Media actually doing its job this time around

Gregg over at Editor & Publisher says the media is actually doing it job this time around re: the new Swift Boating attempts against Barack Obama. Of course, it didn't hurt that the new Swift Boater seems to have a problem with Jews, and Catholics, and he thinks a government conspiracy is hiding the truth about 9/11. Then again, with this media, even hand feeding doesn't always work. Read More......

CNN asks if Obama is the anti-Christ -- just in time for Rev. Rick Warren's "Civil Forum"

9:56 PM UPDATE: This thing is over. My question for the night is who has the worst make up job? CNN's John King or John McCain?

9:37 PM UPDATE: Seems like Obama treated this like a discussion with Rev. Warren. McCain is treating this forum as just another opportunity to recite all of his campaign talking points -- even if not related to the questions asked. McCain thinks one has to make $5 million to be rich...and he wanted Congress back to deal with energy (despite missing all the energy votes himself). McCain really worked in every campaign talking point -- and Warren never challenged him. If anyone has any doubt that McCain is a hard-core, right wing Republican note his response on choice (He's vehemently anti-choice -- always has been, always will be) and, on the Supreme Court, he'd ding Ginsberg, Breyer, Souter and Stevens.

Here's video of the choice answer, via Jed:



9:00 PM UPDATE: Obama finished his session with Rev. Warren. Some typical questions on choice and marriage. I thought Obama finished very strongly. Be interesting to see how the McCain campaign and RNC try to twist Obama's words -- and what Rev. Rick will say about that. Onto McCain for the same exact questions.

UPDATE: Joe will be monitoring the Saddleback Civil Forum from Rev. Rick Warren's church with Obama and McCain, which is being broadcast live on CNN. If anything big comes up, we'll post and try to get the video. If you're watching it, comment away.

It's interesting that CNN thinks it's fine to discuss whether Obama is the anti-Christ, but a discussion about John McCain's adultery, something we actually know to be true, is taboo. Unless of course, CNN think the concept of the anti-Christ is funny and light and silly, so it's okay to talk about. In that case, there are quite a few million Christians who might disagree with CNN's flippant attitude towards Christianity. Read More......

McCain considering Phil "You're All Whiners" Gramm for Cabinet post

Well that didn't take long.

But associates say the senator still dials up former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who forfeited his title of campaign co-chairman after a controversy over his remarks that the United States is “a nation of whiners” and is merely in “a mental recession.”

Current and former advisers say they still consider Mr. Gramm, now UBS investment bank vice chairman, a top prospect for treasury secretary in a McCain administration.

Let's take a walk through memory lane:

Phil Gramm recently said that America is a “nation of whiners” going through a “mental recession.”

"‘You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,’ he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices... ‘We have sort of become a nation of whiners,’ he said.”

John McCain thinks the challenges facing our families are “psychological" - gee that sounds an awful lot like Phil Gramm. At a town hall in Florida McCain said of economic challenges facing American families “A lot of this is psychological. A lot of it’s psychological. Because I believe the fundamentals of our economy is still strong.”

More evidence of Gramm's influence - McCain thinks Americans are “better off” economically than they were eight years ago. At a January 30th CNN debate during the Republican primary John McCain was asked if he thought "Are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?" He responded:

"I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created… I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera.”

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McCain to return gay donation

Gee, that only took far more days than it should have. I mean, someone who was really for "family values" wouldn't take a donation from a gay sex mogul in the first place. And once they found out about the donation, it wouldn't take them days to decide to return the money. Interesting to note as well that McCain announced on a Saturday afternoon that he's returning the donation. That means he doesn't he wants the story lost. Now, why would McCain want to kill this story? The same reason he refused to return the donation for days. He wants gay Republican votes. And still does. That's why he's now trying to bury the story. Amazing. McCain is bad on pretty much every single gay issue out there, save the constitutional amendment - and even there he says it's appropriate if the courts decide that we should have the right to marry. That means McCain is pretty much bad on everything, but he expects gay Republicans to support him. But even funnier, McCain also can't stand the religious right. He called Falwell and Robertson agents of intolerence back in 2000. And now, our little maverick, is trying to split the family values baby in half - and he's ticking off both sides. Read More......

McCain refusing to comment on why he's keeping large gay-sex donation

It's been several days now, and the McCain campaign has not only refused to comment on why they accepted a $2300 check from a gay-sex maven, but even more interesting, the campaign is keeping the money and they're not telling anyone why. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that John McCain is comfortable taking a maximum donation from a guy running a sex site called Manhunt (though many are now calling it McCainhunt). And it's even more laudable that McCain's money is coming from a gay sex site. I have nothing against either, in fact some of my best friends... well you know. I do, however, find it funnier than hell that McCain doesn't have a problem taking money earned quite literally from gay sodomy (though it's pretty clear that McCain does not want to lose gay Republicans, thus the reason he's keeping sex money over what I'm sure are the objections of Evangelicals - guess we're seeing how much McCain actually cares about James Dobson's values now!), and I'm simply astounded that the corporate media - save a very few people like Ben Smith and the Boston Herald - have given McCain a pass on this story. Unless the corporate media plans to never again do a story on controversial donors to campaigns, they need to explain why they're not covering this particular story. Or is it only news to the corporate media when a Democrat has a controversial donor? I don't plan on letting this story go any time soon. The longer McCain hangs on to the donation, the longer we'll be trumpeting McCain's embrace of gay sodomy. Not that there's anything wrong with this. Oh yeah, that's right, according to McCain and the Republican party there is. Read More......

GOP hack inadvertently criticizes McCain over Georgia

Basically, he attacked Obama's position, which is the exact same position McCain has. Watch it, it's funny - from Jed:

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Obama raised $51 million in July with 65,000 new donors

In the post below, I gave an update on the McCain/Bush campaign money. McCain's campaign alone raised $27 million in July so he's relying heavily on Bush's campaign cash to attack Obama. McCain and Bush/RNC combined raised $53 million in July.

Just got an email from Team Obama touting the July fundraising numbers:

Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced today that more than 65,000 new donors contributed to the Obama campaign during the month of July, bringing the total raised for the month to over $51 million. More than 2 million people have now contributed to the campaign.

“The 65,000 new donors to the Obama campaign demonstrate just how strongly the American people are looking to fundamentally change business as usual in Washington. We are proud of the millions of volunteers and more than two million donors to the Obama campaign who will provide the backbone of our campaign to put America back on track and reject the old politics and failed Bush policies, which is all John McCain is offering,” said David Plouffe, campaign manager of Obama for America.

This doesn't include the DNC's totals. Just got an email update from the DNC, which raised $27.7 million in July outraising the RNC for the first time since October of 2004.

The DNC has $28.5 million cash on hand (The RNC has $75 million), while Obama has $65.8 million. At the end of July, the Democratic team had $94.3 million while McCain/Bush/RNC had $96 million. Read More......

Bush is funding McCain's campaign for Bush's third term

McCain has $96 million on hand to fund his negative campaign against Barack Obama. Over three quarters of that amount, $75 million, comes from the Republican National Committee, which means three quarters of McCain's money is coming via the fundraising prowess of George W. Bush.

Bush is making it happen for McCain:

President Bush's popularity has tanked, but boy can he still bring in the cash.

He's raked in close to a billion dollars, the political fundraiser in chief, during his White House tenure.

In all, Bush has personally raised more than $968 million for the Republican Party, GOP candidates and his own re-election campaign and inauguration during his two terms in office. And he's not finished.

He's now lost a big part of the national spotlight to presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, but he remains a formidable force on the fundraising circuit, mostly at private affairs closed to the media. His total so far this year is roughly $70 million.

Bush spent 90 minutes recently at a California winery tucked in a hillside in Napa Valley to help wring $850,000 from deep-pocket donors. That's $9,444 a minute.

Obama is running against Bush's third term, which brings us again back to the best ad of the cycle so far, which was, of course, not done by the Obama campaign. (Note to Obama's top media consultant, Jim Margolis from GMMB, watch this ad and learn from it):
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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Check out the poem of the week, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World, by Richard Wilbur. Our poet, John Lundberg tells us "It's a great read to start your morning." And, it is a nice little respite.

Obama gets back on the campaign trail today. Meanwhile, John McCain thinks he's already the president -- and that the situation in Georgia is a more serious crisis than 9/11, Iraq or Afghanistan. And, Princess Sparkle Pony provides a critique of Condi's visit to Georgia.

Let's get it started.

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Friday Parisian Cat blogging

Well, it was a very exciting holiday in Parisian cat-land (the 15h of August is a national holiday in France as in much of Europe).

At about 1 this afternoon (or "13 hour" as they say in France), Nasdaq, the fat one, starting letting out a rather large moan on the back patio. Now, Nasdaq usually does this to get attention, and the kittie doctor told Chris and Joelle to ignore it, lest Nasdaq learn to moan at all hours of the day and night just to get attention. But this time, Sushi, the grey one, knew something was up. Sushi immediately abandoned his now new-traditional post, sleeping between my legs (see photo above), and ran outside to be with Nasdaq. I looked over and started watching because Sushi had his "ready to pounce on Nasdaq simply to be a dick" look. See photo below for Sushi in a pre-pounce moment, looking all innocent while Nasdaq, rather foolishly, cleans him.

Now, before we continue on with our story, you might ask, why does Nasdaq insist on cleaning Sushi, knowing full well that sooner or later Sushi will lift the proverbial football and out of the blue, with no provocation whatsoever, take a full-throttled swipe at Nasdaq's unsuspecting face? Because Nasdaq lives under the delightfully naive but adorable delusion that Sushi will stop attacking her if she just licks his ass one more time. Sound like any political party we know?



Soon I realized something else was up entirely. Nasdaq was munching on something. Lest we have a repeat of the infamous "pigeon" incident, I got up to see what was going on. And yes, our little Nasdaq, all 16 pounds of her, had captured a moth and was dutifully chomping down. The moan/squeak was, I think, Nasdaq's way of letting us know she'd caught her prey. It was all a rather disgusting, yet oddly somewhat proud, moment in my ongoing duties as cat-au-pair.

A quick update since last we discussed "les chats." Sushi has now moved pretty much full time on to the couch behind me, where he now sits between my legs, a lot, and Nasdaq has bravely moved more and more my suitcase, which was Sushi territory before, but now that Sushi has become my own personal stalker, Nasdaq thinks she's being brave taking over the suitcase (and in many ways, she is brave, or naive, because Sushi McCain will strike again).



NB Any similarities between Sushi and Nasdaq and any persons, living or dead, fictional or real, Democrat or Republican, are simply coincidence. Really. Read More......

Will McCain require potential vice presidential candidates to cancel their Manhunt subscriptions before joining his campaign?

Discuss amongst yourselves. Read More......

McCain: I'll take a pro-choice VP, but not a pro-gay one

Though apparently pro gay-sex is okay with McCain (in his donors, at least - well maybe his VP too). And the corporate media still thinks it isn't news that McCain would accept a maxed out donation from a gay sex merchant, but of course he won't have a VP who is "pro gay rights." That's news, folks. Not to mention, I thought McCain kept trying to promote this image as "pro gay rights." At least that's what I've always heard from gay Republicans. So what gives? Now we're worse than abortion? More from Pam. Read More......

The world according to McCain: Georgia is "the first, probably, serious crisis internationally since the end of the cold war"

HUH??? For someone who claims that foreign policy is his strong suit, John McCain gets some very basic facts very wrong.

Last month, John McCain decided to ignore the war in Afghanistan when he claimed that Iraq "the first major conflict since 9/11."

This month, John McCain decided to ignore Afghanistan, Iraq, 9/11 and a host of other major crises. See foreign policy expert John McCain, who spent the last week pretending he's the president and single-handedly in charge of the situation in Georgia, thinks that situation in Georgia is the first serious international crisis since the Cold War ended. Wow. He's more out of touch than we thought. Again, for Georgia to be the first, serious international crisis, McCain is overlooking, among other things, the fact the United States is currently engaged in two wars.

Think Progress posted the video:



How are McCain's friends in the traditional media going to explain away this latest major gaffe? Read More......

Possibly the lamest ad ever

Liberal group "Campaign for America's Future" has released a Web ad showing a guy in a proctologist's office with an action figure stuck up his ass. He tells the doctor that his kid must have left the toy on a chair (notice the guy hesitates as he's telling this, as though he's making it up - I also find the guy's delivery a bit gay, but perhaps that's me). I'm told there's a Seinfeld episode that's similar to this. To me, it looks like a reference to gerbil stuffing, and strikes me as kind of homophobic, to say the least. Regardless, action figures stuck up a guy's ass? This is the best we've got for arguing why Congress should provide "quality healthcare to all." Jesus. I'm all for organizations on the left getting edgier - God knows our side is far too coy about everything. But seriously, butt fucking action figure jokes. Are they kidding? You guys too cheap to hire a professional to make your videos? Don't get me wrong. Edgy is great. But Campaign for America's Future has done what most liberals do when they try to get "edgy," they screw it up so badly that they'll never have the nerve to be edgy again. Watch the ad for yourself. Am I overreacting or is this just pathetic (and offensive to boot)?

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Clinton vs. Obama

For once, I'm with Hillary:

Books, in fact, were a bit of a Clinton campaign specialty, and as I wrote last summer, the campaign was devastatingly effective in burying a pair of critical biographies of Clinton by authors far, far more credible than Corsi (with claims, of course, far less sensational).

Notably, the Clinton campaign even took control of the books' media roll-out, perhaps even leaking a copy of one to the Washington Post just before a holiday weekend. The dual aim: To define the books and the authors, and time the story for minimum impact.

Here, the Obama campaign took a different tack, really going after the book only after it seemed to catch on. While the campaign hasn't been able to keep Corsi out of the spotlight -- he appeared on the front page of the New York Times and on CNN, among others -- they have ensured that few of his appearances have gone without vigorous challenge.

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Jenna Bush's wedding pastor rips McCain's adultery and comments about Cindy joining stripper contest

Even better, the McCain campaign blames Jenna's pastor's comments on Obama (because Obama is now somehow responsible for McCain cheating on his first wife? - that's a new one), and McCain calls these "disgraceful person attacks." Really?

First off, it was Evangelical leader Rick Warren who seemingly alluded to McCain's adultery in the past 24 hours, while speaking to ABC's Jake Tapper. And it was God himself, I believe, who included the admonition against adultery in Leviticus, so unless Rick Warren and God are working on the Obama campaign and nobody told us... In any case, accusations about disgraceful personal attacks from the people who have repeatedly suggested that Obama is un-American, hates the troops, and wants America to lose a war, an accusation with vaguely racist undertones, and have injected race into their TV commercials, a point noticed by at least one mainstream national network correspondent - now that's rich. So tell us again how pure as snow McCain is.

But to top even that, an unnamed Republican consultant says that we'd better not talk about McCain's adulterous affair he had with Cindy while married to his wife (McCain's first wife was in a terrible accident, physically deformed as a result, and McCain was "repulsed" by her and ended up cheating on her, then leaving her for his mistress who was rich and 17 years his junior) because then the Republicans might start talking about Rev. Wright and Tony Rezko. Are you freaking kidding me? Oh so you mean the Republicans won't bring up Wright and Rezko, they'll play nice, so long as we aren't mean to McCain. How stupid do you think we are? First off, McCain already brought up Rev. Wright, so spare us the implication that he hasn't yet. Secondly, you've been accusing Obama of hating his country for weeks (Joe Klein at TIME said it was so sleazy of you that it showed that McCain has a "character defect"), Dick Cheney's former aide just had a book published with anti-Semitic undertones and racist attacks on Obama again calling him a Muslim, and now you expect us to believe that McCain and the Republicans won't go into the gutter unless we provoke you?! And today the Republican party is bringing back the "bitter" comments. LOL These people are incredible. The gutter would be a step up for the McCain campaign at this point, and everyone in the media has noticed it and berated them for it for weeks. McCain lied about Obama's trip to Afghanistan, he lied about Obama's comments about fuel efficiency (and the lie is still on McCain's home page), and the list goes on and on. McCain, the guy who hired Karl Rove's deputy to inject some sleaze into his own lifeless campaign, is now worried about us going negative. That's just precious.

I really think the McCain campaign has completely fallen off their rocker. It's as if McCain is no longer running the campaign, or even aware of what his deputies are saying, it's all just so bizarre. But the notion that the Republicans will play nice if we do - seriously, you got a bridge to sell too? Read More......

Pay me a couple hundred grand and I'll be Georgian too

Earlier this week John McCain declared that all Americans are (former Soviet) Georgians, oddly comparing the "crisis" in Georgia, a country most Americans have never heard of, nor do they need to ever hear of it, to the Soviet occupation of Berlin. Then it hit me. No wonder McCain has devoted the entire week to talking about the Georgian cris. As has already been reported, McCain's top foreign policy adviser took hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby for Georgia. And now, suddenly, John McCain devotes an entire week of his campaign to championing the cause of a government that paid his top foreign policy aide hundreds of thousands of dollars (I wonder how much you'd have to pay McCain's foreign policy advisers for us all to be English - I've always liked the English). Kind of puts McCain's "interest" in Georgia into a whole new light (compounded interest, I'd call it). It would have been nice to see the Democrats devote the past week to hammering McCain repeatedly, in a coordinated effort with surrogates, grassroots, press conference, and more, on whether McCain is calling us all Georgians simply because a foreign government bought him off. But I guess that would be mean. And smart. And we don't tend to do either. Read More......

Why is presidential candidate John McCain sending a SWAT team of advisers to former-Soviet Georgia?

Who does McCain think he is, the president? Presidential candidates don't send SWAT teams into foreign countries during crises (though we did get a kick out of McCain sending Lindsey Graham - what, Charlie Crist wasn't available?). It's creepy. And highly inappropriate. Rather deluded. And perhaps even somewhat deranged. I've mentioned before that McCain clearly thinks a lot of himself - referring to himself as an "American hero" on his own Web site (whether or not he is, you don't refer to yourself as a "hero"), thinking that he has earned the right to decide who is and who isn't a good American. And now, McCain is sending advisers to interfere in a foreign war. Imagine had Barack Obama done this. Oh imagine the outcry. The accusations of hubris and inexperience, the questions about poor judgment. In McCain's case it's not totally clear if this is McCain thinking too highly of himself, or McCain no longer thinking at all. And it's not clear which is more dangerous in a commander in chief. Read More......

So McCain has no problem with forced abortions and child prostitution. Nice.

I had no idea that McCain's fundraising buddy, Ralph Reed, had a connection to forced abortions and child prostitution, but there it is in a campaign ad run by Reed's Republican opponent in the last election. It's from a story in the Washington Post, and it's nasty.

In August 1999, political organizer Ralph Reed's firm sent out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians asking them to call then-Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ala.) and tell him to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws....

"The radical left, the Big Labor Union Bosses, and Bill Clinton want to pass a law preventing Chinese from coming to work on the Marianas Islands," the mailer from Reed's firm said. The Chinese workers, it added, "are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ" while on the islands, and many "are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand."

A year earlier, the Department of the Interior -- which oversees federal policy toward the U.S. territory -- presented a very different picture of life for Chinese workers on the islands. An Interior report found that Chinese women were subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.

On the heels of the news that McCain is fine with a pro-choice VP, and that McCain accepted a $2300 donation from a gay sex merchant (and still, from what I've heard, hasn't given it back), the religious right is getting a taste of the real McCain. And it ain't pretty. Read More......

FAA lied: Obama's plane DID declare an emergency last month

Creepy story. And someone at the FAA should be fired over this. Can the Republicans ever not lie to the American people? Read More......

Evangelical leader Rick Warren: I'd have a problem voting for an adulterer

ABC's Jake Tapper is clearly, politely and obliquely, asking Evangelical leader Rick Warren about John McCain, who had an adulterous affair with Cindy while he was married to his first wife. (There are also rumors about other women as well.) Warren's answer is clearly directed at McCaim:

WARREN: John Edwards and others like him (emphasis added) have lost the trust of America because they lied, and fundamentally beneath every affair it’s dishonesty, its deceit, its deception. They’re lying to God. They’re lying to themselves. They’re lying to their wives and they’re lying to the public. How do you trust someone who’s constantly lying? You can’t. That’s why it is a myth to say their personal life doesn’t matter. It does matter -- all of leadership is built on credibility.

TAPPER: Would you have compunctions about voting for someone who had cheated on his wife?

WARREN: Absolutely I would. Absolutely I would. Because if you can’t keep your faith to your most sacred vow – “’til death do us part” -- how in the world can I trust you to lead my family? My government? My nation?...Absolutely I would. I think people first need to ask forgiveness and then earn trust back over time. Can trust be re-earned? Absolutely but it takes time.

Since Tapper and Warren were still rather oblique in their reference to McCain, will the corporate media again choose to ignore McCain's adultery, even now that a top evangelical leader has said he'd have a problem voting for someone like McCain, i.e., an adulterer? Read More......

McCain: "We are all Georgians." WTF?!

This is the reason John McCain doesn't deserve to be commander in chief of the US military.

As you probably know, there's a growing crisis between Russia and the former Soviet state of Georgia. I won't get into the details, but it basically involves the Russian military moving into Georgia to help some separatists. Anyway, John McCain, in an effort to bolster his foreign policy/national security bona fides with the voters, has been talking tough about Georgia, threatening Russia, and just the other day, referring to his phone conversation with the Georgian leader, said "I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"

No we are not.

This is why Americans, in the end, won't vote for John McCain. Making an equivalence between former Soviet Georgia and Soviet-occupied Berlin is, well, historically naive and clinically insane. It was worth risking war with the Soviet Union to defend Europe, it is not worth American going to war with Russia to defend Georgia, regardless of how good their yoghurt. The fact that John McCain thinks Georgia - Georgia! - is as vital to US national interests as Soviet-occupied Berlin says a lot about McCain's approach to foreign policy, none of it good. McCain is, at his core, a warmonger. 100 years in Iraq sound familiar? Bomb Iran? And now, "I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"

Speak for yourself. Read More......

Why is the corporate media ignoring the McCain gay-sex donor story?

No one has covered it that I can find. No one, other than gay and other non corporate-media sites. What's going on? Not only did the owner of the top gay pick up site in the world give McCain $2300, which is kind of a story right there, that the top gay pick up site is being run by a McCain Republican, but McCain accepted the money, and now a few days after the story went public, McCain still hasn't returned the money. How is this not news? And today Andy Towle reports that the chairman of the board of Manhunt, the Republican who gave McCain the maxed out donation, had to step down because of the donation. This is news. And the corporate media is again ignoring a story that hurts McCain because they know that he's really a nice guy inside, regardless of the facts. Donuts, anyone?

Actually, there's another thing going on here, I suspect. The corporate media is afraid that they'll be seen as anti-gay if they report on a gay donor scandal. They do this all the time. See: Jeff Gannon. What they don't understand is that they're not reporting on the story because the donor is gay, as if gay is bad. This is a story not because the donor is gay. It's a story because John McCain is running for president in a party that has a serious problem with gays, that rails against gays, that will very likely put some more gay-bashing in their party platform as they always do. So it's news when a lead gay businessman gives to McCain. And it's even bigger news when the donor just happens to run the largest gay sex site in the world. Because of the Republicans' ongoing problem with gay people, all of this makes this news. It's also news that the guy had to step down as chair as a result. And finally, it's news that McCain hasn't given the money back - he's chosen to keep it.

Don't you think getting the religious right's comment on this might make an interesting story? The fact that Bob Dole had to give gay money back in 1996, tying that to today? That McCain recently held a meeting with gay Republican leaders and got slapped around by the religious right as a result, and then had to promise to be more vocally anti-gay in public to make amends - so McCain's ambivalence also makes this news. There are lots of angles to this story, none of them anti-gay. Do your freaking jobs. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Today, Obama heads back to Chicago from his vacation in that "exotic" place called Hawaii. Not sure I'd want to see photos of John McCain body surfing.

Another day in Beijing, another gold for Michael Phelps. And, he's had good company. The U.S. swim team has been pretty amazing. It's been fun to watch them. Phelps, who goes for his seventh gold tonight, has to worry about eating enough every day (that's a problem I'd like to have) -- check out his daily diet.

Okay, that's pretty light stuff for a Friday morning. What's the real news? Read More......

A bit of Paris before bedtime

I went to the Louvre again last night with my old friend Fabien (that's him to the left, he had free tickets), and was yet again captivated by the light surrounding the place. On Wednesdays and Fridays in summertime the Louvre stays open until 10pm or so. It's a bit mellower than during the day, and by the time you leave (9ish), the sun is still doing great things. I sometimes wonder if my crappy eyesight, including some oversensitivity to light, makes me so appreciative of bright light contrasting with dark shadows - cuz that's the way everything looks to me anyway :-)











Oh, and the final photo has absolutely nothing to do with the Louvre. It's the building across the street and a bit down the block from Chris and Joelle's place. I was walking home from the grocery store, with a treasure trove of incredible food (grocery shopping here is a joy - I mean where else do you buy duck because it's on sale and one of the cheapest meats in the store?), when I noticed that good ole 8pm sunlight hitting the balconies across the street.

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Liddy's 93 and 92 -- and she doesn't like hearing it

New ad from the DSCC has Liddy Dole in a frenzy...93rd most effective Senator (meaning she's seventh from the bottom) and she votes with Bush 92% of the time. Not numbers to be proud of in 2008.

UPDATED -- the actual ad is below. This is a link to reactions from North Carolinians to the ad.



Dole's response was totally over-the-top. Apparently, based on Liddy's reaction, she's a little sensitive about her age. (She's 72, which is how old her presidential nominee will be on August 29th)

Dole should be as sensitive about her hapless record in the Senate and her dedication to George W. Bush. Read More......

New GOP group: Social Conservatives Against Romney

The GOP theocrats, let by Mike Huckabee, are putting their feet down over the possibility of Mitt as McCain's V.P. It may violate the Golden Rule, but it sounds like they hate Mitt, they really hate him:

"I think a lot of people, not just social conservatives, but a lot of the Republicans I know are not necessarily comfortable with Romney," Huckabee told CBSNews.com. "But it has nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with inconsistencies in positions he's held, and that's it."

In response to buzz about the former Massachusetts governor becoming McCain's running mate, an alliance of Ohio social conservatives, many of whom are former Huckabee supporters, have formed a group called "Social Conservatives Against Romney." Romney had moderate positions on many hot-button social issues, including abortion, before his run for president.

(Yeah, I'm sure his being a Mormon has nothing to do with it.) This is conundrum for McCain. He thinks he needs Mitt to have a chance in Michigan. Couple weeks ago, Nate Silver ran some numbers on Mitt's as V.P. over at FiveThirtyEight.com. But, if Mitt's on the ticket, McCain is going to have a lot of unhappy theocrats -- and that crowd still runs the GOP.

On this one, Huckabee and his crew are in agreement with the Democrats about Mitt's flipping and flopping. Check out TheNextCheney.com on Multiple Choice Mitt. Read More......

What Obama could have said

8 years of the failed Bush-McCain foreign policy have imperiled our vital mission in Afghanistan. John McCain wants troops in Iraq for 100 years, even as the Taliban grows stronger in Afghanistan. Our forces are under-manned and under-powered in Afghanistan and the Bush-McCain policies are why. All I can say to the brave American troops serving so heroically there is, hang on, help's coming.

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McCain now claiming Ralph Reed not involved with fundraiser, Reed says otherwise

That's funny, because Abramoff crony Ralph Reed says that he agreed to be part of the fundraiser - that means someone asked him. So who asked him, and who's lying? Here's what McCain's camp is now claiming, per the NY Daily News:

“Ralph Reed is not hosting the event, is not on the host committee, and has not given John McCain a single dollar in this election. Ralph Reed sent an email on his own part – not affiliated with any McCain campaign or committee,” the McCain aide tells The Mouth.

Too many precise details in that quote, I'm sensing parsing. Anyone? Read More......

Fineman: McCain wouldn't approve of his own message, so that makes it okay

Greg Sargeant over at TPM Election Central hits on a brilliant point. Namely, that the media keeps reporting on John McCain's bad behavior, then excusing it because they know in their hearts that he's such a swell guy.

[Newsweek's Howard] Fineman was talking about Joe Lieberman's claim that Obama hasn't always put his country first:

Fineman said that while Lieberman's quote was clearly questionable, McCain himself wouldn't sanction it. "I still don't think if you said to McCain flat out, 'Do you approve of that kind of message,' that he would necessarily agree with it or support it," Fineman said.

But Howard, the McCain campaign itself blasted Lieberman's quote out to its press list, which constitutes an official McCain campaign endorsement of the quote....

This from Fineman is really part and parcel of a larger media meme: The bizarre ability of some people to see questionable political behavior by McCain and his campaign as somehow indicative of good character on McCain's part.

For instance, when McCain pandered slavishly to the religious right, some pundits noted that McCain was uncomfortable doing this and didn't really mean it, so it didn't really matter. Similarly, when McCain constantly talks up his POW experiences, which he's perfectly entitled to do, we're always told that he's really reluctant to do this. This is a twofer for McCain, because he gets to showcase his war experiences and simultaneously be seen as modest about them at the same time.

But AP's Liz Sidoti brought him donuts (with sprinkles!), and CNN's John King knows McCain's heart is pure, so why should they have to report all this icky news about McCain. It's so darn unfair of us to expect Sidoti and King to report facts that contradict their pre-conceived notions of the news. Can't we all just let John McCain become president unchalleneged and stop making life so hard for Sidoti and King? Read More......

TIME's Joe Klein: McCain has "a severe character defect"

Why does Joe Klein hate America?

[T]here is no excuse for what the McCain campaign is doing on the "putting America first" front. There is no way to balance it, or explain it other than as evidence of a severe character defect on the part of the candidate who allows it to be used. There is a straight up argument to be had in this election: Mcain has a vastly different view from Obama about foreign policy, taxation, health care, government action...you name it. He has lots of experience; it is always shocking to remember that this time four years ago, Barack Obama was still in the Illinois State Legislature. Apparently, though, McCain isn't confident that conservative policies and personal experience can win, given the ruinous state of the nation after eight years of Bush. So he has made a fateful decision: he has personally impugned Obama's patriotism and allows his surrogates to continue to do that. By doing so, he has allied himself with those who smeared him, his wife, his daughter Bridget, in 2000. Those tactics won George Bush a primary--and a nomination. But they proved a form of slow-acting spiritual poison, rotting the core of the Bush presidency. We'll see if the public decides to acquiesce in sleaze in 2008, and what sort of presidency--what sort of country--that will produce.

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Cheney aide Mary Matalin published the Corsi smear book -- and Corsi is a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to boot

Dick Cheney's former staffer, Mary Matalin, is in the private sector now. But, she's still doing the dirty work for the GOP. Paul Waldman from Media Matters did a masterful job last night on Larry King Live debunking Jerome Corsi. But, he also exposed the right wing machine behind Corsi's book -- starting with Mary Matalin.


Yep, this book is a Matalin special. She's still doing the GOP's dirty work, but just from inside a publishing house instead of the White House. As Timothy Noah at Slate put it:

What the hell is Mary Matalin doing running a publishing imprint in the first place? She is a professional propagandist, a political operative who learned her craft at the feet not of Maxwell Perkins but of Lee Atwater. Truth is not what she's about; campaigns are, and for Matalin, The Obama Nation would appear to be just another campaign.

Just another dirty, sleazy campaign move from Matalin. But, she should be so proud of her author, Jerome Corsi. It's bad enough he writes for World Nut Daily, he's also a 9/11 conspiracy theorist:

Among the follow-up efforts to Jerome R. Corsi’s “Unfit for Command,” which inspired the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacks on Senator John Kerry in 2004, is “Obama Nation.” But the conservative commentator’s book about Senator Barack Obama appears to have distracted him for another project he was planning in January: exposing what he calls the government’s lies about the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

A YouTube video making the rounds, especially among Obama supporters, mocks Mr. Corsi for a Jan. 29 interview on Alex Jone’s radio show, a forum for those who take a deeply skeptical view of government claims about the attacks. (Mr. Corsi also frequently talks about the “North American Union” and other threats from globalization during his appearances).

Corsi skated by in 2004 when he wrote the Kerry smear book. NOT THIS TIME. Read More......

I wanna be Maureen Dowd. Sometimes.

Her latest column really is a must-read. Yeah, she's bitchy sometimes (aren't we all?), but sometimes her inner rhymes-with-witch is just what's needed. I think this column is one of those times.

Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that “demeaning portrayals of women ... dampen the dreams of our daughters.” This, even though postmortems, including the new raft of campaign memos leaked by Clintonistas to The Atlantic — another move that undercuts Obama — finger Hillary’s horrendous management skills....

It would have been better to put this language in the platform: “A woman who wildly mismanages and bankrupts a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar campaign operation, and then blames sexism in society, will dampen the dreams of our daughters.”

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Joint Statement from Obama and Clinton

Joe and I are still processing this. But the words that came to mind so far aren't publishable.

JOINT STATEMENT FROM THE OBAMA AND CLINTON PRESS OFFICES

Since June, Senators Obama and Clinton have been working together to ensure a Democratic victory this November. They are both committed to winning back the White House and to to ensuring that the voices of all 35 million people who participated in this historic primary election are respected and heard in Denver. To honor and celebrate these voices and votes, both Senator Obama's and Senator Clinton's names will be placed in nomination.

“I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion,” said Senator Barack Obama.
Senator Obama’s campaign encouraged Senator Clinton's name to be placed in nomination as a show of unity and in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation’s primary contests.

“With every voice heard and the Party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama President of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again,” said Senator Hillary Clinton.

Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are looking forward to a convention unified behind Barack Obama as the Party’s nominee and to victory this fall for America.

Because, after all, it is her big night. Read More......

A brilliant anti-McCain ad

Yet again, some guy publishes a better ad than the "experts" being paid millions by our party.

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Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama over McCain

Wow. Kind of sounds like the troops overwhelmingly don't like John McCain, at all. Or to the degree they like him, they still don't want to see him as their leader.

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.

I guess that means McCain will now be accusing the troops of hating the troops. Where's Joe Lieberman? Read More......

Anti-Obama book gets front page of Post and Times, anti-McCain book gets nothing

Isn't it interesting that both the NYT and the Washington Post put the latest anti-Obama book on their front pages, and Larry King did a show about it, while none of them gave such prominent attention to the lead anti-McCain book that Cliff Shecter published a few months ago.

I'm quite serious. This is an example of the blatant conservative bias we face in the media today. But it's also a rather subtle bias. I suspect that the Times and the Post (and Larry King) gave the anti-Obama book such prominent coverage, while not giving Cliff's book the same coverage, because they know that the anti-Obama book will cause a bigger stink than Cliff's book. And they're right. But what they fail to realize is that their failure to give the lead anti-McCain book equal coverage is part of the reason that the anti-McCain book won't go as viral as the anti-Obama book. It's the classic chicken and egg conundrum. It's what we saw with the Swift Boaters in 2004 (attacks on Democrats are news because the media helps to make them news). It's what we see with the media's savaging of Wesley Clark for daring to ask a question about McCain's experience, while the media turns a blind eye when John McCain repeatedly questions Obama's patriotism. In a very twisted, but very real, way the media knows that it's just not news when Republicans face criticism, but when Dems do it's page one. What they don't know is that they're to blame.

The media in a very real way is pre-ordaining the outcome, and their own unbiased coverage is suffering as a result.

PS I just saw that FireDogLake did a great post on this as well. Check it out. Read More......

More on McCain's $2300 donation from gay sex donor

It sucks to be an anti-gay Republican, because then when you accept maximum donations from guys who run gay sex sites, it kind of makes you look like a hypocrite - especially when you're wooing the religious right and trying to con them into thinking you're one of them. Bay Windows reminds us of the positions McCain has taken on gay issues, just to give you the full flavor here:

McCain opposes same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, he supports "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," and opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He has also publicly stated he is uncertain whether condom use prevents the spread of HIV.

McCain also supports DOMA, Obama doesn't. Yeah, so basically McCain's bad on everything, and his only good position on gay stuff is that he doesn't support the Federal Marriage Amendment, though he supports state versions of the same amendments, and he only opposes the FMA because he doesn't think it's necessary RIGHT NOW. He thinks DOMA will stop gay marriage from hopping around the country, but if it doesn't, if the courts strike DOMA down, which they certainly will some day, then McCain will lose his only reason for not supporting the FMA. Here is what McCain actually said about the FMA on the Senate floor:

"If the Supreme Court rejects the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional, if state legislatures are frustrated by the opinions of jurists in more states than one, and if state remedies to such judicial activism fail, and finally, if a large majority of Americans come to perceive that their communities' values are being ignored and other standards concerning marriages are being imposed on them against their will, and elections and state legislatures can provide no remedy, then and only then should we consider quite appropriately amending the Constitution of the United States."

Sounds like a lot of "ifs" but not really. Basically McCain is saying that if it looks like lots of gays are getting the right to marry, if the courts recognize our right to marry just as they did for other minorities before us, it will be appropriate to slap us down in the US Constitution. (No word from McCain on why he thinks Loving v. Virginia was wrongly decided by activist judges.)

This man is not our friend. Well, he is if we're stinking rich and run big gay sex sites.

PS Somebody needs to find McCain's MTV town hall appearance in 2000 when he was asked about gays in the military and the comparison with the military's former ban on blacks. Absolutely hideous answer McCain gave - how dare you compare the suffering of blacks to the suffering of gays, McCain cried. Hope someone can find it, I still remember it 8 years later - he was a pig. Read More......

Could our side ever get away with a brutal ad like this?

A reader just sent me this video attack ad he made about John McCain. It's brutal. Here's the ad, followed by my commentary:



I could easily imagine the Republicans making an ad like this about Obama, and it would go viral across the country, and the media would rebroadcast it a thousand times, Swift Boat style, until it was imprinted in the head of every American voter. I'm pretty sure that if we did something like this, if a pro-Obama organization made a video like this about McCain, the Democrats would be roundly denounced and we'd spend every day between now and the election telling America that we really do think McCain is the greatest hero America has ever had.

Which leads to a larger analysis about why we could never get away with something like this - a video that concludes with a shot of the White House and the announcer saying "Sorry, John, your wife can't buy you this house" - while John McCain is repeatedly accusing Barack Obama of being un-American, and no one says a word. Note that the front page of the NYT and Washington Post have both highlighted a new anti-Obama smear book, and Larry King did a show about the thing. And that's okay. But when we smear back, we don't get the front page of the Post and the Times, don't get Larry King. Their attacks get treated as credible, ours get treated as venomous indications of how black our souls really are. (More on that later.)

Why do they always get away with this kind of attack, and we never do? Read More......

IS MCCAIN SECRETLY A WOMAN...OR EVEN WORSE?!!!

SUBJECT: IS MCCAIN SECRETLY A WOMAN...OR EVEN WORSE?

For the love of -od and the love of this country, you will forward this email onto all your friends and family. The fate of the free world may rest solely on this information becoming mainstream. If we can not stop this, I pray for all of our souls. -od speed!

I have confirmed these facts through my reliable sources. I suggest you take it to heart – feel free to confirm these disturbing truths. Please print out copies and hand them out or mail them to friends and neighbors without access to the Interwebs.

Who is John McCain?

US Presidential candidate, John SIDNEY McCain, was born in Panama (thus the reason he doesn't mind his people flooding across our borders). He tries to hide his middle name by constantly referring to himself as John S. McCain. Do not let this fool you. John SIDNEY McCain, the probable presidential runner-up, has a woman's middle name. At the very least, the concealment of his middle name, SIDNEY, raises serious questions about his true gender and whether he is a SECRET woman. He has admitted that economics is not an issue he understands well. A certain gender is well known to be less inclined towards math and numbers. Then there are his $500 shoes. If elected, it's very likely McCain will institute mandatory lingerie pillow AND tickle fights.

John SIDNEY McCain was raised by parents of Scots-Irish and English ancestry. At their most harmless, the Irish are notorious drunks who enjoy fighting while stashing large piles of gold underneath rainbows. In the extreme, the Irish are violent TERRORISTS attempting to overthrow the government. While no evidence exists explicitly linking McCain to a TERROR organization, he has never denied membership in the IRA. It is also unclear whether he or any of his drunken relatives ever knew anyone who might know someone who once interacted with or passed in the street a member of the IRA. Given the challenges facing our country, we need confirmation that McCain is not affiliated nor knows people affiliated with TERROR organizations.

Born in 1936, John SIDNEY McCain moved around a lot throughout his early years, which coincided with World War II. The exact details of McCain's behavior during this time are sketchy at best. It is interesting to note there is no record of McCain denouncing the actions of the Nazis while they were committing genocides. He was noticeably silent. He may not have been a NAZI SYNTHESIZER, but this raises doubts about which side he was rooting for during World War II. This also raises questions about his potential loyalties as president, given our current wars and the wars he promises to start.

John SIDNEY McCain served as a naval pilot during the Vietnam War. While executing a mission in 1967, McCain was captured in Hanoi, where he stayed in the Hanoi Hilton for 5 long years. McCain's fellow soldiers battled valiantly against the evils of Communism while McCain was lounging in a hotel (most likely alternating between the pool and the hot tub to enhance the experience of both) run by Paris Hilton! If McCain had fought alongside his comrades, we may have never needed Rocky to defeat Communism.

After Vietnam, McCain returned to the US to discover his first wife with horrific injuries from an auto accident. He promptly began an affair with a woman 17 years his junior, eventually divorcing his disfigured first wife in 1980. As President, McCain will be faced with a similar situation, given the current wreck that is our country. He will be tempted to fool around with other countries. It will just be a matter of time until he divorces the US for a newer, younger, and more attractive country that offers him more than we can.

During this presidential election, we must be vigilant to prevent a John SIDNEY McCain presidency.

Can we really risk having a drunk, fighting Irishman who may or may not have ties to TERRORIST organizations? When troubled times arrive, will McCain fight for us or will he fall into the arms of another more-youthful country that looks strikingly like his current country? Do we really want to trust this country to someone who may secretly be a woman or a NAZI SYNTHESIZER?

Please forward to everyone you know. We can not have this (wo)man leading our country.

Your Friend,
Bo Gus Smear

Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

What new lies and attacks can we expect from the McCain today? And, will the traditional media ever focus on just how nasty their old friend has become?

Also, Cindy McCain had a little accident yesterday. Apparently, she sprained her wrist and exacerbated an existing condition" What kind of pain killers does one get for that? Could that exacerbate a previous condition for Cindy? Just wondering....and you know if the situation was reversed, that's exactly what the GOPers would be asking. You know it. And, the traditional media would report it.

So, start threading the news...

NOTE FROM JOHN: Cindy McCain injured in an accident? I seem to recall that McCain dumped his first wife after she had an accident. Well, to be precise, McCain started an adulterous affair with his current wife, then married her, then divorced his first wife. But I'm sure that was just a youthful indiscretion at the age of 40. Read More......

New Mexico GOP House candidate hits new low: Accuses opponent of cutting throats of troops

Nothing is too low for Republican candidates this year. Check out the video below from Democracy for New Mexico:

Last week the Association of Commerce and Industry hosted Democrat Harry Teague and Republican Ed Tinsley at a NM-02 Congressional candidate forum in Las Cruces. One of the issues discussed by the two was the Iraq war. Now the ACI membership, similar to that of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is generally moderate-to-conservative and business-oriented. And yet they broke out in boos and cries of "shame on you" when Tinsley said his piece. And they clapped and cheered as Teague explained his position on Iraq. Watch the video above to see why.

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We're number 2!

Well, it was nice being number one for a while until the Republicans took over and now we've been turned into yet another cheap vacation spot where foreigners come to take advantage of the insanely weak local currency. The era of the American Peso has arrived, and you can thank George Bush, John McCain and all the Republicans for guaranteeing America's second place status in the world for the 21st century. This is an issue that Obama should be talking about. How John McCain and the Republicans have failed to invest in our future, how the world keeps advancing ahead while America keeps falling behind.

From the Guardian:

Spanish fashion chain Zara has expanded so rapidly in recent months that it has overtaken its main US rival Gap to become the world's largest clothing retailer. Beloved by proponents of fast-fashion, Zara has spread its reach across the world at a time when Gap has suffered from plummeting consumer spending in the US.

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McCain gets "D" grade from Vets group

From Crooks and Liars:

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a grade of D for his record of voting against veterans (Obama got a B+), while the Disabled Veterans of America gave McCain a 20% vote rating. The Vietnam Veterans of America compiled a list of key votes, and found McCain voted against the group’s position 15 times and with the group eight times. (Obama, in contrast, voted with the VVA 12 times, and against it only once.)

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Dem platform de-"gay"-ified

Ambinder and Rausch say that the platform is still pro-gay, but that the latest draft they've seen has removed the word "gay" from pretty much the entire document. Assuming no group of Americans is mentioned in the document, and that includes men, women, minorities of any kind, the elderly, or any one else for that matter, then I have less of a problem with a document that doesn't get into the detailed naming of each and every group. But, if other groups are mentioned, and we're not, then that would be an obvious problem because it would send the message that the party thinks we have cooties. Again, we don't know what the final document will say, but hopefully the party understands that if we get treated as separate but equal, there's going to be a little civil war at the convention. Read More......

McCain INVITED Abramoff business partner to be part of his team

McCain isn't just holding a fundraiser with Jack Abramoff's discredit business partner, according to the business partner, Ralph Reed, Reed was invited to be part of the McCain 2008 team. That adds a whole new level to this story. McCain sought Reed out, knowing full well of Reed's involvement with the Abramoff scandal. That's scummy. And it's all the more evidence that McCain at best has no idea what's going on in his own campaign, and at worst, McCain is complicit in becoming the evil that he has so often railed against in the past.

Jed ties it all together:

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McCain accepts donation from gay sex site, Manhunt - and site owner is a Republican

Wow. I had no idea. Manhunt is pretty much the biggest gay chat/meet-up/hook-up site out there, in fact I think it is the biggest now. The fact that the owner is a Republican is a bit of a shock, though the bigger shock is that McCain would take their money. Mark my words, and count the days, if not hours, before the "maverick" gives back the check in order to curry favor with James Dobson, who just about now is grabbing for his heart. Not to mention, haven't we gotten to the point where gays are healthy enough to stop playing these "I'm a Republican first" games. No you're not. You're gay. And the Republican party hates you. And that's the only thing you have in common with them. Read More......

Colin Powell to endorse Obama?

UPDATE: Powell tells ABC he's not going to any conventions at all. Conspicuously not answering the question about whether he's going to endorse Obama. Interesting.

Bill Kristol says yes, Powell spokesman says no, kind of. But Brzezinski says he expects Powell to endorse Obama too. Read More......

Republicans attack Obama's patriotism again. That didn't take long.

Just hours after I wrote about McCain's latest attack against Obama's patriotism, the Republican launched ANOTHER such attack on the one year anniversary of a similar attack. Gee, no one could have predicted that. Oh wait, Joe and I both did this morning. The Obama campaign's response to having their patriotism questioned?

“Instead of a real debate about how to move forward in Afghanistan, it’s clear that the Republicans would rather launch tired and old attacks to distract people from their record of completely failing to finish the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda,” said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.

Uh huh. And here's a second statement the Obama campaign issued after that:

“It is the absolute height of hypocrisy for the McCain campaign to play the victim after launching attack after attack on Barack Obama for his strong and appropriate response to the conflict in Georgia, but it’s characteristic of the old Washington tactics that have failed the American people. Empty words about bipartisanship mean nothing just days after the McCain campaign accused Barack Obama of being ‘in sync with Moscow’ and not putting his country first. Senator Obama is focused on what the United States and the international community must do to resolve this crisis, not on the tired political games that have stood in the way of progress,” said Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan.

That's nice. So when do we actually start fighting back? Read More......

Religious right forced to pull video calling for rain on Obama's speech at convention

Now they're saying it was just a joke. Well, it's a joke that the religious right used to target Obama, because he's a Democrat. This only fuels the concern that the religious right isn't about God anymore, they're about Republicans. And that's just sad. Read More......

Dear Georgia, Despite what your lobbyist might have told you, McCain isn't the President and can't make policy

Today's Washington Post filled us in on the relationship between the government of Georgia and John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann. Seems for quite awhile, Mr. Scheunemann served two masters at the same time: Georgia and McCain.

Matt Yglesias, from his new perch at Think Progress notes that Georgia's president wants more than words from McCain. He wants action. Matt wrote:

it looks like Mikhail Saakashvili thought it meant something when John McCain proclaimed America and Georgia to be identical.

Georgia wants action based on McCain's words. Therein lies the problem for Georgia and leads to the question of just exactly who Georgia's leaders think McCain is. McCain is only a Senator -- he doesn't set U.S. foreign policy. The president does -- and McCain is not the president (and won't be).

Seems that the Georgians may have been misled by their lobbyists. According to that Post article, Scheunemann's lobbying company "signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington." Memo to Georgia: Get your money back. In the meantime, you're stuck with Bush and Condi. Read More......

Ignoring McCain's own pledge, his surrogates are attacking Obama's patriotism and the traditional media is allowing it: What's the plan to fight back?

Must read post from Greg Sargent at Talking Points Memo. McCain -- and the media -- aren't questioning the attacks on Obama's patriotism that McCain himself said weren't going to be part of his campaign. This is either another example of the McCain campaign just ignoring John McCain's wishes -- or McCain has been lying and is directly involved in a nefarious attack. Neither is good:

In what is emerging as a clear pattern, high-profile McCain surrogates have been questioning Barack Obama's patriotism and his roots in American culture, without drawing any objection from the McCain campaign -- even though McCain campaign advisers have explicitly said that attacks on Obama's patriotism are off-limits.

In some cases the McCain campaign itself has endorsed its surrogates attacks, such as yesterday, when Joe Lieberman made the incendiary charge that Obama hasn't always put his country first.

Yet at the same time, the national political press and punditry have largely ignored the glaring disconnect between the words of McCain surrogates and the McCain campaign's professed high-mindedness, declining to point out the contradiction or to hold the McCain campaign accountable for his surrogates' attacks.

This odd media passivity towards McCain on this sensitive topic stands in stark contrast to coverage of the Democratic primary, when objectionable quotes from Obama and Hillary surrogates were met with aggressive coverage that forced the Democratic campaigns to either own or disown their surrogates' comments.

Seriously, read the whole post. Greg documents the attacks on Obama's patriotism by Lieberman, Romney and Giuliani. Then asks the key question: What's Obama's Plan To Fight Back?

The pattern of attacks also raises another question: Does the Obama campaign have an effective plan to counter them, especially given that they're likely to grow into a barrage before long? Democrats we talk to are wondering why more Dem surrogates -- who generally take their marching orders from the Obama campaing -- aren't rising up to hammer back at the McCain attacks.

"Democrats all too often do put up with these attacks," is how John Aravosis of AmericaBlog put it today. "And that's why far too many voters don't think we have what it takes to defend the country. Because we won't even defend ourselves."

The attacks on Obama's patriotism and American-ness, needless to say, are only getting started.

Only getting started. And, while some in the Democratic consulting class adhere to the idea that negative attacks don't work, they do. There needs to be a strategy. I'd say better strategy, but I'd settle for a strategy. Read More......

"This election cycle, a lot of barriers are being broken"

Congratulations to Jared Polis, who will likely be the next gay member of Congress. He won a tough primary in Colorado yesterday -- and should win in Novermber:

Entrepreneur Jared Polis, the first openly gay candidate for Congress from Colorado, won the 2nd Congressional District's Democratic primary on Tuesday night.

The race was defined by record- breaking campaign funding and vitriolic attacks in its waning days.

"This election cycle, a lot of barriers are being broken," Polis said. "At the congressional level, we are showing that people are willing to elect a candidate based on their values and ideas and not their sexual orientation."

Former state Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, a favorite of Colorado's Democratic Party machine, conceded before all the votes were counted.

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So what are John McCain's policy positions on Alzheimer's and other issues affecting the elderly?

I can only find one mention on McCain's site of any policy positions on issues affecting the elderly. And I can't even find a thing on Alzhemier's at all, which is odd considering that it's a huge issue in America for seniors, and their families, and that McCain is himself a senior citizen (he's turning 72 later this month). And come to think of it, when is the last time that McCain has said anything at all about Alzheimer's or issues affecting the elderly? Kind of makes you wonder if the McCain campaign is afraid of even talking about Alzheimer's, lest it start people thinking about McCain's own elderly age. Which is sad, since that would mean that McCain would be actively ignoring an entire segment of our population, and a rather important issue, out of fear and for his own personal gain. Read More......

Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, and John McCain

Why is John McCain raising money from an associate of Jack Abramoff? Read the emails between Reed and Abramoff for yourself - courtesy of John McCain's own committee! Talk about the appearance of impropriety. McCain just criticized a fundraiser that Obama is holding in Hawaii, but McCain's own fundraisers, when held by the Abramoff gang, is a-okay? Again, you have to ask whether John McCain is any longer in charge of his own campaign. He's just not the same man he was 8 years ago. Read More......

McCain and Lieberman call Obama un-American. Will Obama respond?

Red-blooded American males respond, forcefully, when someone accuses them of being un-American. (And hidden within this attack is some subtle racism as well since, you know, Obama's people are dark and from "exotic" dark-skinned places like Hawaii, and some of his ancestors were Muslim, and you know what that means.) It all adds up to someone who won't put their country first. And that kind of person is an un-American traitor.

At some point people need to see that Obama can get angry, that he has an inner "asshole." That he can defend himself. That he can be a man. And considering that this is the third time that McCain has basically called Obama un-American, Obama ought to publicly slam McCain and this theme down, hard, now.

Possible response? "John McCain sure must think a lot of himself to be running around the country judging other people's patriotism." This response feeds a larger issue that's out there about McCain's hero status. It's one thing to be a hero, and another to proclaim it yourself. At some point, a hero's own publicity can go to his head. And at that point you risk, in the voters' minds, ceasing to be considered a hero at all.

So, are we going to play defense for the entire election? No Republican would put up with these kind of attacks (just look what McCain did to Wesley Clark). But Democrats all too often do put up with these attacks. And that's why far too many voters don't think we have what it takes to defend the country. Because we won't even defend ourselves. Read More......

Why is John McCain's home page still pushing debunked attack on Obama?

John McCain's campaign home page (click the photo at left) still is featuring a debunked attack on Barack Obama over the efficacy of Americans inflating their tires correctly and thus saving about 1% of our energy consumption (the same amount we'd gain, it's estimated, through offshore drilling). McCain launched an attack on Obama a good week ago, claiming that Obama was wrong - inflating your tires correctly would not yield any significant energy savings, McCain then claimed. Since that time, even McCain himself was forced to admit that he was wrong - in fact, we'd literally save the amount of energy we'd gain from additional offshore drilling.

After his campaign spent days mocking Mr. Obama for suggesting that proper tire pressure was one way of conserving fuel, Mr. McCain undercut the message, stating : “Senator Obama a couple of days ago said that we ought to all inflate our tires, and I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it.”

So, why then is McCain's campaign home page still attacking Obama over the tire gauge issue, and using it to raise money no less, after McCain himself admitted that he was wrong on this issue and that he too now recommends people inflate their tires correctly?

It's as if John McCain has no idea what his own campaign is doing. And that's extremely troubling. Time and again we're seeing the McCain campaign doing things that McCain the candidate said he'd never do. Whether it's going negative, or supporting George Bush's tax cuts, McCain isn't the same man he was eight years ago. And now he's not even the same man he claims to be on his own campaign home page. Offline John McCain says Barack Obama is right about energy savings, online John McCain attacks Obama for the same statement that McCain himself now embraces. And Joe posted the other day an article about how John McCain's staff has basically taken away his cell phone because, well, it's not terribly clear why. Back in 2000, John McCain didn't need to be handled and managed to this degree. Today, however, it's as if he's someone else. Someone more fragile, and frankly someone more out of it.

This also leads to a larger question about the media. Why is the corporate media not hounding John McCain over his erratic behavior? Why are they not asking McCain ever day why he's still attacking Obama on his home page for something that he now admits is correct?

And finally, we have to ask where are the Democrats? This was, and still is, a golden opportunity to slam McCain and advance several themes key to this race. Now that we know that Obama was right, and that McCain was wrong, why are the Democrats letting McCain continue to lie? McCain's home page is a rather prominent place to be continuing a lie. We've got the truth on our side, and an opportunity to show that John McCain no longer seems to be in charge, so why aren't we using it? How does it possibly not benefit Barack Obama to point out continually that McCain is a liar who can't get his facts straight, and now seems increasingly AWOL from his own campaign? Read More......

McCain won't cancel fundraiser hosted by key figure in Abramoff scandal

It's really worse than that. McCain helped break open the Abramoff scandal. He uses the Abramoff scandal during his campaign stump speeches to show what an American hero he is. And now he's taking money from Abramoff's corrupt business partner - not just a lobbyist, but a corrupt lobbyist involved in the very scandal McCain uses on the trail. From The Hill:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain so far is ignoring calls from several watchdog groups to cancel an Atlanta fundraiser promoted by Ralph Reed, a longtime friend and business partner of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Public Citizen, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and Campaign Money Watch are urging the Arizona senator to cancel plans for the Aug. 18 fundraiser at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta and remove Reed from McCain’s Victory 2008 Team.

Reed lost his 2006 campaign for Georgia lieutenant governor in large part because of details about his relationship with Abramoff — much of the information uncovered by McCain’s Indian Affairs Committee investigation into the wide-ranging lobbying corruption scandal.

The Senate probe discovered $4 million in payments Reed accepted to run a bogus anti-casino campaign aimed at reducing gambling competition. An Indian tribe with a competing casino made payments to Reed, which according to the Senate investigation’s final report, were “passed through” Abramoff’s firm, Preston, Gates, Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, and another organization, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform.

On the campaign trail, McCain often touts his work tackling Abramoff’s corrupt lobbying practices as evidence of his commitment to cleaning up Washington and a straight-shooting style that transcends politics.

Yeah, not so much anymore. It's almost as if something happened and McCain is no longer himself. As if he was a different man in 2000 than he is today. What happened to John McCain? Read More......

Mark Warner will deliver the convention keynote

Pundits have been wondering who Obama will choose to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic convention. After all, it was John Kerry's choice of Obama to deliver the keynote in 2004 that helped thrust him into the national spotlight. The decision has been announced -- Virginia's Mark Warner, we learned via campaign press release:

The Obama for America Campaign announced today that former Virginia Governor Mark Warner will deliver the keynote address at the 2008 Democratic Convention on Tuesday, August 26th, the second night of the Convention.

An innovative businessman known for his ability to work with Republicans, Democrats and Independents, campaign officials said that Warner’s vision for Virginia and his leadership style echoed the Convention’s theme of Americans coming together for change.

“Barack Obama believes you can’t have a strong economy when you have a weak middle class,” said Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe. “Millions of Americans are struggling to get by, forced to make impossible choices about their future and the future of their families. Tuesday’s Convention program will feature the voices of Americans who share Obama’s concerns and strongly support his detailed economic plan to grow the economy, create jobs, restore fairness, and expand opportunity. As Governor of Virginia, Warner used his experience in business to help deliver jobs and hope to the citizens of Virginia. His work creating jobs in Southwest and Southside Virginia is a model for the rest of the Country. Like Barack Obama, Mark Warner is not afraid to challenge the status quo to bring people together and get things moving. It’s that kind of spirit and innovation that resulted in his selection as keynote speaker on a night when we will be discussing how to renew America’s promise.”

Now all the pundits can get back to obsessing about the vice presidential picks. Read More......

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

McCain's had the campaign stage to himself all week. Not sure that helps him.

We're closing in on V.P. picks. Did everyone sign up to be the first to know who Obama is choosing? Campaign email I got yesterday vowed I can be on of "the first to know." You can sign up for email or text message. If you really want to be first, sign up for the text. (Send VP to 62262). I've repeatedly noticed that the campaign emails arrive very slowly, often hours and hours after whatever the big announcement being made is already out there.

D.C. starts a bike sharing program today, which is a great idea and will hopefully work like it has in other cities. One key to success is for car drivers and bike riders to develop some mutual respect and for each understand the rules of the road. (People in D.C. are way, way, way too important to be bothered by the rules of the road -- and common courtesy.)

Thread the news.

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Why don't we have this in America?

Maybe we do, but we don't have it in DC, at least at any cinemas I've been to. To wit: I went to see X-Files the other night in Paris. Sucky movie, don't go - seems pretty clear they accepted whatever piece of trash script that was offered to them, and the movie has zero to do with the popular TV series. Real piece of crap. Anywho... I noticed when standing in line to buy my tickets that there was a TV screen overhead that told you how many seats were still available for each movie (it's the last column in the photo above, titled "places" or seats) Kind of cool. Not entirely sure the utility of it, but still kind of cool. At another movie last year, Ratatouille I believe (that one is worth seeing, very cute), the screen just outside the doors to each individual movie had a clock indicating how many minutes until the movie starts, and/or how many minutes have passed since the movie already started. Now that's cool.

No, these aren't earth-shattering advancements in technology, but they're small reminders that we aren't number one in everything. And worse, you start asking yourself why we're not. At some point, it goes beyond humbling and becomes worrisome - like when your friend from London can hop on a train and be here in Paris, 300 miles away, in 2 hours, whereas the 230 mile train trip from New York to DC takes 3 hours, if not longer. That's disturbing. Read More......

A little Paris before bedtime

I shot this one leaning across my friend Fabien, who was driving, while stuck in traffic on one of the bridges crossing the Seine in the center of Paris. In August, the sun is magical in Paris between 8pm and 9pm. It's just golden and brilliant, and contrasts amazingly with the dark shadows spreading throughout the city as night falls. When I see light like this, I appreciate Rembrandt, Vermeer and all the other artists who caught this golden light in their paintings around Europe.



This is a trompe l'oeil bird painted on a window shade inside an old palace room at the Louvre. I love the intricacy of the design, and how from a few feet away, it looks 3D.



This is people exiting the Louvre at closing time. Something about the uniformity, and the flow, of the people gave me a charge.



Just a girl sitting in the Louvre, with some great shadow and light.



The more I look at this picture, the more it's looking like a mini mushroom cloud going off in the middle of the Louvre main courtyard. Not quite my intent, but oh well. Read More......

How ICE killed an immigrant in federal custody by letting him die of "undiagnosed and untreated" cancer

This is not what a civilized nation does to people in its custody. This is not what a civilized nation does to the father of two of its young citizens. This is not what a civilized nation does to the husband of one of its citizens. This is not what a civilized nation does to other humans. But, this is what happened in George Bush's America. This is what happened in George Bush's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A 34-year old immigrant, hoping to get a green card, instead ended up in prison. He had cancer and no one cared. He's dead now:

He was 17 when he came to New York from Hong Kong in 1992 with his parents and younger sister, eyeing the skyline like any newcomer. Fifteen years later, Hiu Lui Ng was a New Yorker: a computer engineer with a job in the Empire State Building, a house in Queens, a wife who is a United States citizen and two American-born sons.

But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and detention centers in three New England states.

In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.

On Tuesday, with an autopsy by the Rhode Island medical examiner under way, his lawyers demanded a criminal investigation in a letter to federal and state prosecutors in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, and the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the detention system.

This should make all the immigrant bashers really proud. CNN's Lou Dobbs should be giddy because this guy really suffered. He should do a show on this case and explain to us how America is a better place because there is one less immigrant to worry about.

This is a sick story and says so much about the country we've become. I don't suppose George Bush brought this story up when he was discussing human rights with Chinese leaders. Kinda takes away any moral superiority.

Heckuva job Julie Myers. Yeah, this Julie Myers. She runs the ICE for George Bush. Read More......

GOP congresswoman says there's no need to address environmental issues because Jesus already saved us 2,000 years ago

I'm a Christian. This is whacked. What's next? No reason to eat my vegetables, mom, because Jesus already saved me? Sorry I missed the stop-sign officer.... Feel free to come up with your own. Read More......

A bit jealous are we?

Right wingers flip out over pretty cool new pro-Obama t-shirt/graphic. They compare Obama to Hitler. Sounds like someone has been watching too many of John MehCain's sleazy ads.

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FOX News cut out of presidential debates

Nah nah. Eric Boehlert, writing for Media Matters, says in large part FOX's woes are due to a blogger-initiated boycott of FOX started last year. Basically, the blogs told the Democratic party that the part had better not choose FOX to host a presidential debate, and in the end, the candidates walked. FOX has always been a Republican front, but the difference, as Eric notes, is that others in the media are finally starting to call FOX out for its bias and unprofessionalism. And getting cut out of the debates - again - will add to FOX's increasing isolation. Let me reiterate: Nah nah. Read More......

Obama picks up GOP support

John McCain may have Joe Lieberman and Icky Frye, but, today, Obama picked up support from several key Republicans including a former Bush official, a former U.S. Senator and former member of Congress:

The three Republicans -- former Iowa Rep. Jim Leach (who formally endorsed Obama today), former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, and former White House intelligence advisor Rita E. Hauser -- announced the formation of "Republicans for Obama," which will launch a Web site in the coming days that will be a clearinghouse of information for Republicans who want to learn more about the Illinois Democrat. The site will highlight the differences between Obama and McCain on the issues and let them know where they can go to see the candidate and how they can help in his election effort.

Chafee and Leach were two of the only GOP moderates around. There is no room for people like them in the Bush/McCain Republican party.

Obama also got the endorsement from a Republican Mayor in Alaska -- and a new poll showing him with a lead in the 49th state.

After trashing Hawaii for the past couple days, can't wait to hear what Cokie Roberts will say about Alaska. Read More......

Meh-cain

Every time I look at this photo I discover something new.

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Embedded with the Iraqi Army

And it ain't pretty. This is an important read to fill in the gaps when you hear McCain and Bush brag about how many Iraqi security forces we've trained. You'll recall a while back we posted an article from an American service members, in charge of training Iraq troops, who said he wouldn't trust half the Iraq security forces to "feed his dog." In any case, Iraq has become a welfare state - though in this case, it's the state that's on welfare. No need to buy the cow (or truly train the forces) when you get the milk for free. So long as Americans are willing to risk their lives to defend Iraqis, why should Iraqis bother defending themselves? Read More......

125 out of 130 times McCain votes with pro-lifers

McCain is anti-abortion. Read the article, then send it to your friends who think that this guy is a moderate. And be sure to send a copy to Senator Feingold, who took it upon himself to tell a newspaper recently that McCain really was a maverick and would never ever do anything hard-line conservative were he elected (I'm not going to link to the piece). Thanks, Senator. Nothing like building up the Republican presidential candidate less than 3 months before the election, and helping him rebuild his reputation on his number one issue just when we're starting to make a dent in it. Really idiotic and downright stupid of Feingold to do this now. Looks to me like Feingold has a beef with Obama and wanted to take a swipe at him, or else Feingold is just an idiot.

Kind of makes you wonder if Feingold actually cares about any of those progressive issues he always talks about, but doesn't actually do much about. Oh, and thanks again for being the guy who put Attorney General Ashcroft in office, Senator Feingold - we'll be paying for that little mistake for years to come. But hey, you showed everyone how independent you were by supporting Ashcroft, and isn't that all that matters? Just like your support for John McCain now, just when he needs you most. For most sane people, being "independent" means crossing party lines to buttress, not undermine, the values you claim to believe in, Senator.

I've always liked Feingold, but seriously, what has he accomplished in the past several years on anything that we actually care about? Like most Democrats, he grandstands real well, but actual accomplishments? Sorry, but after the Ashcroft debacle, Feingold is on a short leash. And it just got shorter. Read More......

Exxon John LIkes Big Oil

There's two million reasons Exxon John likes Big Oil: they've given him two million bucks to protect their spoils...
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GOP Senate aide calls McCain Convention "a funeral"

Wow. Had any of us said this we'd be accused of mocking McCain's 72 years (he'll be 72 on the 29th):

While excitement is building for a Democratic Party convention capped by Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech before a sold-out, 75,000-seat football stadium, the GOP convention the following week is shaping up to be a considerably more staid affair, marked by the conspicuous absence of many of the usual convention attendees....

Of the 12 Republicans running in competitive Senate races — five of whom are incumbents — only three have said they will be attending the convention. Six are definite no-shows, and three are on the fence.

“Nobody likes a funeral,” said a Senate Republican press secretary who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing “the overall climate of general malaise about the party” as the reason for hesitance on the part of Republicans.

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John McCain: "The One" for Lobbyists

As, they say in the law, the thing speaks for itself.



Nothing will change with a McCain presidency. The lobbyists who loved Bush and Cheney adore McCain -- and run his campaign.

Jed is doing the best video of the campaign, by far. The Obama campaign's media consultants, like GMMB, should study Jed's work. They could learn a lot. Read More......

Democratic voter registration continues to surge in Florida

The trend estimate for Florida at Pollster.com shows a very tight race with McCain leading 46% to 44.9%. That's why the news on voter registration coming out of Florida is especially important. Dems are trouncing Republicans in new voters:

If the state's new voter-registration numbers were a public poll, here's what they'd say about the political climate in Florida:

• Democrats are surging and boasting of an ''enthusiasm gap.'' Since the Jan. 29 primary, the party increased its ranks by 252,600 voters, ticking up 6 percent. Overall voter registration across all parties grew 4 percent to 10.6 million.

• The Republican Party is not doing as well. Its membership increased by just 2.5 percent -- about 98,000. The nearly 4.4 million Democrats outnumber Republicans by 465,000.

• Voters are less inclined to register with no-party affiliation, once the fastest-growing segment of the electorate. NPA registration increased 2.5 percent since January.

• Hispanics, who make up a crucial voting group, are flocking more to the Democratic Party, which increased its Hispanic rolls by 18 percent. African-American voters increased 8 percent statewide. The gains among black voters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties: 14 and 12 percent, respectively.

• Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, as well as the tough economy, seems to be the difference maker.

''I don't know what else to attribute it to,'' said Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, noting the high numbers of minorities in Florida, when asked if the voter rolls showed an Obama bounce.

There are a couple of challenges. Being Florida, the first is, of course, to make sure the voters can actually vote. Then, the second challenge is getting the votes counted.

This news also bodes well for all the competitive House races in Florida. There are eight by our count, including the three challengers in South Florida: Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia and Raul Martinez.

The Miami Herald also ponders the impact of Crist since he is being vetted for V.P. When is his wedding? Read More......

ABC's Jake Tapper implies that McCain's newest attack ad is racist

ABC's Jake Tapper defended John McCain a few weeks ago against possible charges of having lanched racist attacks against Obama. It seems that now even Tapper has been convinced.

Today's Campaign Contest: Count the Young White Women in McCain's Anti-Obama Video

August 12, 2008 9:30 AM

How many young white women professing adoration for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can you count in this anti-Obama web video that the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, was sending out yesterday?

One...two...three...four...sure are a lot of young white women in this thing....

Why do you think they put so many young white women professing their love for Obama in what is clearly an anti-Obama video? What would possibly be negative about young white women liking Sen. Obama?

When asked, the McCain campaign says they took the video from local news packages, but of course that doesn't explain anything.

It's interesting that the corporate media generally keeps letting McCain get away with this sleaze. Had Obama run ads calling McCain a senile old adulterer married to a drug addict we'd never hear the end of it from McCain and the corporate media. But McCain continues this sleazy bizarre attack on Obama and where is the media? Why aren't they all asking McCain every single day why he lied about never going negative? Why he's given up on being a maverick? Why he no longer talks to the media? Why his campaign days have grown so short? Why he no longer seems to even be in charge of his own campaign?

This is how Swift Boats are started. And it's already begun. It's time for the media, and Obama, to blow McCain out of the water. As for the Obama campaign, don't confirm or deny that McCain is going racist, let him defend himself. When asked about it, just say "we're not going to comment on John McCain's childish antics, we've got a war to fight and an economy to save." Let McCain defend himself when independents start walking because they realize that while John McCain's base embraces intolerance, independents won't like it one bit. Read More......

Russian President stops war against Georgia for now. Where has our "Russian expert" Condi Rice been?

Still not sure why Georgia started this conflict last week, but, Russia is now stopping the operation. Medvedev is right about one thing -- Georgia was punished:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia on Tuesday, saying Moscow had achieved its objectives by punishing Tbilisi.

Just before meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy for peace talks at the Kremlin, Medvedev issued instructions to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to "stop the operation to force Georgian authorities to peace".

"The aim of the operation has been achieved," Medvedev said in televised remarks. "...The aggressor has been punished and has suffered very considerable losses."

Close U.S. ally Georgia entered conflict with Russia last week after launching an offensive to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgian rule in 1992. Moscow responded with a huge counter-offensive.

Think Progress reports that uur Secretary of State was apparently on vacation during this conflict, although she did make a lot of phone calls. But, keep in mind, Russia is Condi Rice's area of expertise. Read her bio. It's chock full of her Russian/Soviet/East European credentials. Yeah. Clearly, she's been a disaster at those areas of conflict where she wasn't an expert. Now, we see she's pretty inept at those areas where she is an avowed expert, too. Read More......

This is only one of John McCain's 8 or 9 (or 10) houses

Hey, nothing wrong with being filthy rich. Just stop playing the regular guy, going after your opponent's supposedly elite life, when you and your wife combined are worth $100 million and you can't even remember how many homes you own. Here's a spread John McCain posed for in Architectural Digest with one of his 8, 9, or 10 homes. I particularly like the shot below of the pool, barbeque, and guesthouse area. Most of us have BBQs, not an entire BBQ "area." And we're lucky if our houses have guest rooms, rather than entire additional guest houses. No wonder the media loves going to McCain's barbeques.



And hey, who doesn't have a bedroom with an outdoor spa and outdoor fireplace on a huge private patio?

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Twelve weeks -- 84 days -- til Election day.

Seems all those Clinton followers who are still bitter and angry are aiming their ire at the wrong subject. They're all furious with Obama. But, the fault lies with their own campaign and candidate. Joshua Green's piece in The Atlantic corroborates a lot of what was written earlier -- but with evidence from inside.

And, how about that Michael Phelps?

What's in the news? Read More......

Since I forgot to cat blog on Friday...

And since Joe is seriously behind on his Boomer Blogging, you get another installment in the adventures of Nasdaq and Sushi. Today's story is about Sushi, who has now gotten over his 7 days or mourning the departure of Chris and Joelle. Sushi spent the first several days with Nasdaq on Chris and Joelle's bed, then Sushi moved back to my suitcase for a few days, then to a dining room chair for the past 24 hours, and then this afternoon decided it was time to snuggle up behind me on the couch that I work from. (I suspect this might have been related to my using the cat comb on him earlier today - I think in cat circles that means we're now dating.) This is a trick he pulled last year, getting right behind me and sleeping touching my back. It's quite cute, even for a dog lover like me. So, here's the series of shots I took today of Sushi sleeping on the couch (I put a towel down, lest my itching et even worse). Enjoy.





This next shot was after I was petting him for a while and he started doing the upside down squirm.



They're still not dogs, but when they're cute they're cute.

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Hateful evangelicals under pressure

Markos' title, Markos' post. Shorter Markos: New breed of evangelical cause beeg trouble for moose and squirrel. Read More......

McCain is too old to be in the Foreign Service

Mandatory retirement for the Foreign Service, approved by the Supreme Court, is 65. Read More......

CNN's Caffery kind of sort mentions John McCain's adultery

It's probably the only way he could sneak it in without anyone censoring him. He did it by quoting someone's email to him in response to this question: How much does it matter to you if a politician cheats on his wife?

Jim from British Columbia writes:
It seems that it does not matter. Otherwise John McCain would not be a sitting senator and a presidential candidate.

Still, I'd have expected better from Cafferty. I think he pulled a punch, otherwise he'd have mentioned this in his commentary itself and not as a vague email from a reader. (H/t to Ablog reader Allison for catching this.) Read More......

Did McCain plagiarize his Georgia speech today?

Kind of looks like it. Though in all fairness to McCain, he wouldn't know Wikipedia from the Google. Still, at some point McCain has to be held responsible for a campaign that he no longer seems to be in charge of. Read More......

Meteors!

Really need to con my friend Fabien into driving out of town tonight... H/t to reader Jeff. (I've seen the long, slow meteors before - only once, in West Virginia, during this meteor shower - oh my God, a ball of fire in the sky, amazing):

(Note: In the narrative that follows, all times are local. For instance, 9:00 pm means 9:00 pm in your time zone, where you live. )

Serious meteor hunters will begin their watch early, on Monday evening, August 11th, around 9 pm when Perseus first rises in the northeast.

This is the time to look for Perseid Earthgrazers--meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond.

"Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful; they are among the most beautiful of meteors," says Cooke. He cautions that an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.

A warm summer night. Bright meteors skipping overhead. And the peak is yet to come. What could be better?

The answer lies halfway up the southern sky: Jupiter and the gibbous Moon converge on August 11th and 12th for a close encounter in the constellation Sagittarius: sky map. It's a grand sight visible even from light-polluted cities.

For a while the beautiful Moon will interfere with the Perseids, lunar glare wiping out all but the brightest meteors. Yin-yang.

The situation reverses itself at 2 am on Tuesday morning, August 12th, when the Moon sets and leaves behind a dark sky for the Perseids. The shower will surge into the darkness, peppering the sky with dozens and perhaps hundreds of meteors until dawn.

For maximum effect, "get away from city lights," Cooke advises.

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Hawaii Senator Akaka tells Cokie, we're patriotic Americans too

I just received a statement from Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka's office, in response to ABC's Cokie Robert's repeated suggestion that Hawaii was somehow a "foreign" un-American place for Obama to visit:

"Saying our 50th state is somehow 'foreign,' does a great disservice to the hard working, patriotic Americans who call Hawaii home. For months people have been asking me, 'when is Sen. Obama going to come home?' I'm so glad he found time to visit his sister and his grandmother, show his daughters more of his home state, and relax a little. Hawaii is a great U.S. destination, just ask the 5.5 million Americans who visited last year for business and pleasure."

As an aside, Hawaii has about a dozen atheletes on the US Olympic Team, and there are thousands of Hawaii born and stationed troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is that American enough for you, Cokie? Read More......

Conflict in Georgia - good backgrounder

Good backgrounder article in today's USA Today about the fighting between Russia and Georgia. It has some historical background information for a conflict that I suspect we'll continue to hear about for a while. What might this conflict be about?

Saakashvili argued that Russia invaded his country to consolidate its near-monopoly on energy in the region. Georgia is on the route of the only oil and natural gas pipelines not controlled by Russia in the area.

Reuters also has a good historical time line of the conflict. And to see how the Russians have already pushed the Georgian government into digital exile, an interesting article on how the President's website and the website of a prominent Georgian media outlet are now being hosted in Atlanta.

This is a moment in time when the rules of the world are being rewritten. How the United States responds in this conflict will have an impact on the decisions other leaders make and the expectations they have on how the United States may respond. Unfortunately, our position is compromised, as both our troops and the moral high ground are bogged down in Iraq.

UPDATE: MSNBC.com has a good "Why should you care" summary:

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Cokie Roberts smears Obama again for trip to "exotic" Hawaii

What is wrong with Cokie Roberts? Yesterday on ABC, she made a fool of herself by calling Hawaii "some sort of foreign exotic place." Roberts was mocking Obama for vacationing in one of the fifty states.

Today, on NPR, she did it again. Thanks to reader, AS, for catching this -- and to Jed for putting it on YouTube:


Seriously, Cokie is an idiot -- or someone who is freaked out by "exotic" people.

NOTE FROM JOHN: So what exactly is so exotic and foreign about Hawaii to Cokie Roberts anyway? The fact that the state is populated with dark-skinned people? Seriously. This is one of the 50 US states and for the second day in a row we've had one of the top news networks in America suggest that is it is somehow un-American for American citizens to visit Hawaii. That's the clear intimation here, and I'd think the Senators and House member from Hawaii, not to mention the people, might have something to say about that. So once again, what does ABC seem to think that Hawaii is is some foreign exotic place? Last time I checked, Hawaiians, and lots of other Americans, made one hell of a sacrifice during World War II (it's called Pearl Harbor, Cokie). I think it's absolutely disgusting for us yet again to be playing this "who's more un-American" game and dragging down an entire US state along with it. Read More......

John McCain has 9 houses and wears $520 shoes

This election will be decided, unfortunately, like all the other recent elections before it. It will be decided by inane issues like whether a candidate likes to wind surf or what kind of coffee he likes to drink. And John McCain and the Republicans are making sure of that yet again. We're getting endless McCain statements about Barack Obama's favorite energy bar for working out (only the McCain people would try to paint exercise as a negative). If McCain is going to make this election about ancillary details, then so be it. The man has 9 houses and wears $520 shoes. To be fair, his wife can't really recall how many houses they own, it may be 8 or it may be 10. But we do know that McCain loves his ridiculously expensive Italian loafers. I don't know a lot of macho vets who wear $520 Italian shoes. And I'd put them up against an energy drink any day. More from Rachel:

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We made PC Magazine's Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites of 2008

That was nice of them:

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Karl Rove's crew limiting McCain's cell phone use and time he can hang with his pals in the press

Read yesterday's article in the New York Times about the way John McCain is now being managed by the Karl Rove proteges. It's like McCain is some out of control adolescent and they've grounded him. No more cell phone. No more time with his friends.

So, the McCain campaign itself can't trust John McCain with his own cellphone, but we're supposed to trust him with the country? This is pretty crazy. I mean, it's one thing for a parent to limit the use of their kids' cellphones. The Bush/Rove operatives who are running McCain's campaign are going to great lengths to control the behavior of their candidate. It's like they want John McCain to become a bit player in his campaign's operation:

Mr. Schmidt has sought to cut down on Mr. McCain’s use of his cellphone and limit the people who have regular access to Mr. McCain in an effort to keep him more focused, advisers said. He has been the impetus for an effort by Mr. McCain to limit sharply his engagements with reporters, the kind of freewheeling encounters that Mr. McCain enjoys — and that helped him charm the news media for years — but that often lead him to veer from his campaign’s message of the day.

There's a reason. This isn't John McCain's campaign anymore. He turned it over to the Bush/Rove operation. They need a third term to keep Karl Rove out of jail. Read More......

Why is ABC so fixated on John Edwards' affair but not John McCain's own adultery?

John McCain has given just as many conflicting explanations of his adultery that he committed with his now-wife Cindy against his first wife. Yet, ABC isn't exploring those apparent lies. Instead, ABC is focusing on John Edwards' inconsistencies when explaining his extramarital affair.

ABC says they're doing this because the details surrounding Edwards' affair are "hardly in keeping with the high moral tone Edwards set during his run for President." Really? And John McCain hasn't set a high moral tone? His campaign hasn't repeatedly called him an "American hero"? That's not a high moral tone? Of course, it is, but ABC just doesn't want to cover McCain's adultery because, well, their reporters like him and "know" that he's a good guy. So they choose to not report the news about the GOP presidential candidate, but do report the same news about the Democrat who isn't a presidential candidate at all.

Let's review:

1. John Edwards. Not a presidential candidate. Hasn't criticized other people's sex lives. Doesn't believe the government should interfere with your sex life. And not wooing the votes of "Christian conservatives" who care about such things as adultery.

2. John McCain. Is a presidential candidate. Has said that gay people aren't as good of parents as straight people. Believes it is acceptable for the government to treat people as second class citizens based on their sexual orientation. And is wooing the very religious conservatives who frown on the very things that John McCain has done.

Putting aside the unanswered questions about Vicki Iseman - such as whether people at her firm, years ago, suspected that her relationship with McCain was looking a tad too close - and putting aside the question of just where is Vicki Iseman right now - John McCain has been just as not forthcoming as John Edwards, when it comes to affairs.

McCain's explanation of his break up with his first wife doesn't correlate to the actual facts. McCain claimed that his affair with Cindy didn't overlap with his marriage with his previous wife. According to the LA Times, that's untrue. And that would mean that McCain lied about committing adultery. And even weirder, the LA Times basically alleges that McCain committed bigamy, while denying it.

So, ABC thinks it's relevant that John Edwards MAY have lied about committing adultery, but ABC doesn't think it's relevant that John McCain DID LIE about committing adultery and possibly bigamy.

Do you need any more proof as to how conservative, how right-wing, how so wanting to please the Republicans our media has become? Read More......

Go away

They really want to go there?

Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year, insists a top Clinton campaign aide, making a charge that could exacerbate previously existing tensions between the camps of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

"I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee," former Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson told ABC News.com.

Coulda, shoulda, would, Prada. Read More......