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Maybe too much moose meat is bad for the brain. Alaska politicians sure seem unable to recognize when they've been busted.

First there was Gov. Sarah Palin who insisted that an inspector's report exonerated her from wrongdoing in Troopergate. In fact it concluded she had violated state ethics law.

Now there's Sen. Ted Stevens who insists he hasn't been convicted of anything. The jury that found him guilty of seven counts of lying on financial disclosure statements (*cough* accepting graft *cough*) might disagree.

Uncle Ted says that because he's appealing, he hasn't been convicted yet. Tell that to the guy on death row.

What does it say about her understanding of the First Amendment, when Sarah Palin, a candidate for vice president, says that tough questions asked of her by the press threaten her First Amendment rights?

Does she really believe the First Amendment protects public officials and candidates from the press, rather than the other way around?

Wow.

Neighbors and minister who oppose a proposed microbrewery in Floyd County have appealed a state decision to allow it. They worry about traffic, noise and morals. An appeal is their right.

The state Alcoholic Beverage Control has agreed to hear the appeal. The full ABC board will listen via video uplink on Tuesday at 2 p.m. The appellants and the brewery will make their case from Roanoke.

That's all fine.  Let the administrative and judicial process run its course. The appellants, we have said in the past, have a weak case and Shooting Creek Farm Brewery should be allowed to open.

Where things take wrong turn is the decision by the ABC to ban all cameras and recording devices from the hearing. In an editorial on Monday, we'll urge the agency to reconsider.

Now a bailout for auto companies?

If lawmakers decide to help Detroit, they should come up with new money and place some restrictions on it this time.

Obama respects faith

Jennifer K. Berenson
Berenson is a professor of religion at Roanoke College.

The relationship between faith and politics is of great interest to people across America. While John McCain offers positions on certain issues that are amenable to religious conservatives, Barack Obama has directly addressed this question and pointed toward a solution to the growing political divisions in this country.
Read more.

McCain: superior on foreign affairs

Alan Fabrycky
Fabrycky is a computer consultant in Montgomery County.

John McCain has exhibited real leadership in the current financial crisis while Barack Obama has merely articulated principles that most of Congress, including McCain, already supported. Home prices, declining from overinflated levels, have reduced the value of home mortgage assets held by financial institutions, forcing them to curtail lending to avoid bankruptcy. House prices must stop deflating, or the $700 billion financial rescue package will be insufficient to right the economy. McCain proposes to stop deflation by using part of the $700 billion to buy underwater home mortgages.
Read more.

Read Friday's letters here.

What do you want to talk about today?

What's the line on the election actually coming to a close Tuesday night?  Will we have a winner unlike the last couple of presidential elections?  My gut tells me no.  There's going to be a lot of wrangling going on over ballots, crowded polling places and so on. I hope I'm wrong.

Meanwhile, there's a chance a filibuster-proof Senate for Democrats could be undecided, too. One of the long-shot seats to get to 60 is Saxby Chambliss' seat in Georgia. He's still ahead in the polls, but it's close and Jim Martin could ride a Democratic wave to victory.

Or, as this New York Times story points out, no one could win. Georgia requires a candidate to receive more than 50 percent of the vote to win. There's a third-party candidate in the race, so quite possibly neither Chambliss nor Martin will reach that threshold.

That's where things get interesting. If neither wins, there would be a runoff between them on Dec. 2. Imagine if the Ds have won 59 Senate Seats at that point. The fillibuster-proof majority could hang in the balance. How much money would the rest of America pump into that election?

Honestly, I think the more likely route to 60 if they hit 59 is they get someone to flip or a Pres. Obama chooses a moderate R from a state with a D governor and offers him a cabinet position. Someone like Arlen Specter could make a solid attorney general or even Supreme Court justice.  Then the governor appoints a D.

The clip below's pretty funny. At a campaign event in Defiance, OH, John McCain called on "Joe the Plumber" to join him on the stage. Only one problem: he wasn't at the rally. CNN got a hold of him later, and he said the campaign had talked to him about coming to the rally, "but no one called back to confirm."

Ooops.

Today we're writing an editorial for the Sunday NRV Current about a citizen-led petition drive in Christiansburg. If they can gather enough signatures, voters in a future election will decide if the town should hold its council elections in November. The council has been reluctant to act on this idea. Christiansburg residents have a chance to decide their own future with this ballot.

For Sunday: Planning to wear a campaign button or T-shirt while voting on Tuesday? The state claims this is taboo, a violation of election code, meaning you could face prosecution.

Some commonwealth attorneys say that the election bureau's interpretation of the law is misguided and they do not plan to go along with the being an arm of the campaign fashion police squad.

The issue won't be resolved until after Election Day. That's when The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, The Rutherford Institute and the ACLU of Virginia are expected to ask a federal court to declare the state policy unconstitutional.

Anyone planning to wear McCain or Obama apparel?