Factories have closed. Our manufacturing sector has disappeared. U.S. workers are shipping equipment and their jobs overseas and often to countries where workers are paid less and safety standards are nil.

So, fellow Americans, why was Sarah Palin smiling, and to whom was she winking when she said in St. Louis, “We’re gonna fight for the middle class, everyday American men and women”? And why did John McCain hit the campaign trail the next day talking about liberals vs. conservatives? The old labels don’t work when both liberals and conservatives are standing in the same unemployment lines.

Palin may not have blinked at the St. Louis debate, but all over the country, civil libertarians convulsed when she said, without being asked, that she intends to expand the executive powers of the vice presidency. This Dick Cheney in lipstick doesn’t want to be a Senate tiebreaker but would directly intervene in congressional affairs and significantly blur the lines between two key government pillars. (I’d like to give a “shout-out” to Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, James Madison and Tom Paine, who knew better.)

We’re still a great nation, but — gosh darn it! — what happened to us? I mean besides nearly eight years of Dubya and the possibility McCain-Palin could win this election.

Ever wondered what a pig in lipstick is? Check out the bailout plan that is the new “rescue plan.”