that you've been appointed to be 0's top adviser. He wants a list of the top 10 priorities to handle in his first few months in office. What would you tell him? (FWIW, here's mine.)

1. Stop the 700 billion $$ no strings handout to Wall Street (etc.) and start over with something more resembling Hillary's plan. Help the little people first.

2. Get a new financial aid package to help out, not bail out, the financial disaster with strict limits, regulations, and oversight.

snipped from Anthony Gregory:

Impeachment is too good for this aministration; they and the complicit US media need to be run out of town on a rail. Now that they've got their "forever war" and their greedy hands on all our wallets, I suspect the recent "crisis" will go away. I wonder how much all of this is/was a Neo-Con plot.

http://www.truthout.org/092508S

Finally, the Story of the Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War
Thursday 25 September 2008

by: Norman Solomon, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

it's not too late to skim through Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine," for you are about to experience the latest US version of it first hand. First, create a disaster, (financial system crashing) secondly, scare the hell out of people, then RUSH to solve the "problem" with quick solutions that invariably benefit the wealthy, the corporations, and those in the sitting government while totally screwing the citizens deeply into the ground.

Hang on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride. If you have the time or inclination to protest to your congress critters, you had better do it f a s t.

Protecting Your Vote With Invisible Ink
A new voting system uses the Internet, cryptography, and "magic" ink to ensure that everyone's vote is counted.

by Melissa Lafsky
published online September 4, 2008

Go here to see pictures of the system:
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/oct/04-protecting-your-vote-with-invisible-ink

"Voting machines are one of the few areas where technology has decidedly taken us a step backward. The electronic voting ma­chines that one-third of American voters will be using in November are no more reliable than your home computer.

Have they turned into the Brown Shirt arm of the politicl parties?

Drop the Charges Against Independent Journalists
You won’t hear much about it in the tightly scripted primetime broadcasts from St. Paul, but local law enforcement is rounding up reporters in an aggressive -- and sometimes violent -- sweep outside the Republican National Convention. Their crime: committing journalism.
Craig Aaron, The Hill's Congress Blog

SPJ Concerned over RNC and DNC Arrests

From The Confluence

Archie Biden
Posted on August 23, 2008 by garychapelhill

Stifle it!!! Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court because Joe Biden is a coward. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Biden allowed Republicans to hijack the Thomas confirmation hearings. He watched passively while the nominee’s perjury was overshadowed by vicious right wing attacks upon Dr. Anita Hill. Witnesses who were prepared to substantiate Hill’s allegations of professional misconduct against Thomas were not summoned because Biden’s top priority was mollifying his reactionary colleagues.

Talking point memo from US Chamber of Commerce:

"Meet and defeat Organized Labor’s long-term activist agenda:

ü The U.S. Chamber and its affiliates will raise and spend more than $40 million in this election cycle. Protecting the ability of the Minority to filibuster in the Senate will be critical to all union-related issues.

Change Germans Can’t Believe In
http://www.nytimes.com:80/2008/07/26/opinion/26neiman.html?ex=1217822400&en=f684422f27a3d3dc&ei=5070&emc=eta1

By SUSAN NEIMAN
Published: July 26, 2008
Berlin

"WITH gestures that ranged from a wink to a sneer, most anyone you met here this week volunteered the view that Barack Obama’s visit to Europe caused unprecedented frenzy. But it’s been hard for me to find a European, aside from two Harvard-educated friends in Paris, who confessed to excitement — not just about the visit, but the prospect of an Obama presidency.