Last week was a truly Washington week to remember.
First up was the bailout package: failed the House on Monday, stuffed with pork and then passed by the Senate on Wednesday. As the House does not keep kosher, this stuffed pork chop passed through intact on Friday. In the meantime, billions in value melted away or rematerialized in minutes in the securities markets.
It was like picking petals off a daisy – “yes” we need a bailout, “no” we don’t. Like first time investors and other suckers, Congress took the bait – hook, line and sinker. And after the bailout was passed on Friday? The market dropped 157 points. Congress just learned its first lesson about markets: You can love stocks, but they don’t love you back.
But the week’s biggest loser (other than the taxpayers) was probably Sen. John McCain. Forget his “come let us reason together” rhetoric – he could have proved his self-appointment as the nation’s First Maverick by opposing the bailout. As the House found out, the public hates this bill, and McCain could have picked up some swing state voters had he opposed the plan. Instead he demonstrated bad economic electoral
strategy by letting Sen. Obama take this economic prize.
Now, the McCain- Palin advisers have decided to go negative on Obama’s background and colorful associates rather than fighting him on the economy. But had McCain stood with House Republicans and rallied against this Fat Cat Welfare Act and Pork for Dorks Act, he might have been able to something that has eluded Republicans for a generation: make the economy a Republican issue.
Now the campaign will amount to a contest between whose friends are worse, rather than the one thing the public needs above all: a real debate about exactly what it is Congress just did and why, under some new administration, this will never happen again.
Some Washington insiders have suggested that McCain can’t change his plan as it’s already been written. But the earth moved after this week, and he should remember something he must have learned in the military: “adapt, improvise and overcome.”
And I say let McCain argue his plan – it’s a flawed one. He’s basically running on a pledge to stop earmarks, pork-barrel spending and waste. It’s like running against sin: Who could be against it? So, why did McCain vote for a pork-chopped bill with tons of earmarks for everything from wooden arrows to tax breaks for alcohol in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands?
While the rest of the herd was planning the next disaster, where was their maverick this week? If I were Obama, I’d ask him outright: How is he going to get a bill passed in Congress without all those earmarks he says he doesn’t like?
McCain’s plan declares, “[T]he United States will be telling oil producing countries and oil speculators that our dependence on foreign oil will come to an end.” Once again, who could disagree?
The tricky little question is, How? McCain touts his “Lexington Project” as an answer. This project has set a goal of building 45 new nuclear plants by 2030 and creating 700,000 jobs. Even if Americans have come around on the issue of nuclear power, this is totally unrealistic because we can get no agreement on what to do with all that waste. And there’s the NIMBY (not in my backyard) local zoning and planning boards that are going to prevent the construction of these plants. I would like McCain to tell us where he plans to put the 45 nuclear plants.
What about McCain’s plan to develop green technologies? He’s offering a $300 million prize to improve battery technology. He also will issue a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers via a tax credit. That may have worked five years ago, but we just gave the automakers $25 billion in the most recent budget bill. How are you going to take a tax credit if you are not making money? Obama proposes taking real money and supporting American industry to develop these green jobs. That is the only way to do it. Why McCain does not revise his economic plan and do the same is beyond me.
Perhaps the biggest evidence that McCain got his economics degree on “Fantasy Island” is his plan to pay for the deficit by applying the savings from winning the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The memo this week from Afghanistan commander Gen. David McKiernan must not have reached him. McKiernan said the situation there will get a whole lot worse before it gets better. Unless McCain decides on day one to declare victory and then withdraw, we’ve only begun to “invest” in this war.
Maybe the senator and his staff should go back to school and take an economics course – because right now, the only school he’s graduated from boasts only two other graduates: Ms. Fannie Mae and Mr. Freddie Mac.
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In a special report on homelessness in Washington, D.C. and throughout the United States, Charles Slife discovers who is homeless, why they’re homeless, and how the federal government is helping the large number of Americans with no roof over their head. (9:03)

Last night I lay underneath my mosquito net in an unknown corner of the world. I listened to a baby cry, no, scream a few houses away. My hosts Eduardo and Nancy climbed up to the newly added second floor and by the creaking sounds I knew immediately that if they had in mind anything besides sleep I would soon know about it. In the next bed Willington, my 6-year-old godson let out a adorable child-like snoring sound. The huge rooster in the backyard let out a loud “crookaooaooo” despite the hour of 10 p.m. This is how I ended my Independence Day. No fireworks, no celebration, just the sounds of a world that is strange and familiar all at once.
I lived as a volunteer in southwestern Ecuador from late 2006 into late 2007. I used my vacation time to come back and visit the friends I had to leave behind. Unfortunately it is as if not a single day has passed. Not much has changed about the hard, scrappy existence of my friends in this slum, a place called “little tree” that is ironically short on trees. Considering the stress of my present job I am not sure this was the best course for a relaxing break. I have so far broken out in hives, collected a myriad of stomach parasites, and had more mosquito and ant bites in the last five days than in the last year. But I have also slept deeply every single night dreaming and making up for the hours and hours of sleep debt owed.
Ecuador is a tiny country, about the size of Nevada. The popularly elected president Rafeal Correa grows more and more socialist every day. There are more government programs implemented and more mandates that come down from Quito the farther into his term Correa gets. The people of Arbolito generally think well of these programs that artificially control the price of rice, gasoline ($1.80 a gallon for as long as I can remember), and durable goods. These prices are manipulated to favor the agricultural community out in the abandoned Ecuadorian countryside where the nearest market could be two or three hours away by horse. The poor her think that this is just the world being righted by the hand of government to favor those who have never been cared for, those who cannot read or write but feed the rest of their country. There are social programs cropping up as well, the most intersting of which is that juniors in high school have to teach a mandatory class to older people who can´t read or write. If you don´t teach you can´t graduate onto senior year.
And despite the fact that it looks like Correa will be the first president to complete an entire 4 year term in over 25 years, the problems of this tiny country are immense. Corruption is rampant. Crime and violence are omipresent threats. One of my good friends here, a single working mother of five told me the horrific story of her brother´s murder last night. While stumbling home drunk (alcholism is also a widespread issue) he was attacked with a machete. The robbers cut his throat, his face, and his chest . He might have recovered from the injuries if he lived in the city or in the outlying slums. But Sam was from the campo, the countryside, where he had a chicken farm. It took an entire day for an ambulance to arrive. And another before he was in a hospital. By the time his family reached his side, he had bled to death. And as Francisca told the story it wasn´t the violence that seemed to shock or stick with her. It was the cost of paying the ambulance, the morgue, the funaral home and buying a casket. Her children went without necessary things the month her brother was killed and they ate rice and potatoes because of the cost of giving him a proper burial.
My best friend told me once that I was glorifying life in Ecuador. She was right. Now that I am back her I remember profoundly exactly how awful it was. All I remembered were the good times. Coming back here forced the worst of times back into my memory.And for me they are memories but for those who live here they are daily reality. For that, I will always admire these things about Ecuadorians. They are practical, they are patient and they are indefatigable in their faith. I have been gone from Ecuador an entire year and I still don´t know what I am supposed to do with the life I lived here and the things I learned. And until I figure it out, I should remember that everything is poco a poco (littly by little) and that things happen si Dios quiere (if God wants.)
Chao from Ecuador!

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu known as “South Africa’s moral conscience” pleaded that members of the United States Senate vote to triple the bipartisan funding of $50 billion for HIV/AIDS funding in Africa. Tutu believes that the United States has a responsibility to work towards increasing the HIV/AIDS funding and that if it does so “other countries will follow.”
Currently, throughout Africa, an estimated 22.5 million people have HIV/AIDS as of 2007 with an additional 1.7 million becoming infected that year alone. Tutu and others in the HIV/AIDS community believe that tripling the funding will increase treatment for 3 million people.
Tutu added that all too often people are unwilling to take a statistic regarding HIV/AIDS and put a face and name to it. “these statistics represent someone’s loved one,” Tutu added, “if we are able to put a face and name to someone we will recognize that we are talking about people’s flesh and blood.”
The urgency of Tutu’s remarks come as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) as well as 6 social conservative senators are holding up the legislation unless a provision is added that would place a greater emphasis on treatment rather than prevention. Coburn believes “the vast majority of the money is going to get consumed by those wanting to help people with HIV, rather than [by] people with HIV.”

The Obama Campaign today hosted a conference call to discuss the presidential hopeful’s position on earmarks featuring Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Obama campaign Communications Director Robert Gibbs.
Gibbs emphasized the fact that Senator Obama is “a leader in ethics reform.” He referred to Obama’s “Google for Government” plan, used to allow citizens to use the internet to clearly see where government money is spent.
Senator McCaskill endorsed Gibbs’ comments, backing Obama’s stance on earmarks and his condemning of wasteful government spending.

This morning at the Talk Radio News Service, our Legal Affairs Correspondent, Jay Tamboli, will be covering a Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Our Washington Bureau will be covering:
A Senate Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee hearing on the current readiness of the Armed Forces in review of the Defense Authorization Request for FY2009 and the Future Years Defense Program.
A House Appropriations Committee Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on “Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Is the Agency on the Right Track?,” where FEMA Administrator David Paulison will testify.
This afternoon, the Washington Bureau will be covering:
A House Armed Services Committee Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee hearing on the FY2009 National Defense Authorization Budget request

Cholene Espinoza reports.

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