Michelle Rhee, the head of DC area schools is making amazing progress in turning the public schools around. So I’d love to have the Obamas send their kids to these schools to create national visibility as to what a well-run public school can be.

Sheila Bair - Secretary of the Treasury Wendy Kopp (founder of Teach for America) - Secretary of Education

Great call, Carol J - I was thinking of her too!

I put fashion, though fashion, function and comfort are certainly not mutually exclusive. If you look like a mess, you feel like a mess and people treat you like a mess which doesn’t exactly sound functional or comfortable to me!

A recent New Yorker article interviewed working poor white rural voters, asking them why they were for McCain. They answered “lower taxes.” Basically, they believed they were living paycheck to paycheck so even an extra $5 a week would break them (true), and that raising taxes on the wealthy would not solve the deficit (probably true). For these reasons, people like Joe the Plumber genuinely believe that if it weren’t for “high taxes” they would be rich. Or that there is no point in trying to better themselves/situations because the tax burden would be too high and they would end up behind. There is also a belief that a huge portion of the government spending goes to “welfare for people who are too lazy to get a job.” So they work 2 jobs with no healthcare and hope that when the taxes get lowered they will be included. Or that those nice rich people whose taxes got lowered will open up a local factory that will pay them a good wage and benefits.

Guess what? I don’t care if I pay more taxes under Obama! Why? Because in the long run, I am better off if the budget is balanced and we’ve invested in health care, education and infrasturcture. The economy will be stable so I can get a job. Interest rates and capital markets will be stable so I can raise money to start/run a business. I can hire Americans who can read, write and add to grow my business. And, I can know they are able to show up to work because they are healthy. Bush and McSame’s attitudes about the “free market” stop as soon as some bizillionaires on Wall Street insist they need a $700B bailout. And American car companies who never seemed to care that Toyota and Honda were developing hybrids because they were selling so many profitable, gas-guzzling SUVs suddenly get a $35B bailout as well. Free market at its best…

Shiela, I have saved your words for motivation.

Not buying anything I don’t need. I did need some purple suede boots. And a black sweater. But I’m finding a full closet and not having to own the latest thing means I can avoid the malls. Guess I’m not doing much for the economy, eh?

This is such a trainwreck. “Preferred equity” my eye, I bet the banks don’t pay a dime of dividends back to the American people. The gov’t is giving huge checks to the banks… and they’ll pay themselves big bonuses and come back asking for more. Why didn’t the gov’t, if they felt they had to step in (another conversation) just do the simplest and most obvious thing? Offer guaranteed low-interest loans, through local banks, to businesses who have been open for at least 6 months, in “good standing” to keep making payroll and stocking inventory. You could also offer low-interest loans to homeowners with otherwise good credit to refinance their mortgages and pay down their credit cards but the banks will have hissy fits because the huge interest rates consumers pay is a major source of profits. Local bank branches are a good way to administer programs because they know who has had a checking account/savings account, and they can check out businesses to see what is real, and homeowners to make sure there really is someone living there. Regular audits could ensure banks are properly issuing funds under the guidelines, like back when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had guidelines. ;-D Argh, makes too much sense.

I think Levi is too hot, and too 18 to be a proper head of a Christian household. I bet he cheats on Bristol every chance he gets and they are divorced before he’s legally allowed to drink beer. He dropped out of school? Why?

I see her having Sandra Lee as a regular guest for the cooking section.

But Jewish people handled the business side - the manufacturing and distribution. Look at Ralph Lauren - a Jewish kid from Brooklyn - an outsider - had the best eye for what looks defined a preppy East Coast lifestyle.

Ms. Peek, you have GOT to be kidding me… “The good news is that Bill Gross at Pimco, probably the smartest investor in fixed income instruments in the world, thinks the taxpayers have a good chance of making money on those asset purchases. It will depend on what the government pays for them of course, but I think it’s highly likely that these mortgage-backed securities are worth more than the going rate of 25c on the dollar.” If the banks don’t think these are worth anything, how on earth can a few government drones properly assess the value on them? Remember, the government isn’t buying the mortgages directly. I’m assuming you know how mortgage-backed securities work. The problem isn’t the straightforward versions in which the homeowners pay their mortgages, then the mortgage holder pays the investors who supplied the cash. When analysts who think they are too smart to work for a living decide that they want to strip out and sell just one portion of an interest payment stream, then sell off the default risk in an insurance-type model, or arbitrage interest rates against commodities… then the complexities of the real world kick in and suddenly their spreadsheets can’t calculate their models. And this whole thing about buying the “lowest priced assets” first is a joke, trying to make the whole process sound somehow conservative and rational. I can’t wait to see how they consistently develop and apply a risk-adjusted rate of return.

Ms. Peek, With all due respect, you are wrong about the need of this bailout. Banks are not with their “tits in a wringer” because they are worried about mortgages defaulting. Banks created this problem by creating complex mortgage-related securities using spreadsheets and “fuzzy math.” Like tulips, dot-com stocks and llamas, they valued them based on what ever crazy-arsed price the last bozo paid. Then, they kept borrowing from each other… and then the music stopped. The $700B bailout only passed because another $150B of pork was piled onto this train wreck… tax advantage for NASCAR facilities, removing the duties on children’s wood arrows… our elected officials didn’t even TRY to pretend they were adding oversight or protection for taxpayers! If the government wants to spend fix the economy, how about creating $700B in bonds or backed loans for mortgages, small business loans or federal infrastructure that goes directly to those who need it, rather than laundering it through a couple of billionaires on Wall Street? Please don’t add to the myth that the only way to unlock the economy is to lavish money, without strings, onto Hank Paulson’s rich friends who were probably holding his puppy hostage until this dreck passed.