Last week, Democratic Congressman Barney Frank told the editorial board of the Standard-Times newspaper in New Bedford, Mass., that he supports an expansion of entitlement programs. Where will the money come from? Some of it may come from cutting the military’s budget by 25 percent, the rest will come from higher taxes.       

Here’s an excerpt and a link:

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On Friday, Oct. 24, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of execution for Troy Davis who was convicted of the Aug. 19, 1989 murder of 27-year-old Savannah police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
 The stay was granted on the same day that more than 100 members of the clergy sent a letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue stating, "We are distressed by the inability of the appeals courts to provide a hearing or new trial to examine evidence that Troy Davis did not murder Mark MacPhail. We are distressed that in a case based solely on witness testimony the unprecedented number of witness recantations has not impressed the courts enough to re-examine the case. 

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Doug Blackmon over at the Wall Street Journal has written a fascinating article about  the descendants of slaves owned by John McCain's family in Mississippi. It is a heartwarming story about the "black McCains" and the "white McCains" reaching out to each other to come to grips with the past. 
Here's a link and an excerpt:  "When George McCain was killed in a traffic accident in 2003, Frank Bryant, the aged former sharecropper, invited to the funeral Bill McCain, the senator's cousin, who owns the remaining 1,500 acres of Teoc plantation and lives nearby. It was the beginning of a modern dialogue between the two families as equals. At the service, Mr. McCain stood in the family section with the black McCains."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122419511761942501.html?mod=article-outset-box
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Georgia Congressman John Lewis has sent out a statement to clarify an earlier statement that seemed to draw comparisons between GOP presidential candidate John McCain along with vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin and notoriously racist /segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace. In his statement today, Lewis says he did not compare the two to Wallace. So, here are both statements for you, the readers, to review in order to draw your own conclusions:

Statement #1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 11, 2008

Rep. John Lewis On Hostility of McCain-Palin Campaign

“As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

“During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

“As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.”

Statement #2

Rep. John Lewis Clarifies Misinterpretations of his Earlier Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 11, 2008


"A careful review of my earlier statement would reveal that I did not compare Sen. John McCain or Gov. Sarah Palin to George Wallace. It was not my intention or desire to do so. My statement was a reminder to all Americans that toxic language can lead to destructive behavior. I am glad that Sen. McCain has taken some steps to correct divisive speech at his rallies. I believe we need to return to civil discourse in this election about the pressing economic issues that are affecting our nation." (Full article and comments)

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: 
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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:

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This Saturday, Sept. 27th 12 noon to 4 p.m.in Centennial Olympic Park. Vaccinations are FREE for the whole family.
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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.

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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

 

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 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 16^th, 1904, and involves a protagonist named Leopold Bloom, hence the moniker, Bloomsday. So, Happy Bloomsday. Lift a pint, and share a passage or two.

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