Gore endorses Obama

I miss Gore. Read the rest of this post...

My friend Robin

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More reader feedback on McCain and age

Another read writes:

You know, the thing about age is that John McCain is an "old" 72. Some 72 year olds are vital, healthy, and young for their age. You see them on the tennis courts, or in the gym, in great physical shape and, most importantly, they are really sharp mentally. You are blown away when you learn they are 72. But John McCain is not one of them. Mentally and physically he almost seems like late 70s. So the discussion about age and fitness for office, I think, has to be more than about chronological age. Then there is the fact that he has had four or five (I forgot how many) malignant melanomas removed which is not good.

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Obama and Gore live in Detroit

Let's see how this live stream works. Read the rest of this post...

Watch live streaming video of California's first legal gay marriages

Starting at 5pm California time, 8pm Eastern, here. Look for the video link at the top of the site. I can't get the video to work - anyone else? Read the rest of this post...

Blogger arrests increasing

From the BBC:

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report....

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task.

The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the "growing" political importance of blogging. It noted that arrests tended to increase during times of "political uncertainty", such as around general elections or during large scale protests.

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It's marriage day in CA

Today is the day that the state of California started legally marrying gay couples. The ACLU asked a number of us professional gays to pen something for the occasion. So I did. You can find my article here on the ACLU blog. Also, Mr. Sulu is getting married. To a guy, of course. You can find the other ACLU essays, by the likes of Kate Clinton, Matt Coles, Choire Sicha, and I think a few more of us, here. Read the rest of this post...

Toyota hybrids selling like hotcakes

It's a good thing Detroit didn't want a piece of this action. Heck, they might of had to hire people to keep up with the demand. Whew! Crisis averted.

Toyota is struggling to keep up with booming demand for hybrid vehicles because it's unable to make enough batteries that are key parts in the hit "green" cars, a senior executive said Monday.

The crunch on battery production is likely to stay for the rest of the year, as new lines can't be added to boost production until next year, said Toyota Motor Corp. Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, who oversees production at Japan's top automaker.

"Hybrids are selling so well we are doing all we can to increase production," he told The Associated Press. "We need new lines."

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Lesbian couple, together 55 years, to get married in California

From AP:

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin fell in love at a time when lesbians risked being arrested, fired from their jobs and sent to electroshock treatment.

On Monday afternoon, more than a half-century after they became a couple, Lyon, 84, and Martin, 87, plan to become the first same-sex couple to legally exchange marriage vows in San Francisco, and among the first in the state.

"It was something you wanted to know, 'Is it really going to happen?' And now it's happened, and maybe it can continue to happen," Lyon said.

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Lanny Davis joins Karl Rove and Newt at FOX

Sometimes, the thing really does speak for itself -- and this is one of those times. Lanny, who was probably the most offensive and obnoxious surrogate for any campaign over the past few months, finally found some friends. Everyone else was mean to him, so he's joining FOX News:

Fox News's newest contributor, to be announced today, may surprise the liberal crowd: former Clinton White House lawyer Lanny Davis.

"Fox has always treated me with respect and given me a chance to express my point of view," Davis says of the network that the Democratic candidates refused to grant a debate out of concern that it favors Republicans. He will be a frequent guest, along with such Fox stalwarts as Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich.

A relentless surrogate for Hillary Clinton, Davis says, he felt "ganged up on" during appearances on the other cable channels. He says that Clinton was "demonized" by MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, and that CNN's primary-night panels were tilted toward the Obama side.

"Does Fox have a conservative slant on some of their programs? Yes," Davis says. "They're giving me a chance to provide a counterpoint, and that's all I can ask."

This should make Lanny's other pal, Joe Lieberman, happy, too.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Will top Hillary surrogate Lanny Davis be using his perch atop FOX News to sabotage Obama's candidacy? And if so, will Hillary do anything about it? Read the rest of this post...

Pro-Bush biographer to release pro-Obama book

This is huge. And it's another brilliant inside-move by the Obama people. Absolutely brilliant. Evangelicals, like other conservatives, already aren't too happy with John McCain. And now we have a book detailing Obama's true commitment to Christianity, by the guy who wrote the best seller about George Bush's Christianity. McCain can't even come close to something like this - not to mention, this seriously helps out on the Muslim rumors. From Ben Smith:

The conservative Evangelical biographer of George W. Bush and Tom DeLay has moved on to a new subject: Barack Obama. And his new book, due out this summer, may lend credibility to Senator Obama's bid to win Evangelical Christian voters away from the Republican Party.

The forthcoming volume from Stephen Mansfield, whose sympathetic "The Faith of George W. Bush" spent 15 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 2004, is titled "The Faith of Barack Obama." Its tone ranges from gently critical to gushing, and the author defends Obama-and even his controversial former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright-from conservative critics, and portrays him as a compelling figure for Christian voters.

"Young Evangelicals are saying, 'Look, I'm pro-life but I'm looking at a guy who's first of all black-and they love that; two, who's a Christian; and three who believes faith should bear on public policy," Mansfield, who described himself as a conservative Republican, said in a telephone interview. "They disagree with him on abortion, but they agree with him on poverty, on the war."

His book, provided exclusively to Politico by the publisher, focuses more on Obama's religious journey than his electoral prospects.

"For Obama, faith is not simply political garb, something a focus group told him he ought to try. Instead, religion to him is transforming, lifelong, and real," Mansfield writes, going on to compare Obama favorably to Christian Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who he says erected a "wall of separation" between their religion and their governance.

By contrast, "Obama's faith infuses his public policy, so that his faith is not just limited to the personal realms of his life, it also informs his leadership," Mansfield writes.

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Why isn't the media reporting the fact that John McCain called his wife the c-word?

UPDATE: Here's the bleeped version.

It is interesting that quoting John McCain makes a video not safe for work. And that quoting John McCain even made me think twice about whether to post this at all.

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Seven years after 3,000 died on September 11, Bush finally decides it's time to catch Osama

I'm speechless. Bush has suddenly decided that it's time to catch Osama bin Laden. Conveniently in time for the presidential campaign. Last year, and the 5 years before that, it wasn't very high up on Bush's agenda, avenging the deaths of 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. But now that John McCain's presidential race, and Bush's legacy, are at stake, suddenly Bush is "ordering" his administration to catch Osama.

Why didn't he give that order six years ago? Read the rest of this post...

Organizer of McCain meeting to woo Clinton supporters is infamous for trying to keep blacks out of Thomas Jefferson family reunions

From Ben Smith:

A key organizer of John McCain's meeting Saturday with former supporters of Hillary Clinton is best known for her role in another bitter American fight: The effort by some white descendants of Thomas Jefferson to keep his possible African-American descendants out of family gatherings....

Abeles first made the news in 2003, when she and her husband, then-Monticello Association President Nat Abeles, led the fight to keep members of the Hemings family -- descendants of Jefferson slave and, some historians believe, mistress Sally Hemmings -- out of a gathering of the Monticello Association, which is made up of lineal descendants of the third president.

Ben then quotes AP:

The wife of a Thomas Jefferson family association official said Friday that she masqueraded as a 67-year-old black woman on an Internet chat room in a bid to keep descendants of a reputed Jefferson mistress out of this weekend's family reunion.

"It might have been somewhat unethical," said Paulie Abeles of Washington, D.C., who participated for eight months in the Yahoo! message board created for relatives of Jefferson slave Sally Hemings.

"It might have been childish, but I really think I was working in the best interest of the majority of the family members to make the reunion a calm and civilized gathering," she said.

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Oil surges to $139.89

Thankfully it's pulled back to under $139. Oil initially dropped below $134 today when the Saudis said they would pump more oil. Many questioned their ability to deliver on the promise, claiming the Saudis are already at their peak. Read the rest of this post...

Why John McCain's age (72 this summer) matters

Reader PHB writes in:

How many 72 year olds think that they are up to one of the world's most intellectually demanding jobs?

I think that is the key to the age issue. Disqualifying people on the grounds of race and gender is telling people of the disqualified class that they are not up to the job. But most seniors have left their jobs by 72. They know that they are no longer as quick as they were in their 40s or 50s.

Septuagenarians who are working at that age are almost exclusively doing a job where their long experience makes up for their age. McCain was never a flag officer, never on track to make flag officer. He never commanded a large unit. Now he wants to be President.

Or put it another way. We are both in our 40s. Neither of us is going to make the finals of Wimbledon or Formula One racing driver. That's not ageist, it's just a fact that your reactions at 40 are not what they were at 20.

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And you thought Bush was bad

Jed brings us a compilation of John McCain bloopers. Hysterical. And actually very sad.

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McCain lied. Didn't cancel fundraiser with rape-jokester. Only postponed it.

This guy's rape joke is infamous. He's the one from Texas who said that if a woman is being raped she might as well lie back and enjoy it. I remember this jerk.

On Friday, McCain says he's canceled a fundraiser with guy who tells rape jokes:

Clayton Williams stirred controversy during his 1990 campaign for governor of Texas with a botched attempt at humor in which he compared rape to weather. Within earshot of a reporter, Williams said: “As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

But yesterday we learned that the event has simply been postponed (I guess June is far too early for rape jokes - better in August).

But Saturday afternoon, the McCain campaign told the Houston Chronicle that the Midland event had been postponed until this summer and would be held in a public venue.

This pig says he's raised $300,000 already for McCain. And by McCain saying he's still planning on having the fundraiser later this year, he obviously has no problem with this guy or his attitude towards the rape of women. Then again, McCain is the guy reportedly called his wife the c-word. I'm thinking McCain's outreach to Hillary voters isn't going so well. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Joe is still in SF. I understand he had lunch with Markos and his lovely wife on Friday. So I'm covering Joe's mornings to give him a break. Unless he wants backs in early :-) I'm not sure what's up for this week. McCain still doesn't have his groove back, and I think the media is slowly catching on that the guy doesn't talk very straight, nor is he very bright. What we're going to see more and more, I hope, is Republicans just giving up this year and accepting that it's over. Read the rest of this post...

Is Lehman Brothers on the block, out of cash or both?

Weekend meetings with executives when rumors of balance sheet problems have been flying is never a good sign. More consolidation in an already heavily concentrated market is hardly a good sign for our so-called free market but of course, nobody forced Lehman to make stupid and risky trades, did they? The question now is how many millions or billions will they walk away with for their failures? Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be a pathetic $61 million as we saw a Bear Stearns. Oh the embarrassment at the country club. Read the rest of this post...

The 2007 'summer credit crunch' that won't go away

Earnings reports from Wall Street are arriving this week so we're going to find out a bit more about where this is all going. McCain's co-chair Phil Gramm, who helped make it all possible, is still with the McCain team. That speaks volumes.

But credit remains tight, and investors remain anxious. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is under scrutiny for making missteps similar to those made by Bear Stearns. After revealing a nearly $3 billion loss for the March-to-May period last week and then replacing its chief financial and chief operating officers, Lehman is scheduled to release its official quarterly results Monday.

Goldman Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley also report their earnings this week. Analysts predict the two investment banks will post profits for the fiscal second quarter that are much lower than last year's. Even more telling, perhaps, will be the details within the reports. Investors are less concerned with the actual profit decline than they are with how much value the investment banks' assets lost during the quarter.

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13 mohawks

That's how many I've seen in the past week. Good Lord, they're back. Guys, seriously, they never look good. Never have. Never will. It's a stupid haircut. I'm really fascinated by how things like this start. I mean, what joker decided to get one, and what joker looked and said "hey, that's cool." Ugh. At least in DC, they're back. Read the rest of this post...