http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122230767702474045.html

Government announces $85 billion loan to save AIG

A must listen piece on the role of oil in the Russia-Georgia Conflict.

Russia Georgia conflict fueled by rush to control Caspian energy resources

Recently, Barack Obama said that he disagreed with the supreme court decision banning capital punishment for child rape. I know this is an emotional issue, but the real question for me is what is Barack's stand on capital punishment. That he disagreed with this decision says to me that he stands with previous administrations that support capital punishment. According to available data we along with China execute more people than any other nations on the earth. If Barack really wants to lead, to take us in a new direction he is going to have to develop some backbone and stand up for important issues instead of figuring out what the audience wants to hear and spouting positions that are done solely to mollify the electorate. These kinds of stands are extremely disappointing and represent "politics as usual". Is he going to exercise moral leadership or is he going to be just another follower of the failed policies of the past?

I was sent this somewhat depressing article from WaPo this morning. I guess we were all hoping that this kind of thing was a thing of the past....

Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause

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One story that hasn't gotten any traction is the question of why it is that Obama supporters are supporting their candidate so well financially and Hillary's supporters are not. There is a strong polarity here and it would be interesting to see what is going on here. Also of interest would be a break down of McCain financial support. He was struggling for a long time until he secured the party's nomination, then the big money poured in. Be interesting to see where it's coming from.

It was discovered recently that the "McCain family Recipes" posted on the McCain website were in fact lifted verbatim from the food network. A tempest in a teapot for sure, but in the aftermath of the flap, a staffer was fired for doing this. Clearly, John and Cindy McCain knew from the start that these were not family recipes because they did not provide them to the staffer in question. So they knew, assuming that they had knowledge of their own web site that the whole thing was a lie to begin with. It is clear that in Washington and in the broader American culture, lying is the business of the day. There is in the whole culture a confusion of truth with PR. The media culture that has honed the art of creating illusion is in fact a culture of lying. Truth has nothing to do with it.
The recent media flap about Hillary and Bill's lie about the events surrounding Hillary's trip to Bosnia underscores again, the pervasiveness of the Culture of Lying. In an AP news article, the headline is "Clinton misstates wife's Bosnia Tale". Note the word "misstates". They didn't say lie. Look around and see how often the word "lie" is used in the media. People "misstate" things, they even "misspeak" at times. They never lie. The word "lie" has been effectively expunged from the national vocabulary. If there is no word for an untruth, there are no untruths and if there are no untruths, there are no truths. It is all a game to see whose propaganda is more effective. The truth is what you can get away with. No wonder the American people have lost their way. We have a culture of national secrecy so extreme, that even the people elected to represent us really have no idea what is really going on. To conceal their own inability to find the truth, they perpetuate the culture of lying.