Ezra Klein and some other progressive blockers are suggesting that we all stick it to the rightwing haters by buying Rashid Khalidi's book, "The Iron Cage," about the occupation.

I just did, and I have two copies already. According to Klein, it's already climbed to #1 on Amazon in the categories of books about Israel, Palestine and the World. It's 137 overall. Getting it to the #1 nonfiction book on Amazon is a nice way to tell the right that their efforts to demonize writers they don't like will backfire. Especially when the issue against the author is his ethnicity.

Buy it here.

(This is my edited for TPM IPF Friday piece from this morning. It bears considerable resemblance to Jo-Ann Mort's terrific piece but is different enough -- I'm more vicious and I focus more on the nauseating pandering to Israel on general --that I'm posting it),

I have been looking to see if the Jewish "defense organizations" put out statements condemning the vicious attacks on Professor Rashid Khalidi, the Palestinian-American academic.

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Today Charles Krauthammer explains why he's voting for John McCain even though he considers Barack Obama the better man. If Obama wins...

1) "Large men will come to your house at night and ask you to sign a card supporting a union."

2) "The so-called Fairness Doctrine -- a project of Nancy Pelosi and leading Democratic senators -- a Hugo Chávez-style travesty [will try to ] abolish conservative talk radio."

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I love "Open Secrets" where you can discover if you have any friends who are secret Republicans. (I don't).

I was looking up one guy I know in the "E's" and discovered that Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of Richard Nixon and grand-daughter-in-law of Dwight David Eisenhower has maxed out to Barack Obama. Cool.

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I didn't like the idea of a 30 minute campaign ad, five days out. I thought it might be cheesy or seem presumptuous. I was wrong. It was very moving, like one of those PBS shows about American history. I felt like I was watching a film about JFK or FDR. It was simply a pitch perfect closer.

I should have learned by now that Team Obama always knows what it's doing. It's like that wonderful web ad people keep sending me. It shows a smiling confident Obama with the inscription: "Everyone, chill the fuck out, I got this."

He does, indeed.

So now John McCain is attacking Obama for his association with Prof. Rashid Khalidi. Khalidi is a Palestinian-American who has consistently supported Palestinian recognition of Israel, has opposed terrorism, and promoted Washington's efforts to produce an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Yes, he is connected to the PLO, the organization Israel negotiates with (Netanyahu negotiated and shook hands with Arafat, for heaven's sake) and recognizes as the "legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."

But, as you can see here, McCain likens Khalidi to a neo-Nazi. Why? Not because he believes it (McCain has a long-time association with Khalidi too) but because the Republicans' latest strategy is to count on (1) Jews being such such racists that, so far as we are concerned, any association with any Arab is bad and (2) hey, this is what the McCain Republicans do.

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I'm not going to paraphrase this. If you are interested in having the cockles of your heart (whatever those are) warmed, read this.

So now we know why Joe the Plumber is for McCain. He is worried about Israel.

Funny, I would never have guessed. I saw "Joe" being interviewed and he's a rightwing nut (he wants to abolish social security) and a racist (he said Obama reminded him of Sammy Davis, Jr).

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This sums up the McCain-Palin voter. The owner of the Miami Dolphins says he'll sell his share of the team now rather than pay a higher tax under Obama. (His numbers are wrong, by the way).

But it's the principle here that matters. This guy is your typical McCain Republican. He says he'll be damned before he gives his tax dollars "to him" (Obama).

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Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter and I are on the same wave length. He writes in this week's Newsweek that Obama could still lose and, if he does, the only reason will be racism.

I totally agree with that. The only difference between Alter and me is that he is sure Obama will win and I will believe that after the votes come in, and not a minute before. Having grown up in small cities where racism was (and is?) rampant, it is hard for me to believe that these white voters I know all too well will vote for a black guy no matter what they say.

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This is a hoot. The AP is reporting that Sarah Palin met with Israel's ambassador and told him that the McCain administration would "look forward to working with your Jewish Agency."

What! Palin surely doesn't know this but the Jewish Agency was the name for Israel's pre-state government. After 1948, the governing authority was the State of Israel.

CORRECTION: AP has clarified. She was indeed talking about the Jewish Agency which, as Matt Yglesias points out, is just weird.

Check out this thread from Lucianne.com. Lucianne is Jonah Goldberg's mother, the woman famous for arranging the Monica blue dress deal. Lucianne.com is the second biggest rightist website (after Free Republic).

We live in the same country with these people. How many are there? We'll find out soon enough. But these folks are the mainstream right.

Think race matters to them? Oh yeah, he's also a socialist!

Gideon Levy is one of the top writers in Israel.

In today's column, he responds to a well-known spokesman for the setlers who accuses the majority of Israelis of hating them.

Levy writes: "Large segments of Israeli society do indeed hate. But this is not baseless hatred, not hatred for the sake of hatred, to use your words. It is hatred for your enterprise. You have earned this hatred honestly - the only honest thing about your enterprise."

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In today's agonies, David Brooks trembles over the transformation of the once great, John McCain. You know, all the usual blather about the great leader he once was and his tragic decline these last few weeks or months.

It's truly unbearable stuff especially to those among us (pretty much all serious liberals and conservatives) who always thought McCain is a big zero, a product of ridiculous hype by his buddies in the media.

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