WILLIAM RIVERS PITT ON BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

GEORGE LAKOFF FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

As Nate Silver, NY Times polling expert put it, “Instant polls conducted after the debate are suggestive of something between a tie and a modest win for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.”

Biden held his own and maybe a bit more. That was important. But President Obama has to do a lot better than that. He has to go beyond the policy wonk to be a moral leader once more. Here’s how Jennifer Granholm put it on her Current TV show video.

On the whole, the public and especially the undecided voters don’t keep track of policy details and which numbers are right. The worst thing the president can do is to just compare details of policy. That just elevates Romney to the status of an equal, who can come back with lies that will sound just as good if not better to most of the undecideds.

The tv debates are not primarily about policy details and the numbers in themselves. As Ronald Reagan showed, the debates are about choosing a moral leader. And we do this through a performance.

By now, most political junkies are familiar with Sheldon Adelson. The casino magnate and Republican Party benefactor - worth $20.5 billion according to Forbes magazine - is fully committed to defeating President Barack Obama, and to that end has pledged to spend as much as $100 million.

Beyond Adelson's anti-Obama advocacy lies a seemingly greater cause; un-wavering support for right wing Israeli politicians and organizations, and urging the US government to take more muscular action against Iran.

(Photo Credit: Will Durst)

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

If Sheldon Adelson were an ordinary guy, some might say that he is spending like a drunken sailor. But Adelson is no ordinary guy. The billionaire right wing casino magnate who is committed to expending perhaps as much as $100 million on this presidential campaign, is, as he recently described it, merely putting his money where his mouth is. And both his money and his mouth are writ large over the Republican Party's campaign to win the presidency and grab total control of both houses of Congress.

After spending millions of dollars to just about single-handedly keep Newt Gingrich in the Republican Party's presidential race earlier this year, Adelson is now all in when it comes to funding Mitt Romney's campaign. What is the latest campaign incursion by the man who was worth $20.5 billion according to the most recent Forbes magazine list of The World's Billionaires (ranking #14 on that list and #12 on the Forbes 400)?

He is putting up the lion's share of a $6.5 million dollar war chest aimed at convincing Jewish voters in several swing states (most notably South Florida) to abandon Obama.

PAUL BUCHHEIT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The list doesn't include our most grievous offenses, those of military and economic warfare against the rest of the world. Sinful enough is our behavior at home.


1. Sin against children

Perhaps "sanctity of life" ends at birth. According to Census Bureau figures, one out of every five American children lives in poverty. For blacks and Hispanics, it's one out of every three.

UNICEF has reported that the U.S. has a higher child poverty rate than every industrialized country except Romania. We are near the bottom in all measures of inequality that affect our children, including material well-being, health, and education.


2. Sin against the poor

The U.S. poverty rate grew from 11.3% to 15.0%, a 33% jump, in just 11 years. The impact was felt primarily by minorities and women. The median wealth for single black and Hispanic women is shockingly low, at just over $100 (compared to $41,500 for single white women).

Another shock. For every dollar of NON-HOME wealth owned by white families, people of color have only one cent.

Despite the continued economic assault on already-poor Americans, the number of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) cases has dropped by 60 percent over the last 16 years.

LYNN LARROW FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Ann Worries About Mitt's Mental Well Being: Headline in The Cleveland Leader

STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

When stuff starts happening that defy the conservative narrative, it does not occur to them that they might have gotten it wrong, but that someone else has fiddled or fixed the whole cause and effect thing.

Organized religion's war with science goes back thousands of years, It began the day when the first inquiring minds decided that not everything that happened in the natural world was the work of spirits. Back then religions protected their turf by just eliminating the problem. Later scientists like, Galileo and Copernicus were locked away until they agreed to stop spreading facts.

These days believers just create their own parallel reality. They produce junk science to counter any actual science that threatens their mystical belief structure. They then dress their fictional world up to ape the real world of science by building their own "museums" and theme parks where believers can experience a world that never existed -- Disneylands of delusion.

So, forget about trying to dissuade these religious conservatives of any of it. They are immune.

It's not enough for creationists to just create this parallel reality fabricated solely on wishful thinking. They must also libel the competition - real scientists -- whose findings are based on actual research and where the provable must always trump theory and wishful thinking.

Whether it's evolution, climate change or the actual age of the planet, if religious conservatives find their beliefs threatened by science, then the scientists must be up to something. They must be lying. Why? Because they are liberals. Or they must be lying because they are trying to drum up more "science business" for themselves. Whatever the reason, they MUST be lying.

Now, with their candidate slipping so badly in the polls against the president they hate so much, we see this conservative characteristic come once again to their emotional rescue. In response to the unimaginable - that voters might not care much for conservative remedies, their first instinct is to circle their self-delusional wagons. It can't be. It simply cannot be possible. Therefore it's not. Something must be rotten in Denmark... or is it Kenya?

Creationist Dinosaur with Saddle From BuzzFlash 2009

Walmart Warehouse Workers for Justice for BuzzFlash at Truthout

Workers have been on strike at the Walmart warehouse since September 15, 2012. The unfair labor practice strike was triggered by management’s illegal retaliation against workers attempting to present the company their concerns about wage theft, unsafe conditions and discrimination. They are demanding an end to retaliation against workers who speak up about poor conditions.

Warehouse workers labor under extreme temperatures, lifting thousands of boxes that can weigh up to 250 lbs each. Workplace injuries are common; workers rarely earn a living wage or have any benefits.

Warehouse Workers for Justice is an Illinois worker center dedicated to fighting for quality jobs in the distribution industry that can sustain families and communities.

Photo Courtesy of Warehouse Workers for Justice

WILLIAM RIVERS PITT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has announced that an anonymous GOP Senator has blocked a bill to provide veterans and their spouses with a Cost of Living increase in the benefits they receive.

You read that right. What has been since time out of mind a thoroughly non-partisan and non-controversial annual act has been anonymously blocked by some Senate Republican for reasons passing understanding. This bill affects 3.9 million veterans and their families, and the cowardly ball of filth who did this has not come forward.

"This is stunning" said Senator Murray. "Particularly because we still don't have any indication why someone would block a cost-of-living adjustment for veterans and their surviving spouses, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet. This adjustment for our disabled veterans is hard earned and well deserved."