Following up on David's post below, why is McCain outspending Obama two-to-one in Missouri?

We had reader reports suggesting this last week. And in response to those reports readers from a number of other swing states reported seeing the same thing -- a flood of McCain ads and only a much smaller number of Obama ads.

When we checked in with Obama campaign, the impression we were given was that this was more a matter of viewer perception than reality. But the Post-Dispatch's reporting makes it clear that in Missouri at least it is very much the reality.

I've got my hand on only a small patch of a national campaign elephant. But voter preferences are much more malleable in these early summer months than in the Fall. So I am curious to know why what we're told is the heavily outfunded campaign is dominating the airwaves in at least some key areas.

Hillary Clinton.

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If you need more convincing, see this post.

Perle: Can we please attack Iran already?

Dynamiting a big part of the crown jewel of their plutonium enrichment program is a pretty convincing demonstration of the North Koreans' seriousness about getting out of the nuclear business. But I question the wisdom of dynamiting a plutonium enrichment facility. Aren't these things usually buried in cement and forgotten about?

That's not simply a rhetorical question. I obviously know very little about the management, let alone demolition of nuclear facilities. But doesn't this risk kicking a lot of radiation up into the air?

Late Update: And the answer is ... No. TPM Reader Nuclear Engineers seem to agree that the cooling towers are isolated from radioactive contaminants. Next question?

See how CNN manages to get through a list of policies where Bush and McCain agree without mentioning Iraq or the War on Terror ...

High-res version at Veracifier.com.

According to Andrew Sullivan, the only senator holding up ending the HIV travel and immigration ban is none other than Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), serial frequenter of prostitutes in DC and Louisiana.

It's sad to see articulate and intelligent, if terribly misguided, writers still trying to justify their Iraq catastrophe by claiming its no different from World War II and our decades' long stationing of troops in Germany and Japan.

Today we have the instance of Max Boot ...

I could just imagine an Andrew Sullivan of the 1940's writing something similar about Harry Truman's crazy idea to station troops in Germany and Japan without an exit strategy: "In fifty years' time, the West Germans will not be able to defend themselves against the Soviet Union? Or East Germany? Please." As it happens, the West Germans wouldn't have been able to defend themselves against a broad array of enemies without a long-term American troop presence. That presence has served other important goals too, namely reassuring Germany's neighbors that it would never threaten the peace of Europe again and fostering Germany's internal democratic development. But just because we've had troops in Germany and Japan for 60 years-and in South Korea for more than 50 years-doesn't mean we're occupying those countries. We are there are the request of democratically elected governments.

I never fail to have my breath taken away by various neocons' breezy and wholly unselfconscious claims to be the modern-day stand-ins for every revered past moment in the history of American foreign policy. Boot's problem is that he doesn't get Imperialism, though it's actually a topic he's written a great deal about. Or more particularly, he doesn't understand why it ended. When I interviewed him in the months before the Iraq War he talked with a mix of extravagance and hypotheticalness about recolonizing various parts of the Middle East. The main point I remember was taking over the Saudi oil fields and running them under some sort of internationally-sanctioned protectorate and "administering them as a trust for the people of the region."

But setting all those concerns aside there's one distinction between the case of Germany and Japan and Iraq today that gets far too little mention. It's not a matter of culture or religion. It is the fact in the aftermath of World War II, both Germany and Japan had been conquered by the United States and her allies in a wars of aggression that Germany and Japan had started. The civilian populations of each country, whatever their war guilt, had experienced shattering levels of violence and privation in the final years of the war. And both countries were immediately faced by nearby hostile powers they feared much more than the United States. There are almost countless differences between the two historical situations, either separate from these points or growing out them. But taken together, these three factors explain a great deal of why our occupation of Iraq lacks both the legitimacy and the acceptance we enjoyed in those two countries.

Last night TPM Reader BD wrote in to let us know that John McCain is blanketing the airwaves in Missouri while Barack Obama wasn't on the air at all. We asked other Missouri readers to tell us whether they were seeing the same thing.

And, by and large, the answer seems to be 'Yes'. A few readers say that Obama has gone up on the air in the last few days too, but with a much smaller run.

A national campaign is a complex undertaking, with lots of trade-offs about where to deploy funds and strategies about how to roll out messages and when. So I won't be foolish enough to second guess their strategy on the basis of one single data point, without being privy to their overall strategy.

But given Obama's expected overpowering financial advantage, it would seem odd to me if his campaign is ceding the airwaves to McCain in such a key potential swing state.

From Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), chair of the Republicans Senate Campaign Committee ...

"Energy is actually a huge opportunity for Republicans. Energy has the opportunity to change the climate if it's done right."

From TPM Reader BD ...

The latest Survey USA poll shows McCain opening up a 7 point lead in Missouri, which seems to run counter to the bounce present elsewhere. The poll found that the big change occurred in St. Louis. I live in St. Louis, and have a potential explanation. For the past two weeks our TVs have been saturated with ads for McCain, ads that say that John McCain hates war and stood up to the President on global warming (if I didn't know better I would think that he is the Dem). Despite news reports that Obama is advertising in Missouri, I haven't seen a single ad. I wonder if this may be an indication that McCain's efforts to move to the center may be working in this swing state, especially when Obama has nothing up to counter the McCain message.

Anyone in the state of my birth seeing the same thing?

As you know, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine came out yesterday with the first installment of his long-awaited report on the panoply of DOJ scandals growing out of last year's US Attorneys firing story. In today's episode we bring you up to date on Fine's key findings and explain why installment one is an ominous sign for those actually involved in the firings ...

High-res version at Veracifier.com.

Let me ask you a favor; and it's one I think you'll get a lot out of it too if you're into little clips of politicians stumbling into saying what they mean, talk show yakkers making fools of themselves or even the occasional instance of someone doing something admirable.

As some of you know we have a whole set up at TPM World Headquarters here in Lower Manhattan for monitoring and recording all the cable and broadcast news channels. So in addition to the stuff the staff catches on our bank of TVs, if you see something you can flag us by email. And if we hear from you within forty-eight hours of broadcast we can go back and grab it.

Starting this week, we're going to be posting these clips at our TPMtv youtube channel. So it would help us a great deal if you could go over to Youtube and if you're registered there just subscribe to our channel.

It doesn't take more than 30 seconds. Just click right here to get to our channel and then hit the 'subscribe' button just below the TPMtv logo on the upper left. We really appreciate it.

John McCain says he "strenuously disagree[s]" with advisor Charlie Black's claim that another al Qaida mass casualty terrorist attack would be good news for McCain's election prospects. But back in 2004 he said pretty much the same thing.

As TPM Election Central's Eric Kleefeld noted early this evening, there was a hotly contested GOP house primary tonight in Utah's 3rd district, the seat currently held by Rep. Chris Cannon (R). You may remember Cannon for talking up the benefits women get from polygamy or pointing out that those teenage pages were just "egging [Rep. Mark Foley] on."

As Kleefeld aptly described it, this was a face off between a "right-wing buffoon versus a right-wing suit." But one might also say that it was a face between a very right-wing incumbent versus a very, very right-wing challenger.

And as TPM Reader BT has just pointed out, with 79% reporting, challenger Jason Chaffetz is clobbering Cannon 60%-40%. Unless, there's some really weird geographic skew in how the votes are coming, I'd say this probably means Cannon's toast.

When a Republican incumbent loses to an even more ideologically extreme challenger, Dems often think they may have a shot.

On the other hand, this district voted 77% for President Bush in 2004. So I'm not holding my breath on this one.

I was out of the office for almost all of today (helluva day considering today's release on the Justice Department IG report). So the next few posts may have me catching up on some of the day's news. But I wanted to start by making sure you saw the TPMCafe Book Club we're hosting this week on Philip Gourevitch's new book Standard Operating Procedure.

It doesn't really do the book justice to say it's about Abu Ghraib. But if this is the first you're hearing about it, that is the general topic. The book is a collaboration of sorts between Gourevitch and the documentary film maker Errol Morris, who shared with Gourevitch transcripts of interviews of American service men and women who'd served at Abu Ghraib. I'm tempted to take a crack at explaining the book and trying to impart some of its flavor. But far better that I point you to the author himself.

Here's Philip's introductory post, kicking off the discussion yesterday. He's also discussing the book with readers at great length in the comments section. So it's really a great opportunity -- a treat you shouldn't miss -- to dig into this vividly awful, shameful story with a writer of non-fiction who can turn a mirror on us with the art and moral insight of the finest novelists.

Of course, it's a discussion. So joining Philip are poet and essayist Mary Karr, author Rory Stewart, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic Monthly, E.J. Graff, senior correspondent at The American Prospect and novelist Robert Stone. And you can follow the unfolding discussion here.

At TPM, as you know, our core mission is news and reporting. But having a venue where we can host these kinds of more searching discussions -- less tied to the immediacy of the news cycle -- into politics, culture, foreign affairs, the arts, etc. has always been a goal of mine. But it's one we've -- or, I'll take responsibility for it, I've -- not always had the resources or the focus to follow through on in the way we'd like.

But your readership -- both in loyalty and expanding numbers -- has allowed us to slowly build up our ad revenues. And that makes it possible for us to hire new employees who make more of this stuff possible. So with that segue, let me also take the opportunity to introduce you to our newest staffer, Lila Shapiro. Lila is our newest associate editor. And among other tasks, she's takings over the site editorship of TPMCafe from Andrew Golis. So in the coming weeks and months she'll be organizing new book clubs, table for ones and more at TPMCafe. So if you have ideas in mind, drop Lila a line.

TPM Reader AB's lament ...

I'm 23 years old and I have yet to make it as an international arms dealer, despite majoring in international relations in college. I sometimes give my weapons pitch on street corners or at open mic nights, hoping to be scouted. I've sent out demo tapes to all of the major government agencies, including the Defense department, State Department, and CIA. I was very surprised when only the FBI responded, even though I hadn't sent them a copy. At the moment I have a job at a coffee shop to pay the bills. I worry that maybe I'll never make it, that I'll be stuck serving coffee for the rest of my life. However every time I feel down, I think of Efraim Diveroli. I tell myself, if he can make it, so can I.

TPM Reader BH writes ...

Regarding the Tom Ridge lobbying story, I have what are, perhaps, several stupid questions. Why would someone not register their lobbying activities? Is is purely because it looks bad politically or are there other reasons? How often do lobbyists fail to register? Is failing to register associated with failure to report the income?

Good question. Turns out I know a bit about this because I spent a lot of time earlier in this decade researching and reporting about the activities of foreign lobbyists. The unfortunate answer is that the FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) is written and has been subsequently interpreted in such a way to provide numerous workarounds for foreign lobbyists not to register if they don't want to. I have a very vivid memory in fact of sitting down with one of the FARA office's staff lawyers circa 2000-2001 and having him walk me through whether a certain set of facts amount to non-compliance with the law. You would have thought I was talking to the defense attorney for the guy who I was reporting on. They seemed institutionally invested in a minimal interpretation of the legislation they were tasked to enforce.

One thing that tells you is that this Ridge thing is pretty exceptional. The FARA office does very, very little proactive enforcement of its legislation. Which makes me think that Ridge must have been making a lot of waves, getting a lot of attention, or perhaps they thought there was something going on more significant than the simple non-compliance.

As for why he wouldn't register? That's quite a mystery. I could perhaps imagine that even a big player like Ridge wouldn't know about the requirement if he were on his own. But he works for Blank Rome, which has plenty of experience in the foreign lobbying biz. So that seems like quite a mystery too.

Israel Army Radio: Gunshots fired at Tel Aviv airport while Sarkozy, Olmert, Peres there. Leaders rushed away and safe.

We'll bring more information as we get it.

From initial reports it seems like this may not have been terrorism related but rather some sort of aberrant behavior (perhaps a suicide) by an Israeli soldier.

Late Update: 10:07 AM ... New updates appear to confirm that an Israeli soldier on the scene committed suicide by gunshot, thus setting off a security scramble to get the dignitaries on their planes or cars. The story from Haaretz.

Late Update: 10:20 AM ... Not a suicide. Subsequent reports suggest that the soldier, who was patrolling the perimeter from a high vantage point, fell and his gun misfired.

I just saw John McCain very gravely lamenting Barack Obama's decision not to accept public financing for the general election campaign and opining about what it says about Obama's ethics and trustworthiness. And I must confess that I'm a little confused why more Democrats are not hitting this preening peacock with the fact that he is as we speak breaking the campaign finance laws and specifically breaking the law on accepting public financing. Having opted into the system and gotten the advantage of it he's now spending freely in defiance of the caps he agreed not to spend over. Not a commitment to Common Cause to try to come to deal, but a legally binding commitment to stay within the public system for the primaries (which, by FEC rules, continues through the nominating conventions).

It's almost surreal that McCain is being allowed to get on his high horse on anything remotely connected to the public financing system.

You can say the press should be hitting him on this. But the truth is that this will only become an issue, if Democrats and Obama-surrogates make it an issue. The guy is not only 'breaking his word' he's breaking the law. But he's so awash in his own self-righteousness that I'm not even sure this counts as hypocrisy -- at least conscious hypocrisy -- since just as is the case with the lobbyists he surrounds himself with I think his self-righteousness makes it all invisible to him.

Here's the video ...

Karl Rove's latest to Republicans about how to message on Obama ...

"Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

When you're the pro-life Republican in the race, it's just not good when your ex-girlfriend comes forward to confirm that you pressured her into having an abortion -- especially when it was only seven years ago.

I happened yesterday on this article in The Atlantic by Jonathan Rauch about the Chevy Volt. GM is throwing tons of resources into a breakneck schedule to produce an electric powered car that is dramatically more advanced than the hybrids currently on the market. The question is whether they can have the technology developed in time for release date.

It's sort of inspiring to see an American company try something so ambitious.

On a related note, I've been finding myself thinking more and more about alternative energy sources -- or more specifically non-fossil fuel energy sources. Politically, I've always been pretty progressive on environmental issues. I was reared to it in a way since my father was a marine botanist -- so these concerns and points of interest were some of the building blocks of my childhood. But for all that, as I got older and thought more about politics and began to write about it for a public audience, I cannot say it's ever been a real focus for me. But that's changed over the last several months: most of the key issues that face us today, from environmental issues proper, to our geostrategic position vs. other great powers and the future of our economy, all turn on our reliance on fossil fuels. Not just 'foreign' ones, all of them. It's not hard to imagine historians of 50 or 100 years from now writing the history of our period -- stretching back almost forty years now -- around that central focus.

With all the time John McCain is spending these days lamenting the harsh treatment Sen. Clinton got during the campaign and reaching out to her supporters, I was reminded of this special moment of McCain's from last November ...

From WaPo ...

Al-Hurra -- "the Free One" in Arabic -- is the centerpiece of a U.S. government campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East. Taxpayers have spent $350 million on the project. But more than four years after it began broadcasting, the station is widely regarded as a flop in the Arab world, where it has struggled to attract viewers and overcome skepticism about its mission.

Beyond all the dingbat problems with Bush-era 'public diplomacy, this seems like the key point ...

According to critics, the U.S. government miscalculated in assuming that al-Hurra could repeat the success of Radio Free Europe during the Cold War, when information-starved listeners behind the Iron Curtain tuned in on their shortwave radios.

Al-Hurra, by contrast, faces cutthroat competition. About 200 other stations beam Arabic-language programming to satellite dishes reaching even the poorest neighborhoods in the Middle East and North Africa. More rivals loom, including an Arabic-language news channel that the BBC is set to launch this year.

Symptomatic of a much broader and more profound failure of comprehension.

Late Update: It turns out that ProPublica, the new non-profit investigative journalism site that is among other things the new home of TPM alum Paul Kiel, also has an extensive new report on the al Hurra trainwreck. It would seem here too there's plenty of Bush administration failure to go around.

From Isikoff in Newsweek ...

One of John McCain's most celebrated achievements in recent years was his crusade to block a Pentagon contract with Boeing for a new fleet of midair refueling tankers. Incensed over what he denounced as a taxpayer "rip-off," McCain launched a Senate probe that uncovered cozy relations between top Air Force officials and Boeing execs. A top Air Force officer and Boeing's CFO ended up in prison. Most significantly, the Air Force was forced to cancel the contract--saving taxpayers more than $6 billion, McCain asserted.

But last week, McCain's subsequent effort to redo the tanker deal was dealt a setback. Government auditors ruled that the Air Force made "significant errors" when it rebid the contract and awarded the $35 billion project to Boeing's chief rival, partners European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (or EADS) and Northrop Grumman. It's likely the Air Force will have to redo the bid yet again, which analysts say will delay the replacement of the fleet's 1950s-era refueling tankers. The auditors' ruling has also cast light on an overlooked aspect of McCain's crusade: five of his campaign's top advisers and fund-raisers--including Tom Loeffler, who resigned last month as his finance co-chairman, and Susan Nelson, his finance director--were registered lobbyists for EADS.

Read the rest here.