“Free-market capitalism” is a windmill not worth tilting toward. When profiteers are left to their own devices unfettered, their inherent commitment to profit as the highest value will lead to the corruption and eventual collapse we are experiencing right now.

It is the lack of governmental (citizen-driven, hopefully) oversight and accountability that allowed for the garbage loans to flourish. The banks that dove into that pit should have just been allowed to fail, their assets auctioned off to the banks that followed wiser paths and the government backing up the insurance that covered the investors. We would be moving forward now instead of tossing good money after bad to continue to attempt to bail out floundering banks. Let them fail!

Perhaps I was expecting too much from them. Limbaugh, Letterman, Rhodes, and O’Riley are all entertainers, not objective journalists.

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your man’s victory. Although I didn’t vote for him and didn’t want him to win, he and Sen. McCain fought a good fight, at least by political standards.

~~~

Dear Mikael,

Finally, the cold hard truth is coming out: Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Bush Justice Department fired people for blatantly partisan purposes – breaking the law and injecting politics into our justice system. (A system which can only function in a democracy when it is free from partisan corruption.)

It is sad that none of us are the least bit surprised. This week, Glenn Fine, the Inspector General, assigned to investigate the politicization of the Justice Department released a critically important 392 page report.

In it, he stated they found “significant evidence that political partisan considerations were an important factor in the removal of several of the U.S. attorneys.” Remember, this report comes from Bush’s own Justice Department investigation. Imagine the scathing report that would come from a fully nonpartisan source.

The report also stated Alberto Gonzales, his chief of staff Kyle Sampson, and his deputy Paul McNulty failed “to provide accurate and truthful statements about the removals and their role in the process.” This is a polite way to say that Gonzales and Sampson lied to investigators. This is unacceptable, and Gonzales, Sampson, and Rove should face criminal charges for this this behavior.

The report also stated that one of the US attorneys, David Iglesias, was removed “without any inquiry into his handling of the cases.”

The report is so damning of Alberto Gonzales, Rove, Miers, and others that the current Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, has appointed a Special Prosecutor to investigate and, if warranted, issue criminal charges.

Whether this is the beginning of real accountability remains to be seen, but it is my mission to try to make sure Congress does not abdicate its responsibility to do its own investigations.

~~~

Robert Wexler is an American hero.

I meant the compliment. There are so many abusive, ranting, nonsensical idealogues online pretending they can make sense out of national politics and I have gotten very short on patience with them.

It is refreshing to dialogue over simple differences of opinion like adults.

I am actually against abortion in almost all cases, but feel that ultimately it will always be up to the woman who is pregnant. There is nothing anyone can do to manipulate her choices. The best way to prevent abortion is through wide open sex education and the truth about what an abortion does – ending a life separate from the mother, full access to birth control and creating a culture that respects and tends to the needs of single Moms so that they know they have options.

I looked it up while writing last night and it was my understanding that the “Morning After Pill” actually does prevent conception, it doesn’t end a life. Here is what I found:

http://www.morningafterpill.org/

After reading some more today, it seems that sometime contraception is achieved before a pregnancy and sometimes a fertilized egg is killed, so she and I and you are all a bit off the mark. I hope to learn more. Does this make sense to you?:

http://www.morningafterpill.org/how-does-it-work.html

Katie Couric handled Palin like a cupcake. She couldn’t have been more gentle, yet professional. Palin simply dodged any issue she didn’t want to talk about, didn’t understand or knew her answers wouldn’t play well. It was embarrassing.

I would have a difficult time writing a positive article about Obama and Biden. I prefer them to McCain/Palin by a long shot, but am still very disappointed with Obama’s corporate coziness and general lack of backbone when it comes to strong choices on critical issues.