When John McCain was asked by Rev. Rick Warren to define "rich" at Saturday's faith forum at Warren's Saddleback Church, he didn't just pick the figure $5 million out of his hat.

McCain has flip-flopped to favor continuing the Bush tax cuts on the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans. But McCain went 10 times farther than Bush at the faith forum, expressing his reluctance to tax all but the wealthiest .1 percent of Americans – those making $5 million or more a year.

There is more evidence the $5 million figure wasn't merely random: McCain's economic plan sets $5 million as the minimum threshold for imposing any amount of estate tax.

The number was also used by conservative commentator and actor Ben Stein during the June 11 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, when he misrepresented Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan to raise the capital gains tax rate on the wealthiest earners. Said Stein: "I'm very worried about increasing the capital gains tax, unless you want to just increase it on people that are terribly wealthy," whom he defined as "people that have an income of $5 million a year or more."

It is interesting how the privileged class represented by McCain feel entitled to every advantage money can buy, including tax breaks. Even more interesting is how the definition of rich always drifts upward, particularly among those for whom the word has lost all humility. As the Wall Street Journal noted of a recent study:

Just as there are two economies today — the rich and everyone else — there are also diverging definitions of rich. There’s America’s definition (the top 5%) and the wealthy’s definition.

A new survey by Chicago-based Spectrem Group asked affluent households (those with investible assets of $500,000 or more) how much it takes to be rich. Of the respondents, 45% said $5 million or more, 25% said $25 million or more, and 8% said $100 million (It’s a good bet that the 8% lives in Manhattan or Silicon Valley.)

Yes, John McCain believes the definition of rich starts at $5 million. Pity the poor American who earns only $1 million.

Hi there, come on in.  Another late night - it always bothers me to ask ya'll over at this point in the day.  True, it is Saturday.  Does that mean you can stay for awhile?  I hope so, your company makes many long hours of tired much more comfortable.  Here she comes ... alittle muted, she just woke up.  Like me, takes a bit to waken and shake off the sleepy.  There goes the nub, though, so I guess it's safe to say your touch did the trick.

Saturday night.  I spent mine as I often do, which simply means it was not a Saturday night of my youth.  Once upon a time it really didn't matter what day of the week it was - except Saturday night was like Christmas morning!  Now?  Not so much.  I can't decide if it's age, responsibility, laziness or a large amount of all three.  Then again it could very well be that I'm just boring.  Anyway, good to see you.  May I get you something?  Of course, whatever I have that you like is yours.  No, you can't have the sofa.  Think you're funny, don't you?  Ok, big shot.  

What did you do tonight?  

McCain was deathly afraid of the speeches of Obama, so they made it a bad thing. McCain talks about how he can motivate and inspire, well that is exactly what Obama did with his speeches. He needs to uplift people, to get people excited.

Obama was tricked tonight (Saddleback Discussion), and has been being tricked all cycle. They call him out for not speaking specifics, and then when he does, McCain goes all folksy answering nothing but telling stories.

GO BACK TO THE BIG EXCITING SPEECHES. Remember the youtube vid of people parading though the streets in excitement after Obama's speech (I want to say in out doors in Philly). That is what wins elections - this was proof positive tonight. McCain says nothing and he gets praised because he won the room. Obama has crowds eating out the palm of his hand, impassioned, ready to change the world.

Obama has let McCain define him and the narrative and it's a mistake. He's acting like he needs to disprove he is a celebrity by talking about issues and only issues - it was a perfectly set trap. Let the policy wonks read about the issues on your website, this GE isn't about the issues. McCain wants to tell stories and get people to vote for the old timer as a feel good story.

The McCain Campaign has taken away Obama's strength and made it a "dirty word".   Obama needs to reclaim it, and celebrate it.    

He does nuance well, but did he realize he was showing up for a gunfight? Did he realize McCain was rolling with loaded dice? When have you ever seen questions for presidential candidates in a debate about the 'existence of evil' and orphans of the world. 'Let me tell you a story. I promise it will be my last.' It should be patently obvious to even the freshest faced voter that these questions were designed to show off McCain's perceived strengths, and paint Obama as a marshmallow celebrity also ran. Sigh. Talk about dealing marked cards from the bottom of the deck...

Are the Democrats capable of finding a David to go out to meet the Goliath of Big Corporations and Big Religion? Is there anybody besides Crazy Uncle Ralph who can actually fight for the interests of the little guy, the consumer, the guy who carries a lunch bucket against the predations of the privileged insiders? I don't want a President who will fight and defeat Evil--this is not Ahura Mazda vs Ahriman on battlefield Earth. I just want an end to concealed commodities markets and a bulwark against fascists ascending to the Supreme Court. Is that too much to ask?

As I suspected, the media are for McBushSame
From Cnn:
Cindy Crowley: McBushSame won the crowd
From MSNBC: 
Shuster, Bernard, Buchanan:
The best McBushSame ever!!!
I do hope that the Obama surrogates will show up!

McCain claims to always have put his country first.  However, his nearly last-place performance in the Naval Academy demonstrates that he puts himself first.  His infidelity to his first wife demonstrates that he puts himself first.  His willingness to lie, cheat, and steal to be elected president demonstrates that he puts himself first.  The facts are: he is lazy; he is of only average intelligence; he has no accomplishments beyond those created by his political handlers; he has no principles except to say anything that will get him elected as a Republican.

But, what is most troubling is his claim to be an American while he advocates bigotry, inequality, hatred, sexism, racism, and sectarianism, contrary to what the Constitution of the United States demands.

McShame remains nothing but a hateful white, bigotted old man.... representative of every GOP candidate we've seen since 1980 to the present, all fornicating with the hypocritical religious right while screwing the religious right and the rest of America.  The only remarkable thing about his campaign is the fact that the religious nuts aren't aware that the GOP is screwing them without any lubricant.

Do students dictate the contents of their professors' lectures?

Do legislators at the national level, really listen to their electorate who are perceived to be woefully uneducated in the complexities of modern public policy?

Why is there a disconnect between public outcry and public policy?  Why do we wind up cursing our own party's representatives?

If Barack Obama really wants to effect a revolution in American politics, he will need to do more than bridge the hyper-partisanship that is deadlocking the machine.

He will need to restore the transmission linkage between popular sentiment and legislative response. 

Not sure how that can be done since a governing "culture" has arisen that is self-consciously alienated from popular concerns.

Extensive re-districting in 2001 led to several Democratic losses and a tough field for competition going forward. Also, with the reflexive authoritarianism that upheld Bush's popularity here well into 2006, challenges have been tough. Republicans currently outnumber Democrats 21 to 8 in the State Senate.

Fortunately, 2008 should be different. Concern over the economy and the housing crisis has finally hit Utah. Also, the public responded to the legislature's effort to force a school voucher bill upon us with a 70% defeat via public referendum. The bill was vigorously supported by the vast majority of Republicans, many of whom are now vulnerable. There are also, of course, a number of ethics cases.

Democratic candidates are involved in 14 Senate races this year (the popular Republican Senate President is running un-challenged in his deep red district, the 15th office up for re-elcetion). 9 of the 14 contests involve Republican incumbents, 3 are open Republican seats and the last 3 are open Democratic seats. All in all, Democrats have 12 to gain vs. 3 to lose on the table.

In Salt Lake County, the most populous & diverse in the state, Democrats hold 7 of 12 Senate seats; 7 of the 8 seats they hold overall in the state.

5 of those 12 Salt Lake County seats are up for grabs: 2 open Democrat seats and 3 Repub incumbent seats. All five of these seats are hotly contested & well within the reach of the Democratic candidates, if they raise enough money.

It costs $50,000 to $250,000 to mount a highly competitive State Senate campaign in Utah, depending on the district. That's cheap in most places, but a lot of money in most districts here.

There are several interesting races outside Salt Lake County, including one in the middle of the state (near the infamous Crandall Mine), one up north in the Weber State University area, and another south of Provo.

That makes 8 key races. Five inside Salt Lake County, 3 outside. If we win half of these races, the Democrats will be within 3 seats of a majority in the Senate (15).

Striving for this goal is not only important for its impact on public policy decisions, but also because re-districting will be coming around again after the 2010 census, in 2011.

If we can get to 12 seats this year, then pick up a few more in 2010, we should be able to avert the threat of updated gerrymandering.

The following ActBlue page describes the candidates in these 8 races further. Like Obama, these candidates are going to need plenty of donations of $100 or more, but even $10 or $20 helps. Also, each donation, no matter what size (even $5), pops the page up onto ActBlue's main list of fundraising pages, which includes a list of pages receiving "Most Recent Contributions," giving it more exposure.

Utah thanks you for any help you can provide.

http://www.actblue.com/...

Extensive re-districting in 2001 led to several Democratic losses and a tough field for competition going forward. Also, with the reflexive authoritarianism that upheld Bush's popularity here well into 2006, challenges have been tough. Republicans currently outnumber Democrats 21 to 8 in the State Senate.

Fortunately, 2008 should be different. Concern over the economy and the housing crisis has finally hit Utah. Also, the public responded to the legislature's effort to force a school voucher bill upon us with a 70% defeat via public referendum. The bill was vigorously supported by the vast majority of Republicans, many of whom are now vulnerable. There are also, of course, a number of ethics cases.

Democratic candidates are involved in 14 Senate races this year (the popular Republican Senate President is running un-challenged in his deep red district, the 15th office up for re-elcetion). 9 of the 14 contests involve Republican incumbents, 3 are open Republican seats and the last 3 are open Democratic seats. All in all, Democrats have 12 to gain vs. 3 to lose on the table.

In Salt Lake County, the most populous & diverse in the state, Democrats hold 7 of 12 Senate seats; 7 of the 8 seats they hold overall in the state.

5 of those 12 Salt Lake County seats are up for grabs: 2 open Democrat seats and 3 Repub incumbent seats. All five of these seats are hotly contested & well within the reach of the Democratic candidates, if they raise enough money.

It costs $50,000 to $250,000 to mount a highly competitive State Senate campaign in Utah, depending on the district. That's cheap in most places, but a lot of money in most districts here.

There are several interesting races outside Salt Lake County, including one in the middle of the state (near the infamous Crandall Mine), one up north in the Weber State University area, and another south of Provo.

That makes 8 key races. Five inside Salt Lake County, 3 outside. If we win half of these races, the Democrats will be within 3 seats of a majority in the Senate (15).

Striving for this goal is not only important for its impact on public policy decisions, but also because re-districting will be coming around again after the 2010 census, in 2011.

If we can get to 12 seats this year, then pick up a few more in 2010, we should be able to avert the threat of updated gerrymandering.

The following ActBlue page describes the candidates in these 8 races further. Like Obama, these candidates are going to need plenty of donations of $100 or more, but even $10 or $20 helps. Also, each donation, no matter what size (even $5), pops the page up onto ActBlue's main list of fundraising pages, which includes a list of pages receiving "Most Recent Contributions," giving it more exposure.

Utah thanks you for any help you can provide.

http://www.actblue.com/...

Extensive re-districting in 2001 led to several Democratic losses and a tough field for competition going forward. Also, with the reflexive authoritarianism that upheld Bush's popularity here well into 2006, challenges have been tough. Republicans currently outnumber Democrats 21 to 8 in the State Senate.

Fortunately, 2008 should be different. Concern over the economy and the housing crisis has finally hit Utah. Also, the public responded to the legislature's effort to force a school voucher bill upon us with a 70% defeat via public referendum. The bill was vigorously supported by the vast majority of Republicans, many of whom are now vulnerable. There are also, of course, a number of ethics cases.

Democratic candidates are involved in 14 Senate races this year (the popular Republican Senate President is running un-challenged in his deep red district, the 15th office up for re-elcetion). 9 of the 14 contests involve Republican incumbents, 3 are open Republican seats and the last 3 are open Democratic seats. All in all, Democrats have 12 to gain vs. 3 to lose on the table.

In Salt Lake County, the most populous & diverse in the state, Democrats hold 7 of 12 Senate seats; 7 of the 8 seats they hold overall in the state.

5 of those 12 Salt Lake County seats are up for grabs: 2 open Democrat seats and 3 Repub incumbent seats. All five of these seats are hotly contested & well within the reach of the Democratic candidates, if they raise enough money.

It costs $50,000 to $250,000 to mount a highly competitive State Senate campaign in Utah, depending on the district. That's cheap in most places, but a lot of money in most districts here.

There are several interesting races outside Salt Lake County, including one in the middle of the state (near the infamous Crandall Mine), one up north in the Weber State University area, and another south of Provo.

That makes 8 key races. Five inside Salt Lake County, 3 outside. If we win half of these races, the Democrats will be within 3 seats of a majority in the Senate (15).

Striving for this goal is not only important for its impact on public policy decisions, but also because re-districting will be coming around again after the 2010 census, in 2011.

If we can get to 12 seats this year, then pick up a few more in 2010, we should be able to avert the threat of updated gerrymandering.

The following ActBlue page describes the candidates in these 8 races further. Like Obama, these candidates are going to need plenty of donations of $100 or more, but even $10 or $20 helps. Also, each donation, no matter what size (even $5), pops the page up onto ActBlue's main list of fundraising pages, which includes a list of pages receiving "Most Recent Contributions," giving it more exposure.

Utah thanks you for any help you can provide.

http://www.actblue.com/...

I hope everyone got to see Andrew Bacevich - solid conservative(paleo) - explaining the meaning of "we are the change we've been waiting for" on Bill Moyers this weekend.

Though not in so many words, he did so eloquently, declaring our current pass nothing short of  an abdication of civic responsibility resulting in sham democracy.  Powerful stuff Now online

Another impeccably credentialed conservative, Paul Craig Roberts  pretty much agrees

Unless enough Americans can overcome their brainwashed state and the rigged Diebold voting machines, turn out the imbecilic Republicans and hold the neoconservatives accountable for their crimes against humanity, a crazed neocon US government will provoke nuclear war with Russia.

The neoconservatives represent the greatest danger ever faced by the United States and the world. Humanity has no greater enemy.

We are governed by fools
Armed and dangerous

How does this forum not violate the Establishment Clause in spirit?

We've all noticed John McCain having those "John McCain moments.  He gets confused.  His thinking is unclear. When he's asked a question, he hesitates for long periods of time and can't remember the question.   When he does respond to a question, the one about Corsi's book for example, he gives a diffuse inappropriate answer;  "need to have a sense of humor about these things".  He now reads everything off small cards and sometimes it appears that he may not know what's going on.  
Does anyone believe that his condition may be worse thanhis campaign strategists would lead us to believe?

The guy has a brain!  Add your thoughts!

Don't know if I am breaking the rules here, but here is a place for people to discuss the interviews by Warren.

Was this statement recently found on the official John McCain blog?

Patriotism means more than holding your hand over your heart during the national anthem. It means more than saying you've always been proud of your country. Patriotism means recognizing that the sacred colors of our American tradition must be honored even in the seemingly little choices in life. Sadly, Barack Hussein Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, recently visited Pearl Harbor in order to buy a snow cone (which he prefers to call "shave ice"). His colors of choice? Lime green, guava orange, and cherry red! I am in no ways questioning Mr. Obama's patriotism; however, I have always felt that is the responsibility of the leading candidates for the presidency of this country ensure that the great red, white, and blue are always given their proper respect. That's why today I purchased a snowcone with strawberry red, vanilla white, and blueberry blue flavors. Americans deserve an American President who will not disrespect the veterans who died for our country at Pearl Harbor with their choice of elitist, unmasculine snow cone colorings.

John McCain '08
The American President Americans Deserve for America

A contribution to TPM proudly brought to you by the John McCain '08 Action Center.

There are a lot of people complaining that Obama should be running lots and lots of ads tying McCain to Bush and doing a lot of hand-wringing about his failure to do so.  Maybe these people are right.  Maybe if he did that right now, undecided voters would shake off their pre-Labor Day torpor, say "wow, that never occurred to me until now" and suddenly make up their minds, sending Obama's polling numbers into the sixties, where they would stay until Election Day.  There's a first time for everything, they say. 

However, logically, the fact that they're not doing this admits of only two explanations.  Either Obama's campaign is so inept, so utterly and outrageously oblivious, that the notion of running ads like that has never even occured to them, or else, they have considered doing it and made a considered judgment not to do it. 

Okay, so does anyone here, other than the Republitrolls and Hillarite Deadenders, really think that Obama would be where he is if his campaign were so clueless that the idea of running ads linking Bush to McCain right now had not occurred to them?  Seriously, does anyone really think someone at the mothership in Chicago is going to log on to the Internet in the first time of their life, discover the existence of liberal blogs full of sage campaign advice and smack his or her head after a "Eureka!" moment.  "Holy shit!  That's it!  We should run ads linking McCain to Bush!  How could we have been so blind?  Thank God for these amatuer strategists on this Internet thing who came up with this ingenious media strategy because no one here even thought of it!" 

No? 

Then does it not follow that they have, in fact, considered doing those kinds of ads and made a deliberate decision not to do so?  In that case, the real question becomes why they have have chosen not to do so. 

And a few possible explanations come to mind. 

One  is that they intend to do that eventually but think the timing isn't right.  Maybe they want to wait, and not wear the theme out too soon.  Another, is that they've focus grouped and polled such ads (political campaigns do that kind of thing, I've been led to understand) and discovered that they're ineffective.  Maybe they discovered, for example, that people have so completely moved on past Bush that they aren't even really angry at him anymore--just impatient for him to start moving his shit out of the White House.  Maybe they've found that such ads do more harm to Obama's favorability ratings than McCain's (not beyond belief give that there's at least some evidence emerging that McCain's "celebrity" ads are driving his negatives up faster than they're driving up Obama's.)  Maybe they have research that shows that the fact that McCain doesn't talk like he's stuffed his mouth full of Novacaine flavored jawbreakers causes people to believe he's much smarter than Bush. 

Are they right?  Dunno.  Are they screwing up by the numbers by not following your advice to flood the airwaves with ads trying to tie McCain to Bush?  I have no idea.  Campaigns have been known to make bad decisions. 

But I do know it was the result of an actual decisions and I wish people would stop talking about this as if it's just some horrendous oversight on their part.  That's just silly.   

I've been rolling the ideas for this post around for a while now, and haven't had time to sit down and write it.  Forgive me if I'm rehashing anyone else's work, as some of the material I've been thinking about has become a little dated in the interim.

As the X-Files sequel creeps toward a paltry $20 million dollars in total earnings, (#12 in the link) Chris Carter should be kicking himself for making that movie about anything besides aliens.  Many of us are driven by a curiousity like Mulder's; we want to believe in more than what we can see and know and prove.  That impetus to discover the unknown and unexplained is more compatible with faith than the Evangelical Bible-thumping Creationists would have people believe.  In fact, discovery and science may very well be humanity's divine purpose in the Christian theology, and you can help whether you're a Believer or not - more on that later.

The Vatican's Astronomer recently stated that devout Catholics are free to believe in aliens.  To discount life outside this planet would be to "set limits on the creative liberty of God."  Significantly, his comments were published in the Vatican's own newspaper, lending what some would call a papal endorsement to the Astronomer's views.  The article's publication sparked frenzied discussion among scientists, theologians, geeks, and other cootie-afflicted individuals throughout the world.

There is actually a long history of Catholic theologians pondering the existence of aliens.  Unbeknownst to many, the Church has vigorously supported astronomy, especially since the vindication of Galileo, funding a number of telescopes throughout the world.  The Catholics and/or Jesuits have actually been practicing astronomy since before Galileo.  A strong endorsement for the existence of extraterrestrial life can be found as early as the 15th century, in writing from a Cardinal Nicole Cusano, 1401-1464, who wrote "there is no star from which we are authorized to exclude the existence of beings, who may even be different to us."

The most interesting article I found was written about a Monsignor Balducci, a Vatican demonologist (read 'exorcist') who believes in extraterrestrial life and is among a group actively employed by the Holy See to quietly investigate extraterrestrial encounters and other phenomena.  Apparently, the Church has been quietly gathering information about ET's for a number of years from its Nunciatures (embassies) throughout the world - it's all detailed in the link.  You can find a lot on Balducci if you search, he has been making waves in recent months in ufo-chaser communities.  Here's an interview.

Getting back to how you can do God's work, help advance science, and look for little green men, SETI is the proud new mama of Paul Allen's baby, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA).  The ATA has the potential to accelerate the rate of SETI's scanning of star systems by around two orders of magnitude.  That's a huge leap forward.

Unfortunately, SETI's computing capacity is currently sufficient to about 10% of the task.  It won't have the supercomputers it needs for five to ten years, I think.

That's right.  Ninety percent of the data that these radio telescopes capture are not analyzed.  But that's how you can help.  If you have a high-speed connection, your computer can help SETI crunch some of that otherwise unsifted data. Go to SETI@home, download and install the software, and feel free to call Berkeley using Skype if you need help getting your computer set up.  You, too, can help in the search for intelligent life, from the comfort of your very own living room.

Mankind's exploration of space has had its share of fatalities and catastrophic failures.  But there are also extraordinary successes that inspire curiousity and wonder.  Spirit and Opportunity continue to roam the surface of Mars, two years and more after their mission was scheduled to end.  Voyager I and II, with only a handful of functioning instruments remaining, continue to faithfully send data back to Earth, more than 30 years after their launch.

Consider, finally, that God's first injunction to Adam in Genesis is to go forth and name all the beasts.  This was, arguably, the only command given to Adam before the Fall
from Grace.  If everything after Genesis is about how a race of original and obdurate sinners can regain God's favour, then this one command from before the Fall may very well be Mankind's true purpose, had he remained a perfect and sinless being.

I'll leave you with some quotes about this very topic from Earth, an excellent novel by David Brin, from which I'll admit I borrowed some of the ideas for this post.  If you've got a high-speed connection and idle your computer a lot, please help SETI.

Priest 1: "I think I see what you refer to.  The paragraph in which the Lord has Adam name all the beasts.  Is that it?  But that's a minor thing.  Nobody considers it important."

Priest 2: "Not important?  The very first request by the Creator of His creation?  The only request that has nothing to do with the repair work of mortality or rescue from sin?  Would such a thing have been mentioned so prominently if the Lord were merely idly curious?  ...Our original purpose was clearly to glorify God by going forth, comprehending, and naming the Creator's works.  Therefore, aren't zoologists, crawling through the jungle, struggling to name endangered species before they go extinct, doing holy labor?  Or take even those camera-bearing probes we have sent to other planets...What is the first thing we do when awe-inspiring vistas of some faraway moon are transmitted back by our little robot envoys?  Why, we reverently name the craters, valleys, and other strange beasts out there.  So you see it's impossible for the end of days to come, as your group predicts, till we succeed in our mission or utterly fail.  Either we'll complete the preservation and description of this Earth and go forth to name everything else in God's universe, or we'll prove ourselves unworthy by spoiling what we started with - this our first garden.  Either way, the verdict's not in yet."

Priest 3 (much later in the book): "We now strongly believe the oldest heavenly commandment commissions humanity to go forth, observe God's works, and glorify Him by giving names to all things.  In that quest, no human venture has dared so much or succeeded as well as Voyager.  It has given us moons and rings and distant planets, great valleys and craters and other marvels.  It plumbed Jupiter's storms and Saturn's lightning and sent home pictures of the puzzle that is Miranda.  No other modern enterprise has so glorified the Creator, showing us as much of His grand design, as faithful Voyager, our first emissary to the stars.

While visiting relatives, I read about McCain's health insurance proposals in the Dallas Morning News. It's worth a look given that it would tax employer-based health insurance to provide an extremely small tax credit to shop for your own insurance, which would then provide pretty crappy coverage.

For all his talk about cutting taxes, McCain sure doesn't mind hiking them up for those of us who get it through our employers. This plan looks like a complete disaster. Tell your family and friends.

The article is here.

Should US press to place missiles in Poland?

August 16, 2008

To the Voters and the American People:

I have accomplished much in my lifetime, but not as much as I want to achieve, that is why at 53, I carefully selected a Technical College to pursue my career goals with success in mind.  I started off my career as a Laborer, then a Mechanic to a Machinist, switching gears and going back to school for an Electronic Technician Program, then to flight school to earn my Commercial Pilot License with Instrument and Multi-Engine Ratings, followed by my Certified Flight Instructor Certificate with Instrument and Multi-engine endorsements.  I spent the last 15 years self-teaching myself Computer Repair, Operating Systems, Upgrades, and Building Custom PC's.  My heart and my interests have remained in computers.  

This is why I am seeking challenge and to expand upon my lifelong knowledge quest to become a Network Administrator.  My grades certainly reflect my Dedication, Persistence, Patience, choices of TV over doing my homework and studying for exams, as well as the ability to Accept Change by Remaining Open-Minded and accessing my strong points along with my weak areas so I can strive to improve both of them through Self-assessment Exercise Testing and Evaluation. 

Critical Thinking, Critical Evaluation, and the ability to sort through the research and media reports that can be biased, to arrive at the real truth of who is the best choice on Election Day will pay off.  My choice of schools has been a wise one based on research and talking to other people who know about the quality of education at this school of which has all been positive.  By the same token, do your research and critical evaluation before Election Day comes around.

I have read headline after headline and I am afraid of what will happen to American History if the people vote for Obama.  You all should be equally concerned and worried.

Will Obama sing the “National Anthem”?  Will Obama say the “Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of The United States of America”?  Will Obama keep the words "In God We Trust" on the American Dollar?  Will Obama be a good representative for what the Founding Forefathers have fought and died for in the past?  Will Obama honor the Constitution or will he fill the American People full of lies and hidden truths for whom and what he really stands for?  Does Obama have support from his Church Leader?  Has Obama fought for this country and spent so much as one day in a Prisoner of War Camp as a Prisoner of War?  To what do we owe Obama then? 

I urge you to vote McCain, who does have the best interests of the United States of America in his heart.  Did McCain ditch this country after he spent so many years as a Prisoner of War?  Does McCain say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, believe in; "In God We Trust".  To whom do we owe the most to, that has given his life to the fight for what this country was founded on, Freedom?

Do you want a leader, specifically Obama representing this country who does not say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, does not sing the National Anthem, and whom does not salute the American Flag?  Ask yourself, just what does Obama stand for and believe in that he could be trusted to represent?  Certainly not the United States of America!

If you think America needs change after the damage the Bush Administration has caused in America, do not let this cloud your judgment by not using "Critical Thinking" to make an intelligent choice on Election Day.  You as the people owe America the courtesy to carefully evaluate the Preponderance of Evidence in making your decision for the best choice based on Intuition, Critical Thinking and Critical Evaluation.  Where does this all come from? It is straight from my text book for "Strategies For The Technical Professional" at college which its primary purpose is to allow the student to be successful at his/her education and career choice. 

Do not allow America to become a breeding ground for HATE, vote McCain on Election Day.  He has fought for this country and put his life on the line.  He knows what it is like to be a Prisoner of War.  Did McCain sell out his country and give up on it after he regained his freedom from a POW?  No, he continued his fight and became a leader proudly representing the United States Government. 

Obama's belief system and his swapping of his facts and statements time and time again, has proved that he is not above lying to the American People to get elected. 

I myself will not allow the narrow minded to tell me that education is not worth it, that there are no jobs in America, and that I am wasting my time pursuing an education at 53 years old. 

I am learning plenty of good information in my classes.  I have returned to college with more drive and persistence than I have ever had, determined to succeed no matter what.  I will not give up as I have in the past.  I will never again allow anyone to stand in the way of my dreams and goals.  I have control of my own life, no longer allowing other people to influence my decisions in a negative way.  Making mistakes is a part of life as well as taking chances.  

The important thing to remember is the definition of insanity, doing the same things over and over again expecting different results. 

I have developed a genuine interest for computers over the past 15 years, learning all I could on my own and from the occasional stimulation of my mind by a select few friends, and by reading numerous books, I have chosen to pursue a rewarding career as a Network Administrator. 

Today I choose not to watch much TV, but instead devote the majority of my time to college courses and studying.  My grades reflect this.  The fact that I drive a 214 mile round trip to school certainly highlights and proves my motivation and desire to succeed. 

Everyone's future depends on these basic things: Persistence, Patience, Dedication, Balance, Open-Mindedness, the Ability to Adapt and Change to a Rapidly Changing Market, Honesty, Self-Assessments to determine your strengths and weaknesses, and how to change by building on your strengths in addition to improving upon your weak areas.

Do not breed HATE into America by turning your back on McCain.  We need change from the Bush Administration to restore America to what it was 20 years ago, but that will take time and patience.  What we do not need is a person who demonstrates time and time again, the Negative Anti-American Actions which shows up in his public speeches.  Obama could easily breed HATE into America and change the history books to something that we will not like, nor be proud of. 

Remember this, Our Founding Forefather's all honored our Constitution, our Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and believed in what is printed on our money, "In God We Trust".  How can anyone have respect and vote for a man who has repeatedly shown by both action and in speech, the Anti-American traits, we need to turn our backs on? 

 

Just remember who has your best interests at heart and would be a better representative for what the founding forefathers have already fought and died for, Freedom of the United States of America.  But, they all have had genuine American Values. 

Please, I beg of you, Do Not Pull the Handle For Obama on Election Day or you may end up wishing you were more careful for what you had wished for.  We do not need his kind of change in America.  America will cease to exist as we know it with this kind of mentality in office.  Do Not allow the breed of HATE to enter into American History with someone that has demonstrated his HATE for American Tradition, Obama. 

I want change too; I want change from the Bush Administration that has certainly helped to make this country the worst in 17 years.  But, I will not waste my vote or support of anyone that continually lies, demonstrates Anti-American Acts, and misleads the people just to get elected. 

 

Obama is not the best choice and I beg you to use some Intelligent Creative Critical Thinking and really do some soul searching and pray to God to guide you in your decisions as well as Critical Research and Sorting of Facts, for the best choice on Election Day.  

 

Vote American, Vote John McCain as President to save American History so it remains traditional in nature.  It is one thing to vote for change, and you do just that when you vote for another person than the one in office now, but it is another to vote foolishly by voting for someone that will not even say the “Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag” or sing the “National Anthem”. 

 

This is really sad, what I see from charts and news articles what could happen on Election Day if people do not start to really use Critical Thinking, Critical Research, Critical Evaluation of the Evidence against Obama and vote for Senator John McCain. 

For example, if you were faced with having only two choices but must pick one, and they are both evil choices, then vote intelligently for the lesser of two evils, not the greater of two evils.  That way, our country will at least be represented by someone who really has the experience and knowledge background to represent America as the United States of America, “United We Stand”, not “Un-United We Fall”.

I want to thank you for taking the time to read my comment and post.  I can only hope this has served to stimulate your thinking and that you as voters will follow some of my suggestions and use Critical Thinking and Critical Analysis before pulling the handle on Election Day. 

We can put a stop to the Destruction of America by voting for Senator John McCain, someone who does not breed HATE and will continue to fight for the rights of American's with their best interests at heart. 

Senator John McCain does not have to keep changing his story like Obama does.  Every town Obama campaigns at, he switches up on his statements, thus proving he is based on lies and underlying reasons for running for President of the United States of America.

DoJ permitted tainted prosecutors to review the District of Columbia. The original problem related to an improper prosecutor release of trial transcripts to six witnesses in a 9-11 investigation.

The issue which tainted the W. District was their improper prosecutor release to the FBI of the Wecht Juror names. The error should have been detected.  It was not.

Another distirct should have reviewed the original problem in the Distirct of Columbia. This too did not happen.

There are some larger budgeting issues related to this failure. They relate to how DOJ provides Congress through the President estimates of its manpower requirements. DoJ is underreporting its manning requirements to conduct thorough reviews of prosecutor misconduct.

The first comment below shows the relationship between the tainted prosecutor review and manpower-budget models; and outlines for the public and TPMM questions to ask of the Department of Justice.

A few good examples from Broder’s interesting recent article that frame the types of campaigns we are now seeing.

QUOTE
The Obama people cite a different metric for success, derived from the ground game:

"That's why I pay more attention to the registration figures than to the polls I see at this time of year," Plouffe said. "The polls will change, but we know we need 200,000 new voters to be competitive in Georgia, and now is when we have to get them."

"The Obama people believe that McCain has squandered an opportunity to make a positive case for his own election in the many months since he secured the votes for the Republican nomination."
END QUOTE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503098.html

Does it not occur to anyone else that "the Obama people" are actually running a competent, well thought out, and well organized campaign?

What are McCain's "people" doing besides racking their Rovian "brains" for cutsie Obama put-down ads? Is there any sign that they are also running a competent, well thought out, and well organized campaign?

Does it not occur to anyone else that the eventual Presidential Administration will be run the same way as the candidate ran his election campaign?

Think back to the George W. Bush election campaign and the Bill Clinton campaign. Does everyone see the similarities with their election campaigns and the way they ran the White House?

Whose Administration was run the way you wanted it run - Bush's or Clinton's?

Whose Administration will be run better – Obama’s or McCain’s?

As in:

Better for the Country.

Better for us.

Better for the rest of the World.

Which will be:

Better for Big Oil?

Better for Millionaire Fat Cats?

Better for Military-Industrial Complex Big Wigs?

Better for everything owned by Rupert Murdock, but especially Fox News?

I think these questions answer themselves.

The following is satire. The videos and claims made herein are not to be taken seriously or used as actual talking points.

Everybody's favorite Clown-in-Chief, John McCain, is at it again with his humorous take on Jerome R. Corsi's new book, "Obama Nation."

Asked about Corsi's book, which describes Barack Obama as a radical Muslim drug user, McCain replied, "Gotta keep your sense of humor."

That Ol' Jack Maverick's got us in his spell once again, tickling our ribs by pretending that Corsi's book hasn't been shot down faster than McCain piloting an A-4E Skyhawk. And why distance himself from funny lies about Obama when so many hilarious questions are dogging his own contrail?

Here's some home videos about McCain he's sure to find just as funny as Corsi's tall tales. Roll tape!

This first one involves the time when McCain narrowly escaped from the fire on USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967, that killed 134, injured 161, destroyed 21 aircraft and cost the Navy $72 million, which actually happened. But according to some very funny people, McCain may have started the fire.  If true — and that's really beside the point, right? — hot-dogger McCain "wet-started" his A-4E Skyhawk, allowing kerosene to pool in his engine until, when ignited, it "burned off" a Zuni rocket on the jet parked behind him, launching it into McCain's center fuel tank. Funny stuff!

This next one has to make McCain's sides split, right? Well, maybe not! Watch as a woman whose son was also a POW describes how McCain collaborated with the North Vietnamese from the moment of his capture, even giving away the flight routes of American sorties. Heeheehee! Can McCain disprove it? Who cares!

And this last video poses that hoot of a riddle: Is John McCain a Manchurian candidate? From the set-up of McCain making 32 anti-American propaganda tapes for the North Vietnamese to the punchline of coming back brainwashed to set up the government of the anti-Christ, this one's classic McCain through-and-through!

That's it for today. Join us next week for more, and don't miss John McCain's new special, "Celebrity Gaffes, Grins and Guffaws!"

The following is satire. The videos and claims made herein are not to be taken seriously or used as actual talking points.

Everybody's favorite Clown-in-Chief, John McCain, is at it again with his humorous take on Jerome R. Corsi's new book, "Obama Nation."

Asked about Corsi's book, which describes Barack Obama as a radical Muslim drug user, McCain replied, "Gotta keep your sense of humor."

That Ol' Jack Maverick's got us in his spell once again, tickling our ribs by pretending that Corsi's book hasn't been shot down faster than McCain piloting an A-4E Skyhawk. And why distance himself from funny lies about Obama when so many hilarious questions are dogging his own contrail?

Here's some home videos about McCain he's sure to find just as funny as Corsi's tall tales. Roll tape!

This first one involves the time when McCain narrowly escaped from the fire on USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967, that killed 134, injured 161, destroyed 21 aircraft and cost the Navy $72 million, which actually happened. But according to some <i>very</i> funny people, McCain <i>may</i> have started the fire.  If true — and that's really beside the point, right? — hot-dogger McCain "wet-started" his A-4E Skyhawk, allowing kerosene to pool in his engine until, when ignited, it "burned off" a Zuni rocket on the jet parked behind him, launching it into McCain's center fuel tank. Funny stuff!

This next one has to make McCain's sides split, right? Well, maybe not! Watch as a woman whose son was also a POW describes how McCain <i>collaborated</i> with the North Vietnamese from the moment of his capture, even giving away the flight routes of American sorties. Heeheehee! Can McCain disprove it? Who cares!

And this last video poses that hoot of a riddle: Is John McCain a Manchurian candidate? From the set-up of McCain making 32 anti-American propaganda tapes for the North Vietnamese to the punchline of comning back brainwashed to set up the government of the anti-Christ, this one's classic McCain through-and-through!

That's it for today. Join us next week for more, and don't miss John McCain's new special, "Celebrity Gaffes, Grins and Guffaws!"

Pop quiz: Identify the sources of each of the following statements released in the first 24 hours after Russia invaded Georgia.

1. “We urge all parties, Georgians, South Ossetians and Russians, to de-escalate the tension and avoid conflict. . . . We are working on mediation efforts to secure a cease fire and we are urging the parties to restart their dialogue.” 2. “I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia, and the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.” 3. “Today, news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally-recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory. What is most critical now is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces. The consequences for Euro-Atlantic stability and security are grave. “The government of Georgia has called for a cease-fire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The U.S. should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course. . . . We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia’s security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation. Finally, the international community needs to establish a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force in South Ossetia.”

If you guessed that the sources were the White House, the Obama campaign, and the McCain campaign, respectively, you’d be right. And if you noticed that the third takes a bit more of a pro-Georgia, anti-Russia stance than the first two, you wouldn’t be alone. John McCain’s “3 a.m.”-style gut reaction, though more detailed and specific in its policy proposals, did something the other executives’ (current and potential) didn’t: it took sides. And as the South Ossetia War drew on, McCain’s rhetoric shored up an anti-Russia stance even further: “Tensions and hostilities between Georgians and Ossetians are in no way justification for Russian troops crossing an internationally recognized border.” –McCain, August 9 “What the people of Georgia have accomplished in terms of democratic governance, a Western orientation, and domestic reform is nothing short of remarkable. That makes Russia’s recent actions against the Georgians all the more alarming. In the face of Russian aggression, the very existence of independent Georgia and the survival of its democratically-elected government are at stake.” –McCain, August 11 “Today we are all Georgians.” --McCain, August 12 Politically, it’s clear what McCain is doing here. He’s staking out the tough-guy stance in foreign conflict so common among Republicans since the Cold War. Equally predictably, Barrack Obama takes the familiar Democratic position of nuance and evenhanded diplomacy. Setting aside for the moment the question of which course is more appropriate—a debate rehashed here and elsewhere—which is more attractive to voters? There is a certain intuitive appeal to tough-guy talk in foreign policy. It worked for a string of presidential candidates during the Cold War and for President Bush during his self-styled War on Terror. But in those situations, news and information saturated the American airwaves, and nearly every citizen had at least a vague sense of what was going on, what the history was, and who the players were. In such a situation, it’s easy to see things in black and white, readily taking sides. So the Soviet Union became the bad guy and the U.S. the good guy; Al Qaeda and the Taliban wrong and the U.S. right; and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Israel basically good and the Arabs seeking its annihilation essentially evil. Because a conventional wisdom on those conflicts developed to a point of omnipresence, it was easy to describe them in a simple, black-white dichotomy. And so tough talk was, and is, appealing. But the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia is something different. To Americans, the players are unidentified, the geography uncharted, the history unknown. Americans know Russia as the bulk of the former Soviet Union, an important if reluctant ally, and they know Vladimir Putin as potentially dangerous but the same man whose soul President Bush saw as decent. But Americans know very little of Georgia itself, and very few had heard of these breakaway regions before last Friday. To our credit, we hesitate to judge circumstances we know very little about. And because it is foreign to us, we assume it must be complex—otherwise we’d have formed some opinion on it already. From ten thousand feet, even a black-and-white situation appears gray. So maybe McCain’s harsh position on Georgia lacks the appeal the same position would in some more well-known conflict. Maybe Americans see his line as a shade too simple to be quite correct. Maybe, for once, we have the sense that nuance is right.

Pundits who cast the confrontation between the United States and Russia over Georgia in terms of military action may be missing the way the issue will be resolved.

And they may be underestimating U.S. power.

It was the crushing economic burden of the Cold War that brought down the Soviet Union, not war.

Russia cannot afford to get into another protracted arms race or costly economic showdown with the United States.  The Russian people have been through that.  Why should they put themselves through it again?

On the other hand The Juggernaut, what Dwight Eisenhower called the U.S. military-industrial complex, continues to project its power throughout the world with a volunteer army and, absurdly, without raising taxes.  In the United States, the pain of our foreign policy has been borne almost completely by our volunteer military and their families.  There may be a financial price to pay in the future, but Russia will have folded its tents and exited Georgia long before then. 

Fantasizing about a war between the United States and Russia may excite the readership, but that war is just not going to happen.

In the 1960's, when the United States introduced missiles into Turkey, the Soviet Union responded by putting missiles in Cuba, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis. Jack Kennedy stood eyeball to eyeball with the Rooskies, they say, and the Rooskies blinked.  But two months later, the United States secretly removed its missiles from Turkey.

As the United States introduces missiles into countries like Poland, the Russian response might have been to introduce missiles into Iran and Syria, but, unfortunately, the Russians have already done that.  The Russians are apparently out of missile cards to play.  The Georgians are suffering the consequences.  And the Russians are looking like thugs.

It's America's move, and, apparently, the United States is going to use propaganda and economic pressure, not the threat of military force, to resolve the crisis.  The Russians will quit while they're ahead.

Perhaps this was already addressed.  I so I apologize.

Report of PUMA Conference

I ran a across to the report at fivethirtyeight.com.

In my opinion, here's why. Its going to put the superdelegates on the spot. Every last one of them is going to have to show who they support. And I think so to be, I hope and pray, President Obama might like to know who, even at this late day, still doesn't have confidence in him. We will all get to see which congresspeople and senators are still truly beholden to The Clintons. I mean you'd think as a sign of party unity, they'd all vote for Obama. Because of course that info is going to be widely reported and ponder upon by the 'pundits'. Your thoughts?

The Republicans are trying to use the low approval ratings of Democrats in Congress, gay issues and abortion for political gain again this election cycle.

I think it's important to remind folks that having a majority of ONE with at least one Independent spying on the Dem's plans (Lieberman), with a Republican president who promises to veto any bill he doesn't like - makes it extremely difficult to solve ANY problem.

I could also remind you that Democrats continue to have a much better approval rating in Congress then do the Republicans currently serving there.

As for using the abortion and gay rights argument (he's pro-choice or a baby killer and marriage is between a man and a woman), Republicans had the majority in congress for 12 years, they had a conservative supreme court during those years and a well liked Republican president for at least 10 of those years -- what was their problem?  Why didn't they kill the Roe vs Wade law?  Why didn't they pass a constitutional amendment making it a law that marriage is between a man and a woman?

It's simple folks.  If they killed those laws -- they'd have no platform to run on in the next election cycle.

Given the TPM front page discussion of Ukraine I thought some may be interested in this McClatchy report.

Given the TPM front page discussion of Ukraine I thought some may be interested<a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/255/story/48484.html"> in this McClatchy report.</a>

I posted this on Obama's official site:

Assuming that the selection has not already been made, I was thinking it would be interesting to combine making our voices heard with the opportunity to make a donation. My thinking is that those of us who are willing to join Senator Obama's official campaign website AND make a donation should be given an opportunity to express our choice for the most viable VP. For example, if you made at least a $10 donation you could sign into this site and either select from a list of known contenders OR write in someone that you think would make a strong choice, perhaps accompanied by your reasoning, i.e., strong in national defense or able to help in a particular swing state, etc. I personally keep thinking that General Wesley Clark would bring outstanding balance to the team. Anyway, I think it would be an interesting opportunity for the two million people who have supported Senator Obama, even though I do feel that he rightly ultimately makes the choice that fulfils his own unique strategy and vision.


My thought is that just as we are financially supporting Senator Obama's campaign, we ought to offer our thoughts, prayers and condemnations.  I'm clearly NOT saying that he should take the VP with the most votes, but perhaps be cautious about taking someone who is clearly unpopular for, perhaps, good cause.

Time is winding down and there’s a lot of debate about George Bush’s legacy these days. Remember the spin surrounding the administration’s renewed efforts on the Middle East peace process? That was all about trying to bring one positive event to Bush’s legacy. Admittedly he hasn’t spent much time brokering peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, but that’s only because he’s been busy orchestrating wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A president only has so much time in a day. While others ruminate about Bush’s replacement, I’m delving into more concrete things, like the Bush Library at Southern Methodist University. What will go into that library? What will best represent the Bush Legacy? I have some suggestions. 

I’d break it down into “rooms,” the first being The 9-11 Room. That was truly a watershed event, an opportunity both for domestic unity after a tainted election and unprecedented international cooperation. Instead President Bush very quickly reduced it to one giant photo op. Remember that photo of Bush at Ground Zero, holding a megaphone in one hand with his other arm around the shoulders of one of New York City’s finest? The firefighter in the photo is just one of the many men and women who spent days and nights breathing in the acrid smoke and sifting thorough the still-smoldering debris. The photo would certainly illustrate the President’s solidarity with these heroes. But there’s another story he wants to avoid. It’s the story of how the government suppressed the danger of breathing the air in New York in the days following the attacks. In 2006, ninety people died of illnesses tied to 9-11 recovery efforts; that’s up from about twenty. It’s a story about forgotten people, once hailed as heroes, suffering with chronic illnesses and slowly dying in obscurity with little support from the government they so willingly believed in and selflessly served.

Next, comes The Protect America Room with a copy of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, signed into law on October 26, 2001. This historic document marks the birth of the all-out attack on our Constitutional rights, giving the government unprecedented powers to search telephone, e-mail, medical and financial records without a court order all in the name of fighting terrorism. Let’s not forget the Protect America Act of 2007, a law that legitimizes Bush’s illegal wiretapping of his own citizens. According to the ACLU’s web site, it allows for the “massive, untargeted collection of international communications without court order or meaningful oversight by either Congress or the courts.” For a while, it was touch and go. Would the bill include retroactive immunity for the telecoms who aided and abetted our felonious president or not? In the end, the criminals won because our spineless Congress let them win.

The War on Terror Room would come next. President Bush likes to call himself a “war president.” That's because starting wars is the one of the two things he is good at. (The other is lying.) That timeless photo of the now-free Iraqis toppling Saddam’s statue would have to be included. However, the administration should refrain from using actual war photos. It’s never good to show people on either side being blown up by roadside bombs and/or shot. Instead, they can include a film clip timeline of the speeches leading up to the Iraq war…the inspirational ones incorporating the 935 lies Bush and the key members of his administration told to justify the war. The Center for Public Integrity has already done all the work at http://www.publicintegrity.org! Bush should avoid any mention of the other war zone, Afghanistan, and the dismal effort made to capture the real architect of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Out of sight, out of mind and that's a good thing. People don't really remember why we're there to begin with, but I'm sure of one thing: We're not there to catch Osama bin Laden.

The Domestic Policy Room would have its own Veto Zone. The President can tout his tax cuts for the richest Americans, while the poor and middle class stagger under a sagging economy of his creation. In the Veto Zone, Bush can showcase his tough stand against the “fiscally irresponsible” expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. This law provides health care coverage to 3.9 million uninsured children at an additional cost of $34.5 billion dollars over five years (an increase that would be covered by a 61-cent increase in the cigarette tax and other tobacco taxes). In contrast, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the monthly cost of the Iraq war to be about $12 billion. The total cost of the Iraq war could run up to $3 trillion. Do the math and determine who is truly fiscally irresponsible. Any guesses?

The misinformed won’t stop there. The Disaster Response Room will feature that powerful 2005 Hurricane Katrina speech where Mr. Bush says “the Gulf Coast must be rebuilt with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice plain to all in the suffering of the black and the poor in Hurricane Katrina’s wake.” It’s 2008 and many are still displaced and waiting to go back home. Others have given up entirely on ever returning to their home state. Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation is doing more to build affordable housing in New Orleans than our own government. Instead, abandoned buildings are being purchased for conversion to high priced condos. The same thing is happening in Mississippi, where areas are turning into casino havens for the rich. The Bush administration’s version of the war on poverty is displacing and dispersing the poor throughout the rest of the country to fend for themselves.  

Don’t forget The Interrogation/Torture Room. Here the torture techniques encouraged by this administration, continually honed at Guantanamo Bay and applied to extreme at Abu Ghraib will be hailed as powerful tools in the war on terror. It smacks of hypocrisy that George Bush once cited Saddam Hussein’s cruelty as a justification for removing him from power. Of course, our president doesn’t see himself in that light. He believes it’s his destiny is to bring freedom and democracy to the Middle East, one way or another. He answers to a higher power. The end justifies the means.  

Finally, let’s finish the library with The Congressional Mastery Room. The bully president will be shown brazenly breaking many national and international laws and still escaping impeachment, while simultaneously holding a Democratic Congress hostage and preventing any legislation that might actually benefit the American people from becoming law. 

 

 

I have followed both of theses people and they both have great ideas and both made alot of sense in what they want to do for AMERICANS and where they plan to go with it.With the voters the Obama ticket seemed to be the choice. But with all the ads and all the promises from both i came out with the feeling that they both have a sincere plan to help the American people, then the end cam and they parted ways, this i seen as another slap in the face of the American people because if they truly cared and both wanted to stand for us for a change why arent they combining forces and working together on an ultimate plan that will truly benifit the American people and get our country back on the right track and create a place with job security,health care and a clean environment that is not dependant on oil ? So again a fired up message that thrown in a bottle to the sea of goodwishes will go and float again until the next election when they all take center stage and play the dance and song that we all so like to hear and again will come down to a choice of who danced the best and played the right tune. We as Americans should open there eyes and ask them do you really care or is it just about winning the office of president, do you really mean what you say and if you do why dont you join together on common ground and really for once make a change that benifits the American people and make changes that will benifit not only now but for the next generation and the ones that follow. Or will the two of you just continue the old pipe dream that will not come to past and await the next round to play the song and dance ????

I think this should be the next Obama ad:

John McCain is lying to you about Barack Obama    and his plan to cut taxes for the middle class. According to factcheck.org, McCain is claiming "that Obama would 'raise taxes on (the) middle class.' In fact, Obama's plan promises cuts for middle-income taxpayers" making less than $200,000. 

While McCain tries to distract you with false accusations and tabloid hype, Obama is working to make America's economy stronger by providing tax relief to the middle class and additional tax rebates to American workers.

The McCain camp is calling out Obama for what they claim to be dishonesty (CNN):

"It's now clear that the Obama campaign's attack on John McCain and the DHL issue -- which Obama campaign manager David Plouffe called 'the most important development in the campaign' -- is based on a lie.
-McCain spokesman Brian Rogers

It's only fair that the favor be returned.

Also, this is a way to push back on the celebrity thing by showing how ridiculous it is in a more substantive context.  The message of this ad isn't just that McCain's lying, it's that lying and name calling are all he's got.

"America is in pickle" and some how Bill Moyers manages to find guest to share a sober look at what is going on the United States. His guest always come in a variety of political persuasions. This week he spoke with Andrew J. Bacevich a self-identified conservative who offered a solemn assessment of situations in Washington and its role of the country in the world. I listened in rapt silence.

He really didn't say anything that I don't already know but sometimes it is good hear someone else confirm it.

A great post by Timothy Egan over at NY Times:

http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/rushmore-or-less/index.html?ref=opinion

It compares the real Teddy Roosevelt to McCain.  It turns out that the real Teddy Roosevelt was a celebrity that spoke to massive crowds in Europe.  Imagine that!

So I saw the photos today.  The ones of Obama body surfing.  Being a woman of his same age there shouldn't be anything wrong with my appreciating a fit, nice looking guy at the beach. Why do I feel so guilty?

Hi there, come on in.  It is!  No need for artificial light this evening, the soft white glow from the Moon has cast the perfect illumination.  A shadowy reflection ... like after a fresh coat of midnight show came calling.  Beautiful, indeed.  There's a seat on the sofa, make yourself comfortable.  No, thanks, someone just changed it - can't tell.  We'll get it in a minute, keep listening.

I listened today to the words that an old friend died yesterday.  A wonderful man I have known through hugs and conversations enjoyed a few times of year by the beach.  For twenty-six years.  A teacher, psychologist, mentor, father and friend he touched so many lives other then mine.  Yet he never failed to express his affection and admiration for me even as an older man recording his last videos of an Atlantic Ocean sunset.  Voices of vacationing friends forever captured in the audio.  Left as priceless keepsakes to his loved ones who grew so tired of watching them all year through.  As we all feel when we suffer a loss, I wish I had know that the last hug we shared would be just that.  But I'm really glad I didn't.  We parted with smiles and laughter, busily anticipating our reunion.

Tonight as I gaze at the full Moon I hear his voice telling me how special I was to him.  I feel the slight irritation when he arrived every morning at 8:00 with a hand full of pencils to be sharpened.  He awoke at 5:30 and did algebra and calculus equations just to wear down those damned pencils.  But I wish treaure that, and him, as long as I draw breath.  He's in the Moon tonight. 

The REPUBLICAN congressional years 1994 - 2006 (and 2000-2008 President Bush years) will be remembered for all they've accomplished...

Seven year war in Afghanistan, 5 year war in Iraq with close to 660 billion dollars spent, part of which we now owe China to pay for them.

North Korea, Iran and now Russia, are all greater powers then before the GOP took control of government. Pakistan with nukes is about to lose their (U.S. picked) leader. China is now listed as having the most manufacturing companies in the world.

Our food and toys are either poisoned or lead filled.

We’re told that even though our attorney general’s office committed crimes by picking justices by looking at their political views, they won’t be charged with a crime because, “Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime,” says Attorney General Michael.

Our privacy has forever been invaded.

Abortion (Roe vs Wade) is still legal even though President Bush had control of Congress and a conservative Supreme Court.

A CIA operatives name was leaked to the media by Bush’s right hand men - with his and Cheney’s permission – yet after promising to fire anyone that leaked the info, those persons remain free.

It’s now been proven that American’s were manipulated into going to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

We’ll remember the famous Abu Ghraib abuse photos and that we didn’t torture prisoners, then later we’re told, we did…but only three times.

New Orleans victims are still waiting for -safe- housing from Fema after the Katrina hurricane.

The new Homeland Defense dept is now building it’s on central intelligence office – outside of CIA.

President Bush has written over 200 special executive orders, overriding bills he’s signed into law – so that he can avoid obeying those new laws.

We’ve had the worst housing crisis in America’s history. Millions of jobs are lost and the country is in a recession. The rich got richer while middle class was forgotten. Oil companies made record breaking profits. Gas prices more than tripled and natural gas prices shoot up sky high.

Last but not least, we’ll always remember being attacked by terrorists on 9/11 – (Bush had been in charge for 8 months – intelligence was warning his administration for at least 3 and a half of those months - of imminent danger) and when told, how our president took 7 minutes to finally get up and attend to the business of our nation instead of sitting in a class room full of children telling stories. We’ll remember finding out later that the Bush administration was warned in August’s NIE about people planning to use planes hit buildings with and that Osama Bin Laden was aiming to attack the U.S… President Bush just sat at his Texas ranch on vacation and did nothing about it.

President Bush says the terrorists hate Americans because of FREEDOM.

Osama Bin Laden is still FREE – Somehow I doubt he hates freedom.

Memories....

Henry Clay's "American System," devised in the burst of nationalism that followed the War of 1812, remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry. This "System" consisted of three mutually re-enforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture…. Clay argued that a vigorously maintained system of sectional economic interdependence would eliminate the chance of renewed subservience to the free-trade, laissez-faire "British System."

The U.S. Congress should start by looking at it’s own website. Then proceed to immediately implement LaRouche’s 4% interest rate and his Three-step solution.

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/08/14/henry-clay-voice-past-congress-should-listen.html

(Saturday, Aug. 16, at 8 p.m. EDT, to be aired on CNN, MSNBC and Fox)

The forum will consist of an hour of questions to each candidate posed by the host, evangelical Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, author of the best-selling book,  The Purpose-Driven Life. According to Warren, "The primaries proved that Americans care deeply about the faith, values, character and leadership convictions of candidates as much as they do about the issues."

Warren is one of the new breed of evangelicals who care as much about social issues like poverty and AIDs as they do about the traditional hot-button issues, such as abortion and homosexuality, typically associated with the religious right. It's reported that Warren, who is anti-abortion in his own personal beliefs, is facing  intense lobbying from the traditionalists to press the candidates regarding their views on abortion. But Warren is said to be not particularly inclined to focus on abortion in this forum, “I will be raising questions ... beyond what political reporters typically ask. This includes pressing issues that are bridging divides in our nation, such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate and human rights,” said Warren of the forum.

Obama may be able to do himself a lot of good with this. Not only does his participation undermine the "Obama is a Muslim" rumors, but he can make inroads with those younger evangelicals and religious independent voters who may not be entirely satisfied with McCain, and who are increasingly turning their attention to issues like the environment, poverty and education, areas where Obama should shine over McCain.

News Item:  Julia Child, spy? Records reveal Julia Child was a World War II-era spy


10.  Called in often, asking if she could work from her kitchen

  9.  Whenever she was told of a need, Julia thought they meant "knead" and would go off on a tangent, for hours, about Tuscan breads

  8.  Kept annoying, making suggestions to, management, for a television show, introducing French spies to American audiences

  7.  Sending secret messages on cheese cloth made it difficult for her colleagues to read

  6.  Her super-secret code, if she was in trouble, was to serve fish for lunch, without the heads - which she loathed to do

  5.  Though she hid them well in her trench coat, Meat Tenderizer and Oven Thermometer were not approved OSS equipment

  4.  Didn't do well at stakeouts - noise and odor from cooking gave away her position

  3.  When running after suspects, wind would blow apron up over her face

  2.  Failed self-defense training - kept hitting instructor, simulating attack on her, over head with frying pan

  1.  When interrogating a suspect, spent inordinate amount of time grilling them for recipes


Bonus Bon Appetite Links

Celebrity spies revealed - new details of Julia Child's pre-chef career released

John Bennett:  Declassified: Julie Child's OSS Cook Book

Sara Dickerman:  How To Read Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Six recipes Julia Child would want you to make

Cookin' With Julia & Jacques

Egypt Protests New U.S. Use of Pyramids; Says Mocking Historic Culture and Islam; Call for American Food Boycott

Clinton Joins Food Pyramid Protest; Says Won't Deter Child Obesity; Poll Shows Public Prefers The Sphinx

Male Chefs To Join Crawford Protest; Will Demand Answers Why Female Named To Exec White House Position

Retro Garlic ... Food Fight!

Google Fires Executive Chef; Caught Searching Recipes On Yahoo, MSN

(Cross Posted at The Garlic)

It's happened again. I’ve seen this act before: 2000, 2000. Now again unscrupulous attacks on character on a Democrat running for president who seems to have a good chance of being elected appear on the New York Times best seller list and are passed off by some as serious scholarship. Scholarship from Jerome Corsi?   This guy lives on the edge of reality.  There is no need to go into the details of what he believes and what he’s done on a regular basis since 2004. 

Seeing both the responses of Obama and John McCain to the Georgia crisis reminds me of the movie "Crimson Tide," which was released in 1995. In the movie a nuclear missile carrying submarine off the coast of Russia is ordered to launch its missiles at silos that are in control of Russian nationalists. However, a second message is given to the sub, but there is there damage to the ship's equipment and it takes time for the message to be decrypted. Captain Ramsey, Gene Hackman's character, wants to launch the missiles right away before receiving the full message. Lieutenant Commander Hunter, played by Denzel Washington, takes over the sub in order to prevent Ramsey from lauching the missiles at Russia until the second message is confirmed. At the end of the movie, Hunter's response to the crisis manages to save the world from nuclear war.
      In his reponse to the Georgia crisis, John McCain responded very much like Captain Ramsey by shooting from the hip. McCain immediately blamed the Russians without noticing that it was actually the Georgians that started the conflict. John McCain's statements about Georgia resemble those on Iran in that he values conflict over compromise. Obama's opening statements on the conflict put the blame on both sides of the conflict and not just the Russians. Obama is similiar to Hunter in that he is willing to wait for all the facts to emerge before making a decision. Obama, like Hunter, realizes the severity of nuclear war and that it must be avoided at all cost. While John McCain, the real life Captain Ramsey, with his harsh rhetoric towards Moscow, is oblivious to the fact that his policies could led to a global nuclear conflict.

The significance of the Malloch-Brown/Obama connection may not have been widely noticed at the time Ms. Power boasted of it; Lord Malloch Brown was being played as a liberal critic of George W. Bush. But the fact that Malloch Brown on behalf of Britain, and George Soros -- later Malloch Brown's own investment partner -- had created the present government of Georgia and have just organized the recent war provocation against Russia, has put the matter into a lurid new light.

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/08/15/soros-agent-spilled-beans-lord-malloch-brown-conduit-obama.html

Yesterday I was checking out the democratic convention program and speakers and I noticed something...the only major Obama supporter who does not have a primetime slot (yet) is...JOHN KERRY!!! I asked myself "is that a hint". I definitely think so!
Stories are popping up with this rumor, what do you guys think? I think it will be a great choice.

"If Washington, under London pressure and manipulation, does go ahead and sanction the ouster of President Musharraf, this will lead to increased instability and overall disaster, that will soon spread from South Asia into Southwest and Central Asia as well," LaRouche elaborated. "I strongly urge that cooler heads prevail, and that, before President Musharraf is kicked out the door, the consequences of such an ouster be fully considered."

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/08/15/larouche-musharrafs-outing-will-further-endanger-pakistani-a.html

Obama ad team, take a cue.  You're throwing jabs.  This is a haymaker.

In a piece today titled "McCain Displays Credentials as Obama Relaxes", a New York Times' writer is shocked that Barack Obama has addressed the Georgian-Russian conflict less often than John McCain.

For the last several days, Senator Barack Obama has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation here, as his opponent, Senator John McCain, has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Um...maybe because Obama is on vacation, retard.

His name is Michael Falcone, and he begins his embarrassing piece thusly:

"For the last several days, Senator Barack Obama has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation here, as his opponent, Senator John McCain, has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia."

The point of a vacation, genius, is exactly that: To fade from the scene. Yet this individual saw this fact as worthy of an entire story in the most famous newspaper.

Besides, Obama is not the president of the United States. Interrupting leisure time in the event of an emergency would be George W. Bush's responsibility. Not that the conflict constitutes an emergency anyway.

In spite of all this, Obama has indeed gone out of his way to discuss the issue with US officials, as our clueless reporter observes in the 5th paragraph:

A spokesman said that Mr. Obama had interrupted his vacation several times to get updates on the situation in the Caucasus and that he had been in “constant contact” with his national security advisers. He has spoken to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, as well as former Senator Sam Nunn, Democrat of Georgia; Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana; and former Defense Secretary William J. Perry.

The whole piece is an attempt to prove that McCain is good, and Obama is weak, when it comes to foreign policy.

Just awful.

Obama's Senior Working Group on National Security is NOT CHANGE we can Believe in. On June 18, Obama convened the first meeting of his "Senior Working Group on National Security," a collection of advisers and possible future Cabinet members in a new administration--many of them former Clinton administration operators. Their record of war-making and imperial arrogance is enough to make your blood curdle.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIPNBJeXirI

* MADELEINE ALBRIGHT - Served a secretary of state in former President Bill Clinton's administration and was a top adviser to the campaign of Obama's former rival, Hillary Clinton. In 1996, CBS's Lesley Stahl asked Madeleine Albright, then secretary of state, about the U.S-imposed sanctions against Iraq. "We have heard that a half million children have died," Stahl said. "I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. Is the price worth it?"
Albright didn't hesitate. "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it," said Albright.

* DAVID BOREN - The former governor and senator from Oklahoma chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. is a former conservative Democratic senator. He was chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He helped push through the appointment of Robert Gates to head the CIA in 1991. Boren's top aide at the time was George Tenet, who would later become director of the CIA under Clinton and later Bush the Younger. Boren is a longtime friend of the Bush family, and has also been courted by the right-wing Reform Party.

* WARREN CHRISTOPHER - Was Bill Clinton's first secretary of state and also served as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration. As for Iraq, the Clinton administration inherited the devastating economic sanctions imposed by George Bush Sr. before the first Gulf War. When the pressure was on for the new administration to reconsider the sanctions, Christopher gave assurances no such thing would happen. As incoming secretary of state, he told reporters, "I find it hard to share the Baptist belief in redemption.... I see no substantial change in the position and continuing total support for what the [Bush] administration has done." Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died as a result of the continuing economic blockade.

*DAVID BOREN - Boren is a former conservative Democratic senator. He was chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He helped push through the appointment of Robert Gates to head the CIA in 1991. Boren's top aide at the time was George Tenet, who would later become director of the CIA under Clinton and later Bush the Younger. Boren is a longtime friend of the Bush family, and has also been courted by the right-wing Reform Party.

* GREG CRAIG - Was a former senior adviser to Albright in the Clinton administration and later led the team defending Bill Clinton against the impeachment charges involving Clinton's affair with a White House intern. Despite long ties to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, Craig was an early supporter of Obama and has been part of his inner circle of advisers.

* RICHARD DANZIG - Served as secretary of the Navy under Bill Clinton and is an expert on counterterrorism. Danzig was a consultant for Martin Marietta immediately before joining the Clinton administration, he restructured the defense industry in a plan nicknamed "payoffs for layoffs" by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in which the government paid military contractors to consolidate.

* LEE HAMILTON - The former Indiana congressman co-chaired the blue-ribbon commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks and was a lead author of Iraq Study Group report that offered recommendations on Iraq to President George W. Bush in 2006.

* ERIC HOLDER - Was deputy attorney general in Bill Clinton's administration and is working with Caroline Kennedy, daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, in helping to guide Obama's search for a vice presidential running mate.

* ANTHONY LAKE - Was national security adviser to Bill Clinton and has been part of the inner circle of Obama's campaign.

* SAM NUNN - A former senator from Georgia who chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee, Nunn has long been viewed as a leading Democratic voice on foreign policy and some have speculated he might be looked at by Obama as a potential running mate.* WILLIAM PERRY - Was secretary of defense under Bill Clinton.

* SUSAN RICE - The former assistant secretary of state for African Affairs is Obama's senior foreign policy adviser.

* TIM ROEMER - The former Indiana congressman was a member of the 9/11 commission.

* JAMES STEINBERG - Was deputy national security adviser to Bill Clinton.

Person A Is Ted Steven's House Mate?

TPMM shares some emails. Notice there are some great lengths to conceal the identify of someone, Person A.

"At 3:49 a.m. on September 1, 2006, Stevens wrote Person A: "press releases say the FBI served a warrant in Girdwood??? Did they hit our house? T."

Stevens didn't say, "Your house," or "their house," but "our house." It stands to reason that the emails were sent to Steven's house mate, presumably his wife, invoking the privilege granted to spousal communications.

How did this email get around the spousal privilege, confidentiality of communications between spouses?

One option is when the NSA intercepts information, the identifying information is stripped off; and the grand jury was not adequately informed about privileges applicable to spousal communications.

The President's emails are privileged, or so he would argue. Why isn't Stevens' communication with his wife suppressed? Perhaps the prosecutors, in their rush to prosecute, neglected to mention that they may have evidence which is not admissible; and would taint the grand jury.

Or is it too scary to contemplate the possibility the prosecutors have engaged in misconduct, and are attempting to cover it up, as they did with 9-11?

Guys, this is another post just up at HuffingtonPost.com:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deanie-mills/karl-roves-slytherin-stra_b_118955.html

and at http://deaniemills.com

It's a long one, I'll warn you, but I had a lot of fun with it, and I think it's worth your time, ESPECIALLY if you are a Harry Potter fan.  If you are not a Harry Potter fan, I promise you won't be lost.  Hope you enjoy it, and it makes you think:

You know who the Slytherins are, don't you?

For the two or three of you out there who honestly don't know anything about J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, let me briefly explain.

The school, located in a magically hidden castle in Scotland, is divided into four "houses," named for the school's four founders, and all first-year students are sorted into the houses their first day at Hogwart's, where they will remain their entire school career.  Each house has its own traditions and character, and those selected are said to possess those same characteristics:

Gryffindor: known for their "daring, nerve, and chivalry" as well as bravery, is the home school of Harry Potter and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Hufflepuff:  known for being very hard workers and for being "just, loyal, patient, and true."  (Harry's friend, Cedric Diggory, who competed with Harry in the Triwizard championship, was from Hufflepuff house.  He was killed by Voldemort, the Dark Wizard, but more about that later.)

Ravenclaw:  known for their intelligence and wisdom, the Ravenclaw's are "those of wit and learning, and a ready mind."  Harry and Ron took Ravenclaw girls to their first big Hogwart's dance.

And then there's Slytherin:  About the best that can be said for Slytherins is that they are "cunning" and "use any means to achieve their ends."  Harry's biggest enemy at Hogwarts is Draco Malfoy, a snot-nosed Slytherin who makes Harry's life hell from his first day, and his Slytherin baboon buddies, Crabbe and Goyle.

The Slytherin founder had, several centuries before, broken away from the Hogwart's school because he wanted to admit only "purebloods" into the academy--meaning, those born to a proper witch and wizard.  He would have hated Harry's dear friend Hermione, because she was "Muggle-born," meaning, her parents were neither witch nor wizard.  Some students had one parent who was witch or wizard and one who was not, but any not completely pureblood were, over time, derisively referred to as "Mudbloods."

The powerful Dark Wizard Voldemort, who had attempted a takeover of the magical world and the Ministry of Magic (the government of the magical world) when Harry was a baby--(killing Harry's parents and causing the famous lightning-bolt scar on Harry's forehead)--had been aided in his evil by a dedicated cadre of enablers known as Death-eaters.

The Death-eaters worked in stealth, secrecy, and hiding.  By day they went about their regular lives in the magical world, but by night, they stalked and killed people they considered Mudbloods, or people thought to be less than loyal to Voldemort.  Nobody really knew who were Death-eaters and who were not, although there were uneasy suspicions.  (Think of it as a magical Klu Klux Klan.)

But it was not until Harry's fourth year, when Cedric was killed in front of him, that he learned that Draco Malfoy's father, Lucius, was indeed a Death-eater.  Lucius was rich, attractive, charming, and highly influential at the Ministry of Magic.  He was greatly respected in the magical world, which was one reason Draco was so full of himself.

Now, you're all caught up.  So, let's do some movie-casting of our own, shall we?

Voldemort, played by Karl Rove
Lucius Malfoy, played by John McCain
Slytherin house, played by conservative Republican operatives, and the RNC

Are you with me now?

Voldemort/Rove has held great power in the past and wants to hold it again.  But in this version of the story, he puts forth Malfoy/McCain as his shining foil.  And he enlists the aid of the Death-eaters/Republican strategists of the Slytherin house, to make it all happen.

Their target is Harry Potter/Barack Obama.

In the actual Harry Potter story, Harry is a bright young shining star, a real celebrity in the magical world, because he, and he alone, stopped Voldemort more than once, and survived a direct attempt on his life made by the Dark Wizard himself.  Up until the Triwizard Tournament and the death of Cedric Diggory, Harry had been a hero to Hogwart's and to the magical community as a whole.

But when Harry comes back from his encounter with Voldemort, holding Cedric's lifeless body in his arms, he tells the shocking story that Voldemort has returned in full power and wants to take over the magical world again.

But nobody wants to believe him.  They are all afraid of Voldemort and want to believe that he is dead, so the Ministry of Magic takes an official position that Harry is not to be believed.

They start by attacking Harry's credibility in the magical-world newspaper, the Daily Prophet.

And they do this by MOCKING Harry.  Every week, throughout the summer break before Harry's return to Hogwart's for his fifth year, the newspaper runs one story or another that mocks Harry as an attention-seeker, a show-off, a celebrity-hound who only wants to be famous.  He is accused of making up the return of Voldemort in a sensationalistic bid for attention, and poor Cedric's death is explained instead as a "terrible accident."

By the time Harry gets back to school that year, even some of his closest friends from Gryffindor doubt his story, and none more than Draco Malfoy, delight in making fun of him and pretending that he is, after all, just another boy, that there is nothing whatsoever that is special about Harry Potter after all.

By now you probably wonder what the hell any of this has to do with the 2008 presidential election, unless, of course, you have a magical mind.

Because there is a great deal of similarity in Rove's tactics.

John McCain's biggest problem right now is within his own party.  The conservative "base" that so famously delivered the White House to Rove and Bush/Cheney twice before, is lukewarm toward McCain.  Many of them openly despise him.  Voting blocks that have always been solidly reliable for Voldemo--I mean, Karl Rove--such as Christian evangelicals, the military and veterans, and the working class--are fragmenting and fading away. 

Before, Rove could engineer huge voting turn-out in those blocks by placing on the ballots wedge issues in their states, such as gay marriage, anti-abortion legislation, color-coded terror frights designed to make his man Bush look strong on national security, and so on.  He could whip those bases up into a frenzy of support for his candidate by turning them out at the polls to vote on those issues, and by sleight-of-hand magic designed to make Bush seem as if he really gave a flying damn about any of that.

But Bush and his enabling cronies have done such a catastrophically bad job ("Heckuva job, Bushie," said my moderate Republican husband, who is voting Obama)--that even the party faithful are no longer so loyal.  Demographics are changing. 

When you can't find a job because you can't afford the gas to drive around looking for one further away than a few miles and  you might lose your home; when you have to choose between medication and food; when your loved one is being deployed for a third time to an endless and pointless war while John McCain votes against benefits for the troops and veterans--there's only so much magical myth and illusion that can be drummed up to convince people that this is what they want four or eight more years of.

So Voldemort/Rove has designed a Slytherin Strategy to make Malfoy/McCain the Minister of Magic/President.

And Voldemort doesn't just want to beat Harry Potter, you know.  He wants to DESTROY Harry. 

Karl Rove regards any political opponent as an enemy to be destroyed.

So instead of coming up with two or three hot-button wedge issues, he's going for spell-casting of a more subtle kind.  And here is how he's doing it:


Target:  Christian evangelicals:


Run ads that are, on the surface, "fun" pieces designed to make fun of Obama's celebrity.  

Calling Obama "the One," and interspersing his image with that of Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea, followed by soft yellow light glowing against a stairway to Heaven while, in the background, a foreign crowd of thousands is chanting his name, is a deliberate attempt to cast Obama as the anti-Christ.

I knew it the first time I saw the ad.  I said so to family and friends.  Most of them looked at me like I was more than a little nuts and at least as paranoid as some right-wingers, but go visit http://www.Cafepress.com now and see if you can't find mugs and T-shirts depicting Obama as the anti-Christ.

Not all evangelicals will be convinced, of course.  Being a Christian evangelical does not automatically make you stupid.  But Voldemort/Rove isn't trying to convince them all, all of the time.  He's just trying to raise enough reasonable doubt in enough minds that when they get into the voting booth, they'll lean toward the candidate that they REALLY don't trust: 

Malfoy/McCain.


Target:  the Bigot Vote


Ask any person of color what the status of bigotry is today, and most likely they will tell you that it has gone largely underground.  For example, legally, you can't be refused a job or an apartment because of the color of your skin.  That would be against the law.  But a prejudiced prospective landlord or employer can reject your application for all sorts of reasons that will cover their ass but keep you away.

Bigots have code-words, too.  Ever since they started getting into trouble for saying the "n" word, they found another word just as good, the "M" word.

I asked my sister, who I like to call a recovering right-winger, and who is a strong supporter of Barack Obama (it was my sister who first gave me a copy of THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, for a Christmas gift, two whole years ago)--to explain what the hell is going on with this obsession to turn Obama into a closet Muslim terrorist.

Here is what she said in an e-mail reply, reprinted here with her permission:


"Those of us who walked door to door and campaigned not once but twice for the current regime are so devastated we are making up lies to make even some resemblance of what we did RIGHT.

"ALL of the B.S. about Obama being Arab-American is a HUGE smokescreen for 'we don't want no n--r in the White House,' period.  In a world of political correctness we must sell the factoids and justify our outrageous allegations by blaming the 'public enemy #1: the terrorist'...when indeed the true enemy sits high on the hill living off our tax debt for eternity.

"His (Bush's) power is so great he has convinced us that the media is to blame for everything wrong with America...when in reality the rich get so f-king rich they don't need 'government' anymore...Alas, (with) Halliburton and Exxon/Mobil--we set ourselves up for this.

"Obama shines a light on the fact that we must look into the reasons behind the decisions, but oh hell no, this won't do.  We must feed the American public media blitzes to deny his right to express his American opinion 'cause he ain't no 'merican.'

"Truly if the Republicans let anybody pay attention to his speeches, they would see how just and right he is.  We can't have that.  We have no way to disprove the facts he knows to be true.  So we will call on our Rednecks and alert the white collar mullet population of the south to 'stick to the war hero kind of man,' not elect one of the 'brothers.'  We all know you can't call him that, so we did the next choice in line:  Arab, or Muslim...God knows we can't trust them people.

"I get about 10 e-mails a day defaming Obama, everything from the anti-Christ to so much percentage of his blood being Arab, to 'white wanna-be.'  They are effectively reaching a huge population of under-informed people.  And there are a lot of people who honestly feel that they can't be patriotic and hate Bush.

"I can only hope that the true Americans will see the 'light' of Obama and vote him in.  God bless us if we don't!"


I was surprised at my sister's anger at her old co-horts.  In many ways she is still conservative, which I completely respect.  But her honesty revealed something I hadn't realized about the Slytherin Strategy:  That since the bigots of the world are now denied the "n" word, it's okay to use the "M" word.

But Malfoy/McCain and Voldemort/Rove are too sneaky to come right out and accuse Harry/Obama of being a Muslim.  Instead, they wave their wands over him with an "otherness," spell--of not putting his country first, of being "foreign," and so on.  But it all boils down to the "n" word, and the bigots of the world get it. 

After all, they all know what Mudbloods are. 

This gets a few more apathetic voters to the polls.  Maybe not to vote FOR McCain, but rather AGAINST Obama.


More Messages for the Bigots:


*The black man is "uppity."  He was being "presumptuous" by visiting with foreign dignitaries who invited him on his European and warzone tour.  He was "too presidential."

When Malfoy/McCain, however, called up the president of Georgia and said, "We are all Georgians," and his campaign staff landed his plane early and raced to place him at the podium on the tarmac making a statement to the world about Russian aggression before even the president of the United States had yet spoken publicly, and now McCain promises to send his own little personal envoy to Georgia...well, there was nothing "presumptuous" about that! 

After all, we all know white men can't be uppity.


*The black man is going to seduce your white daughters and make off with your white women, and if he gains power, he will bring other black men into positions of power who will do the same thing. 

This was the clear message of the "Hot Chicks Dig Obama" ads.  All four of the women who made comments on-camera about how sexy they found Barack Obama, were white.

And in the first ad accusing Obama of being a celebrity--he was not compared to, say, Will Smith, another famous African-American.  Will Smith is, after all, popular all over the world and respected for his work ethic and his high-quality movies, and his personable, approachable personality.  But it wasn't Will Smith's face superimposed on the ads.  It was empty-headed white women celebrities known more for their sexual exploits and irresponsibility than for their talent and hard work.


Voldemort's Evil Spells:


The Dark Wizard, whose familiar is a giant, evil snake, often ensures loyalty of followers by casting spells on them that cloud their minds and cause them to do things they would normally never do.

The only wizard in the entire magical world powerful enough to deflect Voldemort's spells was Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  He was Harry's mentor and protector, shepherding Harry through his training until Harry was ready to defeat Voldemort.

(For our purposes, we'll make Dumbledore a composite character, made up of many Democratic strategists, congresspeople and senators, statesmen and women, retired military officers, and so on, who have aided and advised our own hero, Barack Obama, from the beginning of his meteoric career.)

In Rove's favorite method of spell-casting, every single ad run by the McCain campaign that lists statistics and claims about Obama, are flat-out lies.  They are usually immediately debunked by major newspapers--the next day. 

But many people do not read major newspapers.  They get their news in soundbites--either from ads like those, or from glances at the broadcast news while preparing dinner or online during their lunch hours. 

And Voldemort/Rove knows that, if an ad is released just in time for a news cycle, (even on just the Internet), that it will be replayed endlessly on news broadcasts before journalists have checked out the truth of the facts, then repeated so often on morning news programs, that by the time the truth does come out, the lie has already saturated the consciousness of the viewer. 

The spell has been cast.

By then, the viewers already believe the lie.   A whopping 12% of Republicans and Democrats stubbornly persist in believing Barack Obama is a Muslim, and even when told to their faces that he is a practicing Christian, they say, "I just don't believe it."


The Slytherin Strategy

In the Harry Potter saga, Voldemort did not make a full comeback right away, because in the beginning, he was very weak.  He gained power over time by casting spells, reinvigorating the Death-eaters, and by helping to turn the hero Harry Potter into a figure of ridicule and--eventually--a threat to the community.

But Harry Potter won in the end, and Voldemort was not only defeated, but destroyed, the Death-eaters scattered, killed, or ruined.

How did he do it?  How did Harry Potter vanquish the evil genius Voldemort?


Dumbledore's Army

By Potter's fifth year at Hogwart's, the Ministry of Magic had decided that, since their official position was that Voldemort was merely a figment of Harry's overblown imagination and not really returned at all, (a position backed up and emphasized by Lucius Malfoy and other Death-eaters who ran the government, and aided and abetted by the magical media), then Dumbledore was forced out as Headmaster of Hogwarts, and the students were told that they would no longer need to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts.

In other words, they didn't need to know spells and charms of their own for self-defense in the fight against Voldemort and the Death-eaters, because such a threat supposedly no longer existed.  This was just what Voldemort wanted: lambs to the slaughter.

Harry, of course, and his pals Hermione and Ron, knew better.  And so, it turns out, did many of Harry's old friends--especially from Gryffindor house, and those who had known and loved Cedric Diggory, and so on.

So Harry's friends came to him and said that, since he was the only person in the entire magical world who had fought Voldemort and escaped death from him and his Death-eaters--not once, but several times--then even though he was still young, still a student, and still an object of ridicule in public--nonetheless, THEY trusted him.

And they wanted Harry to lead them.

So, in secret, a couple of dozen of Harry's supporters began to meet, so that he could train them in ways to resist Voldemort and the Death-eaters--not just resist, but survive, thrive, and overcome.

The students called themselves, "Dumbledore's Army."


You, me, Voldemort, Malfoy, and Dumbledore's Army


Lately I've been reading a great deal of huffing and puffing from commentators and bloggers on both sides of the political spectrum, complaining that Obama just has not been fighting back hard enough against Voldem--Rove's attacks.

And Lord knows, Malfoy/McCain has been preening around--lots of flags, lots of "presidential" settings, lots of bustling about with the Georgian president.

But Obama's strategists retort that, most of those political armchair quarterbacks are not privy to the campaign's true strategy, their timing, or their plans to take on the Death-eaters.  In effect, they are saying--as Dumbledore did many times to an anxious Harry--be patient.  Timing is everything.

(One of the joys of rereading the Potter books, is knowing now, what Dumbledore knew, and seeing with fresh understanding WHY he waited to tell Harry all that Harry needed to know to eventually defeat the Dark Wizard.)

But Dumbledore died in Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts, and did not live to bring Harry through his most excruciating challenge against Voldemort. 

In the end, it was up to Harry.  But Harry didn't do it alone.

When the great war finally broke out, in Harry's final year at Hogwart's--call it the full-on, post-convention fall presidential campaign--all of Dumbledore's Army, all the volunteer students who had trained with Harry and supported him and learned from him--turned out to fight the Death-eaters, using the defensive skills Harry had taught them.

And in the great climactic battle scene, it was kids and adults, students and professors, parents and warriors--who all turned out to fight alongside Harry.  They took the tools Harry had given them in their training, and they vanquished evil.

Barack Obama started out as a community organizer.  One of the most brilliant strategies of his campaign, from the primaries to now--has been to organize communities of supporters ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, from the bottom up, in a true grassroots movement the Democratic party has not seen in a very long time, if ever.

With a click of the mouse, you can undergo training.  You can learn valuable skills for one-on-one campaigning, and when the time comes this fall, you can receive a list of registered voters and phone numbers FROM YOUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD that you can call.

And in this small town--I never leave the house without wearing my Obama buttons, or T-shirt, with my Obama sign clearly displayed in my car window.  In this conservative Red State area, that provokes questions and conversations wherever I go.  So far, in fact, mine are the only ones I've seen, but to my surprise, in talking to people, I have uncovered far more quiet support than you might suspect.  I always remind them to vote.

This is the genius of the Obama campaign.  For now, you can go to http://mybarackobama.com and get together a list of Obama supporters in your area and sponsor all kinds of events like house parties and canvassing drives. 

Right now it's up to Dumbledore's Army--meaning, Obama's supporters and volunteers--to speak out to their neighbors, their friends, their relatives, and their e-mail list--ambassadors for Obama, laying to rest the lies put out by an unscrupulous campaign, and easing those nagging little doubts. 

In the magical world, you use a charm to deflect an evil spell--so use charm with people!  Smile when you talk about Obama.  Call it our own little Defense Against the Dark Arts.

In my own case, I have right-wing friends on my e-mail list.  If I think they are genuinely interested in hearing about Obama and are considering maybe voting for him, I answer all their questions.  But if it is clear that they are Death-eaters and not the least bit interested in doing anything but arguing and arguing and arguing, then I tell them that, we agree to disagree, but I'm not going to waste my time arguing with someone who won't listen.  We're still friends, but we don't discuss politics any more.

However, those I know who are undecided, who are disgruntled Republicans or Hillary supporters wavering about McCain, or anyone who I think is genuinely interested, then I provide links to sources that set the record straight, and answer all their questions in a respectful manner. 

Right now, I constantly remind my young friends in their 20's  to make sure they are registered to vote, and I provide links or offer information explaining how.  When the time comes, I'll text them and remind them to vote.

For elderly or shut-in friends, I'm available to take them to the polls.  I even have elderly friends who do not have Internet access, so what I do is, I print up copies of my blogs and snail-mail them to them.

As what you might call an Obama's Army warrior, my job is to persuade, not to provoke.

This is how we fight the Voldemorts of the world.  Instead of spending all our time attacking our own Harry Potter, (or arguing bitterly because we REALLY wanted the brilliant Hermione Granger in Harry's job)...we need to join together WITH him, and expend that same energy speaking out for him, training with him, volunteering, and fighting for him. 

Because in the end, although Dumbledore's Army stood with Harry all the way--It was Harry, and Harry alone who had to face down the Dark Wizard Voldemort and slay him.

It will be Obama who must fight McCain.  It will be Obama debating him, Obama inspiring his own army, and Obama's own personal Dumbledores devising battle strategy. 

There does come a point when, in the final analysis, the rest of us have to trust him.

(Not everybody agreed with everything Harry did, either.  He spent as much time arguing with Hermione and Ron as he did confronting Death-eaters.)

But when that time comes, it's up to us to fight for him and for the things that, as Democrats, we hold dear, that have been so deeply threatened by this miserable past eight years and is held in the balance right now. 

We can't afford another eight years of Voldemort running this country.

Because the only way evil--the evil of bigotry, prejudice, warmongering, lies masquerading as smiling charm, fear-peddling, environmental heedlessness, and the like--can be defeated is when we join together to fight it.

I hate to think what would happen to this country if Obama should be killed. Although the emergency in the air is scary enough, what really bothers me is the fact that the FAA told reporters that there was " no emergency".
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Politics/story?id=5581453&page=1

standingup at ePluribus Media brought this interesting story to everyone's attention yesterday:

In news that could eclipse the announcement of either party's Vice Presidential running mate, McClatchy reports:

Now come at least three men — coincidentally all in the Bigfoot business — promising evidence at a Friday news conference in Palo Alto, Calif., that the elusive creature has been found at long last.

"A body that may very well be the body of the creature commonly known as 'Bigfoot' has been found in the woods in northern Georgia," says a news release. It describes the carcass as that of an animal 7 feet 7 inches tall, weighing more than 500 pounds that "looks like it is part human and part apelike."

Stay tuned as we follow up on this historical event tomorrow. And if there really is a Bigfoot, he (or she) will undoubtedly be more exciting than any of the names I have seen leaked as potential running mates for the 2008 election.

Well? With Barack Obama on vacation there really isn't much worth watching in the race to the White House. Unless you enjoy watching the John McCain campaign crawl out from under the rocks only to misfire daily?

Note to the right wing Blog News Busters:
Face the facts you right wing nut busters... With the pitiful performance of the McCain campaign in the media you are lucky that Bigfoot isn't winning the media cycle, right now against your recycled reject of a second best to bush candidate from 2000. Even an Obama on vacation story is cleaning your cuckoo clocks and making you look silly in the process.

For the many of you that are honestly and truly more interested in the Bigfoot story than anything John McCain has had to say in this campaign... And we know there are a lot of you! CNN has photos of the alleged Bigfoot body and reports of ongoing DNA tests.

(Previously brewed in New Milford)

One method that seems to be working very smoothly for the McCain campaign is the, "oh, you're reading too much into that comment; where is your sense of humor".

The plethora of landmines associated with calling them out on it without sounding like a, pick your name, (whiner, race-baiter, sexist, ageist, etc) make it almost impossible to counter or even respond.

One thought is to follow the model of Fox News ("some people say") and just ask questions:

-- How are the recent attacks on Senator Obama different from those leveled at Senator Kerry and his war service, or those against you previously regarding your involvement in the (pick one, or rotate a few different ones via different surrogates) Keating 5 scandal?, lobbyists making up your entire staff?, Phill Graham calling everyone whiners?, your admitting you have no economic experience, the 65? flip-flops you've made just in the last 12 months, etc.

The Obama team, or whoever initiates the question wouldn't be bringing up blatant lies like Bush/Rove did with the whole illegitimate black child sleaze they pulled, nor would they even have to go to touchy, but still relevant, areas like, "your fidelity to and divorce from your physically impaired wife" or "your perceived inability to focus on complex issues or remember critical facts relevant to national security" however it would bring various topics back into the fray that should be questioned.

A non-answer only begs for further clarification by posing a further question, "So you see no difference between the attacks on Senator Obama and those leveled against you regarding your receipt of $250k from Big Oil within days of your decision to support their offshore drilling"... There are just too many examples of, "questions" that can be posed.

I'm not advocating that the Obama team jump into the pool of mud with McCain. I am advocating that folks are made aware of the fact that either:
a.) McCain isn't aware of the muck that he's wallowing in (so out of touch that he isn't fit for the CIC role)
or
b.) McCain is aware of it and is intentionally operating under Rovian politics.

The Republican National Convention's 3rd day will also have the story on how America's Oldest Republican Party, allowed a pedophile to destroy it.

 The Republican Party began in 1854 in Ripon, WI. At that time, the town of Ripon, WI was within Brown County, and Green Bay, the county seat. 

   As the state grew, and more counties were added, Brown County shrunk, in size, but Green Bay remained it's seat, and the local GOP chapter had an unbroken,155 year history of political activity, that affected national politics.

They elected a few moderate people, but also elected someone, considered by most as the worst politician in American history. Yes, I am talking about Joe McCarthy.

We still see that blind personal ambition, and carelessness today, in that oldest of Republican chapters.

  Police were called several times, before his ultimate arrest, the Republican District Attorney sat on the case for almost a year, until a anonymous blogger put the pieces together, and alerted the media. Within days, the entire party staff quit, and nobody is talking; the state of Wisconsin then decertified the party, and the victim was targeted by the local Republicans.

  It sounds like a typical Republican sex scandal, but this is not an isolated incident.

This is the destruction of the oldest organized Republican party in America.

This is a corrupt local politician machine; hampering justice, blaming the victim and possibly criminal finance misconduct, after the internal implosion.

 

Here's the facts, in chronological order; of how one Republican leader sexually abused a young boy, residing in a troubled teen home. 

   A troubled teen boy's home, full of potential targets-  that was located across the street from the Republican leader's home. and how  the Green Bay Police and Brown County District Attorney, looked the other way, or intentionally tried to avoid prosecution, until they could no longer. Once the story was broadcast and published, on TV and the local newspapers, it became a major story, across the state and nationally.

  It was a large group of bloggers, who discovered the link of the crime and Fleischman...and put the pieces together.

   The home address for Fleischman in the Brown County criminal complaint, is the same one listed on the Republican Party of Brown County's most recent campaign finance report filed with the state Elections Board as well as its 527 Political Organization Filing Information. 

This is when the blogs, and the media were provide the anonymous information, with the links provided here...for validation that the news needs to make accurate and truthful reports.

Back to the beginning...and the chronology of factual events, and media reports, with links.

Green Bay Police Call Reports show the every time they went to Fleischman's home.

 Here is the list: Actual reports can be obtained by contacting the Green Bay Police Department. Requests may be made in person or by phone at (920) 448-3329.

GB Police Calls can be viewed online here:

http://assessor.ci.green-bay.wi.us/e911_call.aspx

1121 GOODELL ST

8/8/2007

3:32 pm

ASSISTS

07-51952

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

8/8/2007

3:17 pm

DAMAGE TO PROPERTY

07-51947

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

8/6/2007

11:42 pm

ASSISTS

07-51545

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

6/14/2007

2:07 pm

HARRASSMENT

07-37381

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

6/10/2007

12:23 pm

WELFARE CHECK

07-36304

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

3/17/2007

3:14 pm

SEX OFFENSES

07-15829

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

12/9/2006

9:04 am

ANIMAL CALLS

06-79941

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

12/8/2006

8:55 pm

SEX OFFENSES

06-79863

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

12/8/2006

7:09 pm

RUNAWAY

06-79849

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

11/19/2006

10:01 pm

RUNAWAY

06-76130

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

9/27/2006

3:59 pm

NOISE COMPLAINT

06-64240

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

5/26/2006

4:23 pm

ANIMAL CALLS

06-31848

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

5/25/2006

8:20 am

ANIMAL CALLS

06-31438

Select

1121 GOODELL ST

7/8/2005

11:25 am

WARRANT

05-41146

On December 12, 2006, Police responded to a sexual assault complaint, made by a resident of the Ethan Home; the troubled teen facility.

Three months later, the Police return to Fleischman's home, again, for complaints of sex offenses. The arrest was made and listed in the formal court complaint.

The actual criminal complaint is linked here:

http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/071012FleischmanCourt.pdf

Posted October 13, 2007- Green Bay Press-Gazette

Brown County Republican Party chair faces sex charges

Fleischman's attorney denies allegations

"The chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County faces criminal charges for allegedly fondling a 16-year-old Ethan House runaway and providing the boy with beer and marijuana late last year.

Donald Fleischman, 37, of Allouez, was charged last month with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child.

He was summoned to Brown County court for his initial appearance on Sept. 28. He is free having posted a signature bond as his promise to return to court.

Fleischman's lawyer, Jeff Jazgar, said he plans to confront the charges at the preliminary hearing set for Oct. 29. He declined to discuss specifics of the allegations.

"My client is innocent of the charges," Jazgar said Friday. "Our plan is to get some witnesses to testify and present enough information to dismiss the case.

Efforts to reach Fleischman were unsuccessful Friday.

Green Bay police went to Fleischman's Goodell Street home Nov. 19, 2006, looking for two runaways from Ethan House, a juvenile facility on nearby Emilie Street, according to the criminal complaint filed Sept. 7.

Fleischman opened the door and allowed officers inside where they found a 16-year-old boy hiding on the floor of a walk-in closet wearing only underwear and a T-shirt, the complaint said.

Officers found a black, purple and blue-swirled glass pipe in the living room, which tested positive for marijuana residue, the complaint said.

Police returned to Fleischman's home on Dec. 8, 2006, and found the boy there again. He had been a runaway from Ethan House for eight days.

The teen, now 17, told authorities Fleischman took him to a hotel in Appleton during that time and then to a cabin near Florence for several days before returning to Fleischman's Allouez home. The boy said Fleischman provided him with beer and marijuana, the complaint said.

The boy told police that when he would go to bed, Fleischman would fondle him and that on one occasion he awoke to find Fleischman at the foot of his bed masturbating.

Detectives obtained the boy's drug tests from the days around the time he spent with Fleischman, and three samples from late November and early December 2006, tested positive for marijuana."

Forward to October 12, 2007, almost a full year later, after gaining the evidence and finally acting on the allegations, was Fleischman was finally charged, in court. 

Fleischman's original case went to court on Sept 9, 2007, but and had it's first hearing on October 29, 2007.

The case was dismissed when DA Zakowski, allowed Fleischman to demand the victim, appear in court. The Victim, who was a minor at the time of the crime, had moved with his family to another part of the state, and was in high school. He was in school, on the first trials date.

Fleischman, probably using the 'blame the victim' defense, forced the court to issue an arrest warrant for the victim. Which did two things.

1) Got the case dismissed, because the witness did not appear in court.

2) Exposed the victim's name, publicly, as he was now an adult; but was protected as a minor, up to this legal maneuver, was made.

The case is listed as Brown County Case Number 2007CF000897, and can be accessed on Wisconsin's Circuit Court Website here:

http://wcca.wicourts.gov/index.xsl

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2007

Charges against former Brown Co. GOP leader dropped

The Green Bay Press Gazette reports that the Brown County DA has dropped child enticement charges against Don Fleischman, former chairman of the Brown County Republican Party.

Brown County Assistant DA John Luetscher said that prosecution could not proceed since an alleged victim failed to appear at a preliminary hearing. He added that he expected charges to be re-issued later.

Fleischman faced felony counts of child enticement and exposing himself to a child, along with two misdemeanor counts for contributing to the delinquency of a child and one misdemeanor for exposing himself to a child.

http://blogs.wispolitics.com/legal/oldposts/2007_10_01_archive.html

From wispolitics.com, Fleischman's resignation was verified by the Wisconsin Republican Party Communications Director, Kirsten Kukowski, communications director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, on October 12, 2007.

http://blogs.wispolitics.com/legal/2007/10/brown-county-gop-chair-charged-with.html

 The State of Wisconsin then decertified the party.

(NOTE: The claim of 40 years, in the following article,only reflects a date when a new party constitution that was adopted in 1968, a technical point. The local party organization was intact and operating since 1854, when the Republican Party began)

Republican Party-Brown County decertified

Associated Press - November 29, 2007 11:25 AM ET

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - After 40 years, the Republican Party of Brown County is forced to start over.

The state Republican Party has decertified the county chapter following its collapse over the resignations of 2 of its leaders and a lack of volunteers.

The county's chairman Donald Fleischman resigned in September after he was accused of child enticement. Those charges were later dropped because the alleged victim failed to appear for the preliminary hearing. For personal reasons, the first vice-chairman also resigned.

Bill Ross is the GOP's chairman in the Eighth Congressional District. He says there's no one in a position to step up and fill the vacancies. Ross says decertification is the only option under its constitution.

Ross has scheduled a reorganizational meeting at the Brown County Republican Party Headquarters for December 18th. 

Forward to Nov. 14th, just after Fleischman was indicted:

www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20071129/GPG0101/71129127/1206/GPGnews 

(This article is older, and the Press Gazette charges for copies)

"Reince Priebus, state chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said the Brown County group has been decertified by the state, but not because of the recent legal troubles of its former chairman, Donald Fleischman of Allouez.

Fleischman resigned in September after charges of child enticement were brought against him in Brown County Circuit Court; they have since been dropped.

Priebus called the reorganization “tangential” to Fleischman’s predicament.

Fleischman’s resignation created two vacancies in the party’s officer corps. Holly Arnold, the first vice-chair, did not want the top spot, and the second vice-chair position already was vacant, Priebus said.

That meant the party didn’t have enough officers to call a caucus to elect new officers, Priebus said. At Arnold’s request, the state GOP decertified the county party on Nov. 13."

The Wisconsin Republican Party's official statement appears to be;

1) the sex scandal, was not a reason for the resignation of the entire staff.

2) that resignation of the staff was the cause of de-certification.

After decertification, the local GOP offices were still maintained,  and phone in service....but no staff existed. 

The Brown County Republican Party offices are in a strip mall building owned by, the Town of Allouez, according to Brown County Land Records files. The mall is listed as the 1900 Block of Libal St. The Brown County GOP offices are at 1920 Libal Street, which is located within the structure of 1900 Libal St.

There are no other owners of property on that entire block.

http://www.co.brown.wi.us/Treasurer/LandRecordsSearch/EntryForm.asp

All three entities, The Republican Party of Brown County, the Alpha Family LP, and Hillcrest Homes, share the same property owner's address.

 On April 31st, when the state of Wisconsin received the official finance reporting from the local parties.

The Republican Party of Brown County, which no longer existed as, of mid-November 2007, filed it's finance reports,  dated Jan 30, 2008.

At the bottom of this document, is a signature. 

Donald J. Fleischman.

On the 3rd day of the Republican National Convention, at 8:15 AM and only 300 miles east, of St. Paul MN, one former Republican county leader, of what was, the nation's oldest Republican chapter, will face a trial..and most importantly his accuser.

NOTE: All the information contained in this article is from public sources, and I did not add any opinion, so this could be forwarded to news media, who would find the links and have an easier time of verifying the information, for publication.

JMart over at Politico notes:

Liberals have been itching to get the issue in circulation for weeks, even more so after the John Edwards confession, and now a prominent Obama supporter has obliquely raised John McCain's admitted infidelity  to his first wife.

Per ABC, Kirbyjon Caldwell, who is a close friend of the Bush family and officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding earlier this year, used a conference call organized by a new left-leaning Christian group to go there:

"His marital history has been duly recorded," said Caldwell, referring to McCain, "and as recently as yesterday I think it is, our pastor from Saddleback, Rick Warren indicated that he would not feel comfortable voting for an adulterer and I don't know exactly to whom he was referring but I think the data speaks for itself, and again, at the end of the day, and I really appreciate you raising this because, at the end of the day again I think the American public deserves full revelation of the candidate's character and competency. Character and competency. So, whatever questions that should be asked that would give the voting public an indication as to who they are and what they've done should be fair game."

Asked by ABC's Tapper if he would have compunctions about voting for someone who had cheated on his wife, Warren said Thursday, "Absolutely I would. Absolutely I would. Because if you can’t keep your faith to your most sacred vow — 'til death do us part' — how in the world can I trust you to lead my family? My government? My nation? ... Absolutely I would. I think people first need to ask forgiveness and then earn trust back over time. Can trust be re-earned? Absolutely, but it takes time."

A McCain spokesman had no comment when asked about Caldwell's criticism. 

JMart continues:

Caldwell also criticized McCain for jokingly saying he would have liked to enter his wife in a beauty contest at the Sturgis motorcycle rally. The affair can become risque, with tops and bottoms being removed, but there is no evidence that McCain knew that when he cracked the joke.

McCain's comment, Caldwell said, is "not, N-O-T, not the type of expression that a presidential candidate, or anyone for that matter who is a follower of the Christian faith, ought to make."

Of course, both Obama and McCain will be at Warren's mega-church tomorrow.

But isn't it just a little disingenuous for JMart to give McCain and his campaign a pass for NOT KNOWING just how "risque" the activities in Sturgis can get? After all, there is pool reporting and news footage on various channels of scantily clad "ladies" dancing on the scaffolding above the stage where McCain appeared. The female pool reporter filed a story noting, cryptically, that she had been "invited" to display her wares New Orleans style in exchange for Mardi Gras beads. There were also several reports of topless women in the audience of McCain's speech.

The McCain campaign has a hissy fit over Obama going shirtless at the beach to body surf, but is blind to the bare-breasted biker babes bouncing in front of their candidate and his wife?

It has boggled my mind that the right wing at some point in the 70s decided that they were the party of Jesus, when it is quite absurd to claim to know what party the Son of God would join.  I think it's about time the left wing says "Hey, we believe in God, too!"

I am not a Christian, but I do consider myself a very spiritually-oriented person.  I also consider myself as pro-life with the exceptions of rape, incest, endangering the life of the mother and stem cell research.  I'm sure many of you may disagree with me, but that's not the point.  What bothers me with the right wing are two things:

1) The fact that "Christian" issues such as gay marraige and abortion are used as wedge issues in order to get out evangelical turnout.  Many don't care about other issues--apparently God tells them to vote for Bush or other GOPers because we have to make the world the way God wants it and blah blah yadda yadda.  It's not a coincedence that the gay marraige bill was circulated in 2006 in order to at least stop what was a resounding change in power that November.  And it's done in some capacity every election year.

2) I realize abortion is an important issue to many.  But for those who have it as #1 or #2 on their list...seriously?  I don't care so much about your viewpoint on it, but shouldn't Iraq, Afghanistan, health care, the economy, and energy be far more important issues?  The right wing knows they don't have the upper hand on all these, so they try to bust out something else as a distraction.  At any rate, those who vote strictly on one issue need their heads examined.  You're ok with electing someone who will appoint judges to overturn Roe v. Wade at the expense of a continued war an energy crisis?  Moreover, if the right wing is so anti-abortion....why has the number of abortions not decreased?  In fact, the annual number went down a tad during the Clinton years.  Try telling Pat Robertson that one.

It is time that those on the left who are religious to shout back at the right.  I'm not necessarily saying the left needs to overtake the right as "God's party", but Jesus cared about other things besides gays and "baby-killers".  How about decreasing poverty, caring for your common man, equal rights for all people, and probably other political issues?  I've seen posts lately that show Obama is gaining more inroads with evangelicals, and I really think he should start talking more about his faith and how it shapes some of these issues.  I don't know he can do this without bringing Rev. Wright into the picture again, but maybe, just maybe he can convince some that he's not a Muslim at least.

If the right wing can spin Scripture to work to their advantage, we can too.  I've heard some justify conservatism and its small-government approach by saying "Well, Jesus said we should care about our common man, but he said to do it ourselves" or something.  In other words, America would be much better if we were Christians, and we should do things because God told us to rather than (Lord help me!) government intervention if necessary.  I'm sure messages are distorted for political gain, and I wouldn't want those with more liberal views to stoop to twisting and turning the Bible themselves.  I'm sure the Bible says something about war being a bad thing and loving thy neighbor and other stuff, so at the very least one could ask what the heck the Christian Right does to justify this Administration's, um, screw-ups.

It's time to for those on the left that are Christian to say that they too believe in God's Word and that they too are called upon to do good deeds in His name.  I can't really say I know how to shift this our way, and I wouldn't want our side to thump their Bibles as hard and as irrationally as those on the right.  I do think, though, that it is time for an honest discourse on religion and politics, and maybe realize that while we do have our own religious views, we should not force them into our government because our God said this is the way things should be.  If Obama can clearly articulate his views, where he stands with his faith, and why he keeps those views out of his politics...then the GOP could have a bit of a problem.  The majority will still go to McCain (duh), but every vote counts this election year.

I also just found a semi-related post here if you wanna take a look.

Now I get it. The situation is clear now why the Georgian hostilities/murders and appropriate Russian response are being full-court-pressed in to the collective US subconscious. It's got little to nothing at all to do with what is being entered in to the general US talking points lexicon via the terrifically bad media coverage. Note the date of this article:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JG19Ag01.html

A tidbit:

What emerges is that if anything, Medvedev is pursuing Russia's energy diplomacy more robustly than Putin. Soon after taking over in the Kremlin in May, Medvedev ordered the expeditious completion of the first stage of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Oil Pipeline (ESPO) by end-2009. The ESPO has a vital role in Moscow's efforts to balance its oil export strategy between Europe and Asia-Pacific. Moscow hopes to target Asia-Pacific as the export destination for one-third of its oil exports by 2020, as compared to 3% currently.

In early July, Medvedev undertook a diplomatic tour of the Caspian region, covering Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. In Azerbaijan's capital Baku, he made a stunning offer that Russia was prepared to buy Azerbaijan's entire gas output at market prices. In Ashgabat, he shored up Turkmenistan's commitment to the modernization of the Central Asia-Center Pipeline and the construction of a new littoral Caspian pipeline.

Medvedev succeeded in prevailing over competing European and US rivals in the struggle for Turkmen gas. He further ensured that oil and gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will not bypass Russia. But what has truly incensed the Bush administration are Gazprom's dramatic inroads into Africa.

Russian giant Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world, has announced plans to build a pipeline across the Mediterranean to pump Libyan gas to Europe. This is the final lap of a Kremlin strategy that involves Gazprom handling the entire output of Libya's gas, oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) designated for export to Europe and the US.
...

And as one reads on we discover that, just like Iraq, it's about energy and the money that goes along with it and not one thing to do with propping up a Democratic nation and bringing it in to NATO.

It's the same damned verbal posturing that has been going on since someone banged a shoe on a lectern. Rice and company are now banging $1500 pumps on the lectern decrying the Soviet... err, sorry... Russian actions as deeply anti-Democracy and anti-American. Rice at the time of the article also appears to have repeated the same steps taken by the US State Department in Haditha with one very clear distinction- they didn't supply the Russians with chemical weapons.

Bonus material- Fox News gets the facts but has to go to commercial- a lot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffJjyHhnjXM

(Thanks to Dimitry for some places to look)

The U.S. agreement with Poland to place an anti-ballistic missile shield in that country makes Poland "100 percent" vulnerable to a Russian nuclear first strike, Russia's deputy chief of staff warned today.

The completion of the missile-shield agreement between Warsaw and Washington came this week as the Bush administration sought leverage to force the Russian Army out of Georgia.

The increasingly confrontational stand of both Russia and the U.S. risks re-igniting the Cold War and reversing 17 years of more stable relations between the two superpowers.

In the event of a nuclear exchange, please remember to thank George Bush, Vladimir Putin and John McCain for an exceedingly bright, if brief, future.

Snippet from today's Political Radar:

A Republican strategist speaking on the condition of anonymity reacted to the Caldwell comments by telling ABC News: "My advice to the Obama people: 'proceed with extreme caution.' They don't want to get into a discussion of character and background. They are opening a door that they will not be able to close. They are putting on the table issues and personalities that they do not want to discuss."

Asked which personalities? The GOP strategist cited the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and former Obama law partners.

Now I don't think anybody believes the McCain Camp is not going to bring up Rev. Wright, it's not a question of "if" but "when".  What about the Obama camp bringing it up themselves?  That way they control more of the story, as opposed to letting the McCain camp decide when to play it as an issue.  Because if you are hoping the McCain camp won't "go there" you are incredibly naive, and if you are waiting for him to play it, don't expect it until late October. 

Wouldn't it be better getting it out of the way as an issue now?  So it will lack the election day bite the McCain camp hopes it has by releasing it days before voting day. 

Ideally it would have been best to bring it up during the Olympics, but the media would have seen through that.  So going forward, when would be the best time? It would have to be post Dem Convention, but before the first debate.

What about during the week of the GOP convention? Still too transparent? Would that be giving too much of a potential bump to McCain?

When would be the best time?

Also how would you go about doing it? Have a speech titled "Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko and Bill Ayers" where he talked about each in length and depth?

I assume Obama will be asked about Wright tomorrow at the Rick Warren summit.  Maybe that could be the impetus for another address down the line

Or leave McCain to play the Rezko and Ayers card because you have the Keating Five and Liddy/Abortion Bombers counter attacks if necessary. 

Now McCain does have a Pastor problem of his own in Rod Parlsey and John Hagee.  However even the staunchest Obama supporter has to agree it's not nearly as damning as Rev. Wright is for Obama.  I think the best way to use Parsley and Hagee against McCain show him as using their endorsments as baldly political.  Using religion as nothing more than a tool to help him win an election.  

If Obama gets out in front of the Reverend Wright issue and plays it when he chooses to and on his own terms he really could mitigate the damage.  He could simply say he wants to address Reverend Wright to the much larger GE audience and get it out out the way.  It would take a huge bullet out of the McCain arsenal and at best Obama could get credit for bringing it up himself. 

So whaddaya think?  Good strategy?

John McCain says: "My friends, we have reached a crisis, the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War. This is an act of aggression."

Hmm.... does anyone else think the neurolinguistics of this quote might reveal the truth about McCain's feelings regarding the end of the cold war? ie., the ending was a serious international crisis?

What is it with these Republicans and children's books?

What did kids ever do to them?

Is this some diabolical Rovian plan?

Is there deeply guarded secret data that says you can garner millions of votes by writing a children's book?

There is, of course, the penultimate, most iconic moment - My Pet Goat.

Then, keeping it in the family, we had last year, the First Lady, Laura and Jenna Bush, the recently married daughter of The Commander Guy pump one out, not, as one's mind might go to, a first-person account on the singles scene when traveling in South America but, rather, on "a boy who doesn't like to read."

And, two-years ago, Darth Vader's Misses, switched genres, leaving behind steamy lesbians stories, for a children's book on a family that traveled the 50 states.

Now, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's daughter is getting into the act.

McCain Camp Targets Five to Ten-Year-Olds With Picture Book

The McCain campaign is making a play for the all-important K-5 demographic with a new picture book biography of the presumed GOP nominee, written by none other than Meghan McCain, Sen. John McCain's daughter and the head of the "Blogettes," who produce a blog about life on the campaign trail. Go ahead, take a look at the blog. Trust me.

And, from CNN;

The Simon & Schuster hardback, set to hit stores on September 2, is a brief, sentimental look at the familiar elements of McCain’s legendary biography, including his time in a Vietnamese prison and his run for the White House in 2000.

Several pages are devoted to McCain’s military background and his imprisonment in Vietnam, with relatively little attention paid to his youth (he “broke a lot of rules” in high school, the book says) and to his time in Congress.

Cindy McCain, along with Meghan's siblings Jack, Jimmy and Bridget, are described fondly in the book — but the children from McCain’s first marriage are left unmentioned.

Hmmm ... I wonder, how does she deal with Daddy's Keating Five Scandal?

Daddy, by mistake, accidentally broke some peoples' piggy banks, but he said he was really sorry about it

His first wife? ... The divorce?

Daddy wasn't, as some people say, a "flat-leaver" ... Daddy just found a better girlfriend who liked to do all the neat things Daddy likes to do ...

I'm sure the Right Wing Freak Show, the Dittoheads, the people that watch Hannity and O'Reilly, will be beating a path to the bookstores when this comes out, and there will, undoubtedly, be the inevitable book tour, with, perhaps, Meghan getting her own cruiser bus - "The Pandering Child Express".

Help Me Mr. Wizard!

Bonus Links

Wonkette: Details Leak About Presumed Worst Book Ever

The Guardian U.K.: How John McCain became a children's book hero - John McCain needs a new PR strategy for his presidential campaign. Luckily, his daughter Meghan has made him the star of an inspiring children's picture book

USA Today: Presidential race one for the books

Top Ten Cloves: Things About First Lady and Daughter Writing A Children's Book

Top Ten Cloves: Things Lynne Cheney Didn’t Get To Tell Wolf Blitzer About Her New Book


(Cross Posted at The Garlic)

This morning, a good friend asked me if I was cynical and I’ve been thinking about it all day.

I didn’t start out cynical. When I was young and just forming my opinions about the world, I was full of idealism and purpose. I wanted to live my life in a way that gave back to the world what I had gotten from it. For many years, I tried my best. I worked for nonprofits, I volunteered for causes that were important to me, and I donated money to political candidates who I thought stood for something other than their own self-interest. Then, I stopped.

Maybe it was burn out or maybe it was a shift in priorities but I suddenly felt that I wasn’t making any difference at all. I was getting paid very little to work very hard and I was tired. I left the city, moved home, got reacquainted with my family, and started living a life where I made no difference to anyone except those closest to me. Most days, it didn’t feel all that different, to tell you the truth. And it was nice to not worry about all the bad stuff in the world.

I’m not suggesting that I didn’t care or that I didn’t stay engaged in current events. I just didn’t feel responsible any more. It wasn’t my problem. I could let people in their twenties deal with the heartbreak of incremental change. I was older, wiser, jaded. I knew one person couldn’t make a difference.

I started to think that Washington would never change and that we would never solve the great problems of our time. I started to believe that politicians had no incentive to stop lying because it got them what they wanted with seemingly very little cost to themselves. Those are pretty depressing realizations. And I think they did, in fact, make me cynical in a way that I’d never been before.

Then, along comes this guy with a funny name who holds a pretty high public office. And in his books and his speeches, he made me take a fresh look at the world. The way he tells it, one person doesn’t have to make a difference all by themselves. We can let what unifies us be stronger than what divides us and we can make a difference together.

When I hear Barack Obama speak, I often feel like I might start crying. I get that feeling in my chest and my eyes well up. I’ve explained to people that he makes me want to weep with relief that after eight long years, we can have a smart, articulate, president with sound (and sane) policy ideas. But I think it’s more than that. I think he makes me weep because somewhere inside, I’m still my 22-year-old self, that young woman who was ready to take on the world and make a difference. He makes me hope again that I can.

And suddenly, I don’t feel so cynical. How about you?

Rick Warren is the popular and charismatic pastor at the Saddleback Church.  Barack Obama and John McCain are having a campaign forum at his Saddleback Church on Saturday.  He seems genuinely very nice and at least somewhat open-minded on some issues.  You might think a more humble foreign policy would be one place where we could seek agreement with Evangelical leaders and voters.  Yet according to this interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, he still thinks the Iraq War was justified on humanitarian reasons:

[W]hether or not they found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is beside the point. Saddam and his sons were raping the country, literally. And we morally had to do something. If you have a Judeo-Christian heritage, you have to believe it when God says that evil cannot be compromised with. It has to be resisted, it has to be overcome.

http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/08/the_rick_warren_interview_no_c.php

It's going to be tough to reach any consensus with that rather simplistic viewpoint.

He advances this pernicious idea that the only foreign policy option for dealing with bad international actors is to invade their countries and occupy them.  That hardly seems like the humanitarian or Christian ideal.

It's also amazing that he continues to hold this opinion after all of the death, destruction and displacement that continues to take place in Iraq.  Isn't there some idea of proportionality or a humility that suggests you should not intervene and make things worse? 

Another problem with his statement is the lack of intervention in all the other places where people live with fear for their lives.  Shall we invade North Korea and Zimbabwe tomorrow?  Saddam's regime was hardly the only terrible one in the world.  Why did we choose to invade it first?

While most folks accept that Obama was born in the U.S. of an American mother, it is increasingly suggestive that he may have shared Kenyan citizenship from his father, then when his mother remarried, was adopted and became an Indonesian citizen.  In the latter, a school record clearly lists his citizenship as Indonesian.  This would seem consistent with his adoption and the family move to Indonesia.

Obama has not addressed this.  His offered birth certificate is being questioned by a number of folks who claim it is a forgery.  It is suggested that his original birth certificate was sealed and replaced by a new one upon his adoption and move to Indonesia.   It is suggested that in addition to his new name, Barry Soetoro, his adopted father and his mother changed his citizenship to Indonesia.  Surely there will be records of this somewhere but I've yet to see anything beyond the notes about the sealed original birth certificate, the new one, a copy allegedly issued in 2007, an original that Obama wrote he held, and comments about the adoption in 1965 or 1966.  I have not seen anything definitive on any of this to show it is anything more than speculation.

A photograph of an Indonesian school record, taken in January 2007 purportedly shows Obama as Barry Soetoro, religion as Islam, and citizenship as Indonesian.   I wrote DayLife and AP to confirm if this was legit.  I received confirmation from Matthew Lutts at AP at 3:44 p.m. ET yesterday that "Yes, the image is legit."

There are numerous sites now linking to and discussing this document.  It was referenced as early as January 2007  (See <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012400371_pf.html" target="_blank">AP article by Nedra Pickler via The Washington Post</a> regarding the school record.  The focus there was disputing the labeled religion but not the name or citizenship.  Religion was and for some is still the hot-button issue but is not, at least for me, a relevant issue.   The alternative names suggests that Obama may have been less than forthcoming on his bar applications.  The question of citizenship is far more important and has constitutional and electability implications that make this worthy of revisiting.

Several sites offer review of the school record and its implications:

-  <a href="http://blog.changeandexperience.com/2008/08/barack-obamas-indonesian-registration.html" target="_blank">Change      &amp; Experience</a>.  Which is also, like TexasDarlin, anonymous,      but offers more careful and even balanced discussion of the school record.

-  <a href="http://www.pr-inside.com/jakarta-school-record-reemerges-to-r755152.htm" target="_blank">Andy Martin</a>, author of "Obama: The Man Behind the Mask", offers a      cautious analysis of the document and its implications.

-  <a href="http://noquarterusa.net/blog/" target="_blank">NoQuarterUSA</a>  offers lengthy discussion on the questioned birth certificate and Obama's name and citizenship.

-  <a href="http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">TexasDarlin blog</a>  offers lengthy discussion on the questioned birth certificate and Obama's name and citizenship.

Bottom line, however one wants to accept or denounce the information or sources, it does put the legitimacy and acceptability of Obama's candidacy and eligibility to be president in question.  I think Obama needs to provide unequivocal answers to a number of questions:

1.  Are you now a U.S. citizen?

2.  Have you ever held as a youth or adult, citizenship in another country?

3.  Did you ever possess or travel using, at least in part, the passport of another country?  (E.g., while in Indonesia, visiting Pakistan, Kenya).

4.  Did you renounce any foreign citizenship, and when, and do you now hold solely U.S. citizenship today?

5.  Can you confirm or deny your name change as a youth from Barack Hussein Obama II to Barry Soetoro when you were adopted by your step-father?

6.  Did you legally reclaim your birth name?  When and how?

7.  Why did you not list your adopted name Barry Soetoro on any forms associated with your legal profession or others that ask for any other names you have ever used?  Have you now or will you update these records?

8.  And by the way, did you register with the U.S. Selective Service when you turned 18?

I am sure these questions can be better worded, especially to extract clear yes/no answers, and I am also sure that there are other pertinent questions that might be asked at the same time.  I do think that now, or later in the campaign, these questions will be asked again and again and that eventually Obama will be forced to answer.  I'd prefer that now so that the Democratic party and delegates to the convention can make an informed choice when they vote for Obama or Clinton as the party nominee.

Finally, consider that if either of the other candidates were asked the same questions, they'd both surely welcome the opportunity to provide clear, documented answers.  That Obama won't or hasn't confirms the need for these to be asked and answered.

Matthew

NBC's positioning/marketing of Olympian Michael Phelps going after the gold is beginning to have the makings of a personality cult.

The Today show's host Matt Lauer asked swimmer Ryan Lochte, who had won a gold medal in one competition but lost to Phelps in another competition, how he thought people would have responded if he'd had "derailed" Phelps, bested him in a competition.

Lochte responded he hope people would have been happy if he’d won. After all, the Olympics are about competition, right? No, marketing it seems. Later, the host asked Lochte about his thoughts about, once again, the Phelpian pursuit.

In Olympics 2008, there are no other games being played; the world eyes are directed on Phelps, whose physique, in another segment, was described as having a "genetic" superiority.

NBC has vested so much time and money in hyping Michael Phelps it seems sacrilegious if another athlete were to win. Lauer's question seemed to infer that there would have been a lynching party waiting for Lochte back home had he won.

If so, Lochte would have not been remembered as an athlete who performed to the best of his ability but as the man who'd derailed the Olympian Chosen One.

“I looked the man [Russian Prime Minister Putin] in the eye.  I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.  I was able to get a sense of his soul.”

The popular Malaysian blogger has been ordered to reveal his sources for allegations he made in the Anwar Ibrahim sodomy scandal:

Shafee said the court also ordered Raja Petra, who writes for his No Holds Barred column, to remove the contentious postings and to refrain from publishing similar allegations. Raja Petra is already facing charges of sedition and criminal defamation over an article and a sworn statement he made alleging links between the country's deputy prime minister and a murdered Mongolian woman. But Raja Petra said on Thursday he will not reveal his sources and denied knowing the identity of people who post comments on his blog. "Of course, I won't. I never reveal my sources," he said.

If you think this can't happen in America, it most certainly can. Remember, there is no federal shield law for journalists, and even if there was, many have argued that bloggers shouldn't be included.

Here's one of Raja Petra's articles alleging that Shafee Abdullah is behind the sodomy allegations, using them to gain the national Attorney General position:

Shafee’s hands are behind the whole thing. And this can only happen with Abdullah’s blessing. No, it is not Mahathir who is behind this. And it is not Abdullah, Najib and Anwar who are the three victims. The victims are Mahathir, Najib and Anwar. Abdullah is the hidden hand and Shafee is the henchman who was tasked with the job of implementing the evil deed. Politics is not what it always appears to be in Malaysia. That is how Malay politics is played out.

The idea of an ambitious politico using a sex scandal is hardly unique to any one country, but the issue isn't really about what Raja Petra is saying in and of itself. If it is bullshit (and I have no idea one way or another), Petra is on the hook for serious libel and defamation claims, just as he would be here in America. But if he's telling the truth, and has corroborated these allegations through investigation and extensive sourcing, how does that make him any different from a typical journalist? And why, then, should he not be protected from "outing" his sources and ruining their careers (and possibly lives) along with his? If he is wrong or lying, he loses his reputation and standing in the Malaysian community, but if he's right, should he not be able to access sources off-the-record the same way any Beltway pundit would, without fear of reprisal?

This is not the first time Petra has brushed with the law over writing articles deemed "seditious," but which largely seem to be controversial due to his criticisms of governmental shenanigans and wrongdoing. Petra is something of a folk hero in Malaysia, and his writing is deemed pivotal to the political shakeups that have led to Ibrahim's path to power in the first place. We in America tend to take the First Amendment too much for granted, not realizing how easily something so fragile and yet so powerful as the right to speak freely without fear of censorship can be removed. Indeed, too often we willingly give away the right to speak, when we say things like "Corporations are private entities and are allowed to censor you," or "We need to restrict some speech to keep people safe, or to protect national security."  And thus the slippery slope goes, but I digress.

Some states are recognizing that bloggers need the same protections as journalists and are acting accordingly. When you look at the type of real boots-on-the-ground journalism done by TPM, Raw Story, HuffPo, OpenLeft, and a million other blogs, the line between "blogger" and "journalist" is a thin one indeed, and on either side, both deserve the full protection of the law from being thumbscrewed into revealing their sources. Private should stay private, no matter what country you're in.

Upon hearing that James Blake defeated Roger Federer in singles, I dove into my On Demand Olympics sports listings to see if I could catch some of the match.  I found all of eight points of tennis to watch, spread across several matches, none of which coverage had any commentary or even displayed the score.  I did, however, find table tennis (which, contrary to many people's protestations, really is just as boring as watching two kids play it in their basement), water polo (soccer without the running, kicking, tackling, you know, the stuff that makes it soccer), and something called handball (not like raquetball without the rackets, more like water polo without the water). 

And to this point, I thought the Olympics bored me because the biggest thrill was seeing who didn't fall down in gymnastics.  There are several popular sports which don't matter in the context of the Olympics (soccer, ahem football, already has a major world competition every four years; Olympic tennis isn't even the most important tournament this month; basketball is a mess).  Some sports have their moments: swimming for example is kind of fun because it's like really slow running, giving the races more suspense.  Diving can be beautiful, if not occasionally really creepy (I really enjoyed listening to the announcer try to avoid calling one of the female divers overweight while still pointing out her disadvantage given the larger splash).  But most "sports" aren't really sports at all: they're skills that might be helpful in other sports (see running, jumping, throwing, etc). 

If I could make a general rule, it would be to ban all elements that try to simulate some form of dancing (including rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and the "flourishes" in gymnastics).  Dancing is a wonderful art form.  Olympic quasi-dancing is pretty much like watching football players practicing their ballet with choreography done by a defensive coordinator. 

What really makes the Olympics worth talking about here, though, is all the pap about the world coming together in two weeks of healthy competition, mutual respect, and unity.  We should face the facts:  the Olympics doesn't solve the problems of international antagonism and cooperation.  The Olympics didn't help poor Sarajevo avoid being held under seige a mere eight years after hosting the Winter Games.  The boycott in 1980 didn't change the USSR's mind on Afghanistan, it only led to a counter-boycott four years later.  Hosting the Olympics didn't make Germany any more cosmopolitan in 1936 or China any less oppressive of its own people currently.  Nor did it temper the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia. 

All that said, as a resident of Chicago, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get the games in 2016, just so we can get some money to improve our collapsing public transportation system.

My thanks to Think Progress for this story:

The other day, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann told us that we don't need Nancy Pelosi to save the planet. Jesus has it covered. Here's what she said:

"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she’s just trying to save the planet. ... We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet — we didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that."

It gets better.

Yesterday on CNN, Rep. Bachmann gushed about how the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is "the most perfect place on the planet to drill."

Watch the video here.

What else did Rep. Bachmann have to say?

* The Arctic Refuge is the perfect place to drill because "it is permanently frozen in darkness three months of the year under ice and snow for nine months of the year."

Yes. Aside from the frozen darkness and ice and snow, it does sound perfect!

* "[T]his area was specifically set aside for drilling by President Jimmy Carter for drilling."

Except that . . . . . . it wasn't.

President Carter said the law he signed actually blocked "any oil company drilling until Congress votes otherwise. . . The simple fact is, drilling is inherently incompatible with wilderness."

* Bachmann also called past and current drilling on Alaska's North Slope a "31-year demonstration project of responsible drilling."

Except that . . . . . . it's not.

There's a long trail of oil spills and accidents on the North Slope, including BP's 200,000 gallon spill that went undetected for five days just two years ago.

Of course, Rep. Bachmann might believe that her Lord wants us to bulldoze new roads into, erect drilling rigs and platforms on, and pump the oil out of His creation so we can drive around in our cars and warm up His planet. But does she really believe He'd approve of her fast-and-loose approach to the truth?

Send Michele Bachmann a message. Click here if you want Congress to vote on clean energy first.

How much longer is the government going to keep funding and supporting Ethiopia and the pro-western administration in Somalia when they do things like this?

Joint government and Ethiopian soldiers shot dead more than 40 civilians after they dismounted them from civilian vehicles in southwestern Mogadishu witnesses and elders said.
 
It was the latest in a series in which The Ethiopian and Somali troops have killed civilians who have come too close to troops wary of attacks by rebels.
 
The troops have pulled up civilian vehicles at Arbiska area near Afgoi district ordering the passengers to drop down from the vehicles where some of the handcuffed travelers were shot dead while other were shot dead in the vehicles they were traveling.
 
"When the vehicle was stopped the soldiers, fearing an attack, arbitrarily fired on it," it said. The man died later of his wounds.
 
Dozens others were wounded in that attack those were rushed to Mogadishu hospitals.
 
No comments could be reached from the government/Ethiopian officials on this incident.

The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics reports that troops stationed overseas donate by a ratio of 6:1 to Obama over McCain, both in terms of individuals contributing and total contributed.

Even troops stationed here at home gave more to Obama than to McCain. All of which is a turnabout from 2004 and more good news for Obama.

Who ready to be CinC, John?

The situation in the Caucasus is slowly deteriorating. First, Poland and the United States reached an agreement on the missile shield to include 10 interceptor rockets at a base in northern Poland, and seemingly in response, Russia's military pushed deeper into Georgian territory. Moreover, Russia also raised the ante by hinting that the US would have to choose, and soon, between what it refers to as its "Special Project" or issues which are more important to the US and the international community; mainly, Iran and North Korea. According to the AP, the US agreed in the deal with Poland, and in defiance of Russia's recent victory, to include a declaration that the US will aid Poland militarily in case of a threat from a third country, and will establish a permanent American base on Polish soil. The Czech Republic has already agreed to host a radar for the missile shield, and is currently only awaiting parliamentary approval. Given that Russia has threatened to take retaliatory steps against both countries if they participated in the US missile shield, the agreement ads fuel to an intensifying fire. In another sign of displeasure, Russia's Foreign Minister has canceled a planned trip to Warsaw that was scheduled for September. In this post, given the situation that is developing, we will first take a look at the best argument justifying Russia's actions (since as I noted in an earlier post, the view of Russia as evil is overly simplistic), and then move to discuss the regional impact of this crisis.

Perhaps the best argument for Russia's actions comes from George Friedman at Stratfor (please note that this is only an excerpt).

[Excerpt in the original]

Of course, now that this has happened, it is time to look at the reverberations it is likely to have in the region, besides the immediate parties to the conflict.

Armenia, Azerbaijan: Nagorno-Karabakh

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Given that in Georgia, Russia's intervention made the difference so thoroughly, both Azerbaijan and Armenia (who have fought over the status of this independent republic, despite it being officially part of Azerbaijan) have to worry about not angering Russia, or giving it any reason to pick a side in the dispute. Baku of course, being one third of the BTC pipeline, and hence part of the alternate energy corridor sponsored by the US to bypass Russia, now finds itself on the wrong side. The fact that Nagorno Karabakh, who like many other such regions like South Ossetia and Abkhazia, will be emboldened by the result in Georgia only adds an uncertain element to the mix.

If you want to continue reading this post, please click here.

Other countries discussed include Turkey, Moldova, Ukraine, the Baltic Republics, and Central Asia.

You know him, you love him, you watched the blow by blow with Hillary/Apollo Creed.  Now Baracky returns to take on McCain/Ivan Drago.  Start the popcorn and click the link for a front row seat.

US hypocrisy is nearly as breathtaking as its illusions of hegemony

Blowback From Bear-Baiting by Patrick J. Buchanan

Mikheil Saakashvili's decision to use the opening of the Olympic Games to cover Georgia's invasion of its breakaway province of South Ossetia must rank in stupidity with Gamal Abdel-Nasser's decision to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships. American charges of Russian aggression ring hollow. Georgia started this fight – Russia finished it. People who start wars don't get to decide how and when they end. Russia's response was "disproportionate" and "brutal," wailed Bush. True. But did we not authorize Israel to bomb Lebanon for 35 days in response to a border skirmish where several Israel soldiers were killed and two captured? Was that not many times more "disproportionate"?

The conflict in Georgia is an emotional issue for liberals.  It puts the Commander In Chief role of the President front and center as we go into the conventions and the debates running up to the election.  And John McCain has moved out in front on the issue, using it to establish himself as a credible, nationalistic CIC, and, at the same time, distancing himself from George W. Bush.

We are so invested in the view of McCain as old, senile, arrogant and dishonest, that's it's difficult for us to appreciate just how opportune the blow-up in Georgia is for McCain, how it plays to his strengths, and how well he is exploiting it.  It's so fortunate an event for McCain that you might say if it hadn't happened, he'd have had to manufacture it.

Of course, some of us have wondered all along if we wouldn't see a crisis in the Middle East before the election, but most of us were focused on Iran and Israel.  The present crisis provides an even better backdrop for McCain.  It involves Russia, nationalism and oil.

As the frogleg said recently, "the Georgian crisis has been very revealing. Specifically, you have here a revealing split between the isolationist liberals and the internationalist liberals. This split is one which is not revealed by opinions on Iraq, which is too clouded with other baggage."

Informed.  But, in terms of the general electorate,  I'd characterize the split a little differently.  What we will see is a split between nationalist and internationalists.

My hunch is that, as we draw nearer to the election, Middle Eastern oil will come to the foreground of the collective consciousness, surpassing the occupation and even the economy as the most pressing issue of the election.  The electorate will choose the candidate they, rightly or wrongly, believe will secure our oil supply.

On some level, we've known it had to be about oil.  Except for that enclave of European culture called Israel and maybe the Suez canal, there's nothing else that matters to us in the Middle East.  

The most likely reason for Senator John McCain to be so presumptuous by sending in 'his' crew of Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Joe Lieberman to Georgia is that McCain, Bush, Cheney and the GOP made some sort of deal with Georgia's president in return for something else.  You can probably bet that within a few days after they speak to people over there, they'll announce a peace agreement settled with the help of John McCain's intervention.

Good for Political GAIN!

As I've said before, the GOP do NOTHING without a political motive behind it.

What is this guy doing on vacation?  Elections are won in the summer (see Bush v. Kerry; Bush v. Dukasis), not in the fall.  Why don't Democrats on understand this basic idea? 

The authors (Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins) of the Left Behind series of novels (a delightful and entertaining cornucopia of graphic violence, gore, and depravity based on an older work of fiction -- the ever-popular and similarly-themed Bible)  have announced that Sen. Barack Obama (presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States of America) isn't the anti-Christ portrayed in their (LaHaye's and Jenkins') work of fiction. However, that doesn't mean he (Sen. Obama) is not the anti-Christ in reality. The Devil (Lucifer, whose name means "light-bearer" for some reason) is very clever, and it seems likely that he (the Devil) would have LaHaye & Co. write the books just so they (the LB authors) could deny the real anti-Christ (Sen. Obama) and he (the Devil, not Sen. Obama) could put up a fake one (anti-Christ) to make it easier for the real one (anti-Christ; i.e. Sen. Obama in this scenario, I think) to take over the world (Earth, at least).

Or maybe Sen. Obama is not the real anti-Christ but the Devil wants us to think that he (Sen. Obama) is, so he (the Devil) is making known fools and charlatans (the LB authors) say he (Sen. Obama) is not because then smart people will think that if fools (LaHaye and Jenkins) say he (Sen. Obama) is not then he (Sen. Obama) must actually be (the anti-Christ). Then the real anti-Christ (???) could take over unopposed.

OTOH, maybe the devil wants us think that Sen. Obama is the real anti-Christ even though he (Sen. Obama) really is the real anti-Christ. That would really fool a lot of  LB readers (saps) and believers(suckers)! Somehow.

But wait! What if god wants us to think that Sen. Obama is the anti-Christ? I don't know why he (god) would do that, but then I don't know whether he (god again) wants the end-times (the Apocalypse, Armageddon, etc.) to come faster or slower. But whatever he (god, not Sen. Obama) wants, you better bet it'll happen that way because, well, because he (god) is god.

And if god wants us to think that Sen. Obama is not the anti-Christ, then we (us -- you and I and others, collectively) probably won't (think that Sen. Obama is the anti-Christ) and if he (Sen. Obama) is (the anti-Christ) then LaHaye and Jenkins (authors of the Left Behind series of novels (a delightful and entertaining cornupcopia of graphic violence, gore, and deparavity based on an older work of fiction -- the Bible (fundamental source of dogma for Christians (believers in Jesus Christ as The Redeemer, Emmanuel, The Ever-Lasting Lord, etc.))) were right (in the books) but wrong (in saying that he (Sen. Obama, not god) isn't the anti-Christ).

I hope this helps.

Paul Krugman implies that question in his column today.

So far, the international economic consequences of the war in the Caucasus have been fairly minor, despite Georgia’s role as a major corridor for oil shipments. But as I was reading the latest bad news, I found myself wondering whether this war is an omen — a sign that the second great age of globalization may share the fate of the first.

He asks why wars continue to happen when nations never seem to benefit from starting them. He doesn’t directly answer the question but in the spirit of the current presidential campaign I would like to be so presumptuous as to posit a theory on why war is the logical result of globalization.

If military victors lost far more than they gained but wars kept happening then perhaps nations are not the actors that we imagine that they are and someone else is benefiting. Perhaps the real illusion is this; we assume that governments set the rules of commerce and businesses compete within those rules.

But what if globalization effectively flips that relationship? Transnational corporations induce governments at all levels to compete against each other for the privilege of subsidizing manufacturing and shipping facilities. Trade agreements are made between nations to facilitate capitol flows but who is regulated more in those pacts: business or government?

Of course businesses still compete against each other and corporations do not always benefit from war. But the question has to be asked: is war the logical result of a globalized economy where corporations effectively set the rules and nations are given more economic incentives to compete against each other than to cooperate?

Paul Krugman implies that question in his column today. 

So far, the international economic consequences of the war in the Caucasus have been fairly minor, despite Georgia’s role as a major corridor for oil shipments. But as I was reading the latest bad news, I found myself wondering whether this war is an omen — a sign that the second great age of globalization may share the fate of the first.

He asks why wars continue to happen when nations never seem to benefit from starting them. 

He doesn’t directly answer the question but in the spirit of the current presidential campaign I would like to be so presumptuous as to posit a theory on why war is the logical result of globalization. 

If military victors lost far more than they gained but wars kept happening then perhaps nations are not the actors that we imagine that they are and someone else is benefiting. Perhaps the real illusion is this; we assume that governments set the rules of commerce and businesses compete within those rules.

But what if globalization effectively flips that relationship? Transnational corporations induce governments at all levels to compete against each other for the privilege of subsidizing manufacturing and shipping facilities. Trade agreements are made between nations to facilitate capitol flows but who is regulated more in those pacts: business or government?

Of course businesses still compete against each other and corporations do not always benefit from war. But the question has to be asked: is war the logical result of a globalized economy where corporations effectively set the rules and nations are given more economic incentives to compete against each other than to cooperate?

 

Just back from a quick run to the all-night Piggly-Wiggly (check the time stamp on the post) having run out of Moon pies and Dr. Pepper, Crawford drawls out another pundit turd. Aside from being one one of the most annoying of talking heads, he also is one of the laziest. Maybe he should get one of the local high school kids to put Google Reader on his home page so he actually knows what he's talking about from time to time. clipped from blogs.cqpolitics.com

GOP Base Comes Together

By Craig Crawford | August 15, 2008 12:00 AM

While John McCain appears to have succeeded quite well in consolidating the Republican conservative base and remaining competitive against Democrat Barack Obama, the trouble for him is that he has had to spend so much time doing it.

The most recent Pew Research Center nationwide survey shows McCain and Obama in a tie -- a statistically significant change from Obama's summer long lead in this poll. McCain's boost comes from a surge among traditional Republicans, evangelicals and white working class voters.

Still, the bad news for McCain is that he has had to work so hard for the voters who should have been in his column long ago. And veering to the right of the ideological spectrum to win those votes might cost him the support of middle-of-the-road Americans who tip the balance in November.

Case in point, it seems that McCain still has a teensy-weeny problem with the base.
"I think a lot of people, not just social conservatives, but a lot of the Republicans I know are not necessarily comfortable with Romney," Huckabee told CBSNews.com. "But it has nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with inconsistencies in positions he's held, and that's it."

In response to buzz about the former Massachusetts governor becoming McCain's running mate, an alliance of Ohio social conservatives, many of whom are former Huckabee supporters, have formed a group called "Social Conservatives Against Romney." Romney had moderate positions on many hot-button social issues, including abortion, before his run for president.

So, there are conflicting articles today about what to do in a crisis, if you are NOT the president. CW says nothing, but then again that would have some level of um....wisdom. Anywho, the NY Times Michael falcone says stand up and shout, I'm Georgia and I'm proud.And Eggs and Barnes of WashPo, says Sit the hell down- so who's right

  

For the last several days, Senator Barack Obama has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation here, as his opponent, Senator John McCain, has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia

.Here is where it gets better (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/us/politics/15obama.html?ref=politics)
     
          

Mr. McCain and his surrogates, however, have discussed the situation nearly every day on the campaign trail, often taking a hard line against Russia to the point of his declaring the other day, “We are all Georgians."


vs


WashPO(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081403332.html

Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president.

So Who wins? Lets go to the Local papers. McCain visited Michigan Wednesday.



The big national issue on his mind was Georgia, where Russia's invasion drew another sharp reprimand from McCain.

There was relatively little attention focused on Michigan's struggling economy, but McCain once again stopped short of adopting a position favored by the Detroit carmakers.


What say you Pennsylvania?(http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1832685,00.html)

McCain began the town-hall meeting with an impassioned message about Georgia, urging the crowd to care about a "tiny little democracy, far, far away" that might seem irrelevant to their day-to-day lives. "History is often made in remote and obscure places," McCain said. Even if you don't share McCain's bellicose ideas about Russia, there was something inspiring about his appeal to the conscience of the crowd, his insistence that the struggles of Georgians should be the concern of Americans. But the audience just listened quietly, offering only a few subdued golf-claps — until McCain mentioned Georgia's oil pipeline, and called the conflict a new reminder that it's time to do something about higher gas prices in America. Then the crowd erupted and gave McCain a standing ovation.Soon it was time for questions. Nobody asked what McCain planned to do for the Georgians. No, most of the questions were about what he could do for Pennsylvanians — specifically, the Pennsylvanians asking the questions.


We are all Georgians? Or not.

I hesitate to mention it but, Imagine, for a moment if John picked Mitt for VP. I would guess that the combined wealth of the First and Second Families and their combined business interest's might actually qualify them for that list of 500 compiled by Fortune  Magazine.

Could they EVER begin to understand the circumstances of those of us that are just trying to survive in this "age of the corporation".

So some cyanide killed a man in a hotel room in Denver.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

The premise here is simple -- what are you currently reading, and what/how would you recommend the book to others?

For myself --

Right now, I'm midway through David McCullough's John Adams.  Next on my list is another book titled John Adams by a different author that I can't seem to track right now.  That John Adams book seems to deal more with Adams' young, pre-revolutionary life, which McCullough's book doesn't dwell on in any substantive fashion.

I'm enjoying McCullough's narrative, though.  Previously, I'd read his 1776 and, while I found it interesting, I thought it glossed over too much detail to be of real interest to me.  Honestly, it seemed like a Da Vinci Code for amateur historians.  John Adams is a much longer book in page length though, and seems to be much more substantive besides.

Next on my list, in no particular order (to be read in whichever order my libraries support) are:

William Blum's Killing Hope

Samantha Power's The Problem from Hell

Peter Watson's Ideas: A history of thought and invention

Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

Beyond that, I'd like to read some Melissa Rossi and Albert Hourani.

So, TPM, what's on your list?  (My list is admittedly solely nonfiction; the only fiction I'm reading now is for grade school children and young adults, so I can get more familiar with the library collection at the school I work in.  If you need a fiction recommendation for a child, let me know.  I can almost certainly find something enjoyable for any age or ability range!)

Approval Ratings: The Public v. McCain

On Youtube or embeded on my blog for those who cannot view the youtube at work.

"I looked the man [Russian Prime Minister Putin] in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.    I was able to get a sense of his soul.”

New Sequoia Voting Machine - Stuff it, Just Stuff it Like a Thanksgiving Turkey!

In Ballot Stuffing Holes, Illegal USB Ports Add to Sequoia/Dominion Voting System Flaws By Rady Ananda and Andi Novick, they describe the new Sequoia's brand new "Image Cast" voting machine. You can stuff these voting machines just like a Thanks Giving Turkey.  Sequoia has produce a combination optical scanner with DRE interface for disabled, similar to a combo TV/VCR.  Talk about combo, this is a perfect combo for fraud, with handy slots for stuffing paper ballots and USB ports ready to install whatever you choose.

Continue reading "New Sequoia Voting Machine - Stuff it, Just Stuff it Like a Thanksgiving Turkey!"

Russians Say Separatist Enclaves Will Not Revert to Georgia

Georgia: A Blow to U.S. Energy

The plans of the U.S. and Western oil companies for expanded pipelines in the Caspian region may well be a casualty of Russia's attack

At the core of the struggle is a vast network of actual and planned pipelines for shipping Caspian Sea oil to the world market from countries that were once part of the Soviet empire. American policymakers working with a BP-led consortium had already helped build oil and natural gas pipelines across Georgia to the Turkish coast. Next on the drawing board: another pipeline through Georgia to carry natural gas from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Austria—offering an alternate supply to Western Europe, which now depends on Russia for a third of its energy.

But after the mauling Georgia got, "any chance of a new non-Russian pipeline out of Central Asia and into Europe is pretty much dead," says Chris Ruppel, an energy analyst at Execution, a brokerage in Greenwich, Conn. The risk of building a pipeline through countries vulnerable to the wrath of Russia is just too high.

Another indication that Grandmaster Putin has successfully used Ossetia and Abkhazia to counter the West's energy resource play through Georgia.

Well, it's not official yet, but there are a number of signs that are strongly suggesting Kaine will be the pick, perhaps announced as early as next week.

- Just released on the NYT website is a pro-Kaine article putting him on the short list:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/us/politics/14kaine.html?em

-Earlier today, Obama announced that Bayh and Biden will be speaking on Wend. night at the convention, making their VP prospects doubtful. While this may be some sort of media head-fake, both Markos at Daily Kos and Jerome Armstrong at MyDD think not:

 http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/14/185633/744
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/8/14/165253/550

- Finally, according to Ambinder and a secretive source, Obama will probably be making an appearance in Virginia next Thursday:

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/08/obama_richmond_va_next_thursda.php

I always thought that Webb would have been a great choice, and I'm still trying to get over his decision to withdraw his name, but I see Kaine as a good Virginian replacement!

Hi there, come on in.  No, it's still not quite full, I've been squinting so hard my right eye is twiching.  I'm thinking maybe tomorrow night, how about you?  Grab a seat, what can I get for you?  No problem, on the way.  It's the Panthers v Eagles, pre-season.  It's been raining on them, clear now and Carolina is ahead 10 - zip.  Go, Panthers!  Early in the game though, half time, there's a reason they're billed the "Cardiac Cats".  You didn't know that about me?  Love, love, love football!  We beat the Colts the other night off of Casey's foot, as so often happens.  Oh, hush.  I know we often suck and Delomme has his troubles, but 'ya just gotta support your team!  McNabb's not what he once was, either.  No, there're in Philadelphia.  Second half just started ...

We think we know everything there is to be learned about someone and then out of nowhere we're surprised.  Why?  We are all made up up of pieces.  Residuals from our past that leave an imprint whether we admit it or not,  people we meet today that we ignore or embrace and the lessons tomorrow will teach if we listen.  And frankly, even if we don't.  All the pieces in the koleidoscope tossed around when another turns the wheel.  Colored shards of glass are like memories we've forgotten and are yet afraid to release.  We need them, just don't want to admit that we own them.  Such are the pieces of who we are today.  In this moment.  Don't take yourself or your loved ones as stagnant pools. 

That's no fun, is it?

When it comes to picking a President many Americans may feel, as I, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet trying to tell the real from the unreal, the truth from the lie and the person from the facade. We see what we expect and we expect what we believe. Or, we may see what we hope we could see. Let’s remove the rose glasses for a minute. Stop for just a second. Although caution may be the crutch of the skeptic, it is also the tool of the realist.

We are anxious, and maybe a little desperate, for someone to believe in. We want a person of their word that does what they say. Regardless, many of us cannot help but cautiously test the water before jumping in and supporting any candidate.

Despite being burnt by many politicians, I think that there is something deep within us that hopes we have found the one to believe in.

No doubt about it. Barack Obama inspires and this sparkle is like water for a thirsty man in the desert. Cool and refreshing. But, after being stung so many times when reaching for the honey, we must look to see if the nugget is gold all through and through.

There are some unanswered questions about Obama. Most obviously, the Rezko Affair which puts squarely in issue Barack's judgment, integrity and whether he has real concern for his own people.
 

When he was in the Illinois State Legislature Rezko, whom Obama calls a friend, owned 11 buildings in Obama’s district. Some had no heat in the winter and constituents complained to Obama. It does not appear that Barack did much, if anything, about constituent complaints other than send them to the Housing Authority. During this period Barack took thousands of dollars from Rezko.  It does not appear that he gave the Rezko money to charity until after he was caught.
 

Integrity at the point of a gun, is not much to brag about.

Call me a Doubting Thomas when it comes to all candidates.

We heard the integrity and unity bit before. That bit was the campaign mantra of George W. Bush when he took the 2000 Presidential election. He delivered neither. Bush divided the country more starkly than any President in a century and made hundreds of false statements to lure America into an unnecessary war of aggression. So much for talk.

Many Obama supporters are being swept up in a carnival like atmosphere gleefully riding the merry-go-round while reaching for the brass ring of change. Is what we think we see in Obama real or is it the mirage of a thirsty man in the desert? It cannot hurt to stop for a second, look, and listen. It is so important that it would not be hyperbole to say that the future of America, if not the world, is at stake.

Is Barack Obama a snake oil salesman with a hypnotic potion or a modern day Savanarola striking at political immorality and real change?  

There has always been a thrill of finding fools gold. But, there is despair when the assessor tells us the truth. Let’s hope that Obama is the real thing. But, if he is the snake oil salesman that is the same ole Washington we hate. Pretending to be something you are not is not a new kind of politics. It is the exact thing we want to change.

The closer we get to an election, the more mushy Halperin's brain seems to get.  Back when he was writing the Note, as Election Day approached, his knowing, yet utterly incoherent insider's codetalk gibberish would get so opaque that it'd make you damn near make your head explode in sheer annoyance.  Since he started "The Page," he at least addresses his comments to the actual readers instead of his imaginary "Gang of 500," but the closer the election gets,  the more CW bound his mind becomes. 

Nonetheless, I check in on the Page frequently.  Doing so had allowed me to free myself completely from the tyranny of the Talking Hairdos.  Instead, I can find out what all the cool kids will be blathering about tonight and tomorrow in one, nasty, yet concentrated dose. 

So, yes, sometimes, Halperin is a tool himself, but The Page is always a valuable tool for those who've decided they can no longer stomach Tweety and his pals yet still want to know what the MSM is yammering about today. 

Which brings me to tonight's post. 

For everyone during the primaries who said Obama would crumple when the Swiftboaters came, and for those of you who've been inclinded to fret a bit about whether he was hitting hard enough, I give you tomorrow's MSM consensus, courtesy of our pal Halperin.

And, as an added bonus, also courtesy of my pal Mark, I give you the Obama campaign's 41 page bitchslap of Corsi which led to Halperin's pronouncement.  

Okay, I hear you already.  Those of you protesting that the people who buy the book will never read it, especially with it only being on the Internet, are rather mising the point.  I guarentee you everyone in the campaign MSM patrol has read, or will read it, tonight if only because Halperin says they should.  At worst, they come away reporting that Obama's shown he knows how to kick ass when this kind of thing happens.  At best, they use it at their primer on how to take this lowlife scumsucking pusbucket apart. 

And, if we're really, really lucky, this becomes the beginning of a narrative about how the Republicans are so bereft of ideas, and so utterly morally bankrupt, that all they got left is slinging filth. 

Okay, right. Never happen, but one can dream. 

The closer we get to an election, the more mushy Halperin's brain seems to get.  Back when he was writing the Note, as Election Day approached, his knowing, yet utterly incoherent insider's codetalk gibberish would get so opaque that it'd make you damn near make your head explode in sheer annoyance.  Since he started "The Page," he at least addresses his comments to the actual readers instead of his imaginary "Gang of 500," but the closer the election gets,  the more CW bound his mind becomes. 

Nonetheless, I check in on the Page frequently.  Doing so had allowed me to free myself completely from the tyranny of the Talking Hairdos.  Instead, I can find out what all the cool kids will be blathering about tonight and tomorrow in one, nasty, yet concentrated dose. 

So, yes, sometimes, Halperin is a tool himself, but The Page is always a valuable tool for those who've decided they can no longer stomach Tweety and his pals yet still want to know what the MSM is yammering about today. 

Which brings me to tonight's post. 

For everyone during the primaries who said Obama would crumple when the Swiftboaters came, and for those of you who've been inclinded to fret a bit about whether he was hitting hard enough, I give you <a href="http://thepage.time.com/2008/08/14/this-man-wont-be-swift-boated/">tomorrow's MSM consensus, courtesy of our pal Halperin.</a> 

And, as an added bonus, also courtesy of my pal Mark, I give you the Obama campaign's<a href=""http://markhalperin.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/unfit_for_publication.pdf> 41 page bitchslap of Corsi</a>  which led to Halperin's pronouncement. 

And those of you protesting that the people who buy the book will never read it, especially with it only being on the Internet, are rather mising the point.  I guarentee you everyone in the campaign MSM patrol has read, or will read it, tonight if only because Halperin says they should.  At worst, they come away reporting that Obama's shown he knows how to kick ass when this kind of thing happens.  At best, they use it at their primer on how to take this lowlife scumsucking pusbucket apart. 

And, if we're really, really lucky, this becomes the beginning of a narrative about how the Republicans are so bereft of ideas, and so utterly morally bankrupt, that all they got left is slinging filth. 

Okay, right. Never happen, but one can dream. 

We here at TPM have been talking about Howard Fineman a lot lately.  Aided by Josh's videos, we've all noticed Fineman's refusal to believe that McCain has anything to do with the low road campaign.

Fineman appears tomorrow on a Philadelphia radio show -- Radio Times with Mary Moss-Coane - from 9-10 EDT.  (WHYY 91FM)

This is an intelligent call-in show that gives listeners the opportunity to ask tough questions of the guests.

Here's a chance, TPM-ers, to ask Fineman why he works so hard to excuse Senator Low Road from his gutter campaign.

The call in number is 1-888-477-WHYY (1-888-477-9499).

For more info, see http://www.whyy.org/91FM/rtcaller.html

Please Recommend so this does not disappear by tomorrow morning

Hello
Check the link below. This is so funny
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/14/181843/286/455/568050

If Obama wanted to swing the conversation back to the kitchen-table economy, he was given a perfect opening today to score some major points in the hotly contested state of Florida.  Real Clear Politics has McCain up by 1.8 points today, but the real statistic to look at comes courtesy of RealtyTrac. 

The foreclosure tracking company has Florida ranked second in the nation with one home in every 186 filing for foreclosure - a 139% increase from a year ago.  Nationally, a jaw-dropping 17% of existing homes on the market are bank repossessions.

Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist's top mortgage regulator was forced to resign after an investigation by the Miami Herald found that "more than 10,000 people with criminal records were allowed to work in Florida's mortgage industry from 2000 through 2007 and that convicted felons had bilked at least $85 million from lenders and consumers."

Earlier this year, the FBI named Florida the number one "hot spot" for mortgage fraud, a growing epidemic that has forced the bureau to reallocate a large percentage of its agents and resources to cover it.  In the wake of 9/11, FBI agents were pulled en masse off of white collar crimes and no replacement were ever made.  Now, the unregulated mortgage industry is set to explode the record number of fraud cases, resulting in billions of dollars in losses that will be passed on to consumers.

If Obama can't use the rising tide of foreclosures and mortgage fraud to turn Florida to the Democrats, he should just fold his tent.  Especially since McCain gave him an opening the size of a football field by putting together virtually no plans for dealing with the housing crisis beyond "tough sh-t."

I won't even go into Countrywide's ballooning legal troubles, or that the lender's CEO is now under a formal investigation for insider trading and covering up problems with the company's loans. 

Guess where a huge chunk of those mortgage loans were made?  Here's a hint: it rhymes with "schmorida."

Good news: Pressure from Rep. Waxman to enforce Dr. Kaye Whitley's subpoena to testify on how the DOD is preventing and responding to incidents of sexual assault in the military have paid off: after first blocking her from attending a House committee's hearing, the Pentagon is allowing Whitley to testify. Bad news: the DOD continues to ignore a very specific responsibility they have been tasked with in order to fully address this issue.

I expect that people find it hard to deal with emotionally sensitive issues. I may even expect that many people would want to shield themselves from it.

But I won't tolerate elected and appointed officials who run and hide when they not only have the power to do something about it, they have the explicit responsibility of doing something about it.

And when that issue concerns protecting women in the military from sexual assault, it should be absolutely unacceptable for the Defense Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), to shirk their responsibilities of doing all they can to address what is a very serious issue, which includes participating in a congressional hearing on why so many alarming reports have been surfacing about the sexual assault rate in the military.

To bring you up to speed, various reports have indicated:

 -Across various eras of military activity, 1 in 3 military women have reported being victims of sexual assault

-Of the women veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have walked into a VA facility, 15 percent have screened positive for military sexual trauma

-Of the women who indicated having experienced sexual assault in a GAO study, around 50% indicated they did not report the incident because they didn't think anything would be done about it.

Dr. Kaye Whitley is the Pentagon's Director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), which is quoted on their website as being the “single point of accountability for the Defense Department's sexual assault policy.” However, when Congress became concerned that, despite SAPRO's activities, reports of sexual assault in the military were trickling back at an alarming rate, they mandated that the DOD develop an independent task force to investigate the issue.

Unfortunately, the DOD has neither named nor called to order this task force in the four years since the congressional mandate to do so. And last month, when the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena for Dr. Whitley to participate in a hearing on sexual assault in the military, the Pentagon blocked Whitley from appearing.

The Pentagon gave the excuse that Whitley was not the appropriate person to testify on this issue. The Director of the single point of accountability for the DOD's sexual assault policies? Please. Luckily, the Pentagon's weak excuse for its actions didn't just trigger red flags for me: Rep. Henry Waxman recognized the DOD's evasive tactics -- and sent a formal letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, threatening to hold him in contempt of Congress.

My, how people suddenly come around when it's their own reputation on the line: Gates has agreed to let Whitley testify at the hearing. I, for one, will be waiting in anticipation to hear what she has to say about SAPRO's efforts to address the disturbing reports of violence against women in the military.

The good news is that Whitley is testifying. We may finally get some answers. But the bad news is that we still don't have any indication as to when, if at all, the DOD will call the task force to order. We still need to put the pressure on Whitley to follow through on those orders. Help join the fight by signing our petition to Kaye Whitley, director of SAPRO.

Please for the love of the constitution start writing, emailing, calling, and doing all you can do to ask, demand, request, insist the MSM (and others) start putting further focus on the issues within the DOJ. We simply can not allow this nonsense to continue regardless of how much time left in office some lame ducks have. It is a true crime for the Atty Gen to think HE CAN DICTATE what is and what is not a CRIME. Please start contacting congress and asking to bring back the Indepent Counsel Act! Someday one of us may find ourselves at the mercy of these criminals. We as Amer-ICANS can NOT stand for this anylong - we must send a message to all future appointees we expect justice!

 How can Obama possibly reduce the budget deficit while at the same time maintaining his expensive promises?

Even considering the relief that will result from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, independent experts estimate that the deficit will actually INCREASE as a result of either McCain's or Obama's proposals, with McCain's plan being the worst in this aspect.

Two top Obama advisers, Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee wrote today in a WSJ op-ed:

Obama is focused on cutting taxes for middle-class families and small businesses, and investing in key areas like health, innovation and education. He would do this while cutting unnecessary spending, paying for his proposals and bringing down the budget deficit" (My emphasis).

But a study conducted in June by the independent Tax Policy Center, run by the center-left Brookings Institution, in a joint effort with the progressive Urban Institute concluded that,

"McCain's plans would cut receipts by $3.72 trillion from 2009-2018 compared with current tax law. Obama's plans would cut revenues by $2.73 trillion over the same period."

I'd love to know where the spending cuts to offset these losses will come from. The Iraq War troop withdrawal would save us $80 to $90 billion a year according to Obama campaign estimates. Not enough.

Indeed, even Obama is unsure of what his advisers guarantee. He told reporters in July: "I do not make a promise that we can reduce it by 2013 because I think it is important for us to make some critical investments right now in America's families,"

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying Obama cannot reduce or balance the budget. What I'm saying is that he can do so only by breaking many of his tax/spending promises.

To the seniors and college students who expect a tax break of some sort during Obama's administration: Don't count on it.