Ready for his stage comeback.........

That famous red bow tie, too-tight gray suit and unmistakable voice are back. Pee-wee Herman, the '80s television man-child icon, is returning to the spotlight. "The Pee-wee Herman Show," starring Paul Reubens, will have a limited engagement run from Nov. 19 to 29 at the Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood. "I've put part of him away for a long time but part of him has always been here with me," the soft-spoken actor said in an interview today. "I think it will be like riding a bike -- which is not a bad analogy for Pee-wee, by the way."...Link

Nader Was Right............

The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of citizens. It will not push through significant environmental reform, regulate Wall Street or end our relationship with private contractors that provide mercenary armies to fight our imperial wars and produce useless and costly weapons systems...Link

General admits US losing war in Afghanistan.

About that country where the Sept. 11 attackers were actually given safe harbor: We’re losing. The top American commander in Afghanistan declared that the Taliban are winning in Afghanistan in a startling interview published Monday — a striking contrast to the “Mission Accomplished” rhetoric of the Bush Administration as regards Iraq...Link

Ron Paul Shall Rise Again.........

Yesterday on Meet the Press they reviewed the declining prospects for the Republican Party. And the yawning conclusion was that no one can really challenge Barack Obama in 2012 and no one can revive the G.O.P. They assessed the prospects of all the possible candidates but there was one glaring omission. Guess who? Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham were the Republican guest commentators. Romney has already made it clear that only an Obama owned recession will allow him back in. And if Obama can’t get a temporary bump in the stock market, after trebling the money supply, well, we might as all start selling apples right now. And one by one, on the Russertless Meet the Press, they ticked off all of the reasons why Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee won’t be returning after all...Link

Tonights cover is............

Traditionally has been a state and local effort.

When Arne Duncan was the head of the Chicago public schools, one of the calls he dreaded most came from a certain federal bureaucracy — the Department of Education. “It wasn’t a call about teaching kids to read,” Duncan recalled. “It was a call about a compliance report or something.” Now Duncan sits atop the Education Department — meaning he’s the one making those calls to school systems across the country, hoping to reshape education and the role of the federal government in what traditionally has been a state and local effort...Link

Is Obama Punking Us?.............

“AUGUST is a challenging time to be president,” said Andrew Card, the former Bush White House chief of staff, as he offered unsolicited advice to his successors in a television interview last week. “I think you have to expect the unexpected.” He should know. Thursday was the eighth anniversary of “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.,” the President’s Daily Brief that his boss ignored while on vacation in Crawford. Aug. 29 marks the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s strike on the Louisiana coast, which his boss also ignored while on vacation in Crawford...Link

Favoring White House Plan............

WASHINGTON — The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday...Link

Three more bank failures.........

US authorities have closed three more US regional and local banks, bringing the total of failed US banking institutions to 72 this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced...Link