THIS SOUNDS UNFORTUNATE: Marine’s Widow Hits Visa Snag.

The phone call devastated Robin Ferschke, the mother of a Marine killed in Iraq.

Her Okinawan daughter-in-law, six months pregnant with the couple’s child, tearfully called earlier this week and said she was having problems getting a residency visa to live in the United States. . . .

Because of problems with fraudulent marriages, in 1986 Congress revised the rules for immigration through marriage, requiring foreigners to be married to U.S. citizens for at least two years before they can receive a residency visa.

The rule’s goal was to ensure that the marriages are performed in good faith and not for immigration purposes.

But Hotaru Ferschke, 24, and Marine Sgt. Michael Ferschke Jr., 22, a radio operator with the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, had been married only one month before he was killed July 10 while conducting door-to-door searches in Iraq.

Perhaps someone can look into this?

ADVICE FOR JOHN MCCAIN: “So while his campaign turns up the heat and does what the MSM will not — lay bare the record and identity of Obama — he would do well to start a look-’em-in-the-eye series of ads and some heart-to-heart conversations with voters. Give voters a list of all the hard choices and specific things he’s going to do and why his opponent is evading the tough truths (Where exactly is Obama going to control the budget? Why does Obama pander on trade when he knows better?) or making bad choices (Why would we raise taxes as we slide into a recession?).”

THE EXAMINER reluctantly endorses the bailout plan.

Meanwhile, Professor Bainbridge is wondering about the legislative veto provision. Yeah, that looks shaky to me, too. However, if I recall correctly — I’m still on my first cup of coffee — joint resolutions are presented to the President, which would fix the problem, though also make the legislative veto pointless.

DAN RIEHL is questioning the A.P.’s priorities.

SLATE: “It looks like the Sarah Palin rape-kit myth is still alive and flourishing. . . . But the fact remains that this is a nasty and untrue rumor about Sarah Palin that’s been circulating for weeks. If you’re an Obama supporter who gets frustrated that people still believe he’s Muslim or won’t put his hand on his heart for the Pledge of Allegiance, you should understand the frustration that Palin supporters feel when this slime is taken at face value.”

POLITICO: “Barack Obama says a John McCain victory would amount to a third term of the Bush presidency. What he doesn’t say: an Obama victory would, too.”

BOB OWENS: “Just some guy in the neighborhood” who almost blew up the Fort Dix NCO Club.

WHERE JIM TREACHER LEADS, Saturday Night Live follows.

EUGENE VOLOKH ON THE “OBAMA TRUTH SQUAD” IN MISSOURI: It’s certainly possible that the KMOV report wasn’t accurate — and now that there’s a stink, the prosecutors are backpedaling, but that hardly means that the chilling effect wasn’t intended, particularly when placed in context with other threatening tactics we’ve seen.

An earlier post from Eugene is here.

And, for a bit of levity, here’s your official Missouri Truth Squad Incident Report.

A FIRST LOOK AT THE BAILOUT BILL, from David Zaring at The Conglomerate.

JERRY POURNELLE ON THE BAILOUT DEAL:

Off the top of my head observations:

Golden parachutes: we may detest them, but they are not the cause of the problem. And every one of the Democrats involved in this bailout benefited from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and every one of them was in favor of the CRA provisions requiring more and more sub-prime loans in order to increase home ownership.

And listening to Pelosi and Reid’s press conference, I am guessing that their provisions for helping keep people in their homes probably means that those who should not have been buying houses in the first place will be protected in one way or another. People who made horrible decisions and bought houses without down payment and interest only loans will be bailed out by those who put up a down payment and took out a normal 30 year amortization loan and have made their payments all along. Perhaps this is a good thing. Ownership promotes a certain independence. But I suspect that things will be gimmicked so that in order to keep the house you should never been able to buy, you will have to continue to support the Democrats. But then I have a nasty suspicions mind.

On protecting Wall Street:
Of course when government forces banks to make bad loans, is there then a moral obligation from all of us to make the banks whole again? They were only doing what we told them they must do. I know, I know, we the people didn’t vote to force the banks to make bad loans; but our government did, and the Congress did, and we continued to elect those who did that, and we are now to cheer them as heroes for rescuing us from the financial collapse. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Pelosi, Reid — they were all for regulations requiring more sub-prime loans. Banks that didn’t comply were in a world of hurt.

Biden is asking where McCain was! Well, Biden, McCain was in 2003 trying to curb Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and cut back the pressure from the CRA, that’s where he was. Where were you? And where was Obama?

Well, in 2003 Obama was an Illinois State Senator. But look who abandoned the no-earmark condition to support money for ACORN.

A SOLID LEAD FOR OBAMA IN POLLS.

QUESTIONS ON POLLING: Forget Red or Blue State: Are You Wireless or Wireline? Plus, a look at cellphone-only households by state. Do pollsters really have a handle on this, or are their polls becoming more divorced from reality? I’m really not sure on this, but I suppose we’ll get some more data in a little over a month . . . .

Here’s more on the subject from Mark Blumenthal.

KENNETH ANDERSON: “If I were writing John McCain ads … Here are a couple I would have out immediately.”

LIBEL TOURISM, American Style.

GOOD NEWS: SpaceX Successfully Launches Fourth Falcon 1 Rocket. “Definitely one of the best days of my life,” says Elon Musk.

CAN CONGRESS appoint members of the bailout oversight committee?

ONLY THREE? How Windows Can Save Itself: Three Things We Want to See in Windows 7.

MACSMIND BLOG shut down by hackers.

TOM BROKAW CAN’T SAY IT ALL: So I read the writing on the wall: “My guess? Inside NBC, they are fretting about criticism that they show favoritism toward Obama, so Brokaw thought it might help to lob out a glaring hunk of McCain favoritism. Sorry! That just looked really weird. Consequently, it reinforced the perception that NBC favors Obama.”

THE INSTAWIFE on Alec Baldwin’s new book on fatherhood and divorce. Bottom line: “if Baldwin had such problems with the system with all his fame and money, what chance does the average joe have?”

MORE ON OBAMA’S BRACELET: “Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son’s name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family.”

If that’s true, I’m surprised the McCain folks haven’t made something of it.

UPDATE: I guess this is why the McCain campaign hasn’t jumped on it. The parents, who are divorced, disagree. On the other hand, there’s this: “She acknowledges e-mailing the campaign in February asking that Obama not mention her son in speeches or debates.”

WAS STONEHENGE A health spa? I’ve heard of hot-stone massages, but this is ridiculous. . . .

ROCKING THE HOUSE with Wii Music.

I THOUGHT IT WAS WRONG to question people’s patriotism.