The Jewish morning prayer service ends with the Psalm of the day. Psalm 82 concludes the service on Tuesdays, which is also Election Day in this Country. I find it an interesting coincidence that the Psalm, written more than two millennia ago and admonishes hypocritical leaders who favor the powerful over the poor, is read on Election Day. When I read it, I always imagine a biblical era prophet chastising contemporary Republicans.

The Birnbaum Siddur or Prayerbook reads right to left with the odd pages written in Hebrew while the even pages contain translations of the Hebrew text in archaic King James style English. I choose to pray with Birnbaum when it's an available option, over books with easier to understand English, because I'm used to its liturgical translation. Although I know how to read Hebrew and recite some prayers in that ancient tongue, I understand little of the language and pray mostly in English. Using other English translations throws me off.

Containing just 8 sentences, Psalm 82 is among the Bible's shortest chapters. Below is the Birnbaum version of the Psalm.

The October 15 debate between Obama and McCain wasn't the final 2008 election cycle presidential debate.

Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler (NY 8 Congressional District Manhattan/Brooklyn) and former Pataki aid and Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Greg Menken will sub for the actual presidential candidates in a 2 PM Sunday October 19 debate at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun (CBJ), 275 Martling Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10314. CBJ’s Men’s Club is sponsoring the event.

Nadler and Menken have previously debated each other as presidential candidate surrogates.

I will co-moderate the event with CBJ mens club pres Ronnie Ben-Aron.

For more Information Contact: Roy Moskowitz (718) 370-3977 Mobile (917) 992-1873 Email: R2ceo@aol.com or Ronnie Ben-Aron (347) 449-3723 Email: rbenaron@yahoo.com.

Securing the votes in Congress to pass real immigration solutions into law isn’t going to be easy. The next President – no matter who wins – will need to lead his own party first to get it done.

Senator Obama would surely have an uphill climb, even with a Party Platform that favors comprehensive reform. But, given an enforcement-only Party Platform and the policy positions of most Republicans in Congress, Senator McCain may need to scale a brick wall to bring his party on board!

Nevertheless, both candidates continue to talk about reform (at least in Spanish).

I was disturbed to read in yesterday's Times that individuals who have lost their homes due to foreclosure are in danger of losing their right to vote as well if they don't re-register at their new location.

If this isn't the height of audacity, I don't know what is. First people lost their homes and then they lose their right to vote as a result. As if people who become homeless have time to think about whether they have re-registered.

And, of course, people who have lost their homes are not likely to vote Republican.

I'll have more (much more) to say about the current financial situation, but for now...

John McCain, after having stated that "the fundamentals of the economy are sound," being against the AIG bailout before being for it, and not read the three-page outline that is the "Paulson plan," decides suddenly to "suspend his campaign" and fly to Washington (dissing David Letterman while taking the time to speak with Katie Couric) in order to fix the problem. (Check out the video of Letterman's reaction on YouTube!)

He even goes so far as to demand a delay in the debates, which would also (conveniently?) delay the VP debate.

So he finally gets to Washington, and what happens? Chaos.

Remember how speakers at the RNC claimed that Barack Obama had never reached across the aisle to pass any major legislation?

Well ...

On April 6, 2006, S.2590, the "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006," was introduced into the 109th Congress. The bill was eventually passed by Congress and signed by George W. Bush on September 26, 2006. It is now Public Law 109-282.

So what does this bill do? It mandates the creation of a single, publicly accessible website where anyone can see every Federal award (meaning grants, contracts, and other transactions where the federal government pays out money to someone). In other words, it puts the federal checkbook online for everyone to see. You may remember Sarah Palin promising to do this if she becomes VP? Well, someone beat her to it.

But who?

Turns out the bill was introduced jointly by four Senators, two Republicans and two Democrats. The two Democrats were Tom Carper (of Delaware) and Barack Obama. The lead Republican was Tom Coburn (of Oklahoma).

The other Republican was ... John McCain.

You can't make this stuff up.

(N.B.: These numbers are as of today's listings, but do not necessarily reflect recent gains by Obama in the polls. State-by-state poll numbers seem to trail national numbers by about a week.)

I'm following four separate handicappers, CNN, the NY Times, Congressional Quarterly (CQ), and the Cook Political Report (Cook). The scenarios are similar, and close enough to make some predictions:

By general consensus (or near consensus), Obama will win:
Vermont
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
Maryland
Delaware
DC
Illinois
California
Hawaii
That's 153 electoral votes.

He is heavily expected to win:
Maine
New Jersey
Washington
Oregon
That's 37 more, making the total 190.

He is also expected to win:
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
That's 48 more, for 238.

He is favored somewhat in:
Michigan
New Mexico
22 more, making it to 260.

Then there's Colorado, a swing state that Obama could very well win. Those 9 electoral votes give him 269. Even if he loses other swing states: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada, New Hampshire, he'll still get to that magic 269.

(Note: This is an update from a column first written in February of 2005. This column, and a couple hundred others, is also on my website.)

As the McCain campaign's ... let's call them "inaccuracies" ... mount up, they are certain to turn again to that old Republican standard, "values." The argument will be that the "liberal" Barack Obama and his "liberal" running mate are out of touch with American values, while the veteran McCain and his "hockey mom" running mate are perfectly in line. This will be expanded to claim, once again, that the entire Democratic Party is out of touch and the entire Republican Party represent American values incarnate.

This begs the question, is the values claim as inaccurate as the rest of McCain's statements and advertisements?

The McCain team's recent ad, entitled "Disrespectful," chides Obama for calling Sarah Palin a liar.

Well ... yes.

Since that ad appeared, Palin's campaign staff admitted she lied about visiting troops in Iraq. If we're yawning, perhaps it's because this lie is just another in the series.

Meanwhile. the Obama camp's press releases and statements are getting stronger every day. To quote a CNN.com article: "The McCain campaign said Gov. Palin opposed the bridge to nowhere, but now we know she supported it," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor in a statement. "They said she didn't seek earmarks, but now we know she hired a lobbyist to get millions in pork for her town and her state. They said she visited Iraq, but today we learned that she only stopped at the border. Americans are starting to wonder, is there anything the McCain campaign isn't lying about?"

While Mayor of Wasilla:
The budget grew by 40% in 7 years -- after adjusting for inflation.
She raised taxes to build a stadium.
When she became mayor, the city had no long-term debt; she left behind $19 million in debt.
She hired a lobbyist to bring in federal earmarks -- that lobbyist, Steven Silver, was a former chief of staff to Ted Stevens.
Among pork that McCain has found "objectionable": A 2001 earmark of $500,000 for a public transportation project in Wasilla; $450,000 for an agricultural processing facility in Wasilla in 2002; In 2002, $1 million for an "emergency communications center" in Wasilla that local law enforcement said was redundant and confusing.

As Governor: