Check, Check-Mate in 2 – McCain is running out of time…

 

By STEVEN R. HURST
“This is a moment of national crisis, and today’s inaction in Congress as well as the angry and hyper-partisan statement released by the McCain campaign are exactly why the American people are disgusted with Washington.” – Obama spokesman, Bill Burton

(AP) Republican John McCain has maneuvered himself into a political dead end and [...]

$700 billion U.S. Congress’ bailout plan

 
Download: $700BN Congressional Bailout Bill
(Reuters) – Leaders in the U.S. Congress have agreed to the underpinnings of a deal that will allow the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in troubled securities to soothe global credit markets. In recent days, congressional negotiators amended the Treasury Department’s original proposal to add new oversight powers [...]

Congressman Al Green, 9th Congressional District, Accused of Sexual Assault

HOUSTON — Houston Congressman Al Green, U.S. Representative from Texas’ 9th congressional district is being accused of sexually assaulting a former employee.
Green’s former district director, Lucinda Daniels, claims she was assaulted at her home in May 2007.
“He sexually assaulted her, she did not give consent,” said Daniels’ attorney, Chip Lewis. “He tried to [...]

Obama’s Economic Dream-team

Download: Paper By Austan Goolsbee
The Obama campaign’s Chief Economic Adviser
By George F. Will
Before they met in person, Obama, running for the Senate in 2004, asked Goolsbee a perplexing question. Obama’s opponent, Alan Keyes, an African American imported from Maryland by Illinois’ shambolic Republican Party, had been asked whether he believed in reparations for slavery. Keyes [...]

Obama Remarks on Economy in Green Bay, Wisconsin

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
The Change We Need in Washington
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Green Bay, Wisconsin
The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led us to a perilous moment.  They said they wanted to let the market run free but instead they let it run wild, and in doing so, they [...]

Lawmakers Say No Blank Check for $700 Billion Financial Bailout

“They don’t seem to have a superplan to deal with this. … We want to see the plan. This is not a done deal yet. But we know there’s crisis, there’s stress, in the financial markets that we haven’t seen in, say, 70 years.” – Republican Senator Richard Shelby

Download: Dept. of Treasury Blueprint
By [...]

Economists Support Obama Over McCain By More Than 2 to 1

A new poll of economists finds Sen. Barack Obama is overwhelmingly preferred over Sen. John McCain by a 66% to 28% margin. The survey consisted of 523 economists who are both U.S. citizens and members of the American Economic Association.

Download: Exec Sum – Presidential Candidates TaxPlan
Download: Presidential Candidates TaxPlan
The List: Obama’s Economists
Economic policy advisors:

Jason Furman [...]

The meltdown – Lehman files for bankruptcy; Merrill is bought by Bank of America; The Fed and major banks expand lending ~ Anxiety lingers…

By David Ellis
(CNNMoney.com) — Wall Street was a vastly different world Monday from what it looked like just days earlier, following one of the most harrowing days in the history of U.S. financial industry.
Just a day earlier, Lehman Brothers, one of the nation’s oldest investment banks, filed for bankruptcy – the largest ever announced in [...]

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes ~ New York Times

The Wasilla City Council, with Sarah Palin, the future governor and vice-presidential nominee, at the center, in a 1998 photograph. Throughout her career, Ms. Palin has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and blurred the line between government and personal grievance.
By JO BECKER, PETER S. GOODMAN and MICHAEL POWELL
WASILLA, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin [...]

Kerry Addresses the Hurdles for Underserved Entrepreneurs

Hearing Focuses on those Hit by Unequal Practices
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, held a hearing today to address the lack of access to credit and venture capital for underserved communities. Businesses in economically depressed inner-city and rural areas, along with minority and women-owned enterprises [...]

Obama Top Aide Says Campaign Will Take Off the Gloves

By Jonathan Allen
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s campaign manager signaled Friday morning that Obama plans to take a tougher tack in combating Republican John McCain in the final 54 days of the battle for the White House. In a caustic memo to reporters, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe writes that the campaign will “respond with speed [...]

A Guide to Palin’s Earmark Requests

“It would obviously be hard to say that here’s 31 earmark requests worth nearly $200 million and earmarks are evil” – Steve Ellis, a spokesman for the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense

By David Nather
By now, the image of Sarah Palin as a fighter of earmarks is central to John McCain’s narrative of why he [...]

Presidential Election 08 straight-talk for small business ~ Taxation

Almost half of small-business owners say they’re worse off than they were three years ago, according to a recent Fortune Small Business/Zogby International poll. One measure that would help all business owners and encourage hiring would be an across-the-board cut in the federal payroll tax, which employers must pay before they earn a cent of [...]

Obama and McCain have big economic differences ~ AP

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER | AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Job No. 1 for the next president? In the minds of an overwhelming number of Americans, it’s fixing what ails the sick economy. What the voters will have to sort out are very different approaches offered by Barack Obama and John McCain.
Both of their fix-up [...]

Analysis: Four things McCain needs to accomplish this week

By Alan Silverleib
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) — Tonight, it starts for real.
After a day of watching updates on Hurricane Gustav and taking care of some mundane procedural affairs, the 39th Republican National Convention will get down to the serious business of politics Tuesday evening in the midst of what may be the most inhospitable climate [...]

Labor Day 08: Focus – Gustav

We are in it – and watching. A satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Gustav as it nears the Louisiana coast at 3:15 a.m. EDT, Sept. 1, 2008. 
Sen. Barack Obama said that he plans to mobilize his huge e-mail list of supporters to volunteer or send [...]