What if the unspeakable should occur and Republicans manage to recapture the House of Representatives in November? JDubb7 at Three Fingers of Politics takes note that in such a case Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has her two-item agenda all set: Defund programs established by the Democrats and investigate the Obama administration and the Democrats 24/7.

“All of our chips are on November. If we don’t get it back and then starve the beast – the House, we have the power of the purse – so we can starve ObamaCare. We don’t have to fund any of these programs and that’s exactly what we need to do – defund all of this nonsense and then unwind it.”

And second: Investigate the Obama administration and the Democrats in general.

“I think that’s all we should do,” Bachmann said at the GOP Youth Convention in Washington on Thursday. “I think all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another and expose all the nonsense that has gone on."

As BooMan writes:

What 'nonsense' would that be? Running for president while a legal citizen of Kenya? Getting elected on the back of ACORN fraud? Setting up death panels to kill grandma? Setting faux Black Panthers loose on Center City voters? Violating the Tenth Amendment? Going Galt without a boarding pass?

Today, Louisiana 1976, RexyMeteorite, Unitary Moonbat, sunspark says, Alfonso Nevarez, pico, and ItsJessMe scoured through 24 hours' worth of diaries to find these gems for you. Please take the time to read them and comment in them to let the diarists know that you appreciate the time they took to share their thoughts with the community.

• Arizona Grandma relates a personal story about How I Learned About Racism. (sunspark says)
• On the eve of NN10 annetteboardman shares with us Some reminiscenses of Las Vegas in the 1940's. (Louisiana 1976)
• erratic asks "What was your last most beautiful moment?" in The last most beautiful moment (monarch butterfly). (rexymeteorite)
• Here are two diaries on the topic du jour: agnostic doesn't spare the hellfire and damnation in A Sermon on Andrew Breitbart. (Unitary Moonbat) and RJ Eskow draws an intriguing parallel between the Sherrod-Breitbart Affair, and the on-going right wing talking point that Social Security is "running out of money" in Scammed: What Shirley Sherrod and Social Security Have in Common. (rexymeteorite)
• DrLori witnesses the reemergence of the southern strategy and reflects on The NAACP and One Good Man. (Alfonso Nevarez)
• Troubadour initiates a dissertation-worthy discussion of the Psychological Roots of War, Failures of Peace, & Solutions to Both. (Unitary Moonbat)
• National Defense Spending Is Growing Fast, and maddogg argues that if deficit hawks were serious about balancing the budget they'd start there. (Alfonso Nevarez)
• craigkg reports that Montana is about to become the battleground as we are Taking the LGBT equality fight to the Mtn West. (sunspark says)
• Mike Elk looks towards NN 2011 and discusses the history between two of the progressive movement's most powerful groups in Netroots-Labor Solidarity: A Work in Progress. (Alfonso Nevarez)
• Showing how changes in business models have decimated a once venerable institution, Septic Tank argues that Nope, the media have no honor. (pico)
• Ralph Lopez brings the uncomfortable news that Reports That Pentagon Funding of Taliban is "Unintentional" Are Wrong. (sunspark says)
• JDWolverton provides a stellar example of what a linked, researched, and alliteratively-titled election diary should look like in Florida's Fraudulent GOP & Their Fiscal Fickleness. (Unitary Moonbat)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: July 21, 2010.

Ed Tracey has Top Comments: Lindsay Earls, American Heroine.

A humble reminder, once more: if you are here with us in the the lovely (and toasty) metropolis of Las Vegas, you can catch me, Markos Moulitsas, Laura Clawson, Joan McCarter, and the entire Swing State Project crew tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 PM, as we lead a Q&A on the 2010 elections. For those on site, we will be getting after it in the Brasilia 6 meeting room.

Having tossed out the obligatory plug, we can now press onward, to a pretty intriguing Thursday edition of the Wrap...

THE U.S. SENATE

AK-Sen: Public poll of contested primary shows an incumbent rout
There is now nonpartisan polling out of Alaska on the much-hyped primary between incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski and teabagger-and-Palin propelled candidate Joe Miller. The early indications are that this race is largely uncompetitive. Murkowski currently holds a 62-30 lead over Miller, according to the poll by locally-based pollster Ivan Moore Research. The two candidates will square off in their primary on August 24th.

CO-Sen: Ken Buck--vote for me because "I don't wear high heels"
This might not be the "Macaca moment" that the campaign of establishment favorite Jane Norton hopes, but it is was nonetheless are pretty stupid unforced error. Apparently, Buck took umbrage to Norton's commentary that Buck should be "man enough" to attack her directly, rather than through outside groups. His manhood having thusly called into question, he launched into a freewheeling response at a campaign event that bordered on being...well...dumb. When asked by a guest why they should vote for him, Buck's flip response was "Because I do not wear high heels." This was apparently in response to Norton's occasional tendency to invoke her gender (particularly wearing high heels). He then, to further cement his manliness, used the word "bullshit" a few times before finishing off. Not surprisingly, it took Norton about forty-five seconds to craft an ad on Buck's outburst.

FL-Sen: Meek still leads Dem primary, but it is close
Right now, according to the crack polling crew at PPP, Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek has withstood the assault from wealthy late arrival to the race Jeff Greene. But the race is extremely close, and half the electorate is still on the fence. Meek holds, at present, a 28-25 lead over Greene, according to the PPP poll released today.

LA-Sen: Dem internal poll moves Senate race to toss-up
Apparently, the tussle over his disgraced staffer, once coupled to his other personal dramas, has moved the needle in his Senate re-election race against Democrat Charlie Melancon. At least that is the take from a new internal poll for Melancon, by Anzalone Liszt. The pollster has Vitter at 44%, with Melancon right on his heels at 43%. Furthermore, the A-L polling memo suggest that if Melancon can merely replicate what other Democrats have done with African-American voters, he likely moves into the lead over Vitter.

NH-Sen: Give Senate candidate credit for the clever tie-in
Given that much of the progressive political community has congregated in Las Vegas this week for Netroots Nation, you gotta give likely Democratic Senate nominee Paul Hodes credit for taking a timely approach to his race. His crew launched a site today, "Paul's All In" (a poker reference, for the uninitiated) both makes an appeal to the netroots by the candidate, as well as taking shots at the coterie of right-wingers vying for the nomination on the other side.

NC-Sen: Another Dem internal poll puts GOP incumbent behind
Also emerging from the world of internal polling today was a real head-turner: according to a new poll for Democratic challenger Elaine Marshall, she has moved into the lead against freshman incumbent Republican Richard Burr. The poll, from Lake Research, has Marshall at 37%, Burr at 35%, and Libertarian candidate Mike Beitler at 5%. Burr has moved, according to the poll, from being unknown to unliked--his favorability spread was a fairly woeful 34/43.

WA-Sen: Dino Rossi tries to needle Murray, jabs self with needle
If this is the kind of high-quality campaign Patty Murray can expect from likely Republican rival Dino Rossi, then she has to be feeling awfully good about her chances. Rossi's campaign decided to take a shot at Murray for a "flip-flop" on the UI extensions. Rossi claimed that Murray voted for a Tom Coburn-sponsored amendment demanding that any extension of unemployment benefits be offset by budget cuts, despite long proclaiming that she would never entertain such a notion. The only problem with Rossi's broadside? It was nowhere near accurate. Murray had voted for an entirely different Coburn amendment, one dealing with budget transparency. Rossi's campaign stuck to its guns on the charge for about a day before admitting their mistake. Here's betting that the Rossi oppo research team won't be seeing raises any time soon.

WV-Sen: Raese leaps into the race...with ethnic humor?!
Somewhere in the campaign guidebook, there must be a corollary about not invoking ethnic humor into a campaign, especially on the day you are entering said campaign. Apparently, wealthy GOP businessman John Raese missed that page in the guidebook. Raese jumped into the race by comparing the Democratic frontrunner, Joe Manchin, to Tony Soprano. Manchin, indeed, is of Italian ancestry. He also, to prove that his bad humor is not merely ethnic in nature, referred to newly appointed interim Senator Carte Goodwin as "Carte Blanche." With that razor-like wit, expect Raese to make a big impact on the campaign circuit, if not in the Catskills.

THE U.S. HOUSE

KS-01: Local newspaper revokes GOP endorsement for birtherism
One has to imagine that the local media in the uber-conservative Kansas 1st district is not exactly a reservoir of liberalism. Viewed through that lens, this is a extraordinary rebuke. The Hutchinson News has revoked its recent endorsement of Tracey Mann in the crowded GOP primary in the 1st, on the grounds that Mann is an espoused proponent of birtherism. In its retraction announcement, the editorial board said the following:

Whether Mann truly doubts the president's citizenship or is just saying so in another effort to appeal to the far-right extremists of his party and get elected we don't know. Either way, it is unflattering and doesn't demonstrate the kind of intellect we want representing us in Congress.

The newspaper elected not to replace Mann with another candidate, meaning that they will make no formal endorsement for the August 3rd primary.

VA-09: Boucher holds double-digit lead in new SUSA poll
Given the reddish nature of the "Fighting Ninth" district in southern Virginia, the name of longtime Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher has made its way onto a few target lists among the pundit class. But a new poll by SurveyUSA has the Democrat solidly ahead of his Republican challenger, state legislator Morgan Griffith. According to SUSA, Boucher has a thirteen-point lead (52-39) over Griffith.

RACE FOR THE HOUSE: DCCC lays out the cash, targets seventeen seats
Anyone interested about the districts the DCCC are most interested in defending might have gotten a clue from where the campaign wing of House Democrats plunked down the cash for advance media buys. In total, the DCCC has bought nearly eight million dollars of air time in markets reaching seventeen vulnerable districts. Here is the complete list of districts: CO-04 (Markey), FL-02 (Boyd), ID-01 (Minnick), IN-02 (Donnelly), IA-03 (Boswell), NM-01 (Heinrich), NM-02 (Teague), NY-23 (Owens), NY-24 (Arcuri), NC-08 (Kissell), PA-03 (Dahlkemper), PA-12 (Critz), SC-05 (Spratt), SD-AL (Herseth-Sandlin), TX-23 (Rodriguez), VA-02 (Nye), VA-05 (Perriello)

Remember, of course, that this is the first round of buys, so the ommission of certain districts one would expect to be targetted (all of the Philly-area districts being off the list caught my eye, for example). Also, one could expect that the DCCC will also play some offense in places like IL-10, DE-AL, and LA-02.

THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES

CO-Gov: Has the GOP bailed out of Colorado?
The local website Colorado Pols thinks that the Republicans have bailed out of the Colorado Governors race in the wake of the twin implosions of Scott McInnis and Dan Maes. The Republican Governor's Association denied it, but the Colorado Pols site thinks there is mounting evidence to suggest otherwise.

FL-Gov: Scott has laid McCollum out, according to PPP poll
Super-rich health care magnate Rick Scott's free-spending entrance into the Florida Governor's race has clearly turned it on its head, for sure. One thing has become clear, though: he is now the decisive frontrunner for the GOP nomination. This is confirmed by today's new poll from PPP, which has Scott staked to a double-digit lead (43-29) over the former frontrunner in the race, state Attorney General Bill McCollum. Interestingly, neither candidate is beloved even within their own party, with Scott more "liked" at a mediocre 35/32 spread among Republicans.

MI-Gov: Dillon snags another major endorsement in Dem primary
Over the past couple of weeks, Democratic contenders Andy Dillon and Virg Bernero have been playing tit-for-tat with regard to big-time Democratic endorsements. Dillon just smashed the ball back into Bernero's court today, having nailed down the endorsement of the newly elected mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing.

OH-Gov: News flash--John Kasich is not a nice man
This is pretty damned funny, all in all: alternative Columbus media outlet The Other Paper chronicles one of those poorly-kept secrets in American politics: Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee John Kasich has something of a short temper. My personal favorite: Kasich pulling a "do you know who I am" rant on a teenaged grocery store clerk when the clerk demanded two forms of ID for Kasich's DC-based out-of-state check.

THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA

Shock of shocks: team Ras becomes one of the first pollsters in recent memory to keep Republican Marco Rubio out in front of the Senate race in Florida. They also give the GOP the narrow edge in Georgia, in advance of next month's gubernatorial runoff. However, even the House of Ras can't propel the GOP into the lead in either Arkansas (although they join Talk Business in giving incumbent Governor Mike Beebe a somewhat narrow edge) or New York.

AR-Gov: Gov. Mike Beebe (D) 50%, Jim Keet (R) 40%
FL-Sen: Marco Rubio (R) 35%, Charlie Crist (I) 33%, Kendrick Meek (D) 20%
FL-Sen: Charlie Crist (I) 36%, Marco Rubio (R) 34%, Jeff Greene (D) 19%
GA-Gov: Nathan Deal (R) 49%, Roy Barnes (D) 43%
GA-Gov: Karen Handel (R) 45%, Roy Barnes (D) 44%
NY-Gov: Andrew Cuomo (D) 58%, Carl Paladino (R) 29%
NY-Gov: Andrew Cuomo (D) 58%, Rick Lazio (R) 27%

It looks like that along with her own reality, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MI)  has her own constitution:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has a plan for what the Republicans should do if they win control of the House of Representatives: Spend all their time investigating the Obama administration.

"Oh, I think that's all we should do," Bachmann told the Three Fingers of Politics website. "I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another, and expose all the nonsense that has gone on. And it's very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership, because the American people's patience is about this big. So we have to make sure that we do what the people want us to do."

T

Via digby and AMERICAblog, Politico's Jim VandeHei dishes out some common sense advice with respect to Andrew Breitbart's vicious attack on Shirley Sherrod:

Let's not forget where this thing started.

Good idea, Jim. Seriously. Too often we ignore the root causes of things. So, what does he say the root cause is?

The NAACP came out and makes this charge against the Tea Party Movement.

Alright. You're starting to lose me here, Jim. Are you saying this all started because the NAACP got uppity?

And we've probably done more stories about the Tea party movement than any other news organization. We've really tried to study this group and they are a very diffuse group. You cannot say that they are racist any more than you can say the Democratic party is racist or the Republican party is racist.

Uh, first of all, even Newt Gingrich and Michael Steele and George W. Bush have spoken about the GOP's racism. Second of all, the NAACP never said the entire tea party movement was racist; they merely said some elements of the tea party movement were racist, and should be condemned as such. And if he's denying that to be the case, he obviously needs to spend more time talking with tea partiers.

So it creates this culture and it's a dangerous topic and it's a dangerous fire to light and so this is the outcome.

I know VandeHei isn't literally defending Breitbart here. He's not that stupid. But he's arguing that it's the NAACP's fault that Breitbart smeared Sherrod. And that pretty much speaks for itself.

Rachel Maddow walks through Fox News' quick 180 on the Shirley Sherrod case -- going from spreading and amplifying Breitbart's smears to attacking the White House for believing them:

Reports have surfaced that White House Treasury Sec Tim Geithner says Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will expire next year as planned:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration will allow tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire on schedule despite calls from a small but increasingly vocal group of Democrats to delay any tax increases.

Mr. Geithner said the White House will allow taxes on top earners to increase on Jan. 1, 2011, as part of an effort to help bring down the mounting budget deficit. He said the White House still plans to extend tax cuts for middle- and lower-income Americans and expects to undertake a broader tax overhaul next year.

See also discussion in Dansac's diary.

The Plum Line's Greg Sargent is asking the question, and it might be telling that the campaign of Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle has gone quiet on the matter:

The Tea Party Express is under fire because its leader, Mark Williams, recently posted a satirical letter from "the Colored People" to President Lincoln praising slavery. The ensuing controversy got the group expelled from the Tea Party Federation, and the group continues to get pummeled by critics on all sides.

But there's one person who still has not disowned the Tea Party Express: Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle.

And she may even be taking their fundraising dollars, too: I can't get the Angle campaign to tell me whether they will continue taking money that the Tea Party Express is raising for her effort to topple Harry Reid.

Apparently, according to Sargent, Team Angle was asked days ago about whether they were still taking the cash from the disgraced faction. It is worth noting, however, that the group is still (as of this morning) making a fundraising appeal for Angle on the front page of their website.

Something to consider the next time one of the Beltway insiders ties to argue that the Reid campaign has "painted" Angle as an out-of-the-mainstream candidate.

Senate Democrats announced Thursday they have all but given up trying to get the required 60 votes needed to vote break the Republican filibuster on a comprehensive climate bill that would address greenhouse gas emissions:

Instead, Democrats will push for a more limited bill that would seek to increase liability costs that oil companies would pay following spills such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico and would create additional incentives for the development of natural gas vehicles and provide rebates to people who buy products that reduce home energy use. They did not release details of the proposal, but Senate Democrats said they expected to find GOP support and pass it in the next two weeks.

Just a reminder dems: if you don't act you still have made a choice. Check out recent federal energy subsidies. Note that tax breaks for fossil fuels alone, where most GHGs come from, are greater than all other federal energy subsidies combined. Image courtesy of the Environmental Law Institute (Detail .pdf), used with permission.

Another must-see video out of Nevada -- this time Sharron Angle literally flees a pregnant reporter for Reno's NBC affiliate who was trying to ask her a question about GOP congressman Dean Heller's criticism of her view that unemployment benefits have "spoiled our citizenry" and give people and incentive to not find work:

From the report:

U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle invited local media to attend a press event in Reno Wednesday morning, but when members of the media tried to ask the candidate questions she didn't answer.

At the event this morning Angle signed a pledge to repeal the estate tax-or "death tax"- if she's elected, made a few brief statements and walked away with several members of the local media in tow.

News 4 Reporter Karen Griffin was one of the reporters trying to ask Angle questions and she actually ignored the questions, looked straight ahead and kept walking.

News 4 arrived at this morning's event early to make sure we could talk with Angle. News 4 listened to the press conference and when it ended, Angle simply walked away.

Worth noting: at the end of the segment, Griffin (the reporter from whom Angle fleed) said that she'd been receiving e-mails from Angle supporters saying that if she had wanted to ask questions, she should have showed up on time and asked questions during the scheduled Q&A. The problem with that, as Griffin points out, is that she arrived early for the event and there never was a Q&A scheduled.

So how did Angle supporters get it into their mind that Griffin had showed up late and skipped the (non-existent) Q&A? The obvious answer would seem to be that Angle's campaign is responsible for the misinformation. So not only is Sharron Angle fleeing from reporters, she seems to be lying about it. Crazy, indeed.

Uh, no:

An unrepentant Andrew Breitbart told POLITICO on Thursday that the Obama administration and its allies have manufactured a controversy over the video he posted of Shirley Sherrod’s speech to the NAACP as part of an orchestrated effort to take him down.

“I am public enemy No. 1 or 2 to the Democratic Party, the progressive movement and the Obama administration based upon the successes my journalism has had."

Leaving aside the laughable notion that Breitbart practices journalism, it's not a matter of him being an enemy, it's a matter of him being an idiot, not to mention a dishonest and generally despicable human being.

And these people want to run the country:

Rep. Michelle Bachmann's (R-MN) House Tea Party Caucus debut yesterday mimicked the tea party movement it hopes to represent in Washington -- it was confusing, bumbling and offered a dearth of solid policy goals. [...]

As David Frum's blog reported all day yesterday, Bachmann's caucus list was about as good an example of a poorly-run organization as you can find this week, save for the Department of Agriculture. The Tea Party Caucus list changed throughout the day, with names disappearing and reappearing as reporters called to verify things. The list itself disappeared from Bachmann's website for a time, before finally showing up again and staying up for good.

One Capitol Hill Republican with knowledge of the process told me the embarrassing debacle of the list was a 100% Bachmann affair -- the caucus list is run out of her office and its errors were, as far as my source knew, thanks to Bachmann's staff. [...]

For reporters there, it was a struggle to find anything specific to write in our notebooks. Mine has these two phrases underlined several times: "Add Skype" and "cite Constitution." Those represented the two clear policy goals I heard from the Tea Party Caucus and its members. The first came from Bachmann, who called on Speaker Pelosi to allow the use of the popular video phone service at the Capitol so that caucus members can speak to tea partiers more easily.

The second came from Rep. Steve King (R-IA), a caucus member and tea party superstar in his own right. Asked by reporters after the event what specific laws he'd offer as a legislator carrying the tea party banner into the House, King said the only thing he could think of for the moment was a law requiring members to cite the Constitution when sponsoring legislation.

• For those joining us here at Netroots Nation 2010, the lunch break might be a great opportunity to get outside and enjoy the city. After all, it is a comparatively mild 100 degrees in the noon hour. Silly me--forgot to pack that sweatshirt.
• It's something our community has hammered on since the Sherrod "scandal" broke, but it's nice to see someone in the Washington Post network of contributors (in this case, Greg Sargent) ask the question: why is the traditional media so damned reluctant to drop the hammer on Andrew Breitbart?
• In a sideways dig at Netroots Nation, MSNBC's Mark Murray becomes the latest to flog the "center-right" nation thing. His main bit of evidence: far more people identify as conservatives than liberals in polls. Gee, Mark, do you think that might have something to do with the four-decade campaign by the right wing (aided and abetted by the media far too often) to make liberal into an epithet? Further, doesn't it strike you as strange that Democrats tend to poll awfully well with "moderate" voters?
• California Senator Barbara Boxer has an 11-to-1 cash-on-hand edge over Republican challenger Carly Fiorina. How will Fiorina play catch-up. The way all people riding a wave of teabagger/"real folk" anger would--cutting herself a seven-figure check.
• President Obama is apparently vetting Republican Scott Burns (a former deputy drug czar) to be the next U.S. Attorney from Utah. Needless to say, Utah Democrats are none too pleased to hear it.
• It is a sign that the newspaper industry is in trouble when a "lukewarm" earnings report is hailed as a sort of victory? It cannot inspire confidence when an article about one of the titans of said industry contains the affirmation that "flat is the new up."
• A new day in Florida politics? Kathy Castor becomes the first member of the Florida Congressional delegation to support Bill Delahunt's bill to ease travel restrictions to Cuba.
• Lovely. A new Gallup poll finds that just 11% of Americans have confidence in Congress. That ranks the institution, for those scoring at home, behind HMO's, Big Business, and banks.
• Charlie Crist is using some muscle as Governor to go after BP. He signed an executive order Wendesday allow property appraisers to assess and document the financial damage from the oil spill in those counties impacted by the incident.

Good news:

The Senate passed an extension of unemployment benefits through November last night; now the House has just done the same. Next stop: President Obama’s desk.

Republicans will have to look for another way to screw over working Americans.

Andrew Breitbart has finally updated the article that led to the firing of Shirley Sherrod. Still found under the title of, "Video Proof: The NAACP Rewards Racism," Breitbart has added:

“While Ms. Sherrod made the remarks captured in the first video featured in this post while she held a federally appointed position, the story she tells refers to actions she took before she held that federal position,” the correction reads. 

And now you have the whole story. Thanks, Andrew.

Back in April ACORN was exonerated when the Kings County District Attorney concluded there had been no criminality. But the damage had been done. ACORN had been all but destroyed, and the traditional media that had done so much to inflict the damage mostly ignored that news. As Joe Conason wrote on Wednesday:

Recalling Breitbart from his days as eager lackey to Matt Drudge, I warned from the beginning that nothing he produced would resemble journalism. More than once since then, I’ve mentioned the accumulating evidence of deception by O’Keefe and Breitbart in creating and then publicizing the ACORN tale. It was a "scandal" that became a national story only after wildly biased coverage on Fox News Channel, followed by sloppy, scared reporting in mainstream outlets, notably the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the national TV networks (some of whom flagellated themselves for failing to publicize this canard sooner!).

Investigations by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, and the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, among others, have served to exonerate ACORN of the most outrageous charges of criminality (while still criticizing ACORN employees and leadership). More important, from the perspective of journalistic ethics, those investigations revealed that the videotapes released and promoted by Breitbart’s website were selectively and deceptively edited to serve as propaganda, not news.

This raised a question that still hasn't been answered: Beyond blaming Breitbart, Faux News, and the gullibility of both Obama administration officials and Congressional Democrats, will the traditional media ever take a good hard look at themselves? Breitbart and Faux would not get away with their lies if the rest of the media weren't using their own bullhorns to blindly promote those lies, repeating without reporting, as has become their habit. Sources either prove credible or they do not, and Breitbart and Faux are not credible. Conason has a suggestion for those traditional media sources that promoted the ACORN smear:

So here at last is an opportunity for the Times and all the other media outlets that aided and abetted the ACORN fraud to restore a minimum level of standards and honor. Investigate Breitbart, O’Keefe, Giles and the making and editing of the ACORN tapes without fear or favor -- then report the findings on page one.

Otherwise, those traditional media sources will have proven that they are as lacking in credibility as are their fully discredited sources. Along the same lines, Greg Sargent challenges the traditional media to take the next step with story about the smearing of Shirley Sherrod:

Have any high profile traditional media figures come right out and said that Breitbart -- who admitted flat out that he received the Sherrod video unedited and posted it without tracking down the orignal -- has dealt himself a severe blow here?

Sargent is too kind. Once might have been a mistake. Twice proves something far different, and the media should be on it. Sargent:

It seems like a no-brainer that this would be the next angle on this story.

It's not about brains; It's about integrity and honor. In the coming days, we will see if those traditional media outlets still have any.

Tropical Depression 3 has formed off the southeast tip of Florida and may become Bonnie, the second named storm of the 2010 season, later today. The current storm track threatens the entire US gulf including the region of BP's Deep Horizon spill. Intensification may not be ideal for a day or two, but offshore rig workers in general and BP responders are already on the verge of pulling out of the way. And if the storm does not turn north, there is plenty of warm water in between the system and landfall along Louisiana and Texas coasts for TD 3 to develop into a major storm. Via Jeff Masters:

The primary detriment to development of TD 3 for the next three days will be the presence of the large upper-level low to its west. As long as this low remains in its present location, relative to TD 3, it will bring wind shear of about 20 knots and dry air into the storm. This will limit the intensification potential of TD 3 to no more than about 10 - 15 mph per day. If the upper-level low slow down a bit, relative to TD 3, more shear will affect the storm, potentially weakening it. Conversely, if the upper-level low picks up speed and pulls away from TD 3, the storm may be able to intensify at a faster rate.