Chicago Daily Observer

Police short sales and block them, says Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox. Fire the SEC chairman, says John McCain. Investigate those short sellers, say state attorneys general. Hold hearings to grill Wall Streeters says Nancy Pelosi. “Fire the whole Trickle-Down, On-Your-Own, Look-the-Other-Way crowd” says Barack Obama, and “get rid of this whole do-nothing approach to our economic problems.” The Democratic presidential candidate wants public affirmation of his argument that the whole free-market philosophy of economics has been wrong.

One, shouldn’t the MSM look closer at the conflicts of interest in their own newsrooms? I’m not talking liberal bias, but issues like David Gregory’s marriage to a senior executive at Fannie and Andrea Mitchell’s marriage to Alan Greenspan. I’m sure there are many other conflicts in D.C., from the lowest level in the newsroom on up. For example, did David Gregory ever ask about the financial health of Fannie Mae during all those White House press corps briefings he attended?

Two, I would love to see the internal billing records of the New York Times and find out how many reporter hours were spent in the last year trying to uncover John McCain’s alleged relationship with a female lobbyist and compare that to the amount of reporter hours spent covering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Three, before Congress adjourned for the summer, the biggest issue on the Dems’ ... Read More...

Creative Loafing Inc., which owns the Chicago Reader and five other alternative weeklies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday in Tampa, Florida, where the company’s headquartered. CEO Ben Eason didn’t want to put a number on Creative Loafing’s total debt, but it grew considerably last year when the company bought the Reader and the Washington City Paper, and today it “owes more than it can pay back.”

In a telephone conversation with executives of his newspapers, Eason sounded relentlessly chipper, and he emphasized that all his company seeks from bankruptcy is the opportunity to restructure its debts. Liquidation is not being considered. “This is a profitable business,” he declared. “The company has a good cash flow. It has a good market position. Online revenues more than doubled in the last year.” But print revenues have fallen off dramatically over the past year at Creative Loafing and throughout the newspaper ... Read More...

Speaker Pelosi’s speech before the House today was remarkable, but not in a good way. She was trying to round up votes for a bailout package that shes claims to believe is essential for the stability of the American economy. She can’t, and doesn’t want to, pass the bill without a substantial number of Republican votes. So what does she do? You would think she would say, “let’s pass this emergency measure now, in the best interests of the country, and talk about who is to blame later.” Instead, Pelosi began her speech with a highly partisan tirade against “Bush” and “Republican” economic policies, which were allegedly to blame for this situation. She focused on an attack on the growth of federal deficits, which clearly are at best tangential to the current crisis. That, to me, is the sort of irresponsible thing you do when (a) you’re not claiming there ... Read More...

Since the subprime crisis first became evident, we have steadfastly believed the US would avoid a recession. And, at least so far, it has. But with today’s vote, two things have happened. First, Congress finally said enough already with the knee-jerk responses to the crisis by Treasury. Second, any immediate relief (if there was really any coming) to credit problems and confidence has been put off. However, these issues will be short-lived; once the nation is able to focus on the long-term again, all will be well.

Up to this point, economic weakness has been isolated in the housing market or financials exposed to it, and in sectors affected by energy (airlines and autos). The weaknesses in these areas have not dragged down overall GDP. Real GDP grew at a 2.8% annual rate in the second quarter and is up 2.1% in the past year. Excluding home construction, ... Read More...

High 106.91

Low 95.04
Settle 96.37

——AYES 205—-

Ackerman
Allen
Andrews
Arcuri
Bachus
Baird
Baldwin
Bean
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Castle
Clarke
Clyburn
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Cooper
Costa
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Tom
DeGette
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Donnelly
Doyle
Dreier
Edwards (TX)
Ehlers
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Read More...

WHAT exactly does a “community organizer” do? Barack Obama’s rise has left many Americans asking themselves that question. Here’s a big part of the answer: Community organizers intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to customers with poor credit.

In the name of fairness to minorities, community organizers occupy private offices, chant inside bank lobbies, and confront executives at their homes – and thereby force financial institutions to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgages to low-credit customers.

In other words, community organizers help to undermine the US economy by pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans. And Obama has spent years training and funding the organizers who do it.

John McCain has been throwing “Hail Marys” for weeks. Now it’s time for him to start reciting them.

And throw in a few “Our Fathers” while he’s at it.

Might also toss in Sarah Palin’s voodoo preacher to save him from witchcraft.

As the lyrics to the classic “September Song” say, “the days dwindle down to a precious few” and little may be left for him but the power of prayer.

McCain’s numbers have been on a slow, steady decline for a couple of weeks now and Barack Obama’s continue on the way up. Sunday’s Gallup tracking poll, which included one full day of polling following the first debate, showed Obama with an 8-point lead, 50–42 percent.

All the other trackers have Obama up by at least 5 points, including the Republican-leaning Rasmussen Report—a favorite of the unctuous conservative commentator Larry Kudlow.

As to the debate itself, regardless of the ... Read More...

Sightings 9/29/08

Pulpit Freedom from the IRS

—Martin E. Marty

Less noticed than its law-breaking advocates hoped it would be, given the economic turmoil of the week, dozens of churches defied federal regulations and used their pulpits yesterday to challenge IRS regulations, which insist that tax exempt organizations dare not spend a “substantial part of [their] activities in carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation.” When this line was added to the tax code, the intention was not to target religious organizations but to deny tax-exemption to “sham” or “front” organizations which used religion to propagate a particular agenda. Also added to the code in 1954 by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson was a denial of tax exemption to organizations that “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distribution of statements), any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.”

Walgreen Co. said Monday higher sales and cost-cutting boosted its fiscal fourth-quarter profit 12 percent amid a difficult economic environment.

Profit for the quarter ended Aug. 31 increased to $443 million, or 45 cents per share, from $396.5 million, or 40 cents per share a year earlier. Results include a $79 million vacation accrual adjustment. Revenue rose 9 percent to $14.6 billion from $13.42 billion last year.

WaMu Recognized as Top Diverse Employer—Again
Company ranks in top ten of Hispanic Business’ Diversity Elite and earns perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index

SEATTLE, WA (September 24, 2008) – Washington Mutual, Inc. (NYSE:WM), one of the nation’s leading banks for consumers and small businesses, has once again been recognized as a top employer by Hispanic Business magazine and the Human Rights Campaign.

Hispanic Business magazine recently ranked WaMu sixth in its annual Diversity Elite list, which names the top 60 companies for Hispanics. The company was honored specifically for its efforts to recruit Hispanic employees, reach out to Hispanic consumers and support Hispanic communities and organizations.

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) civil rights organization, also awarded WaMu its second consecutive 100 percent score in the organization’s 2009 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which measures progress in ... Read More...

On September 29th, the Chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth & Prosperity Ron Gidwitz joined Don Wade and Roma to explain what should happen to Governor Blagojevich for going around lawmakers and spending money that wasn’t approved of for a vast health care program

Federal prosecutors will pursue their investigation of the Blagojevich administration’s notorious pay-to-play politics. Having the cooperation of Rezko, once one of Blagojevich’s closest confidants, would greatly help to determine if the governor was involved in criminal wrongdoing. All the rest of us—lawmakers, political leaders, citizens—can do is wait for the prosecutors to complete their investigation.

But Blagojevich’s attempt to go around lawmakers and spend money they didn’t approve for a vast health care program may be just as insidious as his pay-to-play politics. His effort to expand health care through the program known as FamilyCare was soundly rejected by the Illinois legislature. But he did it anyway, spending millions of dollars to broaden eligibility for state-funded health care to people with higher family incomes.

News Anchor, Russell Kinsaul: Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad during the presidential campaign.

News 4’s John Mills is live at the County Election Board in Maplewood. He’s been learning more about which members of law enforcement are getting involved in this. John, tell us more about this.

John Mills, reporter: Russell, good evening. Prosecutors and sheriffs from across Missouri are joining something called the “Barack Obama Truth Squad.” Two high-profile prosecutors are part of the team. We met them this afternoon in the Central West this afternoon. They are Jennifer Joyce of the city (and) Bob McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. They will be reminding voters that Barack Obama is a Christian, who wants to cut taxes for anyone making less than $250,000 a year. They also say they plan to respond ... Read More...