So the debate is coming tonight. Like many, I will watch and listen. I already am an Obama man, so it won't be anything new. I hope they skip the foreign policy part and get on the real issue, which is the economic/financial/banking/mortgage crisis. That is the issue that will decide the election on November 4.

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Somali terrorists hijacked a ship loaded with 33 Russian T-72 tanks. The Russian Navy has sent a warship to intercept that cargo ship. Too bad. The T-72 was totally outclassed by our M1-A2 tanks in both the Gulf War and in Iraq. Maybe they intend to sell them for scrap?

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I sold another small "study" painting today via my web site. https://www.jondude.com/art.htm

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There is a slow growing bump on Bunjii near where his tumor was removed. We are watching, feeling and praying it ain't so.

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Tomorrow will be my 50th high school class reunion. It will be 4:30 at the school for a walk around, then 6:00 p.m. at Fostoria Country Club for cash bar, back-slapping and dinner. I have been chosen to photograph it and write the article for the newspaper.

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I haven't touched the Vermont painting for a week. I got busy. I will probably go back to work on it Sunday. It beckons.

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The laissez-faire folks in Congress are trying to stop the 700 billion dollar injection into the financial health of the country. They are the ones who got the de-gregulation that put us here in the first place. It is ironic that the people who made billions short-selling the financial stocks are complaining about a fix. What a country!

The Treasury plan isn't a "bailout." It is a combination of purchasing bad assets from the banks that hold them and freeing up credit by putting money into the system.

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My own bank here in Ohio is probably going to be seized over the weekend by the FDIC and sold off to PNC, a Pittsburgh bank that is in very good standing. My bank, which I shall not name, is an old institution in Cleveland with branches all over northern and eastern Ohio. My first wife and I had our first mortgage with them. When I moved back here from the coast I opened my account with them.

I am not afraid of what will happen. My meager assets are safe. When a bank gets seized and sold nothing changes. In a few months or years the logos, the signs and the name on the checkbooks change. That's all.

But I will miss the name and all that green color.

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I have lots of leftover Basmati rice from last night's Beef Stroganoff. I am making rice pudding tonight. That's all I'm having for dinner.

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Ted Kennedy was just taken to a hospital, probably Massachusetts General. Brain tumors are awful things. My sister-in-law and our family (my ex-wife's) fought her tumor for 5 years before it claimed her at 36, with three young daughters who never had the chance to know Sally like we did. I wish him and the Kennedy clan the best.