Cavett on Blagojevich

"The question overhanging this sordid mess, you might agree, is, “How did such a specimen ever get elected?”

It’s as if a soldier, tested for his fitness as potential combat leader, passed his physical despite scurvy, pyorrhea, Jake leg, leprosy, the quinsy, contagious influenza and at least two trick knees."

from the Times see the whole article here

Yes

Hawaii’s Moon Shot from The New York Times

Black Friday, Indeed

A WalMart employee was trampled to death on Black Friday by a crowd of bargain hungry shoppers. Here is an excerpt from an article in the Times about the violence and desperation of Christmas Shoppers:

"At a Wal-Mart store in Columbus, Ohio, Nikki Nicely, 19, jumped onto a man’s back and pounded his shoulders when he tried to take a 40-inch Samsung flat-screen television to which she had laid claim. 'That’s my TV!' Ms. Nicely shouted. 'That’s my TV!'

A police officer and security guard intervened, but not before Ms. Nicely took an elbow in the face. In the end, she was the one with the $798 television, marked down from $1,000. 'That’s right,' she cried as her adversary walked away. 'This here is my TV!'

Charisma Booker, also on the hunt for a television, said she had been shopping at Wal-Mart every Black Friday for nearly a decade. 'There are fewer people here this year, but they’re more aggressive,” she said. 'I’ve never seen anybody fight like this. This is crazy.'"

Phil Gramm, Architect of Catastrophe

A Deregulator Looks Back, Unswayed is a New York Times profile of Phil Gramm. It explains how Congress was swayed and bullied into easing banking regulations that enable our current financial meltdown.

A notable quotation from the article:
"Speaking at a bankers’ conference that month, Mr. Gramm said the problem of predatory loans was not of the banks’ making. Instead, he faulted 'predatory borrowers.'"