I just received my sample ballot and these are the choices for President:

John McCain and Sarah Palin, Republican
Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Democrat
Gloria La Riva and Eugene Puryear, Party for Socialism and Liberation – Florida
Chuck Baldwin and Darrell Castle, Constitution Party of Florida
Gene Amondson and Leroy Pletten, Prohibition Party
Bob Barr and Wayne A. Root, Libertarian
Thomas Robert Stevens and Alden Link, Objectivist Party
James Harris and Alyson Kennedy, Florida Socialist Workers Party
Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, Green Party
Alan Keyes and Brian Rohrbough, America’s Independent Party
Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez , Ecology Party of Florida
Brian Moore and Stewart Alexander, Socialist Party of Florida
Charles Jay and John Wayne Smith, Boston Tea Party/Personal Choice Party
plus space for a Write-In.

If you don’t have money in the market it was amusing to watch what Wall Street has been doing. The panic was announced, and they panicked. The abysmal Paulson Plan was rejected and they panicked. The not quite as abysmal plan was passed, and they panicked. The Brown Plan was finally adopted and the “irrational exuberance” took off. The reality that the Plan steadied the credit markets, but everyone was already in a recession, took hold and it was back to panic.

If you were paying reasonable attention to the real world, the credit crisis was totally predictable years ago. The recession has been unavoidable since last year. If you look at the real numbers that were used in the last century, the US has been in a recession since the late Fall of last year.

Robert Peston makes a couple of important points in his post, Spend, Spend, Spend:

But they’ve been powerless to prevent the banks contracting the amount of credit they’re providing, which has reduced the ability of companies and individuals to invest and spend, and risks turning an economic slowdown into something rather worse.

[Read more →]

Position: 23.8 N 58.1 W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [040°] near 25 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [110 kph].
Wind Gusts: 85 mph.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 145 miles [230 km].
Minimum central pressure: 987 mb ↑.

It is 505 miles [810 km] Northeast of the Leeward Islands. The center of the storm went through the Anegada Passage between the Virgin Islands and St. Maarten. It is rapidly weakening, dropping 3 categories since this morning.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]