I'm flummoxed by this. 200 soldiers? As an experiment?
Defence files have revealed the United States military was planning to test deadly nerve gas on Australian troops in a far north Queensland rainforest in the 1960s.
Australian Defence Department files obtained by Channel Nine show the US was planning to test Sarin and VX nerve gas on up to 200 Australian combat troops by aerial bombing areas around Lockhart River.
The plan never went ahead, but American survey teams inspected the proposed testing site.
The prime minister at the time, Harold Holt, vetoed the plan.
His former staffer, Peter Bailey, says the Australian government was concerned that its Cold War alliance with the US would be damaged if it did not acquiesce.
"If they weren't pretty good and pretty faithful to the Americans we would be dumped, so I think ministers were very aware that this was probably our one main support," he said.
Obama entered the mansion at 5:45. He reemerged at 6:43, with a stylish filmmaker in tow and a crew carrying a film camera, not a small digital camera.
Obama's traveling press aides still maintain that nothing is abnormal, but the filmmaker is Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award-winning director of "An Inconvenient Truth." His father, Academy Award winner Charles Guggenheim, chronicled John F. Kennedy. [...]
Davis Guggenheim spoke briefly to a handful of reporters before realizing he shouldn't be. He then said he was merely traveling with his son in Montana and doing some interviews. All that is left is rank speculation -- that Guggenheim appears to be making the biopic for the convention.
He did a beautiful job on An Inconvenient Truth, but in this case, it doesn't take much to make Obama look beautiful. He's already there.
If Guggenheim is really shooting Obama's biopic, it will be stunning. Now I'm on pins and needles.
“I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lex-eegton Project,” Mr. McCain said, drawing a quick breath and correcting himself. “The Lex-ing-ton Proj-ect,” he said slowly. “The Lexington Project,” he repeated. “Remember that name.”
In a town meeting in Cincinnati the next day, Mr. McCain would again slip up on the name of the Massachusetts town, where, he noted, “Americans asserted their independence once before.” He called it “the Lexiggdon Project” and twice tried to fix his error before flipping the name (“Project Lexington”) in subsequent references.
So many cringeworthy moments, so little time:
By his own admission, Mr. McCain is not a great orator. He is ill-suited to lecterns, which often dwarf his small stature, and he tends to sound as if he is reading his lines, not speaking them. His shortcomings have been accentuated in a two-man race, particularly because the other man — Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee — can often dazzle on stage. [...]
He is working to limit his verbal tangents and nonverbal tics.He is speaking less out of the sides of his mouth, which can produce a wiseguy twang reminiscent of the Penguin from the Batman stories, and he is relying less on his favorite semantic crutch — the phrase “my friends” — which he used repeatedly in his campaign appearances.
Who wouldn't want to listen to that? How unfortunate that his Big Republican Convention Speech Day will only come but once.
And then there's that persistent mean streak he can't seem to avoid:
Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, said, “There’s a danger of sarcasm becoming nastiness, and McCain seems to be conscious of that line.”
And when he tries to rein in his hostility?
The more careful McCain, said by some to be overly scripted, has received some withering critiques. “His rhetorical style can best be described as ‘tired mayonnaise,’ ” the comedian Stephen Colbert declared on “The Colbert Report” before inviting viewers to enter the “Make McCain Exciting Challenge.”
Peter Spaulding, the chairman of Mr. McCain’s campaign in New Hampshire, said he recently saw a McCain speech on television that was “just atrocious.”
Uh-oh! Hostile alert!
He sheepishly volunteered that he received complaints after a recent Newsweek profile of his wife, Cindy, said that he sometimes referred to her alma mater, the University of Southern California, as the University of Spoiled Children. [...] (It is fortunate for Mr. McCain that there was no YouTube in the 1980s when he jokingly referred to the retirement community Leisure World as “Seizure World.”)
After those little potshots, the Lex-eegton Project doesn't look so bad any more.
...Volkswagen is bringing new meaning to the term "fuel efficiency" with a bullet-shaped microcar that gets a stunning ... 235 mpg.
Volkswagen's had its super-thrifty One-Liter Car concept vehicle -- so named because that's how much fuel it needs to go 100 kilometers -- stashed away for six years. The body's made of carbon fiber to minimize weight (the entire car weighs just 660 pounds) and company execs didn't expect the material to become cheap enough to produce the car until 2012.
But VW's decided to build the car two years ahead of schedule.
It looks cool, too, doesn't it? All futuristic and bullety and stuff. It's tiny though, not big enough for all those well-dressed beverages I'm going to start carrying around with me.
I just got back from the store where I did a double take when I saw this (I snapped the pic with my handy dandy little cell phone):
(click on any image to enlarge)
"Beverage wear"? Are they serious? This is what it's come down to, consumers dressing up their water bottles. Okay, okay, I have to admit, I've often shielded my eyes in the Naked Juice aisle:
This is actually a much bigger machine than I had imagined.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Conventional wisdom was that Indiana's 15 minutes of political fame were over when the frenzied Democratic presidential campaign rolled out of the state after the May 6 primary.
But Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, is retrenching in Indiana in hopes of keeping a traditional stronghold for Republican presidential candidates in play heading toward the November general election.
Some Republicans say Obama is simply trying to get Republican rival John McCain to spend significant resources in a state he otherwise would largely bypass. The Obama camp dismisses that.
"It's about competing in a state we can win and his commitment here," said Jonathan Swain, who recently left his post as press secretary to Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh to become Obama's communications director in Indiana.
(snip)
Obama also has opened an office at state party headquarters and plans to add at least 20 regional offices around the state in the coming weeks.
(snip)
As of the end of May, Obama had substantially out-raised McCain both nationally and in Indiana this election cycle. He had taken in about $1.2 million from Indiana, while McCain had received about $587,000.
My two new tv must watches are "Swingtown" and "Californication". Swingtown is more of a sexed up soap opera, and well, Californication actually makes me guffaw. Pamela Adlon is the best thing I've seen on the tube in years. So, you get a promo vid for Swingtown and my pick for my fav song from 1976 (based on what I liked then vs now. Now I'd pick Bowie). Here's the list of the top 100 from that year, which are your favs?
The electoral race continues to stick at around Obama 309 to McCain 229. Other compilation websites have slightly different numbers but come to the same conclusion.
RCP's tally without toss-up states is: Obama 304, McCain 234. EV's tally is Obama 320 to McCain 218. [...]
One state that may change soon is Georgia -- Obama is behind 2% in the Insider Advantage / Poll Position poll. With the large African-American population in Georgia, Obama could easily sneak in and swoop this state from the Republicans but he will need Bob Barr's help to do so.
Georgia has the ninth most electoral votes in the nation (tied with three other states) and a win for Obama would make it a daunting task for McCain.
BUTTE, Montana (CNN) — Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will appear together at three fundraisers next week in New York, the Obama campaign confirmed Saturday.
Two of the fundraisers are Wednesday night — one to pay off Clinton’s debt and the other for Obama’s campaign.
On Thursday morning, they’ll also appear together at a women’s fundraising breakfast for Obama.
The finance events will bring to five the number of joint appearances the two have made since Clinton suspended her campaign.
I will never forget the questions I faced when I went to Ireland in the spring of '03. Every, and I mean every person I got into a conversation with wanted to know what the hell was up with "Your President". I can imagine they are very much looking forward to a new one.
(CNN) -- When Barack Obama comes to London, I am certain that 50,000 people will turn out to cheer him on,'' a British executive assured me when I visited the British capital recently.
"Americans?'' I asked.
"No, not Americans,'' he responded. "English people. You see, we want change, too.''
Spend a few days in western Europe talking about American politics and you discover that you are in deepest Obamaland. Not much different from Berkeley, California, or the South Side of Chicago.
As a woman put it to me in Paris: "We want America back.''
I really, really love the pics of their family. I think I have a dress like Michelle's- that's a barbecue dress people. I'd love to know what Cindy Lou wears to a barbecue.
But while [Ingrid Betancourt] was still in the air, the Swiss radio station RSR broadcast a report questioning the official version of the operation to free Ms Betancourt and 14 other hostages – saying that money, not cunning, had clinched their freedom.
According to Bogota, the hostages were freed in an elaborate ruse by Colombian intelligence agents who had infiltrated the Marxist Farc rebels holding them.
But RSR said that the 15 hostages “were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up". Citing a source "close to the events, reliable and tested many times in recent years", it said that the United States – which had three citizens among those freed – was behind the deal and put the price at $20 million.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry furiously denied the allegations, with a spokesman calling them "completely false." He added: "They are lies". [...]
Before the allegations of a payments arose, Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, said the rescue “was conceived by the Colombians and executed by the Colombians with our full support,” while implying that Washington had provided intelligence and even operational help. The US has not responded to them.
The argument is, only a measly $20 million? Why would they bother? Besides, it's not nice to rain on their parade like the Swiss did, right? But the article caught my eye, so now you get to read about it too.
"Stand up for what is good in America"... Impeach the president who lied to take us into a war against Iraq... Let us celebrate freedom from fear... Happy Fourth of July."
The Buffalo News reports that former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards will debate Karl Rove on Sept. 26 on the campus of the University of Buffalo as part of the school’s Distinguished Speakers Series.
In this case, only one of the speakers can be called "distinguished". The other can be called a thug.
In the midst of the U.S. attorney scandal, Edwards called on President Bush to “fire Karl Rove.” When Rove announced he was resigning from the White House, Edwards released a statement that simply read “Goodbye, good riddance.”
Now I'm no fan of McCain, but I've seen decent picture of him, and this one isn't decent. He looks like he's clenching his jaws 'cause he just noticed his Polygrip is about to give out. Why would anyone pick this for the website? Oy.
I was lamenting the state of our "news" media, and as an extension, the state of our country. As I witness the disintegration of the quality of journalism, and how non-news stories are endlessly looped and forced down the throats of gullible viewers, I am reminded of how things used to be.
Would Walter Cronkite froth over an Obama campaign nuance? Would David Brinkley rabidly salivate over an uncorroborated, biased mantra? Would Chet Huntley engage in undignified distortions? Journalistic Swiftboating didn't exist. It would have been unthinkable. Maybe I'm romanticizing, and I'm sure there had to have been exceptions, but my perception is that there was a gravitas and a reverence for facts that have since been replaced by a cacophony of memes and a servility to shout fests. The depths into which TV news has devolved is not only repugnant, but unconscionable.
As Americans celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, an overwhelming majority say the 56 signers of that document would be displeased at how the country has turned out.
According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, close to 70 percent say that if the signers of the Declaration of Independence could see America today they would be disappointed, while just under 30 percent say the founding founders would be happy with the country 232 years later.
George Bush is to governing what Rick Sanchez is to newscasting. Let's hope that, by the next Fourth of July, we once again have the Walter Cronkite of presidents, and that the polls reflect a prouder America.
Obama is taking nothing for granted, he's in Butte Montana for the Fourth, McCain is taking the day off (again). This is the way you stay 5 points ahead in a red state.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Only two Democratic presidential candidates have carried Montana since 1948. Barack Obama is betting he can do it in November.
With just three electoral votes and its reputation as a red state, Montana rarely sees presidential candidates in the summer before a general election. Republicans usually take the state for granted, while Democrats don't even try to contest it.
But Obama has been spending a sizable amount of time and money on Montana, hiring a state director and staff while running TV ads detailing his background and qualifications. Montana is among fewer than 20 states the campaign is targeting early.
(snip)
Obama's even spending the Fourth of July in Montana, attending a parade and picnic in rough-and-tumble Butte, the hometown of motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, where drinking is allowed in the streets.
"He is the kind of candidate that has shown he can run competitively in these types of states because of his ability to attract new people to the process," Weaver said. "Sen. Obama is an independent figure. He is very attractive to the independent-minded spirit of Montanans."
Democrats have made gains in the state in recent years, electing a populist as governor and ousting a longtime Republican U.S. senator. But in 2004, even as Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer was winning, Democrat John Kerry lost Montana by 20 percentage points.
My grandmother always told me that if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all. More about Senator Helms here.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican who became an icon to conservatives, died Friday at the age of 86, a senior congressional source told CNN.
Just in case you're fireworked out or have crappy weather in your area. Really long list here. I think I'm leaning towards "What Not To Wear", the Harry Potter Films, Hitchcocks' films and "The Revolution" on the History Channel.
NY Times: Looking for Liberty ACCORDING to the film “National Treasure,” the Declaration of Independence is a document of such far-seeing sagacity that it has secret codes and treasure maps hidden in the parchment. You just have to know how to look for them. But that poses the question: which document, precisely, is the Declaration of Independence?
AP: Overseas contract loophole is closing A multibillion-dollar loophole that would have let contractors escape reporting abuse of taxpayer dollars spent abroad is being closed. The loophole was quietly inserted last fall into Justice Department plans to crack down on government contract fraud and waste. It exempted overseas contracts, however, despite more than $102 billion spent on taxpayer-funded projects in Iraq and Afghanistan alone since 2003.
I start to realize how badly I wish I could articulate my own version of Bob Cesca's words after I read his:
He can't really be in favor of this crapwitted FISA Amendments Bill, can he? Did he really just praise the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives? Greenwald and Olbermann are feuding? Seriously? [...] Really, though, who ever agrees with a politician on everything all the time anyway?
I've said similar things on this very blog, but as you'll see, instead of snark, he has pitch-perfect eloquence. But first, he refers to a Kos diarist:
Russ Feingold may have been the lone voice standing up to the first Patriot Act, but he voted for the confirmations of John Ashcroft and John Roberts.
Paul Wellstone was a strong liberal voice in the Senate, yet he voted for DOMA and the Patriot Act.
Dennis Kucinich, aside from being on the political fringe, was a lifelong pro-lifer until he decided he wanted to run for president.
Chris Dodd may do quite well on constitutional matters, but he voted for the Iraqi war, the Patriot Act, and is too beholden to the big banks and the hedge funds which he oversees from the Senate Banking Committee.
Bob-Who-Says-Things-Well continues:
You and I could wait a lifetime for a skeleton key presidential nominee to come along who flawlessly interfaces with each of our pet issues, and, consequently, we'd probably die a politically disappointed and overly cynical death. [...] He's [Obama] the liberal who this week, while simultaneously reaching out to evangelical voters, issued an unequivocal statement of opposition against any constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. That's textbook Obama.
Obama's the "we" guy, as in "inclusive".
In the simplest terms possible, choosing to support Senator Obama has never been about issues, but rather, it's always been about, 1) electing a thoughtful, smart president we can reference with pride -- a president who won't flatly embarrass us every damn day, and 2) electing a president who can inspire and negotiate the necessary support he'll need to roll back the darkness of the Bush years. [...]
Despite how we feel about individual issues like FISA or NAFTA, I think most of us with liberal or progressive tendencies can agree that we have a candidate here who is going to succeed on these challenges, while potentially forming a long-range coalition of support that could one day result in a purely progressive netroots candidate. [...]
Senator Obama will help to vindicate our long-suffering, dark ride generation and, thusly, our time in American history [...] If we can keep our attention focused on the big ideas that attracted us to the senator in the first place, he will make us proud.
Bob Cesca's regular daily really awesome blog can be found here. Now, back to the snark.
The realization almost always prompts a double take, a moment of inspection, maybe even a debate: Is baby-faced Barack Obama, the symbol of a younger political generation, actually aging in front of us?
By his own admission this week, “the gray is coming quick,” so that it now dusts his head like snowflakes. The laugh lines cut a little deeper, and the crow's-feet around his eyes appear slightly more pronounced.
(snip)
“By the time I’m sworn in, I will look the part,” Obama acknowledged to donors Wednesday in Colorado Springs, Colo., one month before his 47th birthday.
He confirmed what has been whispered for months among political insiders and raised in reader e-mails to journalists who cover him closely: Similar to President Bush and former President Bill Clinton, who came into office with far less gray hair and wrinkles than when they prepared to exit, Obama is already developing the presidential patina, a weathered look that builds after months of sleepless nights and stress.
Though Mr. Obama did not change his position in response to supporters’ objections, the mere fact of his response, as well as the choice to put it on his own site, is a remarkable illustration of the power of online organizing.
“This was not an easy call for me,” Mr. Obama said in a statement posted to the diary of Joe Rospars, a top Internet adviser to the campaign. “I know that the FISA bill that passed the House is far from perfect.”
But he made his case for the bill:
But I also believe that the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court. In a dangerous world, government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people. But in a free society, that authority cannot be unlimited. As I’ve said many times, an independent monitor must watch the watchers to prevent abuses and to protect the civil liberties of the American people. This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibility.
Yeah, but about that Constitution...
A major point of the article was to question whether organized efforts can actually affect federal bureaucracy. The response to Obama's response:
Ari Melber a correspondent for The Nation who has been following both the FISA bill and Web organization throughout the campaign. “While the campaign was surprisingly late to address people organizing through his own tools, via his own Web site, it’s a respectful honest and direct response.”
Mr. Melber, who is a member of the “Senator Obama Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity – Get FISA Right” group on my.barackobama.com, also noted that Mr. Obama’s explanation is “more specific” than some of Mr. Obama’s previous statements to the press on the matter, asserting that hyper-informed, focused activists might be better at pulling the nitty-gritty from the candidates than reporters.
Oh, the full dialogue from the blogpost below according to WaPo's Paul Kane (and other reporters in the gallery) who heard the full shouting match between Sen. Robert C. Byrd and Sen. Jim Bunning, shouting from their seats across that aisle at each other:
Bunning: "Regular order!"
Byrd: "Who said that?"
Bunning: "I did."
Byrd: "Who are you?"
Bunning: "I'm a senator."
Byrd: "You're a great baseball man."
Bunning: "I'm a senator; I have the same rights as you."
Byrd: "Yeah, man, you're a senator." [Ends by laughing hysterically at Bunning.]
In the latest CNN survey of four recent national polls, Barack Obama holds a 6 point lead over John McCain, 48 percent to 42 percent. That represents a slight increase for the Illinois senator over the last week: in a CNN Poll of polls released last Friday, Obama topped the Arizona senator by 5 points.
Good christo on a crutcho, jiminy piddle puff**!!! Is this man going to have to reject or embrace every damn thing that every African American person does for the next 8 years? What in the world does Barack Obama have to do with some goofy chick who thought she was striking a blow for her race by not singing what she was asked to. I mean, c'mon people, it was dumb, but not worthy of asking a freaking Presidential candidate about!!!!! /vapors
DENVER -- Barack Obama said there's only one national anthem, and a Broomfield jazz performer should have sung it when she was asked to, instead of another song sometimes called the black national anthem.
Rene Marie set off a wave of criticism throughout the state and the country when she sang the words to "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" instead of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the mayor's State of the City speech this week.
Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told the Rocky Mountain News on Thursday that "Lift Ev'ry Voice" is a beautiful song but Marie should have stuck with the national anthem.
Here's a segment from Dan Abrams' show, Verdict. There are a couple of segments to watch for. One is Tucker Carlson saying this, in regard to the McTemper story I posted previously:
"You've got to be kidding!" he laughed. "Knock it off! That's the dumbest thing I've heard in so long! ... I hope he grabbed that Sandinista official by the face and ground it into the desk. They were monsters! ... I think America wants a president with some backbone!"
Nice killer instinct, Tuck. Maybe McTemper should put you on the ticket.
The other features a clip from The Daily Show about the C-Word story that our own Cliff Schecter broke, including a prominent plug for Cliff's book, The Real McCain.
And there's a special bonus about the spending habits of the ultra-extravagant Cindy McMealTicket, the epitome of the word "elitist".
[Huffington Post editor Roy ] Sekoff agreed, saying, "The hypocrisy ... comes when Karl Rove tries to paint Barack Obama as a country club elitist. ... Cindy McCain is the real deal. ... This is not going to go over well with the American people."
A month into the search, as one of two remaining members of the search team, Kennedy is emerging as an active participant, slipping largely unnoticed around Capitol Hill for private meetings and exercising the kind of discretion that made her an appealing choice in the first place. Despite initial skepticism in some quarters that her appointment was window dressing, associates and at least one member of Congress who met with Kennedy describe her as an engaged and savvy operative.
Oh, and when they worked at the Kennedy house, Jackie O served them cookies.
“One of the great assets and gifts that Caroline brings to the process is confidentiality and discretion,” said Paul G. Kirk Jr., board chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a former Democratic National Committee chairman. “She wouldn’t be sharing what she did with anyone other than her team and her candidate.” [...]
Rep. Joe Baca, a California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said that when he met with the search team two weeks ago, he found Kennedy doing more of the talking than [Eric Holder, the other half of the search team]. With a soft voice and an unassuming demeanor, Kennedy peppered Baca with questions, asking for opinions on specific candidates and pulling ideas from him about who Obama should choose.
“I felt connected with her,” Baca said. “You felt like you wanted to have a conversation with her.”
Paul Begala: He's going to withdraw the combat troops. I'd tell him to never engage in hypotheticals. The journalists were trying. He avoided the "gotchas", and contrasted with McCain. He stuck to his policy.
Suzanne Malveaux: How's this different from Bush?
Bill Richardson: He's been consistent, out in 16 months. Safely and securely as possible. When you go to Iraq, you listen to commanders. The guy has been entirely consistent, and I don't know why there's such a fuss. Refinement means he'll get the facts, but his basic 16 month position is the same.
Suzanne: What are refinements? Slowing the pace of withdrawal? That seems that you're not gonna withdraw at the pace he said.
Bill: There are combat and non-combat troops. Combat troops out in 16 months, but there are logistical issues that he can pick up, but the basic policy is unchanged. Maybe a peacekeeping force, dialog with Iran, regional proposals, diplomatic issues.
Barack Obama is on MSNBC live right now saying that he sticks by his policy of withdrawing troops from Iraq, but would refine his position depending on the current situation. In other words, he's not rigid, but intends to end the war, including meeting with the Joint Chiefs, and telling them he wants to end the war.
There is no contradiction of wanting to bring home 1-2 brigades per month and what he is saying now, he says.
He would discuss the move with commanders, Iraqi officials, and other leaders in the region.
He also says his website does not contradict what he's saying now, bring the war to a close.
He'd consider other info on the ground. He wouldn't refine the 16 month timetable, but how to structure training for Iraqi military and police, what kind of troop presence would we need to do that, as well as a counterterrorism strike force. That would be determined by facts on the ground, he says.
He's puzzled. The McCain camp primed the pump with the press to suggest he was changing his policy, when that's not the case. "I've given no indication" of that. McCain will have a harder time explaining how he'd perpetuate a presence in Iraq for up to 20 years. "I've been saying, if you follow my plan, to begin withdrawing troops and have combat troops out within 2 years (16 mos.), we'd have had our troops there for 7 years. I won't have trouble explaining MY plan, McCain will."
I've always said that we have a strategic interest in Iraq, making sure it doesn't collapse. But that interest isn't served by having a permanent occupation, but by working with their leadership... political agreement, and that the other regional powers are brought in for stabilization. That can't happen with more war.
As president, I set the mission. One of the flaws now is for Bush to say Petraeus tells him what to do. He should tell them what their mission is. The mission I will set for our generals is to bring this war to a close. This has not changed.
If a general says we can't move responsibly, and I've said this before, always said, that I would always reserve the right to do what's best for our national interests. If we had to slow the pace in certain months, of course we'd take that into account. If I didn't take facts on the ground into account, I'd be a poor commander in chief.
I will bring our troops out at the pace I said, and that will take 16 months. That's what I intend to do.
First we couldn't pull out because there was too much violence. Now that the violence subsided, we can't pull out because things have improved. Catch 22. My concern is also with what's happening in Afghanistan. Now Bush is saying add more troops, but from where, if our troops are in Iraq?
There is no indication that the pace of gradual withdrawal, that you'd lose some of the gains we have in Iraq.
Thank you.
Laffy Note: Good for him for being on top of this. Rapid response, being assertive, that's the way to avoid the same old election season spin.
A new Research 2000 poll found that if Connecticut voters could vote again in the 2006 U.S. Senate race they would have elected Ned Lamont (D) over Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I), 51% to 36%, with Alan Schlesinger (R) getting 7%.
Too little too late, but still somehow heart-warming.
I mean, really folks. Last cycle they ran similar ads up here against Chocola and none of my fellow Hoosier yahoos were that stupid. I remember one of the talking heads on MSNBC saying not too long ago that she had heard better W impersonations in the newsroom.
A Philadelphia news radio station has rejected a Democratic ad that features an impersonator of President Bush thanking GOP congressional candidates for supporting the “Big Oil” agenda.
Philadelphia KYW-AM Vice President and General Manager David Yadgaroff said his station decided not to run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) ad because it was worried its listeners would be misled.
“As an all-news station, we were concerned that our listeners would have been misled by usage of an impersonator in the creative delivery,” Yadgaroff said in an e-mail sent to The Hill.
Barack Obama, noting he was in the midst of Vikings fans while speaking in Fargo this afternoon, suggested that they should instead root for the Chicago Bears.
"You guys need to be re-educated," said the Illinois senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. "Go Bears!"
About that notion of cutting the convention short, or should I call it, the Republicans trying to rain on Obama's parade? There is an upside to the intrusion of J Sid on the Democrats' big day -- Happy 72nd V.P. Pickday, John Sidney McNewWrinkle:
With all of the talk about John McCain unveiling his running mate immediately after the Democratic National Convention to alleviate Barack Obama’s bounce, there could be a wrinkle in McCain’s potential plans: his birthday.
McCain turns 72 years old on August 29, the day after the Democrats’ convention. So while the Arizona senator could swipe some media attention from Obama by announcing his vice presidential choice during the time between the conventions, the senator’s birthday and age will be a prominent media story. And it will be contrasted even further with the age of his running mate.
There's always a silver lining.
Obama's birthday is August 4th, in case you were wondering. Lots of birthday stories in August (mine's the 17th, but I have a feeling it won't affect the campaigns), but the McCain one is my favorite. I can't wait to see the side-by-side images of the two birthday boys.
Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President [sic] Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that ran counter to American policy and undercut Iraq’s central government, a Congressional committee has concluded. The conclusions were based on e-mail messages and other documents that the committee released Wednesday... State Department officials did nothing to discourage the deal and in some cases appeared to welcome it, the documents show. The company, Hunt Oil of Dallas, signed the deal with Kurdistan’s semi-autonomous government last September.
The perfect storm for oil prices showed no signs of dissipating Thursday, as supply worries combined with dollar weakness pushed crude to a new record of $145.
I didn't think anything could crack me up this early in the day, but check this out:
Saying he's concerned Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) "may use personal smears" in their Senate campaign, challenger Bob Kelleher (R) "laid out his life's faults" yesterday, the Missoulian reports.
What are these "faults"?
Kelleher noted that he dropped out of a monastery "because he couldn't handle the vow of chastity."
Fault = penchant for horniness?Oh my, was that indelicate? Excusez-moi, but isn't being horny a Republican disqualification? What about being divorced three times and being an absentee father?
He also noted he has since been married and divorced three times and has seven children "and regrets the impact his absence had on their lives."
What about throwing caution to the wind and sowing one's wild oats? Just a random guess, but I'm thinkin' ol' Bob's not running as a Family Values candidate.
Said Kelleher: "I wanted to have fun."
That's what Bill Clinton said.
Not surprisingly, CQ rates the race Safe Democrat.
Hmmm, Safe Democrat v. unsafe pre-emptive Republican confessions. I'm calling this one for Baucus.
A new Time poll of Catholic voters that reveals that Sen. Barack Obama has pulled even with Sen. John McCain among that constituency -- Obama now polls 44% to McCain's 45%.
The poll "confirmed that a majority of Catholics (59%) can be broadly defined as pro-life (opposing abortion except to protect a woman's life or health or in cases of rape or incest). But these pro-life Catholics are actually split into two voting camps: conservative Catholics who consider abortion to be a determining factor, and Catholics who feel that social issues can be trumped in times of economic and national insecurity."
According to the Los Angeles Times, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee "are toying with a convention scheduling change that has been broached before in theory but never seriously considered: cutting the party's conclave in Denver short by one day to give Obama an extra day of post-nomination bounce in the crowded August calendar."
"Adding to the Democrats' calculation is the growing speculation that McCain will announce his running mate in the brief intermission between the two conventions -- a good way to seize the spotlight from the just-nominated Democrat."
Oooookay. Wow, these guys are nutsy kookoo. Makes you wonder where they get their cash. I popped by the site to see what's what, and it's pretty much a lame link site. The majority of the links go to the usual anti-Obama suspects. The pic is from the website. Always good to start out your campaign with a lie.
From the black conservatives who brought you radio ads two years ago claiming that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican come the new summer blockbusters: ads calling Sen. Barack Obama a racist and an elitist.
King, of course, was an independent, not a Republican -- but that didn't stop the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) from airing their claim on urban radio. Now spots entitled "Arrogant Obama" and "Bitter Obama" are coming to radio stations serving black America, where more than 90 percent of voters supported Obama in Democratic primaries. The NBRA ads will begin airing July 7 in battleground states, according to the group's chair.
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Here's a sample of what you might hear on your radio: "Bitter is what Obama called blacks and whites who love God. Racist is what Obama called his white grandmother who raised him and made sacrifices so Obama could get a good education and become a millionaire," says the narrator one of the spots.
"Obama's mentor for 20-years was Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who said innocent Americans deserved to die on September 11th," says the voiceover in another.
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The NBRA is led by Frances Rice of Sarasota, Fla., a former Army officer and avowed conservative. Her tactics have led other black Republicans to quit the organization. Christopher Arps, a former spokesman, left the group after disagreeing with Rice about strategy.
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