© Misty Pfeil | Dreamstime.com Words fail me. But the electorate didn’t. It’s it for now. Thanks, –MUDGE Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,presidential election,44th President of the United States Posted in Obama, Presidential election   Tagged: 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, Presidential election    Read Full Story

© Associated Press photo by Byron Rollins We’ve written before about our hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. Taken most seriously in its home town. But proud of its Republican tradition. Its first editor of any distinction, Joseph Medill, was influential in winning the presidency for Abraham Lincoln. That Republican heritage caused it to be newspaper non grata in my grandparents’ and my parents’ households, and indeed, our household for many years, until its more fa... Read Full Story

© Kevin Renes | Dreamstime.com The last debate. Three weeks to go. Got me to reminisce about my early exposure to politics. The first presidential debate I ever watched was the first modern presidential debate: Nixon v. Kennedy, 1960. I was a kid, growing up in a very political household. My dad had been a precinct captain, and was soon to become Democratic township committeeman of our (before he took over) rock-ribbed Republican suburb. My mother was the brains of the outfit, who had hel... Read Full Story

© Pemotret | Dreamstime.com Sometimes good things happen to good people. Paul Krugman of Princeton University and the NYTimes, frequently quoted in this space, was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics today. This is worthy recognition to an outstanding thinker, who not only thinks the deep thoughts of his “dismal science,” but articulately delivers complex concepts with clarity. Well done, Nobel committee, and Paul Krugman! —————– Last pos... Read Full Story

© Bruno1998 | Dreamstime.com Away (from blogging — the writing, not the reading) and the economy, and especially the stock markets, continues in free fall. Everyone is on edge, if not downright frantic, because if you’re too young to be that concerned about your retirement account and pension, you very well might be looking over your shoulder for economy-related pink slips. The presidential campaign continues its free fall, from idealism and straight talk to Republican distortio... Read Full Story

© Bo Widerberg | Dreamstime.com There’s more at stake in the present Wall Street bailout tsunami than the partisan posturing might lead you to believe. Conservatives vs. moderates vs. progressives vs. everybody. In a lifetime of casual reading about the Great Depression of the 1930s, the main cause that stuck in my mind was the wrong-headed protective tariffs established by the Smoot-Hawley act, which caused the economic dominos to topple all over the world. Economists tell a different... Read Full Story

© Sharon Kennedy | Dreamstime.com Trying not to feel too guilty about this month’s continuing violations of the blogger’s prime directive: Thou Shalt Blog Daily! Guilty, your honor, with an excuse. It’s not like there haven’t been extraordinary events to write about, in the big world out there, and in the not quite silent interior world each of us populate, eternally alone. Faithful reader will have noted the personal elements that seem to have cost us our creative r... Read Full Story

© Penguinn | Dreamstime.com Don’t have the energy for a full fledged rant, but several stories and commentaries crossed the screen today, and made it clear that, in an administration that never stops scamming us, they’ve totally topped themselves. The Yiddish term is Chutzpah, whose classic definition has a young man, caught with bloody hands after murdering his parents, asking the court for mercy, as he’s an orphan. We begin with that stalwart bastion of progressive though... Read Full Story

© Martin Applegate | Dreamstime.com Just don’t know where to start. The news is bleak, nearly everywhere one cares to look. Somehow, John McCain is still taken seriously, even as he escalates the stunts. First, adopt wholeheartedly with relish the Karl Rove/Swift Boat outrageous Big Lie protocol that obliterated the last nice guy to try to win the White House. Next, kowtow to the restive Christian wingnuts by selecting for his running mate wingnut magna, herself, Sarah Palin. Now, c... Read Full Story

© Misty Pfeil | Dreamstime.com George F. Will is one of the best known conservative commentators writing for a major daily newspaper. And, he makes no bones about his appreciation for the Chicago Cubs, who in the past few days have reached the next milestones in what should, by all rights, be their Brigadoon Year (go ahead, click the link — it’s one of my favorites, and you read it here first!). Mr. Conservative Pundit George F. Will had some very cogent observations regarding th... Read Full Story