The AP reports:

Alabama Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen stopped a voter registration drive for inmates Thursday under pressure from the Alabama Republican Party.

In a letter to state Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard, Allen said individuals conducting the program "were not doing anything for the inmates that they could not do themselves by simply contacting the Secretary of State's Office for the voter registration postcard."

Allen's absurd rationale: [More...]

On September 25, the 10th Circuit, en banc, will conduct a rehearing of a three judge panel's reversal of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio's insider trading conviction.

The issue is whether the trial judge improperly excluded testimony from Nacchio's expert witness who would have disagreed with two Government experts on an issue that was central to Nacchio's guilt or innocence.

This is about fundamental fairness and affects defendants in all cases, not just Nacchio or white collar cases. A defendant’s ability to call witnesses on his behalf at trial is an integral part of the Sixth Amendment right to put on a defense. [More...]

In his statement today on the financial crisis, Senator Barack Obama said, in part:

[W]e cannot only have a plan for Wall Street. We must also help Main Street as well. I’m glad that our government is moving so quickly in addressing the crisis that threatens some of our biggest banks and corporations. But a similar crisis has threatened families, workers and homeowners for months and months and Washington has done far too little to help.

[MORE]

Jeralyn posted Hillary Clinton's great speech on our current financial crisis and I think the most important discussion from that speech was Clinton's championing of the HOLC (Home Owners Loan Corporation) model over the RTC (Resolution Trust Corp.) model. I urge you to watch the speech. In the meantime, hear is a nice post from December 2007 from the Consumer Law and Policy blog on these competing choices, highlighting the Center for American Progress proposal.The post:

If you compare the records of Barack Obama and John McCain, it’s clear that Barack Obama stands with women on the issues that are important to them: equal pay for equal work, the right to choose, comprehensive health care reform. Examples, as received from the Obama campaign, below:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had sued AT&T over its participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless electronic surveillance program, only to have Congress throw a wrench in it by passing a law giving the telecoms retroactive immunity, has filed a new lawsuit against President Bush, Dick Cheney and the Government, taking a different approach.

. "For years, the NSA has been engaged in a massive and massively illegal fishing expedition through AT&T's domestic networks and databases of customer records. Our goal in this new case against the government, as in our case against AT&T, is to dismantle this dragnet surveillance program as soon as possible."

In addition to suing the government agencies involved in the domestic dragnet, the lawsuit also targets the individuals responsible for creating, authorizing, and implementing the illegal program, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The complaint is here (pdf). I encourage everyone to read at least the prelimary statement that outlines the scope of the old TSP (Terrorist Surveillance Program) and how it continues to be used today. Your e-mails, phone records and more are subject to being swept up in this dragnet surveillance program.[More...]

I kid you not. Just now Howard Fineman said that Bill Clinton was to blame "because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were securitizing mortgages." What stunning ignorance.

Hell Howard, let's blame FDR while you are at it:

Fannie Mae was created in 1938 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. The collapse of the national housing market in the wake of the Great Depression discouraged private lenders from investing in home loans. Fannie Mae was established in order to provide local banks with federal money to finance home mortgages in an attempt to raise levels of home ownership and the availability of affordable housing.

Or maybe LBJ:

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen just announced that the federal government will bail out Wall Street:

. . . The underlying weakness in our financial system today is the illiquid mortgage assets that have lost value as the housing correction has proceeded. These illiquid assets are choking off the flow of credit that is so vitally important to our economy. . . . These illiquid assets are clogging up our financial system, and undermining the strength of our otherwise sound financial institutions. As a result, Americans' personal savings are threatened, and the ability of consumers and businesses to borrow and finance spending, investment, and job creation has been disrupted.

More.

I have been pitching the notion that John McCain's statement on Monday that "the fundamental of our economy are strong" could well become the defining moment of this election - akin to John Kerry's "I was for it before I was against it" moment in 2004. This USA Today editorial buttresses my view:

As Wall Street's roller-coaster week unfolded, John McCain's views on the economy went through about as many gyrations as the Dow Jones industrial average. Brace your neck for a quick recap.

[More . . .

We now have 5 organizations I know of doing daily tracking polls of the Presidential race - Gallup, Rasmussen, DKos/R2000, Hotline/Diageo and the Battleground poll. The trend this week in all 5 has been clearly and decisively in Obama's favor.

Gallup has gone from a 2 point McCain lead in polling in the 9/12-14 period to a 4 point Obama lead in the 9/15-17 period - and Obama now leads in the tracker, 48-44. More . . .

The LA Times on Gov. Sarah Palin and the Road to Nowhere:

While seeking votes, she told Ketchikan residents she backed the 'bridge to nowhere.' As governor, she spent the money elsewhere and moved ahead with a $26-million road to the nonexistent bridge.

You can't make this stuff up.

This is an open thread. See you all tomorrow.