O.J. Simpson found guilty on all counts in Las Vegas kidnapping, robbery case

O.J. Simpson found guilty on all counts in Las Vegas kidnapping, robbery case
By NANCY DILLON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Saturday, October 4th 2008, 1:42 PM
Gluskoter/POOL
With his attorneys, Gabriel Grasso, left, and Yale Galanter, right nearby, O.J. Simpson is taken into custody after being found guilty on all 12 charges, including felony kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy in Las Vegas on Friday.
Now he's guilty.
Thirteen years to the day after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder, a Las Vegas jury convicted him of all 12 counts in a kidnapping and armed robbery case.
This morning's stunning verdict could put the former gridiron great away for life.
RELATED: RISE AND FALL OF O.J. SIMPSON
Simpson, clad in a suit and tie, sat impassively as the verdicts were read aloud in quick succession by a court clerk. He was found guilty of counts including conspiracy, kidnapping, armed robbery, assault and coercion.
Judge Jackie Glass ordered Simpson held behind bars until sentencing Dec. 5. He was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs as his sister Carmelita Durio sobbed openly in the gallery.
Simpson's co-defendant Clarence (C.J.) Stewart was also found guilty of all counts.
The jury of nine women and three men - none of them African-American - began considering the case at 8:45 a.m. The panel spent 13 hours behind closed doors at a downtown Las Vegas courthouse - working through lunch and dinner - before announcing that they had agreed on the verdicts about 9:45 p.m. local time.
RELATED: O.J.'S SWIPED MEMORIES
On Oct. 3, 1995, a Los Angeles jury acquitted Simpson of the brutal 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman in the "Trial of the Century."
The athlete, anchor and pitchman was later ordered to pay $33.5 million in a wrongful-death civil judgment that remains largely unpaid.
Nevada prosecutors charged that Simpson, 61, and five associates had stormed into a room at the Palace Station hotel and casino in September 2007, brandishing guns, and took thousands of dollars worth of Simpson's memorabilia from a pair of sports collectors.
The group then stole as much as $100,000 worth of items, including Joe Montana lithographs and Pete Rose baseballs, from dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers argued that Simpson went to the hotel only to retrieve personal mementos that were stolen from him and that he was unaware his sidekicks were armed.
Four of the other men originally charged in the case have agreed to plead guilty and all took the witness stand for the prosecution during nearly three weeks of trial testimony that concluded Wednesday.
Neither Simpson nor Stewart, 54, testified in their own defense.

A Few Items In The News!

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Hip-Hop pioneer and designer Russell Simmons isbringing a little sophistication to the urban over 25 crowd.ADVERTISEMENTSimmons introduced his menswear collection at the Argyle CultureFashion Show on Friday at the swanky Setai Hotel in South Beach. Themale models donned sporty suits, pinstriped shorts and argyle V-necksweaters, combining urban aesthetics with traditionally professionaland preppy attire."I want to create a line to reach out to those guys who are not youngmen anymore but who want to still be part of that urban lifestyle,"Simmons said.Among other pieces in the show were plaid shorts, free-flowing jacketsand classic five-pocket pants created in materials like wool andcotton blends."Russell is so amazing and such an inspiration, " said actressGabrielle Union, recently appeared on ABC's "Ugly Betty" and sat nearthe runway. "I am just honored to be here in his support and tocelebrate his birthday."Simmons turned 51 on Saturday.The show also attracted the "American Idol" trio of Ryan Seacrest,Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson.When asked about Simmons' latest line, Jackson quipped: "Hot, hot, hot."Simmons also has partnered with a new social networking Web site,Globalgrind. com, that provides Internet savvy hip-hop aficionados withnews and discussion groups."The great thing about working with Russell on this is that since heonly gets behind things that he's really passionate about, it's agreat feeling to know that we share the same goal and that's to havethe best product out for this demographic and to give them the voicethey need," said Navarrow Wright, chief executive of Globalgrind. com.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are sad days for Raider Nation. All those skull-and-bonestattoos seem for naught. Their leader, Al Davis, has lost it. As thelate radio mega-star Jim Healy used to say, he's gone the Leonard Toseroute, wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Dwyre.His news-conference performance this week, in the firing of youngcoach Lane Kiffin, broke new ground in the category of bizarre. Theonly thing missing was somebody dragging a blindfolded Kiffin into theroom, putting him on a plank and making him walk it. Davis sat at atable and read a letter he had written to Kiffin. The same letter wasprojected 15 feet high on a screen behind Davis. The message was thatKiffin was a "flat-out" liar and was being fired "for cause." The "forcause" part meant that Davis didn't want to pay Kiffin what's left onhis contract. Lawyers throughout the Bay Area were choking on theirown drool.It is also difficult, quite frankly, to be critical of Davis at all,even though he took a couple of nice things out of our area in thelast several decades. One was a pro football franchise, the other agood portion of the cash flow of Irwindale. Still, to some of us, heis a hero in one very important category. He has consistently stood upto the single most arrogant entity on the planet today. That would bethe National Football League.The sad thing for Raider Nation is that success wasn't that long ago.The image of Davis, marching proudly to his box in San Diego justbefore the 2003 Super Bowl against Tampa Bay, is vivid. But so is thejob that Davis' former coach, the Buccaneers' Jon Gruden, did on theRaiders that day. Final score: 48-21, Tampa Bay.Davis hasn't just been an influential Raider, or a Raiders drivingforce, or the architect of the Raiders. He has been all of that andmore. He is the Raiders. Period. The Raiders reflect his image, style,approach, attitude. Everything. He is a Raider like Tom Lasorda is aDodger. There is no other team, no other way, no other life. And so,when you see it coming apart so badly, so publicly, and soembarrassingly, there has to be a tinge of compassion, no matter whatwent before.You want to shake him, tell him it is over. But tell him that hedoesn't have to stop being a Raider, just stop being the only Raider.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kimbo Slice doesn't have much on the line when he fights Saturday.Well, other than the very existence of the promotion he fights for –the struggling EliteXC. Not to mention the short-term future of mixedmartial arts on broadcast television, since CBS could pull the plug.And, of course, his earning power that comes mainly from perceptionand personality, not any actual body of work. At least not yet.A loss risks everything, since winding up flat on your back doesn'tmake much of a Nike commercial or a future as a pay-per-view draw.In terms of competitive excellence, Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock inFort Lauderdale, Fla. live on CBS isn't much. In terms of importancein the brief history of MMA, it may wind up significant.While it's unlikely EliteXC, or any other league, can ever mount aserious challenge to the UFC's immense popularity and market share,the possibility is non-existent if Kimbo loses.PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENTEliteXC's entire business model hangs on whether Slice, who gainedfame from YouTube videos of his street scraps, can prove to be even anaverage MMA fighter.It's bizarre business scenario.EliteXC has few name fighters and the conundrum of Slice. He's themost famous and popular fighter in the world yet he may not be a top50 heavyweight. He's fought professionally just three times and it'sunlikely he'd make it out of the first round with anyone in the UFC.Even his vaunted punching power – fearsome in boat yards and backalleys – isn't much by big-time MMA standards.If he was the devastating puncher he's sold as, Kimbo would have laidout his last opponent, James "Colossus" Thompson, long before acauliflower ear exploded in the third round. Fedor Emelianenko, thebest heavyweight in the world, may have needed just one punch to winthat fight.The Kimbo legend lives on though. It's the bearded, menacing, one-timehomeless man, one-time porn company security guard who gets the bigendorsement deals, not Fedor.It's Slice who can bring a nice Nielsen number, not anyone elseEliteXC employs (even femme fatale Gina Carano) or perhaps even anyoneon the UFC roster.The trouble is, if Kimbo were to lose Saturday, there may not be acompany on Monday – the promise of future ratings and pay-per-viewbuys gone if his famed ferocity is debunked.The likeable Slice is rightfully cashing every check as quickly aspossible. He's an only in America rags-to-riches story, only one thatwill explode like Colossus' ear at some point.So Slice will enter the cage against Ken Shamrock, a pioneering legendin MMA who also happens to be 44 years old and without a victory inover four years. He hasn't even made it out of the first round sincethen, a TKO loser in every fight.To say he's the ultimate set up for Slice kind of understates it(Kimbo is a 7-2 favorite in most sports books). Slice simply has to win.Shamrock's lack of recent success doesn't guarantee it though.Thompson had lost seven of his previous nine fights – "They got himout of the (expletive) morgue," UFC president Dana White laughed – andalmost beat Kimbo anyway.Slice's previous victory came against the colorful Tank Abbott, wholike Shamrock was an early star in the sport and comically billedhimself as "master of the ancient martial art of kicking ass." Don'tbe too impressed, Abbott has just one victory since 1998 and was bestserved in fake professional wrestling.Kimbo's only other fight was a knockout of journeyman Bo Cantrell injust 19 seconds, which is impressive even if Cantrell was once droppedin a seemingly impossible five seconds.To say there is a gap between Slice's perception with the causalpublic and reality with hard core fans doesn't begin to describe it.While it's impossible to hate Slice for capitalizing on his earningopportunity, it's just as impossible to approve of what he thus farrepresents to the growing sport.He's all sizzle, no steak.At 34, Slice is too old to become an expert in one of the chieffighting styles such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – which generally takes atleast 10 years to master. He will need to rely on heart, punching andrudimentary wrestling and submission defense skills to survive in hiscareer.This being just his fourth pro fight, it would be understandable tobring him along delicately as he continues to improve under famedtrainer Bas Rutten.Being the headliner on prime time CBS cards, Nike endorser, and likeit or not, the face of the sport, doesn't allow such patience though.He's paid and promoted as the toughest man on earth (in one of themost outrageous bits of sports hyperbole ever he was compared to noless than Tiger Woods in his last CBS appearance). At some point hehas to at least attempt to live up to anything near that status.The public loves a circus, but how long can they sell Kimbo as a starwhen he's only taking on the over-the-hill gang?EliteXC's problem is to step up the competition, which means a likelyloss, which means a likely end to the company. That's why a grudgematch with the solid Brett Rogers, who called Slice out after May'sCBS card, was tabled and Shamrock was dusted off.They may fight next on pay per view (along with Carano vs. Cristiane"Cyborg" Santos) to deliver some much-needed cash to an operation thatlost over $56 million the last two years.Or they might fight on CBS in hopes of getting an extension on itsoriginal four-fight deal with the network.Either way, the goal for EliteXC is to make it to a next time. Theyneed to tread water until some other stars emerge, they combine withanother outfit or Slice develops enough to become a legitimateheavyweight.Until then, this entire experiment is a house of cards, built on acharade of charisma and massive marketing.So Saturday, Kimbo Slice must win or it all comes tumbling down,sooner rather than later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It Has Been Written...

It had been told by the ancients that an enemy of nature would come and ruin the earth. They foretold of this enemy and his greedy ways. They would kill the buffalo until there were just about none left and use up the rich soil until it became barren and useless.
We know who that enemy is. The ancients were from the so called Native American tribes. It now seems that this enemy who has become such a mass consumer has indeed used up much of the land, destroyed many of the worlds forest, killed off animals, and has left the air dirty enough in some areas to cause sickness to humans as well as the animals.
Now this enemy has used up much of its own currency and credit. On top of that, their dependency on oil for fuel and energy which is being consumed at alarming rates has rendered him a slave to others who are not producing oil at rates which are complimentary to the extreme usage. The prices for it are too high for the average lay person reasonably afford. These are the makings of revolution, change, revolt and possibly treason. Something must give way or this society will burst at the seams. While the masses are fed up, they demand action from their leaders. From out of the chaos there must arise leadership that takes us in a new direction that make life fair for all.

Don't Let Our Opponents Divide Us with Race

Posted August 18, 2008

Dear Union Member,

Given Barack Obama's lifelong commitment to supporting workers, I believe whole-heartedly there are a thousand good reasons for any worker, particularly a union worker, to vote for him. There is only one very bad reason not to and that is because he is not white.

The opponents of working people are trying to divide us by using Obama's race as an issue. Union members must lead the fight against such divisions and, instead, look at the bottom line. When it comes to protecting jobs and pensions, when it comes to health care, child care, pay equity for women, Social Security, Medicare and seeing to it that people can afford to go to college and buy a home -- and when it comes to restoring the right to collective bargaining -- Barack Obama always has been on our side.

I want to address some of the false and divisive rumors and attacks on Obama being spread by the same people who cater to the wealthy and leave the crumbs for working people. Here are the facts:

Barack Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim as our opponents claim. Someone who practices a Christian religion is a Christian. He has said he accepts Jesus. I take him at face value.

When opponents of working people say Obama is a Muslim, the thrust of that argument is that all Muslims are bad or to be feared, at the very least not trusted -- and that tiptoes up close to racism. Racism condemns everyone in a race or religion or sector as a group simply because they are part of that group and not because of their individual actions.

Obama has experience that matters. Barack Obama has plenty of experience. Growing up poor helped form the lifelong and meaningful values of Barack. As a graduate from Harvard Law School, he could have gone to work for Wall Street, but he chose to represent steelworkers who had lost their jobs because their mill had closed down. His life experience helped him make the right choice when he chose to represent people who were living in poverty and struggling day to day. When Barack was elected to the state legislature--and his voting record is clear -- he fought to help working people get pensions and health care and increase the minimum wage and he fought for opportunities for all kids to get a quality education. Unlike John McCain, he didn't speak for the wealthy and the powerful, he spoke for the least among us.

Michelle Obama loves her country, like we all do. But there are times when the actions of our country don't make us proud. When American citizens don't have health care and children suffer and die because of it, that doesn't make us proud. When pensions are taken away from hardworking citizens after 20 years, 30 years or more of being a loyal worker for a company, should that make us proud? It is not fair on the basis of a simple statement to question her patriotism or her fitness to be the first lady.

Obama immediately renounced offensive statements made by his pastor. And when the pastor refused to retract them, he left the church. We cannot be held accountable for the statements of others.

I'll close with a direct quote from my speech to the United Steelworkers convention last month:

I don't think we should be out there pointing fingers in peoples' faces and calling them racist. Instead we need to educate them that if they care about holding onto their jobs, their health care, their pensions, and their homes. If they care about creating good jobs with clean energy, child care, pay equity for women workers, there's only going to be one candidate on the ballot this fall who's on our side, only one candidate who's going to stand up for our families, only one candidate who's earned our votes...and his name is Barack Obama!

Do you think John McCain will do these things for America? I don't.

YouTube - AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka on Racism and Obama

20 Jul 2008 ... AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka blasts racism and underlines why workers should vote Obama in 2008.

It seems so incredible that a 15 year old girl could kill another 16 year old girl. In fact they are cousins! Yet, it appears to have happened in New York City! Why? is all that I can ask. What was the cause.? Was anything worth this child's life?

Mother finds daughter slashed to death in Brooklyn apartment - runaway sought for questioning

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Wednesday, October 1st 2008, 7:20 AM

Marilyn Braithwaite, aunt of slain Shannon Braithwaite (below), wails as teen's body is taken out of apartment.

A bright 16-year-old high school student who loved to dance was found dead with her throat slashed in her Brooklyn apartment Tuesday.

Shannon Braithwaite's devastated mom, Marva, pinned the slaying on a 15-year-old runaway girl she had taken in just a week ago.

Cops were seeking the teen Tuesday night.

"The one day I left them alone, I came home to find my daughter stabbed up in a pool of blood," said Marva Braithwaite, 35.

"My little girl was a loving, God-fearing child who never was a problem to me."

Braithwaite made the gruesome discovery of her daughter's body when she returned to her Empire Blvd. home in Crown Heights about 4:30p.m.

Shannon, a sophomore at Vanguard High School on the upper East Side, was on the floor in the foyer, bloodied by knife wounds to her hands, face and neck.

The knife was recovered in the home, a police source said.

There did not appear to be signs of forced entry at the apartment, another source said.

"She worked with kids at the [Brooklyn] Children's Museum and at our church," Braithwaite said. "She was a great role model and I'm very proud to have been her mother."

Fighting back tears, she added, "I have to be strong for my family. I can't break down now."

She said the runaway girl she had tried to help out was a cousin of Shannon's.

With a day off from school Tuesday because of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, Shannon had been waiting for her mom to return home from a shopping excursion so they could cash the teen's final paycheck from her summer stint working at the museum.

"She's not a child who runs around," said her aunt Marilyn Braithwaite, 49, who works with developmentally challenged children.

"Everywhere her mother goes, she goes with her."

As paramedics wheeled the girl's body from her home, the aunt and a grandmother leaped onto the gurney, screaming hysterically.

"I can't believe it," shrieked the girl's grandmother Doreen Braithwaite, 72. "I can't believe I saw my granddaughter laying down, dead. I can't believe it."

Neighbors said they heard loud cries after Shannon's mother returned home Tuesday.

"I heard her screaming," said neighbor Donna Lyons, 47. "[Shannon] was laying on her side. Her hands and face were cut. Her throat was slashed."

"She was a good child," Marilyn Braithwaite said of her niece. "She loved to dance."

Cousin, 15, arrested in knifing murder of Brooklyn teen Shannon Braithwaite

DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Wednesday, October 1st 2008, 11:05 PM

Heartbroken Marva Braithwaite speaks outside 71st Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn after brutal knife slaying of her daughter Shannon.

As a good Christian woman, Marva Braithwaite opened her home without hesitation to a prodigal cousin - only to find her kindness repaid in blood-soaked cruelty.

Troubled runaway Tiana Browne, 15, brutally stabbed and slashed Braithwaite's teen daughter to death just two days after finding refuge in the family's Brooklyn apartment, police said Wednesday.

The remorseless killer then ripped the dying victim's sneakers off her feet, ignoring the blood spreading across the foyer of the flat in Crown Heights, a police source said.

Browne was wearing the stolen sneakers when she was arrested Wednesday, the victim's mother said. Police also recovered other stolen property belonging to the slain girl, including birthday and Christmas gifts.

"I knew [Tiana] was a problem child. I knew she was a runaway," Marva Braithwaite told the Daily News. "But I never knew [she was] planning on killing my daughter.

"I never knew she had that much rage in her."

The mother collapsed weeping on her hands and knees outside the medical examiner's office in Brooklyn after identifying 16-year-old Shannon Braithwaite.

An autopsy showed the teen was stabbed at least 18 times. Police said her throat was slashed with a kitchen knife recovered at the scene.

Marva Braithwaite charged the attack was premeditated and motivated by Tiana's jealousy toward her daughter: "She was a young lady who had so much going for her, [and] that was taken away for material possessions."

At a vigil for Shannon outside her apartment building, her mother urged a gathering of more than 70 friends, neighbors and community leaders to do all they can to help their troubled kids "or you will be standing where I am today."

"When a child is messed up, the whole community is messed up," she said. "If a child has problems, you help that child."

In a Family Court complaint last year, the accused killer's mother charged that Tiana was mentally ill, a truant and a chronic runaway, a law enforcement source said.

After the girl bolted in June 2007, mother Jennifer Browne went to Family Court for help, but the Brownes ignored a Jan. 3 court date, and the case was dismissed.

Browne - who was charged with second-degree murder - ran away from home yet again on Aug. 25, authorities said.

Jennifer Browne turned to her first cousin Marva after the latest disappearance, and the good Samaritan agreed to let the girl move in Sunday.

Browne was unrepentant when she was arrested. Police found a cell phone, camera and MP3 player belonging to the slain honor student, the source said.

Browne fled the Braithwaite apartment and went to a friend's house to slip out of her bloody clothes, police said.

"She acted as if nothing was wrong, as if she hadn't just killed someone," the police source said.

The stolen phone was a Christmas present, while the camera was a present for Shannon's 16th birthday, her mother said.

Shannon was a quiet, churchgoing girl one month into her sophomore year at Vanguard High School, where she kept an A average.

Her mother was a devout Christian who hoped to turn Tiana's life around, Shannon's grandmother Doreen said between tears and loud wails of grief.

"God says forgive," the grandmother added. "But you can't forget."

agendar@nydailynews.com

Is history repeating itself?

Please do check this out:

Multimedia

Interactive

Financial crises: From the Depression to today

Is history repeating itself? Bailouts in the past century

Let Us Be Logical!

NORAD: Sarah Palin has no role in guarding U.S. airspace despite claims in Katie Couric interview

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Tuesday, September 30th 2008, 5:21 PM

CBS

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talks to CBS news anchor Katie Couric in their interview last Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - When Russian bombers approach American airspace and U.S. Air Force fighters are scrambled, Sarah Palin's phone doesn't ring.

The Alaska governor has no command authority over the guardians of U.S. airspace despite her recent suggestion otherwise.

"She doesn't have any role in that process," Air Force Maj. Allen Herritage, spokesman for the Alaska North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the Daily News.

"The authority to launch and respond to a Russian incursion lies with the Alaska NORAD Region commander" - Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, he said.

Palin said last week that her foreign policy experience includes facing the Russians.

"It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia, as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America - where do they go? It's Alaska," Palin told CBS' Katie Couric.

RELATED NUDE PAINTING OF SARAH PALIN IN CHICAGO TAVERN

"It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation," she said.

Moscow's bombers have skirted Alaskan airspace 20 times, thugh they have not violated it, during Palin's governorship, officials said.

When F-15 and F-22 interceptors scrambled from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage in response, John McCain's running mate was not speed-dialed with the news.

"The commander does not call the governor," Herritage said.

Steven Biegun, a McCain foreign policy adviser, said Palin is informed of the fly-bys by her National Guard commander.

The Alaska Air Guard, which Palin oversees, performs airspace-watching missions only under NORAD command, and does not fly interception sorties.

Palin did get an annual Air Force briefing in February.

"She asked a lot of questions and seemed generally curious," recalled Herritage, who was there. "She was very interested in Russian long-range aviation."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above article points to the foolish blunder that McCain made in picking this woman as his running mate. She is involved as well in too many controversies.

Below is another article concerning the so called Wall Street Crisis: You judge for yourself. Has Bush made blunder after blunder for which over 90 % of the time McCain has voted with? The evidence is in our faces. It is up to we the people to turn things around and run these Republicans out and make, I say MAKE the Democrates do what is best for us, "We the People"!

President Bush and other inept leaders are forgetting one tiny ingredient: YOU

Wednesday, October 1st 2008, 1:40 AM

Dharapak/AP

President Bush addresses the country's economic crisis on Tuesday.

All the elected and appointed officials who hold the life of the country in their hands parade in front of us and not only can't explain how to get us out of this, they can't even explain how we got here.

VOTE: WHO DESERVES BLAME?

At the head of this parade, of course, is a sunken-eyed, bustout President, who wants you to trust him with your money; a President who spends $10 billion a month on his war in Iraq, which has a $79 billion surplus because of oil revenues.

This is a President who hasn't been able to inspire this country or lead it for years and now can't even inspire or lead his own party, a President whose approval ratings are in the same kind of nosedive as the stock market.

RELATED: ANOTHER BAILOUT VOTE ON TAP

But he wants Congress and the country to trust him and trust his Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, another member of his crackerjack cabinet, who is mercifully set to follow him out the door.

"I assure our citizens and citizens around the world that this is not the end of the legislative process," George W. Bush said Tuesday, and no one was sure whether it was good news or not.

It is no longer just about Bush, even if so much of this happened on his watch. It is not just about far-right Republicans or Democrats on the far left. It is about all of them, to whom ideology is more important than actual thought; to whom holding onto their own jobs is more important than letting you hold onto yours.

The leadership of the country at a time of crisis has become an embarrassment, and a dangerous one at that. They speak in billions and trillions to people drowning in credit card debt; who can't get college loans, much less pay them off; who can't afford to put gas in their cars.

They talk about the value of shares and reduction of capital gains taxes to people who have no capital, have made no gains in such a long time that they can't even remember when they did, or when they felt as if they were ahead of the game.

"Yesterday the American taxpayer lost a trillion dollars," a Republican congressman named John Campbell said on television on Tuesday afternoon. And all you want to say to Campbell and all those like him is that, no, the American taxpayers didn't lose that kind of money on Monday.

They just lost more jobs, lost another home or car, lost the chance to get a mortgage.

The taxpayers didn't lose a trillion dollars.

They just couldn't come up with $25 for a MetroCard or the $50 to fill up their gas tank. Or make the $100 minimum payment on their credit cards.

So you have ideologues on the left and right fighting it out in Congress now, yelling constantly at each other - and at you - about the economic recovery package that Bush and Paulson have sent to them, the Democrats blaming the Republicans, even though Democrats could have passed this bill, and the Republicans yelling about socialism because they listen to the right-wing yahoos on the radio.

Even when there are modest gains in the stock market, the way there were Tuesday, the people of this country still lose a little more. Lose faith, lose confidence, fear they are about to lose everything. They lose more off their savings, off the future they had planned for themselves and their children, lose more of their dreams. It is because when they look for leadership they get all these people, both parties, on the far side of the clown line.

You have Nancy (Screaming) Pelosi, speaker of the House, acting like the speaker at a big-ticket fund-raiser back home in California, when she is trying to get Bush's bill, Paulson's bill, through Congress.

It was a shockingly inappropriate and tone-deaf performance by Pelosi at the worst possible moment, a speech that was supposed to be about George Bush that was really about her. Pelosi was more interested on Monday night in pointing fingers than doing her job, which meant getting a deal.

"I'm proud of the debate," she said at the time, and you wonder where you could find anyone anywhere who agreed with her.

Pelosi talked about all the work that Rep. Henry Waxman, another Democrat out of California and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is going to be doing on oversight and regulations in the coming days and weeks and months. You want to ask Pelosi, ask all of them, where the oversight was in Washington when the economy of this country was disappearing into a sinkhole.

Now Wall Street is lousy with bad paper, and we are supposed to believe that this flawed, $700 billion recovery plan that Bush has sent to Capitol Hill will be the beginning of some kind of dramatic turnaround. Only nobody believes him anymore. Nobody believes any of them.

They don't know how to talk to you, or listen to your concerns, or understand lives on which Wall Street doesn't keep score. They talk constantly about doing this for you.

Only they no longer have any idea who you are.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John McCain's fans are flipping as he flops

Monday, September 29th 2008, 4:00 AM

An unprecedented set of circumstances has changed before our eyes and everyone has been able to see them. Transformations have the dangerous rapidity of a werewolf under a full moon. Predators in full change stand before us with blood on their teeth or dressed in business suits but beginning to turn. Things have gotten hairy.

Some are thinkers, some are ideological hacks, all in the media. Thinkers rarely get in power, perhaps because they do not depend on slogans, and we all know that America would be nothing if most of its political thoughts could not fit on a campaign button.

But those thinkers are having their say and what they are saying is surprising because they have felt the anger, the disillusionment and the loss of confidence in everything from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue to one of the candidates in particular.

Perhaps most unexpected is the way that conservatives have begun to serve John McCain his head on a plate. George Will, easily one of the most eloquent and intellectually stimulating conservatives, has recently charged John McCain with not being fit for the presidency. He has become disgusted and disturbed by all of McCain's turnabouts, his shooting off his mouth before he knows anything or has a line anywhere close to actual information, and his melodramatic posturing of ideas that have no nuance and no heft. McCain's canceling his campaign in order to apparently try to steal some heroism from the financial crisis was, for Will, the final straw.

Will is not a supporter of McCain's opponent. He considers Barack Obama little more than a naive but charismatic windbag who has a lot to learn - and has disdainfully but not hysterically listed his many misgivings. But recently he made it clear that there are other considerations. While it might be painful in the short run, it is easier to learn than to change one's temperament. Sensibility is fate and Will has concluded that John McCain's would have tragic consequences for the country if he were elected.

David Brooks thinks that McCain has lost his way by repudiating his own record and giving in to a contrived version of political show business. Campaigns are little more than videos - constant shifting of position that might be dramatic but far from substantial. Brooks admires - or admired - the man when he actually lived up to his brand name as "a maverick." I think that part of the rage beneath McCain's words comes from the strain that being someone other than himself has imposed on him.

William Kristol is one of the neo-conservatives who gave Bush the intellectual basis for the invasion of Iraq and convinced him that it would be a grand campaign that would be greeted by the people of Iraq the way American troops were welcomed by the French after D-Day. They were wrong and not much has been heard of the stronger ones of the bunch but the upshot was an invasion and an occupation that has hemorrhaged money.

But now Kristol, after thinking about it and perhaps realizing that he has intellectually stepped in it already, doesn't buy the idea of the bailout proposed by Bush. Nor do a growing number of Republicans, even though the President "guarantees" us a long, hard way to go if $700 billion is not forked over almost immediately. Some say that the recalcitrant House Republicans are particularly ticked off and have lost all faith in Bush, whom they now react to as no more than a lame duck who has been shot on the porch and will stink up the property until removed.

So as we move into an uncertain future, which is what the future always is, even in the best of times, we keep hearing the blues and will continue to for some time. We are in a gigantic bucket and it will take us some effort and some years to get out of it.

crouch.stanley@gmail.com