Truthout roundup

Obama Regains Momentum in Tight Race
http://www.truthout.org/article/obama-regains-momentum-tight-race
Liz Sidoti, The Associated Press: "The party conventions and the Sarah Palin surge behind them, Barack Obama and John McCain are neck and neck again in their race for the White House - with the momentum and the political environment tilting toward the Democrats.... 'The tide came in, but the tide has gone back out. We're back to where we were' in early August, said Alex Castellanos, a GOP operative and veteran of President Bush's re-election campaign. 'Republicans are in for a tough week.' If not six."

Paul Krugman Crisis Endgame
http://www.truthout.org/article/crisis-endgame
Paul Krugman, The New York Times: "On Sunday, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, tried to draw a line in the sand against further bailouts of failing financial institutions; four days later, faced with a crisis spinning out of control, much of Washington appears to have decided that government isn't the problem, it's the solution. The unthinkable - a government buyout of much of the private sector's bad debt - has become the inevitable. The story so far: the real shock after the feds failed to bail out Lehman Brothers wasn't the plunge in the Dow, it was the reaction of the credit markets. Basically, lenders went on strike: U.S. government debt, which is still perceived as the safest of all investments - if the government goes bust, what is anything else worth? - was snapped up even though it paid essentially nothing, while would-be private borrowers were frozen out."

Obama: Fire the Whole Trickle-Down, on-Your-Own, Look-the-Other-Way Crowd
http://www.truthout.org/article/obama-fire-whole-trickle-down-your-own-look-other-way-crowd
Terence Hunt, The Associated Press: "Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised fresh ideas Thursday to calm America's financial meltdown and help struggling families avoid mortgage foreclosure, saying 'this is not a time for fear, it's not a time for panic.' Obama also heaped criticism and sarcasm on Republican rival John McCain and mocked his promise to fire the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission if elected. 'I think that's all fine and good but here's what I think,' Obama said. 'In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path.'"

US Soldier in Iraq Shoots Two American Sergeants
http://www.truthout.org/article/us-soldier-iraq-shoots-two-american-sergeants
Nicholas Spangler, McClatchy Newspapers: "An American soldier shot and killed two U.S. sergeants Sunday morning at a base southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said Thursday. The shooter's name and rank haven't been released, and the military would say only that the soldier is being held pending a review by a military magistrate. The dead men are Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, of Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley Durbin, of Dallas. 'It was a useless, bizarre, terrible thing,' Dawson's stepmother, Maxine Mathis, said Thursday."

Michael Ettlinger and David Madland Second Stimulus Needed to Create Jobs and Revive Our Economy
http://www.truthout.org/article/second-stimulus-needed-create-jobs-and-revive-our-economy
Michael Ettlinger and David Madland, The Center for American Progress: "With 605,000 jobs lost so far this year and an unemployment rate topping 6 percent, the U.S. economy-and especially its labor market-needs another shot in the arm. The economic stimulus package passed in February gave the economy a helpful prod and staved off an economic contraction over the summer. The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve are intervening in financial markets on a massive scale to hold off a complete collapse wrought by their own and other agencies' incompetent supervision of Wall Street business practices. But other stimulus measures are needed as well."

VIDEO Barack Obama: Fire Them All
http://www.truthout.org/video/barack-obama-fire-them-all
Responding to John McCain's call for the firing of the chairman of the Security Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, Obama called for voters to "fire the whole Trickle-Down, On-Your-Own, Look-the-Other-Way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don't just get rid of one guy, get rid of this administration, get rid of this philosophy, get rid of the do nothing approach and put somebody in there who is going to fight for you."