First things first: Later this month, I am hosting a fundraiser for Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). If you'd like to help this progressive champion and keep me from looking like an inept fool, make a small donation online. (What the heck: If you want to make a medium, or even a large, donation, who am I to discourage you?) If you're in the Madison area and would like to attend, drop me a line and I'll send you the particulars.
Pollster: Obama landslide likely
Nate Silver, a Chicago-based statistician who applies probability theory to polls by running their published results through a computer thousands of times for The New Republic and his site, FiveThirtyEight, backs Barna’s research. Silver lists outcome possibilities by percentage, from low possibilities, such as chance of an Electoral College tie (.023 percent), to high possibilities, such as the chance of Obama winning all the Kerry states (65 percent).
The statistician sees no scenario of a McCain victory at more than a 13 percent probability.
The chance of an Obama landslide?
32 percent.
Lest we forget
(Frederick) Douglass's speech, delivered 156 years ago today, is one of the masterpieces of American oratory and one of the most eloquent speeches ever delivered in the English language. Indeed, there is nothing Winston Churchill, Henry Clay or Martin Luther King, Jr. could have taught Douglass about tapping the power of the mother tongue. It is routinely included in 'Great Speeches' collections, usually in the 'social criticism' category, and it really has no peer as an educational tool for teaching people what slavery was like and how it corrupted America's nobler ideals. You can read the whole dazzling thing right here.
...there is a sense in which Senator Obama's nomination represents a giant step forward toward the fulfillment of Douglass's hope and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream. All Americans should be proud that one of our major political parties has advanced to this patriotic milestone, and Democrats can take special pride that our Party has taken the lead. We can also be proud that our nominee apparent has the speech-making skills to illuminate the historic moment. The patriotic challenge before us now is to bring it home on November 4th.
Memo To Health Care Reporters Explain what the terms "national" and "universal" really mean, and what Obama’s plan really does
Huckabee is going to Hell
The death of Jesse Helms marks the end of a life marked by pure principle.... Today, we join with Americans across the country who salute this dedicated Christian gentleman and conservative icon, Senator Jesse Helms.
Media blackout on ex-prosecutor’s bestselling book accusing Bush of murder.
Vincent Bugliosi is a respected former prosecutor who convicted Charles Manson in 1971. His newest bestselling book is "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder," making the case that Bush should be held "criminally responsible" for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The media, however, have responded with a virtual blackout:
Liberal media my ass.
Buy the book here.
Ken Burns’ ‘Gospel Of Americanism’: Make The Church-State Wall Bigger And Wider
NPR's Mary Liasson is Wanker of the Day! Liberal media my ass.
The most likely to be executed death row prisoners are the least educated.
Neocon media continues to spew McCain's lies
The McCain campaign is continuing to aggressively push the line that Obama has "changed his mind" on withdrawing troops from Iraq. Those are their exact words -- which are I think a pretty straight up falsehood. Let us know whether you see press reports, like the ones over the weekend in the Associated Press, which adopt the McCain campaign line wholesale.
Liberal media my ass.
Atrios: The Most Trusted Name In News -- Their star personality advocates mass executions without trials.
What the proper response to this? McCain Camp: We "Concede" That Barack Obama Is A Patriot. How about something like, "Oh just bite me, you arrogant, ignorant ass." Who the hell died and made these pinheads the final arbiter of patriotism? McCain Dodges When Asked If He Questions Obama's Patriotism Of all the stupid sh*t McCain has pulled, this is the one that seals the deal for me so far as his lack of character.
Big Brother watch Military PR Team Tries To Shape Portrayal Of Iraq War In Film
Rightwing "Christian" Group Attacks Obama On Abortion Because, you know, jesus just would not shut up about abortion! Read the New Testament, abortion is all over the place. Wait. What? No? Crap. Never mind.
Corruption watch DOJ Oversight Office Won't Disclose Misconduct. First question: Who is being protected?
Great parody of McCain ad attacking Obama
Matt Y on "Pride"
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) says he "was proud to support" the Webb GI Bill that he, in fact, voted against. I like the inclusion of the pride point, since after all we can't really assess his subjective condition. Maybe when he voted against the bill he was secretly ashamed of himself (he should have been) and to him that means he was proud to support it. Something like that. After all, only shrill bloggers call people liars.
Iraq Vet Made Famous By Photo Dies Of Drug Overdose
Maureen Dwyer said. "He just couldn’t do it. Just wasn’t Joseph. Joseph never came home."
Wolf Blitzer looks back at 10 years of Iraq War Bush lies Wow! When did Blitzer grow a pair?
Fox News Sunday: Barnes Suggests McCain Use Gay Bashing To Energize Base Well, bigotry has worked well for them in past....
"White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you,
your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races."
-- Jesse Helms, for the 1950 Senate campaign
"I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing Dixie until she cries."
--Jesse Helms, threatening Carol Moseley-Braun in 1993
Quote of the day From George Bush, on the passing of Jesse Helms: "Jesse Helms was a kind, decent, and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called 'the Miracle of America.' So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July." Kevin Drum comments: "Uh huh. I guess Bush must figure that even 10% of the black vote is 10% more than the GOP needs. This should just about do the trick of getting it down to zero."
More on Jesse From Matt Y:
Jesse Helms: "The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights."
Of course as tends to be the case with Helms' most repugnantly racist bile, he said that a good ways back in the past. But even at that time, most Americans managed not to be repugnant racists. But not Helms. And unlike a lot of people who did take the white supremacist line in the 1950s and 60s, Helms never apologized and, indeed, never backed down doing things like mounting a filibuster against making Martin Luther King Day into a federal holiday. Remarkably, mainstream American conservatives are eager to tell us that this man is their hero. Even more remarkably, you sometimes hear conservatives talk about reaching out to black voters.
The Bush economy in a chart
Via Krugman, this CBPP chart from April does a great job of describing Republican Party economic policy in a nutshell. The Bush expansion may have featured sluggish wage growth, sluggish GDP growth, sluggish investment growth, and sluggish employment growth, but it also featured a terrific, tax-cut driven surge in corporate profit growth! That makes it a success by anyone's measure, right?
More Associated Press love for McCain Liberal media my ass.
Those clever Republicans
Meanwhile, note the irony of an ad paid for by the Republican National Committee lauding John McCain for his willingness to break with the Republican line. If only the RNC had spoken up sooner on how terrible Republicans are!
And it's true. Barack Obama's energy policies -- focused on improving efficiency and developing renewable energy sources -- are pretty much party line answers because the Democratic party line is largely correct. McCain, by contrast, is a mess.
UK's Conservative Party Attacks Poor, Idle And Obese So they spend two thirds of their time attacking their own base? I mean, the very definition of a conservative is a person too lazy to fight or too fat to run (the idle and the obese).
Lying is a sign of desperation Taking its cue from a weekend of talking heads who started the trend, the McCain camp is falsely claiming that Obama changed his timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
Yet more McCain camp lies -- the new Rove team is showing.
Obama plan for Iraq: Same as it ever was
FISA Group Responds To Obama: "Back Up Your Words"
The McCain budget
Ezra Klein astutely notes that this Politico headline – "McCain Promises to Balance Budget" -- misses the forest for the trees. "The accurate headline for this piece would read ‘McCain Promises to Cut Social Security And Medicare Or Drastically Raise The Payroll Tax.’ If enough pieces like that were written, McCain would have to explain which of those he intends to do."
Corruption watch
Last we heard from former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) he was getting bounced out of Congress for the allegedly crooked ties to sundry Russian arms manufacturers. Now he's gone into business trying to sell Russian weaponry to Libya and Iraq. But now it seems his deal to be the exclusive marketer of Ukrainian armored personnel carriers may be based on a forged signature of a Ukrainian government official.
