Fed's $85 Billion Loan Rescues Insurer  —  By EDMUND L. ANDREWS, MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH  —  WASHINGTON — Fearing a financial crisis worldwide, the Federal Reserve reversed course on Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the government control …

Holtz-Eakin: McCain helped create BlackBerry  —  Asked what work John McCain did as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate's top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.  —  “He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin …

Fiorina's comment called ‘Biden-like’  —  (CNN) — Top McCain-Palin official Carly Fiorina is facing criticism from some within the campaign for a day of what they call “very Biden-like” comments, after the former Hewlett-Packard CEO told two separate interviewers that neither member …

And now this  —  From an e-mail sent overnight by Anchorage attorney Kevin Clarkson:

GOP delegate's hotel tryst goes bad when he wakes up with $120,000 missing  —  He met her in the bar of the swank hotel and invited her to his room.  Once there, the woman fixed the drinks and told him to get undressed.  —  And that, the delegate to the Republican National Convention told police, was the last thing he remembered.

GOP group behind negative Obama poll  —  A Republican group is taking responsibility for a poll that has roiled the Jewish community by asking sharply negative questions about Senator Barack Obama.  —  The Republican Jewish Coalition, which is launching a campaign against Obama on behalf …

For immediate release  —  The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its target for the federal funds rate at 2 percent.  —  Strains in financial markets have increased significantly and labor markets have weakened further.  Economic growth appears to have slowed recently …

McCain and Palin are laughing at the press — and it's the press' fault  —  Chris Matthews was steamed.  —  As John McCain's manufactured “lipstick on a pig” story was taking flight last week, Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, kicked off the hour by teeing up the story.

Country First (or, How The Media Loves A Lipsticked Rumsfeld)  —  Banks are falling and businesses busting, middle-class Americans are losing their homes in droves, while greedy poison comes a tricklin' down!!!  —  But, “the fundamentals are good!”  John McCain said they're good.

Reaching Critical Mass  —  The sudden change in the polls the last 10 days, even though it may be temporary, has prompted a furor in the media that has no parallel in modern election history.  Vicious words like “treason”, “abasement”, “liar”, and “lying” are in the air now in an unheralded attack on McCain …

THE STATE OF SARAH PALIN  —  The peculiar political landscape of the Vice-Presidential hopeful.  —  It rained a lot in Alaska this summer—even more than usual—and it was a cold summer, too.  The sun doesn't set on much of the state between mid-June and mid-July, but the weather …

Laura Ingraham vs. David Brooks  —  From her daily e-blast:

Count the Lies  —  John McCain may be trying to sell himself as a “maverick” and a “straight talker” who will tell the truth no matter the consequences, but independent, non-partisan watchdog groups aren't buying it.  But, since he wrapped up his party's nomination, John McCain has offered more of the same false attacks and smears.