SARAH PALIN'S MURDEROUS WEB OF DEATH  —  Calling Sarah Palin a murderer might seem a stretch.  —  At first.  —  But alarmingly, Sarah Louise Heath Palin was born on February 11, 1964 - a suspicious beginning, as it is also the forty-eighth anniversary of the arrest of the free-thinking …

MCCAIN STILL SEES THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE ECONOMY AS STRONG.... The Obama campaign routinely tweaks John McCain for having argued that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.”  Last week, the Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman criticized Obama for using the line, insisting that the quote is “months old.”

McCain Loses Fox News: Megyn Kelly Rips McCain Flack For Claiming Obama Would Raise Middle Class Taxes  —  On Fox News today, host Megyn Kelly called out McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds for the campaign's lies about Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) tax proposals.

Dow Drops More Than 500 Points on Financial Turmoil  —  The demise of Lehman Brothers, the country's fourth-largest investment bank, and the sale of brokerage firm Merrill Lynch sent U.S. stocks plunging today in one of the toughest trading sessions in years, with the Dow Jones industrial average losing more than 504 points.

MCCAIN ADVISOR RIPS ‘SNL’ SKIT.... By now, I suspect most of you have seen the opening skit from “Saturday Night Live,” which featured a joint press conference hosted by Sarah Palin (played perfectly by Tina Fey) and Hillary Clinton (Amy Poehler).  If you missed it, and it was pretty hilarious, NBC has posted the whole thing.

Memories Of Keating  —  As we watch yet another Republican financial crisis unfold before our very eyes, everybody needs to employ Mr Google to read up a little bit on the Keating Five scandal.  McCain was big, big pals with Charles Keating.  He spoke up for Keating with the regulators …

OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS' IRAQ WITHDRAWAL  —  WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

Gallup Daily: Race Stabilizes With McCain Up by Two  —  Race nearly back to pre-convention period competitive status  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Voter preferences in the race for president are unchanged from where they stood over the weekend.  John McCain still edges out Barack Obama, 47% to 45% …

As the Markets Plunge, Bernanke and Paulson Gamble Depositor's Money  —  So, yesterday when it became clear Lehman wasn't going to be rescued the Fed relaxed its rules about what it would lend money to banks and brokerage houses and added 25 billion to that loan facility.

Bloomberg agrees with McCain: Economy ‘fundamentally ... strong’  —  I just now asked the New York mayor, a former Wall Street hand who's been in the mix in the current crisis, whether he agrees with McCain that the fundamentals of the American economy are strong.

Powell still undecided, says Obama win would be ‘electrifying’  —  (CNN) — Former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that he has not yet decided which candidate to back in this year's presidential race.  —  The election of an African-American president “would be electrifying …

Obama Rolls Out New Line of Faith Merchandise  —  God-o-Meter has learned that the Obama campaign is about to email religious supporters an annoucnement about a new line of Obama faith merchandise—bumper stickers, buttons, and signs with three different messages, featured here—along with the following note:

John McCain's Journey From Maverick to Liar  —  There is a good reason why John McCain's campaign is having some trouble with truthiness these days.  —  McCain's claim to be a “maverick” rests on the liberal positions he took during the days when he openly fought with Republican leaders and the party's conservative base.

Applebee's and green tea redux: Reuters' Decker said Biden's “French cuffs” could cause problems for him “connect[ing] with voters”  —  On the September 15 edition of MSNBC Live, while assessing Sen. Joe Biden's speech on the economy, Reuters Washington correspondent Jon Decker said that Biden does not …

McCain's Crowd Numbers Plummet In Palin's Absence  —  John McCain returned to the campaign trail on Monday, only this time without his popular vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin.  The results were somewhat less than enthusiastic.  As reported by MSNBC's First Read, the Republican presidential …

Politicians, FEMA blame each other for relief missteps  —  Comments Recommend  —  It didn't take long for the finger-pointing to begin.  —  The Federal Emergency Management Agency came under fire Sunday as emergency workers were left undernourished and dozens of trucks of water and food …

IowaPolitics: Judge and other Dems take on Palin's credentials  —  INDIANOLA — The Harkin Steak Fry is traditionally a fundraiser that acts as a stage to rally Democrats around their candidates in addition to highlighting a star of the party.  While this year's gathering did all of those things …

Intolerance thrives in Palin's Pacific Northwest  —  Catherine McNicol Stock is chair of the history department at Connecticut College and author of “Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage in the American Grain”  —  Despite her efforts to portray herself as an average, small-town, “folksy” American …