The week of September 29th, 2008 opened with the failure in Congress of the Bush bailout plan. Ongoing opposition to a Wall Street bailout without preconditions may have major repercussions. Read below.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Barack Obama emphasized the need to bail out working families not just Wall Street at a campaign stop here, Thursday, Oct. 2.

Kishore Mahbubani’s new book, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, is a sobering text that should be read with three points in mind.

My feeling is exactly what I write in the article, which is to say, I am very hopeful, but I lack sufficient information to be more than hopeful. I wasn't saying that only others need more information, though many other people do, of course.

The hardening of French immigration policy, following Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment as Interior Minister in 2002 and his subsequent election as President in 2007, is not the exception in the European Union but the rule.

A few weeks back, we received an e-mail alert from a friend to take action on behalf of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) on standing up for California public workers in the face of steep budget cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In his book, The Opinion Makers, David W. Moore opens his third chapter by pointing out that large sections of the public know little, and care even less, about many of the issues that pollsters are asking them to give opinions about.

Despite repeated corrections by fact-checking watchdogs, the McCain campaign continued to falsely claim this week that Barack Obama would raise taxes on working families.

McCain is posing as a populist. A typical sound bite, he says, "We need to put our country first and focus what's best for Main Street. It's the excess and greed of Washington and Wall Street that got us in this situation to start with."

BERLIN – Bavaria, Germany’s largest state, borders on Austria: Both have countless Alpine peaks, lots of men in lederhosen, and many right-wing Roman Catholic traditions.

Grand Rapids, Mich. – An enthusiastic crowd of several hundred people gathered at Central High School here Sat., Sept. 27, for a rally held by Hillary Clinton on behalf of Barack Obama.

The Conservatives have expanded Canada's role in the bloody military occupation in Afghanistan, which is now extended until at least 2011. To date, 97 Canadians and thousands of Afghans have died in this tragic war, which has cost Canadian taxpayers an estimated $8 billion.

What is happening in the bank crisis, what are the likely outcomes, and what should we who are activists in and for peoples democratic movements begin to do about it?

In his speech to the nation Wednesday, Sept. 24th, George W. Bush blamed homeowners and lenders for the current financial crisis in explaining the origins of the financial crisis on Wall Street. Bush went on to use near-apocalyptic terms to drive home the need for an immediate $700 billion bailout of Wall Street bankers and lenders.

John McCain sought to cancel the first presidential debate scheduled for Friday, Sept. 26, ostensibly to work on the financial crisis. Before the phony campaign suspension, McCain was at Morgan Library and Museum "preparing" for his Friday debate.

Discussing the preface to The Opinion Makers, by David W. Moore (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008) in Part 1, we reviewed the claim that the polls distort and misrepresent public opinion. Here is a case in point: how the polls manufactured a pro Iraq War sentiment to bolster the claims of the Bush administration.

Did John McCain suspend his campaign "to return to Washington to broker a deal on the financial crisis" in order to use the financial crisis as a way to prop up his sagging poll numbers? Or, is he afraid to meet Barack Obama head to head in a debate?

This is an important book to read, especially during this electoral season. It's not very long (161 pages), but it thoroughly explains how public opinion polls are manipulated to produce the results wanted by those who use them to influence and shape public perceptions of reality.

ATLANTA - Two anti-death penalty activists, Rev. Marvin Morgan, First Congregational Church, and Steve Woodhall, were arrested today at the Governor's Office, after refusing to leave the office until speaking with the governor about tomorrow's impending execution of Troy Davis.

This year the Better World Awards was held on Saturday June 14, 2008. The event took place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium at 1199 SEIU.