The Republican Attorney General of Wisconsin is in a position to meddle with elections, so of course he can't resist. J.B. Van Hollen has sued the state because it has not forced local clerks to "crosscheck voter names with driver's license records for voters who registered to vote or changed their addresses on or after Jan. 1, 2006." State election officials argue that conducting any required crosschecks "would cripple efforts to prepare for the Nov. 4 presidential election because they don't have the staff to check so many names in the next eight weeks."

If Van Hollen wanted to solve the problem, he would work with the governor and legislature to find a political resolution. That he chose instead to file a suit that seeks the disenfranchisement of newly registered voters suggests that Van Hollen's true motivation is the suppression of Wisconsin's new voters because they are enthusiastic supporters of Barack Obama. That suspicion is only heightened by Van Hollen's role as "state co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign."

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Kevin Drum notes that while Sarah Palin echoes the irresponsible McCain position on the expansion of NATO to Georgia, the Democrats have not a leg to stand on on the issue:

John McCain's official position on NATO expansion is that we should include Georgia and Ukraine posthaste. This means that if either of those countries gets into a border skirmish — or worse — with Russia, the United States will be obligated to go to war on their behalf.

However, unless I'm mistaken, this is also Barack Obama's official position. So I wouldn't expect a whole lot of pushback on this from his camp. Which is too bad, since the American public really ought to think long and seriously about whether we should be reponsible for defending distant countries that have long histories of ethnic strife and unstable borders.

The only "Serious Person" who has made sense on this issue is Sam Nunn:

This isn't the most pressing problem facing the country -- it isn't even in the top twenty -- but Sen. Herb Kohl nonetheless has a point when he wonders why it should cost 20 cents to text a question mark to a friend.

In his letter, Kohl points out that Sprint was the first major carrier to up its text messaging charges, increasing them from 10 to 20 cents. The others eventually followed suit. Kohl believes, as many others do, that text messages are so small that they do not warrant such a large rate increase. The senator also points out that since all four carriers raised the price around the same time, they have not engaged in the "vigorous price competition" that is expected in a free market. The big four wireless carriers serve more than 90 percent of the cell phone market, so the absence of competition for text message pricing is definitely worth looking into.

Examining the larger problem of lax antitrust enforcement -- the Justice Department's current philosophy that if two or three or four huge companies share an entire market, that's all the competition we need, even when it amounts to no competition at all -- might be a more productive use of the senate's time.

Here's more evidence of Republican incompetence to manage the government, as if more were needed:

The government wasted millions of dollars on four no-bid contracts it handed out for Hurricane Katrina work, including paying $20 million for a camp for evacuees that was never inspected and proved to be unusable, investigators say.

Not to mention the Fence to Nowhere:

The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that cost overruns, legal obstacles and other problems were imperiling its goal of completing the 670 miles of fencing and technological improvements on the Southwest border that President Bush has promoted as vital to securing it.

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Herman Atkins served 12 years before DNA testing showed he didn't commit the rape and robbery that led to his conviction. Atkins considers himself lucky that there was DNA available for new testing in his case. He speaks from the heart when he urges Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign two bills on his desk. One would help prevent wrongful convictions and the other would help the wrongfully convicted.

The first bill, SB 1589, would require corroboration for jailhouse informant testimony. Informants have good reasons to lie: they are getting something in exchange for what they say. Yet, they are persuasive. In fact, informants are the leading cause of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases. We already require corroboration for co-defendant informants; SB 1589 simply extends that same precaution to jailhouse informants.

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As Jeralyn pointed out yesterday, the McCain campaign has gone beyond negative. It's latest ad is filled with disgusting lies, most prominently its accusation that Barack Obama sponsored an Illinois bill to teach "comprehensive sex education" to kindergarten students. The bill, which Obama did not sponsor, would have allowed teachers to give kindergarten students enough information to protect themselves from sexual predators, while reserving "medically accurate" information about sex to be taught to older students in higher grades.

Almost as troubling is the advertisement's false claim that this bill was Obama's "one accomplishment" in the field of education. [more ...]

A slew of state polls have been released but I am not going to pay attention to them. Here's why - they all came too close to the GOP Convention. I am going to concentrate on the national tracking polls for a few more days. We have 3 to follow - Ras, which has a tie, Gallup, which has McCain by 4 (though I have expressed my problems with the Gallup tracking results), and Hotline, which has McCain by 2.

At this point, the race seems to have stabilized to a virtual tie/small McCain lead. I believe the fundamentals still strongly favor Obama and believe he should remain the strong favorite to win the election. But he really needs to look to change the current Media narrative. The disagreement between Jeralyn (and the entire Left blogosphere apparently) and I on Palinpalooza need not be rehashed in this post. I merely suggest again the following - Barack Obama can grab the Media narrative by the neck if he would spend a few days campaigning together with Bill and Hillary Clinton, especially if he makes a strong economic appeal in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan. I strongly recommend Obama take this tack next week.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Ted Stevens' prosecution is on track for trial as U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected a number of defense motions to dismiss the case.

[The motions] challenged the indictment on the grounds that it was constitutionally vague or violated the statute-of-limitations. This came after Judge Sullivan earlier ruled that the indictment did not violate separation-of-powers provision for the executive branch and Congress. A move to change the venue for the trial to Alaska has been rejected as well.

Although "there is still a chance that U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan will dismiss the case on the grounds that it violates the Speech or Debate Clause," that chance seems infinitesimally small. That Clause does not insulate legislators from prosecution for filing false financial disclosure forms. Stevens' trial is scheduled to commence in twelve days.

On the 7th Anniversary of the heinous attack on the United States by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida, what is the legacy of that awful, fateful day? It seems clear - Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida succeeded in severely weakening the United States due to the incompetence of the Bush Administration and Republicans like John McCain. Instead of fighting the War On Terror to its conclusion in Afghanistan, the Bush Administration, at the strong urging of John McCain, embarked in the strategically disastrous Iraq Debacle, diverting important resources from the War on Terror to fight a war of choice, and a very poor choice it was.

In 2002, Barack Obama said:

David Letterman reports:

Barack Obama revealed Wednesday that former President Clinton, once the presidential nominee's nemesis, will campaign for him during the weeks leading up to Election Day. "There's nobody smarter in politics," Obama said on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman." "And he is going to be campaigning for us over the next eight weeks, which I'm thrilled by."

The two were scheduled to have lunch Thursday at Clinton's office in New York. Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said the former president would campaign for Obama at a yet-to-be announced site in Florida on Sept. 29, with plans for more fundraising and events in the works.

If I were running Obama's campaign, I would have Obama campaign with Bill Clinton next week in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan for a few days.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Sen. Barack Obama got in a little campaigning on the David Letterman show Wednesday night:

Ultimately what we’ve seen over the last week is a concession on the part of the McCain campaign that this election is going to be about change. You’ll recall, you know, for the last two years, we’ve been talking about needing to change how Washington works, how the country is managed and people were saying, ‘No, it’s about experience, experience, experience,’ and over the last week and a half I think they recognized that, no, the American people want something fundamentally different and for a good reason. Because when you travel, it doesn’t matter whether you’re here in New York City or a tiny hamlet somewhere in the Midwest, what you find is people are just having a tough time right now.

More...

Apparently lipstick was the story of the day yesterday. I was barely aware of the controversy. I wonder how much it penetrated the American consciousness? I'm guessing not at all, that it was a "Freak Show" story for the Media. So I am going to ignore it.

All your non-Palin comments can go here. You can also add to the underdiscussed Ms. Palin as well if you wish.

This is an Open Thread.