Looks like the bailout bill is being made sweeter to attract Republican votes.

a provision to prevent more than 20 million middle-class taxpayers from feeling the bite of the alternative minimum tax, $8 billion in tax relief for those hit by natural disasters in the Midwest, Texas and Louisiana and some $78 billion in renewable energy incentives and extensions of expiring tax breaks. (AP)

Also included is a hike in the amount the FDIC insures for depositors, from 100K to 250K or higher.

Will this be enough?

Don’t believe me? Watch:

Also, be sure to check out this presentation.

Barack Obama agrees: the fundamentals of America’s economy are strong.

So not only was McCain right during the debate but he’s been right on the fundamentals of the economy, even though the Obama camp has been hammering him for daring to speak of American strength.

Weekly Standard has the transcript and some good points:

Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA02) released her second ad of the campaign and a Virginia blog is prominently on display. (I’d embed the ad, but apparently that feature has been disabled at this posting).

The ad takes several quotes that Glenn Nye made this past May on VB Dems regarding his opposition to offshore drilling and raising taxes on energy companies and contrasts those statements with his most recent positions quoted in the Virginian-Pilot and Cathy Lewis’ “Hearsay” on WHRO.

Taking the policy positions out of this for a second though, what does this mean for blogging? Will candidates be less willing to come on blogs and communicate? Or does this give blogging greater credibility as a source?

Glenn Reynolds posts an e-mail he received from inside a media newsroom:

Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working.

Feel free to share your thoughts and examples in the comments.

 Loading ...

Updated - 6:05 p.m.

House defeats the bailout 228-205.

Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA02) voted NO.

“Today, a bi-partisan majority of the US House rejected the Congressional Leadership/Bush Administration’s Wall Street bailout plan. I joined a majority of House members who voted to reject the false choice presented as doing this plan or doing nothing to solve the economic crisis,” said Drake in a press release. “A real solution to this problem will put the taxpayers first, require Wall Street to pay its fair share, and will address the root causes of this crisis, including immediately reviewing the “mark to market rule” to determine its role in the financial crisis. I stand ready to return to Washington to address this issue in a bi-partisan fashion.”

Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA04) also voted NO.

“While many Members of Congress agree that our unstable economic situation calls for decisive action, an overwhelming bipartisan majority (95 Democrats and 133 Republicans) agreed this proposal was not the action needed. I have met almost non-stop over the last several days with members of the Treasury Department and former Chairman of the FDIC who cautioned that this plan may not work,” said Forbes. “Unfortunately, if we spend $700 Billion of taxpayer money and it fails, there is no backstop. I believe we should stay in session until we have created a vehicle to give us long term stability and not settle for one that may be a short term fix with a long term price tag.”

According to the AP, the House will reconvene on Thursday.

Leslie put it this way:

The U.S. House of Representatives has defended the Constitution, the will of the people, the market economy, the lessons of history, justice, and common sense by rejecting, by a vote of 205-228, the $700-Billion bail-out bill.

Rep. Eric Cantor on CNN:

Look at the votes today, 94 Democrats voted “No.” 94. Now, when we were in the majority, I think we would make a decision that we would be able to come to the floor and bring a solution to the American people and pass it. They made a decision to leave 94 of their votes off the table. And, frankly, as you can see, a majority of our votes that wouldn’t go along. Clearly this is an instance where you see Speaker Pelosi’s failure to listen, failure to lead. This caps off a year that I think has been probably the most unproductive year in the U.S. congress that I’ve seen in my lifetime. No production of any bailout bill. No energy bill. No appropriations process. Very little to show the American people. So we’re going to…go back to the drawing table and look to see where we can come together, listen to our members, and produce a solution for the American people.

Apparently this speech, referred to by Rep. Cantor in his remarks, really ticked-off a lot of folks:

Also voting “No”: Reps. Wittman and Scott

Blogs, news stories, conversations. It’s easy to find. The left is still assaulting Sarah Palin, and now it’s just getting mean.

The article, “A mighty wind blows through Republican convention,” reportedly said Palin was chosen to appease the party’s “rural,” “unlettered,” “white trash” base and said that the vice-presidential nominee looked like a “porn actress.”

News flash! Sarah Palin wore a bathing suit when she was 20. The left is attacking her for that.

The Chicago Sun Times, Obama’s hometown newspaper, launched this Watergate-level scandal. When Palin was Mayor, a local spa gave her a free facial. They had the nerve to call it an “ethical red flag.” Oh, and a local business sent her flowers once. CALL THE FBI!!

And Saturday Night Live followed up what was a truly funny Palin bit with one that was downright mean this weekend that repeatedly portrayed Palin as a religious whacko, a racist, an idiot who was surprised the UN was made up of people from other countries and wants to use lifelines in an interview.

Lefties, it’s gettin’ real old.

Bill Taggert puts it well when speaking about Obama “Truth Squad Regulators For TRUTH!” in Missouri:

A famous man once said:

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

That man was John F. Kennedy.

As much as people across the political spectrum want to speak about rights being squashed over the last eight years, how on earth can anyone excuse First Amendment violations such as creating a policing squad to halt “untruthiness” with legal threats from state officials?  This is frightening.

The Obama campaign has shown that it’s not about to engage in debate with people spreading what they view to be a filth and lies:

If you value free speech, the proper response is to say yes, thanks, when the radio host invites your campaign to send someone to debate the enemy on the air.

Obama’s campaign declined.

So it did a month earlier, too, when the same WGN-AM radio host, Milt Rosenberg, gave time to yet another anti-Obama writer, Stanley Kurtz. There is no shortage of these people, it would seem.

Then, as now, the campaign refused to join the critic on the air, preferring to sic supporters onto the station’s complaint line instead. The second time that happened, the host found an Obama supporter to balance out the show, albeit one not connected to the campaign.

You can understand the campaign’s inclination not to give such writers more cred by showing up to debate them.

And yet, shouldn’t the campaign rebut these allegations in the venue where they turn up?

The response instead is to try and shut critics up.  Avoid debate, drown dissent.  Line up or be drowned out.

This is especially odd considering it’s from a candidate who routinely says that he’d be willing to speak to foreign leaders without preconditions, even leaders from such states as Iran which not only promote terrorism but speak of the annihilation of Israel as a must have in order for them to sleep at night.  The “truth squads” aren’t out in force to protest Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York despite his hateful and false rhetoric.  They’re too busy flooding AM talk shows wiht phone calls.

Long after the Republican Roundup was over, a group of diehard Eric Cantor fans stayed around, as he drove down from D.C. after working on the bailout. This photo was taken an hour after the event was supposed to be over. (Cantor is at  right with his back to the camera). [More photos at Conservativa].

The 2008 Republican Roundup, held Saturday in Glen Allen, was a great success. 3,400 RSVPs came in and 3,900 barbeque dinners were planned for and as near as I can learn, all or nearly all consumed. The tables with McCain signs and stickers were picked clean early. The crowd was charged up by the McCain-Palin ticket and ready to work hard from now until election day.

Darke Blog (one of my favorite Ohio Blogs) has a very interesting post in which he demonstrates how ABC is deleting conservative comments.

After I posted this comment, I noticed another commenter included the same link as me. I went back to look at the reactions to both comments - and one at a time - they were both pulled from the comments. My original comment was time-stamped 7:42:49 PM - and as you can see below there is no remaining comment for that time. It was removed.

You MUST read this post.

Most of the news we are getting about the negotiations in DC is from the press statements made by the major players. What happens behind closed doors has been pretty invisible, especially once McCain and Obama arrived. That’s what makes this report from Jonathan Weisman in the WaPo a piece of fascinating inside baseball. Lots of secondhand and ’senior Republican aids’ as sources, but it does appear that presidential politics has impacted the negotiations.

According to the Drake Campaign, Rep. Thelma Drake has canceled all campaign events this weekend in order to remain at the Capitol working on legislation for a solution to the recent economic turmoil.

A quick look around the web at poll results for who won last night’s Presidential Debate:

Chicago Tribune
John McCain: 17.1% (4,193)
Barack Obama: 82.9% (20,266)

Drudge Report
John McCain: 68% (209,141)
Barack Obama: 30% (92,124)

Michigan
John McCain: 27% (11217)
Barack Obama: 72% (30326)

MSNBC
John McCain: 15.5% (14,494)
Barack Obama: 79.6% (74,532)

Rocky Mountain News
John McCain: 10% (917)
Barack Obama: 88% (7,779)

Total Results From The Five:
John McCain: 51.6% (239,962)
Barack Obama: 48.4% (225,027)

All results as of 11:45am EST

 Loading ...

UPDATE: I’m sorry I didn’t include the poll from the classy folks over at DailyKos:

Even with their numbers included John McCain still wins the aggregate.

Wall Street Journal’s numbers:
John McCain: 40.3% (28,757)
Barack Obama: 55.8% (39,839)

And there are plenty more out there.  Ultimately, we’re seeing a pretty even split (though one can argue the numbers are falsely skewed toward Obama due to Netroots vs. Rightroots organization) but most polls online and off are saying the debate was a draw.

That doesn’t bode well for John McCain.  Foreign policy is supposed to be his strong suit and he was supposed to come out on top.  But if public preception is that Obama held his own, then that’s a win for Barack Obama.

UPDATE 2: Mark Ambinder at The Atlantic notes that no polls are giving McCain the edge after the debate except one in Washington State and Drudge’s poll.

The University of Mary Washington is hosting Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden this evening in their first joint appearance in Virginia. In honor of this event, this public university thought that they would sell t-shirts.

Eikenberg said she’s not sure whom she’ll vote for, but she plans on buying one of 1,000 T-shirts that UMW’s bookstore ordered for the rally. The shirt has UMW’s logo on the front and the back reads: “Obama was there, Biden was there, I was there, UMW ‘08.”

“We came up with the ideas and ran it up the chain at the university,” said bookstore manager Kathy Underwood. “We wanted to make sure it was appropriate.”

So, the leadership of the university approved the sale of the shirts in the university bookstore.

However, according to an update from the Free-Lance Star, complaints prompted the office of the Attorney General to get involved, which yielded results that shirts should not be sold.

Mary R. Corbin, executive director of university relations and communications at UMW, said the AG’s office was consulted after the school received a complaint.

She said the sale of the T-shirts could give the impression of an endorsement of Obama, since the UMW logo is printed on the front.

The thing to remember is that the university leadership initially approved the sale. Yet another example of liberal bias in academia. How else can you explain leadership actually thinking that selling campaign propaganda in a bookstore at a public university is “appropriate”?

DJ thought this was an opportunity though. He advocated that the sales of the shirts should go forward, since we’re facing massive budget shortfalls.

We can get started by saving roughly 3-4% of the current budget gap, and let UMW sell whatever T-shirts it wants, by letting the school go private.

Mary Washington gets approximately $93 million in state money.