Hope, Change, & Lies: Orchestrated “Grassroots” Smear Campaigns & the People that Run Them  —  Extensive research was conducted by the Jawa Report to determine the source of smears directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  Those smears included false allegations …

Democrats Set Terms as Bailout Debate Begins  —  WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats began to set their own terms on Sunday for a plan to rescue the nation's financial institutions, including greater legislative oversight of the Treasury Department, more direct assistance for homeowners …

Cash for Trash  —  Some skeptics are calling Henry Paulson's $700 billion rescue plan for the U.S. financial system “cash for trash.”  Others are calling the proposed legislation the Authorization for Use of Financial Force, after the Authorization for Use of Military Force …

Palin draws crowd of 60,000 in The Villages  —  THE VILLAGES — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told wildly cheering, flag-waving, chanting supporters that John McCain is “the only great man in this race” and promised Sunday he will fix the nation's economy if voters give the GOP four more years in the White House.

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million  —  Senator John McCain's campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

Politico Intends to Expand After Presidential Race Ends  —  Politico has grown rapidly from a little-known start-up company to one of the nation's most popular online sources of political news.  But it has been riding a wave of interest in a hot presidential campaign, so what happens to Politico after Nov. 4?

Cuomo For SEC?  WTF?  —  Last week was hardly John McCain's finest moment when, deciding that the Securities and Exchange Commission bore major responsibility for the Wall Street madness, he essentially called for SEC Chairman Chris Cox to be fired.  —  (Perhaps it was my imagination …

Goldman, Morgan to Become Bank Holding Companies  —  Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last two independent investment banks, will become bank holding companies, the Federal Reserve said Sunday night, a move that will fundamentally alter the landscape of Wall Street.

The Government and the People Need to Be The Insurer of Last Resort, Not the Idiot of Last Resort  —  That line comes from an excellent summary of not just how the US got here, but how it can get out without turning the United States into a plutocracy.  The plan is simple enough:

ABC Panel Tears Into McCain: Not Presidential, Age Should Be An Issue  —  For John McCain, the panel discussion on This Week with George Stephanopoulos could not have been more brutal.  —  Minutes after conservative columnist George Will declared that the Senator was decidedly un-presidential …

Obama walks the abortion minefield  —  For the past week, some activists in the abortion rights community have been trying to figure out why Barack Obama, a Democrat praised for his strong defense of reproductive rights, appeared to be turning soft.  —  Those who work on the front lines …

Shorter Entire Right-Wing Blogosphere … - We agree with Investors' Business Daily, which says that the reason for the current financial crisis is that the Community Reinvestment Act passed by the Democrats forced banks to lend money to a bunch of shiftless darkies who couldn't repay their loans.