Thanks for the recent excellent reporting on health care/insurance reform and the more comprehensive D. C. reporting in general.  It is good to see, I think, a decline in the lurid stuff.

It's all about the "ground game", as TPM put it on the front page a few days ago.

Very little media coverage has been devoted to explaining the content of the bill which has passed out of the house, probably much like a bill which will be passed out of the senate.

The media coverage, including, sadly, here at TPM has been about the "ground game".  I am unable to recall any post here at TPM which has explained what is contained in the prevailing health insurance reform proposal, though there have been many recounting the lies and gaffs of those intent on nothing more than defeating Obama.

Hardly Polk Award worthy coverage of the matter, I am sad to say.

All Sandford, all of the time.

There is a crucial debate going on relative to should there or should there not be a "public option" in a health care reform package.  Given that Congress is pretty much bought and paid for by the medical/pharmaceutical/insurance combine, a public option is probably all we can hope for.

There is also the story of the great ferment in Iran which could blossom into substantial social change and a number of other globally important stories.

Yet here at TPM it all Sandford, all of the time. 

See the TPM front page.

Bay Buchanan deserves no more attention than does Liz Cheney. 

Headline at the top of TPM home page, right above a large picture of Lynn Chaney.

Why Does Media Keep Giving
Liz Cheney A Platform?

Isn't that giving her a media platform?

My question, increasingly lately, is why does TPM spend so much time and effort calling our attention to the baying from the frothing fringe dwellers?

Here you can check to see if your congressperson secured earmarks for the TMA Group, of which you may have heard relative to the unfolding scandals involving democratic PA Congressman John Murtha, and how much PMA paid your congressperson for the favor.

The entire Congressional Quarterly report may be found here.

Those who have read Dee Brown's book Hear that Lonesome Whistle Blow know that in the latter half of the 1800s those desiring railroad grants, which usually paid by the mile of track laid in both cash from the federal treasury and federal land, would essentially buy congresspersons to secure congressional railroad grants. (That's how Jim Hill, the Empire Builder, secured millions of acres of land through the Cascade Mountains, which he later sold to Frederick Weyerhaeuser.)

The only difference between the cash stuffed envelopes of the railroad grant days and today is that congress has legalized the bribery, so long as all of the proper reports are filed.

Congressional corruption and bribery is as old as the republic. Actually older, as a number of members of the Continental Congress engaged in war profiteering during the revolutionary war.

I just want say to Josh and TPMers.   Nice pivot from Election Central to TPMDC; and nice staff blend.  And to Eric, nice hair dude.

Rick Warren, founder and pastor of the multi-campus Saddleback Church in California, has been taking lots of heat recently for his support of California Proposition 8 which banned same sex marriage in the state.

While I support the right of same-sex couples to marry, and to enjoy the same benefits as do opposite-sex couples, I have to give Warren credit for honestly acknowledging his pastoral motivation on a sign at his church headquarters.

If you haven't already, I recommend you read what Cole, perhaps the nations premiere Middle East scholar,  has to say of Etheridge's and Warren's appearances at the Muslim Public Affairs Council conference in Long Beach.  It is indeed illuminating. 

I don't see this reported anywhere here abouts.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that as of a few minutes ago Coleman's lead has shrunk to 158, with 38% of the precincts and 29% of the vote recounted.  Coleman's vote has been reduced by 146 and Franken's by only 89.

Politoc.com, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, AP, and a number of bloggers are reporting that Obama secretly met with his long time barber, Zariff, yesterday.  According to sources close to Obama, a couple of folks who work in the sandwich shop down the street from transition headquarters, report that Obama has asked Zariff to serve on his transition team. 

Transition officials had reported Zariff was simply cutting Obama's hair, but declined to deny Zariff had been offered a transition position. 


 

Remember the Paling didn't realize Africa is a continent and didn't know the countries signatory to NAFTA?

On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. "Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks," Mr. Shuster said.

Remember the reports of members of Paris Hilton's family complaining to the McCain campaign for its use of Ms. Hilton's name in ads attacking Obama? Remember the reports that Joe the Plumber is related to Charles Keatings? 

The NYT reports all of the reports were hoaxes perpetrated by a couple of really creative guys and that some of the hoaxes were passed on by media outlets and bloggers after Sourcewatch had already identified the hoaxsters.

In the profoundly stupid category.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that the juror who told the Stevens trial judge that her father had died and that she needed to attend his funeral in California lied.  She really left to attend the Breeder's Cup.

"'I just wanted to go to the Breeder's Cup,' she told reporters after a hearing the judge held to find out why she left town and lost contact with him, forcing him to replace her as a juror just hours before the jury found Stevens guilty."

The judge said "I'm convinced you were not able to deliberate" and let her off the hook.

The Anchorage Daly News reports on a statement released by "Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican, and former Senate President Chancy Croft, a Democrat," taking McCain to task for interfering in the investigation of Gov. Palin's firing of Walt Monegan and "attacks that damaged the reputation of Walt Monegan, Gov. Sarah Palin's fired public safety commissioner."

"It's unconscionable that an outside campaign organization which had no knowledge of the history, background or understanding of an Alaskan issue would come to our State to destroy the reputation and life of a dedicated Alaskan public servant," Phillips and Croft said in a joint statement.

I have received my "Ticket To Election Day" from the McCain campaign, complete with driving instructions to my polling place. Wow, what organization.

The only problem is that I haven't lived at the McLean Virginia address since 1970 and haven't even lived in Virginia since 1974.  I also have never provided an email address to the McCain campaign.  Damned spammers. Gotta hand it to the McCain get out the vote effort. 

Seriously, I have read that the McCain campaign has had to radically cut back on its get out the vote efforts in favor of TV advertising, even in his own state. It seems the campaign doesn't have the money for both. I assume contribution have dried up as folks believe he can't win.

I've posted a partial image of the email message at my blog if you're interested.