Crossing over: Hillary supporters join Obama team

By GottaLaff

Sunday's New York Times has an encouraging story about Hillary's former staff members' migration to the Obama campaign. For all the talk of rancor and bitterness on the Television Machine, you'd think they all hate each other, wouldn't you? Wrong. They realize they're all fighting for the same thing.

Here are a few excerpts:

• “The mementos stay at home,” said Mr. Baker, now the Ohio communications director for Mr. Obama. “I am on board with Senator Obama’s campaign, and I am proud to be working here.”
• “It’s never easy to lose, especially when you poured so much of your time and effort into a campaign like that,” Mr. Baker said, speaking from his office in the Obama campaign’s state headquarters in Columbus, a big bullpen of a room in a converted basement gymnasium. “But once we had a nominee, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to go work for Barack Obama, because the issues at stake in this election are too big.”
• “I don’t feel disloyalty to Hillary by doing this,” [Patti Solis Doyle] said in a telephone interview. “The best way to fight for what Hillary wants and what I want for my children is to work tirelessly for Barack Obama.”
• “Especially if you’re young, this is your first presidential, and you’re reading stories about supposed lists and the godfather rigmarole about the price of disloyalty in this business, you’re going to wonder if that will affect you,” Mr. Reines said. “And my answer is always, ‘Of course it’s O.K. to work for him. It’s more than O.K. She wants him to win and wants everyone to help.’ ”
• Jonathan Swain, who was Mrs. Clinton’s communications director in Indiana and is now doing the same job for the Obama campaign, said that “especially during the primary here, it was about making the case for her as a candidate. It was never, in my mind, about being against Barack Obama.”
• Sarah Hurwitz, Mrs. Clinton’s chief speechwriter, said she had received an e-mail message from Mr. Obama’s head speechwriter two hours after Mrs. Clinton’s concession, complimenting her on a good speech and adding, “I’m going to call you.” “It was clear he wanted to get the ball rolling as soon as possible, but he also knew he should give me a few days,” she said. When he called her three days later, it was to ask if she would consider joining his writing shop. She is now a senior speechwriter for the Obama campaign. “Senator Obama called me himself just to welcome me,” she said.
• “It’s a gradual process,” she said. “We’re all Democrats at heart.”

Take that, talking heads.

ABC News: Are Dems Pro-Life?

By GottaLaff

Did they not watch CSPAN today? Apparently not:

Are Democrats Now Pro-Life? As Convention Draws Near, New Talk of a Pro-Life Presence

That's some headline, for suresies! Of course Democrats are "pro-life". They're sure not pro-death. And they continue to be pro-choice.

An excerpt from the Democratic platform:

Abortion (called "Choice")

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

Seems clear enough to me.

Gallup Daily: Obama 47%, McCain 42%

Another 5 point lead. I'm sensing a pattern here.

These results are based on a three-day rolling average of interviews conducted Aug. 6-8, with Gallup polling roughly 900 registered voters nationwide each night. The numbers for each of these nights have been similar, suggesting preferences are stable.

Generally speaking, the structure of the race remains as it has been since early June, with Obama holding a modest advantage over McCain. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

So McCain's negative attacks and huge press coverage of them got the campaign..... nothing? Well then, this must be fantastic news for the Republicans!!!

No paternity test for Edwards' lover

By GottaLaff

News is news, whether we like the story or not. The baby was born February 27, 2008:

The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter.

Rielle Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, says his client is a private individual who wishes to maintain the privacy of herself and her daughter.

In a statement, Gordon says that Hunter is ruling out any kind of testing that could establish who the daughter's father is.

"Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future," he said.

[...] . Edwards said he will take a paternity test to prove he is not the father.

The decision by Hunter means that the issue of who the father will remain an open question.

I'm still shaking my head over this whole thing. What a waste.

Health care compromise makes Hillary and Obama supporters happy

By GottaLaff

I told ya so! I told ya the Democratic Platform meeting was all touchy-feely swell!

Democrats shaped a set of principles Saturday that commits the party to guaranteed health care for all, heading off a potentially divisive debate and edging the party closer to the position of Barack Obama's defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Sing it with me: Kumbaya:

The party's platform committee moved smoothly through a range of issues for the fall campaign and approved a document that will go to the Democratic convention in Denver later this month for adoption.

There was little dissent — or room for it — in the day's meeting and a compromise on health policy took one flash-point off the table.

Obama, soon to be the Democratic nominee, has stopped short of proposing to mandate health coverage for all. He aims to achieve something close to universal coverage by making insurance more affordable and helping struggling families pay for it.

Advisers to Obama and Clinton both told the party's platform meeting they were happy with the compromise, adopted without opposition or without explanation as to how health care would be guaranteed.

In return for the guarantee, activists dropped a tougher platform amendment seeking a government-run, single-payer system and another amendment explicitly holding out Clinton's plan as the one to follow.

There now. That wasn't so hard, was it?

Breaking!!! McCain Opens Indiana Campaign Office

His first. If you want some fun, go read this.

Denying reality: Wing-nuts claim Obama IN offices don't exist

David Gregory: Edwards affair "creates another shadow over Barack Obama"

By GottaLaff

Josh Marshall:

David Gregory speculates that the Edwards' affair may be bad news for Obama. I have a very hard time seeing how Edwards' affair reflects on Obama. What I do know is that this is another of those cases where there is a tacit but uniform agreement among pretty much all reporters and close campaign watchers not to publicly state the obvious: that this is a perilous development for John McCain. Just as Bill Clinton's public undressing in the Lewinsky scandal led indirectly to the exposure of several high-profile Republican affairs, Edwards' revelation will inevitably put pressure on the press in general to scrutinize John McCain under something more searching than the JFK rules they've applied to date.

This is what we've been saying, too. It opens the door for reporters to ask more questions of McAdulterer, if they decide to shake off all that POW adulation.

Then again, in J Sid's case (per Rachel Maddow's fill-in radio host David Bender), the press thinks it's all hunky-dory, because he married his mistress. That cleanses him somehow. Nancy Reagan and I would disagree.

John, John, John...

By GottaLaff

Via Huffington Post:

John Edwards made a false assertion about the nature of his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter during an interview with ABC on Friday night.

Asked by correspondent Bob Woodruff to detail the beginnings of his romantic relationship, he said that it started after Hunter was hired to direct a series of documentary films for his One America Committee.

WOODRUFF: When you hired Ms. Hunter, that was back in 2006, the committee hired in July 2006, paid her $114,000 to make films for you... Uh was the affair going on when you hired her?

EDWARDS: No. No. And again, I always said this to you, I don't think I'm going to go through the details of this, I already did it with Elizabeth-- uh, she was hired to come in and produce films and that's the reason she was hired.

WOODRUFF: But this had nothing to do with the fact that you were having an affair with her?

EDWARDS: Same answer. Same answer -- no I did not.

WOODRUFF: So you hired her before it even started?

EDWARDS: That is correct.

A review of political action committee payments, contemporaneous reporting, and emails obtained by the Huffington Post reveal this statement to be false.

Edwards and Hunter initially met each other sometime during the winter of 2006 (either late December 2005 or early January) in a hotel restaurant in midtown Manhattan. It would be another seven months before Edwards would first pay her for the documentary work. As Woodruff rightfully noted, the initial check cut to Hunter's film company was written on July 5, 2006, for the cost of $12,500.

What happened in between that winter meeting and the start of filming? Emails sent by Hunter suggest that her romance with Edwards was in full bloom that spring. In early April, Hunter wrote about a trip she had taken to North Carolina to see the man whom she affectionately referred to as "my love lips."

A week later she wrote another email in which she described the mental anguish of "being in love with a (still somewhat dysfunctional) married man."

Indeed, the circumstances surrounding Hunter's professional life resoundingly suggest that Edwards hired her as a front to continue their relationship. For starters, she had virtually no film experience prior to being asked by the former Senator to make documentaries. Moreover, Hunter's film company, Midline Groove Productions, was started in the spring of 2006 - months after she and Edwards first met -- suggesting that it was created for the sole purpose of working with him.

There's a little more. Sigh. Oh, and Edwards is furious about the way ABC handled this:

Broadcasting and Cable is reporting that Edwards is furious with ABC for how they handled the interview:

Edwards had hoped to control the news cycle by making his admission late on a Friday night when the country was watching the Olympics and the long weekend yawned ahead.

According to multiple sources, Edwards was apoplectic that ABC News began promoting the story early on Friday, giving the rest of the media a chance to play catch-up and site ABC News' report. (Representatives for Edwards did not return a call or e-mail for comment.)

Edwards subsequently made solicitous calls to multiple reporters including CBS News' Bob Schieffer, who also talked to a distraught Elizabeth Edwards.

Hasn't he figured out at this point, that he can't control the media? And more to the point, what did he expect?

2 US aircraft carriers headed for Gulf

By GottaLaff

This report is from Thursday. Why have we not heard about this? Why did I ask that?

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times.

Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region.

The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy."

While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan. [...]

Meanwhile, the Arabic news agency Moheet reported at the end of July that an unnamed American destroyer, accompanied by two Israeli naval vessels traveled through the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean. A week earlier, a US nuclear submarine accompanied by a destroyer and a supply ship moved into the Mediterranean, according to Moheet. [...]

The ship movements coincide with the latest downturn in relations between Washington and Teheran. [...]

Kuwait, like other Arab countries in the Gulf, fears it will be caught in the middle should the US decide to launch an air strike against Iran if negotiations fail. The Kuwaitis are finalizing details of their security, humanitarian and vital services, the newspaper reported.

October surprise? Have a good day!

Big-Money Corporate Squeeze: Employee Pressured to Donate to Mitt Romeny

By GottaLaff

Poor Twitt Romney. He needed more mon'-mon':

A former executive who says his boss pressured him to contribute to Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has filed an employment-bias complaint that offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain of big-money corporate fund raising.

Richard Pimentel, a former executive of Huron Consulting Group Inc., contends he lost his job as a financial-management consultant partly in retaliation for refusing the chief executive's repeated calls to contribute to the former Massachusetts governor's bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

This comes to us, by the way, via the Wall Street Journal, of all things. But let's not stop here! There's more! They have proof:

The company denies that charge. But officials confirm the authenticity of emails showing that the CEO of the Chicago-based corporate consulting firm, Gary E. Holdren, repeatedly linked his requests for donations to Huron's business prospects. The emails were provided to The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Pimentel.

But wait, gang! There's even more! Excerpts from the emails!

"This is not about me trying to force a political candidate on you and trying to see how you vote," Mr. Holdren wrote in one email, dated Jan. 27, 2008, to Huron managing directors, the firm's senior executives. "This is just business and the way business works."

In another email, dated Sept. 21, 2007, Mr. Holdren wrote, "I wanted to thank all of you who contributed to Mitt Romney. You can't realize how much leverage this gives Huron going forward to ask various people for business."

Other emails from Mr. Holdren refer to conversations with Mr. Romney, deals Huron supposedly won from Romney supporters at other firms and promises to reward Huron executives with "business for your contributions."

Whoopsie Daisy, there, Bucko. That's pretty damning. Go here for the rest.

FBI spied on N.Y. Times, Washington Post reporters

By GottaLaff

Yeah, yeah, we spied on you. Whatevs. Sorry. So what's for lunch?

That's the message from FBI Director Robert Mueller to the executive editors of the New York Times and the Washington Post, after an inspector general discovered that the agency had seized telephone records from four US reporters without a grand jury.

Mueller called Times' editor Bill Keller and Post chief Len Downie Friday, "expressing regret" that agents had not followed "proper procedures. The "lapse" occurred nearly four years ago and involved four staff members of the papers.

"The FBI discontinued use of the emergency letters after privacy advocates and internal watchdogs cited hundreds of cases in which agents intentionally, or out of sloppiness, did not follow up their 'exigent' requests with paperwork that linked the submission to a genuine matter of national security," Washington Post reporter Carrie Johnson wrote in an article Saturday.

Um, yeah. It's kind of a no-no.

The records were obtained through what is called an exigent circumstances letter, a demand made by the agency in a practice that skirts civil liberties protections that has flourished in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.

Neither Mueller nor his agency offered any explanations regarding the nature of the subject of the investigation that involved spying on American reporters based overseas. Writing in the Post today, Johnson noted that the reporters were writing about Islamic terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Why should he have to explain? He's just the Big Boss of the FBI, responsible for spying on innocent citizens because he can.

"FBI agents involved in the undisclosed national security probe stated at the time of the request that they would follow up with subpoenas from a U.S. attorney, but 'no subpoena was ever issued for your telephone toll records,' according to a letter that Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. received yesterday from FBI General Counsel Valerie Caprone," she added.

Such records listed the phone numbers the reporters called and received, but not the actual conversation, similar to the warrantless wiretapping program the Bush Administration has employed in tracking calls American citizens have placed to overseas destinations.

I can't tell you how much safer I feel knowing our government is keeping a close eye on me things.

RNC aims at Obama's elite education

Jeebus, will the media ever see that there is so much here to mock?

Even as Barack Obama takes eight days off from the campaign trail to vacation in Hawaii, where he lived for much of his youth, the Republican National Committee is again attempting to paint the Democrat as an out-of-touch elitist, this time in a mock “Barack Obama’s Hawaii Travel Guide” tweaking the Democrat for having attended an elite prep school there.

“Barack Obama’s Hawaii Travel Guide,” e-mailed to reporters on Friday, lists four "destinations," among them the beach locals claim is the one where Obama was photographed in his swim trunks in a shot that ran in People magazine early last year, and "Punahou School, a coeducational college preparatory day school" that Obama attended "from 1971 to 1979. The school campus covers 76 acres at the edge of the Manoa Valley."

Obama, raised by a singe mother, entered the prestigious school at age ten on a scholarship. “No one means to demean the academic successes of Barack Obama or the schools he attended,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “The RNC and this campaign have sought to simply point out that on his Hawaii travels, there are certain landmarks reporters will likely see and this was a way to put those on the map.”

Obama's elite schooling may prove a risky topic for McCain, who attended St. Stephen’s, an exclusive school in Alexandria, Va., and then Episcopal High, a private boarding school in the same city, in the 1950s. The son and grandson of Navy admirals, he ended up at the Naval Academy, where, as he often reminds voters, he finished near the bottom of his graduating class.

So, not only did McCain attend more elitist expensive schools than Obama, even all that money couldn't make him smart. All I'm seeing is jealousy.

Obama: Star of his own movie

By GottaLaff

I hadn't seen anything like this, so I thought I'd pass it on:

His 'celebrity' comes from an emotional identity with voters, not from 'rock star' hysteria.

But for Obama and for Bobby [Kennedy], the characterization is insulting and imprecise. It is insulting because it suggests that their devotees' effusions are just a visceral reaction -- the political equivalent of puppy love. And it is imprecise because Obama is -- and Bobby was -- more movie star than rock star, which is an analogy with a difference. Rock stars, with some glaring exceptions, typically whip up the crowd; the thrill tends to be short-lived. Movie stars, by contrast, tend to create a long-standing emotional identification with their audience.

I don't like either analogy, but I understand Neal Gabler's point.

All campaigns are movies now, consisting of competing narratives with competing stars. Part of Obama's appeal, as it was for the Kennedys, is that he has what all rising stars have. He has youth. He has good looks. He has charisma. He has an ability to spellbind. He has had a rapid ascent that makes him new and unfamiliar.

He has brains. He has reasoning. He has a sound, rational mind. He as poise. And if anyone would pay attention, he wouldn't be all that unfamiliar.

But, above all, Obama has something else that all great stars have -- he embodies a theme. Every great star is a walking idea.

I bet we can come up with a few J Sid themes, couldn't we?

They [mega movie stars] incorporated ideas that mattered to us, that resonated with us.

Obama is a star in this sense too. As he reiterates endlessly, Obama brings idealism at a time when many Americans are despairing of making any headway against the problems the nation faces. Drawing on his own personal story of disadvantage that led to Columbia University, Harvard Law School and now to the Democratic nomination, Obama in his every gesture and utterance suggests that "Yes We Can." This idealism isn't inspiring adulation because Obama is already a star. Obama is a star precisely because he is inspiring. He is the anti-Bush, and what he's selling is hope.

There. That was the part with which I agreed. America needs him. We're certainly not lacking for celebrities, so it doesn't follow that we'd need to create one more. Obama's "stardom" grew from the country's hunger for what can be, and the need to sever what has been...

...and if there ever was a has-been, it's Bush.

Critics, not least of all John McCain, have complained that this is merely windy rhetoric [...] Eventually, they say, Obama will come back to Earth the way rock stars do when the concert ends. But this misses the point of what Obama has tapped into... Yes, politicians can declaim themes, and Obama is doing that. Yet Obama is not just declaiming his theme the way most politicians have. He has lived it, which is why it has been so effective.

Not all "experience" is created equal. Obama's differs from J Sid's.

There were many voters, he realized then, who would opt for the "psychic security of [Richard] Nixon," the staid, reliable politics of trepidation rather than "be brave enough to enlist the romantic dream" of America that Kennedy promised. You never quite know where a movie star might take you.

Obama faces that obstacle too. It is the downside of being a star. What this election may finally come down to is a choice between politics and movie stardom, between the safety of what we think we know and the expansiveness of what we dream, or, in more prosaic terms, between good old John Wayne and the less predictable but more exciting Will Smith. In any case, rock stars need not apply.

Interesting take, but I don't go along with all of it. What do you think?

Why CSPAN made me cry

By GottaLaff

I flipped on CSPAN just as the Democratic Platform Committee meeting was getting started. I watched as Democrat after Democrat got up to amend amended amendments. I listened as Deval Patrick charismatically oversaw the proceedings. I breathed in the policies and inclusiveness that I thought were lost forever.

After 7+ years of the Bush regime, I'd forgotten what it could be like. I'd forgotten what listening was like. I'd forgotten that adequate care for seniors, the sick, and the needy could be possible again. I'd suppressed the feelings of optimism and hope, because every time I allowed a little to seep through my horror at the endless Bush crimes, those feelings dissipated like snowflakes on a warm car.

For the first time in a long time, I began to believe that our government could do more good than harm. I witnessed people accept the ideas of those with whom they didn't completely agree. I felt my body relax as a Hillary supporter made overtures of unity to Obama supporters.

The rotting corpse of the Bush administration will be replaced. If anyone out there really believes that McCain wouldn't perpetuate that stench, think again. If any Hillary voters truly equate a vote for McCain with a vote for Clinton, they're sadly mistaken.

After observing today's meeting, I teared up at the memory of what once was, and what could be. Despite the fact that no candidate could encompass all our ideals, that they're all flawed (Edwards...), including Obama, it is reassuring to realize that the window has finally opened widely enough to allow some fresh air in. And that made me cry.

Poll of polls: Obama retains an edge

If he's "retaining an edge" for weeks on end, wouldn't that turn into a "solid lead"? Just asking.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Call it a numbers game. With 87 days to go until the presidential election, our latest CNN Poll of polls shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by five points, 46 percent to 41 percent, with thirteen percent of Americans undecided.

The Poll of polls released Wednesday found an indentical result.

The CNN Poll of Polls is an average of the latest national polls. Our newest edition consists of three surveys, a CBS poll taken from July 31 to August 5, an AP-IPSOS survey conducted from July 31 to August 4, and a Gallup tracking poll taken from August 5 to August 7. Because it’s an average of a number of surveys, our Poll of polls does not have a sampling error.

Georgia declares state of war with Russia

Another war, more innocent people dying.

TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia's parliament Saturday approved a request by President Mikhail Saakashvili's to impose a "state of war," as the conflict between Georgia and Russia escalated, Georgian officials said.

Saakashvili accused Russia of launching an unprovoked full-scale military attack against his country, including targeting civilian homes, while Russian officials insist their troops were protecting people from Georgia's attacks on South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian region that borders Russia.

Separatist-backed South Ossetian sources reported that about 1,600 people have died and 90 have been wounded in provincial capital Tskhinvali since Russian forces entered the territory Thursday.

Russia's Interfax news agency said the death toll was at least 2,000 killed in the capital of South Ossetia and claimed the city has been destroyed.

New Obama Ad : 'Backyard'

Hypocrite much? Everyone is in favor of cheap energy up until you start building reactors in their backyards.....

N.C. man accused of threatening Barack Obama

They're going to have to beef up the Secret Service once he becomes pres.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Map, News) - Authorities say a North Carolina man will undergo a psychiatric evaluation after being jailed on a charge of threatening to kill Barack Obama.

Federal documents identified the man held Friday as 48-year-old Jerry M. Blanchard. A criminal complaint says witnesses overheard Blanchard twice last month threatening to kill the presumptive Democratic nominee.

A Secret Service agent wrote in court documents that Blanchard may have mental health issues related to recent head injuries. Blanchard denied making the threat, according to the documents.

Bernie Mac Has Died

Bizarre- just announced on CNN. Bio here, more here.

Lieberman ‘on McCain short-list’

Do it John, I'm daring you. If there is anyone who could mobilize the netroots more than they are now, it would be Lieberman. And those fundies you love to court? I'm sure they'd step right up to your campaign if you nominated a (wishy washy) pro-choice candidate. There are very few things I'd rather do than go on a 3 month Lieberman rant. Easy pickings.

Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee who has endorsed John McCain, is being vetted as a potential running mate for the Republican presidential hopeful, according to an adviser to Mr McCain’s ­campaign.

Mr Lieberman, who has campaigned for the Arizona senator, has long been ­considered an unconventional but plausible choice for Mr McCain.

Although Democrats have rejected Mr McCain’s image as a maverick politician, Mr Lieberman’s support for the presumptive Republican nominee has, much to the chagrin of his former ­colleagues, helped to boost Mr McCain’s reputation as a bi-partisan legislator with friends on both sides of the aisle. Mr Lieberman, a staunch supporter of Israel, could also help Mr McCain win over Jewish voters.

“[McCain] loves Lieberman. And he is on the [short-]list because Lieberman has never embarrassed anyone, never misspoken. The first rule is, don’t take someone who costs you votes,” said one McCain adviser.

But not everyone would be enthusiastic about Mr Lieberman being added to the ticket. While Mr Lieberman has staunchly defended Mr McCain’s support of the surge, the escalation of US troops in Iraq, and the lawmakers have teamed up on legislative proposals to ­combat global warming, the registered independent is aligned with Democrats on most other issues.

On adultery, Edwards cites McCain

The best thing to come out of this crap fest. While everyone is watching, John got it out there for all the looky loos to hear and wonder about.

The full version of Bob Woodruff's interview with John Edwards just aired on ABC, figuring Edwards alternately penitent, defensive, and dismissive of the tabloid reports that unearthed his affair.

He also, in explaining his view that his dalliance could remain private, cited Republican John McCain's reported affair at the end of his first marriage almost three decades ago.

"What I was thining was this was something that was personal to my own family," Edwards said, citing other public figures having survived extramarital affairs. He recalled, he said, having heard "John mccain talk about the mistakes that he’s made in his past with respect to his first marriage."

Greg has some more instances of people bringing up McCain's affair now here.

**Video is the only piece of the interview I can find so far.

Obama comments on Edwards affair

Classy and to the point.

Talking to the cameras on arrival in Hawaii, Obama comments on Edwards' admission:

Obama called it "a difficult and painful time" for the Edwards family.

"They need to work through the process of healing," he said. "My sense is that's going to be their top priority."

Obama said he understood the Edwardses wouldn't be attending the Democratic National Convention.

"I wish them all well," he said.

Fox's Own Shepherd Smith Slip- Rhymes With Runt

The unnecessary psychiatric evaluation of John Edwards

By GottaLaff

Why is Wolf Blitzer, hosting Larry King Live, asking a psychiatrist to analyze John Edwards? If anything, he should be asking her professional opinion of the ex-POW, inappropriately hostile, misogynistic, and, yes, adulterous John Sidney McCain.

John Edwards was suffering from over-confidence and reckless lust, not a mental disorder.

J Sid, on the other hand...

My Comment

By GottaLaff

Since Haloscan has eaten every comment I've posted in the past 5 minutes (it actually said that I needed to wait 180165 seconds before I posted again... huh?), I am posting my comments here.

Yes, Republicans get a pass on adultery, Democrats do not. Therefore, we should all re-register as Republicans, boink our brains out, and then vote for Democrats.

Yes, Elizabeth Edwards is amazing, classy, well-spoken, and a saint. We adore her.

Yes, we should switch from Haloscan to Blogger. So far, Clancy, Kirsten, Bucky, and I agree. Anyone else? I'd ask you to respond in Comments, but you probably can't.

Yes, the media should nail McCain. Fat chance.

Yes, Obama's vacation is anything but. He's holding a pricey fundraiser and a rally, and Clancy, you may be right about pulling out a V.P. announcement while he's at it.

And please, please let Lieberman be on the McCain ticket.

Elizabeth Edwards' statement

By GottaLaff

Elizabeth Edwards posted the following at Daily Kos:

Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.

John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.

The pain of the long journey since 2006 was about to be renewed.

John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. Admitting one’s mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame. The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue. I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.

I thank DKos for posting that, and hope it's okay that I copied and pasted it in its entirety.

Hillary says she wants Obama to win the White House

By GottaLaff

Hillary is going all pro-Obama. That's mighty Democratic of her:

Hillary Rodham Clinton told an exuberant crowd Friday she wants Barack Obama to win the White House, even though he dashed her own presidential dreams — and she wants her supporters to vote that way, too.

"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Sen. Obama than Sen. McCain," Clinton told her cheering audience in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. "Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign."

Though she has endorsed her former rival, the speech was Clinton's first appearance at a rally for Obama since the two appeared together in Unity, N.H., in June. [...]

She said Friday that "we may have started on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now." She said her long primary campaign against the Illinois senator showed her "his passion, his determination, his grace and his grit."

The crowd let her know they still held her in high regard. They cheered Obama's name and waved his campaign signs, but no mention of him won as loud a roar as Clinton's introduction.

Still, she kept her focus on making his case, mentioning key Democratic issues where Obama and McCain would differ — U.S. Supreme Court nominations and health care reform, for example.

That last part is crucial, to any of you out there who would facilitate a McCain win by either not voting, or by switching to McCain.

Shallow Thoughts: John Sidney McCain Cheated On His Wife Edition

By GottaLaff

Today's Shallow Thought:

Why is John Edwards the only adulterer worthy of discussion after what John Sidney McCain did to his first wife?

Cindy McMealTicket, February 22, 2008:

Cindy McCain did not hesitate as she stepped toward the microphone, taking her place in the history of political wives who stood by their men in the face of rumored or alleged marital infidelity.

"Well, obviously, I'm disappointed," she said, her voice low but clear and self-assured. "More importantly, my children and I not only trust my husband, but know that he would never do anything to not only disappoint our family, but disappoint the people of America. He's a man of great character."

John Edwards Statement

By GottaLaff

Here you go:

In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.

I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.

It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up - feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help.

I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.

Will Ferrell on Paris' McCain smackdown: "She nailed you"

By GottaLaff

I knew I liked Will Ferrell for more than his chiseled good looks and buff body:

Popular comedian Will Ferrell, who famously portrayed President Bush in 2000 on “Saturday Night Live,” called Paris Hilton’s response to Sen. John McCain a “smack-down” of the Republican presidential candidate. [...]

“I love this video,” a post attributed to Ferrell reads. “And I love that it's clearly a smackdown of McCain, but he tried to release some statement saying Paris agrees with his energy policy. That is incredibly feeble. You mentioned Paris in an ad which was cheap and then she nailed you.”

Unlike Lieberman-clone Dennis Miller, this former Saturday Night Live cast member hasn't lost his sanity. Well, not completely anyway, wink.

McCain's top foreign policy advisor lobbyist for Georgian government

By GottaLaff

Of course, this story won't make it to the airwaves, not with the John Edwards story out there. Not with any story out there, including what color undies Britney's not wearing on any given day:

The situation on the Russia-Georgia border today is a undoubtedly a complicated situation. But it would be difficult for John McCain to give a credible response since his top foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government.

J Sid's lobbyist ties have tentacles that reach into every nook and cranny of politics, of policy, and of every facet of this campaign. Yet, they continue to be largely ignored by the media.

Why John Edwards admitted his affair today

By GottaLaff

Fireworks illuminate the National Stadium during opening ceremonies. (Photo: Jonathan Newton/Post)

UPDATE:

Edwards said he told his wife, Elizabeth, and others in his family about the affair in 2006.

Edwards made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been diagnosed with an incurable form of the disease.

That whole "remission" statement isn't helping.

Suskind releasing transcript of 'forgery' source

By GottaLaff

Good:

Author Ron Suskind, whose new book charges that the Bush administration ordered the CIA to forge a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence linking Iraq to al Qaeda, will now be releasing a transcript of the interview with one of his primary sources to defend himself against charges of inaccuracy.

Suskind told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Friday, "I've never done this in 25 years as a journalist, but I'm posting transcripts of my conversations with Rob Richer."

Show them to be the liars they are, Ron. Go for it.

Breaking: John Edwards admits affair

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: JOHN AND ELIZABETH EDWARDS TO RELEASE A STATEMENT SHORTLY.

Just watching MSNBC. He admits to the affair, but not to fathering the child, based on the timing of the affair.

This was during his campaign, his wife's illness. I am so utterly disappointed, not to mention concerned about the news cycles.

UPDATE: He has paid no money to her, but Edwards says his friends may have without his knowledge. Huh?

David Shuster says releasing this on a slow day, the day the Olympics open, may not be looked upon kindly, a little underhanded. Plus, by putting the admission on hold, to further his own hopes and political career, will rile some Democrats.

He goes on to say how, Elizabeth Edwards aside, his staff members will have to apologize to the public for defending Edwards, and yet will feel betrayed by him and feel anger of their own.

UPDATE: Will someone tell the MSNBC Anchorette to stop trying to link this to Obama?

Still watching MSNBC. They have brought up Larry Craig, but not John McCain's affair. They will never do that. Mark my words. Why, I have no idea, but they won't.

Lieberman’s $100K "offer" to Senate Dems to keep his chairmanships

By GottaLaff

Come on, who does he think he's kidding? And don't make me even more nauseous than I already am at the mere mention of Lieberman's name:

Money can’t buy him love, but John McCain-backing Joe Lieberman is hoping a little cash will diffuse Democrats’ anger towards him — and help him keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Public Works Committee.

After forking over $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last year, the Connecticut Democrat-turned-independent has written a second $100,000 check to DSCC Chairman Chuck Schumer in recent days, according to a people familiar with the situation.

“Basically, he doesn’t want everybody to hate him,” one Lieberman-friendly Democrat said. “Plus he wants to keep his committee.”

Plus he's panicking. Plus he deserves every bit of loathing he gets. Plus he seems to forget that everybody sees him as the Republican he's proved he is. Plus he supports McCain openly and belittles Obama regularly. Plus, despite all of that, he laughably wants to retain his posts. Plus he wants to be re-elected. Plus he wants to disguise his hypocrisy. Plus he mistakenly thinks his sniveling donations can buy him back any shred of respect he ever had. Plus it's too late, everybody already does hate him. Plus he's an even bigger baby than I had imagined.

Lieberman caucuses — awkwardly — with Democrats at their weekly meetings but is on the outs with many in his longtime party for turning his back on Barack Obama, who refused to campaign against him in 2006 during his bitter reelection contest against Ned Lamont. More than a few have talked about stripping him of his committee post after November.

Plus they should damn well strip him of his posts, since he's already stripped himself of any moral standing.

Thus Lieberman’s schmear campaign. Lieberman’s Responsibility/Opportunity/Community PAC, has given the DSCC $30,000 since last year — in addition to doling out smaller donations to the New Mexico Democratic party and the reelection campaigns of Democratic centrists Max Baucus, Mary L. Landrieu and Mark Pryor.

Plus he can't buy his way out of the hole he's dug for himself.

Plus, in honor of Paddy, f*** him.

Obama hits McCain on DHL issues in Ohio ad

By GottaLaff

Keep hitting, Obama... harder and harder:

The Land of Lincolner’s campaign unveils a radio ad airing in Ohio criticizing his rival’s campaign for their involvement in a DHL buyout deal that could cost the state more than 8,000 jobs.

“It was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio.”

Listen to it here.

Obama camp holds 2:30 pm ET media call with manager Plouffe to discuss ad.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports McCain helped lobby for the deal in the Senate, and McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was part of the lobbying firm trying to push it through.

It's about jobs and lobbyists, and when it's about jobs and lobbyists, McCain loses.

New Video: John Sidney McCain, Celebrity THIS

By GottaLaff

This one was a Political Carnival group effort: Paddy came up with the concept, I took it from there. If you like it, please remember to "Share" it, to get it around the Blogosphere:

Cheney Will Attend Republican Convention

I'm guessing it won't be in prime time, more like between the speeches of the RNC chairs of Bum and Phuque Idaho at 130p Thursday.

Despite reports claiming that Vice President Dick Cheney would not attend the Republican convention in September, Cheney's office just confirmed to NBC News that he will in fact attend and will speak to the delegates.

McCain's New Press Policy

You know how McCain has been avoiding the press here lately? Well, now we know his new strategy-

So I thought I'd share a photo from inside the press cabin on the Straight Talk Express jet. We may not get to see much of Sen. John McCain in person -- even when he's sitting no more than 40 feet from us on the plane, he's still out of sight. However, his cardboard likeness is always watching over us when we're in the sky.

I can see why the reporters might be confused between the two.

New McCain Ad

No wonder the public is saturated with Obama all the time, that's all McCain can talk about. Compare this piece of drivel against Obama's new upbeat, positive ad. Just amazing.

UPDATE- Already being debunked-

But the ad makes some dubious claims:
1) When it says that Obama voted "to raise taxes on people making just $42,000," that was on a non-binding budget resolution vote that didn't actually raise or lower taxes. From Factcheck.org: "The resolution does not contain a specific provision to raise tax rates, but rather assumes that most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2011."

2) According to Obama's economic plan, he would raise taxes only on those making more than $250,000 per year, and would provide tax cuts to those making less than that. Factcheck.org: "Obama has stated repeatedly that his plan would increase taxes only for those making more than $250,000 per year."

Obama's New Energy Ad

I like it very much.

Script-

ANNOUNCER: The hands that built this nation can build a new economy.

The hands that harvest crops can also harvest the wind.

The hands that install roofs can also install solar panels.

The hands that build today's cars can build the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles.

Barack Obama. A new vision for our economy. Fast track alternative fuels. Create five million jobs developing home-grown energy technologies because America's future is in our hands.

OBAMA: I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message.

Obama Shreds Conservative Pundit

Yeah Chuck, he's not fighting hard enough?

I send an AMEN to what Ari Melber says-

In person, Obama is good at directly rebutting attacks while maintaining his composure and dignity -- as the video below shows. Overall, his campaign is raising more questions about McCain's character, if often a bit delicately. The most galling part of the criticism from "nearly a dozen Democratic strategists," however, is that while warning Obama not to repeat the mistakes of past Democratic campaigns, they repeat their own -- anonymously whining to the press about their fears of looking weak.. Obviously, a weak thing to do.

White Supremacists See Hope In Obama Win

This is just gibberish. Thankfully these neanderthals will be dying off soon.

(AP) They're not exactly rooting for Barack Obama, but prominent white supremacists anticipate a boost to their cause if he becomes the first black president. His election, they say, would trigger a backlash - whites rising up, a revolution of sorts - that they think is long overdue.

He'd be a "visual aid," says former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, in trying to bring others around to their view that whites have lost control of America. Obama's election, says another, would jar whites into action, writing letters, handing out pamphlets rather than sitting around complaining.

(snip)

The law center tracks the Nationalist Movement, the Klan and like-minded groups from its Montgomery, Ala., headquarters. The center's "Hatewatch" newsletter reported in June that some neo-Nazis, Klansmen and anti-Semites are saying an Obama presidency could prompt a race war, which many on the "radical right" believe whites would win.

Although not all white supremacists agree, "large numbers of these people really seem to think that an Obama election would benefit them hugely," Mark Potok, the center's intelligence director, said in an interview. He called that view "essentially a fantasy."

Friday Mish Mash

Is it wrong of me that the first time I saw that Rockefeller guy on teevee I thought he was wearing a Groucho eyeglass and nose disguise?

How lazy have we become? It was bad enough that you could buy cookie dough all cut up and put on a pan already, but pre-cut packaged apples and bananas? Are junior's teeth that bad? Or are you just that bloody lazy? Oy.

Bush making noise about pulling out troops? Yeah, he's noisy like clockwork.

IMHO the most "fair and balanced" opinion show on the cables is Dan Abram's Verdict. Disagree? Tell me why.

Need an arguement on the "experiance" thing with Obama vs McCain? Look here.

Georgia and Russia In Military Confrontation

DHL deal gone sour haunts McCain in Ohio

CNN: New Details: Man held for alleged Obama assassination threat
A man was being held in Florida on Thursday on charges he told classmates at a training seminar that he would kill Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama if he is elected, according to a law enforcement official and court documents

Lesbian avoids deportation to Jamaica

Banging walls and shouting obscenities... How a couple's rowdy sex sessions made their neighbours' lives hell

Washington Post: Democratic Aides Working on Plan To Keep the Peace At the Convention
With the clock running out on preparations for the Democratic convention, advisers to Sen. Barack Obama are scrambling to reach a compromise with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to appease her supporters and find roles for her and her husband.

McCain campaign returning $50,000

Owner of pit bull clones once manacled a Mormon for sex**

AP: Trash soils Bush pledge to protect islands
Two years ago with fanfare, President Bush declared a remote chain of Hawaiian islands the biggest, most environmentally protected area of ocean in the world. It hasn't worked out that way.Cleanup efforts have slowed, garbage is still piling up and Bush has cut his budget request by 80 percent.

**My nominee for headline of the year

WPRI Poll: Obama Ahead in Wisconsin

But I heard them on the teevee saying Obama "wasn't performing well" and that Dems had "buyers remorse"? Didn't anyone tell them in Wisconsin?

A new Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain, 44% to 38%.

Key findings: "Obama leads the race primarily because of a combination of the most important issues on the minds of voters and the impact of President Bush and the voter's view about the direction of the country. The two issues that voters felt personally were most important to them were the economy and creating jobs (24%), and dealing with the war in Iraq (12%). On these issues Senator Obama had large leads. On the economy, Obama led Senator McCain by a 62% to 20% margin. On dealing with the war in Iraq his lead was 66% to 22%. Another issue that was frequently mentioned was improving education, where Senator Obama's lead was 73% to 10%."

The Oval Office, the Lincoln Bedroom, and...the Interrogation Room

By GottaLaff

Bush's legacy, the sequel:

In Ron Suskind’s new book, Suskind describes a disturbing case in Washington, D.C., where security officials detained and interrogated Usman Khosa, a Pakistani U.S. college graduate, because he was “fiddling” with his iPod near White House gates. Officials took Khosa to an interrogation room “beneath” the White House:

He turns as a large uniformed man lunges at him. The backpack!” the man yells, pushing Usman against the Italianate gates in front of Treasury and ripping off his backpack. Another officer on a bicycle arrives from somewhere and tears the backpack open, dumping its contents on the sidewalk. […]

Usman is trundled from the SUV, escorted through the West Gate, and onto the manicured grounds. No one speaks as the agents walk him behind the gate’s security station, down a stairwell, along an underground passage, and into a room — cement-walled box with a table, two chairs, a hanging light with a bare bulb, and a mounted video camera. Even after all the astonishing turns of the past hour, Usman can’t quite believe there’s actually an interrogation room beneath the White House, dark and dank and horrific.

“Usman Khosa is a Pakistani national in his early twenties, a graduate of Connecticut College now working for the International Monetary Fund,” Suskind notes.

I copied and pasted Think Progress's entire post, something I was still able to do as my jaw hit the floor and my blood pressure rose.

George W. Bush's excellent legacy

By GottaLaff

"Granted, much of Mr. Bush's general standing among the public was lost after Hurricane Katrina, difficulties in Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, failure to pass immigration reform and the most recent mortgage and energy realities. Yet, even now, the president has spearheaded the successful surge in Iraq and he may yet transform the Middle East as no one before him has ever done. The president also has a domestic record that he can be proud of - from literacy and faith-based initiatives to judicial appointments and tax cuts. That record also includes the moral restoration of the presidency after years of the embarrassing Clinton scandals."