The view from my window

Halkidiki, Greece

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God, guns and goons

What kind of an idiot could ever think this was a good idea? If you have to bribe people to come with a free semiautomatic assault rifle, maybe there's an issue.

An Oklahoma church canceled a controversial gun giveaway for teenagers at a weekend youth conference.

Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.

The church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it’s a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event. The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.
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“We have 21 hours of preaching and teaching throughout the week,” Ross said.

A video on the church Web site shows the shooting competition from last year’s conference. A gun giveaway was part of the event last year. This year, organizers included it in their marketing.

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New Yorker cover shows Oval Office with Obama as tribal African, wife as afro-70s-woman with machine gun, Osama on the wall, and flag on fire

Speechless. This has been confirmed, it's real and coming soon. (Click photo to see larger version.)



Okay, what do we do about this? I want suggestions. This is what we have to deal with in America, as Democrats. A liberal media that bends over so far backwards to be "fair" that it becomes just as bad as FOX News. A liberal publication like the New Yorker thinks it's funny to make Mrs. Obama some radical black panther, Barack Obama basically a terrorist (you'll note that he looks just like Osama bin Laden on the wall), and they're even burning the American flag in the Oval Office (that's supposed to be the White House, get it?). They put Osama bin Laden on the wall of the Oval Office. And this is funny? Is the New Yorker so out of touch that they don't realize that much of America, or at least too much of America, harbors these very concerns about Obama and his wife? I'm sure the New Yorker thinks they're actually poking holes in the myth by making light of the stereotypes. Yeah, and tell us how this pokes fun at the stereotype? It reinforces it. And yet again, you'd never see them try anything like this with John McCain. God forbid you even ask a question about John McCain's experience, the media will destroy you. But paint Obama and his wife as America-hating flag-burning violent terrorists, and it's funny. I can't wait to hear what Mrs. Greenspan and Bob Schieffer over at NBC have to say about this. Somehow I'm betting their outrage won't be as great as when anyone questions Saint McCain.

More from Jake Tapper at ABC:

Knowing the liberal politics of the magazine, it's without question that the illustration is meant ironically, as a parody of the caricature some conservatives (and some supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.) are painting of the Obamas.

But it's still fairly incendiary, at least as these things go. I wonder what the reaction would be were it the Weekly Standard or the National Review putting such an illustration on their covers.

Intent factors into these matters, of course, but no Upper East Side liberal -- no matter how superior they feel their intellect is -- should assume that just because they're mocking such ridiculousness, the illustration won't feed into the same beast in emails and other media. It's a recruitment poster for the right-wing.

"This is as offensive a caricature as any magazine could publish," says a high-profile Obama supporter, "and I suspect that other Obama supporters like me are also thinking about not subscribing to or buying a magazine that trafficks in such trash."

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"I'm drawing a blank" -- Response from Possible McCain Veep pick when asked to name economic policy differences between Bush and McCain

This is destined to be a classic in the annals of blowing one's chances to be V.P. -- not that it's really Mark Sanford's fault. It was really a trick question. There are no differences between Bush and McCain.

From Nico, who has the transcript and the video:

The most painful clip from the Sunday morning shows: top McCain VP prospect Mark Sanford "drawing a blank" (in his own words) on live TV when asked to name a major economic policy that President Bush and John McCain disagree on.

The transcript:

BLITZER: Are there any significant economic differences between what the Bush administration has put forward over these many years as opposed to now what John McCain supports?


SANFORD: Um, yeah. For instance, take, you know, take, for instance, the issue of -- I'm drawing a blank, and I hate it when I do that, particularly on television. Take, for instance the contrast on NAFTA. I mean, I think that the bigger issue is credibility in where one is coming from, are they consistent where they come from.

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9 US soldiers killed in Afghanistan today

What a terrible day over there.

A Western official said that nine U.S. soldiers have been killed in a multi-pronged insurgent attack on a remote American base in eastern Afghanistan.

The attack appears to be the deadliest against U.S. forces in Afghanistan in years.

NATO's International Security Assistance force said that militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in Kunar province, a mountainous region that borders Pakistan.

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The McCain/Gramm economic plan: Psychological warfare

As the DNC's latest video shows, McCain speaks for McCain, except when Phil Gramm speaks for McCain. They both think it's all a mind game. People with a lot of money like to play mind games with money. Most people use it to pay bills.



Oh, rich right wing pundit George Will thinks Phil Gramm is right and that you're all a bunch of crybabies. Read More......

The $5 trillion dollar problem

Friday was a terrifying warning as stock prices for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae plunged up to 50% before staging a recovery based on words of support out of Washington. That may have kept the wolves at bay for a day but this is going to be a big worry in the coming days. Words of concern or words of support may impact timing, but ultimately they don't impact the market fundamentals which are bad. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been a topic of concern for quite a long time.

We had Depression era banking laws in place for a reason and just because Phil Gramm wanted to gain favor with UBS for a job, the rest of Congress shouldn't have gone along with his failed logic. Modernizing bank regulations is a start, but we do not need nor should we allow financial institutions to become too big to fail. That's where we are today and we don't have a spare few trillion sitting around to bail everybody out. Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Eclectic group on the shows today.

First, there's Arnold. He's already split with McCain on gay marriage (Arnold opposes his state's constitutional amendment to ban the marriages underway in the state; McCain supports the ban.) Today, word is he'll "blast Bush" over global warming.

The other GOPer who could/should make news is McCain's top adviser, Carly Fiorina. Last week, she injected the birth control issue into the Presidential race. It's an issue that John McCain really, really doesn't want to discuss. Apparently, Ms. Fiorina didn't know that McCain had voted against improving access of birth control for women. And, she doesn't know that many in her Republican party are actually against birth control.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor; Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Carly Fiorina, adviser to John McCain; Sen. Claire Mccaskill, D-Mo.; Republican strategist Mike Murphy; Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.

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CNN's "Late Edition" — Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Govs. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., and Janet Napolitano, D-Ariz.; Nancy Pfotenhauer, adviser to McCain; Jason Furman, adviser to Barack Obama; Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie.

"Fox News Sunday" _ T. Boone Pickens, chairman of the energy investment fund BP Capital and creator of an alternative energy plan.

Have at it. Read More......

What in the world is happening with Italy?

Modern Italy has never been a politically stable country and sure, it's not exactly the most progressive country in the EU. You could also generally count on the government to have laws and then ignore them as they saw fit, pretty much leaving people alone. In recent months though, it's going from the friendly, disheveled but still charming neighbor to the downright nasty and bizarre guy ranting in your face until you call the police.

Between the government fingerprinting Roma (gypsies), the right wing mayor of Rome banning food, drink and singing on the streets and then the story of a man who failed his driving test because he was gay. Really, what the heck is going on? Read More......

Summer holidays in Spain

"Computer Says No" Carol from Little Britain is the tour guide. Read More......

Debate over US AAA rating

I can't even believe things have dropped so low that this discussion is out there. I would like to be more confident in our ability to maintain AAA status but there are some painful days still to come. Losing AAA status means even more costly loans for our debt. But remember, Republicans know the economy. They're the experts, so they say.

The U.S. would retain its top AAA credit ratings even if the government was forced to rescue mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to Moody's Investors Service Inc. and Standard & Poor's.

U.S. debt is ``well within'' the guidelines for an Aaa rating, said Steven Hess, vice president and senior credit officer at Moody's in New York. The U.S.'s AAA rating is not at risk, said Nikola Swann, S&P;'s primary U.S. credit analyst.

``Even under a real stress scenario, the amount of money the government would have to come up with is not that large,'' Moody's Hess said. ``The amount of money required would not be so large that it would make us worry about the U.S. credit rating.''

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