What’s Going On – Evening News Roundup
Posted on October 6th, 2008 by ecthompson
Monday evening news Roundup
- Asheville, North Carolina has continued to be abuzz since Barack Obama spoke yesterday. He was his usual self, amazing.
- I’m sorry, I just don’t understand. Two weeks ago, when the stock market took a nose dive, we were told that a $700 billion bailout package was needed to stabilize the markets. This huge sum of money would also loosen up credit and would help small business. The House rejected this huge package and the stock market fell. The following day, without Congress taking any action, the stock market rebounded. The Senate, followed by the House, passed this bailout program (i.e. rescue package). The stock market did not seem to react one way or the other. Today, the foreign markets were in freefall. London, Paris and Frankfurt markets lost between 7-10% of their total value. During early trading this morning, American markets were off sharply. In early afternoon trading, the stock market rallied so that it ended down approximately 300 points. I might be wrong, but I don’t think there will be any immediate turnaround. I think we’re in for continued volatility.
- My good friends over at Washington Monthly have documented that John McCain’s campaign strategy has pivoted away from the issues and towards personal attacks. John McCain is airing a series of ads that attack Barack Obama on multiple fronts. Unfortunately, none of them have to do with the issues. First, William Ayres is being brought up again. This did not work in the primaries. I’m positive that John McCain does not want to play this guilt by association game. Sarah Palin’s husband belongs to a political group, for the last 8 years, whose sole focus is to secede from America and that smells anti-American to me. John McCain has been associated with a white supremacist. John McCain’s friendship with G. Gordon Liddy, who was convicted for his role in the Watergate break-in, has acknowledged plotting oth to murder a journalist and to firebomb the Brookings Institution. Isn’t that terrorism? In addition, I think bringing up The Keating Five Incident, in which John McCain was given a formal reprimand by the Senate ethics committee for his behavior should now be back on the table. Barack Obama has just released the following video –
- Just 10 years ago, eBay was the wonder of the Internet. It was a business that was actually making money. With eBay, everyone can have a yard sale, every day. Today, eBay announced they are laying off 10% of their workforce. This was one of those, ultra-lean companies. They did not have nor did they need lots of employees since there was no inventory. According to CEO John Donahoe, they are preparing for the economic down-turn. I just wonder, if he has already taken a pay cut. You know, since he’s preparing for the economic down-turn.
- Countrywide, a subsidiary of Bank of America, like everything else, announced that they’re setting aside $8.4 billion to help restructure mortgages. This is one of the best examples of closing the barn door after the horse, the chickens and pigs have left. Countrywide is being sued by multiple states for their “predatory” lending practices. On the good side, Countrywide will be restructuring approximately 400,000 loans. Some homeowners should get some significant relief.
- If you look at the electoral map, it has completely changed over the last three weeks. Just three weeks ago, the electoral map had changed in John McCain’s favor. At the time, many progressives were getting nervous. I said that we needed to “dance with the one who brought us.” We needed to work hard and get Barack Obama elected. After three weeks’ worth of work, the whole electoral map has completely changed in Barack Obama’s favor. Now, I’m going to say the same thing. It is not time to pop the champagne or to break open the box of cigars. It is time for us to continue to work hard up until election day. In this next debate on Tuesday, Barack Obama can almost completely close the door on John McCain.
- Cool story about a Cappella group – Straight No Chaser in NYT. I had posted a video of them – here. They are a great group with a a unique sound. I wish them well.
