Elections

John Ross
The Sky is Falling on Mexico, Too

José M. Tirado
Meltdown in Iceland

Paul Krassner
Beat the Crowd in Denver: Cops and T-Shirts

David Macaray
Adventures in Unionism

Robert Fantina
Bankrupt and Belligerent

David Yearsley
The Playlist for Election 2008

Julian Clec'h
The Soap Washing Through Saudi Arabia

Adam Engel
Sexual Healing ... for the Planet

Phyllis Pollack
The Rolling Stones Go Home, Again

Missy Beattie
Going North: the Coming Nation of Alaska

Poets' Basement
Landau, Moser and Henson

Website of the Day
Sarah as Esther? New Video From Inside Palin's Church

October 9, 2008

Robert Bryce
From Enron to the Current Meltdown

David Vest
The Great Rescue of 2008: Could Whatever Follows Bush Be Even Worse?

Winslow T. Wheeler
Meltdown at the Pentagon

Andy Worthington
The Ordeal of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs

Anthony DiMaggio
Obama the Subhuman

Helga Serrano /
Hector Tamayo
Ecuador Charts the Way

Dave Lindorff
When Money Flies

Mats Svensson
At the Checkpoint on the Day of Atonement

Rannie Amiri
The Time for Mordechai Vanunu is Now

Website of the Day
The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Support

October 8, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Imbecilic Tedium

Linn Washington, Jr.
Palin's Racist Remark

Mike Whitney
To the Bunkers!

Deepak Tripathi
The West is Broke

George C. Wilson
Butter Over Guns? McCain and Obama on Defense Issues

Andy Worthington
Seized in Pakistan

Charles R. Larson
"I'm John McCain and I Approved This Lie"

Patrick Irelan
Ecuador's Choice

Matthew Koehler
Log, Baby, Log: Bailing Out the Timber Industry

Stanley Heller
Time to Design a New Economy

Daniel Gross
Working Class Hero: Alexandra Svoboda

Kimberly Hartke
Raw Milk and Civil Liberties

Website of the Day
Olivia Wilde Does It Early

October 7, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Obama and McCain's Goofy Afghan Bluster

Gary Leupp
Seven Years in Afghanistan:
From "War on Terror" to
"War of Terror"

Uri Avnery
Olmert's Final Divorce
From "All of Eretz Israel"

P. Sainath
The Cop-Out Election
Major Candidates, Congress, Press, All Fail in the Big Crisis

Peter Morici
The Dow Tanks as Bank Bailout Fails to Restore Confidence

Conn Hallinan
The Great Game in the Caucasus:
Bad Moves by Uncle Sam

Martha Rosenberg
Training America's Youth
Today a Pheasant, Tomorrow Osama

Binoy Kampmark
Let's Talk About Extinction:
CERN and Halo

October 6, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
A Futile Bailout as Darkness Falls on America

Mike Whitney
Still on the Edge of the Abyss

Tariq Ali
Goodbye to Grosvenor Square

Emily Horowitz
How People Tell Cops They're Guilty Even When They Aren't

Michael Hudson
What Did Jesus Say?
A Christian Perspective on the Paulson Bank Bailout

Ron Jacobs
Winter Soldiers and Washington's Wars

October 3 - 5, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Creatures of Capital

Paul Craig Roberts
Why Paulson's Plan is a Fraud

Saul Landau
The Chutzpah of Hank Paulson

Jonathan Cook
The Souring of a West Bank Romance: Israel's Army and Settlers Fall Out

Andy Worthington
The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials

Dave Marsh
Bono (Himself) Challenges Me to a Debate

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Using the IAEA to Spy on Iran

John Ross
Massacre in Morelia

Brian Cloughley
The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism

Wajahat Ali
Dueling Partners: an Interview with Tariq Ali on Pakistan

Robert Schwartz
A Serious Blow to the Rights of U.S. Workers: NLRB Limits Political Strikes

Alan Nasser
FDR's Response to the Plot to Overthrow Him: a Paradigm for Today's Democrats?

David Ker Thomson
The Case for Drunk Driving

Peter Morici
Gone in 30 Days: U.S. Loses 159,000 Jobs in September

William Blum
When is a Holocaust Not a Holocaust?

William S. Lind
War on Two Fronts: Without Railroads

Michael Donnelly
The Ghost of Gen. McClellan

Thom Rutledge
On Presidential "Rule"

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Science and the 2008 Presidential Elections: a Survey of the Candidates

Dave Lindorff
Calling the Problem Early

Cindy Ellen Hill
Waging a Sustainable Peace?

Paul Krassner
Dying to Get High: the Side Effects of Medical Marijuana

Daniel White
Vietnam's Masterspy

Poets' Basement
Corseri, Absher, Gibbons and Jenkins

Website of the Weekend
How We Lost Glen Canyon: a Legal Chronology

October 2, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
Can a Bailout Succeed?

Joe Bageant
Speaking in the Tongues of Brokers: the Bailout in Plain English

Ralph Nader
Soulmates in Deregulation

Mike Whitney
Why the Bailout Stinks

Madis Senner
When Push Comes to Pull: How a Foreign Banker Invasion Sent the Markets Reeling

Winslow T. Wheeler
Congress as Usual:the Crisis Will Pass, But This Bunch Will Remain the Same

William Blum
A Boy's Game: the Origins of the Financial Crisis

P. Sainath
Wall Street Transforms Presidential Race

Website of the Day
McCain's Meltdown in Des Moines

October 1 , 2008

Glen Ford
The Last Hold Up

Steven Conn
Trashing Sarah Palin: the Boomerang Effect

Alan Maass / Lee Sustar
Why Not a Bailout for the Rest of Us?

Kenneth Couesbouc
The Blame Game: When Wall Street Pigs Sprout Wings

Stan Goff
How the Republicans Can Win (And Deserve It)

Adolfo Gilly
Racism, Domination and Bolivia

Rannie Amiri
Bombs in the Levant

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Recurring Myth of Peak Oil

Adam W. Parsons
Food and Markets

Dave Lindorff
Bums' Rush to the Bailout: Where are the Hearings?

Douglas Valentine
The Bush Continuity Plan?

Adrien Rain Burke
The Party's Over: an Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi

Website of the Day
Sarah Palin's Beauty Pageant

September 30, 2008

Pam Martens
What Wall Street Hoped to Win

Chris Floyd
The Shadow of the Pitchfork: Elite Panic on Wall Street

Stephen Martin
A Biological Walk Down Wall Street

Deepak Tripathi
A Bitter Harvest in Afghanistan

Mark Engler
Bad Money

Jonathan Cook
The Attack on Zeev Sternhell: Has Israel Become a Breeding Ground for Jewish Settler Terrorism?

Dave Lindorff
The Power of No

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Time for a General Strike?

Ahmad Faruqui
In Cold Blood: Buried Alive in Pakistan

John Chuckman
Will the Bride Wear White? As Rome Burns, Bristol Palin Prepares to Tie the Knot with Mr. "Sex on Skates"

David Macaray
Blaming the Labor Unions

Fatemeh Keshavarz
What Obama Could Have Said

Website of the Day
538: a Cognitive Map of American Politics

September 29, 2008

Mike Whitney
Black Monday

Jeff Gibbs
"Just Say No!" to Reverse Robin Hood

Paul Craig Roberts
Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad

Peter Morici
The Bailout and the Economy

Tim Wise
Racism as Reflex

John Walsh
Sarah Palin is a Rotten Mom

Uri Avnery
Israeli Fascism: Yes, It Can Happen Here

Alan Farago
Hell to Pay: the Financial Collapse and the Housing Market

Andy Worthington
Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Running the 9/11 Trials?

David Michael Green
Where's the Repudiation?

Carl Finamore
Capitalism on Steroids; Labor on Tranquilizers

Iris Keltz
Postcards from the DNC

Bill Hatch
Take This Shrimp Slayer!

Website of the Day
Tina Fey as Palin, Round Two

September 27 / 28, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
How McCain Blew It

Linn Washington, Jr.
Alaska's Blacks and Palin: a Strained Relationship

Christopher Ketcham
An Israeli Trojan Horse

Mike Whitney
The People vs. the Banksters

Kevin Alexander Gray Race in the Race: Is Obama Shining Us On?

Anthony DiMaggio
The Unspoken War: Pakistan, the Media and Nuclear Weapons

Mary Lynn Cramer
Their Assets; Our Debts: How Economic Crises Are Overcome

Marc Levy /
Susan Erony
War Jokes Wanted: No Laughing Matter

Stan Cox
Livestock of Mass Destruction: Germ Labs in the Heartland

Saul Landau
Election Drizzle

Ali Khan
Meltdown in American Markets: an Islamic Perspective

David Rosen
The Great Fear: the Sexual Politics of Sarah Palin

Todd Alan Price
Bailing Out the Foes of Public Eduction

Matts Svensson
The Red and White Bird in Gaza

Ron Jacobs
Pakistan Through the Eyes of a Native Son

Robert Fantina
McCain and the Economy

Richard Rhames
Hank-ering for a Bailout

David Krieger
The U.S.-India Nuclear Proliferation Deal

Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking Charter Schools

Charles R. Larson
Dear Mrs. Abacha: a Nigerian Email Romance

Kim Nicolini
Sadism in the Desert

Poets' Basement
La Morticella, Holt, Moser and Buknatski

Website of the Day
The Great Schlep

September 26, 2008

Moshe Adler
Bailing Out Wall Street Won't Save Main Street

Bill Quigley
The U.S. War on Unarmed Working Mothers

Jonathan Cook
When Archaeology Becomes a Curse

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Visions of Pinpoint Control: the Romance of Laser Weapons

Madis Senner
Why the Bailout will Fail

Brian Cloughley
US Raids in Pakistan: Violations of Sovereignty

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Oh, Henry!

Joanne Mariner
Passport Fraud and Torture

Dan La Botz
The Financial Crisis: a View from the Left

David Macaray
Ralph's Management Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

Website of the Day
Nader and Obama Girl at the Office

September 25, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Insanity of the $700 Billion Giveaway

Sharon Smith
Democrats and Corporate Bailouts

Ralph Nader
Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?

Christopher Ketcham
The Economy of Dead Sperm (or What I Learned From My Race-Car Grandpa Who Had No Bankers)

Eric Toussaint
Is Another Third World Debt Crisis in the Offing?

Robert Weissman
Getting Wall Street Pay Reform Right

David Estabrook
A Better Bailout Plan

Nikolas Kozloff
The Voyage of the SS Peter the Great

Steve Early
The High Price of Purple Dissent

Judith Scherr
Blue Helmets in Haiti

Laray Polk
South Ossetia and Abkhazia: Notes from the Inside

Website of the Day
Letterman Spanks McCain

September 24, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
The Bitter Fruits of Deregulation

Nikolas Kozloff
Palin at the UN: a Tutorial from Uribe

Robert Weissman
The Financial Crisis: How and Why Congress Should Play for Time

Andy Worthington
The Guantánamo Trials: Govt. Says Six Years Not Long Enough to Prepare Evidence

Steve Conn
Will Nader's Warning be Acknowledged in the Presidential Debates?

Karyn Strickler
The $700,000,000,000 Power Punch

Diane Farsetta
Stealth Marketers Gone Wild

Dennis Loo
Poisoned Legacy

John Halle
Wealth Tax Now!

Khalil Nakhleh
Palestinians Under the Occupation

Website of the Day
Nader: Debate Crasher

September 23, 2008

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Bail Out on This Bailout

Michael Hudson
Henry Paulson and the New Yazoo Land Scandal

Tariq Ali
Why was the Marriott Targeted?

Patrick Dyer
A Death Row Visit with Troy A. Davis

Franklin Lamb
Hezbollah and the Palestinians

Joshua Frank
Oppose Barack Obama? How Dare Thee!

Alan Farago
Pushing the Referees: How the Financial Crisis Occurred

Dave Lindorff
The Bailout Will Kill the Dollar

Tanya M. Kerssen /
Roger Burbach
Bolivia's Popular Upheaval

Harvey Wasserman
Nuclear Power Liabilities Dwarf Bush's Wall Street Bailout

Website of the Day
Hammered by the Irish: the Video

September 22, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Paulson-Bernanke Bank Bailout Plan: Will the Cure be Worse Than the Crisis?

Mike Whitney
Mushroom Clouds Over Wall Street

Christopher Ketcham
Let It Collapse!

Ron Jacobs
The Predators' Bailout

Anne-Marie McManus
Lost in the Rhetoric of Crisis

Robert Weitzel
The Twin Terrors of the Holy Land: a Sexy Fundamentalist and a White-Haired Zionist

Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Howard Dean

John Ross
A New Cold War Comes to Latin America

Steve Breyman
Does the U.S. Really Need Cluster Bombs?

Patrick Bond
On the Bellies of the Filth

Uri Avnery
Fly, Tzipora, Fly

Carl J. Mayer
An Open Letter to Michael Moore (AKA God's Pen Pal): Whatever Happened to Voting Your Conscience?

Website of the Day
Stop the Execution of Troy Anthony Davis

September 20 / 21, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Is This the Stake Through Neoliberalism's Heart?

Michael Hudson
America's Own Kleptocracy

Pam Martens
The Wall Street Model: Unintelligent Design

Lila Rajiva
Putting Lipstick on an AIG

Mike Whitney
Full-Spectrum Breakdown

Richard Rhames
A Bailout to Nowhere

Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
The NY Yankees and the U.S. Economy

Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Making of Recent U.S. Middle East Policies: a New Study of Neocon Influence

Susan Block
Palin as Venus in Furs: the Dominatrix Politics of Drilling and Killing

Robert Fantina
Republicans and Subpoenas: Never the Twain Shall Meet

Heidi Walters
Hung Up on Route 36: an 18-Wheeler and a Nuclear Cask

David Yearsley
Germany's Lost Organs: When Bigger Was Better

Raymond J. Lawrence
The Politics of Tribulation: Sarah Palin and the Rapture

David Rosen
One Billion Pills Later: Viagra at 10

David Michael Green
Living in Sarah Palin's America

Anthony Papa
Imprisoned Voters and the Elections

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Freddie, Fannie, Daddy, Nanny

Howard Lisnoff
When We Notice the Homeless

John Goekler
Leaving Every Child Behind

Missy Beattie
Impalement

Dave Zirin
Leave Josh Howard Alone

Charles R. Larson
Holden Caulfield, Rest in Peace

Tim Matson
Too Big for His Birches: Woodlot Economics

Susie Day
Attack of the Angry Fetus

Poets' Basement
Corseri, Gibbons, Jenkins and Ford

Website of the Weekend
Dylan & Baez: Deportees

September 19, 2008

Steven T. Banko
McCain's Passion Play

Mike Whitney
The Point of No Return

Michael Hudson
The Dow Jones' Wonderfully Cheesy Addition

William Kaufman
Shattering the Glass-Steagall Act: the Bi-Partisan Origins of the Financial Crisis

Brenda Norrell
The Fall of Lehman Bros.: Blowback for Black Mesa?

Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor
The New Rhetoric of Racism: Why Won't Obama Call It Out?

Clifton Ross
Bolivia: Cleaning Up the Bull Ring

Dave Lindorff
Hang On to Your Wallets: the Government's About to Rescue Us!

Cynthia McKinney
Seize the Time!

Susan Hurlich
Storm Survivors: a Dispatch from Cuba

Michael Donnelly
Let's Hand It All Over to the Democrats (They Helped Create This Mess)

Website of the Day
The Crisis Explained

September 18, 2008

Benjamin Dangl
The Machine Gun and the Meeting Table

Harvey Wasserman
The Senate's Drill, Drill, Drill Scam

Susan Abulhawa
The Lobby Has Spoken: Biden and Israel

Robert Weissman
After the Fall: the Financial Re-Regulatory Agenda

Anne-Marie McManus
McCain's Cinderella: the Fetishization of Sarah Palin

Corey D. B. Walker
The Poverty of 21st Century Progressivism

William S. Lind
Senator O'Bush: Why Obama is Wrong on Iran and Afghanistan

Ron Jacobs
Washington's False Logic of Torture

Dave Lindorff
American and China: Joined at the Hip

Binoy Kampmark
How Damien Hirst Got Away With It

Website of the Day
An Invisible Army

September 17, 2008

Stephen Conn
Palin and the Politics of Big Oil

Forrest Hylton
Reactionary Rampage in Bolivia

Patrick Cockburn
Petraeus Leaves Iraq

Gregory Elich
Inside North Korea

Ralph Nader
How the U.S. Auto Industry Wrecked Itself

Franklin Lamb
The Palestinians of Shabra-Shatila

Pam Martens
The Gang's All Here: Bush, McCain and the Old Iran/Contra Team

Dave Lindorff
The End of the Blue Chip Economy

Peter Morici
The Damage Deepens

Stanley Heller
The Killing of Count Folke Bernadotte

Douglas Valentine
Rambling David Foster Wallace

Website of the Day
Free Cindy McCain!

September 16, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling from Direct Hits

Tiphaine Dickson
Citizen Palin: Why Sarah Palin Quoted Westbrook Pegler

Stan Goff
America is Now Rome: an Open Letter to Christian Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

Uri Avnery
Tzipi's Choice

Michael Winship
Lipstick on Polar Bears

Jeff Halper
Warehousing Palestinians

Patrick Irelan
Bolivia Versus the Empire

Oscar Gonzalez
Who's Dumber? Ike's Refugees or Wall Street's?

Binoy Kampmark
Cheney and His Records

Fatemeh Keshavarz
Muslims are at Peace with You

Sen. Russ Feingold
Restoring the Rule of Law

Website of the Day
The Next Great Rock Band?

September 15, 2008

Mike Whitney
The Tumbrils Roll at Dawn

Peter Morici
Toxic Lehman

Patrick Cockburn
Take Another Look at the Surge

Charles R. Larson
The Maverick Has No Clothes

Jonathan Cook
The Expulsion of Palestinians from Jaffa

Nikolas Kozloff
Racist Rhetoric in Bolivia

Roger Burbach
Morales Confronts the Insurrection: Bolivia and the Echoes of Allende

Helen Redmond
Where's the Health Care Bailout?

David Michael Green
The Democrats Do Poland

David Macaray
The Boeing Strike

Ralph Nader
Remembering Peter Camejo

Website of the Day
The Ballad of Sarah Palin

October 14, 2008

Stump the Voters!

Don't Blink Twice

By Rev. WILLIAM ALBERTS

ABC News anchor Charles Gibson began the first “exclusive,” non-McCain controlled, media contact with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin by asking, “Govenor . . ., can you look the country in the eye and say ‘I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just vice president, but perhaps president of the United States of America?’”   Palin replied, “I do, Charlie . . . I’m ready.”  Gibson continued, “And you didn’t say to yourself, ‘Am I experienced enough?  Am I ready?  Do I know enough about international affairs?  Will I feel comfortable enough on the national stage to do this?’”  Palin looked Gibson in the eye and responded, “I didn’t hesitate, no.  I answered him yes because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink.  So I didn’t blink then even when asked to run as his running mate.”

Governor Palin should have blinked.  When Charles Gibson asked how Alaska’s closeness to Russia contributed to her understanding of that country’s actions, she replied, “They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”2  Palin has never been to Russia.  Nor obtained a passport until last year.  Nor ever met a foreign leader until the McCain campaign arranged such contacts for her at the UN in New York.   The magical quality of seeing conflict-producing Russia as “our next door neighbors [italics added]”  Many Americans do not even know their next door neighbor—let alone those in adjoining neighborhoods.  And the magic of having foreign policy experience rub off on her by reportedly engaging in “motorcade diplomacy, a lightening round of meetings and photo opportunities designed to portray Ms. Palin—who lacks much in the way of foreign policy experience, has traveled abroad little and has not met a foreign head of state before Tuesday—at ease with world leaders.”

Governor Palin should have blinked.  Her second “exclusive” rare, unscripted interview was with CBS anchor Katie Couric, who asked her the ever-threatening follow-up question: “You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience.  What did you mean by that?”  Palin did not bat an eye: “That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada.”  Then came another dangerous specifics-demanding question:  “Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.”  Palin attempted to remain steely-eyed: “Well, it certainly does, because our, our next door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am executive of.”

Katie Couric’s third, obviously dreaded, follow-up question forced a programmed, Governor Palin to ramble even more off script: “Have you ever been involved in any negotiations for example, with the Russians?”  Palin’s unblinking response:

We have trade missions back and forth, we do.  It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia.  As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go?  It’s Alaska.  It’s just right over the border.  It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

Governor Palin should have blinked.  When Katie Couric stated, “You’ve said, quote, ‘John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business.’  Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?” 

Palin answered, “I think that the example you just cited.”

Couric repeated the ever dangerous follow-up question: “But he’s been in Congress for 25 years.  He’s been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee.  And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.”

Palin’s primed response: “He’s also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party.  Trying to get people to understand what he’s been talking about- the need to reform government.”

Couric persisted with the same threatening question: “But can you give me any other concrete examples?  Because I know you said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action.”  And for emphasis, Couric repeated, “Can you give me any other examples in his 25 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?”

An evasive Palin veered to the “right”:  “I can give you examples of things John McCain has done that have shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities.  And that is what America needs today.

Couric would not let her hide behind generality: “I’m just going to ask you one more time—not to belabor the point.  Specific examples of in his 25 years of pushing for more regulation.”  A cornered Palin responded, “I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring them to you.”

Governor Palin should have blinked.  When Katic Couric asked Palin what other Supreme Court decisions she disagrees with besides “Roe v. Wade,” Palin fudged, “Well, let’s see.  There’s, of course in the great history of America there have been rulings, that’s never going to be absolute consensus by every American.  And there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there.  So you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but . . .” Couric asked for specifics: “Can you think of any.”  Palin’s jumbled response:

Well I could think of . . . any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level.  Maybe I could take issue with.  But, you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as vice president, if I’m so privileged to serve, wouldn’t be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.

Governor Palin should have blinked.  The smallness of her world was exposed when Katie Couric asked, “And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?”  Palin replied, “I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.”  Couric followed up, “What, specifically?”  Palin answered, “Um… all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.”  Couric asked again, “Can you name a few?”  Palin side-stepped: “I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too.”  Palin then went of on a defensive tangent:

Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’  Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

Governor Palin should have blinked.  Her October 2nd debate with Senator Joe Biden reveals that she has read little about foreign affairs in newspapers and magazines.  She disclosed her ignorance:

Now Barack Obama had said that all we’re doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians.  And such a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment, again, hurts our cause.  That’s not what we’re doing there.  We’re fighting terrorists and we’re securing democracy, and we’re building schools for children there . . .

If Governor Palin had read “all of them” newspapers and magazines, she would not have made such a “reckless, untrue” criticism of Senator Obama.  All she had to do was read the headlines of numerous newspaper accounts of US airstrikes killing Afghan civilians.  To name just a few: the Los Angeles Times’ “Does Killing Afghan Civilians Keep Us Safe?”; The New York Times’ “U.S. Killed 90 in Afghan Village, Including 60 Children, U.N. Finds”; Reuters’ “Fresh anti-US protest over Afghan civilian deaths”; TIMES ON LINE’s “Afghan inquiry into American bombing of ‘wedding party’”;  the AP’s “Videos Show Dead Afghan Children After US Raid.”;  and The Washington Post’s “Coalition Airstrike Kills Afghan Family.”

If Governor Palin had chosen to read the many accounts of “precision” US airstrikes that have wantonly killed countless Afghan civilians, she might have blinked at the Los Angeles Times’ story:

Not surprisingly, civilian casualties infuriate Afghans. . . . A report last September from the United Nations concluded that Western airstrikes were among the chief inspirations for suicide attackers within the country and that they engendered resentment against both the Afghan government and Western forces.  The number of suicide attacks in Afghanistant went up six times from 2005 to 2006, to 136, and Taliban insurgents carried out more than 140 suicide bombings in Afghanistan in 2007.

The latest US intelligence report on Afghanistan should be enough to finally make Republican vice president candidate Palin blink.  The report “concludes that Afghanistan is in a ‘downward spiral’ and cast serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban’s influence there, according to American officials familiar with the document.”  The causes: “The rampant corruption within the government of President Hamid Karzai” and “an increase in violence from militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan.”

Governor Palin’s recitations in her debate with Senator Biden reveal she has the same speech writers as President Bush: “But again, with some of these dictators who hate America and hate what we stand for, with our freedoms, our democracy, our tolerance, our respect for women’s rights, those who try to destroy what we stand for cannot be met with just sitting down on a presidential level as Barack Obama had said he would be willing to do.  That is beyond bad judgment.  That is dangerous.”

Had she read “all the newspapers and magazines in front of” her, she would have known that the US government’s support of dictators in the Middle East, its military bases and boots in other people’s lands and its imperialistic, energy-grabbing and -controlling, foreign policy, topped off with the Bush administration’s falsely-based, criminal, preemptive invasion and occupation of Iraq, are what America stands for in the world and make it the most hated, not greatest, nation on earth.

Governor Palin should have blinked.  All those follow-up questions in the only two spontaneous, McCain campaign-uncontrolled ABC and CBS interviews.  That was enough to make her programmers prompt her to announce at the debate with Senator Biden, “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear.  But I’m going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.”

“Talk[ing] straight to the American people?”  Not if the McCain campaign can help it.  At the first “town hall meeting” with Senator McCain, a woman in the audience asked her to answer concerns about her lack of experience in foreign policy.  Gov. Palin did not blink.  “I think that I’m prepared. . . . I’ll be ready and I have that confidence . . . If you want specifics with specific policy or country, go ahead and you can ask me, you can even play ‘stump the candidate’ if you want to, but we are ready to serve.”  The news report continued, “The crowd applauded and McCain stepped in [italics added] to highlight Palin’s experience dealing with energy issues in Alaska, command of the Alaska National Guard, and her son’s deployment to Iraq.”  The story ended, “About an hour passed at that point. . . and McCain opted not to take any more questions.  Neither did Palin,who made closing remarks after the Arizona senator had concluded.”  It was actually about playing stump the voters.

Governor Palin should have blinked.  Instead, in her only debate with Senator Biden she was “wired” to wink:

Hey, can I call  you Joe?

Darn right it was the predator lenders. . . .Let’s commit ourselves just every day American people.  Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation . . . band together and say never again.

Reform of government is coming . . . we’re going to forge ahead with putting government back on the side of the people and making sure that our country comes first.. . .  That’s what John McCain has been known for all these years . . . . the maverick . . . has ruffled feathers.

John McCain . .  is so committed to of  putting government back on the side of the people and get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington.

John McCain who knows how to win a war . . . He knows to learn from the mistakes and blunders we have seen in the war in Iraq.

Say it ain’t so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. . . . Now doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future.  You mentioned education and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with you wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her.  Her reward is in heaven, right? . . . I come from a house full of teachers. . . . My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here’s a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School.  You get extra credit for watching the debate.

I like being able to answer the tough questions without the filter, even of the mainstream media kind of telling viewers what they just heard.  I’d rather be able to just speak to the American people like we just did.

From now until the election, one may safely assume that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will only be taking “unfiltered” questions on the run and in controlled settings, between one filtered speech and another on the McCain scripted campaign trail.

It is about image not insight.  It is about novelty not knowledge.  About being folksy not informed.  About veneer not vision.  About slogans not substance.  About playing fool the voters not “stump the candidate.”  It is about winking.  It is about a “Pit Bull with lipstick.”  It is about turning Republicans into rabble-rousers at campaign rallies.  It is about Senator McCain’s unstable judgment.  It will be about the judgment of the American people on election day.

Rev, William E. Alberts, Ph.D. is a hospital chaplain, and a diplomate in the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy.  Both a Unitarian Universalist and a United Methodist minister, he has written research reports, essays and articles on racism, war, politics and religion.  He can be reached at william.alberts@bmc.org.

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