Breaking up by voice mail

A new service lets you call someone's cell phone and automatically get their voice mail, so you can leave a message without having to talk to them. A bit odd. And not very noble of the woman in the article - she thought it would be rude to break up by text message (gee, you think), so she chose to break up by voice mail instead. Class act (not that it wouldn't be tempting to use for break-ups, and everything else - just feels a bit sleazy). Read the rest of this post...

Obama to DNC: Give full seating to Michigan and Florida

Not unexpected and this move is obviously directed at the upcoming general election. The real implications, however, are for the next cycle in 2012. Have Michigan and Florida finally broken the stranglehold of Iowa and New Hampshire?:

Why would their voting strength matter when it is clear who the nominee will be?

Because, as Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said at the time, party conventions do more than pick a nominee; they also begin to establish the framework for the primary calendar in the next presidential election. And Michigan, for one, has been trying for years to topple Iowa and New Hampshire from their first-in-the-nation voting perches. Having full votes at the convention will give Michigan more power to pursue that agenda.

At the same time, Mr. Obama’s “request” to restore full voting strength to Florida and Michigan is likely to cause heartburn for party officials, who have struggled to maintain some authority over the primary calendar.

By granting Mr. Obama’s request, the party will essentially be giving a green light to other states to ignore the calendar next time because there will be no consequences.

If the nomination process is ever going to change, it has to start changing at the convention in Denver. Read the rest of this post...

Big Oil sets record for fiscal quarter - $51.5 billion

No wonder they have so much money to shovel over to the McCain campaign. McSame as it ever was. Why is McCain letting them dictate American energy policy as they did under Bush?

Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total SA wrapped up a string of gargantuan, record-breaking earnings reports Friday, a stretch in which six of the major international oil companies topped $50 billion in combined profit for the first time.

While the profits of unparalleled size have brought withering criticism from Washington and disgust from consumers across the country, very few were surprised. Crude prices during the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago.

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Dear Washington Post: Publish more photos of McCain, please

And make sure you show McCain's photo right next to Obama's photo. Make our day.

The Post ombudsman examines the fact that the paper has published more photos of Obama than McCain. Well, yeah, maybe, but without context the fact is meaningless. When did John McCain's primary contest end? February or so. When did Barack Obama's primary finish? June. During those intervening months, there was no news about John McCain, while Hillary versus Obama were THE top story for months. Per se there is going to be more coverage of Obama than McCain, unless the post proposes devoting a column a day to John McCain entitled "no news yet." These kind of comparisons, while sometimes illustrative, can also be terribly phony. While sometimes the media is unfair - and all too often they tilt right, not left - newspapers tend to cover the news. Obama has made far more news this campaign, by his very existence, than McCain. I'm not sure that simply making up news stories about McCain as filler, to balance out the number of pictures or stories, does anyone any great favors. Oh, and one more thing, spare us this kind of talk from the ombudsman:

[T]hese kinds of discrepancies feed distrust on the part of readers, especially conservative ones, who already complain that The Post is all for Obama.

In case you haven't noticed, conservatives have complained that the media is biased for thirty years now. It's what they do. It's called playing-the-refs, and the Post, like most of the media, has fallen for it far too much. The Post could go the route of FOX News, and only publish good stuff about McCain and bad stuff about Obama, and the right-wing would still not be satisfied. As Atrios has often said, and I paraphrase: The left wants the media to do their (the media's) job, the right wants the media to do its (the right's) job. Read the rest of this post...

John McCain stumbles on question about attack on Obama

Watch this video from Jed.



Remember, McCain and his campaign manager made race a central issue in the campaign last week -- right around the time Juliet Eilperin from the Washington Post asked this question. Yet, McCain couldn't even begin to respond. It wasn't a hard question. What's that all about? Read the rest of this post...

Did Citibank commit fraud?

That's what New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is suggesting as he prepares to file against the troubled Wall Street giant. Considering how much of a free ride we've given Wall Street for a problem they created themselves, none of this is a surprise.

Cuomo outlined his intentions in a letter to Citigroup's general counsel dated Friday, saying that charges were imminent.

In the letter, the New York Attorney General's office alleged that the nation's largest bank "has repeatedly and persistently committed fraud by material misrepresentations and omissions" in the underwriting, distribution and sale of auction rate securities, touting them as safe, cash-equivalent investments.

Cuomo's office claimed that the sale of these securities had "a severe detrimental impact" on tens of thousands of Citigroup customers.

The AG also claimed that Citigroup "destroyed recordings of telephone conversations" related to the marketing and sale of auction-rate securities.

Read the rest of this post...

One of the saddest parts about Mccain's new sleaze strategy

I travel a lot for an American. Have for 30 years. Learned 4 foreign languages in the process. Have worked in Europe and Africa and Asia. I love things international, and have devoted a good part of my life to it. I can say what most everyone already knows with a good deal of confidence. Much of the world hates our guts. They don't want to. They actually want to like us, a lot. But right now, they loathe us.

That's what was so phenomenal about Obama getting 200,000 people (or more) to show up in Berlin. It was the first time since September 11 that foreigners actually liked us again. And what's more, they were waving American flags. That doesn't happen in the best of times - it only happened on September 11. Now, why does it matter? Well, we're in a pretty big interconnected world at this point, and I think it doesn't help our country to have much of the world hate us. Doesn't help us on the terror front. But it also doesn't help if you believe, as I do, that the image of America, the very notion of America, can be an inspiration to the world.

Yes, I still buy Republican crap like that. Well, strike that. It was the Republican line that we were a beacon of hope to the world. Now the GOP simply bashes the world for political sport, thinking that it doesn't matter if America goes it alone. Yeah, uh huh. Tell me again how Afghanistan and Iraq are going?

One thing that constantly amazes me is how much the French actually LIKE America and Americans. It's a rare Frenchman who doesn't dream of going to New York City. Even the Parisians, when you get to actually talk to them (helps if you know French), actually love Americans (at least far more do than you'd ever expect). And it is simply shocking how often you hear from foreigners that America was supposed to be the shining example for the world. That the reason they get so angry at America is because they expect corruption, and lies, and failure from their own governments. But America they thought was better. America was the future they wish they could have for their own country. And now they feel that America has let them, and their future, down.

When you hear someone describe your country as a dream, a vision of the possible future of the world, you quickly lose any desire to mock them for having that dream, or for showing up in droves, waving the flag, and cheering to the heavens when an American politician lands in Europe. Read the rest of this post...

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Presidency

Brilliant. Watch it.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

After one of the most bizarre weeks in American presidential politics, thanks to the McCain campaign, who knows what will spew forth from the McCain surrogates on the talk shows today. Half the guests seem to be potential McCain v.p. choices: Ridge, Fiorina, Lieberman and Portman. Be good to get their takes on the value of Britney and Paris to the political dialogue. Lindsey Graham is not a v.p. choice, he's more like the campaign mascot.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and former Gov. Tom Ridge, R-Pa.; David Gergen, former White House adviser.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; Carly Fiorina, adviser to John McCain's campaign.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

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CNN's "Late Edition" — Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; former Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Kenneth Blackwell, former Ohio secretary of state; Ron Kirk, former Dallas mayor; Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq; Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister; James K. Glassman, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs; Laura Tyson, adviser to Barack Obama; Nancy Pfotenhauer, adviser to McCain.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; Ashley Judd, actress.

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