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Halloween masks, a barometer of election? (AP)
NEW YORK – The method is far from scientific, but Halloween stores are predicting the winner in the presidential election, and there’s no exit polling needed — only political mask sales. Halloween suppliers say sales of masks of presidential candidates have predicted the winner in the last several campaigns. So far, that’s good news for Barack Obama, whose mask was outselling John McCain’s in Spirit Halloween and iParty stores and online at Amazon and BuyCostumes.com. But this year’s Halloween campaign has a dark horse: Sarah Palin. Because of her relatively late announcement as a vice presidential candidate, costume suppliers were unprepared.

Financial Crises Spread in Europe (New York Times)
European nations scrambled on Sunday night to prevent a growing credit crisis from bringing down major banks and alarming savers as troubles in financial markets spread around the world, accelerating economic downturns on three continents

Spreading (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
Guess that whole global economy thing has its down side, huh?

Wall Street tumbles amid global sell-off (AP)
NEW YORK – Financial markets took a bleak view of the future Monday, seeing contagion in a credit crisis that threatens to cascade through economies globally despite government efforts to provide relief. The Dow Jones industrials skidded more than 400 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years, while the credit markets remained under strain.

U.S. calls for united front as crisis wrecks markets (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Governments and central banks around the world grasped at measures to contain the fast-spreading financial crisis on Monday, but global stocks still plummeted as investors bet the $700 billion bailout could not avert a recession.

Congress hears Lehman sought millions for execs (AP)
WASHINGTON – Days from becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Lehman Brothers steered millions to departing executives even while pleading for a federal rescue, Congress was told Monday.

Paulson’s Reasons for Delaying Day of Reckoning (by Jonathan Weil, Bloomberg, thanks to BDBlue at Corrente)
If you think this bailout is expensive, just wait until you see the next one… Why would a smart guy like Hank Paulson — the former boss of Goldman Sachs — advance such a dumb, shady plan? Let us count the reasons:
No. 1: It delays our national reckoning until after the presidential election…
No. 2: The reckoning will be worse than you can imagine…
No. 3: He’s helping his friends…
No. 4: …Leave someone else to figure out the costs another day.

The opportunity costs of Bush + Reid + Pelosi + Obama handing Hank Paulson that trillion for his golfing buddies (by lambert at Corrente)
Interfluidity…: “Suppose we pass the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008”, and a depression comes anyway… While we still can borrow valuable dollars, we could use that 700B to build infrastructure that might make the economic facts of a depression less severe. And, if we insisted that the mighty bankers actually fall now, actually take the hit that their own ideology demands of them, that just might blunt the sense that we are ‘us’ and ‘them’, rather than a nation with a common struggle, when it all hits the fan. Maybe the choice we are really making here is not about financial and monetary arcana, but a choice between civic peace and civil war…”

Now, I understand that the great, and even the great and the good, said “pass it now, and fix it later.” But why on earth would they believe that the fix, later, will come? Many believe that Our Betters … will soon demand more. And I fear, as well, that Our Betters — sequestered in their gated communities — have already assessed the risks of a loss of social cohesion, and taken measures accordingly. Justice be damned.

Let’s see, who else could POSSIBLY jump on this gravy train?
California pleads for $7 billion loan to meet cash shortfall (McClatchy)
California is jockeying for a multibillion-dollar emergency federal loan despite Friday’s congressional approval of a rescue plan for the nation’s troubled credit market.

Hillary’s Senate Floor Statement on the Hanky Panky (by Anglachel)
[T]here is at least one Democrat in the Senate who is thinking extremely concretely about how to reform the financial system from top to bottom. She opens with some straightforwardly constituent-oriented explanation for her vote: New York is the nation’s financial center and is going to get the stuffing beaten out of it unless things can be stabilized. She doesn’t sugar coat it. “…Millions of mortgages are underwater or under specter of adjustable rates set to rise. I am proposing what we’re calling The Homeowners Mortgage Enterprise, an acronym obviously spelling HOME, to rewrite mortgages and reset terms so that creditworthy, responsible families can keep their homes and keep making affordable payments. Through such a HOME program, we’d also be able to consider freezing adjustable mortgage rates and even placing short term moratoriums on foreclosures.” Hillary reads her Roubini…

What Hillary proposes is a programmatic and political solution to the devastation wrought by the Movement Conservatives on the geenral public. This is what Democrats need to be prepared to do if they can recapture the government in November. This is what Democrats need to run on. Now if we only had a Democrat running for president…

Obama should come out with a 2.0 Recovery Plan (by John Amato at Crooks and Liars)
Obama has a lead in all the national polls and has made significant progress in the battleground states at this point so I think if he wants to cement his run at the White House he should come out with an updated version of an economic recovery plan that further illustrates his leadership abilities. And with his constant call for bipartisanship he can summon the Republicans to join him for the good of America or he’ll be able to paint them as ideologues hell bent on retaining their power in Congress instead of trying to use their authority to help the American people.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, John, you’re such a comedian.  Obama’s too BUSY to be coming up with a stupid recovery plan.

Obama wisely waits until January to press for unemployed, cites opposition, busy campaign schedule (by lambert at Corrente)
Priorities, priorities: “After the Senate approved the $700 billion bank bailout, the majority leader, Harry Reid, tried to persuade his colleagues to address another economic calamity before they left town for the long election recess. He urged them to extend unemployment benefits for 800,000 jobless Americans. In the face of Republican opposition, the measure failed. Benefits start expiring this week. So much for Main Street.”

Look, I don’t want to be saying “mean things,” so I’ll just ask a question: If Obama doesn’t see any reason to extend unemployment benefits before an election, why is there any reason to think he’ll do better after the election? Couldn’t he have whipped his colleagues on that vote too, like he did for the trillion dollars going to Hank Paulson’s golfing buddies?

Good news! (by lambert at Corrente)
AP: “AKRON, Ohio – Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said it is forgiving the mortgage debt of a 90-year-old woman who shot herself in the chest as sheriff’s deputies attempted to evict her.” Well, now we know what it takes; too bad about that HOLC thing; it might have given her some hope. You know — not to be “mean” or anything — somehow I’ve got the feeling that Hank Paulson’s not going to be reaching quite that level of desperation any time soon. Nor will his golfing buddies. Nor will all the “asset managers” who’ll be hired straight out of Goldman Sachs to work for the Treasury. Good news for everybody!

Chump change we can believe in (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
Deadender’s lead dog designed Chump Change we can believe in! Terrific products here. Or just take it off this blog and post it everywhere!

It’s the Democrats’ Shitpile Now (by Anglachel)
The Democrats have taken on Paulson’s plan as their own. Unlike Paul Krugman, I do not seeing any meaningful revisions being made to the plan when January rolls around. I do see Paulson trying to spend every last penny of the Treasury on his Wall Street buddies before December 31. I also forsee Obama keeping Paulson on for at least a year to “ensure continuity during the transition” (i.e., as a favor to the Wall Street firms backing Obama now so they can drain the public coffers as long as possible). It is more than the Wall Street blow job. It is that Obama has not evinced a single sign that he wants to be a Democrat, that he believes in Democratic (or even democratic – see “FISA, voting for”) principles, or that he intends to use the Oval Office for anything except running for Preznit again in 2012. His foreign policy plans, as far as there are any, seem to be focused on holding his own glorious little war with Pakistan, based out of Afghanistan. Europe is expected to go along because they have already declared him their choice for Preznit of the World.

The choice on November 4 is between two versions of Republican policy – the thoroughly odious vs. the batshit insane. Obama will always move to the right when faced with opposition, and the Village (and the Blogger Boyz) will cheer wildly, applauding his statesmanlike gravitas and his savvy positioning to set up a greater victory down the game tree. Oh, and the bipartisan unity. Can’t forget that. But what we will have from the Right is anything but unity. They will happily hand over the bankrupt and beggared nation to their opponents and spend the next four years screaming about how this is all the fault of the Democrats who over-regulated the markets while under-regulating government agencies, who have gutted the military and aren’t sufficiently strong against the militant jihadism, and who are trying to force their heathenish, immoral values like gay marriage and birth control onto good upstanding citizens.

It will be culture wars layered on top of economic devastation, fought out between the economic and social philosophies of the Right, but blamed on the Left when none of it works.

Fannie Mae and the Financial Crisis (The Big Picture, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
The current housing and credit crises has many, many underlying sources. Its my opinion there were two primary causes leading to the boom and bust in Housing: A nonfeasant Fed, that ignored lending standards, and ultra-low rates. This nonfeasance under Greenspan allowed banks, thrifts, and mortgage originators to engage in all manner of lending standard abrogations. We have detailed many times the I/O, 2/28, Piggy back, and Ninja type loans here. These never should have been permitted to proliferate the way they did…

For the non-partisan, non hacks amongst you, for the policy makers and academics and economists who are truly interested in how this came to pass, and what we can do to fix it, the bottom line remains: The CRA was irrelevant to the current crisis, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were mere cogs in a very complex financial machine, with many moving parts. But the primary cause of the mess? Not even close . . .

Republican National Committee hits Obama on Rezko, Chicago ties (video, posted by Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times)

A presidential debate, the Chicago Way (by John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
Going into Tuesday’s presidential debate, the campaign of Republican John McCain still suffers from the lousy economy and that Bush hanging ponderously from his neck. With that going against him, he’s running uphill, trying to remind Americans that he challenged his own party, and the Democrats, on corruption. Because of McCain’s opposition to politicians who feed from the public trough, there is a road open to him Tuesday. It’s the Chicago Way. [T]he national urgency to view Obama as a political life-form several evolutionary rungs above Chicago’s common political hacks is not only a mistake, it’s disingenuous…. Obama looked the other way in order to prosper and assiduously avoided conflict with the machine to the point of embrace. In this, he offered Americans a glimpse at the real man inside that nice suit, the Chicago Way.
Click through for details.

Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths (by Scott Shane, New York Times)
CHICAGO — At a tumultuous meeting of anti-Vietnam War militants at the Chicago Coliseum in 1969, Bill Ayers helped found the radical Weathermen, launching a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and United States Capitol. Twenty-six years later, at a lunchtime meeting about school reform in a Chicago skyscraper, Barack Obama met Mr. Ayers, by then an education professor. Their paths have crossed sporadically since then, at a coffee Mr. Ayers hosted for Mr. Obama’s first run for office, on the schools project and a charitable board, and in casual encounters as Hyde Park neighbors. Their relationship has become a touchstone for opponents of Mr. Obama, the Democratic senator, in his bid for the presidency…

[C]conservative critics who accuse Mr. Obama of a stealth radical agenda have asserted that he has misleadingly minimized his relationship with Mr. Ayers, whom the candidate has dismissed as “a guy who lives in my neighborhood” and “somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know.” A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.” Obama campaign aides said the Ayers relationship had been greatly exaggerated by opponents to smear the candidate.

The New York Times Drops the Ball on Ayers and Obama (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
The Obama campaign continues to insist that Ayers had nothing to do with Barack’s selection as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge… There are two critical, unanswered questions. First, why was an inexperienced lawyer like Barack Obama asked to chair this board? Second, why has Barack refused to discuss in detail what he did with this board and his interactions with Bill Ayers during the four years he chaired this effort?… Obama is running for President and faces the charge that he lacks significant experience running anything. Okay, here he is chairman of a board that was responsible for raising and disbursing more that $100 million dollars and Obama says nothing about this time in his life? Why?
I’ve been wondering the exact same thing.  Of course the program was a total failure.  Maybe that’s one of the reasons they don’t bring it up.  The only program that Obama had executive experience with was a complete failure.

Obama/Ayers Update: New York Times Ignores Evidence of Ayers’ Role in Annenberg Board Selection (by Steve Diamond at No Quarter)
Once again, the New York Times misses the story, parroting the false claims of the Obama Campaign about the relationship between Bill Ayers and Barack Obama. Some months ago the Times reported without comment the Campaign’s lie that the first time Obama met Ayers was in late 1995 at a “meet and greet” held at Ayers’ home for Obama when Obama launched his campaign for the state senate. Not so. The Times finally, albeit implicitly, acknowledges they had it wrong: that Ayers and Obama actually met many months earlier at least, when the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) was first formed. But once again they report, without any logical basis, that Ayers had nothing to do with the elevation of Obama to the CAC board.

In fact, an exchange of letters in late 1994, copies of which I obtained from Brown University, between Vartan Gregorian, then President of Brown and the individual responsible for assessing applications for grants from the national Annenberg Challenge, and Bill Ayers, the founder of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, demonstrates that Ayers played a direct role in “composing” the Challenge’s board of directors. Another exchange of letters between Gregorian and Adele Simmons, then President of the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation and an advisor to Ayers, confirms the active personal role of Ayers in selecting board members.
Click through for the details, including links to the letters mentioned.

Sunday poll. (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
Which part of Obama’s past will most startle the public when revealed enmass?
• Ongoing connection to domestic terrorist William Ayers.
• The deep connections with convicted felon Tony Rezko.
• BHO’s financial connections to Fannie mae and Freddie mac
• The fact that he still has not produced an original birth certificate
• BHO’s connection to ACORN’s and ACORN’s numerous voter fraud convictions.
• The deceit he used to remove Alice Palmer from the ballot
• The “lost years” in New York
• His connections to Odinga in Kenya.
• All will stun the public
• Something not listed here.
• None. He’ll be protected by the media on all counts.
I vote for the last option.  They’re already pooh pahing the Ayers connection.  See below.

‘NYT’ Raises Obama/Ayers Link — But In Chicago, No Big Deal (Editor & Publisher)
The New York Times resurrected — and the McCain Team then promoted — the old links between Barack Obama’s and former Weatherman William Ayers. But here in Chicago, home to both men, the charge that Obama has been friendly with the former political radical has [always] gone nowhere.
Oh, yeah.  Ha, ha, ha.  Nobody in Chicago cares about Obama’s terrorist connection, or the fact that under his direction $100 million in public and private money went up in smoke, with the only discernable benefit to have been promoting Obama’s political career.  I guess it’s worth it—to HIM.  And see more whitewashing below.

Fact Check: Is Obama ‘palling around with terrorists’? (Political Ticker, CNN)
Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin said Saturday, October 4, that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is “someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”… Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now “palling around,” or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.
They’re not NOW palling around.  Not NOW.  Get it?  NOT NOW!!  Not for the last three years, AT LEAST.

Obama/Ayres (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
This clip is important. [Click through to watch it.] Palin goes after Obama on Ayres. As it starts the viewer can click on other videos explaining Obama’s connections to the Ayres. Obama LIED. There is no way around it. HE LIED. Ayres has promoted Obama at major points in his career. Can anyone imagine ANY OTHER CANDIDATE with the background Obama has – getting this far? Obama’s rise and the media’s complicity in it is so fishy it is rank. The pods are not merely mindless they are on a mission to upend the nation. The connections between Obama and very real radicals is clear. Why does the Obamamedia continue to keep this information from the general public? I mean this question sincerely. What could the motivation be? If Obama wins, this ends badly. That much I know.

President of [Los Angeles] NOW Chapter endorses Palin (by Valhalla at Corrente)
Shelly Mandell, pres. of the L.A. Now chapter, introduces Palin at a rally in SoCal: “In rarity for a Republican event, Mandell bragged about her efforts campaigning for the failed Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and her support for Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984. ‘I know Sarah Palin cares about women’s rights,’ Mandell said. ‘As vice president, she will fight for you. She cares about our children and she cares about women’s lives.’”… Any other election in my life, I’d be appalled, but I just can’t work up any disgust over this one.

The New Agenda is ambivalent on whether Palin qualifies as a feminist, but notes that whatever a feminist is, Kim Gandy has definitely lost track of it. Update: Following this story around the net, came across the LA NOW Chapter’s statement that Mandell’s endorsement is a personal one, not a chapter one; LA endorses Obama-Biden as “a proven team for women”.
Um, proven HOW, LA NOW?

Sarah Palin is one of us now (by bostonboomer at The Confluence)
Yep. She’s a racist, because she criticized Barack Obama. The AP says so… Yes, AP writer Douglass K. Daniel has determined that Palin is making a “deliberate attempt to smear Obama.” But is it a smear if it’s true? If Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the Illinois state senate at the home of former Weathermen Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and Obama worked with Bill Ayers in two different foundations over a period of years, and his opponents point out that he is friendly with them; is that a smear or is it simply a statement of fact? And what, pray tell, makes this statement “racially tinged?”

Perverse Priorities in a World of Lies (by Arthur Silber at The Power of Narrative)
[T]he nature of many of the attacks on Sarah Palin continues to shock and astound me. Bad enough that much of the hatred for Palin proceeds directly from the loathing of women as such that is one of the pillars supporting Western “civilization” and thought. Bad enough that a great deal of the contempt directed at Palin stems from a thoroughly odious sense of class superiority… [Sarah]Palin speaks comparatively plainly, using straightforward, everyday expressions. But her views are clear, and there is nothing notably “stupid” about what she says or how she says it — unless, that is, you have become so accustomed to Washington-speak that you have rendered yourself incapable of recognizing more normal human expression… So let me rephrase the point more colloquially: if you have to devote so much time and energy to proving you’re smarter than Sarah Palin, how pathetic are you?

Join the NO NO Sisterhood! (by dakinikat at The Confluence)
I voted in the Democratic run-off yesterday in Louisiana. I did something that I haven’t done for a long time.  I went down the list of candidates for judgeships and the various other races and voted for all the women. Something tells me I wasn’t alone in this when I heard second congressional district candidate Helena Moreno’s speech after she placed second after $Bill Jefferson and ahead of five well known black male politicians vying for the position.  She had a lot of cross-over vote here in a city where the politics of race is pervasive.  She’s a latina and has been frequently labelled  as “that little white girl” in the race.  Her cross-over vote came from black women. This year may yet be known as the REAL year of the woman when a female awakening turns the tide against misogyny and sexism. Our mantra could be something to the effect of “We’re bitter, we vote, get out of office!”

Please join me at the NO NO Sisterhood at Act Blue to support Helena Moreno and other fine women candidates. No No Sisterhood

A Tale from the Street: Why the 30 Percent Solution Is Important (by madamab at The Confluence)
Throughout the primary season, Hillary supporters were told how historic the election was for Barack Obama. We got it, believe me. In fact, some of us are AA or have AA friends and family (or both). The symbolic nature of his candidacy was evident. But what about the historic nature of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy? What about the fact that 52% of Americans are women – that’s a MAJORITY, people – and have never seen ANYONE that looks like them ascend to the highest levels of power in the United States? Why is this impossible for anyone in the media or the Democratic Party to acknowledge? We know the answer to that, don’t we, ladies? It’s never, EVER our turn. We are to step aside and let the important ones go first. If you have a penis, you may step to the head of the line, especially if you make sure to step over the little ladies on the way.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)

As a life-long Democrat, I am feeling increasingly lost… When Congress turned “blue” in 2006, I had faith that things would get better. They haven’t, and I don’t buy any of the excuses. I trusted the DNC to run a clean and unbiased operation. They didn’t. I don’t think I want to become a Republican. But I do know for sure that from now on, instead of paying any attention to any candidate’s party I am looking first and foremost at his or her resume. What has this person already accomplished that is good and healthy for our people, our communities, and our country? If there’s nothing there, and no sign of demonstrated integrity, I am not going to give that campaign a dime or my vote. After the election, I will reregister as a “Decline to State” independent. But I will still feel homeless.

Why do progressives lie? (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
All over progland, you can see the meme: McCain is running a campaign of deception; McCain lies… Here’s a very silly article from the New Republic which exemplifies the genre. “Here we have the distilled essence of the McCain campaign’s ethos: Perception is reality. Facts don’t matter..” The most giggle-inducing part of this piece — by Jonathan Chait — suggests that Barack Obama bears some slight tinge of the same sin… A few … (relatively unimportant) unfair barbs are mentioned. The giggles give way to guffaws in this passage: “I love how conservative apologists forget how hard the media probed Obama’s Rev. Wright associations, his meeting with Ayer, Father Phlager, and every other somewhat shady person he happened to be in the same room with for a few minutes while in Illinois.”

No mention here of TONY REZKO, ROD BLAGOJEVIC ( a cinch to be indicted), or any of the other crooks mentioned in Evelyn Pringle’s pieces and in the Chicago news media. Pringle exhaustively proves, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Obama is guilty of the same sleaze that put Duke Cunningham in jail — making sure that contributors got hefty chunks of taxpayer monies. (I’ve made that point before, many times. None of the many Obots who visit this site have even tried to deny the statement that I have just now placed in boldface.)

Final: Palin-Biden the most-watched vp debate ever (The Live Feed)
Thursday’s highly anticipated face-off between Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Delaware senator Joe Biden was the most-watched vp debate of all time. [The] event was seen by more than 70 million viewers. That’s the most-viewed debate — presidential or vp — since Ronald Reagan went up against Jimmy Carter in 1980, which still holds the debate viewership record (80.6 million).

Palin gives more to charity than Biden (The Hill)
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made considerably less money than rival Sen. Joe Biden, but the Palin family gave more to charity in the last two years than Biden has in the last eight combined, according to Palin’s tax records released Friday afternoon. Palin, the running mate of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and her husband Todd reported meager earnings from 2006 and 2007, at least by presidential-politics standards. In 2006, the Palins paid $11,944 in taxes on $127,869 in income. In 2007, they paid $24,738 on $166,080. But in 2006, they donated $4,880 to charity, and in 2007, they donated $3,325.

Alaska Supreme Court will hear ‘troopergate’ challenge (McClatchy)
The Alaska Supreme Court has agreed to hear an emergency appeal from lawyers seeking to shut down the Legislature’s troopergate investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin.

Obama to Attack McCain on Role in “Keating 5″ Scandal, Despite Previous Statement it isn’t “Germane” (by Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller at Political Punch, ABC News)
On Monday the Obama campaign will start hitting Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on his role in the late 80s/early 90s Keating 5 scandal… The Senate Ethics Committee ultimately cited McCain and for “poor judgment” in meeting with … regulators on Keating’s behalf, though his actions was also deemed “not improper nor attended with gross negligence.” Keating ultimately went to prison for fraud and McCain became active in campaign finance reform, almost a form of public penance…

Asked about Obama’s previous implication that he wouldn’t attack McCain on the Keating 5 scandal, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, “John McCain once said he would run a respectful and honorable campaign — but now his campaign says that he wants to turn the page on the economy and make character assaults…”

UPDATE: McCain-Palin campaign spox Brian Rogers emails: “The difference here is clear: John McCain has been open and honest about the Keating matter, and even the Democratic special counsel in charge recommended that Senator McCain be completely exonerated. By contrast, Barack Obama has been fundamentally dishonest about his friendship and work with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, whose radical group bombed the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.”

McCain Hit on Affair, Military Record, by ‘LAT’ and ‘Wash Post’  (Editor & Publisher)
NEW YORK Talk about taking the gloves off. First The New York Times on Saturday resurrected the 1990s links between Barack Obama and former Weatherman Bill Ayres. Today, two subjects relating to John McCain pretty much off-limits until recently receive major treatment in two leading papers.  The L.A. Times looks at his pre-POW military record and finds three air crashes and a lot of recklessness (E&P linked to an article on this recently at Neiman Watchdog by Barry Sussman). Secondly, Paul Farhi in The Washington Post probes the breakup of McCain’s first marriage and what it meant to his career.

New Obama ad says McCain ‘erratic in a crisis’ (On Politics, USA Today)
Democrat Barack Obama has a new ad out this morning that raises the temperament issue against Republican John McCain. The ad, quoting a USA TODAY editorial from Sept. 19, calls McCain “erratic in a crisis” and “out of touch” on the economy. The ad also refers to a Washington Post story yesterday reporting that McCain is planning “assaults” on Obama to divert from the economy.

RNC to Demand FEC Audit of Obama Campaign (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
The Republican National Committee announced today that on Monday it will file a fundraising complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., charging the Democrat has accepted illegal donations from foreigners as well as contributions that exceed the $2,300-per-person federal limits from American citizens… Newsweek reported over the weekend that FEC auditors have asked the Obama campaign about a number of contributors whose contributions seem to violate campaign laws, such as “Good Will” of Austin, Texas, who listed his occupation as “You” and his employer as “Loving” and gave more than $11,000 total in $10 and $25 increments…

Earlier this year the Obama campaign returned more than $30,000 from Monir and Hosam Edwan, two Palestinian brothers in the Gaza Strip who said that they’d purchased Obama 2008 T-shirts in bulk from the Obama campaign Web site.

County rejects large number of invalid voter registrations (The Times of Northwest Indiana, thanks to Uppity Woman at No Quarter)
CROWN POINT | Lake County Republican Chairman John Curley wants a federal investigation into hundreds of voter registrations bearing fictitious signatures or the names of dead and underage people. “Fraudulent applications are the workings of ACORN groups operating from Milwaukee and Chicago who are getting out the vote for Obama. I’m Republican, but I want everyone who should vote to vote. But I want a clean election,” Curley said at a Wednesday news conference. Lake County elections officials acknowledged they have found problems and had to reject a large portion of the 5,000 registration forms turned in recently by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, an activist group that conducted registration drives across the county this summer. An ACORN spokesperson couldn’t be reached Wednesday for comment. Telephones to ACORN offices in Gary, Indianapolis, Chicago and Milwaukee were reported to be disconnected.

Exclusive: Barack Obama is ‘aloof’ says British ambassador to US (The Telegraph, U.K.)
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, ambassador in Washington since last year, delivered his unvarnished assessment of the White House front runner in a seven-page letter to the Prime Minister, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, just before the Democratic nominee’s visit to Downing Street just over two months ago… Mr Obama “can seem to sit on the fence, assiduously balancing pros and cons”, Sir Nigel wrote, and “does betray a highly educated and upper middle class mindset”. Charges of elitism “are not entirely unfair” and he is “maybe aloof, insensitive” at times.

“He can talk too dispassionately for a national campaign about issues which touch people personally, eg his notorious San Francisco comments [in April] about small-town Pennsylvanians ‘clinging’ to guns and religion.” Mr Obama’s Democratic primary victory over the former First Lady showed that “he is tough and competitive. This is of course the Chicago school. You don’t beat Clinton without being resilient” but “his energy levels do dip and he can be uninspiring e.g. in debates”.
Note to The Telegraph: he didn’t beat Clinton without cheating.

UCLA study suggests most kids suffer from cyber-bullying (Machinist, Salon)
A new UCLA study of nearly 1,500 12-to-17-year-olds finds that 72 percent of respondents self-reported “at least one incident” of bullying online, which can take the form of name-calling or insults, “most typically” through instant messaging or social networking sites. Further, nearly all (90 percent) said that they didn’t report these incidents of cyber-bullying to an adult, and half of them said that they just “need to learn to deal with it.” Many kids surveyed said that they were very worried that their parents might restrict Internet access if they knew what was going on online.
But would the parents be surprised?  Bullying is prevalent among so-called adults, at least when it comes to political back and forth.  It started with the Bushbots in 2000 and has now infected the so-called left, with Obamabots carrying forward the tradition of hate.

Pod attack. (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
A comment from a pod is below. Is this an actionable death threat? Does anyone know the nuances of the law? The I.P. and location of the computer has been noted and saved. John is a fucking moron He’s a US Senator, you’re a lying piece of shit blogger who the world would be better off if you were DEAD…Can someone make this happen, you’re vile pondscum shithead10.05.08 – 1:30 pm IP: 71.233.45.69… [O]f course there is no defense of Obama in this comment. An odd comparison between me and a senator is given as a…what? reason? Why should we elevate Obama to the White House? Does our pleasant interloper have a clue? But the mindless adoration is clear.

Obama supporters….still creepy! (by garychapelhill at The Confluence)

I came across this op/ed from the Christian Science Monitor.  Is this a presidential election or a second coming? “Like so many Americans, I feel as though I am holding my breath. Could the quiet seed of joy that was planted in my heart the day I heard Barack Obama speak for the first time take root and grow without fear of the brutal storms of disappointment? Could a leader that evokes awe in me actually win a presidential election? Could the beauty – and logic – of his words win over the majority of this country’s voters? Could they see past the lies and distractions to the center of a human being who sincerely wants to invoke citizens’ higher selves?…”

Seriously,  this is just too much.  Not even the deranged 33%ers who stuck by Bush through his most criminal and corrupt years as President ever sounded this nutty.
The writer of the oped is Courtney E. Martin, author of “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters” and a columnist for The American Prospect Online.  I mean, would you put your daughters’ well being in the hands of this woman?

Rep. Wilson: Any Criticism Of ‘American Policy’ Is Unpatriotic (Think Progress)
[Sunday] on CBS’s Face the Nation, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) defended Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) new comments that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is “someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.” When host Bob Schieffer asked Wilson if she was therefore implying that Obama is “unpatriotic,” Wilson refused to disagree, noting that Obama has criticized “American policy”.
Click through to watch the video.  And how is that different, Think Progress, from not being able to criticize Barack Obama, for fear of being called a racist Republican?

Boss Is Not Amused After Columnist’s Humor Brings a Retort From Fox News (New York Times)
An opinion column by Heather Mallick commenting on Gov. Sarah Palin was removed from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Web site.

Marianna [FL] Middle Teacher Removed From Job For Using “N” Word (WJHG TV, Northwest Florida)
The day went as usual at Marianna Middle School, but one thing is different: 7th grade teacher and coach Greg Howard is no longer an employee. He was suspended without pay for 10 days starting Thursday for making racial slurs at presidential candidate Barack Obama. Our source told us Howard asked his students what “change” stood for and proceeded to write out the acronym “change”- come help a n(word) get elected. Jackson County’s Deputy School superintendent says he’s received conflicting reports, but he can confirm change and the n-word were used… Howard was first suspended on September 29th with pay. Wednesday he was given a written reprimand. He will also have to write a letter of apology to the students involved.

Florida battle over gay-marriage amendment heating up (McClatchy)
With just over a month until Election Day, Florida’s religious community is uniting in support of a ballot question that would ban same-sex marriages in Florida.

Media Pave the Way to 3rd Term for Bloomberg (New York Times)
Before Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced his controversial run for another term, he locked up support of the editorial pages of three city newspapers.

Weighing In: An Anchor Tacks Toward Commentary (New York Times)
While her program has benefited from heightened interest in the presidential race, the theme [Campbell Brown] has fashioned for “Election Center” — she calls her mission to hold politicians and others accountable “No bias, no bull” — seems to have found more resonance with viewers than previous CNN efforts at 8 p.m.

O.J. Simpson guilty in robbery, kidnap trial
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - O.J. Simpson was found guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping here late Friday, 13 years to the day after the American football legend was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.

OJ Simpson jurors say hours of secret recordings played a key role in armed robbery conviction (AP)
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Jurors who found O.J. Simpson guilty in his armed robbery trial say secret audio tapes and surveillance video swayed them more than witness accounts. Seven panelists who attended an extraordinary news conference Sunday concluded that without the recordings the prosecution might not have won convictions.