Fireworks in Bellevue, Washington

Reader Keith Bruns took this during the Bellevue, Washington fireworks display last night. Click the photo to see a larger version.

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Fewer foreign travelers coming to US

If the economy was doing better, losing foreign travelers wouldn't be quite as bad but unfortunately that's not the case. Is it our poor human rights record in recent years or have we become an unfriendly country or are other countries more interesting places to visit? If the US wants to be a world leader, does it even matter what the world thinks? Read the rest of this post...

AP strikes Obama again, of course

Jed has details on the latest attack piece from the Associated Press's Jennifer Loven on Obama:

How bad was Loven's hit piece? Well, it made Josh Marshall's eyes bleed and it numbed Steve Benen's mind.

Jennifer Loven is giving AP's Liz Sidoti a run for her money They're probably fighting for the seat on McCain's plane. The media-types are giddy about the new plane, which Jed renamed the Lap Dog Express.

Actually, the political reporters are just giddy about McCain. It's a problem. The Washington Post's David Broder told his fellow pundits and reporters that McCain is off-limits:

McCain benefits from a long-established reputation as a man who says what he believes. His shifts in position that have occurred in this campaign seem not to have damaged that aura.

The Broder edict is that McCain is sacrosanct. But, Obama is fair game. Just watch how the press gobbles up the GOP talking points -- even when they're wrong. We'll see this happen over and over and over. What's disturbing is that the reporters are covering for McCain. Big time. Every reporter covering McCain knows the stories about his temper. They know his reputation. Some have even talked to McCain's Republican Senate colleagues who truly think McCain is off his rocker. Yet, none of that matters. They like McCain -- and Obama hasn't endeared himself to them. Again, it's a problem.

But, as Jed reminds us, it all comes back to donuts. Dunkin Donuts. With sprinkles:
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Bush wipes out decades of US Forestry policy

Who needs the environment when condos can be slapped up and friends can make a handsome profit?

The deal was struck behind closed doors between Mark E. Rey, the former timber lobbyist who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and Plum Creek Timber Co., a former logging company turned real estate investment trust that is building homes. Plum Creek owns more than 8 million acres nationwide, including 1.2 million acres in the mountains of western Montana, where local officials were stunned and outraged at the deal.

"We have 40 years of Forest Service history that has been reversed in the last three months," said Pat O'Herren, an official in Missoula County, which is threatening to sue the Forest Service for forgoing environmental assessments and other procedures that would have given the public a voice in the matter.

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Supreme Court encouraging safety shortcuts

Hooray! Best democracy in the world! So the lesson learned is that Big Oil knows they pretty much own the government and can do as they damn well please. Safety? Screw you. Fines? Not on your life. It's not just in distant lands where anything goes, it's right there at home. Nobody is arguing against business, but is it really so hard to find a middle ground between what business wants and what humans wants? As the GOP does the dirty work for Big Oil and their dreams of drilling in ANWR and off the Florida coast, keep in mind how much money industry is investing in legal battles to make it easier for them to ditch safety regulations. Read the rest of this post...

It's good to be the king

At least we can finally move past those crazy ideas of the past, when we bothered to show interest in expanding the middle class. It's best that we care more about making the rich even richer and forget about everyone else. As long as we have yacht workers (preferably at or near minimum wage), that's all that matters. Sure it's a shame that 50% of the buyers are from overseas but at least we're still creating enough yacht owners at home.

According to Camper & Nicholsons International, a broker of yacht sales and charter contracts, there are about 3,800 yachts over 80 feet in service around the world now. About 1,800 of those have been built since 2000. The study predicts that that by 2010, there will be 5,000 such yachts on the water.

"There's not enough supply," said Ed Slack, editor of International Boat Industry. "It takes two years to build some of these yachts and the demand hasn't slowed down."

So far, Trinity's largest vessel has been a 192-foot yacht that would carry a replacement price of $60 million to $65 million. The company is working a 242-footer that will have a price tag in excess of $90 million.

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The Guardian's Helms obituary

Hell, yes. Read the whole article which provides the lowlights of this despicable man.

Senator Jesse Helms, member of the US Senate's foreign relations committee for two decades and its chairman from 1995 to 2001, has died at the age of 86. To echo this newspaper's memorable comment on the death of William Randolph Hearst, it is hard even now to think of him with charity. From his earliest years, Helms's attitudes recalled those of an earlier southern bigot, Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, who so outraged his Senate colleagues, that they eventually refused even to let him take his seat.

There was never a comparable risk for Helms, who maintained an old-world courtesy in his personal contacts. But that was only on the surface. He became one of the most powerful and baleful influences on American foreign policy, repeatedly preventing his country paying its UN contributions, voting against virtually all arms control measures, opposing international aid programmes as "pouring money down foreign rat holes", and avidly supporting military juntas in Latin America and minority white regimes in Southern Africa.

In domestic politics he denounced the 1964 Civil Rights Act as "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress", voted against a supreme court justice because she was "likely to uphold the homosexual agenda", acted for years as spokesman for the large tobacco companies, was reprimanded by the justice department and the federal election commission for electoral malpractice, and compiled a dismal personal record as a slum landlord.

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McCain and the GOP try to keep secret the on-going love affair with George W. Bush, but they love the money

It's not easy running for Bush's third term.

Articles in two of the big papers show the internal conflict McCain and the Republicans are having over the on-going relationship with their leader, their hero, their mentor: George W. Bush. It's sounds tawdry: clandestine meetings, lots of money, secret love and the fear of public exposure.

First, the Washington Post tells us that Bush is still the GOP's ATM:

His popularity rating in national polls is dismally low, and the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, is doing his best to avoid him, but Bush remains a formidable force on the GOP fundraising circuit during his final months in office.

He has already clocked 31 political events this year, raising nearly $70 million for GOP candidates and the national and state parties, according to the Republican National Committee. The tally puts the president on track to meet or exceed the amount he raised before the midterm elections in 2006, according to GOP officials.

To look at it another way: Since the start of 2007, Bush alone is responsible for raising more money than the entire Democratic National Committee.

"This president still has fundraising muscle," said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report. "Despite the economy, the war and the Republican brand problem, his numbers among Republicans are still very good. . . . He's still the commander in chief, with the top political job in the country.

In other words, McCain is still dependent on Bush to be his sugar daddy. So, like so many other tawdry relationships, McCain and the Repubs. love Bush for his money, but they're trying to hide how close they really are. But, as the New York Times reports, that's going to be hard to do at the GOP convention. The Bush/McCain relationship, which they've tried unsuccessfully to keep under wraps, will become very public:

This year, of course, Mr. McCain is trying to escape from Mr. Bush’s shadow. Most Republicans say Mr. Bush should play whatever role Mr. McCain wants him to. Some, like Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, simply wish Mr. Bush would keep out of it, though few would say so openly.

“I don’t think there are a lot of people who want to see him at the convention,” said Mr. Rohrabacher, who is especially irked with Mr. Bush for his stance on immigration. He said the president “should stay home from the Republican convention, and everybody would be better off.”

But others, like Rob Portman, a former congressman and budget director for Mr. Bush, say Mr. McCain would be unwise to put too much distance between himself and the sitting president. “The president’s approval rating among Republicans’ base voters who are needed for a successful McCain campaign is relatively high,” Mr. Portman said.

That is the crux of the Republicans’ 2008 convention quandary. If the imagery coming out of St. Paul looks like a McCain-Bush hug fest, the Arizona senator will turn off voters who are through with Mr. Bush and want to move past him. If the imagery looks like Mr. McCain is trying to file for some kind of Republican divorce, it will turn off party conservatives who are already skeptical of Mr. McCain.

So Republicans may just have to grit their teeth.

Grit their teeth, but take the money. That sounds like a bad story line on a soap opera. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning. Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend.

The poem of the week is "Introduction to Poetry." It's fun -- and gives some insight into poetry itself (and poet humor.)

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The Power of Song, Pete Seeger

This is a program from PBS, focusing on Pete Seeger's music and message. Read the rest of this post...

Zimbabwe vote-rigging video smuggled out of country

Not that people such as Thabo Mbeki of South Africa are watching. (And strangely enough, Mbeki and the South Africa media are being asked to explain why they publicly claimed Zambia's president Mwanawasa died, when he didn't. Mwanawasa just happens to be a vocal critic of Mbeki's close friend Robert Mugabe.) Growing up in the US, we tend to think vote-tampering is exclusively a problem somewhere else, but of course, we know that's simply not true. Whenever and wherever it occurs, it's disgraceful. Watch the video embedded in the article and follow the process, including how voters were intimidated by tracking their vote to their ID. Read the rest of this post...