Okay, let's stop fooling around.

We're in trouble.

SERIOUS trouble.

As I write this, the Dow has lost over 14% since September 21, and is still falling.  A couple of hours ago, DJIA hit 9751- a low point which, excepting the two years immediately following 9-11, hasn't been seen since March 8, 1999...and the close that day of 9876 was a record high at the time.  The FTSE is down 5% today.  Nikkei down 5%.  Straits Times down 5%.   Deutscher Aktien Index 30 (DAX, the German stock exchange) is down 7%.  The CAC 40 (France) is down 9%.

That's in the last 24 hours.

This represents worldwide losses in the multiple trillions of dollars, and there doesn't appear to be any end in sight.  The Dow is off almost one-third from its peak of 14,093 almost exactly one year ago.  We're talking about huge amounts of money.

But it's not just investment banks and stock brokers.  The price of a can of generic tuna has gone from 56 cents to 85 in my local Wal-Mart since the beginning of the year.  The price of a loaf of bread is approaching two dollars.  A gallon of whole milk is nearly five dollars.  Gasoline has almost doubled in the last two years.  Health care, energy, food, transportation, shelter, clothing are all going through the roof...and yet we're told that inflation isn't a problem.

Maybe it's not a problem if you're a CEO making tens or hundreds of million dollars per year, but it's sure a problem for me.

Our education system is in the toilet, with now a half-generation of kids whose education has taught them how to take tests, but not how to think logically and critically.  Our national graduation rate as of 2005 was less than 69% - that means nearly one-third of our children are not graduating high school.  Our health care system ranks among the worst in the 'first world' for infant mortality and overall life expectancy.

(Note:  The Dow is now down to 9697.)

The American People have no confidence in their government, or their future.  Our entire system has been feeding the wealthy and leaving everyone else behind for decades, to some extent, and over the last eight years that situation has just been amplified.  Corruption and influence pedaling are woven in to our system like the pattern on a silk kimono.

But the point isn't that the markets are volatile - that happens periodically, and there's a lot of reasons for it.  The point is, how our leaders - or those who would like to BE our leaders - respond.

And our proposed leaders, John McCain and Sarah Palin have a clear plan to address these issues!

You ready?  Here's the plan:

Talk about a what some guy that Barack Obama has spent a total of maybe six or eight hours of his life with did forty years ago!

That's right!  We've turned the page on the economy!  Health care is dealt with, education is handled, and now we can focus on what's really important...rumors and innuendo!

Ladies and gentlemen I'm not really an alarmist...but that fiddle John McCain is carrying around has some pretty ominous overtones to my ear.  We have governments because it's unrealistic to expect the average person to be a productive member of society and deal with the day to day issues of running a nation.  I have to wonder if this will be the McCain team's response to any pressure they face in office.  If Mahmoud Ahmedinijad and the clerical leadership of Iran get "nukular" weapons, will the McCain White House send Sarah Palin out in her lipstick and high heels (her reference, not mine) to...call them names?  Rabble-rouse?  Make veiled racist and xenophobic remarks?  "Doggone it, Mahmoud, we just can't have ya wavin' that ol' nukular warhead around now, don't make me come atcha with my hockey stick!"

Give me an ever-lovin' break.  Haven't we had enough of this nonsense?  Where is McCain's economic plan?  Where is his plan to create jobs?  Where is his plan to fix the health care system?  Oh, that's right..he's going to give everyone a five thousand dollar tax credit (which is just DANDY if you are too poor to owe any taxes in the first place!) so you can cover your $12,000 average annual medical costs.  He's going to save the lower and middle classes by making sure that the rich get richer, because as the last eight years have proven, that will result in job creation, right?

Oh, wait.  You mean we're not creating jobs?  That just means the lazy poor people don't want to work.  They'd rather sit around and collect welfare all day, the leeches.  It's not the fault of, say, the good folks at Lehman Brothers, who burned ten billion dollars to pay executive bonuses even as they prepared to ask the US taxpayers to bail them out.  Those bonuses are going to create jobs, you see.

Seriously, is anyone buying this nonsense anymore?  Does anyone actually care if Obama had coffee in some guy's living room, not realizing that 40 years earlier that guy was part of a radical underground group that was engaged in some really ugly things?  Is anyone with a brain still hanging on this 'Obama the Muslim' crap?  Are there still sentient life forms in this country who think it's important that we have a VP candidate who is 'folksy' and 'down to earth?'

Please, people.  Let's focus on what's important here.  This is not the time for tabloid politics and cheapshots and substance-free diversions.  We need real leaders with real plans who offer real hope for real change, while we've still got a fairly decent chance of pulling up and out of this mess.  We The People have dug ourselves an incredible hole through apathy, disengagement, and petty partisan bickering.  It's time to lay that nonsense aside and get back to doing what Americans do best - stand proud, innovate, energize, lead, think, inspire, succeed.  These latest diversionary tactice from McCain-Palin aren't leadership, they're not even a funny parody of leadership anymore.  They're an obscene insult to the intelligence, hard work, and integrity of Americans of every social strata, gender, political bent, sexual orientation, and religious (or non-religious) background.

We are indeed at a crossroads.  In one direction, the same path we've been headed down.  In the other, a chance to shine.

Come November 4th, please:  let's do it right this time.  McCain's fiddle won't mean anything one way or the other, if we stop Rome from burning in the first place.