TOM MAGUIRE discovers some comic relief.

FRIENDS OF LEHMAN.

UPDATE: More on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the political class. More stuff rounded up here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Whoops! “So it would appear that this is precisely what Obama has been railing against: Washington insiders lining the pockets of other Washington insiders while the taxpayers ultimately have to foot the bill. The Agent of Change, it seems, didn’t exactly walk the walk on this one.”

INSTA-POLL:

THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALIZES ON THE CHARLIE RANGEL SCANDALS: “Mounting embarrassment for taxpayers and Congress makes it imperative that Representative Charles Rangel step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee while his ethical problems are investigated.”

POLITICO: The “hopemonger” is gone. “Barack Obama sounds more like a man trying to shake a rain cloud these days, dispensing a teeth-clenching, I-get-your-pain stump speech in town after town that offers only snippets of the unbridled optimism that long permeated his campaign pitch. Beginning in the days before his party’s convention, the inspirational has given way to the traditional: attacks on John McCain, a register of policy prescriptions and partisan language with the sting of a needle.”

Plus, they’re unleashing Joe Biden.

AT THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE, a look at the Atlantic Monthly article on McCain that was overshadowed by Jill Greenberg’s photo-fraud.

SHAPING FANNIE MAE’S political culture.

THE POLITICAL GENIUS OF . . . WILLIE BROWN?

HEH: “You know the world is coming to an end when Lehman Brothers closes its doors, and the Cubs pitch a no-hitter.”

IF TRUE, THIS SEEMS PRETTY BAD:

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

Of course, reports like this should be taken with a grain of salt unless there’s further confirmation. On the upside, perhaps Obama’s delay efforts weren’t motivated by a desire to keep the issue alive until the election, but by a belief that a too-hasty withdrawal would be bad for America. That would represent a praiseworthy shift in position.

UPDATE: Seems doubtful that this report is true, though.

THE OFFICIAL LIST of banned books from the Wasilla, Alaska public library.

AN EMERGING PATTERN with John McCain and gays. “When John McCain learns a friend is gay, he says it doesn’t make any difference.”

RAND SIMBERG on economic ignorance. I do think that it’s convenient for the powers-that-be.

SHRINKING SARAH PALIN.

It does seem as if it’s gone from bring your own camera to bring your own photographer. Of course, if you can’t expect basic professionalism from the press, at some point the question is, why talk to them at all? Why not just bypass them? But is that a good thing?

UPDATE: The Lying King?

THE 65 MPG FORD the U.S. can’t have:

Ford’s 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here’s the catch: Despite the car’s potential to transform Ford’s image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe. “We know it’s an awesome vehicle,” says Ford America President Mark Fields. “But there are business reasons why we can’t sell it in the U.S.” The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel.

Also, labor costs are high and exchange rates are unfavorable.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: How bad will Monday be? He’s worried about financial markets, but not as worried as Gordon Smith.

Here’s the latest.

UNLIKE THE PALIN BOOK-BANNING STORY, this is actually true:

THE suits at Disney-owned ABC are too chicken to re-air or release on DVD their $40 million docudrama that accused Bill Clinton of squandering many chances to capture Osama bin Laden before the Twin Towers attacks. . . .

Ziegler alleges that ABC’s grand plan was to re-air the show, which starred Harvey Keitel and Donnie Wahlberg, every year around 9/11 but dumped the idea in 2007, fearing that it would hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations – and will now never air it again. He charges that Disney chief Robert Iger told shareholders that it was “simply a business decision” not to issue a DVD – an “odd declaration” because a home video would help recoup the company’s $40 million investment.

As I say, it gets harder and harder to tell the mainstream media from the Democratic party.

MEGAN MCARDLE WEIGHS IN on the Atlantic/Jill Greenberg photo scandal: “Magazines have to extend their writers and photographers a great deal of trust. The editors can’t follow people around to make sure that they don’t make up quotes or stage photographs, any more than the department chair can follow around historians to ensure that they do accurate research. Occasionally, writers like Stephen Glass or Jayson Blair, or photographers like Jill Greenberg, violate that trust. But that isn’t because the editors lack integrity, or endorse their reprehensible actions. In cases like this, all a magazine can do is refuse to employ Ms. Greenberg again–a course that I suspect will be followed by any magazine with integrity.”

UH OH: “This does not look good. Lots and lots of earmarks requested by Gov. Palin, on an Obama scale, which is saying something.” Reading the actual story, though, it’s not clear whether they’re actually earmarks — that is, things that bypass the normal appropriations process — or not. If they are, then it does look bad, and it makes the McCain campaign’s focus on the issue a big mistake.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Much as we’re now discussing the true definition of the Bush Doctrine, I think we need some clarity on the definition of earmarks.

You used a definition in a recent comment: ” earmarks — that is, things that bypass the normal appropriations process.” That bears emphasis and frequent repetition. No one is objecting to federal funding for various and sundry state and local projects – at least not in this context. It’s the unexamined, last-minute, “do-me-a-favor” projects that taxpayers don’t like. But, as many catch phrases do, the term “earmarks” is becoming something like Vizzini’s “inconceivable.” It may no longer mean what you think it means.

Yes, I’ve used the Citizens Against Government Waste definition, which is that it bypasses the normal appropriations procedures. From the WSJ article, it’s hard to tell how it fits — they talk about specific appropriations, which may or may not be “earmarks.” Here are the CAGW criteria.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Governors Cannot Earmark.

Well, true. But they can request earmarks. Of course, so can I. Hmm . . . how about $50M to build the PorkBusters Museum in Knoxville?

Don’t hold your breath. . . .

JOHN TIERNEY LOOKS AT FEAR OF PHYSICS:

The new particle collider in Europe hasn’t hurt anyone there yet, but all the talk about a “doomsday machine” seems to be taking a toll elsewhere, according to Reuters (hat tip: Charles Mann). It reports from Bhopal that Indians were so alarmed by reports that the Large Hadron Collider could destroy the world that they flocked to temples to pray and fast. One teenage girl traumatized by the warnings on television committed suicide, according to Reuters, which quoted her father: “We tried to divert her attention and told her she should not worry about such things, but to no avail.”

Media sensationalism: More deadly than supercolliders, and less likely to improve the human condition.

HOW WASHINGTON FAILED TO REIN IN FANNIE & FREDDIE: Basically, it was bought off. “Blessed with the advantages of a government agency and a private company at the same time, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac used their windfall profits to co-opt the politicians who were supposed to control them. . . . Fannie Mae, and to a lesser extent Freddie Mac, became enmeshed in the fabric of political Washington. They were places former government officials went to get wealthy — and to wait for new federal appointments. At Fannie Mae, chief executives had clauses written into their contracts spelling out the severance benefits they would receive if they left for a government post. The companies also donated generously to the campaigns of favored politicians.”

Plus this:

And when they couldn’t massage, they intimidated. In 2003, Richard H. Baker (R-La.), chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee with oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, got information from OFHEO on the salaries paid to executives at both companies. Fannie Mae threatened to sue Baker if he released it, he recalled. Fearing the expense of a court battle, he kept the data secret for a year. Baker, who left office in February, said he had never received a comparable threat from another company in 21 years in Congress. “The political arrogance exhibited in their heyday, there has never been before or since a private entity that exerted that kind of political power,” he said.

As rocks start being turned over, we’ll hear more stories like this or I miss my guess.

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch writes: “I’m looking at the article. Does it mention which politicos took the cash?” That rock won’t be turned over until after the election, if they have anything to say about it. But here’s a place to start. Also here. Plus, the ubiquity of Jamie Gorelick, who seems to be on the scene for many Washington debacles.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A deafening silence from Obama. (Bumped).