Stargate SG-1's General Hammond died

Sad. Read More......

DOW posts its worst June since the Great Depression

Somebody offer John McCain a donut. Read More......

General Wesley Clark is sticking to his guns

And good for him. Because he's right. Let the media analyze exactly what Clark said and THEN tell us where he's wrong, or even rude. Here is what Clark said today:

There are many important issues in this Presidential election, clearly one of the most important issues is national security and keeping the American people safe. In my opinion, protecting the American people is the most important duty of our next President. I have made comments in the past about John McCain's service and I want to reiterate them in order be crystal clear. As I have said before I honor John McCain's service as a prisoner of war and a Vietnam Veteran. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. I would never dishonor the service of someone who chose to wear the uniform for our nation.

John McCain is running his campaign on his experience and how his experience would benefit him and our nation as President. That experience shows courage and commitment to our country - but it doesn't include executive experience wrestling with national policy or go-to-war decisions. And in this area his judgment has been flawed - he not only supported going into a war we didn't have to fight in Iraq, but has time and again undervalued other, non-military elements of national power that must be used effectively to protect America But as an American and former military officer I will not back down if I believe someone doesn't have sound judgment when it comes to our nation's most critical issues.

Ooh, pretty controversial. Wesley Clark pointed out a fact. Quick, shut him up so Liz Sidoti can give John McCain another donut. With sprinkles. Read More......

XP goes the way of the dodo this week

So what does that make Windows Vista besides the New Coke? Read More......

The pundits, of course, rise to defend their friend, John McCain

The traditional media types are in a frenzy today. They are SHOCKED, JUST SHOCKED, that anyway could challenge John McCain. All the usual suspects are weighing in. Chris Cillizza, of course, parrots the conventional wisdom. Talking head Monica Novotny at MSNBC just blatantly mischaracterized what Wes Clark said. Marc Ambinder is unequivocal:

Ret. Gen. Wes Clark’s remark was a provocation; an insult.

An insult, right.

The McCain campaign is insulting the intelligence of the American people by hauling out one of the original Swift Boaters. That's the real insult. And, it's an insult to think that McCain's military service somehow makes him qualified to be president. It doesn't.

But, the McCain campaign can't possibly insult the intelligence of the traditional media. That crew falls for this B.S. every time. As MissLaura points out at DailyKos:

McCain's favored strategy is to link not just national security and foreign policy issues to his military record, but all issues on which he is challenged. Remember that this is a man who linked healthcare to his POW experience not too long ago. Many things can be said about McCain's military service. That it automatically qualifies him for the presidency is not one.

Just watch how the traditional media falls for it -- again.

Now, in these kinds of stories about patriotism, Cillizza, Novotny and Ambinder, like most of their colleagues, will repeatedly fail to mention that McCain didn't love his country til he was deprived of her company. Again, McCain's exact words:

I really didn't love America until I was deprived of her company.

McCain wasn't a kid when he was deprived of his country. He was deprived of his country at the age of 31, when he became a prisoner of war. Until then, in his own words, McCain really didn't love this country. During the time McCain didn't love his country, he was educated at the United States Naval Academy. During that time he didn't really love America, he served in the U.S. Navy. But, McCain told the world that he didn't love his country during those times. What does that say about McCain's character?

Ask any member of Congress -- or any other congressional or presidential candidate -- how old they were when they started to love their country. I bet you'd be hard pressed to find one who says they waited til they were 31.

Now, if John Kerry or Barack Obama ever said a phrase like that about not loving their country, the traditional media would never ever ever let it go -- no matter what the circumstances. The Republicans wouldn't let them forget it -- and that person would immediately be deemed unworthy to be president. But, today, we're seeing the media types all line up to defend McCain -- as if his own words and actions can never be challenged -- and that, of course, is the whole intent of the McCain campaign. The McCain campaign knows how to play the media for the fools that they are. They know they're dealing with the same media folks who endlessly regurgitated the false attacks against John Kerry from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Only in their warped world was it acceptable to challenge Kerry's service, but unacceptable to intimate that McCain's service has nothing to do with whether he'd be a good president.

The punditry obviously all read David Broder's edict last week: No one can challenge John McCain because, we, the traditional media, know him and he's our friend. The pundits and political reporters who helped bring you the second Bush term by accepting the Karl Rove spin are at it again -- working to give you a third Bush term. Read More......

Lieberman and the Bush administration create a "politics of fear" echo chamber to aid McCain

It's 2004 all over again:

The White House on Monday said it agreed with Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) warning that terrorists could test the new president with an attack next year.

Lieberman, who has ruffled Democratic feathers with his outspoken support of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), said on “Face the Nation” that “our enemies will test the new president early.”

Asked about that statement, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Lieberman could be right.

“I think Sen. Lieberman, unfortunately, could be right,” Perino stated, noting that there continue to be extremists determined to attack the U.S.

Of course the White House agreed with Senator Joe Lieberman. They're all on the same team trying to win a third Bush term for John McCain --and the politics of fear is a key part of McCain's campaign.

Now, if Lieberman and Bush and McCain had actually put their time and energy into vanquishing al Qaeda, we wouldn't be talking about the potential for a terror threat.

But, as we learned today, the Iraq war and Bush administration in-fighting hampered the effort to defeat the enemy who killed over 3,000 Americans on September 11th. Joe Lieberman and his pal, John McCain, never held Bush accountable for his failures. Now, they're all exploiting those failures for political gain. It's sick, but the traditional media will let them get away with it -- again. Read More......

McCain campaign attacks John Kerry's war record, says Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were simply telling the truth

How do Chris Cillizza, Marc Ambinder, Rick Sanchez, the Washington Independent and all the other folks in the media, who turn into goo whenever John McCain speaks, feel about McCain putting a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on a campaign conference call today, and then using that campaign call to restate the bogus charges against John Kerry, a Vietnam vet?

Sen. John McCain's campaign launched on Monday, the McCain "Truth Squad" - a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks on the Senator's military record.

In hopes of nipping any criticism in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth squad that had worked so hard to defame Sen. John Kerry's own Vietnam record.

On the conference call, Day - in addition to the other participants - decried comments made by Gen. Wesley Clark over the weekend, in which he questioned whether McCain's war experience really qualified him to be commander-in-chief. Defending McCain's service, Day was quick to personalize his remarks....

"The Swift Boat attacks were simply a revelation of the truth, the similarity does not exist here. What the Swift Boat campaign was about was to lay out John Kerry's record. John Kerry has never produced any evidence to deny that. We are producing the evidence of these attacks right now to show that those remarks were completely inaccurate.

It seems McCain is the only Vietnam vet whose record is off-limits (McCain's surrogate also belittled General Clark's experience in Vietnam - again, it's okay when McCain's team does it). But for McCain to use a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to put such a person on the campaign conference call as a spokesman for the campaign, and then to let this man reiterate the Swift Boat attacks on Jerry Kerry. Absolutely amazing. Let's see how many of our friends in the mainstream media even dare to ask John McCain how he could even think of having a Swift Boat Veteran represent his campaign. Read More......

The NYT tries to act like a real newspaper

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Maybe CBS's Bob Schieffer can be John McCain's VP

What did Wesley Clark really say yesterday? You wouldn't know it from today's news coverage. Then there's CBS' Bob Schieffer, who seems to be auditioning for VP.

More from Media Matters:

What Gen. Clark Actually Said
Media Falsely Claim Clark Attacked McCain’s Service
Clark Praised McCain’s Service, While Saying it Wasn’t a “Qualification to be President”

Washington, DC -- Today Media Matters for America called on members of the media to set the record straight concerning the remarks of retired Gen. Wesley Clark on Sen. John McCain’s military record -- a record Clark praised while also saying that it wasn’t a “qualification to be president.” Many in the media have falsely claimed that Gen. Clark attacked McCain’s military service in comments made during the June 29 edition of CBS’ Face the Nation.

Few have reported the entirety of what Clark actually said, including his praise of McCain’s service, or that his comments actually repeated CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer’s own words in response to Schieffer’s statement that unlike McCain, Obama has not “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.”

“The media driven notion that Gen. Clark somehow attacked Sen. McCain’s military service is patently false. In fact, the opposite is true -- he praised it. This controversy was created and fueled by a media unwilling to live up to the basic journalistic standard of accuracy and thoroughness,” said Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters. “It is a fact that Gen. Clark praised Sen. McCain’s military service while also saying that such service is not a ‘qualification to be president.’ The media have a duty not only to Gen. Clark but the public to correct the record.”

What did Clark actually say?

Many in the media have cropped Clark’s June 29 Face the Nation interview to the short soundbite: “I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” Those cropping the interview make two serious errors. First, they ignore that Clark was repeating Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer’s words in response to Schieffer’s statement that, unlike McCain, Obama has not “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.” Second, they ignore that shortly before that part of Clark’s exchange with Schieffer, Clark praised McCain’s service: “I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he has traveled all over the world.” Clark continued: “But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in Air -- in the Navy that he commanded, it wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn't seen what it's like when diplomats come in and say, ‘I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?’ He hasn't made those calls, Bob.”

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When does the media plan on reporting that John McCain "really didn't love America" at the age of 31 as a military officer?

McCain has said this more than once, so it's not a mistake. Now that the media is in a frenzy to cover the audacity of anyone to ask about John McCain's military service (he did at least one propaganda tape admitting to war crimes, but don't ask about it), I hope the media will remind people that John McCain has said, twice, that he didn't even love his country when he was shot down at the age of 31, while serving in the United States military. That's not speculation, it's not a lie, it's what McCain himself has said, twice. Mrs. Obama simply said she was never "really proud" of our country until recently, and that was a huge story. But McCain, as a future commander in chief contender, never loved our country as an adult but the media think it's not news. Imagine had Barack Obama said he never loved America until he hit his 30s. Imagine the media reaction. Imagine John McCain's and the Republicans' reactions. McCain has never been asked to explain himself.

Watch McCain's statement for yourself:

Read More......

With sprinkles!

John McCain and his surrogates have been attacking Obama's wife, Michelle, which is something the Republicans tend to do every presidential campaign. But this time, some say it's not going to work:

Despite all this negative commentary, a recent Gallup poll showed her favorable/unfavorable ratings at a relatively strong 48% favorable, 29% unfavorable (as compared to 39% favorable, 25% unfavorable for Cindy McCain). And like previous spouses, she has an opportunity to improve them over the course of the general election campaign. In April of 1992, shortly after Bill Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton's Gallup ratings stood at 38% favorable and 39% unfavorable, with the famous "Stand By Your Man" 60 Minutes interview in January of that year probably representing the most enduring image of HRC. By election day, they rebounded to 49% favorable and 30% unfavorable.

These kind of attacks, going after the wife, are always risky. I mean, what kind of man goes after his opponent by hitting the guy's wife? But, the Republicans are quite accomplished at hitting below the belt, and getting away with it. Just look at John McCain - he used his own scandal-ridden wife to attack Mrs. Obama, and the media didn't even flinch. The mainstream media "likes" John McCain. The media tolerated, and even promoted, disgusting attacks on John Kerry's military record - claiming that Kerry's medals were somehow fake. The media loved to show and reshow the photo of John Kerry throwing away his medals from Vietnam. They never got enough of Bill Clinton protesting the Vietnam war at a US embassy. But that same media won't touch John McCain's actual military record, such as when McCain made propaganda tapes for the North Vietnamese, something that would be a never-ending story had Obama done propaganda tapes for, say, Al Qaeda. Yes, at around the same time in history, Bill Clinton attended an anti-Vietnam-war protest, John Kerry gave up his medals from Vietnam, and John McCain made propaganda tapes for the North Vietnamese. Guess which act the mainstream media (and the Republican party) find least offensive and more forgivable.

Then again, the media's pro-McCain/pro-Republican bias shouldn't surprise us. Reporters like AP's Liz Sidoti even bring McCain his coffee and donuts, just the way he likes them. As the Post's Dana Milbank reported a short while back (Via Jed Report):

So much for the liberal media.

John McCain and Barack Obama both appeared before the nation's newspaper editors yesterday. The putative Republican presidential nominee was given a box of doughnuts and a standing ovation. The likely Democratic nominee was likened to a terrorist....

"We spend quite a bit of time with you on the back of the Straight Talk Express asking you questions, and what we've decided to do today was invite everyone else along on the ride," Sidoti explained. "We even brought you your favorite treat."

McCain opened the offering. "Oh, yes, with sprinkles!" he said.

Sidoti passed him a cup. "A little coffee with a little cream and a little sugar," she said.

With sprinkles! How adorable! You really have to watch the video - Jed has it - Sedoti literally giggles as she's giving McCain his coffee and donuts. Watch and listen to Jed's video. Now ask yourself why McCain himself can criticize Obama for not having served in the military ("Sparring between McCain and Obama over the GI Bill got personal last week when McCain said he would not be lectured from someone 'who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform.'"), but when anyone not even related to the Obama campaign asks legitimate questions about things that actually happened during McCain's military service, such as the propaganda tapes, the McCain campaign, and the media in tow, treats such questions as out of bounds and "fringe" and "Swift Boating." That's my favorite, the Swift Boating charge. Yes, the media that quite literally hand fed you the Swift Boat story for a good year, pretty much putting the nail in the coffin of John Kerry's presidency, now suddenly cares about our vets and negative campaigning. (Had Obama done propaganda videos for the enemy, the video would be on an endless 24 hour loop on CNN and FOX - speaking of which, where is John McCain's propaganda tape?). Seems the media only censors itself when the question is about something that actually did happen, and the target is a donut-eating Republican. With sprinkles. Read More......

Take the McCain residences tour

As noted, John and Cindy McCain weren't paying the taxes on one of their many homes. Jed took a tour -- via Google Earth -- of the McCain residences across the country:



No wonder they have so much time staying on top of paying their taxes. That's a lot of properties to keep track of. Read More......

Hunt for al Qaeda "undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration" and Iraq War

Last week, John McCain's top adviser, Charlie Black, made news when he said a terror attack would be a "big advantage" to McCain's chances of winning the election in November. Republican really think that. The sick thing is that it's the Bush administration's failure to destroy al Qaeda that makes another attack even possible. A blockbuster in today's New York Times explains how the Bush and his top aides have continuously screwed up the anti-terror efforts:

The story of how Al Qaeda, whose name is Arabic for “the base,” has gained a new haven is in part a story of American accommodation to President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, whose advisers played down the terrorist threat. It is also a story of how the White House shifted its sights, beginning in 2002, from counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan to preparations for the war in Iraq.

Just as it had on the day before 9/11, Al Qaeda now has a band of terrorist camps from which to plan and train for attacks against Western targets, including the United States. Officials say the new camps are smaller than the ones the group used prior to 2001. However, despite dozens of American missile strikes in Pakistan since 2002, one retired C.I.A. officer estimated that the makeshift training compounds now have as many as 2,000 local and foreign militants, up from several hundred three years ago.

Publicly, senior American and Pakistani officials have said that the creation of a Qaeda haven in the tribal areas was in many ways inevitable — that the lawless badlands where ethnic Pashtun tribes have resisted government control for centuries were a natural place for a dispirited terrorism network to find refuge. The American and Pakistani officials also blame a disastrous cease-fire brokered between the Pakistani government and militants in 2006.

But more than four dozen interviews in Washington and Pakistan tell another story. American intelligence officials say that the Qaeda hunt in Pakistan, code-named Operation Cannonball by the C.I.A. in 2006, was often undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration and within the C.I.A., including about whether American commandos should launch ground raids inside the tribal areas.

These screw-ups are the people who claim they'll make us safer. It's never been true (although the media laps it up and too many Democrats still cower at the idea of standing up to Bush's failed national security policies.)

It wasn't just the in-fighting, that undermined the anti-terror efforts. As many predicted back during the rush to war in 2002, Iraq was a major distraction from the effort to destroy the real enemy who attacked the U.S. in 2001:

Current and former military and intelligence officials said that the war in Iraq consistently diverted resources and high-level attention from the tribal areas. When American military and intelligence officials requested additional Predator drones to survey the tribal areas, they were told no drones were available because they had been sent to Iraq.

The Bush administration is a national security disgrace. John McCain backed Bush's policies all the way. This is their failure.

Of course, for Republicans, there is a silver lining. If something really bad happens, like another terrorist attack on the U.S., it could help McCain. Maybe that's been part of the strategy all along. Read More......

9 in 10 Americans see financial squeeze

What do 90% of Americans know anyway? Ben Bernanke says everything is just fine and Henry Paulson tell us that we have a strong dollar policy. John McCain still isn't sure about any of this but as soon as Phil Gramm tells him what to say, I'm sure he'll confirm that everything is A-OK. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

In a report on the failure to capture Osama bin Laden on the Today Show at 7:10 a.m, Matt Lauer was asking NBC's Pentagon reporter Jim Miklaszewski, a question. Lauer began "The reports says that, uh, Obama....excuse me, Osama bin Laden...'

It's going to be a long four months til November. Read More......

Bernanke not sure inflation is a problem

To be fair, those complaining about inflation could simply show 'em all and stop buying food to eat or using energy for their home or car. The skyrocketing costs hitting every American home are fictional. Haven't happened and won't be an issue at all moving forward. See, Bernanke isn't quite as much of an idiot as most believe.

Yet Bernanke's Fed signaled Wednesday that, after nine months of interest rate cuts and expansive lending to the financial sector, it isn't eager to reverse course and push rates higher to try to tamp down rising prices.

Why? Because the Fed remains skeptical that high commodity prices will ripple through the economy, leading to broad price hikes and big wage increases.

"The committee expects inflation to moderate later this year and next year," the Federal Open Market Committee said in holding the fed funds rate steady at 2%, though it did note that "uncertainty" remains high and suggested inflation concerns could rise.

Read More......

How will African Union respond to Mugabe?

Now that the single-choice, violence-marred campaign is over Robert Mugabe is traveling to join fellow African Union countries in Egypt. Some observers are holding out hope that the AU will voice their opposition to the fraudulent election in Zimbabwe. In an ideal world, perhaps, though considering how European Union allowed Mugabe to visit Italy for a shopping trip only a few months ago, this may not be very realistic. Mugabe was one of the early revolutionaries who fought against European colonialism in Africa so for many, they can easily overlook recent events in Zimbabwe. How they can overlook the fact that the people suffering from hunger and violence are also black and disenfranchised is another question. Read More......

Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?

It's not "nice" to ask the question, but it's actually a pretty good question. Yes, we all know that John McCain was captured and tortured in Vietnam (McCain won't let you forget). A lot of people don't know, however, that McCain made a propaganda tape for the enemy while he was in captivity. Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief? It's not like McCain rose to the level of general or something. He's a vet. We get it. But simply being a vet, as laudable as it is, doesn't really tell you much about someone's qualifications for being commander in chief. If McCain is going to play the "I was tortured" card every five minutes as a justification for electing him president, then he shouldn't throw a hissy fit any time any one asks to know more about his military experience. Getting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience. Again, it's not nice to say say, but we're not running for class president here. We deserve real answers, not emotional outbursts designed to quell the questions. Read More......

McCains haven't paid the taxes on their home in 4 years

Well, that's only one of their eight or nine homes. (Mrs. McCain isn't quite sure how many homes they have, Newsweek says they have "at least seven" - at least? No one knows for sure.). Gosh, I hope this isn't the home that John McCain built his own private lake on, so he could go fishing - be a shame to lose that one. More from Huff Post:

The McCains have failed to pay taxes on their beach-front condo in La Jolla, California, for the last four years and are currently in default, The Huffington Post has learned.

More from Newsweek, which broke the story. Apparently the McCains paid their taxes once Newsweek confronted them. Brings new meaning to McCain's commitment to a tax holiday. Read More......

Verizon Wireless charges you to call your own voicemail

I know it's been a while since I've posted here, and there is a very good reason for that which I will explain soon. It has to do with the fact that I have an awesome new job that's taking up most of my time.

However, knowing the history of AMERICAblog and Verizon, I thought I might share this tidbit I just discovered.

Did you know that when you call your Verizon voicemail, you get charged against your minutes? Even though it's technically "in" because it's a Verizon number calling a Verizon number, you get charged for the minutes as if you were calling an out-of-network number.

I just spent about an hour on the line with Verizon dealing with unrelated billing issues, and in the course of that conversation, I noticed the voicemail charges. The woman assisting me - who was ridiculously helpful, btw - said they have received many complaints about this voicemail thing, but she doesn't know what - if anything - is being done about it.

Seems awfully shady to me. It's hard to feel sorry for companies complaining about customers using too much bandwidth and the need to charge more when they're sneaking fees in the backdoor. Read More......

OPEC President: Oil at $150-$170 in near term

The good news is that he doesn't think $200 oil is coming soon. The cheap dollar position by Bush is coming home to roost.

"I forecast prices probably between $150-170 during this summer. That will perhaps ease towards the end of the year," he told France 24 television, according to a text of the interview released by the station.

The comments came as crude prices neared $135 per barrel, after rising about 40 percent this year.

Khelil said he doubted prices would climb as high as $200.

"I think that the devaluation of the dollar against the euro, if everything goes as I think it will, will be of the order of perhaps 1-2 percent and this will probably generate an $8 rise in the price of oil," he said.

Read More......

Supreme Court: "the coming presidential election will determine its future path"

Not that most of us aren't aware of the implications for the presidential elections, but, a front page article in today's Washington Post lays out one of the most basic and critical impacts. The future of the Supreme Court is at stake in the presidential election:

But as justices finished their work last week, two overarching truths about the court remained unchanged: It is sharply divided ideologically on some of the most fundamental constitutional questions, and the coming presidential election will determine its future path.

A victory by the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, would probably mean preserving the uneasy but roughly balanced status quo, since the justices who are considered most likely to retire are liberal. A win for his Republican counterpart, John McCain, could mean a fundamental shift to a consistently conservative majority ready to take on past court rulings on abortion rights, affirmative action and other issues important to the right.

"Could mean"? Duh. A McCain presidency would mean a fundamental shift to the right. Just watch the way he pandered to the right wing last week.

Stark choice. But, it's not that complicated. If rights matter, vote Obama. If rights don't matter -- and if taking rights away from Americans is acceptable, vote McCain. This election really matters to anyone whose rights are in danger (you know, like, women, gays, minorities, union members....to name a few.) Read More......

McCain debates himself on immigration reform -- and loses

McCain is flipping and flopping on immigration, which used to be one of his signature "maverick" issues, but that was before he started pandering to the GOP immigrant bashers. But, it's okay if McCain flip-flops because the King of Conventional Wisdom, David Broder, says McCain's flip-flops don't matter because even though McCain flip flops, he has "long-established reputation as a man who says what he believes." Got that? Watch this:
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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Okay, there's a lot going on today on the Sunday shows. You got a couple of third party contenders: Nader and the GOP's Nader, Bob Barr. You got a slew of potential VP choices, mostly on the GOP side: Pawlenty, Lieberman, Jindal and Portman. Wes Clark is the only potential Democratic V.P. pick. Then, there's one Senate Minority Leader who is facing the possibility of defeat in November: Mitch McConnell (will CNN be giving his opponent, Bruce Lunsford, an equal amount of face time?).

Seems like every Republican (except Arnold)on the t.v. today wants to be McCain's V.P. Most of the Dems are just there to represent Obama.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; Ralph Nader, independent presidential candidate.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; retired Gen. Wesley Clark.

___

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., Dave Freudenthal, D-Wyo., and Bill Ritter, D-Colo.

___

CNN's "Late Edition" — U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Govs. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and Bobby Jindal, R-La.; Terry McAuliffe, campaign chairman for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.; former Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Bob Barr, Libertarian presidential candidate.

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Blair urges people to do something

Whatever. He could not even get his best friend Bush to listen and now he somehow wants everyone to follow him on climate change? Doesn't he have a meeting on Wall Street to help out a few billionaires screw everyone again? Just go away and don't tell us where you are going or what you are doing. Read More......

US & EU agree to share spying data on each others citizens

Hard to believe the world does not want to copy our so-called democracy. Read More......

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support

What if you threw a tantrum and nobody came? Read More......

The McCains in default: Weren't paying taxes on one of their many houses -- the one on the beach in California

Via Huffington Post:

Newsweek is set to publish a highly embarrassing report on Sen. John McCain, revealing that the McCains have failed to pay taxes on their beach-front condo in La Jolla, California, for the last four years and are currently in default, The Huffington Post has learned.

Under California law, once a residential property is in default for five years, it can be sold at a tax sale to recover the unpaid taxes for the taxpayers.

The McCains own at least seven homes through a variety of trusts and corporations controlled by Cindy McCain.

Now, listen. These things happen when you have a lot of houses. How are John and Cindy supposed to keep track of all of this? They're really just regular people with too many houses. They're in default like many other Americans. Except, most Americans in default will lose their homes forever. This is just a glitch for the multi-millionaire McCains.

McCain's friends in the traditional media will surely give him yet another pass on this. And, why not? McCain obviously has some great houses to which he can invite his media pals. But, just for a second, imagine the furor if Barack Obama didn't pay his property taxes. Read More......

How do you feel about having your laptop searched at the border?

A recent court decision found that border guards can search your laptop computer. Hell, why stop at the border. They can already search your luggage at the airport on a domestic flight - and that seems to be the rationale the courts are using, it's just like a luggage search - so what makes you think they won't start searching your laptop too. And why not? The only way to really ensure that there are no thieves or terrorists in our midst is to pry into the private lives of every one of us - our phone calls, our letters, our computers. Well, that's not 100% true. The only way to REALLY eliminate all crime and terrorism is for the government to simply kill everyone - or at least a few tens of thousands (we don't have soccer stadiums, but perhaps football fields will do).

This is what happens when old men, like John McCain, frankly, try to make important decisions about new technology. They don't understand it, so they screw up. A search of a laptop computer, or a cell phone, is not a search of your luggage. It's a search of luggage that happens to contain the equivalent of a tape recording of every phone conversation you've had in the past ten years. Luggage that contains details of your sex life, including possible a recorded history of it. Luggage that includes your medical history. Nude photos of your spouse, or yourself. Your personal diary. A computer is not the same thing as an electric razor or a radio. It's an incredibly intimate look into the life of the bearer, and old men who know nothing about the brave new world of technology shouldn't be in the position of deciding how personal a computer really is (or isn't). Read More......

Credit card companies unilaterally changing terms

I am against using extended credit with credit cards but this move by banks shows yet again how US regulations are too heavily tilted in favor of business. Americans have been living beyond their means for years due to credit and now many are trying to keep up due to increasing food and energy costs. Now banks are making changes that will negatively impact consumers all while being propped up by taxpayers in the form of bailouts and discount loans by the government. As I've been saying, when the tables are turned, banks don't hesitate to screw consumers so why are we helping them when they continue to pull stunts such as this? Let them go bankrupt and see how everyone else lives. For the millionth time, Democrats continue to let Wall Street and the GOP get a free ride on their problem.

Just as Americans grow more reliant on credit cards to help pay monthly bills, they’re being hit with a one-two punch: Card companies are reducing borrowing limits for tens of thousands of consumers, which then can lead to lower credit scores.

Those facing this predicament might not even know it until they apply for a loan or another credit card, and then get denied because their credit score has dropped.

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Pakistani city could fall to Islamic militants

From Canada's Globe and Mail:

Security around Peshawar, the provincial capital in northwest Pakistan, has been dramatically stepped up amid fears that the city could fall to heavily armed Islamic militants who have now massed around its outskirts.

From three sides, Peshawar, which borders Pakistan's wild tribal belt, is menaced by Taliban groups and other warlords.

If Peshawar is taken over by extremists, the rest of the North West Frontier Province is also threatened, raising the possibility that religious fundamentalists may gain control of a state on Afghanistan's border. The drama in Peshawar reinforces existing doubts about the new Pakistani government's policy of pulling back the army and seeking peace deals with militants.

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McCain calls Carter "lousy"

It's predictable that the GOP is going down the Jimmy Carter path, as if they were somehow worse than what the country is experiencing today under the Bush years. Why not take a look at things Carter did not do and compare Carter to Bush, since McCain has been such a strong supporter. It's true, Carter failed terribly when it came to the S&L; crisis by not having a catastrophic banking crisis during his term that could compare to today or The Keating Five scandal. John McCain could tell us more about how well he personally handled that. While he's at it, he can tell us how his co-chair kicked ass as he jammed through CFMA 2000 (aka, "the Enron Loophole") and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that set the stage for the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. Wall Street is currently enjoying one of its worst periods in decades courtesy of GOP leadership.

We should also note that the US dollar is celebrating lows not seen since the Nixon years, joining the record high gas prices not seen since that period as well. Carter was so bad, he failed to hit record lows with both. What a loser! Instead we have McCain hugging President Bush who ushered in this new period of economic misery. Now *that* is leadership. Overseas, Carter failed to get the US hostages in Iran and the US lost 8 soldiers in the failed rescue mission. Compare that to the illustrious Bush record of over 4110 soldiers lost in Iraq and 536 in Afghanistan. Carter failed again!

If McCain wants to talk about the Carter years, go ahead, let's talk about those times. Let's talk about how much worse the Bush years are and the let's take a look at what we are going to experience for the next few years as a result of GOP policy that McCain supported. Please talk more about this and see where it all goes. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

In lieu of a poem, I'm linking to the post below from Chris with Bruce singing "This land is your land." That's poetic -- and you know what? It is your land and you can take it back in November. Wonder if Springsteen will be out on the campaign trail this year?

Hot, hot, hot and humid in DC today. But, we're not flooded and the surrounding areas aren't on fire. Given that is the case in other parts to the country, I guess we're ahead.

Thread, please. Read More......

Za Boss à Paris

My sister and brother in law invited us last night to see Springsteen and wow, that guy and the E Street Band continue to be amazing. The last time I saw Springsteen was in Cleveland in the 1980s when my friends and I happened to meet the E Street Band (without Bruce) at a hotel bar not far from the Cleveland Coliseum. In person they were every bit as friendly as I imagined. This song is of course, Woody Guthrie's and is from a 1980s concert but is as relevant today as ever. One of these days we're going to get the country back on track and think about everyone instead of the select few. Read More......

Red ink to save your life

Democracy in action in Zimbabwe. If you can show an ink stained finger, perhaps you will avoid a beating. Without it, anything goes. This is what Thabo Mbeki of South Africa thinks is democracy though the (probable) next President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has been critical of the despot. Nelson Mandela has delivered mild and veiled criticism of Mugabe this week in London though sadly, it's been a terrible missed opportunity for the otherwise respected elder statesman who guided the peaceful transition from apartheid to the new South Africa. I expect neighboring despots and Mbeki to be meek though it's not easy hearing so little from Mandela. Of course he is old and frail, but a few words would have gone a long way.

The young man who gave his name only as Wilson wanted just one thing from yesterday's presidential election in Zimbabwe: the indelible red ink on his little finger to show he had voted.

"They said they would come to see if we voted," he said after casting his ballot in a tent in a Harare suburb. "They know if we went to vote we would have to vote for the president. They were watching."

Who are "they"?

"The ones who made us go to the meetings at night. The ones who told us we must be careful to correct our mistake."

Wilson voted for Robert Mugabe yesterday, against his will but judging that it was the best way to save himself from a beating or worse.

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Wall Street on edge of official bear market

One financial site says it was one of the worst weeks in the market seen in modern times. Obviously they don't understand economics, because the Republicans always tell us how much they know about economics and surely they must be right, right? Putting fantasy land aside, the Dow slightly fell below a 20% decline from its peak (the definition of a bear market) though eventually finished just above.

It wasn't long ago that the Dow was at 14,000+ and authors vying for a spot on CNBC and other Wall Street cheerleading outlets were writing books such as "Dow 30,000 by 2008" and "Dow 36,000" and "Dow 40,000." As ridiculous as they all sound today, it's surprising that there wasn't a book called "Dow, but this one goes up to eleven." Read More......

Friday Orchid Blogging

Colmanara Wildcat

I love this flower. In orchid-land, this is considered one of the more "common" orchids (i.e., nothing special). Well, let me tell you. This is one of the first plants I ever got, and it's still possibly my favorite. I mean just look at the thing (this is my actual plant, photographed today). Look especially at the photos below, that show a close-up of one flower, and then the entire plant (there are literally 40 flowers getting ready to open on that second stem alone). I actually had trouble growing this guy for a few years, until I moved it over to the semi-hydroponic form of growing I'd mentioned before (basically, growing it in a plastic Chinese delivery container, with holes an inch above the bottom, and filling the pot with hard-baked clay pellets that absorb the water and keep the area moist yet open and airy. The thing LOVES it. This is the best it's bloomed for me, ever. Of course, it will probably fully open up in 2 weeks when I'm out of town. Anyway, really a spectacular plant. Oh, and a mouse chomped down on it too a few months back and it STILL looks like this. One more thing, orchid plants themselves are often quite hideously ugly, as plants go. Check out the plant itself in the bottom photo. Nothing special. Anyway, enjoy. JOHN



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Not everyone recognizes Obama

This is like a scene out of that Saturday Night Live skit with David Spade working as the snarky receptionist always saying "And, you are? And, you're with?" It's pretty funny:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) may have one of the best-known faces in the world, but that doesn’t mean he is recognized everywhere, even in Washington.

Washington Sports Club employee Takehia Wheeler was manning the front desk to scan members’ identification cards Friday morning when the presidential candidate walked in with his entourage. The gym opened a month ago in the Columbia Heights district.

“He came in and walked past me,” Wheeler told In The Know. “I was like, ‘Sir, you need to come back.’ ”

Wheeler said Obama looked familiar, but she didn’t recognize him. So she asked for his ID card.

“I said, ‘What’s your last name?’ He said ‘Obama,’ ” Wheeler explained. “I said, ‘So what’s your first name?”

Then she laughed because it was at that point that Wheeler realized who she was talking to. How did she make amends? By saying, “Sorry, Mr. Future President!”

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House GOP: "There are no safe Republican seats in this election"

AP

Democrats currently hold a majority of 235-199, with one vacancy. Speaking privately, numerous Republicans have long conceded they are well on their way to additional, possibly significant losses in November, given President Bush's low approval ratings, opposition to the war in Iraq and polls that show a large majority of Americans wanting change.Karen Hanretty, communications director for the NRCC, reacted to the private report by acknowledging the difficulties confronting her party."This is a challenging environment," she said. "Any Republican running for office has to run basically on an independent platform, localize the race and not take anything for granted. There are no safe Republican seats in this election."

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Wisconsin Dems says they'll boot delegate who said she'll vote for McCain

Not so funny any more, is it? Read More......

Fed was worried about bailout credit consequences

As in worried they might become the next credit casualty. If only the Democrats in Congress would wake up to the bailout and it's potential consequences. That intervention was highly unusual and very risky yet nobody wants to talk about it. If they had to (and I'm not convinced they had to) go along with it they should have at least made it a painful process and let everyone know how exceptional it was. The lesson learned on Wall Street and by the GOP was that the wealthiest can get away with anything yet everyone else will be held accountable.

The Fed and Bernanke are in full CYA mode this week and letting everyone know how urgent this intervention was to avoid catastrophic failure. Bullshit. If the situation was so urgent, why and how did they let it get that far? How did the checks and balances fail? Anyone who believes for one minute that the risks were not known or that trouble was out there is a liar or an idiot. An overhaul of the regulation system is needed and everyone who was supposed to be providing oversight should be fired immediately and replaced, including Bernanke. Meanwhile, the Democrats failed miserably to tie this fiasco to the GOP who owns this trillion dollar mess. There are only so many lost opportunities that one can stand. Read More......

Grampa McCain promises to be more anti-gay in public (seriously)

Well that didn't take long. I'd just reported two days ago that McCain met recently with gay Republican leaders, and it only took 48 hours for the religious right to knee-cap McCain into submission. After meeting with an assemblage of anti-gay bigots, McCain has now announced that he's going to be more anti-gay in public in order to, I guess, win that all-important, and ever-shrinking, American Taliban vote. And he did just that today, by announcing his support for the effort to repeal marriage in California. So McCain is now going to fan the flames of anti-gay prejudice in order to win the presidency. I love it when mavericks sell their soul. How are you gay Republicans feeling about him now? Read More......

Recession only now starting

Hopefully he's wrong but there's plenty to suggest he may be correct.

Since last June, we've seen a fairly consistent pattern to the economic mood swings. Every three months or so, there's a round of bad news about housing, followed by warnings of more bank write-offs and then a string of disappointing corporate earnings reports. Eventually, things stabilize and there are hints that the worst may be behind us. Stocks regain some of their lost ground, bonds fall and then -- bam -- the whole cycle starts again.

It was only in November that the Dow had recovered from the panicked summer sell-off and hit a record, just above 14,000. By March, it had fallen below 12,000. By May, it climbed above 13,000. Now it's heading for a new floor at 11,000. Officially, that's bear market territory. We'll be lucky if that's the floor.

In explaining why that second-half rebound never occurred, the Fed and the Treasury and the Wall Street machers will say that nobody could have foreseen $140 a barrel oil. As excuses go, blaming it on an oil shock is a hardy perennial. That's what Jimmy Carter and Fed Chairman Arthur Burns did in the late '70s, and what George H.W. Bush and Alan Greenspan did in the early '90s. Don't believe it.

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Lead GOP activist, Grover Norquist, calls Obama "Kerry with a tan"

That's ok. I like to think of Grover Norquist as "Liberace with a wife." Read More......

Tap your foot twice if you're for marriage

As you may recall, the Republicans in Congress want to amend the US Constitution with anti-gay language that would supposedly "ban gay marriage." In fact, the amendment would likely rescind state and local laws that outlaw job discrimination against gays and provide gay partners with health benefits, and it would likely rescind laws protecting unmarried women from things such as being beaten to a bloody pulp by their boyfriends (this actually happened in Ohio, where the state court found that the local anti-gay-marriage amendment invalidated state laws covering the domestic abuse of unmarried women). Anyway, who is on the very short list of Senators introducing the "Marriage Protection Amendment" in the Senate? Why none other than foot-tapping Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), and whore-mongering Senator David Vitter (R-LA). You'll recall that the very-married Larry Craig was caught tapping his foot alongside a really hot male cop in an airport bathroom. And the very-married and very-family-values-proclaiming David Vitter, we now know, has repeatedly frequented female hookers.

So there you have it. Two of the Republicans' biggest marriage hypocrites - Larry Craig, who was accused of trying to have sex with a man (who was not his wife) in a bathroom, and David Vitter who has been repeatedly accused of frequenting hookers (who also were not his wife) - want to amend the Constitution to "protect" marriage.

Perhaps you all should call Larry Craig's and David Vitter's offices and ask them the following:

Senator Larry Craig
tel: 202-224-2752
Message: Can a married guy give handjobs and blowjobs to other guys in bathrooms and still defend heterosexual marriage?

Senator David Vitter
Phone: (202) 224-4623
Message: How many whores does a married guy have to sleep with before he's no longer defending marriage? And does the price of the whore matter?

Oh, and please do report back in the comments how your phone calls went with Craig's and Vitter's offices. Read More......

"Let the big brokers fail"

You know if the tables were turned, they would say the same for everyone else. With more rumors about Merrill Lynch and other "new" massive write downs, we should be hearing more of this talk and rightly so.

"I think there's a good chance that the Fed itself will fail one day if they say 'we're not going to let you fail' and the government will have to bail out the entire system," Faber said.

"If I'm a bad businessman and I go out of business, who's gong to help me?" he said. "But Bear Stearns and the Wall Street elite, because they are tied into the Treasury and the Federal Reserve and they have lunch together, it's a club and so forth, they're bailed out. It's a joke!"

"I think a lot of banks are already bankrupt … but they hide their rotten assets … in categories where you don't really need to value them," Faber said. "I think the financial sectors, by-and large, has much larger problems than is perceived by the investment community and the stock market to some extent is telling you that."

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Drama, drama, drama

Go away. Read More......

In Afghanistan, June is "deadliest month for foreign soldiers"

Another legacy of George Bush is the unfinished, forgotten war in Afghanistan:

Four members of the U.S.-led coalition force have been killed in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, the force said on Friday, making June the deadliest month for foreign soldiers since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

The deaths took the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this month to 40. More than 200 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan last year.

Three soldiers from the U.S.-led force and an interpreter were killed in Wardak province southwest of Kabul on Thursday when their convoy was blown up by a bomb, the force said in a statement.

In another attack on Thursday, in the southwestern province of Farah, a coalition soldier was killed and seven people, including two Afghan soldiers, were wounded, the U.S. military said.

If my history serves me, we went to war in Afghanistan directly because of the 9/11 attacks. But, then Bush forgot about Afghanistan to launch the war against Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

It's going to take a long time to clean up the failures of George Bush. Read More......

McCain's Las Vegas coverage dominated by his support for Yucca Mountain

All politics is local and all presidential elections are state-by-state elections. That's why this latest report from Jed is very interesting. McCain was in Nevada touting nuclear power on Nevada. But, when Nevadans hear about nuclear power, they think about nuclear waste -- and that means Yucca Mountain, which is the planned site for disposing high level nuclear waste. It's about 80 miles from Las Vegas. That subject dominated the local news coverage:



And, Jed analysis is right on point:

By the way, isn't it interesting how local political coverage tends to focus on real issues, whereas national political coverage tends to focus on the meaningless stuff? I wonder what Dean Broder has to say about that.

I think this helps explain why Barack manages to do so well in so many state and national polls despite having a national media that is in love with Teflon John.

All politics is local and all presidential elections are really state-by-state elections. So simple, but lost on so many of those pundits riding around on the bus with John McCain. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Usually, I start the day cranking about Republicans.  Not today because I had a big night last night. My students graduated. I'm so proud. Every Monday night, I teach basic English to immigrants at a program called Language ETC.  This group had two Brazilians, two Russians and the rest were from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia.  I only speak basic English, but my teaching partner, Carlos, speaks something like six languages, which comes in very handy.  It is a very rewarding experience -- and, while ostensibly I'm the teacher, I actually learn a lot from my students every week.  They make every second of it worthwhile.

Anyway, I'll be back to cranking about Republicans shortly. Read More......