Deregulation of banking and finance was a reckless move, and  DOUG HENWOOD has some ideas about a better bailout.  Doug writes for the Left Business Observer and The Nation, where his piece “Crisis of a Guilded Age” appears in the new issue.

Also:  Why do Obama – and McCain -- think the US can win in Afghanistan?  ROBERT FISK of The Independent says “The Taliban are better trained, and – said to say – increasingly tolerated by the local civilian population.”  Fisk has been covering the Middle East for 32 years and has received the British Press Awards’ International Journalist of the Year award seven times.  His new book is The Age of the Warrior.

Plus: The Burning of Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel about Okies moving to California in the depths of the Depression is an American classic – 15 million copies have been sold.  But in Kern County, the book was publicly burned, and banned from the library shelves.  RICK WARTZMAN tells that story – his hew book is OBSCENE IN THE EXTREME: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

Cindy McCain is headlining a McCain fundraiser tonight in Century City -- we have a quiz and ticket giveaway.  Question: What two drugs was Cindy McCain addicted to?  The answer -- and the prizes -- later in this hour.

Today 10/1 on The Four O'clock Report with Jon Wiener.

listen to this show here

show website www.JonWiener.com.