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Subject: Did I miss it?

Or has BuzzFlash failed to note that VP debate moderator Gwen Ifill has a reportedly pro-Obama book coming out?

Imagine if a Palin partisan were moderator!

Technorati Tags: BuzzFlash Mailbag Bailout Economy Palin Obama Earl Voting Free Market

It was sort of like, "Whoa, is the Dow off!
Who would dare try and screw with it?
(And, in case any of you are wondering ...
I, of course, had nothing to do with it."

VERSE CASE SCENARIO

Technorati Tags: Tony Peyser

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Chad Rubel

Change is the word in 2008. Especially in politics, change is the mantra for both major parties. But we won't know until November 4 how much change is coming, and what that change will look like.

But if you need inspiration from outside the political spectrum to see that change is coming, let's take a look at the baseball playoffs that start today:

102 -- Number of years it has been since the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox were in the postseason in the same year.

100 -- Number of years it has been since the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. This is also the number of years it has been since the Cubs were in the postseason two years in a row.

26 -- Number of years it has been since the Milwaukee Brewers were in the postseason.

15 -- Number of years it has been since neither New York team (Yankees or Mets) made the postseason.

NEVER -- Number of times the Cubs, White Sox, and Brewers have been in the postseason together (until this year).

NEVER -- Number of times the Tampa Bay Rays have been in the playoffs or above .500 (until this year). 

Now, in Chicago, we are a little biased with the above figures. Since most of us are younger than 102, the feeling is as unique as having a presidential nominee who lives in Chicago (which has never happened) or the possibility of having the first African-American president (which has never happened).

Technorati Tags: Alerts Chad Rubel 2008 race change Barack Obama Chicago Cubs World Series African-American president

Technorati Tags: Andrew Wahl

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

Cross-border raids really make strange bedfellows, don't they?

At the presidential debate last Friday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said he would allow U.S. troops to cross Afghanistan's ill-defined border with Pakistan to fight insurgents who are attacking them from Pakistan.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) admonished Obama for not understanding (this coming from the guy who recently referenced the non-existent Iraq/Pakistan border), saying he would not support the cross-border attacks.

"You don't do that, you don't say that out loud," McCain said at the debate. "We have to get the cooperation of the Pakistani people."

Then, at a campaign stop in Philadelphia last weekend, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stopped for a cheesesteak and a couple of questions. One customer asked whether she thought they ought to allow cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Waziristan, Pakistan, Palin said, "Absolutely, we should."

Technorati Tags: Analysis mccain bush obama palin war pakistan afghanistan waziristan cross-border raids attacks debate media osama

Is this the part where I say Katie Couric actually did a decent job in her recent interviews with Sarah Palin?

As regular readers know, I'm not a Katie Couric fan. And my expectations for her were slightly higher than Palin's for the interviews.

So what was Couric able to accomplish that Sean Hannity (giggle, snort) and Charlie Gibson couldn't? Gibson was likely forced to do the interviews from Alaska, giving Palin an advantage. To Palin, Gibson probably came across like John Houseman's character in "The Paper Chase" but slightly cuddlier. The one major question that tripped up Gov. Palin almost didn't get asked, since asking her to clarify what the Bush Doctrine was came as an aside.

To say we learned nothing about Palin from the Hannity conversations isn't saying a whole lot, except that if you are going to say you didn't blink to Gibson and you said you consulted with your family to Hannity, people will assume you're lying.

But we learned a lot about Palin from the Couric interviews. We learned that Putin flying into Alaskan airspace was a concern. We learned that she couldn't name any other time when John McCain was in favor of regulation of the economy. We learned that Palin couldn't name a major court case other than Roe v. Wade. And we learned that while Palin, as a journalism major, couldn't name a single newspaper or magazine she reads, though she has "read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media."
Technorati Tags: Be-Elected Chad Rubel 2008 race Sarah Palin Katie Couric CBS Alaska magazines newspapers

A BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY

by George Lakoff

In the first debate, Obama did what he needed to do: convince a majority that he has what it takes. But there is room for improvement.

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Debates Lakoff Framing

With the Bush Administration, the two leading presidential candidates, and the Congressional leadership, as well as a phalanx of Wall Street lobbyists all pushing hard for a massive transfer of taxpayer money to the coffers of banks and investment banks, the American people need to demand a halt to this bums' rush to a bailout.

We've seen what happens when Congress forgoes the time-tested process of deliberative and investigative hearings and simply takes a floor vote on a Bush Administration-backed measure. First there was the October 18, 2001, resolution for use of military force against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Because there were no hearings on that measure, its loose, deliberately ambiguous wording has been used ever since by the Bush/Cheney crew as authorization for their global so-called "War" on Terror, including the claim that the president has the dictatorial power ignore treaties, U.S. law, and bills passed by the Congress. Shortly thereafter, there was the Patriot Act, a compendium of anti-democratic measures that had failed to win passage in Congress over the years that were cobbled together in the dead of night by Bush/Cheney zealots and passed on a voice vote the next day by a Congress too cowed to hold hearings on the measure. Then, in October 2002, there was the second authorization for use of military force resolution, this time against Iraq, which has ended up miring the U.S. in a disastrous five-year-long war without end that has killed 4,500 Americans, chewed up 40,000 more, and killed in excess of 1 million innocent Iraqi civilians.
Technorati Tags: Dave Lindorff

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

What happens when Americans run out of gas, when Americans run out of money, and Bush calls in the United States Army???? Why Bush declares "martial law," cancels the election, and completely destroys Democracy! Yep, "Mission Accomplished"!

Technorati Tags: Barbara's Daily Buzz