On an overseas trip while Rome burns, Mike Bloomberg is acting as if term limits remained intact and he couldn't run for another term.

The mayor's in Israel, having a "blast," as the Post puts it, during the invasion of Gaza.

While the rest of the city's inhabitants are facing an onrushing New Depression, Bloomberg is occupied with the occupiers. Focusing primarily on getting his aides to make sure he stays alive, the mayor's not exactly concentrating on the crisis back home. How does a New York City mayor keep schools, health clinics, transit service, and libraries from being slashed? He dunno.

Meanwhile, a woman was slashed while jogging behind Gracie Mansion. If Bloomberg had been at home, he (or his valet) might have peeked out the window and shooed away her attacker.

Lots of other news follows, for the all the good it will do you. Plus, at the end of this aggregation, see a cluster of Madoff Watch items...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Editor & Publisher: 'Media Commentary Muted as Israel Invades'

N.Y. Post: 'BLOOMBERG HAS 'BLAST' IN ISRAEL: TAKES SHELTER AFTER ROCKET ROCKS HIS "BOOM!" TOWN VISIT'

Wall Street Journal: 'U.S. Transition Slows Negotiations Over Gaza'

N.Y. Times: 'Gaza Hospital Fills Up, Mainly With Civilians'

Bloomberg: 'Israel Troops Drive Deep Into Gaza; Sarkozy Leads Truce Effort'

N.Y. Times: 'Activist Unmasks Himself as Federal Informant in G.O.P. Convention Case'

Vanity Fair: 'The Good, the Bad, and Joe Lieberman' (James Wolcott)

Bloomberg: 'Journal of a Plague Year: Faith in Markets Cracks Under Losses'

N.Y. Times: 'The End of the Financial World as We Know It' (Michael Lewis)

N.Y. Post: 'SLAY RAPS IN CRANE TRAGEDY'

Bloomberg: 'Buffett Has "Nowhere to Hide" Amid Berkshire's Plunge'

N.Y. Times: 'For Israel, Chance to Strike Before an Ally Departs'

N.Y. Post: 'QNS. SLASHER HUNT: WOMAN, 86, BRUTALIZED IN HER BED'

N.Y. Times: 'Woman Slashed While Jogging in Park Behind Gracie Mansion'

Vanity Fair: 'The Ultimate Bubble?'

Media Week: 'Kathy Griffin In Hot Water Over Comments on CNN'

Gawker: 'Kathy Griffin's "Dicks" Banned From Times, "Magic Negro" OK'

Bloomberg: 'Engines of Recovery Flame Out as Economy Seeks Obama-Fed Rescue'

N.Y. Times: 'Blood Sugar Control Linked to Memory Decline, Study Says'

Wall Street Journal: 'Israel's Ground Assault Marks Strategy Shift'

N.Y. Post: 'GRAN GETS BOOT FOR CHRISTMAS'

Gawker: 'Scientology Founder Slams Drugs That Might Have Saved Travolta's Son'

Bloomberg: 'Obama Moves to Counter China With Pentagon-NASA Link'

Crain's New York Business: 'Stress and the city: New York is gripped by fear. Are we headed back to the bad old days of the 1970s?'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Mayor Bloomberg whisked into bomb shelter in Israel as rocket fire erupts during solidarity trip'

N.Y. Post: 'FISHY NUPTIALS FIASCO'

N.Y. Post: 'FUMING MAD: SUIT OVER WEDDING MONOXIDE'

Daily Beast: 'Carnival of the Shameless: What do Dubya, Blago, Bernie Madoff, and Roland Burris have in common? No regrets!' (Christopher Buckley)

N.Y. Post: 'NARCO COP 'ROID SLAP'

New York: 'Stephon Marbury May Soon Destroy Celtics'

N.Y. Daily News: '"I'm not guilty," yells bus driver'

New York: 'The Catastrophe Capitalist: Short-seller Jim Chanos is having the time of his life through this crisis'

Muckety: 'Ties to former Paterson aide may help Caroline Kennedy'

Crain's New York Business: 'Thacher Proffitt: case closed: Downward spiral touched off by mortgage crisis claims its most prominent legal victim'

Crain's New York Business: 'Residential permits down 74% in November'

Crain's New York Business: 'Majority of arts groups cutting back'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Analysis: Gov. leaving Kennedy in limbo'

N.Y. Post: 'SUPPORT FOR BUS MATRON: DISPATCHER FINGERED'

Crain's New York Business: 'Hard Times: News brand shops assets to cut debt'

Bloomberg: 'SEC Said to Examine More Ponzi Schemes After Madoff'

FOX News: 'Report: Former Madoff Employees Selling Memorabilia on eBay'

New Yorker: 'Cheat, Pray, Love'

Crain's New York: 'Milberg rides Madoff: Scandal-plagued law firm rebuilds image, representing Ponzi scheme victims'

Huffington Post: 'Madoff Employees Still Being Paid Despite Nothing To Do'

Wall Street Journal: 'Why the Bernie Madoff Scandal Is a Good Thing'

Wall Street Journal: 'Madoff Gives Prosecutors Details of His, Firm's Assets'

Muckety: 'Even Dr. Doom invested with Madoff'

Wall Street Journal: 'How the SEC Can Prevent More Madoffs: Bolster its risk-assessment and enforcement staff'

Wall Street Journal: 'Madoff Chasers Dug for Years, to No Avail'

Wall Street Journal: 'Madoff Took Funds Near Arrest'

ABC: 'The Safeguard Madoff Victims Missed: How Custodial Accounts at Banks Can Help Avoid Madoff-Type Schemes'

If you still have a job, it probably won't matter if you take off from work (because you're probably not going to have your job much longer anyway) to grab that new bauble for your spouse (because diamonds are forever).

Let's face it: You're fucked. (No really, Xmas season is the peak time of mating.)

Anyway, this could be your last chance to get that plasma TV. Next year you could be at the blood bank cashing in your plasma just to put food on the table.

This morning's best headline is the New York Post's "DEATH-LEAP SUV GAL WAS BOOZY: BAR BOSS." And the most heart-warming Xmas story also comes from the Post: yesterday's joyous shopping spree by one of Bernie Madoff's sons. The Post was on the scene:

No word on whether the couple also went shopping for a shiny, new Ponzi to give to their dad. Take us for a ride, Bernie!

Already going for a spin at our expense is Governor David Paterson, who went to Iraq to "spread holiday cheer" to the troops, as the Daily News reports.

WTF is he doing in Iraq!? He has no say on decisions concerning the war. Some government is paying for that trip. The Daily News sez:

It's bad enough that the two congressmen are over there for no practical purpose. But while tens of thousands of New Yorkers and other Americans are standing on line for the first time to collect food stamps and other dwindling social services, Paterson's collecting good wishes from the troops? We know that pols live for applause, but WTF!?

Stranded, we point and click to these items ...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

N.Y. Post: 'MADOFF'S SON IN SHOPPING GALL: POSH-GIFT SPREE AMID $UFFERING'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Obama probe clears top aide Rahm Emanuel of too much Blago blabbing'

McClatchy: 'Stimulus plan could be mother of all "Christmas tree" bills'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Stars of David: A-listers do Chanukah'

Wall Street Journal: 'Investors Lose Faith, Pull Record Amounts'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Stampede for "Bush shoe" creates 100 new jobs'

Times (U.K.): 'Gordon Brown puts millions on table to save car maker Jaguar Land Rover'

BBC: 'Windows XP allowed to live again'

N.Y. Post: '"ID-THEFT CELL SCAM" HITS COPS IN B'KLYN'

Wall Street Journal: 'The Presidential Pickup Game'

Wall Street Journal: 'U.S. Developers Seek Their Own Bailout'

The Age (Australia): 'Japanese protest against Google Street View'

Saudi-U.S. Relations Information Service: 'Election 2008: Arab World Views'

Times (U.K.): 'FBI diverts anti-terror agents to Bernard Madoff $50 billion swindle'

Washington Times: 'Bush, Cheney comforted troops privately: Met with thousands of war injured, kin out of spotlight'

Times (U.K.): 'Three near-invisible drawings discovered on back of Da Vinci masterpiece' [VIDEO]

Wall Street Journal: 'Mortgage Applications Surge on Falling Rates'

Times (U.K.): 'Bad for investors, good for lawyers: Grandchildren of Madoff investors will still be suing grandchildren of hedge fund managers in fifty years'

Washington Post: 'Cheney Defends His Tenure, Administration's Actions' [TRANSCRIPT]

AP: 'AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs'

Sunday Mail (U.K.): 'Fury as bust bank flies 100 branch managers to New York on junket'

In a piece dripping with acid of the citric variety, this morning's Daily News showcases some of Detroit's best blunders.

"Crash & Burn: Detroit's Biggest Lemons of All Time" offers a photo tour of the Edsel and 14 other relics, just to prepare you for the continuing sob stories by the people who now run the relics that are called Ford, Chrysler, and GM.

The Daily News list is clever and not as predictable as you'd think, because it includes Detroit disasters from all eras, including the Aveo and the Prowler.

But here's the problem: The Pinto and Chevette, for example, were clunky, and the Corvair was stylish but dangerous, but the Edsel was only stupid. Compared with today's bland vehicles, the Edsel was not clunky. In fact, let me get behind the wheel of the '58 model pictured above.

Ford may go bankrupt, but the Edsel must live on. In fact, if Ford does go under, its relics will only get more valuable. For the first time, even the Pinto would appreciate in value.

You might want to shop around for one of these lemons. When they foreclose on your house, at least you'll have a car to sleep in.

While I go out to beg spare change for gas money for these ancient Detroit guzzlers, stick to your keyboard and click ...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Register (U.K.): 'Tell Santa to bring more assault rifles: America tools up for the inauguration'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Rice tells Islamabad US expects "robust" response to Mumbai attacks'

N.Y. Times: 'Mumbai Attack Is Test for Pakistan on Curbing Militants'

BBC: 'Italy Confronts Puppy Smugglers' (video)

N.Y. Times: 'A Rush Into Refinancing as Mortgage Rates Fall'

Wall Street Journal: 'U.S. Makes a House Call'

Register (U.K.): 'Human rights court rules UK DNA grab illegal'

N.Y. Post: 'LAWYER'S DEADLY SECRET: SLAIN BY S&M MADMAN OBSESSED WITH VICTIM'S WHIP-MISTRESS GIRLFRIEND'

National Post (Canada): 'Crossing the blue line: The NHL relishes bloody noses, but won't tolerate Sean Avery's mouth'

BBC: 'Australia MPs "face breath tests"'

N.Y. Post: '"PERV" SHOCK AT REUNION'

Register (U.K.): 'Windows patching abysmal, and getting worse'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Police may throw flag on team'

Reuters: 'US must halt spread of nuclear, bio weapons -- Biden'

Financial Times (U.K.): 'Alarm raised on threat of mass assault'

Washington Post: 'Napolitano Calls Fighting Terror "Top Priority" '

Council on Foreign Relations: 'The U.S.-India Nuclear Deal'

Washington Post: 'Treasury Weighs Action on Mortgage Rates: Intervention Would Aim to Buoy the Housing Market by Forcing Down the Cost of Loans'

Register (U.K.): '"Faith-based" investment firm fingers holiday's most sinful games: Holy @&$#'

Washington Post: 'UAW Offers Detroit Concessions'

Agence France Presse: 'Intelligence bodies rush to avoid Mumbai blame: experts'

The Hindu (India): 'Ex-Pakistan Army officers, ISI trained Mumbai attackers: NYT'

BBC: 'Huge cut in UK interest rates'

Washington Post: 'Obama Policymakers Turn to Campaign Tools: Network of Supporters Tapped on Health-Care Issues'

AP: 'Fla. congresswoman accidentally hangs up on Obama'

BBC: 'France unveils huge stimulus plan'

Register (U.K.): 'Berlusconi plans to use G8 presidency to "regulate the internet"'

If you don't want more bad news, then don't read about Henry Paulson's latest bailout plan to "help" consumers by luring them even deeper into debt in hopes that their overall debt payments will be more manageable. So what if your financial obligations stretch into the next century so your great-grandchildren will have to keep paying them down?

Spare yourself the agita: Don't compare Paulson's plan to the one announced yesterday in Britain that would boost taxes on the rich and on petrol and would provide more social services to help commoners survive the crisis.

Yes, Paulson plans for the government to soak up a lot of bad consumer debt. But his emphasis so far on his tardy bailout of average Joe the Plumbers is to convince us to buy even more cars and refinance our mortgages and wear out our credit cards — all that would generate millions in additional bank and broker fees that we would pay as a further bailout of Paulson's corporate pals.

Now about those fees: One of Barack Obama's key advisers, Austan Goolsbee, several years ago broke down the scam of fees during the Bush regime's push to privatize Social Security (think what a disaster that would have been to give Wall Street investment banks control of that cash and then see the Dow head down).

Of the fees that brokers could have gotten from us for "managing" our Social Security monies, Goolsbee termed the scheme "the largest windfall gain in American financial history."

See my January 2005 item "Going for Brokers" for details of that "individual accounts" trickery.

I noted Goolsbee's September 2004 analysis of the real scam behind the Bush/Cheney plan to privatize Social Security:

The way that McDonald's makes its real profits on soft drinks, fees are the real (and hidden) generator of profits for banks. Hence Wall Street's continued push to get consumers to spend and borrow — and borrow and spend.

So it's good news, amid some of the troubling selections by Obama for his new regime, that he's bringing Goolsbee to D.C. As Bloomberg notes this morning in a story about the appointment of former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to head a panel that will, in effect, replace Paulson as the bailout czar:

Maybe this panel will do more than figure out ways to generate fees for bankers and brokers by trying to make average Americans borrow.

The British government proposes doing its own borrowing so it can increase social services. Here? The only services that people like Paulson want to protect is their car service.

While you're waiting to open the door of Paulson's limo for him ...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Wall Street Journal: 'The Paulson Plan: "Truly Idiotic" '

N.Y. Daily News: 'Paulson unveils $800B plan to ease flow of credit to homebuyers and small consumers'

Wall Street Journal: 'Fed Aid Sets Off a Rush to Refinance'

Mother Jones: 'Drill, Garner, Drill: How former Iraq administrator Jay Garner is destabilizing the very country he was hired to fix'

Telegraph (U.K.): 'Relax — the recession will keep the lights on'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Even with LeBron James, fixing Knicks is a tall order'

AP: 'Gazans using tattered notes because of cash crunch'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Let my brother out, Mr. President!'

Wall Street Journal: 'Retail Downturn Rains on Macy's Parade: Department-Store Chain's CEO Says Size Lets it Strike New Deals, Cut Costs to Weather Sales Decline'

AP: 'Obama picks graybeards as wartime Cabinet'

Washington Post: 'Obama's Energy Department'

ABC: 'Obama on Auto Execs' Private Jets: "A Little Tone Deaf" '

Bloomberg: 'Fed Risks "Spitting in the Wind" With New $800 Billion Pledge'

ZDNet: '$873m judgment against spammer in Facebook case'

N.Y. Daily News: 'AIG bosses agree to Cuomo request and zap bonuses'

Windsor Star (Canada): 'Melting Arctic, Afghanistan top general's concerns'

You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. But the standard weights and measures are so out of whack that, in Britain, 20 billion of their pounds probably won't outweigh those 16 tons that Wall Street's bankers carelessly offloaded on us.

At least the Brits are trying, even though it means even more debt. Yes, there's big news from Parliament today: a $30 billion stimulus plan to bail out commoners. But you wouldn't know it by the U.S. press outlets, most of which grossly underplayed the Labor government's scheme announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling.

No Henry Paulson, he. In the slowest race on record, the British beat us to a bailout of ordinary folk from the crisis dumped on us by Wall Street's collapse (check out the Guardian's "Obama v Darling: the plans compared" video.)

Over here, Barack Obama won't even commit to rescinding George W. Bush's brazen tax cuts for the rich that his handlers enacted in the early daze of the current GOP regime.

And the American way, apparently, is to talk about helping "consumers" — that's how we suckers are viewed by Wall Street types like Paulson, according to our press (see the New York Post's "Paulson Works to Ease Consumer Credit Crunch.")

Paulson wants to help Detroit sell us even more vehicles. In Britain, the government at least pays lip service by often referring to us as "people," not "consumers."

OK, we're in transition and Obama hasn't even taken over yet. But over there, the Yanks aren't coming, so the Brits are robbing Peter the rich guy to pay Paul the plumber. The question is whether Obama is listening. Or is he listening to your pay-me-and-other-average-Americans-no-mind guys like Larry Summers?

So far, at least Obama's words are soothing — and we saw how important even words are when Rudy Giuliani was portrayed as keeping it cool right after 9/11. In "Team Obama promises huge jolt to economy," the Guardian's Ewen MacAskill writes:

Progressive or regressive, that's the question about our new regime, in light of the conservative Clintonian Democrats with whom Obama's surrounding himself.

In Britain, that question's been answered by the Labor government's plan (see the Guardian's glance). It calls for massive government borrowing, but it's a progressive agenda where the citizenry are concerned.

Gordon Brown and his henchman Darling laid out an attack that includes a tax hike for the richest 1 percent of Britons and a higher tax on gasoline. Plus an order to banks to delay foreclosures. Plus more help to homeowners in making mortgage payments. Plus an increase in child-care benefits. Plus £1.3 billion to help the unemployed. Plus a cut in the sales tax. Plus a vow to use government power to stop utilities from gouging their customers.

Plus higher taxes on such vices as national health insurance, alcohol, and tobacco (unfortunately, three things that are necessary for us to survive the onrushing Great '08 Depression). And this conscionable move, as the Washington Post's Kevin Sullivan reports in a story buried on page A8:

So far, we're talking about the opposite approach in Britain to the recession. Shoring up social services, a higher tax on the rich? Doesn't sound like corporate welfare to me. What's wrong with those people? What, is Sheila Bair running Britain's bailout?

The Labor government didn't announce its plan to a roomful of respectful reporters. Sitting only a few feet away from Darling and Brown, the Tories jeered them. (Don't you just love parliamentary democracy?)

More from the WashPost story:

Not much talk these days about who's at fault for this mess. (By the way, can we please put that old antisemitic canard about "international bankers" to rest? We didn't get into this mess because of them. The villains are Wall Street's bankers. Thank you.)

Now see this Oklahoman-American Jew's links to other news ...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Washington Post: '$30 Billion Stimulus Announced In Britain: Plan Cuts Sales Tax, Boosts Borrowing for Major Public Projects'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Team Obama promises huge jolt to economy'

Wall Street Journal: 'Big Players Scale Back Charitable Donations'
"As the recession deepens, the future of charities that depend on corporate donations is becoming more uncertain."

N.Y. Post: 'It's About Time! Paulson Finally Makes Move to Help Consumers'

New Yorker: 'Thinking Big: The promise of universal health care' (Steve Coll)

Guardian (U.K.): 'US intelligence "kept files on Tony Blair's private life", claims ex-US navy operator'

Wall Street Journal: 'Chrysler Workers Fret Buyout Deadline'
"Chrysler workers are torn between accepting a buyout now or hoping to survive involuntary separations expected at year's end."

N.Y. Times: 'Economic Slump May Limit Moves on Clean Energy'
"A poor global economy and plunging prices for coal and oil are upending plans to curb the use of fossil fuels."

N.Y. Daily News: 'Cops nab man who drove 3,000 miles to shoot wife in church'

N.Y. Times: 'Saving Citi May Create More Fear'
"The government's bailout of Citigroup could lead other banks to take bigger risks."

Irish Times: 'Democratic triumph heralds realignment in US politics'

N.Y. Times: 'For Lobbyists, No Downturn, Just a Turnover'
"Republican lobbyists are feeling the demand for their services plummet as Democrats ascend in Washington."

N.Y. Daily News: 'Teacher and her pet'
"A Queens teacher, 37, fired for bedding a 17-year-old male model is suing to win back her job. He was no student, she says."

But more importantly in this country, the Obama victory was a victory for white people.

Outlets ranging from ESPN to the BBC automatically scurried to black people for their reaction to Obama's win. It would be more telling if they focused on the reaction from white people, because that was the real story.

It looks as if Obama did better with white voters than Bill Clinton did. Remember Toni Morrison's "trope of blackness" foolishness in 1998 when she called Clinton "our first black president"?

Claptrap. Not backed up by the facts — like Clinton's embrace of such separate-but-unequal policies as the Glass-Steagall repeal, which heaped more misery on poor blacks and poor whites by worsening the subprime scam.

Ten years later, we really do have a black president, and reporters are besieging black people in Kenya and the NBA for quotes about Obama's victory. What do you think they'll say? Of course they like it.

The fact, though, is that an astounding number of white people not only voted for Obama but actively supported him and cried tears of joy when he won — a landmark in America's racial history and a severe blow against tokenism.

The images from Grant Park of Obama and Joe Biden and their families — white people and black people, young and old — holding hands and hugging were unforgettable. Unforgettable because for the first time on the highest national stage the black man and his kin weren't relegated to supporting roles.

Recall Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 speech, when he and other black people were on the outside of the White House looking in, and he talked about transforming "the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood":

He tried to convince us that civil rights is as much of — or more of — a white issue as a black one.

The current phase of black people mostly relegated in white eyes (and their own) to dreams of success as sports gladiators, actors, and rappers may be ending. Tokens? No longer.

The only tokens you see in New York City subways these days are the faces on the ads plastered in each car. Look at the ads that feature the casts of the season's new TV shows: Each cast is either all black or it consists of four or five whites and a token black and maybe a token person of Asian descent.

Marketers still blitz us with those apartheid-like images. Our pop culture's portrayals of mixed-race couples are mostly white men with black women — The Wire's naked coupling of Lance Reddick's black-cop character atop his white lawyer girlfriend the exception that proves the unwritten rule among marketers to not offend whites.

And now we have a mixed-race president. In his grave, Theodore Bilbo must be growling about "mongrelization."

Segregation and segregationists are cancer cells, and Obama's victory will help flush that infection out of the American mainstream.

Think about another landmark event in America's racial history. The color barrier that Jackie Robinson ran through in 1947 was not a black barrier; it was a white one. And popular Dodger shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese's white arm publicly draped over his black teammate's shoulders was arguably more significant than the expected joy felt by other black people at Robinson's feat.

Racism was once commonly called "the Negro problem." In this white-ruled country, it's always been a white problem.

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Wall Street Journal: 'Obama Turns to Building Leadership Team'

Village Voice: 'Wall Streetwalkers: the Sleazy Lehman Brothers Subsidiary'

Bloomberg: 'ISM Services Index in U.S. Slumped to Record Low'

Election Law (Ohio State University): 'Post-election contests: Four states to watch'

Election Reform Project (Brookings): 'New Jersey's DRE Problem'

Fox News: 'Karl Rove on the Ins and Outs of the Transition from Bush to Obama'

L.A. Times: 'Gay rights backers file 3 lawsuits challenging Prop. 8'

N.Y. Daily News: 'City paid $50G to settle excessive-force suits against same officer in subway sodomy case'

VOA: 'Taiwan President Meets With Senior Mainland Official'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Time's short for GOP to lick wounds'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Barack Obama election victory drives US newspaper sales surge'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Ed Dept. plans 50% slash in new seats for students'

Sin Chew (Malaysia): 'Inheriting The Bush Legacy Of Mess'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Palin goes out with a whimper'
"Vanquished VP nominee Sarah Palin wanted to address the nation on Election Night, but a top Mac aide nixed her request."

Washington Post: 'First-Ever Mapping of Cancer Patient's Genome'

N.Y. Post: 'SEX FIEND STARING AT 165 YRS. IN STIR'

Washington Post: 'In a Heated Race, Obama's Cool Won the Day'

N.Y. Post: 'Bamelot: Plenty Kennedys on Cabinet List'

The economy's in such a freefall that the winner of today's election won't have time for a transition — he'll have to start taking immediate action to stanch the bleeding.

You think the stock market is down? You don't know the half of it. The New York Stock Exchange itself is a publicly traded company, and even it is crashing. As the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street notes:

But the real story this morning sits atop the WSJ's news pages: "New Economic Ills Will Force Winner's Hand":

It really has turned out to be true that, as Charlie Wilson (the former GM CEO, not the drunken pol) once said, as GM goes, so goes the nation ("Charlie Wilson's War is Over. He Lost," Press Clips, January 23, 2008).

GM's vehicle sales have dropped 45 percent compared with this time a year ago. Guess where we're headed?

Whatever the case, Senator Chuck Schumer stands to be a big winner. Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, Schumer will be the golden boy in the new Democratic Congress, even if McCain were to win.

For good or ill, the New York senator will be one of the most powerful people in the country.

And, as he certainly should, he's already making plans. The WSJ story notes:

And don't forget the other guy:

How can we forget?

For news about Cheney's replacement, watch CNN all day if you want, but if you're stuck at your computer all day, you'd be better off with the BBC's "Live Text: US Election Day 2008," which reloads automatically.

My indefatigable colleague Roy Edroso will be hammering at the keyboard all day at Runnin' Scared. Check him out.

Meanwhile, people are being raped and killed in the Congo. And you're late with your mortgage payment. So . . .

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Global Research (Canada): 'How McCain Could Win'

Slate: 'The Coming Obama-Press War: It's inevitable' (Jack Shafer)

Wall Street Journal: 'Homeowners Wait as Relief Plan Drags'

McClatchy: 'Ailing economy takes toll on health'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Reputed Genovese capo indicted in '77 murder'
"The feds Monday indicted a reputed Genovese capo for the 1977 murder of a gangster who, after his killer's gun jammed, snarled: 'What're you gonna do now, tough guy?' "

Washington Post: 'In Congo, a March Behind Rebel Lines: Renegade General Compels Thousands Displaced by War to Return Home and Sing His Praises'

Register (U.K.): 'Philosophy, computing, and Republican desperation'
"In a last-ditch attempt to spook credulous Americans into voting for John McCain, a Republican congressman and his brother-in-law have offered $10,000 to a software-wielding Oxford don, asking for proof that Barack Obama's memoir was written by former domestic terrorist William Ayers."

N.Y. Daily News: 'Wall St. scammer gets 6 1/2 year sentence, will pay back millions'

N.Y. Post: 'BLIND DAD DIES AFTER MARATHON'

Der Spiegel (Germany): 'Germany and France Compete for Role of Financial Savior'
"As tremors shake markets around the world, European partners Germany and France have gone separate ways in fighting the crisis. Sarkozy wants to bring banks and threatened industries under the government's protection, but Merkel is opposing such state intervention."

Jurist: 'Federal judge orders Cheney aide to testify in VP records lawsuit'

Al Jazeera: 'End of Chicago free-market ideas?'

Washington Post: 'China Faces Faltering Economy'
"After first declaring itself unaffected by crisis, officials turn to bailouts to forestall unrest."

Der Spiegel (Germany): 'Obama and the Overseas Vote: Grassroots in the Age of Social Networking'

Al Jazeera: 'Analysis: US battleground states'

In The News (U.K.): 'Analysis: The DRC's deep-rooted conflict'
"Latest estimates from the UN put the number of Congolese who have abandoned the homes in fear of their lives over the one million mark."

N.Y. Times: 'Afghan Officials Aided an Attack on U.S. Soldiers'

N.Y. Times: 'Bin Laden's Son Seeks Asylum in Spain'

Der Spiegel (Germany): 'Court Says Kaczynski Can Be Called a Duck'
"A court in Poland ruled on Monday that it was not slanderous to refer to President Lech Kaczynski as a duck."

Telegraph (U.K.): 'Heavy rainfall could be linked to autism, scientists claim'

Christian Science Monitor: 'Congo's riches fuel its war'

N.Y. Times: 'New Terrain for Panel on Bailout'
"A committee of five little-known officials is picking winners and losers among institutions seeking a slice of the bailout."

After the administration let the economy and various wars veer out of control, the administration is wading into Wall Street to rescue bankers and thinking about rescuing homeowners. Now it's even considering negotiating to rescue our troops from Afghanistan.

What's next? A withdrawal from Iraq?

The Afghanistan situation is so serious that as the Wall Street Journal reports ("U.S. Mulls Talks With Taliban in Bid to Quell Afghan Unrest"):

But until late summer 2001, the Bush regime was muddling along in a generally uncontroversial way when the unthinkable (not to the regime) happened on 9/11. That tragedy unleashed the Bush regime on the world. So far, his administration has wrecked Iraq, made a bad situation in Afghanistan worse, and presided over a historic Wall Street crash that threatens the entire world economy.

That's three exhibits right there for the new George W. Bush Presidential Libary being erected in Dallas. It would be nice if the libary put those three exhibits in the same hall, next to the Pet Goat Reading Room, which would display the August 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing with the same kind of reverence that real libraries afford the U.S. Constitution.

Bush's job as president is almost finished; there are no more worlds to conquer us. Unless, as Mike Bloomberg has done in New York City, Bush's handlers try to undemocratically erase term limits so he can serve a third term.

Is there a groundswell for abolishing presidential term limits? While you're being pinned to the ground by current events, listen for one. . . .

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Salem-News.com: 'Hell Freezes Over: White House Drug Czar Backs Decriminalization'

Wall Street Journal: 'Rescue Plan Faces Delays In Hiring Asset Managers'

BBC: 'NATO's Afghan forces "hit limit" '

CNN: 'Global stocks rebound'

Wall Street Journal: 'Crisis Deals New Blow to Japan: Country's Top Bank in Capital Shortfall; Stocks at '82 Levels'

New York: 'Stimulus in Pinstripes: Why the Yankees will renounce their smart, sustainable team-building strategy and start spending like drunken lunatics again.'

Wall Street Journal: 'Post-Enron Crackdown Comes Up Woefully Short'
". . . Today's financial crisis has shown what a real debacle looks like. And it has made clear that executives' duties to public companies have, if anything, been loosened, not reinforced. What is worse, the post-Enron crackdown appears not only to have failed to stop flagrant corporate risk-taking, but to have lulled Washington to sleep."

Reuters: 'Skinheads held over plot to kill Obama'

Slate: 'Countdown to the Obama Rapture: Watch as the press corps battles its performance anxiety!' (Jack Shafer)
". . . if Obama wins, these scribes know that they'll be facing the toughest assignment of their careers. They've all oversubscribed to the notion that Obama's candidacy is momentous, without parallel, and earth-shattering, so they can't file garden-variety pieces about the 'winds of change' blowing through Washington."

N.Y. Post: 'PATERSON WOULD BEAT RUDY: POLL'

N.Y. Jewish Week: 'New Tactics By Settlers Worrying Authorities'

Slate: 'How Bad Are Electronic Voting Machines?'

McClatchy: 'McCain pushed regulators for land swap, despite pledge'

N.Y. Times: 'The Drug Czar’s Report Card: F'

Slate: 'Middle-Aged Feminists Longing for Their Father's Money'

N.Y. Times: 'Rice Visits Mexico for a Meeting About Its Drug War'

Slate: 'Registering Doubt: If we can nationalize banks, why not our election process?'

Dawn (Pakistan): 'Barbaric killing of teenager unfolds'
". . . was first thrown before hungry dogs and when she was mauled by them and in the jaws of death, she was riddled with bullets."

N.Y. Daily News: 'Ma charged in vicious mop-handle slay of 11-year-old daughter'

L.A. Times: 'McCain was frank, garrulous and accessible -- and then he wasn't'

Guardian (U.K.): 'The cost of the crash: $2,800,000,000,000'

N.Y. Post: 'DA EYES COPS IN SODOMY'

Human Rights Watch: 'Confessions of a former Guantanamo prosecutor'

McClatchy: 'As clock ticks, U.S. letting thousands of Iraqi prisoners go'

N.Y. Times: 'Can I Get an Arrgh?'

BuzzFlash: 'Memo to Palin: Fruit Fly Researchers Receive Nobel Prize for Medicine for Advancing the Understanding of Birth Defects in Humans'

Slate: 'Texts You Can Believe In: Forget robo-calls -- Obama's text messages are this campaign's secret weapon'

McClatchy: 'Slowing British economy could send immigrants home'

Guardian (U.K.): 'BP smashes forecasts as profits soar 148 percent'
"Oil giant BP has reaped the benefits of this summer's record oil prices, smashing all forecasts with a 148 percent rise in third-quarter profits. The figures are likely to spark fresh protests from motorists and businesses that have been hit hard by higher petrol prices."

RadioAustralia: 'China tries to kick start housing sector'

BBC: 'Arctic ice thickness "plummets" '

Wall Street Journal: 'Some Newspapers Shed Unprofitable Readers'

Wall Street Journal: 'Another Favorite Trade Bites the Dust'

N.Y. Times: 'Fractures in Iraq City as Kurds and Baghdad Vie'

Scotsman: 'Transcript of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's phone calls to Andrew Sachs'

N.Y. Post: 'EASY TICKET TO RIDE THE GRAVY TRAIN'

Bloomberg: 'Volkswagen Overtakes Exxon as Most Valuable Company'

N.Y. Post: 'FUNDS' OCTOBER SURPRISE: HEDGES FACING WORST MONTHLY LOSSES IN DECADE'

While our government is dragging its feet on bailing out endangered homeowners, one of the most repressive regimes in the world, Saudi Arabia, has already committed $3.2 billion to bail out its low-income borrowers.

Don't blame FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. My homey from the University of Kansas laid it out for Congress last week ("Daily Flog: It's so bad that capitalists plan to help proles", Press Clips).

The week before that, on October 16 ("Daily Flog: Wall Street down the drain; White House plumber summoned," Press Clips), she told the Wall Street Journal:

For quite a while. At a mortgage industry conference a year ago (as the AP recalls), Bair told the bankers themselves to get aggressive about modifying loans:

Neither Congress nor the mortgage bankers has taken action. As for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs is focused on bailing out his Wall Street buddies, instead of Josephine the plumber.

Paulson won't listen to the highest-ranking woman in the federal government's financial sector — even though she's also a Republican.

But Saudi Arabia's rulers, who don't listen to any women, are bailing out beleaguered homeowners.

Yes, Saudi Arabia, which still flogs women for having sex, makes women cover up from head to toe in public, won't let women drive, and forbids women from even traveling without written permission from a male.

OK, so Saudi Arabia probably doesn't even let women buy houses. But it is at least helping out its low-income male mortgagees.

Meanwhile, somebody needs to bail out Isiah Thomas.

Here's more grist . . .

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

McClatchy: 'Economic crisis hurting students' ability to pay for college'

Washington Post: 'Gun Sales Thriving In Uncertain Times'

Herald Sun (Australia): '$US700bn bailout may be used for bonuses, dividends'

N.Y. Post: 'WALL STREET REFUGEES SET OFF ON STEINBECK-STYLE MIGRATION'

Wall Street Journal: 'Bankruptcy Fears Rise For Chrysler, GM'

Washington Post: 'Unseen Iraq: A Grim Ritual at the Baghdad Morgue'

AP: 'World's heaviest man marries in Mexico'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Trendy neighborhoods can't escape New York City's housing slump as sales drop'

New Yorker: 'Greasing the Slide'

Guardian (U.K.): 'Asia stocks dive to 4-yr lows'

Wall Street Journal: 'Early Job Losses Compound Downturn'
"A rash of new job data show the labor market is the worst it has been since the two prior recessions, worrying economists who usually expect the weakest picture at the end of a recession."

NFL Network: '49ers interested in Condoleezza Rice'

San Jose Mercury: '49ers rebut Condoleezza Rice rumor'

AP: 'Companies start competing for bailout money'

MarketWatch: 'Indian brides confront gold bears, again'

Christian Science Monitor: 'Scope of $700 billion bailout bill continues to widen'

Washington Post: 'Deeper Meaning Below a Glossy Surface'

L.A. Times: 'Wall Street wives had the richer, now they're a bit poorer'

Wall Street Journal: 'U.S. Mulls Widening Bailout to Insurers'

Al Jazeera: 'China divided over US election race'

Al Jazeera: 'UN: Major inequality in US cities'

Al Jazeera: 'China decries US "moral authority" '

Agence France Presse: 'Kuwaiti traders walk out of bourse again to protest losses'
"Kuwaiti traders staged another walkout Sunday and protested outside the stock market as shares in the Gulf region plunged amid growing expectations of a global recession. The traders, who also protested on Thursday, the business week's final day, left the trading chamber again after the index dived more than 300 points."

MarketWatch: 'Dimmed fireworks, fewer gifts this Diwali, but ...'

BBC: 'Syria condemns "US village raid" '