Laura Flanders | The Nation

"You have nothing to fear but fear itself." Hearing those words from Franklin Delano Roosevelt quoted again today, they rang true in a whole new way. The fear is out there. Of course it's there -- when the Dow Jones drops a spooky 777 points in a day -- that fear's inevitable -- and the hurt's real enough -- in people's pensions and their pocket books.

But bail-out supporter or not, there are lots of reasons to celebrate the vote that so many powerful people are wringing their hands about today. There's a lot of arm-twisting going on right now, and a new package may be put up for a vote as soon as Friday, but what happened Monday is a game changer moment and it's worth taking note: calls into Congress came in 9 to 1 against the bailout. Even after every powerful opinion pusher in the land preached the urgency of the bailout. The politics of pure panic failed. Chicken Little croaked.

People in this country have been told to fear so much for so long -- from terrorism, Islam, abortion, gay marriage, Iraq, deficits, trade, no-trade; layoffs, no layoffs, environmental regulations -- you name it -- that finally, they just didn't buy it.

What they did buy was some time for someone to come up with a better, more democratic package. The question is, who? It's not hard to notice there's a vacuum at the top. When it comes to popular legitimacy, our political leaders have none. John McCain and the Republicans flailed and lied last week. Nancy Pelosi was unable to rally the votes she thought she could Monday in Congress and no one knows now whether she'll seek those votes from right or left.

People are fed up, but it's also worth noting how little they seem to be blaming Barack Obama for his support for the bailout. Generally up in the polls, the Democratic candidate is clearly riding the reputation for change he built up early on.

Now Obama's got to drop the baggage the voters seem to have dropped: the Fear baggage. Your ideas can't soar like your rhetoric, Senator Obama, if you're carrying around so much weight. And they need to. It's long past time for some leadership and some transformational thought.

Laura Flanders is the host of RadioNation and GRITtv. Watch GRITtv on Free Speech TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415) or 8 pm ET on Channel 67 in Manhattan. OR on a cable station near you, or online at GRITtv.org. And become a subscriber.

There was caution as well as exuberance at the Democratic Convention Monday night. First the exuberance - the place was packed to the brim. The first thing I heard when I reached the floor was the Fire Marshall telling the stewards to close the doors.

The crowd rose to its feet as one after Massachusetts Sen Edward Kennedy appeared.

But the feelings that brought tears to many eyes were mixed with grief. The party's liberal leader is sick. The event was billed as a "tribute" to Teddy – and that's how the occasion felt.

Michelle Obama delivered quite possibly the smartest as well as the most passionate speech by any potential first lady to take the Convention floor. But again, just a few feet from me sat four older African American women who, wiping their tears, told me they just couldn't quite believe what they were seeing.

Michelle Obama drew attention to two anniversaries: the 44th anniversary of Dr King's "I have a Dream" speech and the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage . But those anniversaries bring up mixed feelings too. While they celebrate now, forty-four years ago, the Democratic Party of the time did its best to keep civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and her Mississippi Freedom delegation out of their convention. And much to the fury of many suffrage workers the 19th Amendment did nothing to dismantle Jim Crow...

That a blue collar black woman kicked off convention week to a standing room only ovation is a big hopeful thing. Much needed change seems to be in the air. But will it happen? Not just for the Obamas, but for the nation?

That's what many here are wondering. It's not a sucking sound you hear, it's people holding their breath.

The F Word is a daily commentary by Laura Flanders on GRITtv. Watch GRITtv on Free Speech TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415) or at GRITtv.org. And become a subscriber.

The New York Times ran a feature August 12, on Georgian civilians who've joined the fight against the Russian invasion of that former Soviet republic. The story, by Nicholas Kulish and Michael Schwirtz is full of empathy and heart.

Nika Kharadze and Giorgi Monasalidze went to war last week, the Times report begins… "even though they were not warriors."

It goes on to describe how the men's parents have been searching for them ever since. They've gone from hospital to hospital, to the local and International Red Cross. Mom and dad even asked the cellphone company to trace the last known location of their son's phone. No luck.

And then there's this line: as parts of the country fell before the Russian invaders, the Times writes, "it was not only the army that rose in its defense but also regular citizens." Resistance, we learn, was part of a tradition, inscribed in local history and culture going back to "medieval times."

To make the point, the writers describe a government employee, standing under a statue of Stalin in the city's main square with a rifle slung over his civilian clothes. The man is part of a group of a dozen locals who tell the reporter they're there to defend their town.

The story also describes displacement caused by bombing. "The planes came in and they started to bomb. The ground was covered with dead people, and there was nowhere to go," says Goderzi Zenashvili, 48. "The people that died, they died from their houses falling in on them, from the shrapnel and from concussions."

So now we know! The New York Times can do it when they want to. They can paint a picture of war that's hard to shake: heroic, hapless young men who take up arms to defend their homelands; moms and dads and lovers worried sick. The Times can explain how invading armies provoke righteous resistance. When they want to.

But they didn't – not when it was Baghdad instead of Tbilisi, and the statue Saddam's, not Stalin's. Then, local people in resistance were called dead enders, killers, terrorists. Because of course -- here's the difference: then the resisters were the enemy and the invaders were – are – us.

The F Word is a daily commentary by Laura Flanders on GRITtv. Watch GRITtv on Free Speech TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415) or at GRITtv.org. And become a subscriber.

Vanity Fair has released a cartoon cover online in response to the New Yorker's swipe at the media coverage of the Obamas. The fake Vanity Fair cover shows John McCain, in a walker with a bandaged head and Cindy with a bundle of pills giving her hubby a fist-jab. A portrait of George W. Bush hangs over the mantle-piece; the Constitution is burning in the grate.

Some are finding it funny. I'd say not so much. Worse, it's all wrong. If Vanity Fair's cartoonist wanted to flip the New Yorker cover on the GOP, they'd have to portray the media's lies about the candidate. Not the true stuff.

Sure, she's no drug addict, but the candidate's wife has been forced to admit that she was once addicted to prescription drugs. (She even stole the drugs from her own nonprofit medical relief outfit.) And while McCain doesn't use a walker, it's not as if the media misrepresent his age. Those aren't the media's wrongs where the McCains are concerned. It's not her looks, it's her wealth the media understate, and it's not his physique, it's his politics.

To do the media hit job fairly, Vanity Fair should have taken aim at the media's lies: pundits pretend McCain's a maverick. He's not. He's voted with Bush 95 percent of the time. The equivalent to the lie about Obama being a muslim is the lie about McCain breaking with the Bush pack. The equivalent to the lie about Michelle being dangerous -- is the lie about Cindy being one of us. She's a $100 million aristocrat--who stands to win big from her husband's tax plans.

For all the flips and flops of the McCain campaign so far, the one thing that's true is that the Constitution might as well be burning in the grate. And if McCain ever wins the Oval office, you can be sure GW's policies, if not his portrait will be on display. Again, that's not satire. Satire, sadly, would be the Constitution safe and GW banished.

Funny it's not. We can only hope that this sales-boosting silly season's over.

The F Word is a daily commentary by Laura Flanders on GRITtv. Watch GRITtv on Free Speech TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415) or at GRITtv.org. And become a subscriber.