Three years after our first trip to Afghanistan the country is spinning out of control. What are the candidates going to do to stabilize the region after seven years?

So who is going to work with us to keep Afghanistan from sliding into chaos?  And who should we be talking to?

The newly-found focus on the war in Afghanistan is the topic of our seventh episode of “Common Sense,” which will be up on Thursday. In 2005/2006, most of the “Common Sense” team went to Afghanistan–we arrived shortly after one of the first suicide bombs went off, and by the time we left in January, there was roughly one every day, across the country.

These photographs were taken by our Director of Photography, Nelson Villarreal, in Kabul:

Anti-Narcotic Afghan troops trained by Blackwater.

Even in the nicest neighborhood in Kabul, there are remnants of the last war (with the Soviets, for those keeping count).

A housing shortage due to influx of refugees from the countryside and high rent due to influx of ex-pats has driven many Afghan families into tents.

So the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, Rahm Emmanuel, had this to say regarding the agenda ahead for Congress: “There are four reforms. There’s financial regulatory reform, tax reform, health care reform and energy. Regulatorywill kinda come down the chute fast. Tax reform will take a little longer, because it’s not until 2010 that Bush’s tax cuts expire. Energy, you can do some things immediately. And with health care, you’ve got the children’s health insurance as the first piece of a series of things you gotta do.”

Emphasis is ours on tax reform. Because considering that Emmanuel’s job is to set the agenda for his House Dems, we’re wondering if he’s canvassing the Blue Dogs at all. On November 5th, it’s likely that the fiscal conservatives of the Democratic party will be pivotal, and according to Charlie Stenholm, his former Blue Dog colleagues have put tax reform at the top of the list.

Why? Because an increasing number of members are increasingly concerned about the new note-holders of our $10 trillion debt: China.

There’ll be more in our eighth and final episode of this season’s “Common Sense” later this week.

–Michele Mitchell

For the second time in about a year, a team of climbers say that they have
discovered footprints of yeti, the “abominable snowman” that mountaineers
and sheep herders believe roam the Himalayas.

Last fall, it was an American television crew (for the SciFi Channel) that
claimed to find evidence. This week, it was a Japanese team led by Yoshiteru
Takahashi.

Takahashi and his seven-member team spent 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV, where,
at 4600 meters, Takahashi says he found footprints made by yeti. This was
the third attempt by Takahashi to find yeti evidence. The team had nine
motion-sensitive cameras in position where Takahashi believed he had spotted
a yeti in 2003.

The Yeti Project Japan says this is a footprint of a Yeti from the Dhaulagiri mountain northwest of Pokhara.

Takahashi was staying at a hotel in the Thamel district of Kathmandu (not,
alas, the Yak & Yeti), where he was surrounded by a throng of local and
international journalists. When he showed me the photographs he had taken of
what he said was a yeti footprint, he insisted the yeti was real. He said he
saw the footprint on September 27.

I asked him, “Are you sure about the footprints are of yeti?”

“Yes!” Takahashi said. “They look like a human’s.”

There’s no scientific evidence that yeti exist. But the continual stream of
foreigners who come to the Himalayas in search of “proof” are real–to the
bemusement of most Nepalis.

But as average temperatures rise at a rate of 0.06C each year, according to
the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, and the Himalayan glaciers

predicted to disappear by 2030 if this warming rate is maintained (according
to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), if there is a yeti, we
may see him yet. We’ll melt him out.

–Rajneesh Bhandari

McCain and Obama say they will fix the economy so we’ll all be able to afford energy as it gets pricier.

But what are they doing to make sure there will be any left for us to buy?

McCain and Obama say they will fix the economy so we’ll all be able to afford energy as it gets pricier.

But what are they doing to make sure there will be any left for us to buy?