A terrible week last week , going 6-11. Now 35-35-1 for the year. Here are this week's picks:

Miami (-6) over FSU; Missouri (-11) over Colorado; Mich St. (+4.5) over Michigan in the Big House; South Florida (-7) over Syracuse; Pen St.(-7) over Illinois; Ohio St. (-23) over Indiana; Tenn. (+11) over Georgia; Clemson (+2) over N. Ca.; Alabama (-7) over South Carolina; UCLA (+8) over Cal; Notre Dame (-6) over Pitt; Army (Even) over Tulane; Arkansas (-6) over Texas A&M; San Diego St. (-5) over BYU; Kentucky (+7) over Auburn; Northwestern (-8) over Purdue; Miss St. (-5) over Houston; and Stanford (-10) over USC.

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

It's snowing in the mountains.

If you are one of the few people who liked Jimmy Smits in his new show Outlaw about a conservative Supreme Court justice who quits to take on individual cases where he sees an underdog in need, you should tune in tonight. NBC has halted production on the show.

Eight episodes of Outlaw have been produced; 3 of them have already aired, with 5 more in the can. If there is a ratings uptick in the next 2 weeks, production on the show will be restarted. If not, it will become permanent.

Law and Order L.A. and The Defenders aren't doing well either. Are people not interested in crime or are the networks serving up sub-standard fare? I'll say it's the latter.

Since I'm still swamped in paperwork, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Russ Feingold debates tonight:

Johnson vs. Feingold, Round 1, is on for tonight. Republican challenger Ron Johnson and three-term incumbent Democratic U.S. Russ Feingold will square off for an hour starting at 8 p.m. in the first of three televised debates scheduled before the Nov. 2 election.

Cheddar for Russ here. The debate will be broadcast on C-Span.

Speaking for me only

Jon Chait writes, in the context of ironic GOP-nostalgia for Bill Clinton:

Right-wingers villified John F. Kennedy; now they revere him. One day, Obama will play the same role in the Republican imagination that Clinton does today.

You know the one Democratic President who is considered great historically that conservatives will never revere (nor should they) -- FDR. For all the talk of transformational Presidents, the truth is that in the past 100 years there really has been only one - Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In my first TalkLeft post, I discussed the revolution in government that FDR led:

Bank of America today announced it will stop foreclosures in all fifty states.

The bank said the foreclosure process on delinquent borrowers will continue, but it will not proceed to judgment or a foreclosure sale.

"Robosigning" allegations are mounting and Sen. Chris Dodd said he will hold a hearing on foreclosure practices November 16. State attorney generals are also investigating and initiating or contemplating fraud suits. Here's more on the prevalence of robo-signing.

"We started instructing people to pull their documents from the clerk of the court," says Anne Batte, who runs a foreclosure-assistance group in Georgia called Operation Restoration. "And the more we instructed, the more we saw. Nearly every document I have seen has been improperly signed."

Bloomberg has an interesting column describing how even a man who had no mortgage had his home foreclosed on due to the robo-signing.

The Nation has a feature article alleging Lou Dobbs employed undocumented workers.

Based on a yearlong investigation, including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on his properties, The Nation and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute have found that Dobbs has relied for years on undocumented labor for the upkeep of his multimillion-dollar estates and the horses he keeps for his 22-year-old daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper.

From The Nation's editorial: Make it Legal:

On any given day, we've all probably eaten fruit harvested by undocumented workers or meat they butchered. These workers also make possible the lifestyles enjoyed by wealthy Americans like Dobbs and Whitman, with their estates and grounds and stables. How these millions of workers could be extracted from their jobs and deported without causing massive disruption not only to their lives but to the entire economy defies the imagination. Yet this is what Dobbs demands with his call for ever tougher enforcement.

The solution:[More...]

Six years ago today, Schapelle Corby was arrested at the airport in Bali when authorities found 4 kilos of marijuana in her boogie board case. She was en route from her home in Australia to visit her sister Mercedes, who lives in Bali with her husband and children.

I've been writing about her case since the news of her arrest first surfaced here in 2005. She has always maintained her innocence, and believes that a ring of corrupt airport baggage handlers put the pot in her suitcase.

The day police allege a Sydney drug ring brought almost 10 kilograms of cocaine through Sydney Airport with the help of corrupt baggage handlers is the same day Schapelle Corby flew to Bali from the same airport.

Schapelle is serving a 20 year sentence in Kerobokan Prison, widely known as a hellhole. Doctors say she has become mentally ill -- childlike -- during her six years in prison. She's being treated with anti-psychotic medication. [More...]

My DVRs are set tonight for the new Bruce Springsteen movie on HBO, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town (footage from 1976 to 1978), Project Runway, the Apprentice and Grey's Anatomy.

I've been working all day trying to get my tax stuff ready for the accountant by tomorrow -- the October 15 deadline is right around the corner.

Since I'm not done yet, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The White House blog:

Today, the White House announced that President Obama will not sign H.R. 3808, the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010, and will return the bill to the House of Representatives. The Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010 was designed to remove impediments to interstate commerce. While we share this goal, we believe it is necessary to have further deliberations about the intended and unintended impact of this bill on consumer protections, including those for mortgages, before this bill can be finalized.

Notarizations are important for a large range of documents, including financial documents. As the President has made clear, consumer financial protections are incredibly important, and he has made this one of his top priorities, including signing into law the strongest consumer protections in history in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That is why we need to think through the intended and unintended consequences of this bill on consumer protections, especially in light of the recent developments with mortgage processors.

The authors of this bill no doubt had the best intentions in mind when trying to remove impediments to interstate commerce. We will work with them and other leaders in Congress to explore the best ways to achieve this goal going forward.

Reuters:

The White House said on Thursday the administration is reviewing legislation that could make it more difficult for homeowners to challenge unjustified foreclosure actions. White House officials held meetings on the bill to weigh whether the president should sign or veto the legislation, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

[. . . ]Gibbs said after officials considered potential effects of the bill, "I think in general obviously there is concern, ultimately, about the situation." He said the White House may disclose later today a decision on whether the president will sign the bill.

Ok, there must be something more interesting to discuss today than notary publics, but I can't imagine what that is. Let me know in thread.

Open Thread.

Let's assume for the moment that there is in fact, nothing malign about the suspicious circumstances by which the Congress passed the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act. The effects of the legislation would be, in my view, to further erode the due process afforded homeowners in foreclosure proceedings. The use of the ambiguous term "recognize" could, and in my opinion, will, be used to further deprive homeowners of due process - perhaps leading to the blanket acceptance of notarized documents without the opportunity to rebut or impeach them. Let me give you an example of unintended consequences. In Bell Atlantic v. Twombly (PDF), which heightened pleading requirements in the antitrust context, writing for the Court, Justice Souter stated: