In what has been a strikingly bitter and divisive US election campaign, one of the most distasteful forms of personal attack has been left-wing bloggers labeling VP candidate Sarah Palin as bipolar. These commentators apparently believe it is possible to diagnose Governor Palin as a closet sufferer of manic-depressive illness, without ever having met her or going through a formal diagnostic process. Bipolar is actually a specific medical term and the criteria for bipolar is set forth in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is going to put capital in the banks. In this concept, he shares a rich tradition with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. (He leaves free presents, theoretically only to the relatively good, but realistically rather more arbitrarily with a bias toward the privileged, and lastly and most importantly-- it's all a fantasy.)

There has been much discussion about Henry Paulson's Plan to invest $700 billion dollars of the tax payers' money in US mortgage backed securities. Opinions are divided, some totally oppose it while others vehemently espouse it.

Here is my take on how we got to this situation and why America should adopt Paulson's Plan.

Here we go again; the main stream media refuses to call a democrat out on blatant lies, miscues, and statements that - if made by a republican - would be assailed as racist. And the practice is so pervasive now that it's barely perceptible to the casual reader. People glibly accept everything they read in the newspaper or what they hear from the nightly news talking heads or, worse yet, from shows like The View.

I was lucky to meet the late Prof Geremek in 2005, when he predicted that 2009 would be a year of change for Europe with many elections, including the election for the European Parliament taking place in 2009. He had said that maybe Europe would shine after that- depending on the kind of political decisions that the new leaders are able to take.

Change is in the air with major European countries UK, Germany and Norway scheduled to hold elections in 2009. And of course, the European Parliament is due for election in mid 2009- the largest trans-national election ever.