The Debates Are Here....Or Are They

As most American readers of this know tomorrow (as I type this I still have a half hour) marks the first Presidential debate of the 2008 election. As usual they unforunately won't be open to all the candidates (it doesn't help that the Debate Commission is a business of sorts) but only in theory to Sen. John McCain (R) and Sen. Barack Obama (D).

Normally I wouldn't say in theory on this. However, things have gone topsy turvy as Sen. McCain allegedly suspended his campaign (yet allowed campaign ads to air during this time) to supposedly get the financial bailout package through, even cancelling on David Letterman at the last minute to supposedly fly to Washington (in reality he accepted an interview with CBS News taped at the same time Letterman does and stayed in NYC to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative the next day). He also called for the first debate to be postponed, to the dismay of many people.

So the question is will the debates happen? The Commission says they will but as I type this it's anyone's guess, especially since the bailout talks almost went somewhere until conservatives started speaking against it. Also, what happens if Obama shows up at Oxford, MS but McCain doesn't? Do they cancel? Does Obama get the whole time period to himself? These are things to ponder.

Personally I think if McCain doesn't show up, have the debates and maybe invite the other candidates to indulge in what McCain passes on (yes, this includes Ralph Nader - who wouldn't be a thorn in the Democrats' side if the Dems would quit trying to stop Independent and Green Party candidate and fought more against the GOP). I know it won't happen but it would be an interesting debate.

At this point, we're in a country where the economy seems to be going the way of the buffalo or the condor. Jobs are vanishing and most Americans are struggling just to maintain an existence which is precariously close to being above their means. We'll have to wait until Friday night (i.e.: Friday September 26, 2008) to see what goes down with the debates, but things are scary and to quote the British band AOS3 "Scary Times are Never Dull."

Random Notes, Housesitting, Etc.

Hey! Hope all is going well. Not much going on here for the most part. Spent the last couple weeks basically housesitting and looking for a paying job. Apparently the unemployment rate here in old MO is at the highest in 16 years. And they say the economy is going well.

Anybody else see footage of the RNC and the protests and think things have gone way out of whack. With the police arresting journalists covering the protests ranging from an AP photographer to several people from Democracy Now and four people from a college newspaper in Kentucky one wonders if anyone in power seems to be aware of freedom of the press anymore. Then there's the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate who has enough baggage to scare any sane person between now and November 4th (If anyone's interested let me know and I'll put up a post regarding what I think is ironic about the song they chose to use after her speech).

I hope people in this country are aware of how things have gone so far down the tubes over the past 20 years (and at double warp speed in the past eight), but I also know the dangers of underestimating how Americans can be misled so damn easily. Maybe my worries are unwarranted. I hope they are but we could be in for a scary ass ride.

A lot of you have probably already seen these posts and clips but for those unaware of what went down in the past week check out this post on pre-emptive raids. As more information comes out regarding these things it will be interesting to see public reaction to this in retrospect.

So where does that leave us now? I really don't know. The polarization in this country is arguably almost as bad as it was during the apex of the Vietnam War (and I have a sinking feeling it will get worse before it gets better). I wish I had an answer to this but hindsight is always 20-20 and things tend to be murkiest when you're going through it.

Sorry for the downer theme of this post. I needed to vent and get things off my chest. I think everyone wants things to be better but it's not hard to get cynical when the gap between those in power and the rest of up seems to be growing towards the size of a damn ocean.

What's next? Who knows? Maybe I'll have a lighter post sometime soon but everything's up in the air at the moment.

If you disagree with me that's fine now go argue amongst yourselves. I have to take care of things.

LInks to Read on RNC Police Harrassment

In case you haven't come across these already. The following are a couple of place to find out how police reaction to activists during the RNC. One Two

And People Wonder Why Activists And Aware People Don't Trust Cops

The Republican National Convention is going down in St. Paul, MN this week. IN this midst of John McCain trying to have his cake and shit on women's reproductive freedom and reproductive justice with choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate comes news of the police conducting preemptive raids against activists.

It's time like this that make me wonder if those in the government and the police realize that they don't help themselves when they pull this shit.