The Minnesota Court of Appeals today heard oral arguments in Sen. Larry Craig's appeal of the denial of his motion to vacate his guilty plea for foot-tapping in an airport bathroom stall to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

The attorney, Billy Martin, told the three-judge panel that Craig's behavior was "as consistent with innocence as it is with guilt."

More...

Agriprocessers, the Postville, IA meatpacking firm that was subjected to ICE raids, has now been charged with child labor violations.

In all, 9,311 criminal misdemeanor charges involving 32 under-age workers were filed against the company, Agriprocessors Inc., and its owner, Aaron Rubashkin, and his son Sholom, who was the top manager of the packing plant in Postville, Iowa.

More....

Keeping comments on topic is required. All off topic comments will be deleted. By definition, no comments are off topic in an Open Thread.

And this is an Open Thread.

Proving yet again that John McCain is merely an extension of the George W. Bush Republican Party, McCain releases this noxious ad:

The Obama response:

"It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls - a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn't define what honor was. Now we know why."

Indeed. On all levels, McCain/Palin is Bush's Third Term.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The GOP Convention bounce begins its fade. McCain has gone from 1 up to 1 down in the Ras poll in the past few days. In addition, Ras pooh poohs the move of white women to McCain/Palin:

A Washington Post poll generated comment yesterday by noting that White Women favor McCain. Rasmussen Reports polling has consistently shown a similar result, but it is important to note that there is nothing unusual about this finding. Four years ago, President Bush managed to defeat Senator John Kerry 55% to 44% among white women. Today’s tracking poll data shows McCain leading 51% to 44% among this group. Among all women, Obama leads by eight. Among men, McCain leads by eight.

By Big Tent Democrat

Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the right . . . to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

First Amendent to the US Constitution

In Jeralyn's post below, she discusses a Newsweek article that discusses 2005 (when Sarah Palin was the Mayor of Wasilla a private citizen) statements made by the Alaska family court judge handling the divorce and custody dispute between Palin's sister and her ex-brother in law Morgan Wooten. While Jeralyn and other bloggers see this as a strong indictment against Palin, I was struck by the actions of the judge. Some points stand out for me. First was the judge's inflammatory use of the phrase "emotional child abuse" due to complaints by the Palin family to the government about the conduct of Wooten, an Alaska state trooper. Second was the court's admonition to the Palin family to stop their complaints to the government about Wooten.

While the issue of speech from family members to children has been the subject of family court orders (and even these restrictions are not uncontroversial, see, e.g. Eugene Volokh on the issue), it is new to my experience to see a judge in any setting order a non-party to cease and desist from "petitioning the government for redress." I'll explain my concerns in more detail on the flip side.

Newsweek has examined the divorce records of Gov. Sarah Palin's sister and her husband, Mike Wooten, the trooper at the heart of the TrooperGate legislative investigation into whether Palin abused her power as Governor in firing public safety manager Walt Monegan.

The divorce case and ruling cited by Newsweek concerns Palin's conduct before becoming Governor, while she was a private citizen, but is relevant for providing another glimpse into the newly minted Vice Presidential candidate

The Court likened Palin's attacks on the trooper to a form of child abuse:

An Anchorage judge three years ago warned Sarah Palin and members of her family to stop "disparaging" the reputation of Alaska State Trooper Michael Wooten, who at the time was undergoing a bitter separation and divorce from Palin's sister Molly.

More...

Is anyone watching Fashion Rocks? It's great. Dennis Leary is hosting, Fergie and Debbie Harry just about brought down the house and Keith Urban is totally on his game.

It's on CBS and the proceeds benefit Stand Up to Cancer.

Update: Kid Rock is another standout with "All Summer Long." The audience is on its feet, and then he brings out...Leonard Skynyrd. They're now doing Sweet Home Alabama. Sounds better now than it did then.

This an open thread.

John McCain's phony outrage over Sen. Barack Obama's use of the cliche and oft-used lipstick on a pig analogy in reference McCain's co-opting of his change meme when McCain/Palin will just be a continuation of failed Bush policies.

The Obama campaign, via Politico:

Enough is enough. The McCain campaign’s attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy – the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan just last year. This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run.

More...

Here's the actual results from the NBC/WSJ poll (pdf) that had good news for both candidates. Here's the article describing the results.

With eight weeks until Election Day, the Journal survey found a dead heat: 46% of registered voters favor Sens. Obama and Joe Biden, and 45% favor McCain-Palin.

...The survey had good news for Sen. Obama as well, showing that he improved his standing with the electorate in areas where he had been seen as weak. More voters found said they were comfortable with him as president that they did in a Journal poll three weeks ago, as did the portion who said they were confident in his ability to be commander in chief.

More...

Gimme Shelter from the Bridges to Babylon tour.

Here's You Can't Always Get What You Want. So true, but we can get what we need, and that's not John McCain and another 8 years of George Bush policies.

This is an open thread.

US News and World Report has an article on how Sen. John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate has injected the culture wars into the election, positing that it may cost him in Independent votes.

McCain's senior advisers have themselves admitted that Palin was picked to ensure a strong conservative turnout in such decisive battleground states as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. She should also shore up traditionally Republican western states, including Colorado, which has shown signs of going Democratic. But if Palin draws too much attention to issues such as abortion, if the culture war heats up and comes to dominate discussion, there is a danger that she could weaken McCain's appeal not only to moderates within his own party but also to independents and conservative Democrats—in short, to the vast slice of American voters that decides national elections.