This is a pretty bizarre report which shows the pernicious nature of religion in society. Evidently the potential vice-president believes not only that witches exist but they need to be hunted down and run out of communities. The reporters politics are those of the Democratic faction of the capitalist party.

A demagogue, H.L. Mencken once said, is someone “who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.” This is a pretty good description of the US presidential candidates in action at their late-summer conventions. Although, to be fair to those who listened to the convention speeches, it was more a case of preaching idiotic ideas to people who wished those ideas were true.

The contrast between the gassy rhetoric of the politicians and the weighty problems facing workers was particularly striking at this year’s conventions, highlighted further by the juxtaposition between jubilant delegates inside the convention hall and the pepper-sprayed protestors outside.

[pdf Leaflet] The WSP got a an e-mail recently from some right-wing blogger for the New York Times who asked if we considered Barak Obama a socialist and if we supported his tax plans. blah, blah, blah. We won’t pass judgement on an article which may or may not see the light of day. But most likely this was another piece attempting to get someone calling themselves socialist to endorse Obama or one of his policies. Once that confession is procured, it will be widely touted as proof of Obama being a socialist, an elitist, etc.

But is Obama a socialist? OMFno-G no.

From Marx and Coca Cola: As you are probably aware of by now the government has decided to bail out the two mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. From the Land Down Under:

REPUBLICAN presidential hopeful John McCain backed a US government takeover of two mortgage giants overnight while his Democratic rival warned that taxpayers should not bail out their shareholders.

McCain said that it had to be done. I agree. If the two behemoths failed it would result in massive repercussions not just for the share holders or American homeowners, but to the entire world economy. Even so many commentators wondered why John McCain was so enthusiastic about it. I guess we’ll never know.

In a completely unrelated posting I was poking around the Center for Responsive Politics’ website, opensecrets.org, and under John McCain’s long list of assets were these two items:

• Fannie Mae Note valued at between $46,004 to $165,000
• Freddie Mac Note valued at between $45,003 to $150,000

But like I said I’m sure this has nothing to do with the above story. NOTHING AT ALL.