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......