HELP WANTED: A FUNCTIONING MORAL COMPASS

Though he garnered just 36% of the vote in his IL Sixth Congressional race against incumbent Peter Roskam, 26 year old Ben Lowe ran a classy and principled campaign which did him and the Sixth District proud. His tender years belied a sense of maturity sorely missing from the political landscape which could serve as a model for anyone seeking elective office.

Lowe raised just a bit over $56,000 due to his refusal to solicit or accept corporate donations which bring obligations contrary to the needs of the powerless, the needy and the declining middle class. Lowe never raised his voice in anger or disrespect or sophism, but instead focused on a positive message addressing the critical issues of our time such as senseless war, jobs, health care for all, fair taxation, equal treatment for the marginalized, transition from on oil based to a green energy economy, and on and on.

Lowe tried to provide our 700,000 residents with a public debate but got just an emphatic "NO" to his plea for one when he encountered the Congressman at an event.
When a career politician, funded with over a million dollars from PACs, can flippantly dismiss such a critical request, the opponent doesn't suffer, democracy does.

As Lowe contemplates his next career move, he leaves us with one of the best campaign slogans of this or any political season: RESTORING OUR MORAL COMPASS.
That slogan assumes what anyone with a conscious and a heart already knows: America's moral compass is spinning wildly out of control as if radioactive.

When labor agitator Joe Hill was executed in 1915, for a Montana murder he probably didn't commit, his parting words to his union brethren were "Don't waste time mourning...organize". Ninety-five years later, those words still ring true for those of us looking to restore the Sixth District's and America's moral compass.

SPEAKER WATERWORKS

Though not yet anointed Speaker of the House, we already have four YouTube clips of Congressman John Boehner choking back tears as he speaks about bailing out his billionaire banker buddies, or how he had to do all the dirty jobs as a kid till he hit it big and could spent his down time golfing with those same rich guys and lobbyists.

Maybe part of his orientation from the steel lady who is vacating the Speaker's office would be how to keep a dry eye as he funnels more of America's middle class wealth to his home boys in the richest 2% of the America Boehner worships.

A NEW LITERARY TRADITION

The George W. Bush Presidential book tour is underway. To earn the millions former President Bush will pocket on his Presidential tome "Decision Points" being released November 9, he has booked the following schedule:

Interviews with Matt Lauer and Jay Leno on NBC's Today and Tonight shows; conservative superstar Rush Limbaugh; Fox News' Greta Van Susteran and Sean Hannity; Oprah;
CNN's Candy Crowley and Jim Axelrod of CBS Sunday Morning. Joining the President for some of the interviews will be his parents George H.W. and Barbara, wife and former First Lady Laura, and brother Jeb. Maybe even former Presidential dog Barney will make an appearance.

The former President is free to write and publish whatever he wants to rationalize and justify his made up, unnecessary, self destructive and therefore criminal war which has pretty much smashed Iraq to smithereens. But no one should voluntarily publish, promote or give Bush any forum whatsoever to profit from the re-writing of a terribly sordid chapter in American history; one I am profoundly ashamed of.

I will not watch the spectacle unfolding this week when the stars of American punditry and opinion serve up endless softballs to President Bush instead of asking him why he voluntarily chose to launch a criminal war which has created millions of casualties and refugees far out of sight of an uncaring American public. Therefore, I suggest every American help launch a new literary tradition: the Presidential criminal war book shunning.