As we all know by now, Rep. John Lewis made some news on Saturday...ya know, the same John Lewis whom John McCain considers one of his top 3 wisest men ever.

Just so we have a primer for the Sunday talk shows, here's what John Lewis said today about the growing anger and vitriol at McCain/Palin rallies and the candidates' complicity therein:

"What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement issued today for Politico's Arena forum.  "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

Lewis didn't accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities.

"George Wallace never threw a bomb," Lewis noted.  "He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama." [...]

"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all," Lewis said today. "They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."

The McCain campaign, no doubt grateful for a distraction from the Troopergate ruling, issued a statement challenging Obama to distance himself from Lewis's remarks.

"I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track," the GOP nominee said in a statement this afternoon.

He added: "I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America."

Notice that the statement is from John McCain, not a spokesman.

Obama did indeed take issue with Lewis's remarks but did not repudiate all of them. Here's his statement, via a spokesman:

"Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.  "But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for President of the United States `pals around with terrorists.'

"As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead."

I can't help but think this is just the distraction John McCain wanted. The media had already begun to report on the anger at McCain rallies and in fact McCain had himself rebuked his own supporters for some of their statements about Barack. McCain was the one in the position of defending his opponent; now Obama is forced to vouch for McCain and Palin's motives. Didn't the power just shift to McCain?

Not to mention, as I said above, the huge distraction this provides from the Trooper Gate decision that came in last night. No doubt the anger at the McCain rallies was going to be central to tomorrow's morning show coverage anyway, but Lewis, it seems to me, has singlehadedly inflated that story and given it newfound legs as he's deflated the Palin abuse of power story in importance.

Ouch.

The New York Times writes that Palin was "greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd." The Associated Press report, which will likely be seen in newspapers around the country, reads as follows:

Palin was booed when she first stepped on the ice before the Flyers' home opener against the New York Rangers to drop the ceremonial first puck. Palin, the Alaska governor and self-described "hockey mom," is trying to turn Pennsylvania into a red state.

Forbes, no bastion of liberalism, is even harsher in its writeup:

Palin Gets Booed in Philly!  This is sure to be the headline splashed across television and newspapers Sunday morning, the day after the Republican Vice Presidential candidate and hockey mom from Alaska drops the puck at the ceremonial face-off for the Philadelphia Flyers' home opener on Saturday night at the soon-to-need-a-name-change Wachovia Center. What will be missing from the news: the jeers were deserved.

Even Fox News was forced to admit "There were audible boos over the very loud music and some in the crowd had their thumbs down."

Just to step back and think about the optics of this for a moment, perhaps it will be the case that Philadelphians respect Palin for going in front of a hostile crowd. Then again, it's never a good thing for a candidate to earn headlines describing the nature and intensity of booing -- particularly when the stories don't come in the traditional news section of the paper or television report, which draws politics junkies unlikely to be swayed in one direction or the other, but rather in the sports section, read by more casual voters whose impressions of the candidate would more likely be shaped by this coverage. At the least, this moment in time should undercut the notion that Palin will bring a disproportionate number of hockey fans to the Republican ticket this fall.

This diary at DailyKos from a woman who got laid off along with 2/3 of her company yesterday is going to become increasingly regular news. For all that I've been swimming in the schadenfreude at watching the banks collapse and multimillionaire CEOs humbled, mass layoffs of ordinary people like this, as well as the evaporation of retirement savings for people unlucky enough to be retiring in a downturn, were inevitable and they give me no joy.

I didn't relish that end of things when, at the end of the dotcom bubble, my Silicon Valley firm essentially shut down completely. The product and one tech support guy were sold to another company and the rest of us were let go. (I'm not sure I should be kidding about their selling the tech support guy. I heard earlier this year that he still works with the remnants of the product as it exists today.) It took quite a while to find another job and my income has yet to recover its 2001 peak.

Not that this empathizing will make you feel better if you got laid off recently. Only another job is really going to help with that and I wish you good fortune. I'm just saying that I snark out of bitterness, as opposed to a glibertarian lack of concern.

But seriously, Pets.com? AOL being worth more than Time-Warner? The business climate in 2001 was a fantasyland, a delusion. It couldn't have gone on like that and (in theory predictably, though no one wanted to listen to the people who did predict it) it didn't.

All the ordinary people who'd built their dreams on the jobs that couldn't last, all of us took a bath. And how were we supposed to know any different? The media and business press were unctously lapping up quotes from tech CEOs, idolizing their lifestyles, luxuriating in E-Trade advertising dollars, and crowing about how business had changed forever. Ha.

It could have been worse, though. We might have lived in a developing country run under the iron thumb of the International Monetary Fund; that was something to be thankful for then, and something to be thankful for still today.

In fact, both the IMF and World Bank are now singing a different tune about the proper response to financial meltdowns, talking about the need for more government oversight, saying that African countries who've refused to integrate with world financial markets will be hurt the least. A stunning admission of reality on their part. Robert Zoellick of the World Bank is quoted in that article describing the current crisis as having "confused" people about free market principles, but countries subject to IMF riots over the years haven't been even remotely confused about the rules of global finance: whatever benefits the big, developed nations is good, period.

Hence we've had trade protectionism for the US and its allies, paired with the merciless extraction of capital and raw materials from developing nations. In fact, hop below the fold with me and let's step through the standard 4 1/2 step IMF crisis recovery plan that will never be fully implemented in the US on account of how no one wants torch-bearing mobs burning stuff down in America del Norte.

Or maybe lunch with Prof. Lessig?

Head over to the Netroots Nation auction: people are bidding on over 200 items, all to support our community's yearly, in-person gathering.

Organizing such a large-scale, important conference takes time and costs money. To keep registration prices within reach for most, we've got to step up and support such an important institution - so everyone in our movement can participate.

And, you know, get some cool stuff in the process.

Head over and bid on an item or two. I've got my eyes on the Constitution signed by Senator Feingold...

This weekend, in anticipation of the book launch of Dispatches from the Religious Left, I am running a series on a few selected essays from the book.  Earlier today, I posted my review of PastorDan's essay on the role of the Religious Left.  This post is about an essay by Rev. Debra Haffner and Timothy Palmer: "Towards a theology of sexual justice."

Sexual justice, as defined by this essay, is quite broad:

Indeed, the full scope of sexual justice embraces anyone who is concerned with gender equality, reproductive rights and health care, and the right to privacy, not to mention education, equality of opportunity and the dignity of all persons.

These issues are far too important to far too many people to sweep under the rug in seeking the support of an ever-elusive "Religious Center", as Jim Wallis argues.  So how is the Religious Left to support sexual justice?

Here are today's numbers:

Today's numbers, which are based on interviews conducted entirely after the presidential debate on Tuesday, show Barack Obama with his largest ever lead over John McCain, with Obama hitting 50 percent in all four daily tracking polls for the first time ever. Since the day before the debate, Obama's average has increased 1 1/2 percentage points while McCain's average has fallen a full percentage point, suggesting that not only was McCain unable to shift momentum away from Obama and towards himself, he wasn't even able to stop the growth in Obama's lead.

Unfortunately, election day isn't today, and these tracking polls are more reflective of the current state of the race than they are predictive of where the race will be in three and a half weeks. Nevertheless, it is clear that McCain is going to have to do something if he wants the trajectory of this race to change.

You people have been busy this week!  Thanks again to those diligent few who help make the rescue possible.  Enjoy.

• CA-SD-33, Please help Defeat a Prop 8 Supporter! (Ellinorianne)
• Dem4life ponders FDR and A Very Simple Economic Plan.
• USArmyParatrooper channels The Jetsons to find that John McCain is Destroying His Legacy.
• Someone's forwarding nasty email, and Joe has their number in FL-25: What a Week for Joe Garcia!
• Jeff Merkley: Let's Send A True Blue Democrat To The Senate! (Turkana)
• From Dracomicron, a diary title Franken himself wishes he had written: MN-Sen: Comedian Beating Well-Dressed Jerk.
• In desperation, says The Media Consortium, they are Cranking Up the Slime Machine.
• Project Vote is Changing the Game: Voter Registration Drives Reshape the American Electorate.
• NeciVelez: My Response to David Brooks in the NYT.
• Fighting for policy that reflects our values in The Opportunity Agenda's Framing to Win: Health Care is "a Right for Every American."
• Psychodrew ponders the future of equality in Good News for Connecticut, But...
• GA-SEN: Republican's Re-election Prospects Down-Graded. (andrewalker08)
• Democracy is for us all, says Mike Connery in 20/20, John Stossel To Run Hatchet Piece on Young Voter Engagement.

My copy of Dispatches from the Religious Left arrived yesterday and, since the book launch is next week, I thought I'd crack it open and review some of the essays this weekend.  The book is divided in three parts: "Envisioning a more politically dynamic Religious Left", "Memos on hot button issues", and "Getting from here to there".  So my plan is to review one essay from each chapter in the next couple of days.

First up is "Religious Left: Changing the Script", by Daniel Schultz, better known to many blog readers as Pastor Dan of Street Prophets.

PastorDan's essay is characteristically blunt and honest.  It opens with a none-too-subtle reproach to Religious Leftists: "What the Religious Left is doing is not working!".

Update: PastorDan responds, and discusses the role of questioning in liberal religious traditions, as compared to the role of religion in conservative traditions. Fascinating stuff, and it reminds me a little of those charts Paul Rosenberg likes to toss up at OpenLeft. Check it out!