More videos from Hillary supporters

Lee Greenwood's got nothing on Hillary's supporters (h/t Ben Smith).

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Revisiting Reverend Hagee, McCain's creepy reverend friend

A reader just sent me this video about McCain's reverend friend - the one he embraced until he was forced to denounce him. Creepy as all get out. Read the rest of this post...

Olympics Opening Ceremony

Just watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. As always, quite a spectacle of imagery and symbolism. While there is a lot of hype in the way the Olympics is covered and plenty to make fun of in these kinds of events, it IS an international event. There aren't many of those moments. As host country, China has an opportunity to communicate to the world. And the Chinese have built this event up not just internationally, but also with their own people. Clearly, China is taking the opportunity to tell a story.

The cinematography of this event is worth the moment in time. A truly spectacular visual event. The integration of the architectural design of the physical space with the storytelling befits an event of this scale. And it's important to remember that NBC's coverage of the Olympics is not an NBC News event, it's NBC Sports. What they are doing tonight is exactly what NBC does with the NFL - telling stories. China wants to tell a story, NBC wants to tell a story to sell the ads. NBC met that goal with $1 billion in ad sales. This is big business, in case you forgot during those Visa ads you'll be so sick of in about 2 days.

Oh and Bush is there, camera caught him and Putin sitting next to each other (wonder who is still in charge in Russia?) I said I wonder what they could be talking about and my friend replied, "where to get a beer after!" They should have been talking about the war Russia started with Georgia today.

UPDATE From Joe: NBC is telling stories and I couldn't help falling for the story of the U.S. flag bearer, Lopez Lomong, who is a recently naturalized citizen from Sudan. Lomong was one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan." Hat Tip to Izzy for the link to the video.

And, I have seen two John McCain ads -- both negative against Obama -- already. None for Obama yet. Read the rest of this post...

John McCain and Communist Chinese share passion for Internet propaganda

Washington Post via LefInLowell.com:

Spread John McCain’s official talking points around the Web — and you could win valuable prizes! That, in essence, is the McCain campaign’s pitch to supporters to join its new online effort... On McCain’s Web site, visitors are invited to “Spread the Word” about the presumptive Republican nominee by sending campaign-supplied comments to blogs and Web sites under the visitor’s screen name. The site offers sample comments (”John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan . . .”) and a list of dozens of suggested destinations, conveniently broken down into “conservative,” “liberal,” “moderate” and “other” categories. Just cut and paste....

More chillingly, dissidents alleged earlier this year that the Chinese government has paid Chinese citizens token sums for each favorable comment about government policies they post in chat rooms and on blogs.

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Cindy McCain knows John McCain would never have an affair. Really. (Not counting the affair Cindy had when John was married)

Wolf Blitzer, in vintage buffoon mode, just asked what impact, if any, will John Edwards' affair will have on Barack Obama. Huh? Let's review, Wolf: It's the GOP nominee, John McCain, who has the history of having extra-marital affairs.

Remember last February, after the NY Times reported on rumors of an affair between John McCain and lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, how Cindy McCain ardently defended her husband?:

"More importantly, my children and I not only trust my husband, but know that he would never do anything to not only disappoint our family, but disappoint the people of America. He's a man of great character."

That quote just stuck in my head because it was so patently absurd. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Cindy McCain met and began dating John McCain when he was married. So, Cindy met John when he was cheating on his wife, but she knows he'd never cheat on his wife. Right.

Has anyone seen Vicki Iseman lately? Seriously.

UPDATE: At a town hall in Virginia today, Mike Stark asked McCain point blank if he's always been faithful to Cindy. Brilliant move by Stark...but, McCain never answered the question. Read the rest of this post...

Oh, so now the IOC is political

My friend Michael sent me this article about how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is trying really hard to get North Korea and South Korea to march together in the opening ceremonies as a show of "peace." Michael noted that it kind of sounds downright political of IOC president Jacques Rogge. So, let's review. Try to criticize China on human rights and you're unnecessarily injecting politics into the games. Try to get North Korea and South Korea to march hand in hand in order to give credibility to what is likely the most brutal dictatorship in the world, and then it's okay to be political. So basically, if you're on the side of Communist dictators, the IOC is always there for you. But if you're on the side of regular men and women whose lives are being destroyed by the IOC's thuggish friends, the IOC can't be bothered with you.

And they wonder why people don't watch this crap anymore. Read the rest of this post...

McCain corruption as haiku

From Ambinder:

If there were a group of questionable donations all with the name Abdullah
that were funneled through a guy in Jordan
who is a Jordanian national
who is under investigation for war profiteering
and it were Barack Obama
instead of John McCain
would this be a bigger deal?

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Bill Clinton to give prime-time speech at Dem Convention

It's a testament to how well Hillary did, and perhaps how much her husband ticked Democrats off in the past few months, that when I first read this headline I thought "why is he speaking?" Of course, he is our former president, and the biggest Democratic presidential superstar we have. Still, it took me a moment to remember that - I immediately thought of him as simply "Hillary's angry husband." Again, kudos to her for pulling that one off, but fewer kudos to him for really trashing his reputation the past six months. Read the rest of this post...

John Edwards admits affair to ABC News

Okay. For the record, I really don't care who sleeps with whom -- as long as the person isn't a hypocrite. But, this long-rumored story is now sweeping through the traditional and online media. I debated whether even to post this revelation, but we're adults and it's news. It's out there. I'm not condemning Edwards. I don't care. But, if the GOPers or the traditional media decide to make a big issue out of this one, I have one question: Where's Vicki Iseman?

ABC News has the report:

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

A former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has said he was the father of the child.

According to friends of Hunter, Edwards met her at a New York city bar in 2006. His political action committee later paid her $114,000 to produce campaign website documentaries despite her lack of experience.

Edwards said the affair began during the campaign after she was hired. Hunter traveled with Edwards around the country and to Africa.

Edwards said his wife, Elizabeth, and others in his family became aware of the affair in 2006.

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Calling McCain's lies what they are: Lies

For some reason, there is an aversion in politics -- and definitely in the traditional media -- to calling lies what they are: Lies. The GOP has taken full advantage of that policy for years. Under the Bush/Rove regime, they've lied with impunity for years. No one has ever really called them on their lies -- especially the very reporters who were lied to repeatedly. McCain's campaign, under the tutelage of Karl Rove, was heading down the same path -- til now.

John McCain released a painful new ad titled, Painful, which NBC's First Read reports "makes some dubious claims." "Dubious" is a word the traditional media uses instead of "lie." The Obama campaign, however, didn't hold back:

“This ad is a lie, and it’s part of the old, tired politics of a party in Washington that has run out of ideas and run out of steam. Even though a host of independent, nonpartisan organizations have said this attack isn’t true, Senator McCain continues to lie about Senator Obama’s plan to give 95% of all families a tax cut of $1,000, and not raise taxes for those making under $250,000 a single dime. The reason so many families are hurting today is because we’ve had eight years of failed Bush policies that Senator McCain wants to continue for another four, and that’s what Barack Obama will change as President,” said Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan.

When liars lie, they need to be called on it. Political reporters who have watched McCain's ad know it's a lie. The McCain campaign knows it's a lie. Just call it what it is.

Now, if only the Obama campaign's media consultant could come up with some decent, hard-hitting and effective ads. Read the rest of this post...

Osama's driver gets 5 months. Wow, glad we caught that guy.

He's the only guy we've tried so far, Osama's big bad driver. And the military tribunal trying him found that he was such an important catch they gave him.... five more months. Absolutely freaking pathetic. This was Bush's big catch. The driver. What's next, Osama's hairdresser? Or maybe his personal shopper? Mind you, this was a military court, that shows just how pathetic the case was - this was no wimpy civilian jury, it was big bad military folk, and even they said "whatever." The Bush administration says they can still hold the guy forever, which only goes to show how screwed up the entire situation is at Gitmo. If even a military jury says that it's time to release the guy, then clearly whoever is making the decisions at the top, as to whether or not to keep people in perpetual custody at Gitmo, has no idea what they're doing. This really is just the icing on the cake of the laughing stock the Republicans have made of both our justice system and the "war on terror." We caught Osama's chauffeur. Well bully for us.

So, how is that hunt for Osama going? Read the rest of this post...

Krugman: "Republicans, once hailed as the 'party of ideas,' have become the party of stupid."

Excellent Krugman column today:

So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

The challenge is to make sure the American people don't fall for the same old Republican stupidity packaged by those frighteningly smart -- and vicious -- GOP operatives Read the rest of this post...

Two gay porn stars walk into WorldNetDaily...

This has to be one of the oddest things I've seen a publication do in years, but uber-conservative Web site "WorldNetDaily," a site that conservative talk radio, and others, rely on for much of their material, today published an op ed by a gay porn star who was allegedly embedded with our troops in the Middle East, arguing why gays should not be permitted into the military.

Let me repeat. A gay porn star was embedded with the military, presumably he didn't go on a gay sex feeding frenzy, nor did his bunkmates, but he is arguing that regular old gays, those of us who sadly don't qualify as porn star material, are such sexual animals that the boys in their fatigues wouldn't be able to keep their hands off of us. Got it? Gay porn star embedded without a problem, regular ugly old gay guy, big problem.

Uh huh.

So who do you have to sleep with to get published in WorldNetDaily anyway?

(Wanna see the pics of his, um, best work, they're here.) Read the rest of this post...

Chinese detain entire White House press corps

Nothing says communist thugs like detaining the entire White House press corps. Not quite ready for prime time, that China. Read the rest of this post...

Popular Mechanics: Obama is right about tire gauges

McCain and the Republicans tried to make a full blown mockery of Obama earlier this week when Obama said that just by properly inflating the tires on our cars we could save significant amounts of fuel. In fact, Obama said we'd save about as much oil from properly inflating our tires as we'd get from increased offshore drilling. They laughed at Obama, they mocked him, said this proved how out of touch he was. McCain is still mocking Obama over the tire gaugues on the McCain campaign home page (see photo to the left). Well, we now find out that Obama was right. Popular Mechanics did the math.

Underinflated tires on cars in fact waste a good amount of energy. How much? Exactly the amount the energy industry thinks we could get from increased offshore drilling. But more importantly, why didn't John McCain know this? Why didn't he try to find out before he launched into yet another temper tantrum against Obama? This isn't the first time that McCain has run ads against Obama that were outright false. Is McCain even in control of his campaign any longer? The media should be asking McCain why he again jumped the gun and launched an attack based on faulty information (sound familiar?) The Obama campaign should take these attacks, embrace them, and wrap them around John McCain's neck. At every opportunity they should be asking why John McCain didn't know this, and why John McCain again misled the American people.

Not to mention, why does John McCain's campaign home page still mock the tire gauge comment now that we know it's true? The media should be asking the McCain camp why they again and again lie about Obama, lie to the American people, then don't correct themselves after it's been proven they're wrong. Is McCain even aware of what his campaign is doing anymore?

The larger problem for Obama is, and I can't recall if Carville said this or who, but if you throw enough mud at your opponent, some of it sticks. Far more people will "remember" that Obama blew off the troops in Afghanistan to play basketball (he didn't) and that Obama thinks crazy ideas like tire gauges can supplant offshore drilling (they can). People won't remember the truth, they'll remember the lie. You need to paint your opponent faster than he paints you, and you need to nip your opponents' attacks in the bud by hitting him in the gut every time he mouths off against you. So far, neither of those have happened to a degree that makes the Democrats I know, and respect, comfortable.

From Popular Mechanics:

The average consumer could improve gas mileage by 3.3 percent by simply keeping his tires inflated to the proper pressure. For the average driver in the U.S. and his 15-gal. fuel tank, that's a savings of about $2.00 on every fill-up. Figure in the increased tire life from those correct pressures, and this is beginning to add up to a handy sum. Of course, if you—or your mechanic—have been diligent about keeping tire pressures set correctly, you won't save anything, which sounds like rewarding lazy people and penalizing the careful ones to me. But that's life....

According to the Department of Energy, underinflated tires alone cost the country more than 1.25 billion gal. of gasoline annually—roughly 1 percent of the total consumption of 142 billion gal. According to the Annual Energy Outlook 2007, published by the Energy Information Administration, offshore drilling would increase domestic production of crude oil by only about 1 percent.

We opened this discussion with Sen. Obama's assertion that we can offset the need to reopen offshore drilling—and save money at the pump—by keeping our tires inflated properly. He's right

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Schumer urges Obama to hit back harder

That someone in the Senate leadership is going public with these concerns is interesting. Usually someone of Schumer's stature goes public only after going private hasn't worked. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics is starting soon in Beijing, which is twelve hours ahead of D.C. The NBC stations are starting into wall-to-wall coverage. The games should shut out a lot of national political coverage. We'll see if anything happens to change that.

Lots of buzz lately about Obama's need to hit back harder against McCain. There is a belief among many of the D.C. Democratic media types that negative campaigning doesn't work - that somehow it only hurts the candidate who launches the attack. I'm not kidding. I've heard people who work in that business say just. You know how they know? Because they've heard people in focus groups say they don't like negative ads. Seriously. Ignore what happens in the real world over and over, because of focus groups. We don't have reality-based consultants.

Start threading the news... Read the rest of this post...

Expert says Torture "not just ineffective, but counterproductive"

Meet Steven Kleinman. He worked for the United States government conducting interrogations who wants to know "why the president's legal advisers were so intent on rationalizing the violation of longstanding law in order to adopt an approach –- coercion -- that experienced interrogation practitioners agree is not just ineffective, but counterproductive." Kleinman did a Q & A over at Neiman Watchdog.

The guy cuts through the Bush administration's b.s. about torture -- it doesn't work. Fascinating and thanks to Dan Froomkin for sending this our way:

Setting aside the moral arguments against torture, the considerable time and energy spent in establishing a legal justification for harsher methods, such as the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques," would have seemed a more reasonable course of action if substantial evidence existed that these methods were objectively of superior operational effectiveness than more traditional approaches and/or had proven necessary in the context of a new dimension of conflict.

The CIA, the agency exclusively authorized to operate under this separate set of standards, did not -- and could not -- offer objective arguments that would justify such a conclusion. Prior to 9/11, the CIA had no interrogation capability of its own nor had it conducted research into effective means of conducting interrogations since its ill-fated venture into the application of drugs and psychological stress in the 1960s and 1970s. Instead, they were new to the game. And there was no scientific underpinning for the agency’s decision to embrace tactics that would ultimately coalesce into a checklist-driven process supervised by behavioral scientists. Even the anecdotal evidence offered as proof of the efficacy of enhanced interrogation techniques was never subjected to independent, objective assessment. In sum, it was effective only because they said it was effective.

In contrast, considerable evidence -- along with the many years of operational experience by the nation's most accomplished interrogators -- strongly suggested that coercive methods not only failed to consistently obtain reliable intelligence, but that such tactics are largely counterproductive in that they stiffen the resolve of detainees under questioning and undermine the stature of the U.S. on the world stage.

It's going to take a long time to get over what the Bush administration did to this country. Bush turned us into torturers. That not only destroyed our image, it didn't work. Read the rest of this post...

Possible Shakespearean theater found in London

Not politics, but cool.

The theater where "The Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo and Juliet" likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said Wednesday.

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