U.S. Drafts Sweeping Plan to Fight Crisis As Turmoil Worsens in Credit Markets  —  Paulson Briefs Congress on Idea to Buy Bad Assets From Banks, Insure Money-Market Funds; Stocks Rebound Sharply  —  WASHINGTON — The federal government is working on a sweeping series of programs …

Where Next for the Dollar?  18 Sep 2008  —  Is the U.S. government's proposal to take on bad bank assets a good move?  Sharada Selvanathan, currency strategist at BNP Paribas gives her take on how this will affect the dollar, with CNBC's Maura Fogarty & Stephen Sedgwick.

What's on the desk  —  In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society.  —  The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council …

SEC Is Set to Issue Temporary Ban Against Short Selling  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission prepared an aggressive assault against short-sellers, saying it would temporarily prevent investors from making bets on stock declines in an attempt to stem some of the worst stock-market slides in years …

Hacker wanted to ‘derail’ Palin  —  Found ‘nothing incriminating’ in candidate's private e-mail  —  A person taking credit for hacking into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo account claims to have read the Republican vice-presidential candidate's e-mails to find something that …

McCain Plays the Race Card  —  When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly.  Consider McCain's new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally:  —  This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.

Obama Is Stoking Racial Antagonism  —  I understand the rough and tumble of politics.  But Barack Obama — the supposedly postpartisan, postracial candidate of hope and change — has gone where few modern candidates have gone before.  —  Mr. Obama's campaign is now trafficking in prejudice of its own making.

KEITH OLBERMANN: I happend to catch the very beginning of “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann.  His lead story was on John McCain's statement that if he were President he would “fire” Chris Cox as Chairman of the SEC, explaining that the Chairman of the SEC is appointed by and serves at the will of the President.

Campaign Lies, Media Double Standards  —  I NO LONGER TRUST THE MAJOR NEWSPAPERS OR TELEVISION NETWORKS TO PROVIDE CONSISTENTLY ACCURATE AND FAIR REPORTING AND ANALYSIS OF ALL THE CHARGES AND COUNTERCHARGES.  —  Some who have been admirers of John McCain think that the war hero has debased himself …

Given G.O.P. Predicament, Rangel Opts to Ride Out the Storm  —  WASHINGTON — This week, with Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York on the verge of stepping down from the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, Democrats hatched a plan to foil Republicans trying to capitalize on his ethical troubles.

‘Always for Less Regulation’?  —  TO LISTEN to Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain is a Johnny-come-lately to the cause of regulating financial markets.  “He has consistently opposed the sorts of common-sense regulations that might have lessened the current crisis,” Mr. Obama said in New Mexico yesterday.

Poll: GOP brand making comeback  —  New polling suggests that the Republican Party is beginning to regain some of its luster and, perhaps as important, is experiencing a surge in excitement among its political base.  —  A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports …

Todd Palin refuses to testify in probe  —  Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and a key lawmaker said today that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.

President Bush goes AWOL  —  Where's George?  The president, I mean.  —  You remember him.  Dubya.  No. 43.  Won a second term a few years ago.  It was in all the papers.  —  But where has he been lately?  Where has he been during America's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?

Bill Clinton speaks out for Barack Obama, well, sort of  —  When we last saw the last Democratic ex-president of the United States, he was really, really getting ready to go out and campaign for this very ambitious young fellow from Illinois who with his Windy City crowd beat the ex-president's wife …

Reid keeps the swamp brimming  —  As the stock market plunged nearly 1,000 points in two days this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was preoccupied with protecting billions of dollars worth of earmarks contained in a separate, unpublished committee report that got …

Why It's Getting Mean  —  The financial crisis changes the entire shape and feel of the presidential election.  It isn't just bad news, it's bad news that reveals what many people deep down feared, and hoped not to see revealed: that the huge and sprawling financial system of Wall Street …

Field Poll finds gay marriage ban trails by 17 points  —  Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A3  —  A constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in California has lost support during the past two months and now trails by a 17-point margin.