One set of reasons Obama's warning us it won't be easy...

I haven't seen this movie I.O.U.S.A. but I'm going to - Peterson has been a voice of alarm - with good reason - for a long time, this is really important - and scary - stuff.

"Unfortunately, even as the federal government bails out Wall Street, the government's own finances are heading south. And $700 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to the $53 trillion in financial obligations that the government currently owes.

"Which is why, on this Halloween, we're bringing you a light-hearted horror movie - our acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A., which boldly and at times comically examines the nation's rapidly growing debt and its consequences. The film has been a huge hit, getting rave reviews from Roger Ebert and others.

"Today, we're pleased to release "I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized" online. This is a 30-minute condensed version designed specifically for watching and sharing on the web - for free as a public service for all.

"Visit www.IOUSAtheMovie.com to check it out (we've even made it stream so you can start watching right away without having to download a file).
We're also pleased to announce another round of theater showings for the full-length film. Visit www.IOUSAtheMovie.com to see if the film is playing at a theater near you.

"We're not asking you to donate anything. We're not asking you to pay anything - you don't even need to buy popcorn. All we're asking is that you visit www.IOUSAtheMovie.com to find a showing at a nearby theater or check out the byte-sized version.

"Then, tell your friends, your family, your Facebook friends and your Twitter followers about the staggering amount of money - $53 trillion - in financial obligations owed by the federal government to foreign investors and to every single American in the form of pensions, health benefits, Social Security and Medicare.
For our children and grandchildren. For ourselves. Watch I.O.U.S.A.: Byte-Sized and join us in our Fiscal Wake-Up Movement. Together, we can make American fiscal responsibility a reality.

Saw Bruce and Barack

It was a great crowd, here's the best picture I could take. We didn't get very close, and everything was an hour late, but it was still a wonderful experience. Bruce Springsteen was great with his acoustic guitar, harmonica, and reinstated verses Woodie Guthrie should have never let be taken out:



In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I [heard them grumbling],
Is this land made for you and me?

Bruce then gave his own great speech about the American Dream and what's happened to it and why Barack Obama can help us rebuild it, before introducing Obama and his family.

We've all heard Obama's stump speech - alot of times. But it's great to hear - he's so right about the need to end the tired politics of hate, division, and fear. I know it can't just be fixed in one election on Tuesday, but I believe we'll take an important step forward Tuesday.

For one thing, I think (and hope) Obama will actually disappoint us liberals. He's going to tell fathers to do their jobs, he's going to kill government programs that don't work, he's going to honor the role of faith-based organizations in social work. I think he's determined to lead from the center, not by triangulating like Clinton did but by continuing to reach across tired old debate lines. I don't think he'll use the mandate he wins on Tuesday to over-reach like Clinton did a little and Bush II did ALOT.

I hope I'm right and, if so, I look forward to having my assumptions challenged.

3 presidential candidates I WON'T vote for - without some clarification

I don't believe in single issue politics, but at the GOP Presidential Candidate debate last night 3 of them raised their hands when asked to indicate if they did NOT believe in evolution.

Not believe that evolution is a process at work in the natural world? If so, they can stare scientific fact in the face and deny it, and that's scary and stupid - a disqualification if I've ever heard of one for being the President of the United States. The President of South Africa has (in the past) denied AIDS existed while millions in his country suffered and died. This is the same stupidity.

NOW, if Huckabee, Brownback, and Tancredo can acknowledge the FACT of evolution as a process and clarify that they don't believe it accounts for the state of the world's biological diversity or the emergence of man or even the fossil record - then I still think they're nuts but it's not going to be the thing that keeps me from voting for them. I DO acknowledge that evolution as the explanation of these things is a THEORY, not a FACT.

Another good decision - that took too long

USA Today today reports that Benson HS Principal Lisa Dale was reinstated after a brief suspension - she was put on administrative leave for letting the student newspaper run with what sounds like a pretty responsible article on student use of "The N-Word." When schools retreat from responsible conversation about controversy and, even worse, try to stop students from having those conversations themselves, they are gutting one of the best institutions we have for building a more civil society. Students at Benson HS certainly hear Imus - and much worse - outside school without any critical conversation about it. In school, they MIGHT get a chance to reflect on whether what's going on in our popular culture is good or not. Kudos to Principal Dale for apparently supporting that and shame on her superiors for needing to suspend her while they figured that out.

If you sell your speech, you don't have the same rights to "free speech"

On thing that really bugs me about the whole Imus affair is this "concern" I hear expressed, even by very bright people in the media, that this puts a damper on "free speech."

Imus wasn't practicing his 1st Amendment right to free speech, he was SELLING his speech - and making a lot of money. He didn't have a right to free speech in that context, he had the right to say what advertisers were willing to sponsor. If I make a lousy product and you don't want to buy it, I don't get to say my rights have been violated, even if you used to buy it and have suddenly changed your mind.

Maybe all these media people don't want to admit the commercial implications of what they do. Maybe they want to pretend that what they do is pure. But they work for corporate managements, which are only responsible to their shareholders for profit. Maybe they have more independence than the people who write advertising copy, but it's only a matter of degree.

Imus was offensive. That helped make money until it didn't. End of story. If he wants his free speech, he can blog and he can podcast. But if he wants a paycheck for it, it isn't about the 1st Amendment. Same goes for the rest of you who take a paycheck from the corporate-owned media. Get over it.

(And if I could afford to run these media companies, I'd take them private and do the right thing: Drop all trash-talking entertainers from Imus to the rap artists. Pandering to the most base elements of our culture may generate short-term profits, but I think it's bad long-run business strategy as well as bad for America.)