It may help to understand how much money Congress just appropriated to bail out the banks if we calculate how many semi-trucks it would take to carry $700,000,000,000.

The dimensionsof a 40-foot semi-trailer are approximately
40' x 10' x 8'
for a total of 3200 cubic feet.

If you make a stack of a hundred $100 bills, it will be approximately 1.5 inches high and add up to $10,000. 8 stacks will be a foot high, and in a cubic foot you can pack approximately 2 stacks length-wise, 4 stacks across, 8 stacks high for a total of 64 stacks.

64 x $10,000 = $640,000 in a cubic foot of $100 bills.

So 1000 cubic feet of $100 bills will add up to
1000 x $640,000 = $640,000,000

That's still only 640 million dollars, so to contain 640 billion dollars you need...

1,000,000 cubic feet of $100 bills.

Each semi-truck can carry 3200 cubic feet of cargo, so to carry 1,000,000 cubic feet of $100 bills, you need
1,000,000 / 3200 = 312.

You still have to add in another $60,000,000,000 to arrive at the total bail-out of $700,000,000,000, and for that you need 30 more semi-trucks...

But even if 300 semi-trucks full of $100 bills isn't quite enough to carry $700,000,000,000, it still gives you a ball-park idea of how much money Congress just gave the banks.

Line up 300 semi-trucks bumper-to-bumper, and you get a caravan of solid money more than three miles long!

Oct. 6, 2008
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(CBS) In a sign that the race for president has returned to about where it was before the first presidential debate, the Obama-Biden ticket leads the McCain-Palin ticket 47 percent to 43 percent among registered voters in a new CBS News poll.

The Obama-Biden ticket led by a wider margin, nine percentage points, in a CBS News poll released last Wednesday, before Joe Biden and Sarah Palin faced off in the vice presidential debate. Obama-Biden led by five percentage points on Sept. 25.

In the new poll, the Democratic ticket leads by 3 percentage points, 48 percent to 45 percent, among likely voters.

Barack Obama holds a 20 point lead in terms of enthusiasm. Fifty-eight percent of Obama voters say they are very enthusiastic about their candidate, while only 38 percent of John McCain voters say the same about the Arizona senator.

Roughly one in five registered voters have yet to commit to a candidate, though they may lean towards one or the other.

PLEASE GO TO CBSNews.com FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE....

Why does Sarah Palin get a free pass?
"I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."
"And I won't be buried under their damn flag. I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."
- Joe Vogler, Founder of The Alaska Independence Party (the former quote is still on their website).

Sarah Palin's association with the AIP:

1. According to Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, Sarah Palin and her husband Todd were members in the 1990's and attended statewide conventions.
   
2. From the AIP website: "Our current governor who I mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected . . . .and there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as mayor . . . "
   
3. Her husband, Todd Palin, was a member until 2002.
   
4. And finally, here is Sarah Palin's address to the AIP convention this year:
   

McCain's campaign slogan is "Country First." By contrast, the AIP campaign slogan is "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."

Would you be associated for decades with a political organization that professes hatred towards America? Or does hatred of America only matter if its espoused by your pastor, as opposed to your political party?

Here is an ad expressing the same sentiment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eu9Z2hXk y0&eurl=http://thecognoscenti.blogsp ot.com/

I admit that I soured a bit on Obama during the summer. A few things he did annoyed me, and though I never changed sides, I could have certainly been described as a "weak" supporter.

But as I said so long ago, the hard facts of this election are coming home, and Obama's in a VERY strong position.

Nate Silver at Fivethirtyeight.com has the score, and as he says, McCain is near a sacking.

McCain can't let this settle anymore. One reason Obama lost New Hampshire was that he support after Iowa was so sudden that it was easily erased.

Every day makes this harder to erase. Obama has had 10 days of a statisically significant lead in the Gallup tracking poll. So look for fireworks in the debate from a frustrated candidate who will do almost anything to have a chance for that office.

I honestly wish that McCain hadn't disqualified himself, but he has, and Obama must now begin to seriously consider how not only to win, but also to govern. FDR had a lot longer to plan than Obama will.

Yes, the race will tighten, and yes, pundits will freak. But it will take a big shift that doesn't look to be coming soon. Let this election show the true failures of non-conservative Republican policies.

And, let's pray for his safety. It only takes one person convinced he's a radical Muslim.

So here is the GOP website (pathetically) trying to tie Obama to Ayers.

http://www.gop.com/News/NewsRead.aspx?Gu id=768aa784-72f3-4b43-acb6-c5fe81d901cd

How could anyone read that and not say to themselves, "and your point is??"

Are they really trying that hard?  

Four years ago we looked as an election, that we should have won, was taken away from us.
Again we are reading from the left media (blogs, Olberman etc.) reassurances that American people will look beyond this.

We didn't lose because of the silly swiftboat ads, but rather because of the Kerry is the Terrorists candidate (Cheney & co.)

We will be losing again because we let them associate Obama with "terrorists", a few college students planting explosives here and there.

We have to call Keating and friends "terrorists" too and fight back.

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here is a question I want to pose to everyone, and the front pagers should take it up drive the question, because seriously at this point.

if you were in charge of the RNC resources which would you allocate the bulk of your resources to?

The presidential race, where McCain is down an RCP average of 6 points and 100 electoral votes.

or to Congress where the economy has been boosting dems across the country and now 60 in the senate doesn't seem so crazy.

seriously will we get to the point where the RNC says forget it and basically stops spending alot for McCain instead for tight races in the house and senate?