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......

So McCain's adultery in the military isn't relevant but the sex lives of gay service members are?

When John McCain had his adulterous affair with Cindy, he was an officer in the military. Adultery is against military rules. Just like having gay relationships is against the rules. Why is McCain's illicit sex life as an officer not relevant but McCain thinks the "illicit" sex lives of gay service members are? Both are violations of the rules. (Oh, and if you think the adultery isn't proven, read below.)

Yes, I know, my friends in the corporate media, it makes you woozy having to deal with anything "negative" about your good friend John McCain. But he's running for president, and he deserves a bit more scrutiny than you bringing him his favorite donuts. So, again, why is McCain's sex life in the military off limits but the sex life of gay service members is very much on limits per John McCain? Is McCain going to argue that his adultery didn't affect morale and cohesion, but gay relationships do? McCain was a pretty famous POW. He met Nixon. His campaign is always telling us what a military leader he was. His fall from grace certainly would have been noticed by fellow members of the military, and that has the potential to affect morale and cohesion when a leader falls.

And there's another problem. I'm not sure about this one, but I'm going to guess that in the 1970s, bigamy wasn't allowed under military rules either. From the LA Times:

McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Until McCain filed for divorce, the Reagans and their inner circle assumed he was happily married, and they were stunned to learn otherwise, according to several close aides.

Again, I get it. You folks in the media like John McCain. That doesn't change the fact that lots of Americans, the very Americans on the right who John McCain is courting, have a serious problem with both adultery and bigamy. McCain can't woo the religious right and then pretend that his lack of adherence to their values is not relevant to this campaign. Talk to anyone on the religious right and they'll tell you: Adultery is a big deal to them. And I can only imagine how they feel about bigamy. Read More......

NYT, how about reporting all the facts about McCain?

Fair enough, the NYT mentions John McCain's gaffes, but then wraps them in this "fatigue" argument, unquestioned:

Mr. McCain has made a number of verbal gaffes in recent months, including referring three times to Czechoslovakia, a country that has not existed since 1993. In his comments on the plane, Mr. McCain did not address whether his gaffes had anything to do with fatigue, but he seemed to suggest that they might have. “If I put in three or four 18-hour, 20-hour days in a row, then I’m not sharp,” Mr. McCain said. “It’s just a fact.”

The issue is sensitive for Mr. McCain, 71, who would be the oldest person elected president if he wins. Although Mr. McCain sometimes looks tired on the campaign trail, his aides say he has more energy than they do as they run the grueling marathon of this long presidential campaign. On Friday, Mr. McCain started at 8:30 a.m. in Cincinnati, made campaign stops in Iowa and Arkansas, and ended more than 16 hours later in Las Vegas.

Here's the problem - there have already been reports from the media itself that McCain doesn't regularly do 18 and 20 hour days. On the contrary. He has the lightest schedule of anyone running for president that these reporters have ever seen. And as for the fatigue argument, the other argument is that John McCain is turning 72 this month and may be showing cognitive problems relating to his age, not to fatigue. That's an obvious point to anyone who's ever met someone over the age of 70, but one that Newsweek seems afraid to mention. We get it. You like him. Now get over it and do your freaking job. Let me reprint a recent excerpt from Rolling Stone:


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Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Wild finish in the men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay last night. The French team had been trash talking the Americans. Trash talking in swimming? But, the U.S. team eked out a victory with a fierce finish by the relay's anchor, Jason Lezak. I watched it live (because NBC somehow finagled having the swimming finals in the morning so they'd be live for the U.S. audiences.) It really was very, very exciting.

On the political front, more of the same from McCain. He's running to fulfill the legacy of George Bush. George Bush's approval rating is in the 20s. All McCain can do is go viciously negative. But, it's still about continuing the failed Bush presidency. We need to see more ads morphing McCain into Bush or vice versa. That's what this election is about.

Let's get it started.... Read More......