Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson described mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as “interwoven into our financial system.” The government’s takeover of the two giants will have very real effects on mortgage holders, mortgage seekers, and taxpayers.

Congress is back in session today, wrapping up the summer holiday and both of the parties conventions. Capitol News Connections Todd Zwillich talks to John Hockenberry about what Congress has to get done in this upcoming appreciated three week session.

As concerns over US oil consumption continues to rise – and heat up, on the campaign trail – Americans are looking to alternative energy sources to power our homes, our cars, and our lifestyles. Wind turbines have been heavily promoted in good-looking television ads, but the prospect of having turbines next door has made some people concerned about the noise and disruption. Today marks the last day for public comment on putting turbines far offshore, on the outer continental shelf.

Forget Red State - Blue State politics. But don't forget that all politics is local. The Christian Science Monitor's Patchwork Nation project is redefining political geography based on social and economic data, and in the process is clarifying the issues that will matter to Americans come November. Project leader Dante Chinni returns to The Takeaway to talk about another Patchwork Nation community, "Evangelical Epicenters."

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, once the city’s rising star, resigned in a cloud of violence and scandal. We’ll talk to a long time Detroit journalist on what happened – and what’s next.
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Guest: Peter Biles, BBC correspondent
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Weeks of political infighting will come to a head tomorrow as Pakistan votes to elect a successor to former president Pervez Musharraf. Will the Pakistani power vacuum be resolved or will the political chaos be too much for one man to govern? The Asia Pacific Foundation’s M. J Gohel talks about what’s at stake on the eve of Pakistan’s presidential election.
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Monday brought the hurricane, Tuesday teenage pregnancy, Wednesday an anxiously awaited Alaskan VP speech, and Thursday a town hall style declaration announcing John McCain as the official candidate for the Republican Party. It could have been -- perhaps should have been -- a disaster, but the RNC pulled through. So now what are the Democrats to do? The Takeaway talks strategy with Jeff Zeleny, New York Times reporter on the trail with Obama camp.
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The Democratic and Republican conventions are as stylistically different as the candidates. Every convention is designed to within an inch of its life. We explore what the designs say about the two campaigns.
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Guest: Faith Salie, Takeaway convention correspondent
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Guest: Andrea Bernstein, Takeaway Political Director
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Guest: Ben Calhoun, Takeaway Convention Correspondent
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What if they gave a party and no one came? David Wasserman, who handicaps House and Senate races says this convention may be more notable for who isn’t there than who is. More than 30 GOP Congressional candidates and incumbents will miss the convention this week, opting to campaign at home. With the Bush approval ratings in the tank, there is little fizz in the GOP champagne, and many incumbents are creating it on their own.
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Upon his return home from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, “Freakonomics” author Stephen Dubner came to a conclusion: John McCain hates economists. Dunber talks to John and Adaora about what the McCain camp has against number crunchers
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As the U.S. mainland continues its debate over the selection of Governor Sarah Palin, we look northward and talk to a long-time reporter in Alaska for a local’s opinion on McCain’s pick
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When Barack Obama picked Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, there was a group of online gamers that already knew. They weren't political insiders, yet they predicted Joe Biden would get the nod even as the media and blogs were touting other contenders. So who are they? If you've been listening to The Takeaway for the past two months, you know we're talking about the players of our own Veepstakes Game on Facebook.
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Guest: Faith Salie, Takeaway convention correspondent
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Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday the U.S. has a "deep and abiding interest " in keeping Georgia and other neighboring states free from Russian domination and condemned what he said was Russia's attempt to change Georgian borders. The Vice President's visit comes a day after the White House announced a billion-dollar aid package to help rebuild the country following its conflict last month with Russia.
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Guest: Andrea Bernstein, Takeaway Political Director
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In 2000, Senator Joe Lieberman spoke at the Democratic Convention as Al Gore’s VP nominee. Eight years later, he’s on stage at the Republican Convention, supporting McCain. We’ll compare his convention speeches.
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Guest: Andrea Berstein, Takeaway Political Director
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Stephen Dubner, Takeaway convention correspondent, author “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”
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The GOP convention was slated to be a mega bash of Obama’s experience and organization. Instead it’s attempting to find its legs following Hurricane Gustav and the Palin pregnancy. The Republicans must desperately get back their “buzz,” if they want a bounce by Friday. Are they the dominant force they say they’ll be or the political gang that couldn’t shoot straight?
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Last week John McCain shook things up when he chose as his running mate the unknown Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. This week, a number of disclosures raise eyebrows about her candidacy and about how rigorously she was vetted. For a look at past Vice Presidential vetting we talk to Joel Goldstein, law professor at St. Louis University and vice presidency scholar.
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Vice President Cheney is in oil-rich Azerbaijan today, the start of a tour that aims to show Washington's support of Russia's southern neighbors. He plans to head later to neighboring Georgia, where Washington is trying to bolster support for Mikhail Saakashvili's U.S.-allied government, battered by last month's short war with Russia.
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