Weighing credibility

"He's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience based on many, many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years," Palin said.

She said it. Biden has the years and years of experience in the Senate. Palin is "new energy."
I personally would prefer to have someone in office who knows what their doing, has ideas based on years of experience, rather than a "new face." I'm sick of it already, actually.

Funny, it's the same argument with the Presidential nominees. People say McCain has all the experience and Obama is simply a new face. The difference is that Obama has some serious credibility, has serious experience, and knows more about foreign policy than a 2nd grader. He's got Palin beat.

words. confetti.

messy and fussy and blah. lip biting and teeth grinding and coffee drinking and apple eating. anxietized. but not really. all with a hint of optimism and a drop of excitement.

Ominous clouds over Washington.

I'm procrastinating. And reading.

About the bailout:

What a fantastic picture. It tells the story of how most people feel when they think about Washington: scared. What will happen next?

"Nobody wants to have to support this bill, but it's a bill that we believe will avert the crisis that's out there," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters.

But the bill did draw some opposition during the morning debate.

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said the measure would leave a huge burden on taxpayers. "This legislation is giving us a choice between bankrupting our children and bankrupting a few of these big financial institutions on Wall Street that made bad decisions," he said.

Other conservative Republicans argued the bill would be a blow against economic freedom.

Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., said the bill posed a choice between the loss of prosperity in the short term or economic freedom in the long term. He said once the federal government enters the financial market place, it will not leave. "The choice is stark," he said.

But there were also Democrats who opposed the bill for not doing enough to help those who taxpayers facing foreclosure or needing unemployment benefits extended, or taxing Wall Street to pay for the rescue package.

"Like the Iraq war and patriot act, this bill is fueled by fear and haste," said Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.

-CNN.com
Bailout plan rejected
House leaders scramble for support for controversial Wall Street plan
by Chris Isidore
September 29, 2008

And about the candidates:

Mr. McCain defended himself from critics who said he had acted impetuously by returning to Washington last week to work on the bailout proposal, which some said had made a deal more difficult.

“Some people have criticized my decision to put my country first, but I will never, ever be a president who sits on the sidelines when this country faces a crisis,’’ said Mr. McCain. And Mr. McCain, who spent this weekend in Washington working the phones, but did not actually return to Capitol Hill , said: “I know that many of you have noticed, but it’s not my style to simply ‘phone it in.’ ”

-The New York Times
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Caucus - The New York Times Politics Blog
Palin Says She Is Looking Forward To Debate
by Michael Cooper

Also, Sarah Palin is currently at "debate camp" where she is "catching up" on foreign policy issues she's never faced before. You're running for VP and you know less than most Americans about foreign policy?

She debates Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden on Thursday.

Here's a question CNN.com commenter brought up: If McCain were to win the election, are we going to send her to Vice President camp, too? Hand-holding is unacceptable. Sarah Palin is unprepared and, as some people are suggesting, should be removed from the ticket.

Supporting the Republican candidate

And another thing.

Will Bill Clinton ever shut up?

Also, in his column today, Roger Cohen says:

"From an inspirational notion, however flawed in execution, that has buttressed the global spread of liberty, American exceptionalism has morphed into the fortress of those who see themselves threatened by “one-worlders” (read Barack Obama) and who believe it’s more important to know how to dress moose than find Mumbai.
That’s Palinism, a philosophy delivered without a passport and with a view (on a clear day) of Russia.

Behind Palinism lies anger. It’s been growing as America’s relative decline has become more manifest in falling incomes, imploding markets, massive debt and rising new centers of wealth and power from Shanghai to Dubai.

The damn-the-world, God-chose-us rage of that America has sharpened as U.S. exceptionalism has become harder to square with the 21st-century world’s interconnectedness. How exceptional can you be when every major problem you face, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to gas prices, requires joint action?

Very exceptional, insists Palin, and so does John McCain by choosing her. (He has said: “I do believe in American exceptionalism. We are the only nation I know that really is deeply concerned about adhering to the principle that all of us are created equal.”)

America is distinct. Its habits and attitudes with respect to religion, patriotism, voting and the death penalty, for example, differ from much of the rest of the developed world. It is more ideological than other countries, believing still in its manifest destiny. At its noblest, it inspires still.

But, let’s face it, from Baghdad to Bear Stearns the last eight years have been a lesson in the price of exceptionalism run amok.

To persist with a philosophy grounded in America’s separateness, rather than its connectedness, would be devastating at a time when the country faces two wars, a financial collapse unseen since 1929, commodity inflation, a huge transfer of resources to the Middle East, and the imperative to develop new sources of energy.

Enough is enough."

Is it enough to say I agree?

$700 Billion

What would you do with THAT much money?

Just curious.
Leave comments.

Politics, seasons, jobs.

Read about Sarah Palin. Vote for Obama.

Let's do a bit of writing between classes. I have an hour. Go.

I just got an email from Andrea Murray, the managing editor at the Herald Times, telling me I've been accepted for the internship I applied for. I'll be writing for them in the Spring, and I'm so relieved. I'm relieved because lately I've felt that no matter how much I want to write professionally, I don't have the experience to do it or be hired to do it. The Herald Times is a local Bloomington paper, and they focus mainly on local happenings. I'll be a general assignments reporter, which basically means I'll report on whatever they tell me to. Fine with me. I'll roll with the punches.

In other news, fall is approaching slowly but surely. I'm not sure what tips me off, the cooling of the air, the approaching festivals (The Feast of The Hunter's Moon is this weekend), the Halloween decorations that overflow into twelve different aisles at Target, or the warm colors that begin to creep through the veins of all the leaves that hang over Washington street. Whatever it is, it lights a fire in me that warms my core and makes me increasingly anxious and excited. My insides are doing cartwheels in a witch's costume. Fall isn't complete without a few trips to the local Farmer's Market. Stacy and I went on Saturday and I bought yellow tomatoes, red peppers, flowers and a huge bunch of a fragrant plant called Queen Annie. I'd never heard of it, but I'd smelled it before and it is such a sweet, earthy smell and I couldn't resist. Now it hangs in my kitchen, in my bed room, and in my bathroom. It was really nice to spend time with Stacy and laugh with her.

My house is finally complete. All shelves are up, all junk piles have been shoved out of sight (under my bed), and I feel very comfortable. I thought I might feel lonely here, being the only person around. Really, I don't feel much different than I have for the past three years I've been living with roommates. I guess that says a lot for how much interacting I did. I tend to be kept to myself. I really like my space. Sometimes I miss coming home to the sounds of other people's voices, but it doesn't make me any less excited to come home. There is something very satisfying about opening the door and being completely pleased by the aesthetics of what you see in the room, and knowing you did all the decorating.

I haven't been very social lately. Let me rephrase. I haven't been social with the people who matter the most. I've been talking to a lot of new people, mainly because I am responsible for interviewing at least three sources per article I write. I write about three of those a week for the IDS, so I talk to no less than nine new people a week. I'm learning a lot. I'm networking a lot. I'm getting more and more comfortable approaching mere strangers, none of which have ever rudely refused to talk to me (which is reassuring, although I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I find the one person in the crowd who just got fired).

The problem with all the work I've been doing for the paper is how little I've been doing for school. Whoops. The other problem is that I haven't been paying much attention to my spirit. I've done no meditation, I've hardly done any yoga, and I spend a lot of my time very tightly wound, planning, thinking, writing, and racing to the finish line. And then I sleep. I can't let myself stay in that routine or it will kill me.

I leave you with a few pictures of yesterday's downpour. Enjoy.

'Barbies for War!'

My favorite Op-Ed Columnist

More later.