The Texecution of Charles Hood will be delayed, but not because the prosecutor and judge in his case were having an affair. The fact of the affair no longer seems to be disputed.

In the letter to the governor, lawyers for the inmate, Charles Dean Hood, said the former judge, Verla Sue Holland, and the former prosecutor, Thomas S. O’Connell Jr., testified in depositions given late Monday and Tuesday morning that they had a romantic relationship for years.

Whether they were still romantically involved at the time of Hood's trial is unclear, because the judge and prosecutor "had differing recollections about when the affair ended." An independent witness, "a former assistant district attorney, has said the affair continued until 1993." Hood's trial was in September 1990.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could not bring itself to say that a sexual liason between judge and prosecutor renders a criminal trial unfair. But the court found a different reason to stay Hood's execution, which had been scheduled to take place today. [more ...]

Via Todd Beeton:

So I was happy, if unsurprised, to learn from a source that Barack Obama called Hillary Clinton yesterday to thank her for what she's doing on behalf of the campaign. During their conversation, I'm told he thanked her specifically for what she was saying on the campaign trail. The fact is the Obama campaign is working closely with Hillary Clinton on her role in the campaign and will continue to do so until election day.

This is not surprising in the least. Hillary Clinton's message has echoed the Obama campaign's concentration on McCain as Bush' Third Term. Credit where due to the Obama campaign, they realize that fixating on Sarah Palin is a losing political strategy.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

For the fourth day in a row, the Gallup tracking poll has McCain up, now 48-43:

The Sept. 7-9 average -- spanning interviewing conducted Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday -- finds little substantive change in the shape of the race compared to earlier this week, although each of the two candidate's level of support has dropped a point compared to the Tuesday's reported average. Nine percent of registered voters say they are undecided, refuse to state their preference, say they will vote for neither McCain nor Obama, or indicate they are voting for another candidate.

Here is a strange demographic factoid from Gallup's poll - Obama leads among women 49-42 while trailing among men by 49-44. And yet Gallup has McCain up 5. In a word, that simply is incredible. This Gallup poll seems faulty to me.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Andrew Sullivan gets it mostly right today. John McCain is not fit to be President.

And then, because he could see he was going to lose, ten days ago, he threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a woman who....was going to reignite the culture war as a last stand against Obama. That's all that is happening right now: a massive bump in the enthusiasm of the Christianist base. This is pure Rove.

Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country's safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base. ....

More...

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.