Be the Change You Believe In!

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)- Republican presidential candidate John McCain will campaign in Minnesota again on Friday. McCain's Minnesota campaign manager says the senator from Arizona will hold a town hall meeting Friday afternoon in the Minneapolis suburb of Lakeville.

We’ve been getting lots of phone calls about our plans tomorrow to engage in a little real democracy on the Lakeville town sidewalk as opposed to inside the McCain Campaign’s staged “Town Hall” at Lakeville High School South (where in order to get a ticket to get in—if you can actually get through to a “McCain Victory Office”—a person is supposed to give up his/her critical thinking at the door and volunteer for McCain’s campaign before entering). Some controversy has even surfaced about whether constitutional democracy itself might be in jeopardy in Lakeville given the fear and panic that tends to descend when Bush Administration thinking is in the air.

However, Lakeville, the last time we checked, is still supposed to be part of the land of the free and brave. And one would think, wouldn’t ya, that the Lakeville High School’s emphasis on education would fit with the need for students to develop an appreciation of people exercising their rights and duties as good citizens. So we hope everyone will consider coming down to participate in this effort with us tomorrow (21135 Jacquard Avenue) in order to guarantee that our First Amendment Rights to free speech will survive, even in this challenging environment.

In addition to all of our previous anti-war, anti-torture banners and peace signs, we’ve spent the day making lots of good new signs and messages. Several are strongly worded like: “How’s your 401K?” “Town Hell!” “Surge hurt$” “Main Street Hurt$” “Taxing Health Care Benefits is SICK!” “5% Maverick---95% Enabler” “Empty Suits for Coleman”, etc. (you get the idea).

If you look carefully, you’ll see Meg holding my newest activist granddaughter baby in the first row of this video.

KEATING ECONOMICS: The Making of a Financial Crisis

This message is brought to you brought on by John McCain and Sarah Palin.

So we can't exactly say they approve of this message. Let's just say they deserve it and leave it at that. Because these two politicians on the Republican ticket aren't elite (oops! there's that word again!) thinkers. Palin-McCain is a C-grade pair who can't figure out how to run on either the record or on their promises. If they think they can convince the rest of us that William Ayers, Tony Reznek, and Pastor Jeremiah Wright can be made a central issue of this campaign with less than one month to go, then they are even further disqualified for holding the highest office in the land. Because ....

Because we've seen it all before. This isn't the October surprise. This - or something like it - was totally expected. This is nothing but our young century's version of the previous century's Willie Horton attack smear.

So, in the spirit of digging up ancient recent history, The Vigil presents Keating Economics:Almost on the eve of Wall Street's September/October implosion, McCain and pals were still defiantly calling themselves the De-Regulators.

If they should grab the White House through the dint of any fraudulent chicanery, they will revert to form.