Palin Camp Goes To New Lengths To Shut Out Media  —  From CBS News' Scott Conroy:  —  (NEW YORK) Update: After media outlets complained to the McCain/Palin campaign about its attempt to prevent an editorial presence at Gov. Palin's first meeting of the day, a pool producer was allowed …

Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools  —  Despite having authored two autobiographies, Barack Obama has never written about his most important executive experience.  From 1995 to 1999, he led an education foundation called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), and remained on the board until 2001.

Biden: ‘No coal plants here in America’  —  Some great rope line video from Joe Biden's recent Ohio swing, where he was asked by an anti-pollution campaigner about clean coal — a controversial approach in Democratic circles for which Obama has voiced support, particularly during the Kentucky primary.

Biden garbles Depression history  —  Joe Biden's denunciation of his own campaign's ad to Katie Couric got so much attention last night that another odd note in the interview slipped by.  —  He was speaking about the role of the White House in a financial crisis.

Maliki: Bush Tried To Delay U.S. Withdrawal To Help McCain  —  In an al-Iraqiya interview on September 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki discussed the state of negotiations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments regarding the eventual withdrawal of U.S troops from Iraq.

Getting real — and letting the cat out of the bag  —  Whoa — it seems that Ben Bernanke ditched his prepared testimony and, instead, let the cat at least partly out of the bag. … As I wrote earlier this morning, the whole “take these assets off the balance sheets” line is fundamentally disingenuous …

Close Contests in Four Key States:  —  The presidential race between John McCain and Barack Obama in four key battleground states remains remarkably stable despite a month of politically significant developments, with the Illinois senator running ahead of or even with his Republican rival according …

CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers  —  Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.  —  Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni …

The Establishment Lives!  —  Once, there was a financial elite in this country.  During the first two-thirds of the 20th century, middle-aged men with names like Mellon and McCloy led Wall Street firms, corporate boards and white-shoe law firms and occasionally emerged to serve in government.

Not a surrogate  —  I'd missed “The View” yesterday, but watching now, it's striking how one of the world's great's political salesman is acting as an analyst, and not a surrogate, when it comes to this race, and making no real effort to boost Obama.

Racism and the Race  —  The race boils down to racism.  All things being equal, Barack Obama would win the presidency hands down.  —  Unemployment is at a five-year high.  —  Wages are shrinking.  —  The stock market is in the doldrums.  —  The home foreclosure crisis has shattered the dreams of millions of Americans.

An Open Letter to Tina Fey  —  We, the people, need you.  —  We need you to be Sarah Palin each and every Saturday night, live from New York.  —  How else to explain the sudden about face of Governor Palin's popularity in the polls just days after your brilliant spot-on impersonation …