The strength to be there

Where?

AIG is now in the hands of the U.S. government for a mere $85 billion. American International Group, Inc.’s tagline that remains on the beleaguered insurance giant’s website is now seemingly ludicrous. AIG, a world leader in insurance and financial services, was the leading international insurance organization with operations in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions. Fearing a bankruptcy and an ensuing global financial crisis, federal regulators seized control of AIG in an $85 billion deal on Tuesday. This touches all parts of the economy.

AIG will no longer be a part of the Dow Jones industrial average starting next week, ending the shortest term any company has spent in the blue-chip index since the Great Depression. Because of the financial sector's extremely uncertain conditions, Kraft Foods will take AIG's place.

Members of Congress and the Treasury have an exciting weekend planned. The Bush administration and the Federal Reserve have announced a new multi-faceted bailout plan that may cost at least half a trillion dollars. Yes, half a trillion dollars. In the biggest proposed government intervention in financial markets since the Great Depression, the effort could cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to buy mortgage-backed securities, and other toxic debt.

The Treasury said it would use $50 billion to back money market mutual funds whose asset values fall below $1 a share. Separately, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would lend even more money directly to financial institutions so they could purchase certain assets from money market funds. The Securities and Exchange Commission also imposed a temporary emergency ban on short-selling.

Meanwhile, lawsuits such as the City of New Orleans Employees Retirement System, an AIG shareholder, are suing AIG for mismanagement and “grossly imprudent risk taking”.

McCain’s now repeated remark about how “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,” said in the same week of the most serious financial crisis in generations, are sounding like a thundering DJ dancehall song...'the fundamentals of the economy – of the economy – the funda-funda, are strong – strong – strong'. On Tuesday, he commented, “I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG, we cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else.” Oh wait. McCain quickly changed his tune, saying the government was “forced” to rescue AIG because of “failed regulation, reckless management and a casino culture on Wall Street.”

Obama’s proposals for the failing economy include protection for homeowners in peril of foreclosure and increased regulation, which is more specific than McCain’s. Obama blames the crisis on “an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary.”

McCain supports George W. Bush’s idea of channeling at least some Social Security funds into “personal accounts” that individuals would invest on Wall Street. Some of that money would have been entrusted to firms such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch.

Uh oh.

Ground Hero

Seven years ago, al Qaeda terrorists used hijacked airplanes to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- the twin symbols of America's financial and military might. Another hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

Thousands of families and friends lost their loved ones with this arbitrary mass murder which provoked awe, anguish and anger in all of us. As we have sought to grapple with one of the worst ever challenges to not just the U.S., but to humanity, September 11th is now about commemorating, learning, respecting and connecting. The perpetrators of these and other desperate terroristic acts must continue to be brought to justice, and we must tackle the causes that give rise to forces of hatred and violence. We have seen how heinous & violent people can be, but on that day and following, we have also witnessed inspiring displays of heroism, compassion and humanity.
This crisis involved issues of national security, public safety, economics, murder and foreign policy. Using some restraint, our response should have been equally as multifaceted. World scale contempt has formed through terrorist organizations, various world leaders & administrations and hasty reactions, where seeing others as less real than we are and with our wanting to be superior. The answer to indiscriminate hate will never be more indiscriminate hate.

It is crucial to understand that we live in a different world since September 11, or at least seemingly different to us civilians that were ignorantly blissful to the political, terroristic and religious strife that has existed around the world. It may be a long while before we regain the personal freedoms that we have lost in the name of national security.

As the 2008 presidential elections wade through the last several weeks and we commemorate the many lives lost, let us hope the candidates will seek a world in which security is gained through international cooperation, and social justice and not merely through revenge.

In honor of the innocent victims and their families of 9/11/01 and to those who have lost their lives since, in the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq and to quote an Irish proverb: "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal."

Lipstick on a pig

"John McCain says he's about change, too, and so I guess his whole angle is 'Watch out, George Bush, except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics – we're really going to shake things up in Washington!' That's not change ... you know, you can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig."

John McCain's campaign immediately jumped on Barack Obama's comment that McCain's policies are like lipstick on a pig, arguing they were directed at Palin - who made a lipstick joke during her GOP convention speech last week.

Suddenly, common idioms are sexist?

If having heard his speech for just one minute, having any knowledge of the expression and the premise of Obama’s campaign, one wonders how the American public can be so obtuse. Or are they? The conservative media is trying to exacerbate the increasingly dishonorable campaign McCain has chosen to run.

In fact, his preceding comments consisted of a list of Sen. John McCain's policies that Obama said were not unlike President Bush's. Palin or her hockey mom lipstick "joke" were not mentioned.

Hillary did not counter or bicker when Senator McCain himself used the same idiom about Senator Clinton’s health care plan just last year. Perhaps we should educate the conservative media and the McCain campaign on the expression itself?

Pay attention now, putting "lipstick on a pig" describes the process of dressing up dodgy idea or thing to make it more appealing. If people put lipstick on a pig, they make superficial or cosmetic changes, hoping that it will make the product more attractive. Notice the words “product”, and “it”. By sheer definition, this usually does not refer to a person, as the Republicans so quickly accused Obama of meaning. Or, so they are trying to convince the American public.

As another reliable sample of traits in the McCain campaign pattern of deceit, this is nothing more than a transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to disparage.

McCain’s campaign has suddenly adopted the Democrats mantra of change. But how can you speak of such change when having supported Bush over 90% of the time?

Disgruntled pig farmers are yet to be heard from.