Midday Open Thread

• Major kudos to the Daily Kos community! Responding to last night's call to make sure there was hell to pay for James Inhofe questioning Barack Obama's patriotism, the community raised $10,797 for Inhofe's progressive challenger Andrew Rice.

  On the web:

  Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

  Andrew Rice for Senate

• Joe Biden is looking forward to debating Sarah Palin, except for one tiny problem:

  "I have no idea what her policies are. I assume they're the same as John's. I just don't know," he said of Palin.

  That's what happens when the unknown, unvetted candidate to be a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency refuses to talk to the press. Perhaps someday the media will start reporting on that rather than admiring her taste in mooseburgers.

• Today the Bush administration announced that the federal government is taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Did the fawning coverage of the Republican Convention get you down? Well, check out this video you may have missed, via Americablog. Now that's some news you can use.
• Atrios notes that Palin continues to lie. And naturally, the traditional media continues to ignore the lies.
• If you're thinking of voting Republican this year, Austin Cline outlines their alternative policy positions so you can feel good about your choice. In Bizarro World.
• With Hurricane Ike's uncertain path, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is worried:

  "Our citizens are weary and they're tired and they have spent a lot of money evacuating ... from Gustav," he said. He added that if Ike were to threaten, "my expectations this time is, it will be very difficult to move the kind of numbers out of this city that we moved during Gustav."

• New research indicates that global warming could make the Midwest "more like Alabama and Arkansas" in the summer, as well as cause the water level in Lake Erie to fall. - Plutonium Page
• Questions are being asked about the FBI's anthrax investigation:

  In a letter sent Friday to Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Democratic leaders of the House Judiciary Committee said that “important and lingering questions remain that are crucial for you to address, especially since there will never be a trial to examine the facts of the case.”

  - Plutonium Page