Here is the reason that I am for the 'bridge loan' to the auto industry: it's about the jobs.

Certainly, there need to be conditions on the money, but those conditions need to lead to developing new technology in the industry that save the current jobs at risk, and create opportunity for new jobs.

Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson's reason for the strategic change in the use of the $700 billion bailout money, from shoring up bad bank assets, to capitalizing banks, so that they will have the confidence to make loans follows the same 'trickle down' theory of economics that hasn't worked in the past eight years.

Here you see the an autopsy of a political defeat. The reason for the defeat: denial.

I happen to like politics and even though I do have a particular political leaning I also happen to like a good contest. I think it serves America best when there is one and my personal opinion is the Presidential Election of 2008 may have turned into one. It didn't (objectively speaking) and the post election apologetics constitute an interesting post mortem.

I understand that the party in power usually gets the blame when things are bad. It happened to Jimmy Carter in 1980, it happened to George H.W. Bush in 1992 and while partisans don't like it, it's fair. And there is an element of that same situation nearly 30 years later. But I think there are some other elements at work as well.

To date, 19 men, unfairly prosecuted and falsely imprisoned, have had their Dallas County convictions overturned through DNA technology that was unavailable at the time of prosecution.

Classic liberalism pertains to ideas tracing back to James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in the U.S. context that stress, among other things, equal rights, individual liberties, and protection of individuals from 'intrusions by government or other groups' - such as religious groups. (New Day Begun)

"...the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both."

Paulo Freire, Educator, 1921 - 1997

Wyshina Harris was a remarkable woman.

I say 'was' because she was murdered this morning in a senseless act of violence.

I haven't written about the problems with the Dallas Independent School District because: a) the presidential election has been so 'top-of-mind'; and, b) it is such a soap opera that its a hard subject with which to keep up. Let me see if I can give you a decent thumbnail (readers from Dallas can feel free to reply and fill in the blanks).

Back in May the school district had a bond election. Generally that's considered a great thing. Facilities, on the whole, get much needed improvements, new buildings, etc.

I voted against it. I did so because the district, so fraught with examples of lax financial management which, to be fair, had been a part of past administrations and had only come to light during current superintendent Michael Hinojosa's term, had failed to have a timely audit. That's right: the school district was about to ask for more than a billion dollars without telling citizens the state of its fiscal affairs. They were saying in essence, "Let's get the bond package passed first then we'll get the audit completed."

I don't know anyone who believes the current economic downturn in our country is going to get better anytime soon. In fact, everything I hear, and everyone to whom I talk, forecasts that things will get much worse before it gets better.

Most of us are optimistic about the change in administration - and rightfully so. We cling to the hope that a fresh face, new ideas and a new spirit of bi-partisan cooperation will make things better for all of us. But President-elect Obama, was right: the change needed in our country is not brought about by the election of a new president. This really isn't about him, its about us. Weathering this fiscal storm is as much about what we can do for one another as it is about what Washington will do for us.

The challenge facing our country over the next couple of years, at least, is a government that will be asked to do so much: bailing out banks; bailing out other financial institutions (include American Express to the list of corporations asking for help); bailing out states; bailing out the auto industry; creating an economy based on the manufacturing of something vs. consumption.

A year or so ago, when we were marveling at a rapidly rising stock market and scoffing at anyone who suggested that it was basically an uber pyramid scheme, it was suggested that poor people needed more self discipline, a greater concern for family, more accountability and they needed to correct misplaced priorities. Now we find out that one reason we are in this mess, because working people, financial institutions and other corporations, needed to exercise more self discipline, more accountability, greater (more realistic) concern for their families' financial future and better priorities.

Almost exclusively, talk about the effect of the $700 billion bailout on the American taxpayer, usually implies the cost to the middle class. The most recent reports of AIG excess trouble us all, but more than the middle class is affected.

Take Regino Romero, a cook at the Crystal City Hilton Hotel outside of Washington, D.C. Romero works full time, makes $13.84 an hour, is a single father with three children. His job comes with benefits, pays $450 a week. He's renting out the basement of his town home for $400 a month and has listed the third bedroom of his apartment to rent at $350 a month.

Regino is struggling to reach the middle class, but the break up of his marriage, low wages and the mortgage meltdown have him stuck.