American Crossroads has Harry Reid and Robin Carnahan in the crosshairs, and they're not afraid to shoot the big guns.

PublicIntegrity.org:

The announced goal of American Crossroads is to raise at least $52 million to help two to three dozen Senate and House candidates in key races in November. This afternoon, the group will begin airing two new television issue ads in Missouri and Nevada. Each ad is slated to run for three weeks and the combined buys total just over $2 million.

The ads, both focusing in part on this year’s big health care overhaul, are designed to defeat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada and Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan in Missouri. American Crossroads has already spent some $600,000 on ads in Nevada attacking Reid on different issues, one of which was criticized by independent analysts for using information that was outdated and inaccurate.

Attack ads on "issues" always get traction with some voters, and they're aiming at the soft underbelly of health care reform and unemployment to soften support for Reid.

The more concerning aspect of their campaign is a concentrated "get out the vote" effort aimed at conservative independent voters in their state. They will spare no expense, and are able to do it, mostly because of this:

The new fundraising total for American Crossroads includes monies hauled in by two separate units: the group’s original “527” arm, and its more recently launched 501(c)(4) affiliate, known as Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies or Crossroads GPS, Law said. The new totals reflect a dramatic rise from late June, when those units reported having raised a combined total of $9.8 million. Each arm of the group can legally accept unlimited donations from individuals and companies, but a 527 has to file monthly reports on its contributions with the IRS. The 501 (c)(4) provides donors anonymity and does not have to file any federal reports until early 2011.

The 501(c)(4) entity is a non-profit "civic organization", and the delay in reporting contributions means they can disguise the underlying donors and remain anonymous through next year. Even then, if they follow the same route that the Adam Smith Foundation and others have taken, they won't disclose the names of donors anyway, but will only disclose donation amounts.

The July filing for the 527 organization reports two $1 million dollar donations. Harold Simmons, funder and architect of the Swiftboat scheme that undermined John Kerry's bid for President, and Jerry Perenchio, Gray Davis supporter until he spent millions for Arnold Schwarzenegger to unseat him in the notorious California coup.

There are some common threads running through all of the major funding by Republicans for these "attack issue" ads. The largest donors are on the "Forbes 400" list, they're tied heavily and directly into the US Chamber of Commerce, and they're not afraid to spend heavily and play dirty.

Whatever one may think about Harry Reid, Sharron Angle's election to the Senate would be an unmitigated disaster, and in Missouri, Roy Blunt's election would perpetuate Abramoff corruption schemes for at least six more years.

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Fox News' Peter J. Johnson Jr. believes that Muslims in New York should "give up their rights" and move the Park51 Islamic center in order to please opponents.

When Johnson isn't guest hosting at Fox News, he regularly gets time to offer commentary on Fox & Friends. In his Friday segment, Johnson visited the site of the proposed Islamic center to give his opinion on the project.

The Fox News legal analyst explained that the First Amendment shouldn't really be a factor a factor in whether or not the proposed mosque gets moved.

"We are proud that we are one of the few countries in the world which allows the free exercise of religion, but when we resort to legalisms instead of common sense, or compassion, when we invoke our First Amendment as a sword, not a shield, it means we have lost sight of and broken faith with our national identity and strength," he said.

Johnson then seemed to compare the controversial Westboro Baptist Church to supporters of the Islamic center.

Pastor Fred Phelps' church is known for picketing soldiers' funerals with signs like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," and "AIDS Cures Fags." A federal judge recently upheld Phelps' First Amendment right to protest outside military funerals in Missouri.

Missouri's tight restrictions on protests and picketing outside military funerals were tossed out by a federal judge Monday, over free speech concerns.

A small Kansas church had brought suit over its claimed right to loudly march outside the burials and memorial services of those killed in overseas conflicts. The state legislature had passed a law to keep members of the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church from demonstrating within 300 feet of such private services.

"Do our courts encourage disrespect and instability among us when they allow a so-called religious sect to protest at servicemen's funerals and hold signs that say, 'Thank God for Dead Soldiers?' And then say the First Amendment makes it all okay. How have we fallen so far so quickly?" asked Johnson.

"I look for the day when this is no longer about politicians or pain or protest, but about neighbors becoming good neighbors," he said.

"Thank god and our founders for the First Amendment, but God help us if it all comes down to the need to rely upon it," he continued.

"Any American can assert a right. Great Americans give up their rights to help those they share nothing else with but a love of this country," he concluded.

But not every conservative even thinks the First Amendment protects supporters' rights to build the mosque in the current location.

Jason Sager is a strict constitutionalist and a candidate for the 5th Congressional District in Florida. Sager told The Saint Petersburg Times' Dan DeWitt that "there is nothing to preclude states and local authorities from determining what will or will not be built on their streets."

Yep, he said, which didn't sound right, so I called a well-known authority on the First Amendment, Florida State University law professor and former president Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte.

Federal authority is indeed severely limited in the original Constitution, D'Alemberte said. But this concept took a major hit in 1868, with the passage of the 14th Amendment, which says states can't deny U.S. citizens basic rights.

Then, in 1940, the U.S. Supreme Court (dooming many a relaxing Saturday morning) ruled that the door-to-door evangelizing of Jehovah's Witnesses was protected by the constitutional right of "free exercise" of religion — that this trumped state and local laws.

"To make the argument that the First Amendment doesn't apply to local governments," D'Alemberte said, "is quite beyond the bounds of all the scholarly thinking that I know of."

Sager says he just can't get passed the wording of the First Amendment that says "Congress" shall make no law about the free exercise of religion. Regardless of the 14th Amendment, that shouldn't include state and local governments, according to Sager.

New York's governor weighed in on the Cordoba House yesterday, claiming his efforts at arranging an "alternate" site were close to fruition. Paterson might as well find an "alternate" bridge to cross the Alabama River -- why march through Selma when you can go miles out of your way and cross at Prattville? -- or an "alternate" lunch counter to Woolworth's, or an "alternate" drinking fountain, or even an "alternate" seat on the bus. As in the Civil Rights Era, there cannot be a neutral ground.

If I seem harsh, it's because I earned the right to be harsh about this. A few weeks ago I noticed a loss of feeling in three toes of my left foot; this is the latest sign of degeneration from the damage my lumbar spine sustained while serving my country. You'll excuse me if I take freedom very seriously, and not merely my own but that of others. To progressives, there is no difference; to regressives, the rights of one subtract from the rights of another. The relative distance of a mosque or community center or titty bar from 'ground zero' makes no difference to the zero-sum mindset, which is why regressives seem impervious to facts.

The president gets this. Last weekend he reframed the debate around Cordoba House by separating the question of whether Manhattan's Muslim community has the right to build Cordoba House from the question of whether it is right to build it at 51 Park Place. Polls show that most Americans get the first part, agreeing Muslims have a "right" to build at that location -- even though the same polls show a majority doesn't think it is the right thing to do. The difference is more than semantic.

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I don't see how DFA could avoid breaking with Dr. Dean's position on the construction of an Islamic community center in downtown NYC. But Dr. Dean does have a point:

The grassroots political organization founded by Howard Dean after the 2004 presidential election has made a dramatic break with the former DNC chairman over the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero.

Democracy for America, a million-plus member organization that is active on a host of legislative fronts, formally endorsed the controversial Cordoba House on Thursday, one day after its founding figure called for the project to be built elsewhere.

In a letter sent to members, the group's executive director, Arshad Hasan, weaves together his personal history with a detailed explanation of the project's lofty and noble objectives. In a direct but diplomatic touch, he addresses Dean's opposition only by explaining that "well-intentioned" Democrats are "getting caught up" in the anti-mosque hysteria. "It's not helping," writes Hasan.

[L]et's be clear, the subject of the highest profile Muslim structure, 51 Park in New York City, will have a basketball court and a culinary school. Two floors will have a prayer room. The other eleven will host movie nights, performances, group dinners, etc -- it's basically a Muslim YMCA, open to everyone. These moderate Muslims are doing everything we could ask of them. They're trying to build a bridge in the communities they live in, trying to show the world that Muslims are cool and interesting and diverse, and proving that being a Muslim does not equal being a terrorist.

But they're being thrown under the bus by our elected leaders, egged on by some of the ugliest elements of the right-wing. Well-intentioned leaders of the Democratic Party are getting caught up in the fray as well, some of them seeking to find common ground with an implacable opposition. It's not helping.

This isn't just a Manhattan problem. Right now, there is opposition to mosques in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Southern California, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Illinois, and dozens of other locations across our nation. Where would they move? If public pressure can be brought to bear to take down the most high-profile Muslim community center in liberal NYC, then these other places don't even have a chance, Ground Zero connection or not.

Frankly, this isn't about Ground Zero. This is about America. This is about freedom. This is about people and there seems to be no place that Muslim people can go without being harassed.

The harassment has to stop, and that starts with you and me.

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I would normally not post one of these annoying, snarky "Pete on the Street" segments from John King's show on CNN because they are generally about as unfunny and uninformative as the Jeanne Moos segments on Blitzer's show.

That said, how pathetic is it when the John King "color guy" is making you look like an idiot if you're one of the people claiming the Islamic center is going to be built at ground zero?

And note to the press, quit calling it a mosque. A prayer room on top of a rec center is not a mosque.

It turns out that Fox News' Glenn Beck isn't the only one that can follow the money.

Comedy Central's Jon Stewart pulled out his chalkboard Wednesday and discovered that Fox News' parent company had been supplying one Republican group with loads of cash.

News broke Tuesday that News Corp. had donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) without a similar donation to Democratic Governors Association (DGA).

It isn't like this is a complete surprise, but still, there is something incestuous about News Corp. donating $1 million to the Republican Governors' Association in order for the Republican Governors' Association to mount high-profile attack campaigns on Democratic candidates. I think it's safe for everyone to eliminate the terms "fair" and "balanced" from any discussion of Fox News.

"We all know deep down inside in our hearts, in our stomachs, in our mind that money is corrupting our political process, a festering sore on the body politic," began Stewart. "But it's complicated. Luckily there's one organization that is tenacious at exposing the gangrenous rot."

What followed was a flurry of clips showing how Fox News hosts like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck had attempted to expose partisan donations to Democratic causes.

In March, Stewart first performed an epic impersonation of Beck. The comedy central host used Beck's mannerisms and grand gestures in the 15-minute parody.

Stewart reprised that role Wednesday to cover News Corporation's big donation.

"News Corp. owns Fox News. This is going to get a little tricky but follow me," Stewart said to the audience as he put on Beck-style glasses, headed to the chalkboard and got out his pointer.

Only hand motions and gestures were needed as Stewart discovered the truth written in chalk. News Corp. had funneled $1 million straight to Republicans.

"Follow me people. You're not going to believe... the money starts here and goes directly there," announced Stewart. "It's a straight line. It's just a straight line. It comes from Fox News and goes straight to Republicans."

"This is a travesty. I think if anything Republicans should be paying Fox News millions and millions of dollars. Not the other way around," he concluded.

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We've got an economy that's a mess, people who have been unemployed forever that need jobs, massive flooding in Pakistan, millions of gallons of oil and dispersants still floating in the water in the Gulf of Mexico and what is the media spending hours upon hours covering? That ginned up non-controversy over the Islamic center near ground zero and now a new poll that shows about one in five Americans think that President Obama is a Muslim. I wonder where they got that idea?

I hate that they're spending this much time on this nonsense that most people don't care about but if they're going to do it, we need to be pushing back against the lies and point out who's helping to spread them and hold the corporate media accountable when they help to push the latest right wing meme of the day and give it legitimacy.

During John King's show on CNN, Paul Begala says it's not CNN that is attributing to those poll numbers.

BEGALA: Mostly, no. You're right to just observe that as contrasted with Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter for that matter or certainly George W. Bush, this Christian president talks about his Christianity less. That perhaps makes him more like say George Bush's father, a devout Christian, a fine man who just didn't like to wear it on his sleeve as much as maybe some others.

No, in that survey, the Pew poll, most, the vast majority of people who think he's a Muslim. When you ask them why do you think that they say because of the media. And not to put too fine a point on it, they don't mean CNN, John. They mean the kook right wing media that has been attacking this president. It's fine to attack him on issues. But they're trying to attack him with any kind of crazy conspiracy theory they can.

I'd beg to differ.

A little later in the show John King brings on evangelical leader Franklin Graham who suggests that the "confusion" is being caused because President Obama was "born a Muslim" and of course if he says he's a Christian now (wink... wink) we'll just have to take him at his word that he is (but he might really be a dirty Kenyan Muslim usurper... you never know).

There are plenty of places where these rumors are being spread such as email chains, on right wing talk radio and on Fox News, but interviews like this aren't helping matters any. We got zero push back from John King against Graham's nonsense. He's really good at the false equivalency "you decide" game where he lets his viewers figure out for themselves who's telling the truth and who's spouting nonsense that should have been stopped in their tracks for telling lies but wasn't. Heaven forbid that might not make for a polite interview and we couldn't have that sort of incivility now could we?

Does anyone think John King didn't know exactly what he was going to get from Franklin Graham before he came on the air? Here's some of what happened during his encounter with then presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama back in 2008.

Franklin Graham to Obama: Are You A Muslim? (And How Obama Courted Hagee's Publisher):

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Out here in California, eMeg is spending up a storm -- over $100 million so far. That's before Jerry Brown cranks up his campaign machine.

Problem is, no one likes what she's saying. The more money she spends, the higher her unfavorable ratings go up, and not just with liberals and moderates.

According to SF Gate, the (euphemistically labeled) "conservative wing" of California's GOP plan to call her out on her mixed, muddled messaging around Arizona's AB 1070.

Whitman, who remains in a dead heat with Democrat Jerry Brown despite spending a record-busting $104 million of her own money, will face criticism from some of the 1,000 grassroots party members descending on the Manchester Grand Hyatt starting Friday.

Much of the blowback will come from members of the California Republican Assembly, a group of activists that former President Ronald Reagan called "the conscience of the Republican Party."

Conservatives want the state GOP to approve a resolution backing Arizona's law targeting illegal immigrants and a similar California law, Proposition 187, approved by voters in 1994 but later overturned by a federal judge. Whitman opposes both measures.

The debate could be toxic for Whitman. As far as I can tell, her campaign has been based on a few weird promises to increase state unemployment rates by terminating 40,000 state employees and a lot of vague promises to run the state like a corporation. As far as her views on immigration are concerned, it seems that Whitman adopts whatever position will garner her the most votes. On that score, the conservatives have it right:

Greig isn't worried that a high-profile conversation about the divisive issue will hurt the party's chances in November. "We are standing on principle here," she said. "I do not think pandering to the illegal alien community will help us. They don't vote."

That may be true. But Hispanics vote, and there are a lot of them here in California. Legal ones. With the legal right to vote, and they might not take kindly to the xenophobic attitudes that eMeg and her party espouse.

Bring it on.

First, there's this technical definition that says there's a recovery. Why? Because some rich people are getting richer? If the economy doesn't serve the broadest group of citizens and there aren't jobs for people who want them, what kind of recovery is that? Perhaps this is why economists are so often confused.

Maybe, as Atrios says, somebody should do something?

A slowdown in American manufacturing and weak employment data sent stocks lower on Thursday as investors continued to absorb news of a weak economic recovery.

The separate reports from the Federal Reserve and the Labor Department were a fresh reminder of the slow pace of the recovery. Manufacturing, in particular, had shown tentative signs of a rebound in recent months.

The reports were enough to reverse the upward trend of the previous two days, when the market rose 1.1 percent.

“You had a one-two punch in one day,” said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for the Channel Capital Research Institute.

The result was a broad sell-off. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 144.33 points, or 1.39 percent, to 10,271.21. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index declined 18.53 points, or 1.69 percent, to 1,075.63, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 36.75 points, or 1.66 percent, to 2,178.95.

Financial, materials and industrial stocks all fell more than 2 percent.

Peeling the onion that is environmental legislation always seems to track back to Koch Industries. As a Californian, it frustrates me that the already deeply flawed initiative process is now fair game for out of state corporate interests.

WONKROOM: Moreover, here is a rare clip of Americans for Prosperity operative Meredith Turney bragging to Koch Industries executive David Koch that her front group will help take over the Golden State. Koch Industries fears that laws like California’s revolutionary AB32 will hurt their bottom line, that’s why, like the tobacco industry, they are funding front groups. Here, in a Koch Industries corporate document, they say clean energy laws like AB32 will quote “be very bad news for our industry.”

The ads mentioned at the beginning of the video? I'll bet this $3,000,000 contribution from Valero Services, Inc. on August 6th paid for the media buy. With that contribution, the Prop 23 campaign has spent over $6 million, with over 75% coming from out of state interests like Koch Industries and Valero Energy.

Just like they did with Prop 8, the authors of Prop 23 are relying on out of state money, astroturf groups, and an uninformed electorate to stop a measure to preserve the planet, our health, and leave something to the next generation.

More facts here.