NYT and NBC "in" gold medal winning gay Olympian

Just very sad that the Times would succumb to the same editorial homophobia. NBC, I can only imagine they didn't want to be "anti-family" and "take away from the Olympics" by showing a gay man's family when they show everyone else's. Both should be ashamed. From Outsports:

It was disappointing to see NBC not mention anything about Matthew Mitcham’s sexuality. The biggest reason for me is a journalistic reason: It’s a big story. The only openly gay male athlete in Beijing pulled off one of the great upsets at the Olympics in a spectacular fashion. If he had had cancer, or if his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was 2, or if he had just proposed to his girlfriend, they would have mentioned it. But they never showed him hugging his boyfriend, never mentioned it. They referred to “personal problems,” but I’m afraid they decided Matthew’s sexuality was off limits. A real shame.

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Convention Monday Night Open Thread

Michelle Obama is speaking - this speech was three weeks in the making. What do you think?

CNN wasn't too impressed with the Convention so far - Gergen in particular said the evening was without direction and message. I've turned to MSNBC, but Gergen has a point. Why do we want the White House again? What are we saying to the American people about what we're going to do for THEM?

UPDATE: Michelle Obama's speech has concluded. A couple of the commentators noted that the Kennedy speech was timed too soon for the national network pickup so it was missed by the vast majority of America. Too bad. Read More......

Tax loopholes cost US $20 billion last year

Well, fair is fair. Anyway, it wouldn't be polite to call these companies out and ask them to pay their share of the burden when they are busy cutting job benefits along with jobs while giving even more to CEOs.

Tax and accounting loopholes that largely benefit rich taxpayers and companies cost the U.S. government $20 billion a year even as the pay gap between chief executives and employees has widened, two groups said on Monday.

The biggest loss comes from a "stock option accounting double standard" that allows corporations paying executives stock options to deduct more than their actual expenses, they said.

For example, when UnitedHealth Group Inc paid CEO William McGuire 9 million stock options, it put on its financial statement that the compensation cost the company nothing, according to the Institute for Policy Studies and the group United for a Fair Economy.

But it claimed a tax deduction of $317.7 million, the groups said.

That practice alone costs the U.S. government $10 billion a year, the groups said.

A practice known as deferred compensation -- which allows executives to defer an unlimited amount of pay -- costs the government $80.6 million a year, while other loopholes bring the total lost tax revenue to $20 billion, the groups said.

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McCain sending wife Cindy to apparently broker peace in Georgia war-zone

Now I've seen everything. McCain is sending his wife to a war zone? This is just absurdly inappropriate, not to mention absurd. Imagine sending Michelle Obama to broker peace in Iraq. Imagine the outcry by the McCain people. This is just simply bizarre. Then again, Cindy McCain's father was a Vet, so remember folks, you can't ask any legitimate questions about why she's going abroad as America's ambassador to a war zone when her husband isn't even president yet. Amazingly presumptious of McCain to put America's credibility on the line as though he were already president. Then again, the country of Georgia already bought McCain's top foreign policy adviser, so perhaps this is just more fall-out from that. The Georgians have to get their money's worth. Read More......

Markos on Hillary, her supporters, and what if any trouble they're brewing

I'm at the Big Tent, which is the blogger area at the convention - well, it's the blogger area set up by the Daily Kos folks, Google and numerous others I"m forgetting. Anyway, just did a quick 3 minute interview with Markos about Hillary and what if anything we should be worried about this week, as it concerns her people causing any problems at the convention, but more generally, whether they're going to vote for Obama. The clip is only 3 minutes long. I've decided to do a number

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The action begins at the Big Tent

Spent most of the afternoon at the Big Tent. It's hopping. Lots of blogger types, interspersed with pretty cool speakers. I met former Alabama Governor Don Seligman, which was great. He told me how the full House is going to have to vote to enforce the subpoena against Karl Rove. We'll all have to keep the pressure up on that one. Otherwise, Rove gets a pass. And, that cannot happen.

Robin and Jean Carnahan stopped by. They were both at Netroots Nation with us. Robin served on a panel I put together, but Jean is the real blogger in the family -- and she's almost 75. Jean told me that she reads her blogs, Huffington, DailyKos, AMERICAblog and a couple others before she picks up her paper. Jean's been out on the road campaigning for Obama, but did manage to keep up a post about John McCain's housing problem. She could teach John McCain quite a lot about the internet.



I'm going to be heading over to the Pepsi Center to check out the action and watch the speeches. Read More......

Does anyone take Mark Halperin seriously? (Besides the other pundits)

Mark Halperin writes "The Page" at Time.com. He used to author "The Note" for ABC. Halperin fancies himself the arbiter of the conventional wisdom and acts like he's in training to be the next David Broder. Basically, he regurgitates whatever talking points he gets from his pals on the McCain campaign give him. Halperin then puts whatever he's spewing into little numbered lists as if he is making profound pronouncements. While there is a lot of competition, Halperin is pretty much the most painful, pompous pundit on the scene.

Think Progress posted a video of Halperin on "This Week" where he makes such a fool of himself that even George Stephanopolous couldn't follow his logic. Halperin takes himself so seriously, but didn't really think he'd have to back up what he was saying. It's almost like someone put the idea in his head and while Halperin remembered the line, he couldn't really quite remember why he was saying it.

Jason Linkins at Huffington Post had the best description ever of Halperin and his website, noting among other things that "The Page" is "like a comic book, full of listicles for children." Except in this case, "the children" are the other political pundits who actually believe Halperin is their leader. Read More......

“I’m Hillary Clinton and I do not approve that message"

Hillary Clinton slammed McCain for his campaign ad feigning concern that she wasn't chosen to be on the Obama ticket:

Mrs. Clinton, preparing for her own speech Tuesday night, appeared before emotional members of her home state delegation this morning. She urged the party to come together while taking a shot at new campaign commercials by Senator John McCain that seek to foster division between Clinton backers and those of Senator Barack Obama, the soon-to-be nominee.

“Let me state what I think about their tactics and these ads,” she said in an appearance at a downtown hotel. “I’m Hillary Rodham Clinton and I do not approve of that message.”

McCain is trying hard to foment discord in the Democratic party. He should be worrying about his own fractured party.

Did the McCain campaign really expect Hillary to take their side? Read More......

Why did CBS edit out McCain playing the POW card again?

As we wrote yesterday, John McCain again, personally this time, played the POW card in order to somehow justify why he can't remember how many homes he owns. McCain, his campaign, and surrogates have routinely invoked McCain's former-POW status in order to justify lots of things unrelated to national security - including recently claiming that former POW's don't "cheat," so on that basis sMcCain couldn't have gotten the questions in advance to the recent faith forum. CBS decided to air McCain's most justification for why he can't remember how many homes he own - apparently it now has something to do with his wife's father being a Vet - but CBS cut the part where McCain, again, invoked his own former-POW status. It's odd that McCain keeps using his POW status to justify not answering serious questions unrelated to national security issues, and even odder that CBS seems to be helping him. And it's not the first time CBS cheated to help McCain. Read More......

Rob weighs in on 27% of Hillary supporters supposedly going for McCain

Rob is on the beach somewhere, just emailed me his take on the new poll showing 27% of Hillary supporters saying they'll vote for McCain.

My quick take: Hillary and her supporters can sometimes be a bit demanding, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be wooed. The chorus of Hillary supporters, from Rendell, to Carville and Begala, still stirring up trouble, during the convention no less, says to me that there may be more to this than just Hillary's peeps being ornery. At some point, if you don't reach out to people sufficiently, and in an ongoing manner, you run the risk of them turning on you. Doesn't mean that's what's happening here, but it could be.

More from Rob:

One note is that the margin of error on the Hillary question is 7.5%. Looking at the other polls, it's probably around 20%, or 1 in 5, Hillary voters going for McCain at this point.

If we think about the classic "Reagan Democrats" demographic segment, it's entirely logical to think that segment - particularly women - might have said they'd vote for Hillary, but don't think Obama is experienced enough. Michelle Obama's twisted comments on her pride in America stick in their craw. Rev. Wright and raising his young children in that environment is a moral failing to them - this isn't the inspirational MLK, it's divisive. They might also not feel like Hillary was treated fairly by the men in her life once again (something they might relate to). They might think that she earned the VP slot having almost won (thus explaining the slide over the last month as it became obvious that she wasn't even on Obama's list).

I suspect that Obama's people are banking on the hope that as it becomes obvious that there are bigger issues, particularly the Supreme Court, those voters will come home and vote for the Democratic ticket.

The problem is that a we've seen over the last two elections, voters seem willing to walk into the voting booth and vote against their own interests. The task for the Obama campaign is to clearly articulate, particularly to Hispanic women, that the stakes are so high in this election they have to hold their nose and vote Obama.

Not optimal, but I'm sure there would have been another set of problems if he picked her. I think those would have been easier to overcome, as the argument could have been made that with 18 million votes, she earned it no matter what you feel about her.

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Catharsis, a new parfum by Hillary

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John McCain "Don't know much" about the economy

Obama's newest ad:


It's okay, but I agree with Josh Orton:

It uses the infectious riff from Sam Cooke's classic "Wonderful World," but is it too cute? McCain's ignorance of economics is dangerous - why give the impression that the problem is benign? And why not use McCain's quote about the economy's supposed "strength?"

Maybe this will catch on. The song sure gets stuck in your head. Read More......

Now Detroit wants $50 billion

Great. So let's just give everyone a bailout check. Oh right, we've tried that. Let's make it even larger but let's cut out the little people and just give it all to big business. I'm sure they'll do the right thing, as they've always done.What are the odds that Detroit is suddenly warming up to "alternative" cars now that they're rumors of bankruptcy? Friends in Congress can be proud of themselves for propping these dinosaurs up instead of pushing them into the modern world. Read More......

John McCain wanted to go fishing, so he built a private lake at one of his 12 houses

I can't believe the Democrats, and the media, aren't talking about this in the larger context of his houses. Will the McCain campaign play the POW card to explain this uber-rich excess as well? Read More......

A few shots from yesterday at the convention

I've only been to one Democratic convention before, and had no idea that a lot of what makes conventions tick are social events. A bunch of us went to one such event today, hosted by the union SEIU. It was fun, and a great chance to catch up with a lot of blogger types, and some media folks we like, like Ben Smith at Politico. Also had an interesting talk with Missouri Secretary of State, superdelegate, and longtime friend of Joe Sudbay, Robin Carnahan, and her husband Juan Carlos. Robin's mom is former US Senator Jean Carnahan, wife of former MO Governor Mel Carnahan. Very interesting political family. Robin was telling me how her mom is a total tech geek. Even blogs. at 75. Amazing. Somehow I can't imagine John McCain blogging. It would be filled with mistakes, and if you mentioned them, McCain would lecture you about how he was a former POW. I also ran into Danny O'Donnell on the street - Rosie's bro - another longtime friend of Sudbay.



Atrios (left) and Mrs. Atrios (bottom) were busy talking to Open Left's Matt Stoller (top) and Air America's Sam Seder (right).



Our own Joe Sudbay (right) talks to MyDD's Jerome Armstrong (left).



FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher and SEIU's Tim Tagaris (Tim was the Internet guy on the Ned Lamont campaign).



AMERICAblog's Chris in Paris (right) and my Greek blogger friend Panayiotis Vryonis.



Finally we finished up the evening at a great Greek-owned diner where MSNBC is hosting the Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. Tomorrow we'll be spending a lot of time at the Big Tent, the blogger hang-out, and I hope to do some interviews with some folks. More then. Read More......

Jed provides a dose of reality to McCain's latest attack ad

John McCain makes mocking him easy, sometimes "too easy" according to Jed, who cuts McCain's new ads to shreds:


Sometimes the facts are the bitch. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Day one of the Democratic convention is finally here. Should be a wild day. As we reported last night, Ted Kennedy is expected to speak, which will be amazing. Also, the world gets to officially meet our nominee's wife, Michelle Obama.

I'm heading over to the Big Tent shortly -- and we'll spend time at the Pepsi Center. Getting into the facility will be a logistical nightmare. But, it should be worth it for tomorrow's show.

Denver feels like it has become a bubble...What's happening in the real world? Read More......

Open Thread

Tying together some Broadway history with some Democratic Convention history tonight.

RENT is closing on Broadway on September 7, 2008 after a run of over 12 years. I'll never forget watching the original cast sing "Seasons of Love" at the first night of the Democratic Convention in August of 1996. I found the clip on YouTube:

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