Trick or Treat!

After deciding that I was feeling well enough to get back to my life Wednesday morning, I had a terrible relapse of whatever is ailing me. I am back resting in bed and if I felt a little better I would go to the doctor. I remain convinced that I am almost over this flu or virus, but in the meantime I have been having a close relationship with my 3-ply Kleenex box. Our beautifully carved pumpkins have been all eaten up by the squirrels, and our favorite Halloween decoration was blown over by the strong winds over the weekend.

I am going to have to power myself out of bed this afternoon, otherwise the children will have to have fruit leather for treats, about the only thing around the house. That would be pretty disappointing for them. I think that a Hershey or Snickers bar or some Cheetos would be more delicious. One year, I was able to get some little bags of popcorn, and that was a great favorite! Of course, the days are long gone when a homemade treat was acceptable.

It's always impossible to tell how many trick-or-treaters will show up. Some years it is just a couple; other years, the bell doesn't stop ringing. The more the merrier, I always say, as for me there are never enough trick or treaters.

Trick or Treat: Spreading the Wealth

Illinois' Senator -- The Timely Barack Obama

And you wonder why I have often referred to Barack Obama as Illinois' Senator-in-Absentia?

Carving Pumpkins and Getting Sick

We had fun carving pumpkins on Saturday night, figuring to get a head start on Halloween. We put them outside, but that was not a good idea. The squirrels decided that they are really delicious, and stole the entire top of one, and chewed out the teeth of another. It’s lucky we took some pictures, so we could remember them. They look pretty funny, and we are not in good shape for Halloween at all.

No sooner did my family decide that stress over the election was having such a negative effect on me that I should not watch the news, I came down with a terrible illness that has confined me to bed for 3 days. I am pretty bored, but not bored enough to motivate myself out of bed, and this didn't help, nor did this.

Obama's Deceit

While Barack Obama was playing hide-and- seek during his childhood in Indonesia, I was in Chicago. Beginning with the death of Martin Luther King in April, 1968 through the Days of Rage in October of the next year, Chicago was home to a great deal of civil unrest. I can't speak for others, but the fact that my very own city could be a very dangerous place, scared me and scarred me.

I found myself waking up this morning remembering the black pall of low-hanging smoke that I saw hanging over the entire South Side of the city that April in the wake of dozens of deliberate acts of arson, and I felt sick to my stomach. When I see Sen. Obama making light of the actions of people such as Bill Ayres who made my life so very uncomfortable, I know any compassion that he has extends only to the few. With that preface, I wanted you point you to an article, entitled Messianic Pretensions by David Warren. A few excerpts are below; do read the whole thing.

"McCain is a man of action and accomplishment, Obama a man of "charisma" and pretty words, whose only real accomplishment has been his remarkable self-advancement. And Obama's policy outlook, so far as it can be discerned from the usual electoral pronouncements, consists of the same snake oil the pre-Clinton Democrats had been selling continuously since they chained the Great Society to America's ankle: that is, a constantly expanding Nanny State. I am hardly reassured by Obama's last-lap rhetorical reassurances: you don't send a man to Washington with a trillion dollars of candy-shop promises on medicare, education, government job-creation, "spreading the wealth" -- especially when the economy has just tanked.

"I wish that were the worst I could say about the man, who has survived nearly two years of campaigning for President without serious cross-examination from either the media or his media-chastened opponents.

"Obama has presented himself from the start as a messianic, "transformational" leader -- and thus played deceitfully with ideas that belong to religion and not politics."

The Lighter Side of a Sarah Palin Rally

People love to see Sarah Palin, and thousands are showing up at her rallies. While some people would have you believe that her supporters are a grim-eyed lot, BET and CNN comic star D.L. Hughley proves that view wrong when he takes a microphone and a camera to a Sarah Palin event. A light hearted video, just what the doctor ordered for a Saturday afternoon for an antidote to fretting about the election.

One Million Women: Tele Town Hall for Sarah Palin!

OMG, a million women on the phone at once? While we personally find the telephone a little old tech, it seems very new tech to put a million people on the phone at once to talk about Sarah Palin. Tomorrow, Saturday, October 25 from 10AM - 12 noon CST, one million women in battleground states will be called with an invitation to participate in a tele town hall with a group of distinguished women leaders. Don't sit by the phone waiting for it to ring, however; Illinois isn't a battleground state. But don't feel badly, you can listen to the call in real time at the Townhall blog.

In case you miss the call, or just want to listen a little later, Team Sarah will post the audio file online.

h/t to the Backyard Conservative, who sent an email asking to get the word out.

Voting for President: McCain the Stalwart

"'Stop!' I shall have no part of this motley crew. I will go down with the McCain ship. I'd rather lose an election than lose my bearings.

"I'll have no truck with the phony case ginned up to rationalize voting for the most liberal and inexperienced presidential nominee in living memory.

"McCain the 'erratic' is a cheap Obama talking point. The 40-year record testifies to McCain the stalwart.

"Who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m.? A man who's been cramming on these issues for the last year, who's never had to make an executive decision affecting so much as a city, let alone the world? A foreign policy novice instinctively inclined to the flabbiest, most vaporous multilateralism (e.g., the Berlin Wall came down because of 'a world that stands as one'), and who refers to the most deliberate act of war since Pearl Harbor as "the tragedy of 9/11," a term more appropriate for a bus accident?"

More brilliance from Charles Krauthammer on "Why I'm voting for McCain." The ship, pictured above, is the USS Constitution, which is moored not far from the site of the Boston Tea Party, an act of civil disobedience by American patriots who knew the nightmare of a government that would not leave them alone.

For some very serious talk about what an Obama presidency could do to America as we know it, el rider is sounding the alarm on his Flying Debris blog, including a post on the markets and one about the diabolical plan of the Weather Underground (where Obama associate Bill Ayres started his public life) that will make your hair stand on end.

God Bless America and the American voter!

Happy Second Birthday Amillia Taylor!

Happy Birthday to Amillia Taylor! It's her second, and we hope that she and her family are doing well. Hundreds of well wishers have come to this blog over the past year seeking further information from a couple of posts that we did about her following her very early birth and miraculous survival, (a crack medical team greatly helped) and on her first birthday.

Unfortunately, we have no update. I have searched diligently for any news of Amillia--now a tot-- and sent emails, but have learned nothing. Amillia's mom, Sonja Taylor, stated last year that she wanted Amillia to have a private life. It appears she has succeeded, and is giving her child a normal upbringing out of the glare of publicity. While we might feel a little disappointed to have no news, a mom who cares more about her child than public adulation is a blessing indeed.

The IBD/TIPP Poll: The Audacity of Hope

Click on the picture to the left to so that you can read the audacious findings from the IBD/TIPP poll. While it's no surprise that 85 % of Liberals back Obama, of interest is that 62% of people who don't display the flag back Sen. Obama, while among those who do display the flag only 38% choose Obama.

Surprise! Obama Voters Support McCain Policies, Gov. Palin

You will love these brief interviews of New Yorkers! Radio host Howard Stern asked voters who they would be supporting in the upcoming Presidential election, and the voters answered “Obama!” Stern then asked about the candidate’s policies, cleverly substituting the views of John McCain for those of Barack Obama. Turns out McCain policies played very well in New York. Sarah Palin did well, too; she’s okay as Barack’s Vice-President in these voters’ books! Very amusing, with some real food for thought.

Ethnically Challenged: Never Put Matzoh in the Toaster Oven

My mother used to like to toast large shredded wheat biscuits under the broiler with some butter. I don't remember whether she put the butter on first or later, but I do remember how many times she opened the broiler and the shredded wheat was totally on fire, competing with the fireplace for visual effects. Learning my lesson well, I have never toasted shredded wheat, although sometimes I yearn--and only briefly-- for that distinctive taste which can best be described as a huge, buttery Triscuit.

Today, in need of bread, I decided that I simply could toast some of that whole wheat matzoh that was in the cupboard, and the first little piece went fine. The second batch did not go so well. I looked over, my little toaster oven looked like one of those fireplaces with glass doors. Vast amounts of smoke were pouring around the door and the entire matzoh was on fire! What must have been only a few seconds seemed like an eternity until I unplugged the toaster and all the matzoh was burned up.

I opened the windows and turned on the kitchen fan, and pretty soon the smoke was gone, but I remain a little shaken. I'll bet if I had grown up with matzoh rather than shredded wheat, I would have known never to toast matzoh. If you have any matzoh around your house that lacks crispness, definately just put it in the oven on a cookie sheet. While I would like to put this incident behind me, the only hope of that is buying a new toaster oven. It looks pretty ugly now, its pristine whiteness all smokey and burned. It was not a good morning, and I never did get any toast.

Obama's Convenient Flip-Flop on Campaign Financing

In today's Los Angeles Times, Dan Morain writes

"A year ago, before attaining front-runner status, Obama signed a pledge to the group Common Cause in which he vowed to push for "full public funding for qualified candidates who agree to spending limits and to stop accepting private contributions."

'''I will make passage of such legislation one of the priorities in my campaign and in my presidency if elected,' Obama told the group. But he decided to forgo public financing once he realized that he could amass far more through Internet donations than McCain."

As Richard Baehr notes in today's excellent article on the American Thinker,

"How a candidate runs his campaign is an important indicator of the character of the man or woman we may elect. In the case of Obama, the evidence is that he is a very skillful, ambitious, and driven candidate, and also a very, very cynical and dishonest one. What Obama says means very little. He is after all a clever lawyer. We have had a recent experience with a very smart lawyer as President and how he parsed words. In Obama's case, the lies have been pretty blatant, despite the best spinning efforts by the campaign. "

I couldn't have said it better.

Our Obligatory "Joe the Plumber" Post

Here's my "Joe the Plumber" post, proving that I can be cool, in touch, and incredibly boring all at once! In a bizarre development, however, el rider over at Flying Debris warns us that Obama's campaign doesn't get the difference between income earned in a business and capital gains. That is pretty ignorant, even though Obama was boasting at the debate about the better new friends he is now hanging around with who might be willing to fill him in. I suppose that everyone has to weigh in on "Joe the Plumber," but trying to "find the right crowd" of friends at 44 is pathetic.

Why the Democrats Must Replace Dan Seals: Lord Haw-Haw Requests Your Vote

Remember Lord Haw-Haw? I didn't figure you did; I don't remember Lord Haw-Haw either. The greatest generation knew precisely who he was, a German propaganda operative working to destroy the spirit and soul of troops fighting against the Nazi scourge. Lord Haw-Haw belongs to an earlier day, when the only electronic medium was radio and propaganda efforts were easy to identify.

Caleb Davis is the new star of a political ad on television for Dan Seals. In it, he identifies himself--never by name--as a Iraqi veteran. In the ad he makes allegations about Mark Kirk that would have you believe that supporting the a vote for Kirk is a vote against not only America's soldiers but America itself. Kirk, one of only two members of Congress serving as a drilling reservist, and has a long history of supporting veterans.

War has its casualties and its only victims are not only those who are injured, maimed or killed. It takes a terrible emotional and mental toll on some of its participants, and that is how I choose to see Caleb Davis, who from all evidence honorably served the American cause in Iraq through his discharge from service. For some time now, Mr. Davis--a resident of Peoria--has been active with a group who claims that 9/11 was an inside job by the US government who sought to drum up public support for a war in the middle east. Odd as this may seem, this view is held widely throughout the middle east, even among the intelligent and the educated. But my problem with Mr. Davis is not that he is wrong or that he has cast himself into a bad lot. No one would want to deny Mr. Davis' free speech, a right to which Mr. Davis arguably was willing to give his life.

For a number of years I have followed this "inside job" theory, read the arguments and seen the videos, many of which a patriotic American would find sickening. My conclusion is that this is classic enemy propaganda, and much of it is done extremely well. It is not surprising that among those who hate or distrust the US government this theory has found a happy home.

It is time for Democrats and Republicans to join together to call for Mr. Seals' immediate replacement in the 10th District race. Propagating enemy propaganda is not suitable behavior for a candidate for Congress, nor should it be wearing the label of a mainstream political party.

2008 CBA Cook County Judicial Retention / Judical Evaluation is Complete!

A number of visitors have been here looking for the 2008 Cook County judicial evaluations and recommendations on judicial retention for Chicago and the suburbs. Finally we can report that the Chicago Bar Association has posted the results online. There is a comprehensive guide here, but in the event you simply want no explanation, just a sheet you can print out and take to the polls with you, that is available, too.

UPDATE - October 24, 2008: An anonymous commenter was kind enough to stop by and leave a link to http://www.voteforjudges.org/, with judicial recommendation from a number of other bar associations in the Chicago area who also rank judges, including the the Alliance of Bar Associations recommendations. If you have a particular interest in niche recommendations, including the Chicago Council of Lawyers (left-leaning but highly respectable with an interest in rights of the accused), Decalogue Society (Jewish Lawyers), and several other groups whose names are self-explanatory, you might want to see those recommendations as well.

We would also note that the vast number of judges fared very well in their reviews, the result of years of work by Cook County lawyers and the voters who are dedicated to justice for all. The Wilmette blog remains strongly opposed to so-called "merit selection of judges" schemes, which have been floated from time-to-time by both political parties. "Merit selection" is a political appointment wolf dressed in sheep's clothing. We do believe that being accountable to the voting public is the best oversight of judicial power.

Happy Columbus Day!

Remember Christopher Columbus? It's his day today. Poor fellow has fallen so out of favor they don't even have Columbus Day sales at the stores anymore. Here's a link to some coloring pages for Columbus Day. If you eat at work, print them out and put them in your briefcase along with some crayons. Take them to lunch with you on Monday and start coloring. Then, if anyone wants to discuss politics, the economy, or 401K's just look up and say "Can't you see I'm busy?" By midafternoon, several people will probably stop by your office and ask how you are feeling. If you're lucky, maybe they will suggest that you go home early.

If you have strength enough to do more than color, the History Channel has some good online videos. But what? You are up to something more challenging? How about some translated letters of Chistopher Columbus? With both the Spanish and English it makes pretty interesting reading, but do start on page one and not the introduction--it's 143 pages!

He's Back! Dan Seals on the Bailout:"You Bet I Do!"

I haven't had much to say about Dan Seals of late, and it's no wonder. Not only has Congressional candidate Dan Seals been quiet, he remains completely invisible in Wilmette, the suburb where he says he lives. To his credit, he doesn't live too far from the district in which he's running. That is, assuming he lives in Wilmette at all. A friend tells me that at the house where he supposedly lives there isn't one of those "Seals for Congress" signs on the lawn, and there wasn't one last time he ran, either. Smell a rat?

Dan Seals has one of those job titles that is popular to use on the North Shore when someone doesn't have a day job, "consultant." Well, he did call himself a professor for a while, but found himself in a little hot water when that turned out to be something like 6 or 8 night school classes (taught as an instructor) where he distinguised himself by inviting the felon Dan Rostenkowski over to his class to give him a little something in an envelope. Go Chicago!

You will love this video where Dan Seals discusses the bailout with the Tribune! More power to you if you can figure out where Seals stands. Perhaps this might be called "preserving one's options?" Of course, like so many who take a few years off from life (Seals has been running for the 10th Congressional seat pretty much non-stop for 4 years now), he seems a bit challenged by basic life skills, like answering a straightforward question. Not surprising. We all know people who don't bother having a job and what that does to maturity levels. While you might think this is another rich North Suburban guy enjoying his leisure while looking for a gig in DC, Seals says he doesn't live in the district beccause it costs too much. While Seals has paid himself from his campaign funds, I guess it didn't do the trick.

H/t to Team America, whose posted the video first.

It's Ralph Nader and Obama Girl Again!

If you found last week's debate boring, support opening the debates! Talking points don't teach us anything new, and new ideas would be helpful.

We would remind our readers that Ralph Nader is not in favor of the bailout, and his anti- corporation stance in light of the AIG spa caper suddenly makes some sense.

Keeping Our Sunny Dispositions

Sometimes in mid January we find ourselves in a bit of a winter slump; it's cold, snowy, and hibernation seems quite inviting. We admit that at such times we pop over to the drugstore and buy some St. John's wort which usually does the trick to beat the winter blues. While it might just be the Placebo Effect, we're not fussy why it seems to work.

With the economic news so bad of late, we all know people who are suffering, if only psychologically. Who knows if we might be next to let the bad economic news interfere with a sunny outlook? Another study on the effectiveness of St. John's Wort is in the news. We are going to check out our supply just in case.

Presto! Change-o! It's Magic! Obama Pulls Bin Laden out of the Hat!

"And now, America, we introduce the Great Obama! The world's most gifted political magician! A thing of wonder. A thing of awe. Just watch him defy politics, economics, even gravity! (And hold your applause until the end, please.) . . .

"You might have even heard that much of today's financial mess tracks to loose money policy, or Fannie and Freddie excesses. Our magician will show the fault was instead with our failure to clamp down on innovation and risk-taking, and will fix this with new, all-encompassing rules. Presto!"

Click here to read Kimberly Strassel's article on "Obama's Magic" at the Wall Street Journal.

Wildlife Sighting on Glenview Road

Last night we decided to take a break from a living room painting project, politics, government bailouts, and waning 401K’s and headed over to Hackney’s for dinner, where forgettable meals somehow end up being very fun. One of our younger family members had a great deal of merriment mimicking the Dan Seals ad (the one that plays over and over and that I always think is a Mark Kirk ad when I start to see it), answering a number of questions with “You bet I do!”

We returned to Wilmette via Glenview Rd and guess what we saw? A beautiful fox crossed directly in front of our car right at the Glenview-Wilmette border where the train tracks used to be! We agreed that there was no doubt that it was a fox, as the headlights of an oncoming car illuminated it perfectly! It was sleek and healthy looking with a white tip on its tail and was moving north very quickly, as if on a mission.

I looked up some information on foxes and found that they can be very beneficial as they “displace predators such as coyotes.” I was happy to read that, as I received an email alert from the Wilmette police not long ago about a problem coyote. I also found a number of recordings of sounds that foxes make, which you might find interesting if you hear wild animals at night when the windows are open. I also learned that a fox may have a territory as large as 19 square miles.This fox may have been just passing through and we were very lucky to spot him. After a very aggrevating couple of weeks in the news, I took this a good sign, indeed.

The Debate: Obama's Business Ignorance Noteworthy

I listened to the debate last night which held no surprises. Two statements by Sen. Obama left me scratching my head, however. I was amazed by the ignorance he showed about small business. Two items, taken directly from the transcript:

Obama: Oliver, first, let me tell you what's in the rescue package for you. Right now, the credit markets are frozen up and what that means, as a practical matter, is that small businesses and some large businesses just can't get loans.

If they can't get a loan, that means that they can't make payroll.

and

Obama: Now, Sen. McCain talks about small businesses. Only a few percent of small businesses make more than $250,000 a year. So the vast majority of small businesses would get a tax cut under my plan.

First, with some exceptions, very few businesses, and in particular small businesses, can remain going concerns if they have to borrow to make payroll. If you aren't bringing money in the door to pay the employees, you are in trouble, big time. That is fundamental. Even at the height of the dot.com craze, money for payroll came from working capital--not loans--raised through taking a company public (or from angels or investment banks who believed that given some time, a viable product would be developed.)

Second, in 2006, Salary.com reported that the average small business owner compensation was $258,400. We would note that this historical compensation is more than what Barack Obama thinks the average small business makes per year, and I admit that I was amazed that Obama was so out of touch. The traditional definition of a small business as one with fewer than 500 employees is still pretty much the definition adopted by the Small Business Administration.

But all this aside, the Obama campaign has several initiatives that it has announced for small business. We are left wondering just what definition is the campaign using? Obviously, something very different from any traditional definition.

Roots of the Subprime Meltdown

"In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. . . .

"Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

"In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans. . . .

"In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's."

From the New York Times, September 30, 1999.

H/t to MB, who sent the article via email

You might also want to see A Rolling Loan Gathers No Loss for how the problem compounded.

Further Evidence of the Bizarreness of the Obama Personality Cult

How bizzare is this Youtube video? If you think that the personality cult surrounding Barack Obama has simply gone too far, this could have you shaking your head. Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Obama supporters are attending Obama camps and learning how to "get in your face" to ensure your vote for The One, learning tactics taught by the father of community organizing , Saul "the end justifies the means" Alinsky. There isn't any evidence that they are learning these paramilitary displays of support, but this is just downright strange. It is reported that the Dean of the school where this was filmed said--when asked about the video--"What's the main concern? Because I want to understand where you're coming from so that I can figure out how to handle this."

If this video is missing by the time you read this post, it won't be surprising. The Obama campaign has routinely spent enormous amount of time to scrub anything on the Internet that might present the campaign in a less than favorable light. The students are reported to be students at the Urban Community Leadership Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, who Drudge characterizes as "pledging allegiance" to Barack Obama. It is futher reported that this drill is no longer being done at the school due to concerns that the organizer was pushing a personal political agenda. You think?

UPDATE October 9, 2008: Just as I predicted, the video is missing with the terse comment, "This video has been removed by the user. "

Praying for a Cubs Victory, Chicago Style

Will you take a moment today to pray for the Sikhs and Muslims? They need your help, and its really important that their prayers are heard. Many, if not most, religious Protestants, Catholics, and Jews may be squeamish about praying for local sports teams, seeming to depend more on talk of luck and billy goats than Divine Providence. Luckily, in ethnically diverse Chicago the Muslims and Sikhs are not so shy. They are taking a positive approach, entreating The Almighty for victory for the Cubs. In Palatine, the Sikhs have beeing praying for the Cubs since yesterday, and one hundred Muslims have been called to pray for victory this afternoon at Wrigley Field. ABC's Channel 7 has the story.

The Election is not Over and Obama has not Won

Barack Obama's campaign team wants you to think that the election is in the bag for The One and has its bloggers out in force announcing that the election is over, it's Barry, hands down, don't even question it. But not so quick. William Kristol asks, Can McCain and Palin catch up? His answer, "Of course!" In an article in the Weekly Standard Kristol writes:

Despair is what the Obama campaign is hoping and working for. If a campaign can convince supporters of the other candidate that the race is effectively over, the enthusiasm and volunteer efforts drop off--as does, ultimately, their turnout on Election Day. Just as important, undecided and loosely affiliated voters become persuaded there's no real contest and lose any incentive to look closely at the candidates. This explains the efforts of the Obama campaign--aided by a colluding media--to sell the notion that the race is over, that McCain supporters should give up, and undecided voters should tune out.

Character is a legitimate issue. Obama hasn't shown much in the way of leadership or political courage, and he's consorted with dubious figures. It's fair to ask whether Barack Obama is personally trustworthy enough to be president, and the McCain campaign shouldn't be intimidated from going there.

Obama and Biden are orthodox liberals. They're for raising taxes, federally funding abortions, naming activist judges, and losing wars.

Obama and Biden are far left of the average American voter, who shouldn't be sucked in by the mainstream media's campaign against Main Street's good common sense. But don't think it's too late to do anything. Click here for information about how to register to vote in Cook County, Illinois. If you are looking how to register to vote right here in Wilmette, click here. And do make sure that the rest of your family is registered, too.

Americans are the Winners in the Palin Biden Debate

Last night I dug my moose-hide loafers out of the closet, popped on some elephant jewelry and a campaign button, and headed over to a Palin Biden Debate party. It was a large gathering of mostly women, and everybody was hoping that Sarah Palin would get her groove back after a couple of really bad interviews. We weren’t disappointed. Sarah Palin showed herself to be a capable running mate and an articulate spokesperson for John McCain. Joe Biden spent his time talking the Democrat talk, showing the diplomacy and polish one would expect from his long years in the nation’s most prestigious legislative body. After the debate, Sen. Biden and Gov. Palin seemed to enjoy meeting each other and chatting, and I was left with the impression that both these candidates not only like people but were also curious about each other. Moderator Gwen Ifill, after being soundly chastised for a conflict of interest with a book that is about to be published, was on her best behavior as well. All in all, there were good feelings all round, reminding us that politics can be both civilized and respectful while articulating opposing viewpoints.

Everyone at the party was delighted that Gov. Palin did so well, including me. Due to the good behavior of both candidates, I was reminded that politics should be the art of solving our countries problems despite opposing viewpoints, and not a way of dividing the people, whether it be along race, class, or gender lines, or any other way that Americans can be characterized for personal political gain.

Both Vice-Presidential candidates have track records of bi-partisan cooperation, and there is a lot Washington could learn from their civility and good will. When people can debate in an atmosphere of respect and dignity, the real winner is not either of the participants, but our Country and the American people.

Gwen Ifill Named Winner of 2008 Dan Rather Integrity in Journalism Award

Wilmette is pleased to announce that it has awarded the 2008 "Dan Rather Integrity in Journalism" Award to Gwen Ifill of PBS. It was the announcement of Ifill's new book on the 2008 Presidential Election and the role of the Democratic contender, which will appear on Inauguration Day 2009, which made the choice clear to the judges who also mentioned that the decision was made easier when coupled with the fact that Ifill failed to mention her upcoming book when accepting the spot as moderator of tonight's Vice Presidential Debate.

The award does not carry a cash prize.

Bailout Thought for the Day

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
--James Madison

Hope and Change is Not Setting Up Low Income Families to Fail

It was nearly two years ago when we started banging the drum about the subprime mortgage mess with a comprehensive report from the Center for Responsible Lending. In March, we linked to the sad but true Subprime Primer, which explains in easy-to-understand terms why banks are failing. Today I found the above video at Team America's Blog. It is so important that I am posting the video here. It ties together the role of certain Democrats and bad government regulation and how Main Street banks became predatory lenders to comply with the law. The video is important and I hope you will take the time to see it.