WAS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH ON FANNIE MAE? Not according to this New York Times article from September 11, 2003:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt — is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

I wonder why this never happened?

UPDATE: The Hartford Courant on Chris Dodd and Fannie Mae.

JIM MANZI: “Trust me — you do not want to experience a full-scale bank run in contemporary America. I’m not sure how many people realize how close we were to the wheels coming off at about noon yesterday, as major commercial-paper processing banks like State Street lost 30% – 60% of their value in about 2 hours. Want evidence: When was the last time you heard of the U.S. government identifying a problem, developing a multi-hundred-billion-dollar program and announcing it within about 48 hours?”

Exacerbating the problem is that banks keep much less cash on hand than they used to — it’s a just-in-time delivery system, and their supplies would be quickly exhausted if people started withdrawing even moderately more cash than usual — just as gas stations in Knoxville and Nashville quickly ran out of gas when people started “topping up” tanks in response to reports of shortages. I hope that bank managers and the Fed are upping cash stocks with this in mind.

L.A. TIMES: Freddie, Fannie, Merrill et al stopped their political donations last month.

Plus, look who lost money on AIG stock. One way or another, the political class is feeling at least a bit of pain. There’s always a silver lining somewhere!

NEW TWISTS AND TURNS in the Palin email hack.

INDEED: “Let me get this straight: if the only prominent American politician to attend a rally against Iran is Hillary Clinton, the rally is a neutral, nonpartisan event. If Hillary Clinton AND Sarah Palin attend, then the rally becomes a partisan political event, and Clinton couldn’t possibly agree to appear. Very, very strange.”

Some related thoughts here.

OUT OF TOWN JURORS for the Christian/Newsom murder case.

JERRY POURNELLE URGES SPACE SUPPORTERS to support Dana Rohrabacher for re-election.

NETWORKING YOUR COMPUTER and home entertainment center.

CHARLES RANGEL: Sarah Palin is disabled?

UPDATE: Reader Bob Poynor writes: “If Biden says it’s patriotic to pay taxes, and Rangel didn’t pay his, can we now question Rangel’s patriotism?”

MICHAEL TOTTEN corrects Obama on Al Qaeda and Iraq.

ABC NEWS: Undermining McCain Campaign Attack, Republicans Back Obama‘s Version of Meeting With Iraqi Leaders. What’s interesting is that they offer a better refutation than the Obama campaign’s own rather non-denialish denial. This certainly underscores my initial reaction that such claims should be taken with a grain of salt, but it also suggests that the Obama message machine broke down — their response to Taheri led me to believe his report more. And who did I get this story from? Not the Obama folks, but dedicated Obama supporter Mark Kleiman. Oh, well — I guess they can rely on An Army of Kleimans!

And I guess the media spin, again, will be that McCain shouldn’t believe what he reads in the papers. Good advice for us all, these days . . . .

UPDATE: Related item from Taheri, who notes numerous Obama statements consistent with his piece. I think I’ll go with the Bush Administration officials on this, though.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Not so fast, says Tom Maguire.

THE PARTY OF THE LAWYER CANDIDATES vs. the party of the non-lawyer candidates.

SO WHAT’S MORE PATRIOTIC? DEATH? Or taxes?

Meanwhile, Knoxville reader John Lucas emails:

After spending a year under fire as an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam, I returned to the U. S. and went to law school. Afterwards, by dint of hard work and many long nights, I got to the point where Joe Biden wants to take money from me to redistribute to others. That may be a fair political debate, but it is galling beyond measure to hear him present it as my patriotic duty.

I am the same age as Joe Biden. Unlike him, however, I have not been a politician virtually all my adult life. But I have been to war for this country — I was fighting the North Vietnamese army when Joe Biden was preparing to run for the U. S. senate. My son has served three tours in intense combat in Iraq. My nephews have done the same. I’ll be damned if I will be lectured on patriotic duty by the likes of Joe Biden.

Ouch. Here’s a report on Lucas’ son David, who received a Bronze Star in Iraq.

MICHAEL MALONE: Welcome to the Mentos economy.

JOHN TIERNEY: How to save fish. “A global survey of more than 11,000 fisheries points to a profitable system to protect fisheries from collapsing. The bad news is that this system, called catch shares, is used in only 1 percent of the world’s fisheries and is still controversial, but the researchers hope the new evidence of its success will win over some opponents — a group has included both local fishermen and some environmentalists.”

If you want people to take care of things, give ’em property rights.

BILL WHITTLE: “When all is said and done, Civilizations do not fall because of the barbarians at the gates. Nor does a great city fall from the death wish of bored and morally bankrupt stewards presumably sworn to its defense. Civilizations fall only because each citizen of the city comes to accept that nothing can be done to rally and rebuild broken walls; that ground lost may never be recovered; and that greatness lived in our grandparents but not our grandchildren. Yes, our betters tell us these things daily. But that doesn’t mean we have to believe it.”

SOME BURNING QUESTIONS on lithium-ion battery safety.

TEN YEARS OF one-hit wonders.

HMM: Sounds like the opening of a science-fiction thriller: “NASA will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun’s solar wind is at a 50-year low. The sun’s current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system.” (Via Watts Up With That).

PRAYING FOR THE TROOPS, AND THE WORLD. Are we fighting a Holy War?

Devastating.

DAVID HARSANYI: I only regret that I have but one life to give to the IRS.

HEH: “Imagine if Sarah Palin backed up one of her political opinions with the assertion that it comported with the doctrine of her church. I will wait and wait for Andrew Sullivan to denounce Biden as a Christianist.”

THINGS THAT DON’T SUCK: A couple of years ago I noted that I had ordered a “Creation Station” for the podcasts from Sweetwater Sound. It was trouble-free until last night, when it crashed. Got ’em on the phone today and they agreed with me that it was a bad hard drive; they’re servicing it under warranty. Every time I’ve dealt with these folks they’ve been nice — a noise door on the machine broke (it was my fault) and they sent me a replacement free. I’ll let you know how this goes.

UPDATE: Reader Scott Foster emails: “How them Ready Acoustics panels working out now that you have had them a while?” They’re awesome. And they make a cool backdrop for the video appearances, too.

DAN RIEHL: Don’t overplay the Raines/Obama connection.

According to the Washington Post the evidence — which comes from three items in the Washington Post — is “pretty flimsy.” Given the reporting this campaign season, it’s hard to argue . . . .

Some related thoughts from Ed Morrissey. I share both his affection for Howard Kurtz, and his belief that Kurtz is “talking out of his hat.” Plus this: “At worst, McCain relied on undisputed reporting in the Post. I guess Obama is also saying that the Post can’t be trusted.” Really, people seem to be working awfully hard to prove Stuart Taylor right.

Plus, the always-welcome Animal House reference:

In a famous scene from “Animal House” Otter consoles Flounder after his car is ruined by telling him, “You bleeped up. You trusted us.” (If you want to see the uncensored version, go here. It’s at the 1:13 mark.)

Well, that’s what The Washington Post has told the McCain campaign today. Based on more than one assertion by the Post that Franklin Raines, former Fannie Mae head, was an Obama campaign economic adviser, the McCain campaign produced a TV ad saying as much, and criticizing Obama for consorting with a man who took millions out of Fannie Mae while mismanaging it.

In a “Fact Check” piece today, the WaPo essentially says believing us was your first mistake. In an act of monumental chutzpah, the paper adds that McCain is “clearly exaggerating wildly” in the commercial. If that’s so, what was the WaPo doing?

Heh. Really, if you were trying to discredit the traditional media it would be hard to do better than they’ve been doing themselves.

UPDATE: A look at who Franklin Raines donated to.

MEASURING METHANE AT THE SOURCE: “Researchers from Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology connected inflatable tanks to the cows’ first stomach, where methane is made, through a small hole between their ribs.” Check out the photo. Science isn’t always pretty . . . .