Want to Help Fight the Recession? Buy American...Anything!

By Si Dunn

Billionaire Warren Buffett recently has announced that he is now aggressively buying American stocks, because the current financial crisis has left them undervalued and ripe for turning a profit once conditions improve.

Most of us won't be buying large blocks of stock any time soon, of course. But there is another, less-expensive, way we can follow Mr. Buffett's lead.

The prices of American services and American-made goods also are being depressed by the economic downturn, as providers and merchants struggle to keep their doors open and pay their employees during the long months of recession that lie ahead.

We'll all have to be careful with our money, of course. But those of us who still have jobs and savings should make a special effort to help keep our favorite restaurants, car repair shops, laundries, book shops, gift shops, produce stands and other small firms in business.

We can't help everyone, of course. We can't save the economy on our own. But if we make a deliberate effort, at least a couple of times a week, to buy something extra or get a long-overdue problem fixed, we can keep a little money moving in our local economies.

The laundry owner who makes a few extra bucks today by dry cleaning your suit may decide to buy a hamburger on the way home from work. The tire salesperson who was happy to replace your thin tires earlier this week may have gotten just enough commission to buy a spouse a birthday cake from a favorite little bakery. A $5 gift you're planning to buy tomorrow may help provide the shop owner with just enough lifted spirit to decide to stay in business.

As the old saying goes, every little bit helps.

And don't forget the charities, churches and special programs in your community. The ones you have supported could use an extra dollar or two right now. And the ones that you've thought about supporting are now in need of something more substantial than your intentions.

Everyone is hurting, and we're all in this together.

If we each do a little bit and keep making it a weekly habit, our small gestures can add up to big help in a hurry, for our neighbors, our community and our nation.

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Does Sarah Palin Govern in a Separate Universe? You betcha!

By Si Dunn

Call me old-fashioned, if you wish. But I don't want a lawbreaker serving as Vice President of the United States.

Especially an ethics lawbreaker.

I don't want a Vice President who can't read, either.

On Oct. 10, Alaska lawmakers issued a report declaring that Gov. Sarah Palin "violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which states, "… each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

According to CBS News, in a brief conference call to the press after the so-called "Troopergate" report was issued, Gov. Palin declared: ""I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

Huh? Has Alaska somehow become part of a separate universe?

What part of "violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act" did you not understand, Gov. Palin?

Ethics violators--especially ethics violators who can't read--have no place in government: state, local or federal.

The Republicans should remove Gov. Sarah Palin from their ticket immediately and replace her with any one of several female Republican leaders who have good records on ethics and leadership.

Karl Rove has tied a very loose cannon around John McCain's neck, and the Arizona senator's campaign is sinking fast.

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Help Save Main Street! Spend Money Now!

By Si Dunn

None of us can stop the current worldwide economic disaster. But just by repeatedly spending a few dollars each, we can at least help keep our local businesses afloat, save a few jobs, and maybe keep a few friends and neighbors in their homes.

Go out this weekend and buy a meal at a family-owned restaurant. Or, get a haircut at a locally owned barbershop or hair salon. Or, hire a lawn service to trim the scraggly hedges that have been on your to-do list for weeks. Or, buy something from a neighborhood bookstore or thrift shop or plant nursery. Pick one or two things to do and make a deliberate effort to follow through with some focused spending.

Next week, take a pair of shoes to be fixed at a local shoe-repair shop. Or have a garage attendant change out your car's overdue air filter. Or, get a few donuts or a couple of ice-cream cones. Or get a suit cleaned and pressed.

Don't sit on all of your money. Protect most of it, yes. But part with a little bit of it, too, in a steady and controlled manner.

Encourage friends and neighbors and fellow church parishioners to do the same. Don't panic; just spend a few spare bucks each week in considered ways that benefit your own neighborhood and community.

We all have friends and acquaintences who manage or own small businesses that provide their family income. They need our help now.

So do churches, especially small ones, and the local agencies that help the poor and the afflicted in our communities.

A dollar here, ten dollars there. It won't break us, but it can all add up in this crisis, especially if a lot of us truly will remember to "Help thy neighbor."

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Time to Hunker Down and Focus on What Really Matters

By Si Dunn

Many Americans are about to get back to basics, because of the economy's massive and continuing meltdown.

Suddenly, we don't have nearly as much money as we used to have. Suddenly, we can't get credit. And suddenly, we're terrified, after being reassured just a couple of weeks ago that our economy was fundamentally sound and strong.

Oops. The global marketplace has turned out to be a massive house of cards.

After 9-11, many Americans were ready to sacrifice for a war effort and help fight terrorists. President Bush told us go shopping, instead.

Well, the time to go shopping is here again, only this time, it really is the time to go shopping.

All across our nation, thousands of small businesses suddenly are hurting and teetering on the brink of extinction. Millions of jobs and countless dreams are hanging in the balance in tiny shops, small stores, family-owned restaurants, and moderate-sized warehouses, car dealerships and strip shopping malls, as well as in big companies, factories and corporate headquarters.

Whether you need goods or services, now is the time to buy something from the businesses in your neighborhood, the ones that, even in good times, have provided just modest livings for their owners and employees. They are the real heart and soul of the American economy. They are Main Street.

Just a few bucks spent here and there can make a huge difference, if a lot of us are willing to get off our wallets and make the effort.

Neighbor helping neighbor; family member helping family member; friend helping friend; everyone helping those in need. And all taking care of the basics and focusing on what really matters.

This is how we can ride out the massive financial storms now savaging Wall Street and our own meager savings.

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McCain-Palin Ticket Is Now Imploding, Right Along with the Economy

By Si Dunn

Hey, it's your stupid economy, Republican leadership.

Your promises of more tax cuts and more "market solutions" now are falling on deaf ears as terrified voters suddenly realize they are facing what one prominent retail analyst has warned will be the “worst Christmas shopping season in a century."

Layoffs are surging. Families are losing their homes, their health care and their savings. And many large and small businesses are toppling into the massive financial wreckage you created by overdoing deregulation, then encouraging (and allowing) too much risk and greed.

You can't save yourselves now with wild-ass claims that Barack Obama is a terrorist or that overturning Roe v. Wade will create 20 million new jobs.

The uncommitted voters are waking up, taking a long, hard look at the vacuity of your platform and fleeing in terror toward the Democrats. Or, they are just fleeing. Either way, you ain't gonna get their vote, Jack. And you're gonna lose big-time among the contested seats in the Senate and House, as well.

Ordinary people finally are figuring out--after years of partisan gridlock--that "divided we fall." The momentum is shifting toward one-party rule again, and this time, the Grand Old Party will be marched outside the velvet rope.

The McCain-Palin ticket has bailed out of Michigan, and it's now starting to get its butts kicked in the polls in Ohio, Virginia and a few other key "battleground" states.

In desperation, the GOP is sending its Swift Boats out to attack. But all they are doing is colliding with each other and smashing into big walls of voter rejection and fatigue. William Ayers? Who cares? What about my job, my savings, my house, my Christmas?

Obama-Biden may not be the best governance team on the planet. But compared with the bizarre and twisted package the Republicans have put forth, they are far and away the best and the brightest for these troubled times.

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Alaska Needs More Hockey Moms, So Send Sarah Palin Back Home to Wassila

By Si Dunn

At the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin spouted Alaskan "hockey mom" platitudes fast enough to grill moose meat with her breath. And she almost set some new Guinness Book world records for the most times uttering the words "change" and "maverick" in one minute.

The fact that she didn't provide any substantive answers to the debate questions seems to have completely escaped the notice of her rabid fans in the Republican Party. She simply stared into the camera, ignored both the debate moderator and her opponent, and delivered Republican talking points as if they were minor-league sports scores.

No matter. She apparently has a new role, as the GOP's lead attack dog/sled dog. Will Karl Rove now task her to mush as many lies and half-truths as possible into the presidential campaign's final weeks?

If so, she's off to an Iditarod flying start. CBS News' Scott Conroy has reported that at a fundraiser in Denver, Sarah Palin has criticized Barack Obama as "someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

Based on her shockingly thin resume, her media-interview blunders and her debate non-performance, it is fair to ask: Aren't the Republicans now palling around with ineptitude on a scale that would immediately endanger the survival of our nation if Sarah Palin becomes Vice President and sits one heartbeat away from taking over as leader of the Free World?

With all due respect, driving kids to hockey games in Wassila, Alaska, does not give someone experience to do anything except...drive kids to hockey games in Wassila, Alaska.

Alaska needs experienced hockey moms much, much more than it needs an utterly unqualified Vice President of the United States. Hopefully, voters will do our great Arctic state a huge favor and send Sarah Palin back home to Wassila next month, so she can get back to her driving.

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Sarah Palin: Will She 'Win' Just By Showing Up?

By Si Dunn

Republican operatives, deathly worried about Sarah Palin's absence of knowledge and experience in any areas vice presidential, are desperately trying to cram some complete talking points into her head, while also working feverishly to lower the bar for her "debate" against Democratic rival Joe Biden, Oct. 2.

According to some sources, the performance bar is now "on the ground" or "maybe even a couple of inches beneath the surface."

Her handlers will hail her as "The Winner!" immediately after she shows up and opens her mouth, and they will keep drumbeating that message no matter what she actually says in the debate.

The idea, of course, is to ensure hardcore conservative Republican voters continue listening to the drums and not to what their candidate actually is saying--or not managing to say in a coherent fashion.

However, if she does stumble through something about divine intervention and overturning Roe v. Wade as peachy-keen ideas for resurrecting America's economy, watch for Republican operatives to immediately release an edited quote beneath the following banner headline: "Sarah Palin Shows She's the New Spirit of St. Louis!"

Joe Biden will be the actual winner in the debate, of course. But he still won't get much respect, or attention, from his performance. All eyes will remain on Sarah Palin, waiting for something to happen to her hair, her glasses or her lipstick as she recounts how Vladimir Putin gave her important foreign policy experience just by flying over Alaska at 38,000 feet.

For the battered Republicans, their message no longer will have much resonance amid the economic wreckage they will leave the next President. So their new mantra will have to be: "All hail the (former Alaska beauty queen) messenger!"
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