Politics and other nightmares

I don't want to write anything too detailed about Mayor Tom Henry's first proposed budget either here or on the editorial page until I've had a chance to talk to him. He's coming to see us Friday afternoon.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly (74-25) approved the $700 billion bailout rescue heroic self-sacrifice effort. Our two senators were on guess which side:

A lot of conservative heavyweights have been freaking out over Gwen Ifill being the moderator of the Palin-Biden debate tonight. Ifill has a vested interest in the campaign -- she has a pro-Obama book due out on Inauguration Day -- so how can she be fair to Sarah Palin? Leave it to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto -- one of the most interesting and thoughtful conservative writers around today -- to urge a little stepping back and calming down:

There's a new U.S. naturalization test, and the old civics questions that just require the memorization and repetition of facts are being replaced with ones that require a little more thinking:

Are new conceptual questions such as, "What does the Constitution do?" more difficult than old queries like "What is the Constitution?"

Hoosier cashiers are warned to beware of quick-change artists:

A couple of quick change scammers recently made off with around $200 in less than a half-hour in two Linton stores.

[. . .]

According to Jerrell, this (leaving the money on top of the drawer) was a common practice in years past and it was started for reasons like this.

The Senate is going to try its hand on the $700 billion bailout, so, naturally, the public doesn't have the details yet. We couldn't have that -- then, we might be informed when we e-mail or phone in our outrage of the day:

Vice presidential candidates unleashed! Go get 'em, Joe:

David Wade, Biden's spokesman, defended his boss's "straight talk," adding: "Unlike other campaigns that sequester running mates, we'll proudly continue to unleash Joe Biden to be Joe Biden."

Obama himself has defended Biden, telling NBC last week, "I am very proud of the choice that I made."

Oh, please:

Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry is asking Fort Wayne residents to consider a "green" alternative to the traditional leaf collection this fall: mulching leaves on site in the yard.

The mayor of Los Angeles gets the award for the worst timing ever:

Sometimes you can learn the most about something when people you would expect all to be on one side of the debate start arguing with each other. The folks over at the corner, National Review Online's forum for all its writers, are having quite the set-to about the merits of the proposed $700 billion bailout. Mark R. Levin, for example, thanks House Republicans "for taking a bold stand against what had been a stampede on a scale I have never before witnessed on matters of huge consequence." But Victor Davis Hanson doesn't think much of them: