I didn’t watch tonight’s debate between Clinton and Obama. But according to Balloon-Juice commenters, it was an utter failure. A failure in that tonight’s moderators, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, waited until the final minutes to pose “real” questions to the candidates:

David Bowie - Young Americans

(My apologies. This is the best video I could find for this song.)

Surprise, surprise! Bush’s conservative Supreme Court is pro-pain, pro-death. I guess we now know how they feel on the issue of torture.

Supreme Court Allows Lethal Injection for Execution

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Kentucky’s method of putting criminals to death by lethal injection, not only clearing the way for Kentucky to resume executions but ending an unofficial moratorium in the 35 other states that have the death penalty.

However, Justice John Paul Stevens, while concurring reluctantly with the judgment of the court, wrote that he now believed capital punishment itself is unconstitutional, and that Wednesday’s ruling might serve to reignite the debate over whether it should exist in the United States.

By 7 to 2, the court rejected challenges to the Kentucky execution procedure brought by two death-row inmates, holding that they had failed to show that the risks of pain from mistakes in an otherwise “humane lethal execution protocol” amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned by the Constitution.

Other than token rebate checks, Bush’s idea for combating the recession seems to be the opposite of Mr. Rall. Bush thinks we should throw more money to the rich so that they can store it in their off’shore accounts. Hey, you know what they say about rainy days and such.

The hell with the rest of us.

The economy has bled 3.1 million jobs since George W. Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, the worst record since the Depression. The official unemployment rate, constantly re-jiggered to make the economy appear more robust, has risen to 5.1 percent. The long-term unemployment rate, which includes people who have had such bad luck looking for work that they’ve given up entirely, has doubled, to over 13 percent.

Meanwhile, inflation is approaching seven percent. Again, that’s the official inflation rate. Your mileage as an average American–who spends a third of your pay on housing and more and more on gas–will vary. But let’s not dwell on the irony of $4-a-gallon gas resulting from a war fought to steal oil.

Ted Rall. A great read!

Socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the rest of us.

Big Tax Breaks for Businesses in Housing Bill

WASHINGTON - The Senate proclaimed a fierce bipartisan resolve two weeks ago to help American homeowners in danger of foreclosure. But while a bill that senators approved last week would take modest steps toward that goal, it would also provide billions of dollars in tax breaks - for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries, as well as home builders.

The tax provisions of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which consumer groups and labor leaders say amount to government handouts to big business, show how the credit crisis, while rattling the housing and financial markets, has created beneficiaries in the power corridors of Washington. [...]

Supporters of the bill, including Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, say it represents sound tax policy carefully focused to help stimulate the lagging economy. But the White House opposes the Senate bill, and Democratic leaders in the House not only have promised to provide more relief for individual homeowners, but have also dropped the corporate tax provisions from their version.