Noriega-Cornyn II reaction

None from here; I fell asleep. Those damned 7:30 a.m. dental appointments make for a day too long for this intrepid reporter. Here's what others had -- pre- and post-debate ...

--Did Burka really ask any of these questions?

-- R. G. Ratcliffe live-blogged; his conclusion is here. It looks like he could have written that before the debate. The preceding posts are a better account of the issues and answers; it sounds like John Corndog took the McNasty approach.

-- Our partisans also had the blow-by-blow; theirs too.

-- Socratic Gadfly has his usual caustic take (that's a good thing) and a better live-blog.

-- Prairie Fire Journal is a little irritated.

-- Victoria reminds us that there have been better faceoffs in history.

Noriega-Cornyn II tonight on PBS

Houston PBS affiliate KUHT-8 had last week's first round, and the six Texas Supreme Court justices and challengers all debated last Sunday evening in a joint appearance at South Texas College of Law, and tonight features the last of the two debates between the contestants for the United States Senate (apparently Yvonne Schick, the Libertarian, isn't going to be included in this one).

Here are the Texas PBS affiliates broadcasting it (it will also be live on C-SPAN 2):

Amarillo KACV-TV (PBS) - Channel 2
(delayed - will air at 9 p.m.)

Houston KUHT-TV (PBS) - Channel 8
KRIV-TV (FOX) - Channel 26 (delayed - will air at 10:30 p.m.)

Austin KLRU-TV (PBS) - Channel 18

Killeen KNCT-TV (PBS) - Channel 46
(delayed - will air at 9 p.m.)

Beaumont KBMT-TV (ABC) - Channel 12
(delayed - will air at 10:30 p.m.)

Lubbock KTXT-TV (PBS) - Channel 5
KJTV-CA (FOX) - Channel 32

College Station KAMU-TV (PBS) - Channel 15

Lufkin/Nacogdoches KTRE-TV (ABC) - Channel 9
(delayed - will air at 11:05 p.m.)

Corpus Christi
KEDT-TV (PBS) - Channel 16
KDF-TV (Ind.) - Channel 47

Odessa KPBT-TV (PBS) - Channel 36

Dallas/Fort Worth KERA-TV (PBS) - Channel 13
KUVN-TV (Univisión) - Channel 23 - en Español (delayed - will air Sat, Oct. 18 at 10 a.m.)

San Antonio KLRN-TV (PBS) - Channel 9

Tyler/Longview/Jacksonville KLTV-TV (ABC) - Channel 7 (delayed - will air at 11:05 p.m.)

El Paso KCOS-TV (PBS) - Channel 13 (will air live at 7 p.m. MT)

Waco KWBU-TV (PBS) - Channel 34

Harlingen/Weslaco/Brownsville/McAllen
KMBH-TV (PBS) - Channel 60
KGBT-TV (CBS) - Channel 4
(delayed - will air at 12:30 a.m.)

Wichita Falls KSWO-DT (ABC) - Channel 11.3
(will air live, with replay on Fri., Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.)

Central Texas
(Austin, Fredericksburg, Killeen, Temple, Waco) Time Warner Cable News 8 (will air live; replays on 10/16 at 10:30 p.m. and 10/17 at noon; also available on News 8; On Demand - TWC Channel 1408)

And if you can only catch it on the radio there are listings at the link.

Don't you feel just a little bit sorry for the old guy?

Yes, he's been a mean, nasty, sorry old bastard, but then again something just isn't right with him...




And then there's this one.



It's not been PhotoShopped.


I know what this is all about -- at the conclusion of the debate, after Obama shook Bob Scheiffer's hand, McCain was going to go around the desk in the same direction to do so as well. But Scheiffer moved to his right, towards McCain's side of the table, and McCain had to change direction and come back to his side. He made a goofy face and a little back-and-forth dance when he did so, and this photo is that moment.

When people talk about Obama being poised, calm, collected -- that kind of ridiculous Obama Cool thing, where absolutely nothing gets to the guy -- it has to be considered in the context of John McCain's ... lack thereof.

There's no point in talking about anything the two men said when the images will be all that anyone remembers. Well, that and Joe the Plumber dude. He's going to be so rich he's going to have a huge tax increase next year.

Update: After the revelations that Joe isn't actually a plumber, that he owes back taxes, and that he is related round-about to Charles Keating ... I'm convinced that Joe the Plumber is actually Jeff Gannon in his latest (failed) incarnation.

"Understanding Poverty", at DiverseWorks

"Parents left me in a motel room at age eight. Put cigarette butts out on my face. Tore my hair out. Left never to return again. I remember lying in that motel bed with the cartoons going and thinking, 'Mommy will be back soon.' I'm 37 years old; Mommy still hasn't come back." -- Judy Pruitt

On December 22, 1991, the Houston Chronicle published a story about a 21-year-old street kid known as "Snow." The moniker had been tattooed on her right arm, permanently stained under the "pure as the driven snow" fair skin from which she took her street name. Snow's story chronicled her street life in Montrose, raised by a household of transvestite prostitutes after being abandoned by her abusive parents. She begged, tricked and stole to survive, had run-ins with the law and delivered three children (each by a different father). One baby was adopted; two were taken by Child Protective Services.

Not only was the story an example of a kind of journalism that is steadily disappearing from mainstream newspapers (gritty, in-depth, real), but it also contained a stunning photojournalism element, which is the main subject of the current DiverseWorks exhibit "Understanding Poverty."

Ben Tecumseh DeSoto was a staff photographer at the Houston Chronicle for 25 years (1981-2006). On assignment in 1988, DeSoto met Snow, whose real name is Judy Pruitt, and the meeting kicked off a relationship — and a kind of collaboration — that continues to today. The photos on display convey narratives that delve into the traumatized psychology of poverty and reveal hard truths about the broken-down system that perpetuates it.

More from Troy Schulze of the Houston Press about the exhibit.

More from DeSoto about his exhibit, including this:

"As a community, we’re not doing enough to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves,” says DeSoto. “You have Jesus saying, ‘The poor you’ll have with you always.’ Well, that brings up the question, what are we gonna do with them? You can look at things from the attitude that people who fall behind, get left behind. But do we really want to live like that? If you fall behind, you get to live on the streets until the cops tell you to move on. Do we really want a society like that? I think we can do better."

*This post is part of my contribution to Blog Action Day.

None dare call it socialism

When the federal government uses 250 billion dollars of taxpayer money and buys the stock of the nine largest US banks, that's called 'nationalizing the banking system'. Or in other words, socialism. However our media specifically avoided using those words to describe what was happening until today. Last Friday:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday that the U.S. government was working on a plan to buy stock in financial institutions by using part of the $700 billion authorized by Congress to stabilize the financial system.

"We are working to develop a standardized program that is open to a broad array of financial institutions," Paulson said.

"Such a program would be designed to encourage the raising of new private capital to complement public capital," he said following a meeting of G-7 finance ministers and central bankers.

Positively Orwellian, Mr. Paulson. On Sunday some truth slipped through, though ...

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told international leaders on Sunday that isolationism and protectionism could worsen the spreading financial crisis. With a new trading week dawning, U.S. lawmakers urged quick action by the Bush administration on measures to make direct purchases of bank stock to help unlock lending.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said an administration proposal to inject federal money directly into certain banks, in effect partially nationalizing the banking system, “is gaining steam.”

“I am hopeful that tomorrow, the Treasury will announce that they’re doing it. And they have to do it quickly ... markets are waiting,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

And then yesterday ...

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. outlined the plan to nine of the nation’s leading bankers at an afternoon meeting, officials said. He essentially told the participants that they would have to accept government investment for the good of the American financial system.

Of the $250 billion, which will come from the $700 billion bailout approved by Congress, half is to be injected into nine big banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, officials said. The other half is to go to smaller banks and thrifts. The investments will be structured so that the government can benefit from a rebound in the banks’ fortunes.

Well at least the stock market liked the idea (those damned Social Fascists):

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 936 points, or 11 percent, the largest single-day gain in the American stock market since the 1930s. The surge stretched around the globe: in Paris and Frankfurt, stocks had their biggest one-day gains ever, responding to news of similar multibillion-dollar rescue packages by the French and German governments.

See, the genuine banking experts -- the ones in Europe -- told the U.S. (as in 'us') that we had to do this, because they couldn't stand to watch Henry Paulson and George W Bush screw up the bailout, too:

First you mess up the world's financial system. Then you blow the rescue of it. Now let's show you how to do it properly.

That, in a nutshell, is the less-than-flattering message European governments are sending to the U.S. as they mount their own gigantic bank bailout. The plans, announced Monday after two weeks of dithering, involve Britain, Germany, France and some others recapitalizing national banks that require help, and providing state guarantees and other measures to kick-start the stalled credit market. The details are strikingly different from the U.S. approach adopted by U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and the Federal Reserve Board. And there's a big reason for that: The Europeans think Paulson got it badly wrong, and have watched aghast as he failed to restore confidence in the world's financial system.

Doesn't anybody besides me think that Hugo Chavez has the more sensible approach to nationalizing industry within Venezuela? He just takes it over, he doesn't pay anything for it or assume any of its debt.

Barack Obama could never be the socialist that George W Bush has proven himself to be. Not even if he successfully nationalizes health care (something the American people actually want to see happen).

So to review, two things happened yesterday that hadn't happened since the 1930s: the government took over the banks, and the stock market promptly went up nearly a thousand points.

Woo Hoo! We have staved off a depression recession. And if you buy that, I've got some newspaper companies and automobile manufacturers for sale real cheap, too.