American Views Abroad

The headlines today: Abroad, Bailout Is Seen as a Free Market Detour ; Supreme Court's Global Influence is Waning; and there's Timothy Egan's Moo at http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/moo/index.html:

....Crony capitalism is how things are done in Alaska. They reward failure in the Last Frontier state. In that sense, it's not unlike Wall Street's treatment of CEOs who run companies into the ground.....

Lest we forget the rest of the world: this morning's IHT had a front page article on 9 Million Afghans Facing Acute Food Shortage Soon which is sadly no longer on its website at www.iht.com.

The following might be useful as 'ears and eyes' for what is going on politically in the campaign in the US. At the very least these articles help sift through the spin and bring a bit of clarity:

www.anonymousliberal.com has interesting detailed reports and comments and has brought attention to www.politicshome.com which provides up to the minute coverage on the campaign.

Obama: The Price of Being Black by Andrew Hacker at www.nybooks.com/articles/21771:

Barack Obama can only become president by mustering a turnout that will surpass the votes he is not going to get. ..... What seems more needed , in my view, are two parallel campaigns: a quiet one to assure a maximum black turnout, and a more public one to make the most of the white backing the Obama-Biden ticket already has. His rallies, appearances, and advertisements would benefit from featuring white faces, and they should be accompanied by endorsements from white military veterans, union leaders, police chiefs, and firemen. His black supporters will know what is going on, and not take this as a rebuff.

Sad and troubling, but probably true.