|
|
|
The U.S. House has passed the $700 billion "Wall Street bailout," bill formally known as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, by a vote of 263 to 171 today. When the bill was first introduced in the House on Sept. 29, only two of Georgia's 13 members of Congress supported it, Rep. Sanford Bishop of Columbus and Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon, both Democrats. It was defeated. Today when it returned to the House laden with incentives for passage after its approval by the Senate on Oct. 1, two more Georgians, also Democrats, voted yes, Congressman John Lewis and Congressman David Scott, both of Atlanta. Lewis sent out a press statment quoting the speech he made explaining his vote switch: ( Full article and comments) In this week’s edition of The Sunday Paper (the “Cash Crisis” issue), we explore the Wall Street debacle. We also talk with finance experts Alexander Barinov at the University of Georgia and Ivo Welch at Brown University about the economic plans of Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his opponent, Democrat Barack Obama. Here's what they told us about the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout: ( Full article and comments)
This Saturday, Sept. 27th 12 noon to 4 p.m.in Centennial Olympic Park. Vaccinations are FREE for the whole family. ( Full article and comments) It's not local, but it's so great, I have to say so: It isn't often that militaries pull off something truly brilliant. But the Colmbian military did. On Wednesday, the Colombian military, having stealthily infiltrated the leadership of the terrorist organization FARC, executed a flawless ruse, rescuing former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three American contractors and 11 others--all of whom have been held captive by FARC for six years. ( Full article and comments) If you've had trouble reaching a specific public official recently, I want to hear from you. Whether you're a member of the media or non-media citizen, if you know the name of the person with whom you need to speak and that person is in fact the person in charge of the area about which you need information, there is no sense whatsoever in wasting time and energy dealing with PR people who take it upon themselves to decide whether you really need to talk with that person or not. This is not the way that responsible and accountable governments do business. This is the way that people who don't want to face the public do business. It also seems to be the way that the Georgia Department of Human Resources does business, based on the latest round of phone-hockey I've endured. Members of the media, members of the citizenry, if you've run into the same wall of baloney, I want to hear from you. Email stephanieramage@sundaypaper.com ( Full article and comments) Given Ireland's recent rejection of the Lisbon Treaty and subsequent news coverage that showed many of the Irish to be far less educated and articulate than their American cousins would like to imagine (some Irish voters claimed they voted against the treaty because it would infringe on local tax rights while others thought it might somehow affect same sex marriage laws), it might help to remember the poetry of William Butler Yeats and W.H. Auden, or the prose of Jonathan Swift, or of course the stories of that fabulously wandering storyteller, James Joyce. Yes, especially him. Today is Bloomsday, the significance of which derives from the novel, Ulysses, written by Joyce and published in 1922. The entire story takes place in Dublin on June 16th, 1904, and involves a protagonist named Leopold Bloom, hence the moniker, Bloomsday. So, Happy Bloomsday. Lift a pint, and share a passage or two. ( Full article and comments)
In the wake of the Democratic nomination race (that we never thought would end), we at SP have scoured campaign coverage to produce some interesting thoughts from both McCain and Obama. Both camps seem to be fairly optimistic as they hit the trail: "You think about all the people who had to knock down barriers for me to walk through this door, and the challenges they went through were so much more difficult, so much more severe, and the risks they took were so much greater that I will say, last night standing in that auditorium, it struck me that it was testimony to them."Sen. Barack Obama, while walking through a hallway in the U.S. Senate, just hours after he was named the victor in the Democratic primary. “What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty sound bites and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections." Republican Sen. John McCain, on the prospect of holding a series of town-hall debates with Democratic Sen. Barack Obama prior to the 2008 Presidential Election. ( Full article and comments) Yesterday, the New York Times published a story about GOP presidential candidate ("presumptive nominee") Sen. John McCain praising the heroism of Georgia congressman, and Obama supporter, Rep. John Lewis. It may have seemed a strangely non-partisan thing to do on the campaign trail, but it was typically McCainian in its candor: In reference to the African-American community, McCain said "there will be many people who will not vote for me." Today, Lewis responded as graciously to McCain as McCain had been to him. ( Full article and comments) If you look at the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s page A5 story in the March 16 edition, “Five Years in Iraq: Soldiers Talk About How It Felt,” you immediately think that even soldiers currently serving in the armed forces oppose the war. That’s because the AJC shamefully misused and actually distorted quotes used as the pullquotes—the boldfaced quotes placed under the pictures of the soldiers they interviewed—in order to express the AJC’s own stand against the war. ( Full article and comments) I'm thinking of getting together to play some D&D in memory of its creator Gary Gygax who died last week. However, I would have to re-roll for my characters since I haven't played in 20 years. ( Full article and comments) |