Sarah Palin survived tonight’s vice presidential debate without a major gaffe. But she didn’t distinguish herself, either.

She started out as taut as a spring in an old watch that was wound too tightly. Then she exploded in fast-paced run-on sentences almost impossible to follow because her train of thought kept going off track. She was just throwing words out there hoping some of them would stick and sound good.

Perhaps that’s all part of the non-answer approach to political debates.

Palin also often refused to respond to specific questions from the moderator, Gwen Ifil. When asked about bankruptcy, Palin switched back to taxes. Then discussing Iraq, she jumped to energy policy.

When queried about what promises her administration might have to draw back on due to the cost of the bailout, Palin declared “I’ve only been doing this for five weeks, folks. I don’t have any promises.”

This is a reason to vote for her and John McCain?

Her emphasis on being tolerant of gays/lesbians also was rather interesting, especially since that was not the question she was asked. Recall that George Bush also promised to be a uniter and pursue a humble foreign policy devoid of nation-building. When pols go out of their way to stress a point, it usually signals just the opposite.

Before Republicans heave a huge sigh of relief and break out the bubbly, however, the initial reaction of an Ohio audience featured on CNN heavily favored Democrattaic vice presidential candidate  Joe Biden over Palin as the debate winner.

The following comes to StoneScribe via regular correspondent Marc Habern, a denizen of GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s state, Arizona, and whose definition of politics graces this blog.

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is a post turtle–a turtle balancing atop a fence post. She didn’t get up there by herself; she doesn’t belong up there; she doesn’t know what to do while she is up there; and you have to wonder what kind of dumb-ass put her up there to begin with. 

Now what?

The U.S. House of Representatives sent D.C. and Wall Street into convulsions by refusing to pass the Bush bailout even with modifications negotiated by the Democratic leadership. (Perhaps there’s life in our republic yet.)

Trickle up economics, that’s what. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball here. The real foundation of the current mess is the deflation of housing prices that were propped up artifically in the bubble ignored and/or denied by the very experts in charge of the rejected so-called solution.

The air is still going out of home prices, although the rate of decline has slowed over the last three months. See the latest figures from Standard & Poor’s/Case-Schiller 20-city housing index released today.

If we want to stem the crisis and help Main Street, then the solution is obvious. Set up a government mechanism to review existing troubled mortgages and rework them so that the owners of the homes (provided they also live in them) can afford a new monthly mortgage payment. Those houses with troubled mortgages not occupied on a daily basis by their owners would be subject to much stricter reworking rules.

The government can also inject capital into troubled Wall Street businesses in return for a part ownership position and temporary management authority–the same way private investors operate. This gives taxpayers a real shot at a return on their tax-dollar investments future when the government sells its stake in the future.

This trickle-up approach immediately will help restore neighborhoods lost to the blight of foreclosure, and eventually stablize the finances of troubled investments banks and securities firms that bought into exotic and toxic investments backed by questionable mortgages.

That’s the way to proceed because it does not reward Wall Street for its greed and total failure to self-regulate.

Next Step: Undo degregulation with more nimble reregulation that is adapted for 21st century electronic exchanges. This can and has to be done to restore long-term worldwide confidence in the U.S. economy and markets.

Respected economist Dean Baker gives the modified bailout–ooops, that’s “buy-in”–a huge thumbs down this morning.

His reasons for opposing it make a great deal of sense amid the same kind of alarmist blather that preceded and precipitated the  U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Even in its altered form, this bailout is essentially the economic version of the way the Bush administration pressed for invasion. That alone makes it suspect.  It’s the classic Bush M.O. Distract and dismay with a specter of some kind of imminent doom and then shovel money to your cronies and campaign donors.

Additional economists have also expressed strong reservations about the modified bailout and say there are ways to stabilize Wall Steet without putting taxpayer money at risk. These are worth a shot before handing over to the Treasury Secretary the enormous power  bestowed by this bailout plan–especially when there is no guarantee that it will stave off the steep economic downturn that it it supposed to avert.

The Democrats cave again–and we’ll all rue the day.

There’s more than one way to avert a nasty economic slump.

Kudos to McClatchy Newspapers for a very different take on the proposed Wall Street bailout.

Reporter Kevin G. Hall quotes economists and analysts who doubt that the Wall Street-oriented proposal will actually stave off a deep recession.

They include James K. Galbraith at the University of Texas, Simon Johnson at MIT,  Kenneth Rogoff at Harvard, and Ed Yardeni.

All four think the proposal is flawed and rushed, and point to better and cheaper ways to restore enough confidence so that banks are willing to lend again at reasonable rates.

Why not do what the federal government did during the Great Depression? It would probably cost no more than $700 billion just to buy up homes in forclosure and rework the mortage terms so that the current owners can remain in them.

This approach would definitely help Main Street, and since the problems on Wall Street originate with investments backed by shaky mortgages, it will help there as well. Trickle-up economics, for a change.

Then we have to get back to across-the-board financial industry reregulation so that the same problems don’t pop up down the road.

To do that, however, we’ll have to elect a Democratic president as well as Senate and House of Representatives.

In his own words, the Republican candidate is “fundamentally a deregulator” and helped push the deregulation laws that helped get us into this mess in the first place.

If John McCain’s gameplan was to knock Barack Obama off stride in discussing foreign policy issues or the question of experience, he failed during tonight’s first debate.

Maybe that’s why the Republican septuagenarian presidential candidate repeatedly resorted to snarky condescension. His favorite phrase: “I don’t think Sen. Obama understands…”

Here’s what some of us understand only too well. Earlier this week, McCain claimed he was halting his presidential campaign to go to Washington and would remain there until some sort of Wall Street bailout deal was completed.

McCain didn’t stop campaigning, however. He kept right on campaigning and so did his surrogates and staff. In fact he didn’t leave for Washington D.C. until the day after he made his grand announcement about an emergency so dire that it required all presidential politicking to cease immediately.

There was no finalized bailout agreement, yet McCain left D.C. anyway to take part in the debate. Flip-flop.

How many more “hail Mary” passes does this guy get? He looked far more desperate this week than presidential, at once clueless and conniving. If this week is an example of how he will handle an emergency when he is in the White House, he’s a poor choice.

Like the coach said: “It’s deja vu all over again.” 

I have seen this before. I am writing fiction about my past-life experiences with theocracy and would-be religious totalitarians.

But this is only too real. And it’s not about faith or country or patriotism. It’s about raw power and total control.

Read this post by Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America, for more insight into how GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin personifies “end times” for our experiment with democracy and the beginnings of theocracy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/the-battle-plan-ii-sarah_b_128393.html

Can you feel the approaching political Rapture?

Now that a GOP campaign ad casts Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the role of anti-Christ, maybe it’s time to acknowledge that the impact of religious extremists isn’t quite as dead as mainstream media keep reporting.

The John McCain ad, ‘The One,’ playing on YouTube not so subtly paints Obama as the anti-Christ for adherents to an extreme interpretation of Revelations. This YouTube spot stokes these believers’ worst fears of global conflagration in an ultimate war between God and the devil.

McCain’s spin doctors want to scare these people into voting against Obama by casting a ballot for the Arizona senator, even if they don’t like McCain all that much.

Although mainstream media articles keep declaring the death of religious conservatism, religious conservatives obviously could impact this year’s election outcome. Otherwise the McCain camp would not bother to try to scare up their votes.

It’s so eery–and alarming. My fantasy saga chronicles what happens when politics and piety collide, just as they have in U.S. elections since 200, all of which have been marred by extreme divisiveness and bitterly contested vote counts.

The fictional theocrats try to wrest power from the secular government of an island nation called Azgard, just as Christian Dominionists seriously seek to impose religious totalitarianism on the United States, and Islamic extremists want to impose a Caliphate on the Middle East. The fictional power struggle leads to civil war, eventually resulting in the destruction of the country and most of the world.

What might happen in real life if extreme religious viewpoints continue to influence the elections as well as public discourse and policies? Consider McCain’s statements about U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years and supposedly joking comments about bombing Iran.

There is little humor and much to be alarmed about in any type of militant religiosity–Muslim, Christian, Hindu or whatever.

Theocrats Put Death Mark on Heroine,
Punish Father in Fantasy Saga’s 3rd Book

Lancaster, Texas (July 16, 2008) — Some people just need killing.

Will the ones to die be Helen Andros, outspoken first-generation heroine of the Green Stone of Healing® fantasy saga, and her newly reconciled father?

The astonishing sequel to The Vision and Fallout, The Scorpions Strike debuts today in paperback and ebook versions. Helen and Lord James Mordecai endure proscription and savage punishment by the state-sanctioned Temple of Kronos.

Under a Temple death mark, Helen learns basic energy manipulation from Maguari, the otherworldly Mist-Weaver, and first uses her green gem for healing and saving lives. Lord James’ political enemies hound him relentlessly and a treacherous ally plots his assassination.

“The Scorpions Strike is fast-paced, action-packed and full of surprises,” writes Anne Garber, managing director of evalu8.org. “Just when you think you have figured out where these events might be heading, everything you imagined is thrown out the window.”

Calling the series “masterful,” Garber concludes, “Hooray for Helen Andros and the behaviour-models she has spawned. What an important void this character, and C.L. Talmadge’s inspirational story have filled!”

HealingStone Books today also made The Vision and Fallout available as paperbacks. Readers may browse through all three books online for free at http://www.greenstoneofhealing.com/browsebooks.shtml.

The first two novels in the series have drawn high praise.

“Exceptional job of writing, and keeping this story tightly together in a genre that is certainly difficult to do such, our author is top-notch,” Shirley P. Johnson writes about Fallout in Midwest Book Review. “If you love an intense read, packed with sinister power seekers, grueling heartless characters, yet laced with mystical moments, the lure of peace and healing, and the hope that goodness will prevail, this read is for you.”

“Helen is a formidable protagonist,” Kirkus Discoveries says about The Vision.

Over several generations of strong female characters, the saga explores what happens when politics and piety collide–how state support for an exclusionary religion leads to worldwide cataclysm and the utter destruction of an island nation called Azgard.

Author C.L. Talmadge describes the series as, “a blue-state version of ‘end-of-the-world’ fiction without a traditional religious viewpoint. Instead, it examines alternative spiritual themes and sets forth a different interpretation of free will and good and evil.”

Throughout the tale, the heroines and their mysterious jewel offer a healing, inclusive alternative to a government that persecutes those who do not look like or share the religious beliefs of the ones in power.

Readers who become fond of Helen and other characters will be delighted that they reincarnate, affirming that not even death can separate loved ones (or enemies).

Talmadge’s writing career began in 1976. A political columnist syndicated by North Star Writers Group, she has been on staff or freelanced for numerous media including Business Week, the Dallas Times Herald, Forbes, the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times and Reuters America.

The author discusses this latest book and how the series speaks to events today:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1097104.htm

The Scorpions Strike
Paperback:       $16.95
Pages:      248
ISBN:      978-9800537-5-3

eBook:   $6.95
Format:    .pdf only
Pages:    312
ISBN:   978-0-9800537-2-2