UNTRUSTWORTHY

If there’s an attack against Iran before Bush leaves office, it won’t come as any surprise to people who read Sy Hersh

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh
Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program. . . [read on]

More: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/29/18920/5632

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/007631.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/014004.php

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/29/the-barnacle-branch-still-evading-oversight/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/29/but-what-about-congressional-oversight/

Losing Pakistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/washington/30tribal.html

I think this counts as a LIE

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5aNBI1CdDfpeUp0g8G3pPyUsrHg
[June 19] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday the US government was not involved in Iraq's no-bid oil contracts that could see four major western oil firms start their first commercial work there since the war began five years ago.

"The United States government has stayed out of the matter of awarding the Iraq oil contracts. It's a private sector matter," Rice said . . .

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/30/MNB411H8RC.DTL
[June 30] A group of U.S. advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, U.S. officials say.

The disclosure, coming on the eve of the contracts' announcement, is the first confirmation of such direct Bush administration involvement . . .

McCain gets nasty

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16040.html
John McCain, in his sharpest attack yet against rival Barack Obama, said the Democratic presidential candidate’s word “cannot be trusted.”

“This election is about trust — trust in people’s word, McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told several hundred donors at a $2 million GOP fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky yesterday. “And unfortunately, apparently on several items, Senator Obama’s word cannot be trusted.” . . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/some-nerve-by-digby-fergawdsake-it-was.html

McCain versus McCain: on immigration (again)

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16038.html

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-debates-himself-on-immigration.html

I don’t know how this will play, but it’s a fair question, really

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/06/29/clark_blasts_mccains_military_service.html
[Taegan Goddard] In a personal attack that will almost certainly backfire, retired Gen. Wesley Clark blasted Sen. John McCain's military credentials on Face the Nation.

Said Clark: "I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/honestly-besides-being-tortured-what.html
[John Aravosis] It's not "nice" to ask the question, but it's actually a pretty good question. Yes, we all know that John McCain was captured and tortured in Vietnam (McCain won't let you forget). A lot of people don't know, however, that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity. Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief? It's not like McCain rose to the level of general or something. He's a vet. We get it. But simply being a vet, as laudable as it is, doesn't really tell you much about someone's qualifications for being commander in chief. If McCain is going to play the "I was tortured" card every five minutes as a justification for electing him president, then he shouldn't throw a hissy fit any time any one asks to know more about his military experience. Getting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience. Again, it's not nice to say, but we're not running for class president here. We deserve real answers, not emotional outbursts designed to quell the questions.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-ready-for-mother-of-all-hissy-fits.html
[Dday] So Wes Clark went on Face The Nation today and "went there" . . . [read on]

Theocracy watch, part one

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/202035.php
John McCain met today with Franklin Graham, a man who looked forward to the Iraq War as an opportunity to expand Christianity in the Middle East. . . .

Theocracy watch, part two

http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2008/LA/188_louisiana_governor_signs_creat_6_27_2008.asp
[Possible McCain VP] Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal signed Senate Bill 733 (PDF) into law, 27 years after the state passed its Balance Treatment for Evolution-Science and Creation-Science Act, a law overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. Jindal's approval of the bill was buried in a press release issued on June 25, 2008, announcing 75 bills he signed in recent days. Houma Today reports (June 27, 2008) that the bill "will empower educators to pull religious beliefs into topics like evolution, cloning and global warming by introducing supplemental materials." . . . [read on]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/29/8523/23643

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/28/possible-mccain-vp-pick-signs-anti-evolution-bill-into-louisiana-law/

The future of the Supreme Court (and the rest of the federal judiciary)

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/supreme-court-coming-presidential.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/god-save-this-honorable-court-by-dday.html

Remember when John Roberts was campaigning for the Chief Justice slot, and told everyone how “moderate” he would be? Remember when a key file of his early papers suddenly went “missing” from the National Archives?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-court-john-robertsjun29,0,5374420.story
With his third term as chief justice coming to a close amid three explosive cases last week, John Roberts has proved to be almost everything conservatives hoped and liberals feared. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/10/AR2006051002232.html
[May 11, 2006] The file, compiled during Roberts's tenure as an associate counsel in the Reagan White House, vanished in July when lawyers from the Bush administration were reviewing the materials at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., as part of a vetting process before Roberts's formal nomination to the Supreme Court. . . .

Will the discrediting of conservative orthodoxy carry over to a loss of popularity and credibility for their shills on Fox News and right-wing radio?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16037.html
[Steve Benen] In the first quarter of 2008, Fox News, after six years of cable-news ratings dominance, saw itself slip into second place behind CNN in the so-called “money demo” — viewers in their mid-20s through mid-50s, who advertisers care about most. The shift came thanks to a series of competitive primary nights and debates among Democratic candidates, after the Republican nomination had already been settled.

As it turns out, in the second quarter, as the Democratic race quieted down and the general election campaigning began, Fox News reclaimed the lead, but just barely. The NYT notes today that the “back-and-forth these last few months masks a more ominous trend for Fox News.” . . .

Bonus item: book review – “Netroots Rising”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/29/1552/91282

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/29/214837/855

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:18 AM

 
TAKING YOUR EYE OFF THE BALL

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/06/pentagon_taliban_a_resilient_f.php
[AP] The Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan and the pace of its attacks is likely to increase this year, according to a Pentagon report that offers a dim view of progress in the nearly seven-year-old war.

Noting that insurgent violence has climbed, the report said that despite U.S. and coalition efforts to capture and kill key leaders, the Taliban is likely to "maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008."

The Taliban, it said, has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency." . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/world/asia/28pstan.html
In the last two months, Taliban militants have suddenly tightened the noose on this city of three million people, one of Pakistan’s biggest . . .

The threat to Peshawar is a sign of the Taliban’s deepening penetration of Pakistan and of the expanding danger that the militants present to the entire region, including nearby supply lines for NATO and American forces in Afghanistan. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/28/184926/717

Yesterday we had Cheney’s pissy comment on the North Korea deal – now we find out how much he REALLY hated it

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/28/cheney-tried-to-block-north-korea-nuclear-deal/

The McCains own so many homes they can’t keep their taxes straight (but Obama’s an "elitist")

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143775/
When you're poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you're rich, it's hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It's a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona. . . .

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/28/mccains-failed-to-pay-tax_n_109785.html

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/06/the_good_life.php
[Mark Kleiman] Update: Of course, John McCain is so in touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans that he doesn't know the price of a gallon of gasoline. Just a regular fellow. . . .

McCain’s not-ready-for-prime-time spokespeople bring up the immigration bill as an example of his bipartisanship. Uh, guys, that is NOT a good example for you

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16030.html

You might think that someone who wants to be President would show due deference and respect to those who served before him. You would be wrong

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/27/mccain-calls-carter-a-lousy-president/

[NB: At a more serious level, another example of McCain’s snotty “sense of humor,” and tendency to snap off quotable but ill-considered quips.]

Where the “Obama is a Muslim” lie started

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/lying_in_politics_/2008/06/political_cockroaches.php

No, Barack Obama is not above criticism

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6658
"You should always assume that when I cast a vote or make a statement it is because it is what I believe in," Obama said. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6657

Debate schedule proposed

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/29/55224/6350

Bob Barr could cost the GOP two or three states

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16032.html

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/28/AR2008062801938.html
FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D), Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and former White House budget director Rob Portman.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

NEWSMAKERS (C-SPAN): Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.).

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark.

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D).

LATE EDITION (CNN): Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D), U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker and Clinton campaign chairman Terence R. McAuliffe.

Bonus item: Senate “holds” – how they work (warning: for process dweebs only)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/28/14202/2303

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 5:50 AM

 
TESTING THE WATERS

The Republicans are trying to see how far they can go in raising the issue of Obama’s race, while still getting away with it

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16023.html
[LAT] Norquist dropped by The Times’ Washington bureau today and, as part of his negative critique of Obama’s liberal stances on economic issues and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee “John Kerry with a tan.” . . [read on]

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/27/grover-norquist-obama-is-john-kerry-with-a-tan/
[Jane Hamsher] Earlier this year, the RNC did polling to determine how far they could go in their attacks before they would be perceived as "racist." Not, one would imagine, because they really cared -- but rather, as John Judis noted in an interesting article in TNR, because "too far" could backlash. . . . [read on]

The McCain camp keeps trying to find an unfavorable frame for defining Obama to the American people. They don’t really care what it is, so long as it sticks

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16015.html
[Steve Benen] In 2000, Al Gore, they said, was an “exaggerator.” . . .

In 2004, John Kerry, they said was a “flip-flopper.” . . .

Four years later, the effort to define Barack Obama is proving to be more difficult. The GOP has experimented with a few different memes, but they haven’t stuck yet. Some even contradict each other.

For months, Karl Rove & Co. has sought to characterize Obama as a dangerous outsider who we don’t really know and can’t trust. Everything about him, the argument goes, is “foreign.” The various far-right smears — about Obama’s religion, his family, his name, his patriotism — were all part of the same conservative frame.

More recently, Rove and his cohorts reversed course, and went with the opposite message: Obama isn’t a dangerous outsider anymore, now he’s an elite insider, hanging out “at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette.” . . . [read on]

The Religious Right can’t find traction against him either

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16026.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013999.php

It looks as if McCain is preparing to be behind now and throughout this campaign – but to spin it as a good thing

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/the_underdog.php
[Mark Kleiman] I see John McCain is casting himself as the underdog and predicting he will pull the election out in "the last 48 hours." That is, he's conceding that his current disadvantage in the horserace polls is unlikely to be transient, and that Obama will stay in the lead most of the way.

I suppose that's one way to keep your troops engaged in the face of bad numbers, but isn't June a little early for desperation?

I'm also curious about what is supposed to happen in those last 48 hours. Is Senator McCain expecting his friend George Bush to bomb Iran, or is he hoping for the terrorist attack his manager Charlie Black said would be "a big advantage" for the campaign? Or is McCain going to ask one of his crazy preacher friends to work a miracle?

Who is Charlie Black?

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/06/27/10-things-to-know-about-charlie-black/

McCain takes credit for a bill he opposed

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/27/141036/548

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16022.html

McCain has said repeatedly that he doesn’t want to exploit his prisoner of war experience for political purposes . . . . except, that is, when he does

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/27/125030/358

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16017.html

http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2008/06/mccains-suppose.html

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/have_you_heard_mccain_was_a_po.php

Clinton supporter who says she’ll vote for McCain gets disinvited to the Democratic National Convention – and now she’s upset about it

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080627/ap_on_el_pr/delegate_dumped;_ylt=AtrmhrIaNd2ytUvjYqeywtayFz4D

The man behind the Bush gang’s shredding of the Constitution

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/26/AR2008062603456.html
[Dana Milbank] Throughout the Bush presidency, he toiled in secrecy deep within the White House, a mysterious and feared presence who never stepped into the sunlight of public disclosure.

There he sat, hunched and scowling, at the witness table in front of the House Judiciary Committee: the bearded, burly form of the chief of staff and alter ego to the vice president -- Cheney's Cheney, if you will -- and the man most responsible for building President Bush's notion of an imperial presidency.

David Addington was there under subpoena. And he wasn't happy about it.

Could the president ever be justified in breaking the law? "I'm not going to answer a legal opinion on every imaginable set of facts any human being could think of," Addington growled. Did he consult Congress when interpreting torture laws? "That's irrelevant," he barked. Would it be legal to torture a detainee's child? "I'm not here to render legal advice to your committee," he snarled. "You do have attorneys of your own." . . . [read on]

They let him off the hook: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013995.php

More: http://www.newser.com/story/31096.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/27/BL2008062701815.html

The latest wingnut conspiracy: that a Democratic congressman called for an Al Qaeda attack against Addington

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/26/addington-wont-talk-about-torture-because-al-qaeda-may-watch-c-span/
DELAHUNT: Oh I can understand why [the President] doesn’t talk about it.

ADDINGTON: Because you kind of communicate with al Qaeda. If you do — I can’t talk to you, al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN.

DELAHUNT: Right. Well, I’m sure they are watching, and I’m glad they finally have a chance to see you, Mr. Addington.

ADDINGTON: Yeah, I’m sure you’re pleased.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/27/right-wing-addington/
Delahunt’s sarcastic remark about Addington’s penchant for secrecy was the subject of a segment on this morning’s Fox & Friends. Co-host Brian Kilmeade attempted to argue that Delahunt put Addington at risk because “now al Qaeda can see you and understand who’s putting this policy together.” . . . Kilmeade then argued Addington will now “be targeted” by al Qaeda. . . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/dumbest-people-alive-by-dday-rights.html

Congress subpoenas DOJ documents

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0608/Conyers_issues_subpoena_to_DOJ_for_BushCheney_interviews_on_Plame_leak.html

No blood for oil

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/dont-speak-obvious-by-digby-it-is.html

The Heller decision gives the gun lobby a big victory. But since the essence of their organizing and fundraising is to maintain a panic that “the government is trying to take your guns away,” they’ll have to come up with new fears to monger

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/27/wingnuts-on-heller-vote-republican-to-save-us-from-republican-appointed-judges/

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013994.php

NRCC: “There are no safe Republican seats”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/27/16397/7363

Yesterday we showed you John Cornyn’s laughable “Big Bad John” campaign ad. Today it gets its due measure of ridicule from his opponent, Rick Noriega. Don’t miss it

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_22_archive.html#9054583982377544

I think this comment is revealing. Did the Supreme Court PUNISH Al Gore in 2000 for bringing his election appeal before the courts in the first place?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2200495/Justice-Antonin-Scalia-Al-Gore-to-blame-for-2000-US-election-mess.html

Cheese it, folks! Rush is onto us! He’s figured out that we’re trying to destroy America – and just when we were SO CLOSE to succeeding, too

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062708/content/01125109.guest.html
“If you have a basic understanding of the role oil has played in the enrichment of peoples across this planet, if you understand the role that oil has played in the expansion of freedom and opportunity and the creation of wealth, if you understand that -- and most people do -- how in the world can you be an Obama and say, "Well, drilling for oil right now, well, that's a failed policy of the past. It's another one of those failed policies of the past." Failed policy of the past. Where would we be without it? So why do they want us to not drill for more oil? Do you think it's about "saving the planet"? Do you think that it is about all of this global warming stuff? Do you think it's about preventing oil spills? Do you think that's why they're opposed to drilling for oil? It isn't. It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with liberalism and the expansion of government and the reduction, ever so slowly, of individual liberties, and it has everything to do, within the minds of some, of weakening this country on purpose.”

Sean Hannity sets a world record

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/27/hannity-flip-flop/
[Ali] On his Fox News show last night, right-wing pundit Sean Hannity originally hailed the [North Korea] agreement as “a clear foreign policy victory” for Bush. But Hannity’s guest John Bolton — a fierce advocate for war over negotiations — disagreed, arguing, “I think it’s actually a clear victory for North Korea.”

Hannity promptly attacked the agreement, reversing his position in less than 30 seconds. . . .

HANNITY: The news today brings a clear foreign policy victory for the Bush administration. But will the press report it that way? Joining us now for analysis, former ambassador to the U.N. and a Fox News contributor, John Bolton. What do you think this means?

BOLTON: I think it's actually a clear victory for North Korea. They gain enormous political legitimacy....In return, we get precious little. I think this is North Korea demonstrating again that they can out-negotiate the U.S. without raising a sweat.

HANNITY: Boy I tell you they've done it time and time again, and I'm sorta perplexed, Mr. Ambassador, to understand why we keep going back to the well knowing that they haven't kept the agreements in the past. Whatever happened to Reagan's "trust but verify"?

And, by the way, what does Dick Cheney think about that North Korea agreement?

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/007624.html
[NYT] Mr. Cheney froze, according to four participants at the Old Executive Office Building meeting. For more than 30 minutes he had been taking and answering questions, without missing a beat. But now, for several long seconds, he stared, unsmilingly, at his questioner, Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation, a public policy institution. Finally, he spoke:

“I’m not going to be the one to announce this decision,” the other participants recalled Mr. Cheney saying, pointing at himself. “You need to address your interest in this to the State Department.” He then declared that he was done taking questions, and left the room. . . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/wrong-about-everything-by-dday-boy.html

Bonus item: why you should vote Republican (thanks to A.G. for the link)

http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:15 AM

 
JUST SAY “NO”

This is the face of evil: not vicious or angry, but calm, smiling – and without an ounce of self-doubt

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/could-bush-bury
[Spencer Ackerman] Conyers vs. Yoo. Could the president order a suspect's child be tortured, since Yoo was quoted as saying, "It depends on why the president feels the need to do that"? Yoo says he was quoted out of context. Conyers asks what couldn't the president order?

Yoo: "My thinking right now, this moment, Mr. Chairman, is that first, the question you're posing--" Conyers yells: WHAT IS THE ANSWER? "You're wasting my time. Hold it! Could the president order a suspect buried alive?"

Yoo: "I've never given the advice that the president could order someone buried alive... my view right now, no American president would ever order that or feel it necessary to order that.”

Video: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/yoo_we_dont_make_claims_of_inf.php
Conyers: “I think we understand the games that are being played.”

[NB: “No!” would have been a perfectly acceptable answer.]

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/yoo-if-u-s-troops
Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.) gets to ask a question: "Is it true the United States is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture?" Yoo concedes it is, and that there's a whole federal statute to implement the convention. But are there certain things -- say, electric shocks -- that the August 1, 2002 memo would say violates? "Yes." What about waterboarding?

Yoo: "I'd have to know what you mean by waterboarding . . ." [read on]

“Cheney’s Cheney”

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/addington_unitary_government_w.php
Conyers: Do you feel that the Unitary Theory of the Executive allows the President to do things over and above the stated law of the land?

Addington: The Constitution binds all of us, Congressman, the President, all the U.S. members of Congress, all of the federal judges. We all take an oath to support and defend it. I frankly don't know what you mean by the Unitary Theory of Government. I dont -

Conyers: Have you ever heard of that theory before?

Addington: Oh I have, I've seen it in the newspapers all the time-

Conyers: Do you support it?

Addington: I don't know what it is.

Conyers: You don't know what it is.

Addington: No . . . [read on!]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16010.html
[Steve Benen] Exactly one year ago tomorrow, the Office of the Vice President gave up on the notion that Dick Cheney isn’t really part of the executive branch. In the midst of an oversight fight regarding the handling of classified material, the OVP had made the absurd argument about Cheney’s branch, but on June 27, 2007, the Vice President’s team decided that was too ridiculous to keep repeating.

In fact, the next day, the NYT reported, “A White House official placed further distance from the dual role argument by adding that Mr. Cheney did not necessarily agree with it.”

So, all of this unpleasantness is behind us? We can finally agree that Cheney is the Vice President, and the Vice President is part of the executive branch? Apparently not. Cheney’s reclusive chief of staff, David Addington, told the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon that the VP is “attached” to the legislative branch . . .

Like a barnacle? http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/quote_of_the_day_vice_presiden.php

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/addington-doesnt
[Spencer Ackerman] Did Addington go to Guantanamo, asks Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), as was disclosed in the Senate last week? "Really don't remember the dates," but says he's probably been to Guantanamo "probably five times." Did he meet with JAG attorneys? "Don't recall. Col. Beaver -- I don't remember meeting her there, only remember. ... I was invited by Department of Defense to go." Did he discuss interrogation methods with anyone? "Don't know about methods, but I probably did... They would show us intrg room, with no one in it, or look through a room... where you could see into that, so having done that I would assume, yes."

Did Addington discuss specific types of interrogation methods? "I don't recall doing that." Means you didn't or don't recall? "It means I don't recall, as I said." Says his participation with the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program was more extensive than with the Defense Dept. interrogation program. Addington denies Philippe Sands' claim that he encouraged interrogators to go all-out.

In fairness, Addington did something important here: he admitted to an involvement in the CIA's interrogation program, which is, shall we say, open to constitutional debate.

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/addington-is-a-very
Nadler asks Addington: did you help draft in the infamous August 1, 2002 Bybee/Yoo memo?

"No... Didn't have nothing to do with it, but you asked if I had a hand in drafting it."

So what was your role with the memo, sir? . . . [read on]

Summaries and liveblogging: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/torture-policy

http://www.slate.com/id/2194326/

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/yoo-and-addington-on-hill-by-dday.html

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/26/hjc-testimony-mr-unitary-executive-and-mr-yoo/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/26/hjc-testimony-mr-unitary-executive-and-mr-yoo-two/

Bobbing and weaving: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/yoo-does-not-know
[Spencer Ackerman] Yoo refuses to answer who was in the meeting about the White House meeting referred to by Addington in advance of Yoo/Bybee's August 1, 2002 torture memo." Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) asks if that memo was implemented.

"I don't know exactly" what you mean by "implemented," Yoo says. They go back and forth. Ellison loses patience. "Was the memo implemented? Stop wasting my time." Basically, Yoo is obfuscating because he doesn't want there to be a straight line connecting the memo to Abu Ghraib. . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/law_professor_confused_by_sat.php
[Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL)] I have been on the committee for a year and a half, I've never seen two witnesses, frankly, struggle as much to appreciate ordinary use of terms and questions. Would you consider instructing the two witnesses to answer the questions that they're asked . . . [watch]

More, more, more: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/yoo-and-addington
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) asks the two lawyers to reaffirm the administration talking point that there's lawful "space" between the interrogation methods of the Army Field Manual on Interrogation and the Federal Torture Statute. But Yoo goes off message: "My understanding is there is no space." Quickly, though, Addington contradicts him: "I believe the legal opinions of the Office of Legal Counsel says that yes, there is."

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/did-yoo-go-over

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/torture/2008/06/addington-and-yoo-lowlights.html

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/06/john-yoo-testimony.html

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/007617.html

A few questions for the AG

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/house_judiciary_commiitee_gets.php
It looks like the House Judiciary Committee will finally play hardball with Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has been requesting a range of documents from DOJ for a long time. . . .

It’s taken almost eight years, but the Bush gang is dragged kicking and screaming into the world of foreign policy pragmatism

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16003.html

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0608/House_Republicans_blast_Bush_for_North_Korea_decision.html
Several prominent House Republicans blasted the White House Thursday for removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, as some of President Bush’s staunchest supporters in the war on terror publicly lambasted him for engaging the country once famously branded as part of the "axis of evil.” . . .

Watch what?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201785.php
As TPMmuckraker reports, not only did the Pentagon ignore a State Department watchlist in awarding a defense contract to AEY, Inc., those 20-something dudes from Florida, but the State Department itself ignored its own watchlist in awarding separate arms contracts to AEY.

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/state_put_aey_on_watchlist_the.php

Final FISA vote put off until July 8

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/26/confirmed-final-fisa-bill-on-july-8/

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/26/135827/968
[McJoan] Hey Senators! Raise Your Hand if You've Read the FISA Bill . . . [read on]

Busted!

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/feds_raid_blackwater_compound.php
[AP] Federal agents raided Blackwater Worldwide this week as part of an investigation into a deal that allowed a local sheriff's office to store high-powered assault rifles at the company's armory . . .

Antonin Scalia: a miserable excuse for a jurist

http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/06/un-american-lies-of-antonin-scalia.html

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/27/why-not-sign-up-with-redstate-and-be-done-with-it/

War? What war?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/omg-tigr-by-digby-media-bloodhound.html

Colin Powell to endorse Obama?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16009.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013988.php

Confidence

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/what_the_obama_campaign_is_rea.php
[Marc Ambinder] Never will a campaign predict a landslide, but if only, say, half of the assumptions that guide Obama's general election strategy are true, his campaign is, in essence, preparing for a landslide in the popular vote. There's no way that 10,000 Obama volunteers in Texas won't influence his vote totals there even if he doesn't win.

McCain wants to sit down during the debates with Obama. Can you guess why?

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_to_lose_height_advantage.php

[NB: Bring a phone book!]

McSame

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201760.php

Is McCain just pacing himself?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11355.html
John McCain doesn't work weekends . . .

More financial questions involving a top-ranking McCain official

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/todays_must_read_357.php

McCain campaign is trying hard to tell the media how they ought to cover Obama

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/the_schmidt_memo_wheres_the_ou.php

Bobby Jindal and Mitt Romney are apparently on McCain’s VP short list. Well, we can hope anyway

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/judging-crazy-by-dday-two-of-three.html

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201790.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201809.php

GOP Senator: Obama doesn’t work bipartisanly – except, well. . . .

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/gop_senator_questions_obamas_b.php
[Greg Sargent] This is a fun one. On the McCain conference call this morning, GOP Senator Sam Brownback questioned Obama's bipartisan credentials -- even though Brownback himself has repeatedly worked with the Illinois Senator. . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16012.html

GOP blocks Medicare bill – are they TRYING to help the Dems get a 60-vote majority?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/this-just-in-senate-republicans-block.html

Karl Rove test markets one lying slanderous narrative after another against Obama: Damn, one of ‘em has GOT to stick . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/26/14539/5258

More: http://mediamatters.org/items/200806260010

Joe Lieberman: in a way, even worse than Rove

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/lieberman_plays_the_wright_car.php
We already knew that McCain supporter Joe Lieberman had adopted a role as a leading critic of Obama on foreign policy. But now, judging from some quotes buried in this new ABC News interview with the self-described Independent Democrat, it looks as if Lieberman has expanded his repertoire to include attacks on Obama over Reverend Wright, too . . .

Bonus item: Beyond parody

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_22_archive.html#3546544860635977782

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:48 AM

 
STRATEGIC INDEPENDENCE

War crimes (no, I’m not going to stop using that term)

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201588.php
Philip Gourevitch: "[T]he story of Abu Ghraib was not that Iraqi prisoners were being brutally abused - that was the norm in Iraq. The story was that Americans were doing the abusing - and that they were doing it as a matter of policy."

More: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/25/i_know_im_not_part_of_this_but/

Meet Esther McDonald

http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/24/1164379.aspx
[Jim Popkin] Imagine you are first in your class at Georgetown Law School, had clerked for two federal judges and been the articles editor on a law journal. You’d think you had a pretty good chance at getting an entry-level job as a lawyer at the Justice Department, right?

Not so fast, big shot. The Georgetown Law graduate was turned down, along with a Harvard Law student who had graduated in the top 5 percent of his Harvard undergraduate class, and a Yale Law School standout who had clerked for a federal judge and graduated summa cum laude from Yale College.

Their perceived deficiencies? They were all rejected by the Bush Administration Justice Department because of some affiliation with liberal groups or Democratic Party causes, according to a stinging new report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) and the Office of Professional Responsibility. . . .

The report is particularly critical of a low-ranking Justice Department lawyer named Esther Slater McDonald, who abruptly resigned from the DOJ last year on the same day that investigators from the Inspector General’s office were scheduled to interview her. She turned down all subsequent interview requests.

The investigators report that McDonald was hired as a political appointee at the Justice Department just three years out of law school. She was assigned to work on the screening committee for the Honors Program and the internship pool, and promptly began doing computer searches on the candidates “for organizations to which candidates belonged,” the report states. In a Nov. 29, 2007 email, McDonald blackballed three candidates “based on her objections to the candidates’ ideological affiliations,” the IG writes. She wrote despairingly in the email of Greenpeace and another group which “increased affirmative action,” and described one applicant’s essay as “filled with leftist commentary and buzz words like ‘environmental justice’ and ‘social justice.’ " She also wrote: “Leftists usually refer to achieving ‘social justice’ or ‘making policy’ or anything else that involves legislating rather than enforcing.”

Under Justice Department regulations and civil service law, it is improper to consider politics or political affiliation when hiring for DOJ career positions, such as the Honors Program and the intern program. . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/who_is_esther_slater_mcdonald.php
McDonald, who arrived at DOJ in September 2006, was part of the crowd of young DOJ hires who came in during the second Bush term after Alberto Gonzales moved from White House counsel to attorney general. They had limited experience, fierce loyalty to President Bush and sterling conservative credentials.

According to McDonald's LinkedIn profile, she's an alum of Pensacola Christian College and Notre Dame Law School. After graduating in 2003, she worked for Jones Day before being ushered into the hallowed halls of Gonzales' DOJ by none other than the Monica Goodling herself . . .

Within months her work on the Screening Committee would come under scrutiny. When first contacted for an interview by the OIG in September 2007, McDonald agreed. But then she postponed the interview so she could secure counsel. A new interview date was set for October 25, 2007, but department investigators would never get to interview McDonald.

At end of business day on October 24, McDonald's attorney sent an email to investigators, informing them that his client was canceling the interview and was no longer an employee of the Justice Department . . . [read on]

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201581.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obscure_liberal_leanings_disqualified.php

A few funny comments on the ridiculous White House ploy of NOT READING an email they know contains policy advice they don’t want to hear

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201522.php
[David Kurtz] What do you do if the Supreme Court rejects your legal position on greenhouse gas emissions and orders the EPA to make a ruling?

If you're the White House, you stall, delay, and then, when push comes to shove, you simply refuse to open the email from the EPA that contains the new ruling.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/dog-ate-my-homework-by-dday-it-is-novel.html
[Dday] It is a novel excuse, I will say that. . . .

I would give you my opinion of this, but I refuse to read the article. I excerpted the first two paragraphs with my eyes closed. And if you try to comment I'm not going to read those either. La la la la I can't hear you!

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013981.php
[Kevin Drum] The Bush White House has apparently adopted a bold new strategy for denying that greenhouse gases are an environmental threat: refuse to open email from the EPA that says they are. College freshmen around the world are rejoicing that one of their favorite excuses for avoiding class assignments now has official sanction.

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15991.html

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/todays_must_read_356.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/25/62510/9107

McCain’s money man

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/25/AR2008062502858_pf.html
As Sen. John McCain's top presidential campaign adviser, Richard H. "Rick" Davis has worked for almost a year without compensation, telling reporters that the sacrifice shows his dedication to the cash-strapped Arizona Republican. He also took a protracted leave from his Washington lobbying firm to distance himself from ethical questions.

But in the eight years since Davis first managed a McCain campaign, his relationship with the senator has been a lucrative commodity. He and his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, have earned handsome fees representing clients who need McCain's help in the Senate. He also has made money from a panoply of McCain-related entities, some of which have operated from the upscale riverfront office space that houses his lobbying shop.

In all, Davis, his firm and a company he helped start have earned at least $2.2 million in part through their close association with McCain, his campaign and his causes, according to a review of federal campaign, tax and lobbyist disclosure records.

Their relationship is typical of the symbiotic ties that have come to define the culture of the nation's capital. Last summer, Davis provided McCain free tactical advice that rescued his White House bid and helped him clinch the GOP nomination. In the political offseason, Davis turned the relationship into a business asset. . . . [read on]

The Michael Kinsley principle: in DC a “scandal” is saying something everyone knows is true

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201598.php
[Josh Marshall] John McCain says he "strenuously disagree[s]" with advisor Charlie Black's claim that another al Qaida mass casualty terrorist attack would be good news for McCain's election prospects. But back in 2004 he said pretty much the same thing.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_in_2004_bin_laden_may_h.php
[Greg Sargent] Back in 2004, as McCain was stumping in Connecticut on behalf of GOP Rep. Chris Shays, McCain said flatly that the recent release of an Osama Bin Laden tape had likely given the GOP a "little boost." . . .

Black also said that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto had also helped McCain, something the McCain camp also disavowed. But back in December, when the assassination happened, he said it could "serve to enhance" his "credentials."

But IS IT true?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/25/21501/5270
[DarkSyde] It's safe to assume that through 2004 it probably would have helped the Bush administration and thus the Republicans. But what about now, in 2008? Well, hard to say. And much of the eventual reaction might be a function of how bad an attack we're talking about here. If it were a London style train bombing vs an apocalyptic event topping the original 9-11 attacks, would that make a difference?

I don't think it's all clear that a terror attack would indisputably help the GOP at this point. It might even hurt them terribly. In stark contrast to the years immediately following September 2001, President Bush is about as popular as a yeast infection, the GOP hasn't been trusted on terrorism significantly more than democrats for a couple of years. Moreover, the neocons and related media and PR mouthpieces have been whining and promising for years now that everything from Iraq to suspension of the Bill of Rights is necessary because it will protect us from another terror attack, and they've done so at the myopic exclusion of virtually every other issue on the political playing field. What happens if and when that rationale is laid to waste?

McCain admits that our current wars are all about oil

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/grampa-mccain-does-it-again.html
“I also want to make sure that we will take concrete steps towards eliminating our dependence on foreign oil. And I am confident that uh, the, the conflicts that we are in in both Iraq and Afghanistan have also a bearing on that.”

[NB: He did this the other day, too, saying the threat of terrorism is the greatest economic danger to our society. Suddenly, national security is the linchpin for ALL other issues – since this is the only area where he has an advantage over Obama. Worried about gas prices? Keep fighting in Iraq! Worried about your retirement plan? Stop the terrorists before they attack again!]

The emerging McCain policy approach: lay out bold, ambitious targets without ever mentioning how (or even if) it is possible to achieve them

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15995.html
“In recent days I have set before the American people an energy plan.

“And let it begin today with this commitment: In a world of hostile and unstable suppliers of oil, this nation will achieve strategic independence by 2025” . . . [read on]

More: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_we_can_achieve_strategi.php

What IS “strategic independence”? A pile of nonsense, that’s what it is

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/mccains-energy
McCain brought along a little flair, both in his speech and props. While a couple of solar panels were on display off to McCain's left like prizes on the "Price is Right," he chose to deem his grand effort "The Lexington Project" ---named for the site of the first military battle of the Revolutionary War. Moreover, he brought a new term to the table "strategic independence," which McCain said we will achieve by the year 2025--by which time McCain will be 88-years-old . . . .

The latter term had fine journalists scurrying for online dictionaries. The closest we could find was "the ability to protect America without extraneous multilateralist constraints imposed by others." . . .

More: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/and-now-for-a
"Strategic independence is when oil is no longer the primary fuel for our transportation and the oil cartel no longer has the ability to undermine our economy or the paychecks of American workers."

[NB: Again, no problem with this as an aim. We’re headed there inevitably. But the line from here to there, especially in a little over 15 years, is a bit hard to discern . . .]

McCain versus McCain

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15999.html
[Steve Benen] The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on habeas corpus and suspected terrorist detainees has faded a bit on the political world’s radar, but the McCain campaign continues to believe the issue will benefit their candidate. . . . John McCain initially responded to the Supreme Court ruling with mild disappointment. “[I]t is a decision that the Supreme Court has made,” McCain said. “Now we need to move forward.” A day later, McCain said the high court’s ruling was “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” It was quite a rapid reversal.

McCain spent the ensuing days bragging about his support for indefinite detention, which is odd, considering that McCain adopted Barack Obama’s position on the issue as recently as three years ago. Here’s what he told Tim Russert June 19, 2005, which as you’ll notice, is the exact opposite of his position now:

“Now, I know that some of these guys [at Guantanamo] are terrible, terrible killers and the worst kind of scum of humanity. But, one, they deserve to have some adjudication of their cases. And there’s a fear that if you release them that they’ll go back and fight again against us. And that may have already happened. But balance that against what it’s doing to our reputation throughout the world and whether it’s enhancing recruiting for people to join al-Qaeda and other organizations and want to do bad things to the United States of America. I think, on balance, the argument has got to be — the weight of evidence has got to be that we’ve got to adjudicate these people’s cases, and that means that if it means releasing some of them, you’ll have to release them.

“Look, even Adolf Eichmann got a trial.”

Imagine, just for a moment, what the right would do if Obama said, for the sake of our national reputation, that we might have release terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Indeed, if we took McCain’s quote, attributed it to Obama, and sent it to Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, they’d talk about little else for the rest of the year.

TP’s Ali noted that McCain, last week, invoked the Nazi war crimes trials to insist that bin Laden should be denied habeas, when in 2005, he cited the exact same war crimes trials to argue the exact opposite point. . . .

We’re getting used to this McCain trick too: meet privately – and in this case secretly – with certain groups so he can tell them, off the record, “Look, whatever I have to say publicly for the masses, just know that I don’t really mean it – nudge, nudge, wink, wink”

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/25/mccain_sammon/index.html
[Alex Koppelman] John McCain met recently with Patrick Sammon, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans -- a group for gay Republicans. But to look at his public schedule, you'd never know it. . . .

One other recent example is a meeting McCain held with Republican Latino leaders in Chicago last week, which was closed to the media. In both cases, McCain needs to tread carefully to avoid angering his base, which sees him as not conservative enough in some ways, including on immigration and social issues, but at the same time he needs to project a moderate image to appeal to independents. By keeping these particular meetings quiet, McCain makes it less likely that he'll run into trouble with conservatives or be exposed as someone who changes his positions on issues with the wind. . .

You know, in the old days the Rovian trick of putting others on the defensive for doing the very thing things he or his people were guilty of doing looked like aggressive, audacious politics. Now it just seems kind of laughable

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15996.html
[Steve Benen] O’Reilly, referencing an NYT article published over the weekend, said that the Times had “outed a CIA agent,” which “obviously puts the CIA agent in danger.” . . . Rove added that the NYT has “a very callous view about our nation’s security and interests,” and has “put our country at risk.” . . .

First, the NYT article did, in fact, identify the CIA interrogator who questioned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. . . . So why include his name? It was a judgment call, but the Times explained that the interrogator “had never worked under cover and that others involved in the campaign against Al Qaeda have been named in news stories and books. The editors judged that the name was necessary for the credibility and completeness of the article.” Whether one finds this responsible or not is open to debate.

But for Karl Rove to have the chutzpah to lambaste the Times for this is extraordinary. . .

The Times identified a CIA agent who wasn’t undercover in order to publish a credible and complete news story. Rove identified a CIA agent who was undercover in order to push back against her husband’s criticism of the White House. And then Rove lied about it.

More on the latent race politics of Rove’s characterization of Obama as “the guy at the country club with the beautiful date”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201563.php

More Rovian brilliance: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201556.php

No surprise: McCain pooh-poohs the polls that have him 15 points behind or more

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/25/mccain_memo/index.html

Oh, someone in the Bush campaign brain trust thought this was a great idea: branding Obama as dangerous, mysterious, foreign, and academically effete. Ladies and gentlemen, meet DR. NO

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/kyl-obama-is-dr-no

I say, HELL YEAH!

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11320.html
Barack Obama will focus his resources largely in 14 states George W. Bush won in 2004 . . .

The McCain team’s tone-deaf response: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/25/1341/81811
"It’s revealing that Barack Obama has now been forced to expand the states on his map because he’s so weak in traditional Democratic targets such as West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida, not to mention his ongoing problems in Pennsylvania and Ohio,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. . . [read on]

Hmmm . . . could be smart politics for the Dems: build off that old slogan “make abortion safe, legal, . . . and rare”

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15994.html
Before the Democrats convene in Denver, the Rev. Jim Wallis plans to urge Barack Obama to go along with adding an “abortion reduction” plank to the party platform.

“Abortion reduction should be a central Democratic Party plank in this election,” Wallis told ABC News. “I’ll just say that flat out.” . . . [read on]

James Dobson’s attack on Obama’s Christianity probably helps him

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15989.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/dr-dobson-has-just-handed_b_108989.html

The move to filibuster FISA fails, without Obama’s support. Only 15 Dems voted to uphold the filibuster, so Obama’s vote wouldn’t have made a difference – still, that won’t prevent his being beaten up over it.

This is one of those strange political dynamics where he’s partly doing it to demonstrate his independence from the progressive netroots, who are furious with him. Strangely, then, the more we criticize him, the more it helps him in the public eye

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/25/the-real-fisa-vote-passes-80-to-15-with-the-presidential-nominees-passing/

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_on_fisa_telecom_immunity.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/25/194859/776

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6588

Chris Dodd’s helluva speech: http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/4476

What a weird system: Clinton can’t ask her supporters to help her cover her campaign debt, but Obama can ask HIS supporters to do it, and then ask HER supporters to support HIM

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_making_private_calls_app.php

Chris Matthews mixes up “Obama” and “Osama” on two consecutive shows – what’s going, on, Chris?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201624.php

I know some of you are Nader fans, but really folks, WTF is he thinking here?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/ralph-nader-says-obama-is-trying-to-act.html
"I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos," Nader says . . . "Is it because he wants to talk white?”

More: http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1024157,nader062508.article

Schools turn down federal money? (They do when it’s tied to “abstinence only sex education”)

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/states-turn-down-us

I’ll believe it when I see it, but it’s good news if true

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/gop_prepares_to_scale_back_agg_1.php
[Marc Ambinder] John McCain's election strategists plan to tone down the Republicans' traditionally aggressive and public campaign against potential voter fraud, several Republicans familiar with the situation say.

The strategists and consultants all would speak only on the condition that their names and affiliations not be used because they were not permitted to divulge the information, they did not want to disclose internal deliberations, and because the issue is still being discussed within the party.

Sources with direct knowledge of the coordinated Republican effort this year say that high-ranking Republicans, including some within McCain's campaign, are convinced that GOP efforts in 2004 were damaging.

"Spreading 10,000 lawyers around the country and announcing a challenge to 40,000 new registrants in Ohio was counterproductive," a Republican familiar with the situation said. The Republican said that many within the party believed that then-Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's efforts to tighten provisional ballot rules ahead of the 2004 may have increased Democratic turnout because it convinced Democrats that Republicans were trying to disenfranchise voters. . . .

More: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/25/voter_fraud/index.html

Bonus item: Boy, they really just don’t get it, do they?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/john-mccain-is-aware-of-internet.html
"John McCain is aware of the Internet" - McCain campaign Internet strategist Mark Soohoo. . .

Pressed again on McCain's tech savvy, he defends his candidate.

"You don't actually have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country," he says.

"You actually do," former Edwards blogger Tracy Russo responds . . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:09 AM

 
DESELECTED

Where do you go when your Justice Dept is breaking the law?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201429.php
[David Kurtz] The DOJ IG report concludes that Michael Elston, the chief of staff to then-Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, violated federal law and DOJ policy in making partisan-based hiring decisions for the department's Honors Program. . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/80_of_socalled_liberal_applica.php
[Kate Klonick] The DOJ IG report released this morning, besides providing some memorable quotes on woodland creatures, also gave some valuable statistics on the biased hiring practices of Honor Program attorneys.

The nomination process for attorneys had two stages. First, individual offices in DOJ reviewed applications and selected certain ones for interviews. Then, a Screening Committee selected by the deputy attorney general reviewed the selections and made nominations for final interviews. This was a change made in 2002 when the "involvement of political appointees at the Department in the hiring process was greatly expanded."

The OIG broke down nominees into those that they classified as "Liberal," "Conservative" and "Neutral." They then evaluated the deselection (removal from the hiring process) rate of those nominees between 2002 and 2007. They found a strikingly high percentage of identifiable liberals who were culled from the process compared to identifiable conservatives.

For example, in 2002, of the 100 "liberals" nominated, 80% were "deselected" by the Screening Committee. Of the 46 "conservatives" nominated, only 9% were deselected. . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/ig_report_implicates_two_doj_officials.php
When Fridman asked [Esther] McDonald how she obtained the additional information, she told him she conducted searches on Google and MySpace, and read law review articles written by the applicants. For example, Fridman recalled that one candidate had written a law review article about the detention of individuals at Guantánamo, and McDonald noted on the application that she perceived the applicant's viewpoint to be contrary to the position of the administration. On another application, McDonald noted that she found information on the Internet indicating that a candidate was an "anarchist." . . .

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/24/breaking-oig-and-opr-confirms-politicization-of-hiring-at-doj/
[Christy Hardin Smith] Allow this to soak in for a moment: documentary evidence in personnel files at the US Department of Justice was destroyed, including notes on hiring decisions and other pertinent documents which are generally kept in all cases for review by employers nationwide should there be discrimination or other claims which require later review. They were destroyed. As in missing, taken out of the files, not there...before the OIG and the OPR could look at them.

There will be a lot more on this to come, but that stood out like a big flashing sign to me -- people at the department of justice destroyed evidence in a matter being investigated within the department by the OIG. . .

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/todays_must_read_355.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/emails_from_former_us_attorney.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/185427/162

Oh, boy: Feith, Yoo, and Addington all get called before Congress (but will they show up?)

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/house_panel_votes_to_subpoena_feith.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/addington_and_yoo_to_testify_o.php

We knew the Bush gang was reality-challenged. But this is ridiculous

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/washington/25epa.html
The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.

The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said. . . .

[NB: See? If they don’t read it – it doesn’t exist!]

(They’re still doing it)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php
A large portion of an Inspector General evaluation of federal wildlife programs has been blacked out prior to publication, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Even data tables have been excised from a report on Endangered Species Act implementation, with cutouts so extensive that the core section of the report is virtually unreadable.

It sounds arcane, but it’s quite a story: why did State Dept officials lie to cover up the provenance of weapons that were part of an illegal arms deal?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/state_department_inspector_gen.php

OK, let’s concede that the “surge is working” (whatever the hell that means). Well, then, what next? Nobody has a clue

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/gao-bush-once-again

Bush declares victory over North Korea (can we just do the same with Iraq and then get out?)

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/06/breaking_bush_a/

It’s not even news any more, just business as usual

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5234803&page=1
A former top official in the White House's faith-based office was awarded a lucrative Department of Justice grant under pressure from two senior Bush administration appointees. . . .

The ongoing damage caused by Alberto Gonzales

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/24/trading-our-constitution-away-based-on-the-word-of-alberto-gonzales/

FISA: killing the Intelligence Oversight Board

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/14546/0967

Is there still a breath of life in the Dems? The coming Senate fight over FISA

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/23948/3945

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/25/dodd/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/24/dodd-and-feingold-try-to_n_108963.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/121544/461

Were the Dems bought off? http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012747.php

What will Obama do? http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/10/obama_camp_says_it_hell_support_filibuster_of_any_bill_containing_telecom_immunity.php
[October 24, 2007] "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."

What you can do: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/24/fisa-call-your-wobbly-fisa-senator/

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/block-that-kick-by-dday-senator-reid.html

Uh, scratch Tom Ridge off the McCain VP list (he’s pro-choice, he was never going to get it anyhow)

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201395.php

Is this the GOP VP frontrunner? Bring him on!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201456.php

A second national poll gives Obama a hefty double-digit lead over the other guy. It’s still early, but the GOP should be petrified

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/one_is_an_outlier_two_is_a_trend.php

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/25/72242/5672

Here’s a revealing ad: what does it tell you when a Republican touts his connection with the DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate, not the Republican?

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/ive_never_seen_an_ad_like_this.php

Another strange ad: http://www.discourse.net/archives/2008/06/dumbest_and_clumsiest_tvvideo_ad_ever_by_an_incumbent_senator.html

So the Religious Right has to deal now with a Democratic candidate who really is a Christian. You’d think they’d be happy. But because for them politics always comes before religion, they’ve come up with a new line: Obama’s the WRONG KIND of Christian

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/james-dobson-who-himself-could-use.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013970.php

Thank you NYT. Find an angle that spins Charlie Black’s outrageous comment that a terrorist attack would be good for the McCain campaign as a point against the Democrats

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/24/AR2008062401331.html

More: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_camp_mccain_flipflopped.php

Now, HERE’S an energy policy to get behind

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/14108/4529
[MSNBC] At a town hall in Fresno, CA, McCain admitted that the offshore drilling proposal he unveiled last week would probably have mostly "psychological" benefits, NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy notes. "Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial."

Will M.A.D.D. come out against McCain?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/101931/715

The DNC files suit to expose McCain’s campaign finance violations

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/24/115653/552

Richard Cohen (WP), a steady reliable source of brain-twisting nonsense, now says McCain’s flip-flops, while real, aren’t anything to worry about -- but Obama's are

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/wapos_richard_cohen_mccains_fl.php

Bonus item: Yer Prezdent

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/25/ladies-and-gentlemen-the-president-of-the-united-states/
“I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House.”

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:33 AM

 
THE EXPERIENCED TEAM

McCain advisor says a terrorist attack would be a good thing for his candidate. Then he apologizes. But tell me, what is he apologizing for? HE WAS SAYING EXACTLY WHAT THEY BELIEVE

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccains-top-adviser-charlie-black-sees.html
[Fortune] The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an “unfortunate event,” says Black. “But . . . it helped us.” As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him,” says Black.

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/mccain-adviser3
“I cannot imagine why he would say it,” McCain told Hamby. “It’s not true. I’ve worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear.”

Charlie Black has now apologized for his comments. According to a press pool report, outside a McCain fundraiser in Fresno, Black read the from handwritten notes saying, "I deeply regret the comments—they were inappropriate . . .”

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/it_would_be_a_big_advantage_to_him.php
[Mark Kleiman] Fear. It's all they have left. Ever since 9/11, the Republicans, aided and abetted by the mass media, have been doing their best to turn Americans into cowards. It worked on enough people to swing the elections in 2002 and 2004. It didn't work in 2006. I don't think it will work this year.

Yes, this election is about "hope" and "change." But more than that, it's about courage. Barack Obama is appealing to the grown-ups. McCain is appealing to the scared little children.

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/23/171648/183
CNN's Dana Bash just reported that after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, McCain told her he thought it would help him. . . . [watch the video]

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/not_americas_dependence_on_for.php

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/putting-it-out-there-by-dday-if-anyone.html

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_campaign_distances_itse.php

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/obama-blasts-mccain-after-top-mccain.html

A sampler of John McCain’s foreign policy wisdom and insight

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_22_archive.html#3121629628792355051
"One of the things I would do if I were president," McCain told a group of wealthy contributors, "would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, 'Stop the bullshit.'" . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15968.html
[Fortune] “Senator, what do you see as the gravest long-term threat to the U.S. economy?” That was the first question we put to John McCain when he sat down for an interview with Fortune on a sunny afternoon in June . . . We wanted to know what single economic threat he perceives above all others.

McCain at first says nothing…. He’s looking not at us but into the void. His eyes are narrowed. Nine seconds of silence, ten seconds, 11. Finally he says, “Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we’re in against radical Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences.”

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/23/everything-old-is-new-againor-mccain-econ-101/

McCain hits Obama again on opting out of public financing – the very law that he is himself breaking!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201284.php
[Josh Marshall] I must confess that I'm a little confused why more Democrats are not hitting this preening peacock with the fact that he is as we speak breaking the campaign finance laws and specifically breaking the law on accepting public financing. Having opted into the system and gotten the advantage of it he's now spending freely in defiance of the caps he agreed not to spend over. Not a commitment to Common Cause to try to come to deal, but a legally binding commitment to stay within the public system for the primaries (which, by FEC rules, continues through the nominating conventions).

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

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

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15972.html
[Steve Benen] [I]f McCain wants to attack Obama for a reversal on a procedural issue, fine. But he’s making this out to be a violation of the public trust, which it clearly is not. Obama intended to stay in the system, realized it would be a foolish, election-costing move, and withdrew. It’s entirely legal and ethical. “The president has got to keep his word when it’s popular and when it’s not popular”? By that logic, McCain made promises to voters on all kinds of issues — immigration, the budget, energy policy, foreign policy — and then reversed course for the sake of political expediency. McCain really ought to have noticed that he’s living in a glass house before picking up all those rocks.

Who’s REALLY supporting the cause of campaign reform? Ask the reformers

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/watchdogs-rethink
"On reform issues," said David Donnelly, president of Public Campaign Action Fund. "You see McCain slipping and Obama accelerating." . . . "While Obama has not opted in for public financing in this election cycle," said Donnelly. "He's unequivocal about fixing our future election cycles."

Craig Holman, campaign-finance lobbyist for Public Citizen, agrees with Donnelly's upbeat assessment. "Obama has really taken the lead when it's come to campaign finance and lobbying and ethics reform," Holman said, noting that Obama, with Feingold, got through a more stringent lobbying and ethics reform law than one originally proposed by McCain.

YOU’RE a bigger flip-flopper! No, YOU’RE a bigger flip-flopper!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201251.php

And the winner is: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/mashek/2008/6/23/john-mccain-is-the-top-flip-flopper.html

McCain’s goofy idea of a $300 million bounty to build a better car battery. It isn’t just a blatant gimmick, it isn’t just something he has no plans to pay for (cancel a few earmarks, he says). But isn’t this just the sort of thing that Republicans say should be left to the market? A new generation of high-efficiency car batteries would reap a fortune. Isn’t that what commercial R&D is for? Why does the govt need to get into that business – or is this, in fact, an admission that car companies have been shamefully slow in developing these technologies? Somebody hasn’t thought this one through – but don’t worry, I’m sure that after a day or two we’ll never hear it again

http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/06/john_mccains_300_million_car_b.html

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013966.php

McCain’s poll numbers: don’t just look at the totals, look at the intensity of commitment

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-is-suffering-from-enthusiasm-gap.html
[USAT] 61% of Democrats said they were more enthusiastic than usual about voting in this year's election, while just 35% of Republicans said that. . . .

By all accounts, McCain is manically superstitious. Really. He is. Look at this

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/step_on_a_crack_.php

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/2/20/02150/0194

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/mccains-lucky-c.html

http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=21488

Zoom! That was quick: Obama’s ill-considered presidential “seal” is gone for good

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/a_no_seal_zone_starting_1.php

Get ready – the deluge of Obama smears is on schedule and headed this way . . .

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11263.html
The same publisher that distributed the 2004 best-seller that took aim at John Kerry’s Vietnam service is planning a summer release of what’s scheduled to be the first critical book on Barack Obama.

Conservative journalist David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama” will offer “a comprehensive, factual look at Obama,” according to Regnery Publishing president and publisher Marjory Ross.

But the book’s subtitle makes clear its perspective: “The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate.” . . .

. . . and what will Mr. “Civil and Respectful Campaign” McCain do about it? (I think we all know the answer to that question)

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/23/swift-boat-liars-ready-to-swift-boat-obama-will-mccain-denounce-them/

Credit where it’s due: two Mikes from the GOP side speak the truth. But how pitiful is it that this is so remarkable?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15967.html
[Mike Huckabee] What I am saying is that we need to challenge Obama on the basis that his ideas are the wrong ones — not attacking him personally. If people spend their time repeating a bunch of internet driven drivel about his middle name (he didn’t choose his anymore than I chose mine), or his race (I do sincerely celebrate that our country has moved to a place where a person’s race doesn’t limit him from aspiring to the highest office in our land, but I just believe that due to his proposals and lack of substantive experience, he’s gone far enough — not because of his race, but because of his sincere, but misguided proposals), or his church (there are far more important reasons for us to elect Senator McCain than where Obama went to church). . .

I think he is a sincere and obviously a very intelligent and charismatic person. For us to deny that is foolish. Our focus should be to logically and systematically explain why ideas really do matter and why some are bad for those struggling as it is to pay the rent.

Elections ought to be about elevating the best ideas and exposing the worst ones — not engaging in character assassination with half truths, innuendoes, and disputable “internet facts.” . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/nyregion/21jewish.html
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, injecting himself directly into the presidential campaign, forcefully denounced on Friday what he called a “whisper campaign” linking Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to Islam.

Speaking before a crucial constituency in the coming election, Jewish voters, in the pivotal state of Florida, Mr. Bloomberg said that rumors of Mr. Obama secretly being a Muslim represent “wedge politics at its worst, and we have to reject it — loudly, clearly and unequivocally.”

“Let’s call those rumors what they are: lies,” said Mr. Bloomberg . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013964.php

Karl Rove offers a pithy image to describe Obama – and says volumes about himself in the process

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15971.html
“Even if you never met him, you know this guy,” Rove said, per Christianne Klein. “He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

[Steve Benen] Andrew Sullivan noted that Rove is “revealing more about his own insecurities than Obama’s.” I think that’s certainly true, but it’s worth going even further. . . [read on!]

A political programmer’s dream

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15969.html
Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama announced today that they will hold a “Unite for Change” Rally this Friday in Unity, New Hampshire. Both candidates received exactly 107 votes in the western New Hampshire town in the primary. . . .

Why the Gitmo detainees need habeas corpus

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/23/133421/223
Huzaifa Parhat is a Chinese Muslim. . . Parhat and the other Uighurs from Western China have been at Gitmo since 2002. In 2004, the Bush Administration acknowledged most were innocent of wrongdoing but insisted that because they could not go back to China without fear of persecution, and since no other country would take them, it had the right to continue to detain them.

Parhat was one of the Uighurs that the Pentagon refused to release. Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled he is not an enemy combatant and may seek his freedom. . . .

More: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/supreme-court

How Blackwater makes friends

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/blackwaters_automatic_weapons.php
In what looks like a "straw deal," Blackwater financed the purchase of 17 AK-47 rifles and 17 Bushmaster XM15 E2S rifles for the sheriff in the country where the company's headquarters is located and gave the sheriff "unlimited access to those rifles for training and qualification, and state of emergency use" -- but stored the weapons in Blackwater's own armory.

What could a sleepy North Carolina town, with a population under 10,000, need with a cache of 34 automatic weapons for its 19 deputies? . . . [read on]

Arms for everyone!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201259.php
The Albanian government and U.S. embassy in Tirana were working together to disguise from the NYT that China was the country of origin for the ammunition that our favorite 20-something Florida arms dealers were buying from an Albanian arms dealer and shipping to Afghanistan under a U.S. government contract, for which same dudes were indicted last week for violating the Arms Export Control Act. . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/army_major_working_at_albanian.php
When Congress started asking questions about the weapons deal, Harrison suggested that the embassy officials be upfront about the late-night meeting they had in November 2007 with the Albanian defense minister when they talked about how to repackage the Chinese ammo.

But the embassy officials didn't take his advice. And it looks like Harrison sent a C-Y-A memo to his military bosses at European Command on April 16 . . . [read on]

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/waxman_says_us_embassy_in_alba.php

Good government, Iraq style

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/41895.html
A U.S.-allied Iraqi council member sprayed American troops with gunfire Monday, killing two soldiers and wounding three and an interpreter, Iraqi authorities and witnesses said. . . .

Solving problems versus playing politics

http://www.first-draft.com/2008/06/today-on-hold-7.html
MS. PERINO: Hello, everybody. I don't have anything to start off with, so --

Q The stock market is down, the oil prices are up. I take it that this wasn't the outcome you would have wanted from the energy summit.

Q Yes, things are going to hell in a hand basket.

MS. PERINO: . . . Look, look back to what we said going into the conference, which is that this is going to take a long time for us to deal with. There's no magic wand, it's not going to be a problem that we solve overnight. . . .

Q Wouldn't more supply in the short term help more quickly than long-term planning for oil that can't be gathered for another 10 years?

MS. PERINO: I think that the important thing to do in regards to the long-term planning is to send a signal to the market so that they know that this time the government of the United States is serious. . .

So there's a long-term answer and there's a -- there's not a real good short-term answer. And we've been very explicit about that from the beginning.

Q But the short-term problem is what seems to upset people as they go to fill their cars up every day.

MS. PERINO: We absolutely are sympathetic. We understand. . . .

Q Yes, ma'am. Dana, back on the energy issue, you said we should not expect a short-term fix. Are you saying that in the next seven months, we shouldn't see anything really new, or any major changes before this President leaves this White House?

MS. PERINO: April, that's impossible for me to say. . . .

The Supreme Court says the President can ignore environmental rules when he wants to

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/washington/23cnd-scotus.html

Things we already knew

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301796.html
High-ranking political appointees at the Justice Department labored to stock a prestigious hiring program with young conservatives in a five-year-long attempt to reshape the department's ranks, according to an inspector general's report to be released today. . . .

I don’t know: is “Republican hypocrite” an oxymoron?

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/womans_claim_gop_house_candida.php
Okay, we've got some more news for you on the bizarre House race for the open Dem-held seat in Oregon, where [pro-life] GOP nominee Mike Erickson is facing allegations that he pressured a woman into getting an abortion back in 2000 and early 2001. . . .

District judge asks Congress: why file a contempt order against Miers and Bolten for not testifying, when you could just arrest them? Good question

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/judge_why_litigate_when_you_can_arrest.php

What next for FISA in the Senate?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/23/165958/291

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/23/the-pending-fisa-bill-its-worse-than-i-thought/

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/23/221810/476

Bonus item: George Carlin was a brilliant comic talent, and something more than that – go ahead, waste a few minutes

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/quotes/george_carlin.html
When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny? . . .

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? . . .

http://workinghumor.com/quotes/george_carlin.shtml
When someone is impatient and says, "I haven't got all day," I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day? . . .

http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/george_carlin_a001.htm
A lot of the people who keep a gun at home for safety are the same ones who refuse to wear a seat belt. . . .

People who say they don't care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don't care what people think. . . .

http://www.george-carlin.com/carlin.htm
Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines? . . .

http://www.innocentenglish.com/best-funny-jokes/funny-jokes-quotes-comedians/george-carlin-quotes.html
Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backward. . . .

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section? ” She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose. . . .

http://reeltofield.blogspot.com/2008/06/ten-unforgettable-george-carlin-quotes.html
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. . . .

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_may2004/Carlin_Groaners.htm
Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy. . . .

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/carlin.htm
I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe in all these man-made institutional ideas. . . .

http://basicjokes.com/dquotes.php?aid=57
No one ever says, "It's only a game" when their team is winning. . . .

http://www.jokesclean.com/OneLiner/GeorgeCarlinQuotes.php
Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"? . . .

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/George_Carlin
I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect. . . .

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_carlin.html
I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it. . . .

[NB: Until now. R.I.P. you old hippie]

Extra bonus: some Carlin videos

On stuff: http://www.first-draft.com/2008/06/rip-george-carl.html

On airplanes: http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/george_carlin_rip.php

On war: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rlqjxst6xU

More on war: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDkhzHQO7jY

On words: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6539

On religion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

On “saving the planet” (a personal favorite): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

On our similarities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgps85scy1g

On death: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/23/114718/863

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:07 AM

 
GET SMART

Simple things that still need to be explained

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013957.php
[Kevin Drum] [C]onservative law professor Richard Epstein explains something that should be obvious to everyone but apparently isn't: the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush was not about giving habeas corpus rights to enemy combatants. It was about giving prisoners habeas corpus rights to settle the question of whether they're enemy combatants in the first place. . .

This is the week we learned, clearly and unambiguously, how US torture policies were formed at the very highest levels of government and metastasized throughout the system. Will the guilty ever be held to account? Today’s must-read

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2008/062008Floyd.shtml

It could hardly be said any better than this

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/22/55125/3598
[Hunter] Of all the things I despise about the Bush administration, the one I will forever loathe most is how they made morality a minority position. It was the standard operating procedure of the Bush years that ethics was considered quaint, that pride in government was considered hopelessly idealistic, and that morality was the stuff of starry eyed fools.

I could believe that the United States would be reduced to torture; we have tarnished our history with more and with less, over the last two centuries, and it would be naive to presume it had ended, say, with the internment of Japanese Americans, or with the officially sanctioned witch hunts of the paranoid and rigorously manipulative McCarthy era. But I would have found it harder to imagine, even eight years ago, that human torture would be considered the more noble choice than refraining from it, or that those that opposed it would be met with such mockery, or such flag-waving revulsion.

The concept, after all, is simple: one should not torture potentially innocent people. Forget the more unambiguous version, one should not torture anyone -- we are not even halfway there. We can base the premise simply on the notion that one should not torture innocent people to find out whether they "know" something, and you would still find that central element of morality, of basic human principle, of Christianity or any other religion you can name, to be, in America, in 2008, a controversial statement likely to get you condemned as a fool or worse. If you are opposed to the torture of the innocent, you will face the wrath of fat, hateful radio blowhards. You will face condescending, patronizing, entirely amoral lectures on newly discovered legality of the acts from administration lawyers speaking from the editorial pages of our newspapers. You will be told that what you consider torture, what every other society including our own has considered torture up until this very moment of time, is not in fact torture, and that you have affection for terrorists if you think otherwise.

This is the legacy of the Bush administration, and likely the one that will stick long past the other violations of law or ethics. We have glorified brutality, and demonized compassion, and sought to make pariahs out of any that object. And, as a society, we have accepted these premises, and adapted them into our culture, and made them American. . . . [read on]

Feeling safer?

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/06/22/bush_fails_to_appoint_a_nuclear_terror_czar/
Ten months after Congress passed a law establishing a White House coordinator for preventing nuclear terrorism, President Bush has no plans to create the high-level post any time soon . . .

War? B-o-r-r-r-r-i-n-g

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23logan.html
Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard. . .

According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)

CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15962.html

The Bush gang thought that a version of “Radio Free Middle East” would be a good idea – but like everything else they’ve touched in the region, it’s a failure, doomed by arrogance, incompetence, and cultural cluelessness

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201188.php

Yes, we need an intelligent, comprehensive energy policy. Yes, finding new supplies needs to be part of the mix – conservation and alternative sources should be too. But we know what you get when you let an oil man write policy

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15957.html
[Tom Friedman] Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.” . . . [read on]

More on the “Enron Loophole”

http://thepage.time.com/obama-release-on-enron-loophole/

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/23/oil-prices-are-rising-because/

Bush, Cheney, and Plame: there’s a story here, and the press could get answers if they wanted to

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/06/21/plame/

The Franklin scandal may be heating up again. If you want a review, we’ve been tracking this for four years or more: search the archives under “Franklin.” It’s a nasty little tale of reopening old Iran/Contra acquaintances, including the mysterious Manuchar Ghorbanifar, to carry out back-channel intelligence deals with Iran. This nexus ties together secret deals with Chalabi, back when he was the anointed leader of the New Iraq (and back before he betrayed us), the Niger uranium forgery, outing Plame, and other crimes. I’ve never understood why more wasn’t made of this

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8784_sons_of_iran_co.html

No, we’re not ready to let go of the FISA issue

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/22/115325/671
[McJoan] I want to home in on one part of the whole debacle, and why keeping Barack Obama to his vow to try to strip immunity from the bill is important. . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/22/when-reality-meets-the-political-roadblock/

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013956.php
[Kevin Drum] Like everyone else in the liberal blogosphere, I think retroactive immunity is a bad idea that sets a bad precedent, but as I've mentioned before, this isn't a hill I'm willing to die defending. Sure, the telcos may have made the wrong call, but they were caught in a genuinely tough bind in the days after 9/11. The real bad guys here are George Bush and his enablers, who refused to go to Congress after the immediate post-9/11 emergency was over and get legislative approval for the NSA surveillance program.

For my money, then, telecom immunity is a little bit of a sideshow. The rest of the bill matters a lot more. So what's in it?

For starters, the most positive aspect of the bill is that it make clear that FISA and the criminal wiretap laws are the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance may be conducted. It's true that the old FISA bill says the same thing, and in any case it wouldn't surprise me if Bush issued a signing statement saying he disagrees with this section, but still, at least it's something.

However, there are also several negative aspects of the bill aside from telecom immunity, and two of them stand out to me. First, the old FISA allowed NSA to conduct a wiretap for up to 72 hours while waiting for FISA approval. The new bill extends this to a week, allows the surveillance to continue during appeals, and permits the government to use any of the information it collects even if the FISA court eventually rules that the tap is unlawful. This pretty obviously opens the door to some fairly serious abuse in the future.

Second, and more fundamentally, the bill gives wholesale approval to bulk monitoring of electronic communications (primarily email and phone calls). This is the issue that catapulted FISA into prominence in the first place, and it's getting surprisingly little attention this time around. . . . [read on]

So, for once we have a Democrat who is insanely popular and can bring in tons of money (most of it through small contributions). Poor John McCain is stuck with public financing (though you know he would opt out himself in an instant if he had access to the kind of money Obama does). Republicans used to call this the marketplace at work. Now, suddenly, with a Democrat in the lead, the media is all aflutter that this is an unfair situation

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-cohen/news-flash-anchor-stands_b_108467.html
By opting out of public financing, Gibson intoned, the Democrat could obtain "two times, three times, four times, as much money as John McCain."

"Let me ask you a question about basic fairness," Gibson implored of his top D.C. correspondent George Stephanopoulos. "People in this country like to believe that people play on a level playing field and that a campaign will be about ideas and personality; if you start with that much more money, is it basically fair?"

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15958.html
[Steve Benen] Barack Obama’s decision to skip the public financing system has really enraged the nation’s newspaper editors. I’ve already explained why I think all the hand-wringing is unnecessary. In fact, in some instances, the criticism is backwards — by sidestepping public financing and raising his own war chest, Obama will rely less on outside, independent groups, not more, which will mean add transparency and accountability to the process.

But the Politico’s Kenneth Vogel notes that the slew of scathing editorials — which, by the way, were far and few between when John McCain flouted the public financing system in a legally dubious fashion — have come from all over. . . .

[I]nstead of public financing, Obama is accepting financing from the public. The horror. . . .

Bill Kristol tries to come up with an ingenious argument against voting for Barack Obama

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15961.html
[Steve Benen] As Bill Kristol sees it, if John McCain wins in November (or the White House believes McCain will win in November), Still-President Bush is content leaving a confrontation with Iran to the future. If Barack Obama wins, or appears poised to win, Bush may go ahead and force the issue.

“[I]f the president thought John McCain were going to be the next president, he would think it more appropriate to let the next president make that decision than do it on his way out,” Kristol said. “I do wonder with Senator Obama, if President Bush thinks Senator Obama’s going to win, does he somehow think that — does he worry that Obama won’t follow through on that policy.”

Kristol added that Saudi Arabia and Egypt may conclude, if Obama is elected, “Maybe we can use nuclear weapons,” too. . .

McCain’s lobbyist entanglements even extend to his marriage

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-hensley22-2008jun22,0,965991.story
Hensley, founded by Cindy McCain's late father, holds federal and state licenses to distribute beer and lobbies regulatory agencies on alcohol issues that involve public health and safety.

The company has opposed such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving in fighting proposed federal rules requiring alcohol content information on every package of beer, wine and liquor. . .

Hensley has run afoul of health advocacy groups that have tried to rein in appeals to young drinkers. For example, the company distributes caffeinated alcoholic drinks that public health groups say put young and underage consumers at risk by disguising the effects of intoxication.

The involvement of McCain's family in federal regulatory issues could create a conflict of interest for a future McCain administration . . .

McCain’s shifty trip to Canada

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15959.html

McCain tries to play it cute with Latinos (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/22/latinos-have-figured-out-two-face-mccain/

The numbers that should make McCain worry

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6502

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/coming-around-by-digby-heres-some-good.html

Smashing David Broder

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/22/92037/4745
David Broder: Trust McCain, because I do. "His shifts in position that have occurred in this campaign seem not to have damaged that aura." Not with me, it hasn't. Nice lad, good family. And don't trust Obama because I don't. He is not only new, he's neither a Republican nor willing to cooperate in things that would support McCain (whom I know well, and trust). Also, did I mention he's a Republican? . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15956.html
[Steve Benen] David Broder’s take on a journalist’s professional responsibilities sounds about right: “People think that we are part of the establishment and therefore part of the problem. I mean, what bothers me is the notion that journalists believe, or some journalists believe, that they can have their cake and eat it too…. You can be a public performer on the lecture circuit or television. I think that’s greedy.”

The irony, of course, is rich. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012741.php

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/broder-mccains-ties-to-bush-his-flip.html

Bonus item: The Republicans think you’re stupid

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/iced-coffee-klatch-by-digby.html
During a radio interview on Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) attempted to argue that drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) would be beneficial for Arctic wildlife . . . [read on]

More: http://www.juancole.com/2008/06/shenkman-why-american-people-were-so.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:32 AM

 
DUBIOUS DISTINCTIONS

A milestone, of sorts

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/21/afghanistan/index.html
Foreign troop deaths in the Afghan war have been exceeding those in the Iraq conflict in recent weeks . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/22rich.html
[Frank Rich] CBS war correspondent Lara Logan appeared as Jon Stewart’s guest on “The Daily Show” to lament the vanishing television coverage and the even steeper falloff in viewer interest. “Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier,” she said. After pointing out that more soldiers died in Afghanistan than Iraq last month, she asked, “Who’s paying attention to that?”

Her question was rhetorical, but there is an answer: Virtually no one. . . . [read on]

We’re not building “permanent” bases in Iraq? Oh really?

http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/what-exactly-is-a-permanent-base/index.html
“The whole debate about permanent bases is meaningless,” said John Pike, the director of Global Security, a Web site that collects information on defense and intelligence issues. “There is no such thing as a permanent base.”

For example, Mr. Pike said, the United States military is currently vacating “temporary” facilities in the center of Seoul, South Korea, for more secure and modern barracks to the south of the city. Those temporary facilities, built after the Korean War, are more than 50 years old and crumbling.

On the other extreme, he said, Fort Monroe, Va., where ground was broken in 1819, was shuttered in the 2005 round of base closings.

So even though we may never have permanent bases in Iraq, we could very well have some venerable temporary facilities there before we finally depart.

How many? Recent reports, like that in the Independent and other media outlets put the number as high as 58. But how many bases do we have now?

The United States military does not say, and it is a hard number to pin down because it depends on what you call a base. In a 2005 report, Global Security identified 275 bases in Iraq. With the surge, which entailed the establishment of numerous, fortified outposts around the country that could be considered bases, that number is undoubtedly much higher now.

But some of the major military bases in Iraq, like the Baghdad airport, Balad and Asad, consist of as many as a dozen adjoining bases, each with its own entrance and administration, Mr. Pike says. So do you count them as, say, 12 bases or just one?

Right now, they are counted as 12. But in the continental United States, the military officially considers them as only one, Mr. Pike says. So just a small accounting change could, in theory, easily reduce 250 or more bases to 58 or less.

In any event, it is not clear why the United States would need more than a handful of big bases in the future, and most if not all of those are already there and looking quite permanent, from the KFC and Burger King outlets, to the car dealerships, to the 6,000-person mess halls.

I’m not a military policy specialist, but this sounds like a stunning failure by someone at the Pentagon level

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/washington/22military.html
Ever since the Army lost its warplanes to a newly independent Air Force after World War II, soldiers have depended on the sister service for help from the sky . . . .

But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have frayed the relationship, with Army officers making increasingly vocal complaints that the Air Force is not pulling its weight. . .

[N]ow in Iraq, the Army has quietly decided to try going it alone for the important surveillance mission, organizing an all-Army surveillance unit that represents a new move by the service toward self-sufficiency, and away from joint operations. . . .

The man who broke Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Read this

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/washington/22ksm.html
Mr. Martinez’s success at building a rapport with the most ruthless of terrorists goes to the heart of the interrogation debate. Did it suggest that traditional methods alone might have obtained the same information or more? Or did Mr. Mohammed talk so expansively because he feared more of the brutal treatment he had already endured?

A definitive answer is unlikely under the Bush administration, which has insisted in court that not a single page of 7,000 documents on the program can be made public. . . .

Mr. Mohammed met his captors at first with cocky defiance . . . But the rules had changed, and the tough treatment began shortly after Mr. Mohammed was delivered to Poland. By several accounts, he proved especially resistant, chanting from the Koran, doling out innocuous information or offering obvious fabrications. The Times reported last year that the intensity of his treatment — various harsh techniques, including waterboarding, used about 100 times over a period of two weeks — prompted worries that officers might have crossed the boundary into illegal torture. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/21/235132/383

More shoes drop

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/20/AR2008062002939.html
Senior lawyers inside and outside the Bush administration repeatedly warned the White House that it was risking judicial scrutiny of its detention policies in Guantanamo Bay if it did not pursue a more pragmatic legal strategy that considered the likely reaction of the Supreme Court. But such advice, issued periodically over the past six years, was ignored or discounted . . .

A heckuva job

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/us/22midwest.html
The levees along the Mississippi River offer a patchwork of unpredictable protections. Some are tall and earthen, others aging and sandy, and many along its tributaries uncataloged by federal officials. . . .

After the last devastating flood in the Midwest 15 years ago, a committee of experts commissioned by the Clinton administration issued a 272-page report that recommended a more uniform approach to managing rising waters along the Mississippi and its tributaries, including giving the principal responsibility for many of the levees to the Army Corps of Engineers.

But the committee chairman, Gerald E. Galloway Jr., a former brigadier general with the Corps of Engineers, said in an interview that few broad changes were made once the floodwaters of 1993 receded and were forgotten. . . [read on]

Is McCain losing his “base” in the media? Has his straight-talkin’ maverick image been blown for good?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/21/185437/436
[Jack Cafferty, CNN] If John McCain doesn't stop changing his position on the issues, he threatens to make John Kerry look like an amateur. . . .

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/06/mccain-camp-lie.html
McCain Campaign Lied to Reporter About Public Finance Loan . . .

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080621/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_s_missteps;_ylt=AllRfbiMFuN6GcN1cmiT6rms0NUE
Sen. John McCain is hampered by missteps and self-generated controversy in the early days of the general election campaign for the White House . . .

Even some Republicans have cringed in recent weeks at the campaign's efforts to ramp up for the fall campaign, although they will speak only privately. . . . [read on]

It isn’t just a matter of flip-flopping – nearly every reversal of position McCain has undertaken has been to bring his positions CLOSER to Bush’s. This needs to be pointed out again and again and again

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15953.html

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142500

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-i-do-not-support-roe-v-wade-it.html

[NB: On the McLaughlin Group, Pat Buchanan predicted that it’s only a matter of time before McCain reverses his position on ANWR oil drilling to coincide with Bush’s.]

A ridiculous excuse for an energy "policy"

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15944.html

More reasons for McCain to worry – now Obama is expanding the field to 18 key battleground states

http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/obama-expands-battleground-to-18-states/20080620201009990001
"America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life's been blessed by both," Obama says in the ad slated to run in 18 states as he tries to win over independents and disaffected Republicans. "If I have the honor of taking the oath of office as president, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love." . . .

The campaign chose to compete, at least for now, in 11 swing-voting states - Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - and seven others that have reliably voted for Republican presidential candidates in the past several elections - Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota and Virginia. . . .

Atrios likes to say that for a certain breed of pundit, EVERYTHING that transpires is good news for the Republicans. But you’d think no one could spin Obama’s 15-point lead over McCain in the latest Newsweek poll as a good sign. You would be wrong (Warning – the errors of reasoning here could make your head explode. You’ve been warned).

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/blogs/fortyfourthestate/show_comments.php?entry_id=2683

Atrios: scarily smart and insightful sometimes

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_15_archive.html#1234067466832961618
Democrats will regret embracing the expansion of executive power because a President Obama will find his administration undone by an "abuse of power" scandal. All of those powers which were necessary to prevent the instant destruction of the country will instantly become impeachable offenses. If you can't imagine how such a pivot can take place then you haven't been paying attention.

Obama continues to be trashed for his position on FISA. I’m not going to make excuses for him – though the fact is that this wasn’t his initiative, but that of Steny Hoyer, Jay Rockefeller, and others, with the acquiescence of the congressional Democratic leadership. Once it passed, it put Obama in an impossible position

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/21/obama/index.html
Obama's support for the FISA "compromise" . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/21/1545/63989
Barack Obama Thinks You're Stupid . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/20/173221/080/691/539330
You can't selectively support the Constitution, Senator Obama . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/21/44652/2407
Why Do We Care About FISA? . . .

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/06/guide-to-new-fisa-bill-part-i.html
A Guide to the New FISA Bill . . .

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6514
When We Destroy The Rule of Law, The Terrorists Win . . .

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/21/building-a-progressive-democratic-party/
Building a Progressive Democratic Party . . .

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6516
We Need a New Generation of Leadership . . .

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012736.php
Not another dime in my name goes to the Democratic Party or its candidates for the 2008 election cycle. . .

Would adding a Republican as VP be a good idea for Obama?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15952.html

Will Obama’s be a “faith-based” presidency?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15947.html

Theocracy watch: this is a real story, not made up

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_re_us/teacher_bible
The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.

School board members voted 5-0 to fire Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater . . .

Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.

"With the exception of the cross-burning episode . . . I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Friday.

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15951.html

Floyd Brown embodies everything that is vicious, irrational, and atavistic in the contemporary political scene. He and his ilk can only be condemned – party affiliation aside – by anyone who believes politics should be based on issue identification, policy proposals, and leadership ability. For some inexplicable reason, though, the New York Times decides to play dumb

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/21/the-nyt-helps-right-wing-trash-chase-right-wing-cash/
“At the heart of the effort is a Web site, ExposeObama.com, that has featured two Web advertisements, one on Mr. Obama’s record on crime and the other on his religious background.” . . . [read on]

I LOVE this book title

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/21/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-david-michaels-doubt-is-their-product/
“Doubt Is Their Product” . . . [read on]

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101722.html
FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Thomas A. Daschle, national co-chair of the Obama presidential campaign, and former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute, and Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

NEWSMAKERS (C-SPAN): Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.).

FACE THE NATION (CBS): New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and McCain senior adviser Carly Fiorina.

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).

LATE EDITION (CNN): Richardson, Reps. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), Obama economic adviser Robert Reich and McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

Bonus item: A bit presumptuous, don't you think?

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/06/bad_taste/

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:34 AM

 
COMPROMISED

Obama makes a tough call, backs the FISA compromise. It’s hardly a profile in courage, but given that it has a strong majority behind it, should he really stake his candidacy on this issue?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/20/155839/542
[Obama] "It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives – and the liberty – of the American people." . . . [read on]

[Bloomberg] Reid said the Senate may try to remove a provision from the bill that shields telephone companies from privacy lawsuits. Holding a separate vote on that issue next week may provide political cover for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Even though the attempt may fail, Reid said the vote would allow those opposed to the liability protection to "express their views."

"I'm going to try real hard to have a separate vote on immunity," Reid said . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/todays_must_read_353.php
[Andrew Tilghman] The final compromise on the immunity issue was this: Many Democrats had wanted the federal courts to review whether the surveillance program was legal before granting immunity. The White House wanted the courts to have no involvement whatsoever. The "compromise" calls on the courts to consider the surveillance legal if the companies can prove that the Administration told them it was legal. (Which we know they did). . . . [read on]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/20/bipartisanship/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] As I noted yesterday, the GOP couldn't even wait for the ink to dry on this "compromise" before publicly -- and accurately -- boasting that they not only got everything they want, but got even more than they dreamed they would get. To The New York Times' Eric Lichtblau, GOP House Whip Roy Blunt derided the telecom amnesty provision as nothing more than a "formality" which would inevitably lead to the immediate and automatic dismissal of all lawsuits against the telecoms, while Sen. Kit Bond taunted the Democrats for giving away even more than they had to in order to get a deal: "I think the White House got a better deal than they even had hoped to get." . . . [read on]

Obama gets what he deserves: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15945.html
[Steve Benen] I can’t begin to imagine what he’s thinking. In fact, I know he knows better. . . .

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/why_obamas_support_for_fisa_ca.php
[Greg Sargent] Here's what's so dispiriting about it . . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/20/obama-replied/
[Marcy Wheeler, summarizing Obama’s statement] 1. I will make a showy effort in the Senate on Monday to get them to take out immunity. I will lose that effort 32-65. But hey! I can say I tried!

2. But don't worry, little boys and girls, Inspectors General are an adequate replacement for our third co-equal branch of government!

3. Nice little bloggers! Aren't you cute! After you demanded accountability we gave you piggy lipstick and fig leaves and told you it was time to move on while we important Senators told you--in polite terms--to f-ck off.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/sistah-soljahd-by-digby-theres-lots-of.html
[Digby] I am tempted to say this is a Sistah Soljah moment, wherein Barack makes it clear to the Villagers that he is not one of the DFH's, despite all their ardent support. Nothing is more associated with us than this issue. It may even make sense on some sort of abstract level. He's obviously decided that he has to run to the right pretty hard to counteract that "most liberal Senator" label. . . . [read on]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/20/182650/488
[Todd Beeton] Color me not all that surprised that Barack Obama, so far, is punting on this issue. He's never really proven himself among the bolder, more progressive senators, which is one of the reasons I was actually sort of stunned by the near monolithic shift toward him among the progressive blogosphere once John Edwards dropped out. But now he has an opportunity, not only as a senator, but as the putative head of the Democratic Party, to block retroactive telecom immunity as he has pledged to do. . . .

http://www.discourse.net/archives/2008/06/obama_acts_like_a_coward.html
[Michael Froomkin] Obama Acts Like a Coward . . . [read on]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/20/223359/674

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/21/01146/1539

Is saving “exclusivity” enough to justify the FISA bill?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/20/114626/796

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/is-claiming

John McCain says, “Gee, what do you expect me to do to limit 527’s that might spend millions on my behalf?” Obama says, “Watch me”

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/moveon_to_close_its_527.php
MoveOn, the advocacy group supporting Barack Obama, has decided to permanently shutter its 527 operation, partly in response to the Illinois Senator's insistence that such groups should not spend on his behalf during the general election . . .

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/20/134113/821

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/20/obama_527/index.html

Ball’s in your court now, Johnny: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/will_there_be_any_rightwing_gr.php

http://mediamatters.org/items/200806200003

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/us/politics/21ads.html

McCain gives more double talk on immigration – this time behind closed doors

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15943.html
[Steve Benen] I don’t want to alarm anyone, but it appears that John McCain’s immigration policy is dependent entirely on who he happens to be talking to at the time. . .

For those keeping score at home, McCain does not support “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Yes, he does.

No, he doesn’t.

Yes, he does.

No, he doesn’t.

Yes, he does.

No, he doesn’t.

And as of yesterday, he does again.

Nearly all of these, by the way, come from the last six months. . . . [read on]

What he said: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/20/mccain-to-latinos-im-your-pal-just-dont-tell-anyone/

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/title----mcca-1.html

McCain clarifies when he will start withdrawing troops from Iraq: when they’re “done”

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/20/mccains-latest-position-on-iraq-we-will-come-home-immediately-when-they-are-done/

Can’t let rescue work get in the way of a good photo op

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-19-mccain-iowa-trip_N.htm
An aide to Iowa's governor said Thursday that Republican presidential candidate John McCain ignored the governor's request to cancel a campaign visit amid a massive flood recovery effort in the state. . . . [read on]

The press’s love affair with Honest John: is it coming to an end?

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080707/alterman
[Eric Alterman] We've enjoyed him on The Daily Show, admired his courage in Vietnam and imagine we understand his appeal. Perhaps if we had all spent more time hanging, we would appreciate the senator's company, his hospitality and his eagerness to speak his mind in our presence as so much of the MSM has. It is even possible that we would call him John when speaking with him. And let's be honest, we cannot be certain that, were he still running against George W. Bush, we would not fall into the habit of referring to the McCain campaign as "we"--as in, "I hope we kill Bush"--which apparently happened with some frequency during McCain's unsuccessful 2000 run.

But even though we might be taken with McCain personally, we would like to think that we would resist the urge to offer the sort of spontaneous testimonials to his character that have gushed from the pens of so many MSM journalists. . . . [read on]

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_15_archive.html#1857596688300996345
[CJR] If a candidate for president unwittingly revealed, at a widely attended press conference, that he either didn’t understand a basic element of one of his own key policy proposals, or wanted to fool the public about it, you’d think the mainstream press would treat it as news. Apparently, you’d be wrong.

[Atrios] CJR obviously misunderstands the role of the press in this campaign, which is to explain what they "know" John McCain really meant in such a way as to excuse every gaffe and to minimize any potential damage to him. Since at this point he's been on all sides of just about every issue, this involves making sure voters understand that whatever they think about the issues, John McCain agrees with them!

Wow

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/poll_with_primaries_over_obama.php
Barack Obama might just be getting his post-primary national bounce. A new poll from Newsweek gives him a 51%-36% lead over John McCain, up from a 46%-46% tie a month ago. . . .

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/concerning_outliers.php
[Mark Kleiman] No, of course if the election were held today Barack Obama wouldn't beat John McCain by fifteen points. A poll that shows a 55-36 partisan split may reflect a shift toward the Democrats, or it may reflect some sort of sample-selection bias; most likely it reflects some of each. And of course the election isn't being held today.

Still, even outliers convey real information. Whatever the actual error is in polling (and it's clearly much larger than the sampling error that gets reported as the plus-or-minus figure) it's very unlikely that any competently done poll of a race that's actually more or less tied yields a fifteen-point edge for one competitor. If the question is, "With Bush's job performance ratings in the toilet, why is the Obama/McCain race still so close?" the answer may be "It isn't."

Half a billion

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/election_central_morning_round_102.php

This is getting way ahead of the game, but should Obama keep on Def. Sec. Bob Gates? A debate

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/201005.php

Michael Bloomberg: Republican? Democrat? Independent? In or out? Endorsing, not endorsing?

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/is-bloomberg-tipping

The Bush gang wants a “do over”

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqojNIPF7zZ2IQtXyZGI0BO8D4OQD91DUSL80
The Bush administration wants to rewrite the official evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees, allowing it to shore up its cases before they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first time. . . .

The decision follows last week's Supreme Court ruling, which held that detainees have the right to challenge their detention in civilian court, not just before secret military panels. At a closed-door meeting with judges and defense attorneys this week, government lawyers said they needed time to add new evidence and make other changes to evidentiary documents known as "factual returns." . . .

"It's sort of an admission that the original returns were defective," said attorney David Remes, who represents many detainees and attended Wednesday's meeting. . .

I am developing a real dislike for Condi Rice

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/condoleezza-rice-is
[On the four oil companies rushing in to start making money off the “new Iraq] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday said the U.S. government played no role in securing the deals. . . .

[NB: Yeah, right]

She called the impending contracts a sign that security gains are attracting foreign investment in Iraq.

"It demonstrates that the private sector is beginning to get interested in Iraq” . . .

Scott McClellan doesn’t really give us anything new on prewar lies or on Plame – except to make clear that there is more to both stories that we haven’t learned yet

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/what-happened-dont
[Matthew Delong] Scott McClellan's Congressional testimony today added little, if anything, beyond the revelations in his tell-all book. The last two hours of the hearings were taken up by sympathetic Democrats asking him about having to swallow the Bush administration's line on a laundry list of issues-- Plamegate, the U.S. Attorney's scandal, Justice Dept. memos authorizing torture and the general selling of the Iraq War.

McClellan said he had no inside knowledge about any of these things. As a press secretary he was only privy to administration talking points, not inside information. . .

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/20/mcclellan/index.html
[Alex Koppelman] In one example, asked whether he thought former Bush advisor Karl Rove could be trusted to testify truthfully if he ever does appear, McClellan said he didn't think so. "[B]ased on my own experience, I could not say that I would," McClellan said. "I have some concerns about that."

McClellan also repeated his accusation that the Bush administration hadn't been forthright about the case for war in Iraq. "It's public record that they were ignoring caveats and ignoring contradictory intelligence," McClellan said. And he said Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, lied when McClellan asked him if he was involved in the disclosure of Plame's name. Libby, as readers of this blog will almost certainly recall, was convicted of lying to investigators about the leak, but his sentence was commuted by President Bush.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/20/mcclellan.testimony/index.html
McClellan also said he could not rule out that Cheney had ordered his former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to leak Plame Wilson's identity. A later investigation showed that Libby, in fact, had been involved in the leaking of the CIA operative's name. . . .

"I think that [special prosecutor] Patrick Fitzgerald stated it well when he talked about the cloud that was remaining over the vice president's office because of Scooter Libby's actions that led to his conviction on four counts, I guess," McClellan said Friday.

"But there's a lot of suspicion there because there are questions that have never been answered, despite the fact that we said at some point we would address these issues," he said. . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15942.html
“I think that Patrick Fitzgerald stated it well when he talked about the cloud that was remaining over the vice president’s office because of Scooter Libby’s actions that led to his conviction on four counts, I guess,” McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee. “But there’s a lot of suspicion there because there are questions that have never been answered, despite the fact that we said at some point we would address these issues…. I do not think the president had any knowledge [of Plame’s identity]. In terms of the vice president, I do not know.”

Moreover, McClellan testified that former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card told him that Bush and Cheney wanted McClellan to tell reporters that Libby was not involved in the leak of an undercover CIA agent.

”I was reluctant to do it,” McClellan said. ”I got on the phone with Scooter Libby and asked him point-blank, ‘Were you involved in this in any way?’ And he assured me in unequivocal terms that he was not.”

[Roll Call] Under questioning from Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), former Bush administration spokesman Scott McClellan stated that ex-White House political mastermind Karl Rove would not, in his experience, be a trustworthy witness if he were not placed under oath while talking to lawmakers. . . .

At a hearing on Friday into McClellan’s statements in his new book about the Valerie Plame scandal, Rep. Davis asked McClellan, who has known Rove since his days in Texas politics, whether he would trust Rove in the more informal setting. “Based on my own experience, I could not say that I would,” McClellan said.

Davis further queried whether Rove was capable of lying to protect himself from legal jeopardy. The former aide said of the Plame matter: “He certainly lied to me. That’s the only conclusion that I can draw.” As to whether Rove would lie to shield himself from political embarrassment: “I would have to say that he did in my situation, so the answer is yes.” . . .

Furthermore, asked by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) which members of the Bush administration should come before Congress to testify on the Plame matter, McClellan pointed to Vice President Cheney and unnamed others below him.

“It would be a benefit if they shared everything they know, and it would be a benefit if they did it under oath,” he stated.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_go_co/cia_leak_probe
"This is a very secretive White House ... There's some things that they would prefer not to be talked about," McClellan said. . . .

McClellan accused Bush of a lack of candor in other areas, including what he called the "packaging" of intelligence to justify the Iraq war and the president's handling of allegations that many years ago he had used cocaine. . . .

In his recently released book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan recounts overhearing Bush on the telephone telling a supporter that "I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not."

McClellan called that kind of response to sensitive questions by Bush and other politicians "essentially evasion" that later "transferred over to other issues" of policy.

"It tells something about his character," he maintained.

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/20/scott-mcclellan-testimony-the-recap/

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mcclellan.php

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1738

Once again, pushed to the wall on embarrassing or damning testimony, the Bush gang invokes “executive privilege”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200971.php
[David Kurtz] The House oversight committee was supposed to vote this morning on whether to hold EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson (and an OMB official) in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas.

But the EPA and the White House have now invoked executive privilege, committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) just announced, so he's delaying the vote to assess the privilege claims.

Keep in mind that the EPA and White House have been stonewalling Waxman for months, but have waited until now to formally invoke executive privilege.

It's all part of the Bush Administration's overarching strategy for its last year in office: Delay. Delay. Delay.

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15939.html

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/epa_and_omb_give_oversight.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/waxman_i_havent_seen_anything.php

Another day. . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/flores_faces_criminal_investig.php
Another week, another DOJ investigation of itself. . . . [read on]

Long-time readers know that we’ve always felt there was a big story in the Ledeen/Rhode/Franklin connection with Iran. Apparently, the Justice Dept does too

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8781_does_investigat.html

Bonus item: Norm Coleman’s (R-MN) fake ad

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/did_gop_senator_fake_an_ad_sho.php

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:14 AM

 
REWRITING HISTORY

A Major General of the US Army says, yes, the Bush gang is guilty of war crimes

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/19/154018/951
"[T]here is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

More: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/41514.html

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/20/proud-of-america/

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/06/we-do-not-tor-1.html

Who are those liberal, terrorist-loving lawyers who keep raising challenges to the Bush torture, abuse, rendition, secret imprisonment, and prosecution-biased tribunal system?

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/should-gitmo
[S]ome of the most vocal opponents of the military tribunal system for trying terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, which was set up by Congress under the 2006 Military Commissions Act, have been the military defense lawyers representing the detainees. . . [read on]

Well, well, well: I guess it really WAS all about oil after all

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/19/sympathy-for-the-devil/
[NYT] Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. . . [read on]

More: http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/blood_for_oil_2.php

Good resource: the history behind the Iraq War

http://thehistorybehindthenews.com/

The neocons try to rewrite history

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/the-return-of-the

The Dems cave on FISA, with a de facto immunity provision. After all this, Bush and the GOP get exactly what they wanted. And the progressive blogosphere is livid

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/115414/787/632/538388

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200799.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15928.html

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/19/details-on-the-fisa-compromise/

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/19/fisa-screwed-blued-and-tattooed/

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/19/telecom/index.html

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/19/the-fisa-bill/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/18/the-fisa-shaft-is-underway/

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/feingold_says_dems_deal_is_a_c.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/154717/892

A correction: http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/fisa_followup.php

The Dems cave on war funding too – they get a couple of minor concessions, but don’t even make the obvious move of making the funding dependent on giving themselves a vote on any long-term status of forces agreement

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/94928/5049

Scotty goes before Congress today – could be Very Interesting

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/politics/2008/06/18/gop-insiders-fret-about-what-former-white-house-spokesman-will-say_print.htm
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, scheduled for Friday, has some Republican insiders worried. . . .

Scott Bloch: a showdown is coming

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/why_isnt_the_white_house.php
"We're trying to deal with this by decapitation," one official told TPM. "The big question is: Why isn't the White House letting him go?"

US Attorney revelations just keep rolling in . . .

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5202405&page=1
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, now under investigation for allegedly politicizing the Justice Department, ousted a top lawyer for failing to adopt the administration's position on torture and then promised him a position as a U.S. attorney to placate him . . . [read on]

Obama pulls out of public campaign financing. Why he had to do it

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/19/91146/5327

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8758_obama_opts_out.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/124626/485
[Kos] Actually, Obama didn't reverse any previous stance. He previously said he would be willing to negotiate comprehensive limits that included 527s and other outside groups. However, McCain made it very clear that he had no interest in such limits on outside groups. . . .

And without comprehensive limits on all political players, it made little sense for Obama to tell his millions of small-dollar donors that they couldn't invest financially in his campaign.

Of course, Republicans will whine that Obama "broke his promise". They've got no other choice. McCain is getting crushed financially, and has little of the popular support that Obama enjoys. The GOP's best hope for financial parity was to cajole and embarrass Obama into opting into a system -- an act that would've been political malpractice for the Obama campaign. When you have millions of people eager to participate in the process, you don't muzzle them, especially not to make John McCain feel better. And as a result, Obama will be able to run a true 50-state campaign, engaging people in every corner of our country.

Of course, let's not forget that McCain opted in to the public finance system in the primary, then backed out after using his opt-in to secure a loan and get on the ballot in several states -- breaking not just his promise, but the law as well. Of course, hypocrisy never stopped Republicans, and this issue won't be any different. But let's not pretend that hypocrisy isn't there.

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_15_archive.html#4774598080804545302
[Atrios] Good. I've long been somewhat wary of public financing in general terms. It was a solution to a problem, but not the only one, not necessarily the best one, and definitely not a solution immune from exploitation such that it could eventually become part of the problem itself. That is, something incumbents could manipulate to their own advantage in various ways.

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15926.html

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_camp_we_opted_out_of_pub.php

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/obama-camp-responds

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/151039/192

Meanwhile, McCain is breaking the very law he complains that Obama won’t follow

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/17/dnc_lawsuit/

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200902.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200840.php

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/how-can-any-pundit-claim-mccain-has.html

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/petition/mccainfec

The AP gets it wrong – but they do get donuts!

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/aps-liz-sidoti-also-ignores-mccains.html

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/20/hatchet-jobwith-sprinkles/

McCain versus McCain: we’re making a list

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15924.html

Don’t call it a flip-flop: just laugh

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/this-is-not-a-flip
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced his support today for a popular veterans' education proposal after the bill was tweaked to allow soldiers to transfer the benefits to family members. That change, McCain contends, will provide incentive for troops to remain in uniform longer -- a provision he says is vital for an all-volunteer military.

McCain's opposition to the original proposal, sponsored by Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), a fellow Vietnam veteran, had caused a stir among vets groups earlier in the year and threatened to become a thorny issue for the Arizona senator on the campaign trail. (After all, how can you claim to support the troops if you don't support the troops?) . . . [read on]

Another one to come?

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/mccain_hinting_at_anwr_reversa.php
[Springfield News] McCain has previously opposed increased deep sea drilling off the coasts of Florida and other coastal states.

For years, McCain has opposed drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Refuge Area (ANWR).

But during today's town hall meeting, McCain said he'd be willing to reconsider that stance.

“I would be more than happy to examine it again,” McCain said.

[NB: “More than happy” indeed]

I do NOT think it is smart for McCain to put his wife Cindy out front in attacks on Michelle Obama. She has her own . . . baggage, as we’ve discussed here before. But for obvious reasons Michelle Obama can’t be portrayed as attacking her

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/politics&id=6216869

Let me make a point here. During the GOP primary, candidates like Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani were trumpeted at times as inevitable victors, great champions who would save the party and dominate the campaign. That seems ridiculously laughable now, doesn’t it? During much of that, McCain was an also-ran, almost a joke. Now the media is obliged to treat him like a serious contender, but his weaknesses are as glaring as they ever were – and Giuliani and Thompson are now reduced to the pathetic role of proxies and hatchet men for the McCain campaign. Tell me this looks like a winning team

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-screws-up-again-this-time-by.html

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/19/now-this-is-what-i-call-some-rudy-guiliani-smackdown/

Obama runs a new ad, re-introducing himself to America. It’s not hard to figure out what he’s doing here. The most interesting thing is the list of states where it’s running

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6458
"I'm Barack Obama. America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life's been blessed by both. I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you'd like to be treated. It's what guided me as I worked my way up - taking jobs and loans to make it through college. It's what led me to pass up Wall Street jobs and go to Chicago instead, helping neighborhoods devastated when steel plants closed. That's why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded troops who'd been neglected. I approved this message because I'll never forget those values, and if I have the honor of taking the oath of office as President, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/134513/737
[The Atlantic] The ad will air in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia, per the campaign.

[Kos] We can probably say with some certainty that this is Obama's early battleground targets. I would've loved to see Mississippi and Nebraska on this list, but aside from that, it's pretty clear that Obama is playing offense. Of that list, only Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are Kerry states. And really, those are the only current Blue states competitive at this juncture of the campaign.

Florida and Ohio are obvious inclusions, as are several purple states like Iowa and Nevada, even Virginia. But it's great to see solid Red states in the mix like Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota. This year's battles will be fought deeper in Red territory than we've seen in ages.

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15931.html

Polls are polls, and you can find numbers to support anything – but a lot of the current evidence suggests that Obama is going to squash McCain in the Fall. Not. . . even. . . close

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200843.php

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6464

One of the candidates is having a hard time with women in his own party. Guess which one?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/8656/85385

Debunking the Obama myths -- with evidence

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/19/153947/754
[Josh Orton] # Is there a movement of prominent Democrats and Independents fleeing to McCain? Nope.

# Are Florida and Ohio out of the picture for Obama, and does he only face one narrow alternative path to victory? Nope.

# Is there a huge post-primary rift in the Democratic party? Nope.

# Does Obama have a big problem with women, particularly "suburban women?" Double nope.

# Does Barack Obama have a big problem with Latino voters? Nope.

# What about Jewish voters...they hate Obama, right? Nope.

Polling, Fox News style

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15932.html
How much do you think Barack Obama loves America? . . . [read on]

We’ve been tracking this story, with more to come I’m sure: SMU accepts the Bush Presidential library, which is a dubious honor to begin with – but look at what else they had to accept in order to get it

http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=239

Bonus item: Well then, don’t WATCH it!

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/dem_who_said_obama_may_be_terr.php
[Eric Kleefeld] This is both sad and funny. A Tennessee Democrat is now apologizing for saying last week that Barack Obama might be "terrorist-connected" -- and he's blaming Fox News for putting the idea in his head!

"My statement that Senator Obama 'may be terrorist-connected' was incorrect and I apologize for making it," said Fred Hobbs, a member of the state party's executive committee, in a letter obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

In perhaps the mother of all understatements, Hobbs added that his comments were caused by "what I had seen reported on Fox News, but I should have taken some time to check the accuracy of what I saw on television before speaking publicly."

Extra bonus item: I suppose some sort of credit is due here

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/19/vendor-of-controversial-button-banned-by-texas-gop/
The Texas Republican Party is telling a vendor who sold campaign buttons it considers racist at a state convention over the weekend that he's no longer welcome.

The head of the Texas GOP says they will "neither tolerate nor profit from bigotry." . . .

Extra double bonus item: nothing is an accident

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200865.php

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:02 AM

 
A FEW BAD APPLES

War crimes

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/41394.html
The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate committee released Tuesday.

"We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques," Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who's since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison . . . Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility — Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan — were using sleep deprivation to "break" detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. "True, but officially it is not happening," she is quoted as having said. . . . [read on]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/washington/18detain.html
When military officers at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, struggled in the fall of 2002 to find ways to get terrorism suspects to talk, they turned to the one agency that had spent several months experimenting with the limits of physical and psychological pressure: the Central Intelligence Agency.

They took the top lawyer for the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center to Guantánamo, where he explained that the definition of illegal torture was “written vaguely.”

“It is basically subject to perception,” said the lawyer, Jonathan M. Fredman, according to meeting minutes released Tuesday at a Senate hearing. “If the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong.” . . . [read on]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38886.html
The framework under which detainees were imprisoned for years without charges at Guantanamo and in many cases abused in Afghanistan wasn't the product of American military policy or the fault of a few rogue soldiers.

It was largely the work of five White House, Pentagon and Justice Department lawyers who, following the orders of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, reinterpreted or tossed out the U.S. and international laws that govern the treatment of prisoners in wartime . . . [read on]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/18/0114/76374

http://www.juancole.com/2008/06/great-torture-scandal.html

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/todays_must_read_352.php

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/sere-sucker

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/18/BL2008061801546.html

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/18/the-dark-side/

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/18/there-is-no-longer-any-doubt-as-to-whether-the-current-administration-has-committed-war-crimes

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/torture_/2008/06/wishidsaidthat_dept.php
[Kevin Drum] It turns out that all this was the fault of a few bad apples after all. Unfortunately, they were the ones running the country.

“Curveball,” the notoriously unreliable informant on whose slender reed so much of the pre-war claims of the Bush gang rested, finally speaks out

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/curveball_speaks.php
[LAT] "I never said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, never in my whole life," he said. "I challenge anyone in the world to get a piece of paper from me, anything with my signature, that proves I said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."

How did the Bush administration get it so wrong?

"I'm not the source of these problems," he said.

More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-curveball18-2008jun18,0,6987323,full.story

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/18/174429/413

Blackwater: "ironic" isn't a strong enough word

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200705.php
[Josh Marshall] I know various wingnuts go on about how Muslims or various left-wing freaks are going to bring Sharia law to America and make us into an Islamist theocracy. But I think we may have the first case of a defendant actually asking a US federal judge to apply Sharia law, not American law, to a case.

And defendant is Blackwater.

More: http://www.newsobserver.com/917/story/1112708.html

The Bush gang’s poll numbers are in free-fall

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=915
* President Bush’s latest ratings are 24 percent positive and fully 75 percent negative. . . .
* Vice President Cheney’s ratings are even worse, 18 percent positive and 74 percent negative. . .
* Only 14 percent of the public think the things in the country are going in the right direction and fully 80 percent think they are on the wrong track. . . . The highest number of people who said the country was on the wrong track was 81 percent in June of 1992 during the term of the first President Bush.

[NB: Well, we still have seven months to go. . . .]

Here’s all you need to know about Bush’s big speech on finding new energy sources

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080618.html
In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil. And that means we need to increase supply, especially here at home. So my administration has repeatedly called on Congress to expand domestic oil production. Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal -- and now Americans are paying the price at the pump for this obstruction. . . .

Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress are standing in the way of further development. In last year's omnibus spending bill, Democratic leaders inserted a provision blocking oil shale leasing on federal lands. . . .

In 1995, Congress passed legislation allowing oil production in this small fraction of ANWR's 19 million acres. With a drilling footprint of less than 2,000 acres -- less than one-tenth of 1 percent of this distant Alaskan terrain -- America could produce an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil. That is roughly the equivalent of two decades of imported oil from Saudi Arabia. Yet my predecessor vetoed this bill. . . .

The proposals I've outlined will take years to have their full impact. There is no excuse for delay -- as a matter of fact, it's a reason to move swiftly. I know the Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past. Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions. If congressional leaders leave for the 4th of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act. And Americans will rightly ask how high oil -- how high gas prices have to rise before the Democratic-controlled Congress will do something about it. . . .

Pay close attention

Republicans in Congress have proposed several promising bills that would lift the legislative ban on oil exploration in the [Outer Continental Shelf]. I call on the House and the Senate to pass good legislation as soon as possible. This legislation should give the states the option of opening up OCS resources off their shores, provide a way for the federal government and states to share new leasing revenues, and ensure that our environment is protected. There's also an executive prohibition on exploration in the OCS. When Congress lifts the legislative ban, I will lift the executive prohibition. . . .

[NB: When you're really trying to get something done, you don't start off by bashing the people you're trying to get to work with you. When you really want to reach a compromise, you don't say "you go first."]

Here’s how you know this is all a bunch of hooey designed to do nothing but attempt to shift blame for high gas princes to the Dems

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/you-know-drill-by-dday-so-john-mccain.html
[Dday] So John McCain and George Bush think they've found the mother lode, and have decided that they're going to carry the policy of lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling on America's coasts all the way to another four years in the White House. They've got the whole conservative movement on their side with this coordinated effort, too. Newt Gingrich is babbling about a cyber-petition (his words, I stopped using "cyber" shortly after I read my last William Gibson novel in 6th grade) with 750,000 signers, some of them possibly real, calling on America to "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less." The wingnut minions are inundating members of Congress with phone calls (that means a couple hundred). And I wish I could have seen the look on poor Charlie Crist's face when he had to grudgingly go along with this charade, as the Governor of Florida, and put his political career at risk:

Crist, last week:

Q: Gov. are you dropping your opposition to drilling for oil off of Florida’s coast?

CRIST: I am not. … No. 1, I don’t like it.

Crist today:

“What we ought to be willing to do is study it,” he said. “Reaching a conclusion about what is right or not right at this juncture is hard to do.” [...]

Florida politicians of both parties “have worked to keep the drilling ban in force along Florida shores for more than 25 years,” the Miami Herald observed today. Many fear “it would harm the state’s beaches that are so vital to its tourism.” Former Governor Jeb Bush (R) has also pushed hard for the ban on drilling. . . .

Even John McCain's top campaign adviser has admitted that drilling would have no immediate effect on higher gas prices. . . .

But you have to look a little but further to get to the truth here. If two oilmen in the White House and a majority in the Congress, as Bush and Cheney had for 6 years, wasn't enough to get the job done of drilling in ANWR, do you really think they and their oil company buddies want to? The truth is hinted at in Harry Reid's response:

The facts are clear: Oil companies have already had ample opportunity to increase supply, but they have sat on their hands. They aren’t even using more than half of the public lands they already have leased for drilling. And despite the huge tax breaks President Bush and Republican Congresses have given oil and gas companies to invest in refineries, domestic production has actually dropped. . . . [read on]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/washington/19drill.html
The president’s move to end the ban on offshore drilling reverses his longstanding position on the issue. . . .

Offshore drilling is blocked by two bans, one imposed by Congress and the other by the first President Bush’s executive order. Asked why the current President Bush did not act at once to lift the order imposed by his father, Keith Hennessey, the director of the president’s economic council, told White House reporters, “He thinks that probably the most productive way to work with this Congress is to try to do it in tandem.” . . .

The party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, used a speech in Houston on Tuesday to say he now favors offshore drilling, an announcement that infuriated environmentalists who had long viewed him as an ally. . . .

http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=1390
Energy Information Administration: “The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. … Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.” . . .

“The opening of ANWR is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows … $0.75 per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case…”

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/18/162948/546
McCain Was Skeptical Of Offshore Drilling...Three Weeks Ago

"[W]ith those resources, which would take years to develop, you would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels," McCain said when asked about offshore drilling.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15919.html
[Steve Benen] [I]f one’s guiding principle of governing is “quick, do something, whether it works or not,” then sure, seeing Republican officials scramble to push coastal and ANWR drilling at least suggests they’re making an effort.

But the discussion seems to have produced a dynamic in which everyone is talking past each other.

“We need to start drilling to increase supply and lower prices.”

“But even if we started drilling immediately, the oil wouldn’t reach the pump until 2017 and even then, it likely wouldn’t affect prices at all.”

“Yeah, well, people are looking for results, not talk.”

“Fine, but your policy doesn’t deliver results. So what are we talking about here?”

How foolish has this bizarro-world debate become? John McCain’s top policy advisor concedes that drilling wouldn’t lower prices, but thinks we should do it anyway.

Hearing Bush talk about ANWR was especially mind-numbing. He noted the President Clinton blocked ANWR drilling, and “in the years since, the price of oil has increased seven-fold, and the price of American gasoline has more than tripled.” To hear Bush tell it, the two are related — Clinton protected ANWR, and look at what happened.

Not only is this a post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc fallacy of logic, but Bush’s comments about ANWR aren’t even consistent with his own administration’s estimates about what’s possible in Alaska. . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/bush-goes-to-work
McCain has long opposed drilling in ANWR, which he reaffirmed yesterday in his energy policy speech in Houston. . . .

As Marc Ambinder notes, by plugging ANWR, Bush gets McCain to accept his support of the off-shore drilling proposal, while also giving McCain an opening in which to distance himself from the president. Bush also threw McCain a little freebie with a jab at Congressional Democrats, blaming them, least in part, for skyrocketing gas prices . . .

More: http://www.juancole.com/2008/06/john-mccains-oil-scam.html

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15910.html

A very different explanation for skyrocketing prices, from Keith Olbermann: ladies and gentlemen, meet the “Enron Loophole”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677#25252591

Rudy Giuliani: what a fine human specimen this man is

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/giuliani-dems-more
“Again, a reminder of maybe where they're going on the Democratic side and what we would have in store for us if we had a Democratic presidency. The reality is there seems to be more concern about the rights of terrorists -- or alleged terrorists -- than the rights that the American people have to safety and security." . . . [read on]

[NB: Yes, we shouldn’t be too concerned about the rights of ALLEGED terrorists]

What McCain said about Giuliani before

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-giuliani-my-top-national.html
[TPM] "I think the nation respects the mayor's leadership after 9/11, and I do, too, and I think he displayed leadership at a time that Americans needed some steady hand . . .”

But he went on to say: "I don't think it translates, necessarily, into foreign policy or national security expertise. I know of nothing in his background that indicates that he has any experience in it . . . ." [read on]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/flashback_mccain_adviser_said.php
Former Navy secretary John Lehman is a leading McCain adviser and surrogate, but here's what Lehman had to say to the 9/11 Commission about Rudy's performance in defending New York as Mayor:

It was Lehman who, during a Sept. 11 Commission hearing in NY City, took the Giuliani administration to task for the failure to have effective radio communications in place on Sept. 11, leading to chaos.

“I think the command and control and communications of this city's public service is a scandal,'' Lehman said at the time. In his most memorable quip, he said the city's disaster-response plans were ''not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city.''

More: http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/wash-post-catches-mccain-campaign-lying.html

What Obama says about Giuliani now

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/18/1152159.aspx
“Democrats are not going to be lectured to on security by the mayor who failed to learn the lessons of the 1993 attacks, refused to prepare his own city’s first responders for the next attack, urged President Bush to put his corrupt crony in charge of our homeland security, and was too busy lobbying for his foreign clients to join the Iraq Study Group,” DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said. “Rudy Giuliani, can echo the McCain campaign’s false and misleading attacks, but he can’t change the fact that John McCain is promising four more years of President Bush’s flawed and failed policies on everything from energy security and the economy to the war in Iraq.” . . . [read on]

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15918.html
[Steve Benen] If we’re really, really lucky, Giuliani will become McCain’s leading surrogate on the issue. Because by any reasonable measure, there are very few figures in public life who are as completely incoherent on counter-terrorism as Rudy Giuliani.

Indeed, the fact that McCain would put Giuliani out there as his voice/attack-dog speaks volumes about his dubious judgment.

First, right off the bat, Giuliani attacked Obama this morning for taking a position that Giuliani himself used to take. Giuliani’s argument, in other words, was effectively, “You can’t trust Obama; he agrees with me.”

Second, maybe the McCain campaign can take a moment to explain why it’s asked Giuliani to be a leading surrogate on counter-terrorism given Giuliani’s humiliating record on the issue?

And finally, if McCain thinks Dems are going to be intimidated by the former mayor, he’s going to be very disappointed. . . .

I said it yesterday: McCain is a Big Phony. I think others are noticing the same thing

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/whoever-we-want-him-to-be-by-digby-ive.html
[Digby] I've finally realized what "maverick" really means. It means someone who takes both sides of every issue but everyone thinks he really means it. (And it helps if the media portrays them as someone who only panders because he "has to" implying he will only carry out those promises the individual voter wants carries out.)

Back in 2000, McCain got himself into a little maverick "pickle" on abortion. It's a perfect example of how this works. . . . [read on]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15911.html
McCain thrives when voters don’t know his issue positions . . . [read on]

McCain versus McCain: On energy policy

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15920.html

Partly after being chided by some readers, I am backing off making too much of the issue of McCain’s age, though he IS old and this IS a concern for many voters (to me the bigger issue is his health condition, which is not the same as his age – the man has recurrent cancer, for crying out loud). But the GOP is sure worried about it

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/17/45944/1736
[BarbinMD] It seems that the McCain campaign is getting a bit cantankerous. They don’t like anyone saying that John McCain is old. And they don’t like anyone implying he’s old. In fact, they don’t like it if they think that someone might be hinting that he’s old . . . [read on]

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15914.html

McCain’s Abramoff problem

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/18/121738/391

McCain’s lobbyist problem

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200677.php
[Josh Marshall] After catching a lot of grief for having foreign and domestic lobbyists working for and advising the candidate, the McCain campaign instituted a strict new rule barring any current lobbyist from having any role in the campaign.

Now it seems like they've come up with an even better idea to tamp down all the criticism: don't tell anybody who's advising the campaign.

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_still_hasnt_updated_adv.php

Yep, one of the candidates has a problem with Latinos. Guess which one?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15916.html

Obama is currently WINNING in the swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/poll-shows-mccain

More: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/06/todays-polls-618.html

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6435

Looks as if the Bush gang has successfully destroyed, hidden, and stonewalled on releasing their emails

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/white-house-emails

The FISA “compromise” (ahem, the FISA cave-in). One question: why?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/18/133218/573
[CQ] A potential revolt by a group of Democrats pressed party leaders into compromising on a rewrite of electronic surveillance rules that could come to a House vote by week's end, a top Democrat said Wednesday. . .

Asked why Democrats don’t put aside the surveillance legislation until a new president is elected in November, Hoyer said he would prefer to do so, but can’t because so many House Democrats are prepared to vote for the Senate bill that he and other top House Democrats oppose.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/18/161339/660
[NYT] If Congress cannot pass a clean bill that fixes the one real problem with FISA, it should simply extend the temporary authorization. At a minimum, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, should oppose FISA expansion and pledge to revisit it next year. If any significant changes are going to be made, they should be made under the next president.

There are clear differences between the candidates. Senator John McCain, who is sounding more like Mr. Bush every day, believes the president has the power to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant.

Senator Barack Obama opposes immunity and voted against the temporary expansion of FISA. We hope he will show strong leadership this time. He might even take time off from the campaign to vote against the disturbing deal brewing in the back rooms of Congress.

More: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6402

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/bill-of-rights-okd-for-destruction-by.html

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/17/hoyer/

I’ll say this for GOP corruption. It’s appalling, but it sure is funny

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200481.php
[Josh Marshall] Last year you'll remember, former TPMmuckraker.com reporter Laura McCann broke the story of how Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski had gotten a sweetheart deal on a piece of Kenai River river front property from a wealthy campaign contributor and Salmon mogul named Bob Penney -- a transaction she failed to disclose on her senate filings. The story eventually got picked up in the state's big paper, the Anchorage Daily News. And after a couple weeks of hemming and hawing she finally agreed to sell it back.

This years disclosure documents have just come out and it seems Murkowski had even more trouble remembering where all her income came from. In amendments to her 2004, 2005 and 2006 filings, she now come up with roughly $100,000 a annual income that she'd forgot to mention.

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/murkowski_reveals_two_more_murky_deals.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200674.php
[Josh Marshall] We've just gotten a hold of "Intern's Survival Guide" which is part of the initiation material handed out to new interns in the office of Congressman Don Young (R) when they start at the office.

Lots of fun color, as you'd expect. But we're particularly interested in the "A-team," who interns covering the phones were told "can talk to whomever they want" in the office.

The 'A-Team' appears to have been made up entirely of lobbyists, nine in all, including Rick Alcade, the lobbyist on the notorious Coconut Road earmark.

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/don_youngs_interns_told_to_fav.php

After Katrina and the Minnesota bridge collapse, who could have guessed that levees along the Mississippi might need to be inspected and reinforced?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/18/midwest.flooding/index.html

Couldn’t these guys have handled it? http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/dod_ig_kbr_overcharged_the_nav.php
[Andrew Tilghman] We pointed out this morning the New York Times story that suggested KBR was over charging the military on Iraq-related contracts and threatening to cut off services to combat troops if the bills weren't paid.

Now here's another one about KBR's billing. This time from the Department of Defense Inspector General. And it looks at the company's role in the clean-up efforts after Hurricane Katrina. . . . [read on]

The National Press Club should be proud

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9B8B4B53-3048-5C12-0031D82AE819AFBE
[Ben Smith] Larry Sinclair is wanted in Colorado, but you can catch him today at the National Press Club.

Sinclair is familiar to political junkies and reporters as the source of outlandish allegations about Senator Barack Obama, tales that began with sex and drugs and moved on to murder.

The Duluth, Minn., resident is the sort of figure who appears at the margins of every presidential campaign, and both Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had their own obscure accusers with dramatic allegations. But as the old media ignores him, Sinclair has taken full advantage of the Internet, and a video in which he makes his claims that have been viewed more than 900,000 times on YouTube. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/wacky-obama-accuser-is-wanted-by-law.html

The punch line

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/18/larry-sinclair-arrested-at-press-club/
Larry Sinclair, the guy who had a 27 year criminal record, was arrested at the Press Club today after his press conference . . .

Bonus item: The kind of people they (still) are

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/18/the-gop-recipe-tear-him-down/
I think the little photoshop job above -- which is everywhere on wingnut blogs and websites, a very popular little item -- pretty much encapsulates the GOP campaign this fall. No, that's not a parody.

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/18/the-obama-smear-merchants-keep-on-smearin/
[David Neiwert] According to Floyd Brown, of ExposeObama.com, “Malik Obama, Barack’s half brother, confirms that Barack grew up Muslim.” . . .

Yet like flies to shit, the wingnutosphere sure-enough pounced on it with glee, from Crazy Pam Atlas to LGF to, well, you don't want to go creeping around some of the corners of the blogosphere where you could find this. But there was also Brit Hume on Fox spreading it . . . [read on]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200806180008

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-out-there-by-digby-dave-niewert_18.html
[Digby] I think it's important to remember that they don't care about "credibility" at least the way we think of it. This is about the death by a thousand cuts, not any particular story. They start with a few tales that acclimate people to the idea that the Democrat has something to hide. He's not being forthcoming. Something's not quite right. Over time it creates a general sense of discomfort with the person, eventually even on the part of those who know it isn't true. (They resent the victim for making them have to deal with these things. It's exhausting.)

If you believe that credibility ever mattered to bottom feeders like Floyd Brown, who's been doing this ever since the Willie Horton ad 20 years ago, check out the story of The Clinton Chronicles. That one was so outrageous that it even included murder charges and drug running. Jerry Falwell participated in it and they sold it in churches across the country. Millions of people saw it and ordered it on Christian television.

Sure most people *knew* it was bullshit. But over time, if they spread enough of these tabloid stories, on some level, people start to wonder about the person, even if they know better. It is a powerful weapon and I don't know what the hell to do about it.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:30 AM

 
A BIG PHONY

I’ve been trying to come up with a way to summarize McCain’s constantly shifting and self-contradictory positions. And then it came to me, in a moment of bumper-sticker clarity: the man is a Big Phony. This is the man who turned around and literally and figuratively embraced Bush, the man who in 2000 had his proxies spread rumors that McCain was mentally unstable and that he had an illegitimate black daughter:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/09/mccain-to-bush-in-2000-dont-give-me-that-sht-and-take-your-hands-off-me/
As Time reported in March 2000, McCain then showed a visceral disgust towards Bush and his scorched earth campaign:

But many close McCain advisers think the personal rift between the two men is too wide to bridge, at least in the near term. After all, the last time Bush tried to smooth things over-at a South Carolina debate in early February-the result was less than promising. During a commercial break, Bush grasped McCain’s hands and made a sugary plea for less acrimony in their campaign. When McCain pointed out that Bush’s allies were savaging him in direct-mail and phone campaigns, Bush played the innocent. “Don’t give me that shit,” McCain growled, pulling away. “And take your hands off me.”

That didn’t stop McCain from overcoming his “visceral disgust” and campaigning for Bush, helping him become President in a closely contested race.

Then in 2004, when Bush was on the brink of losing to John Kerry, McCain saved his election by letting the Swift Boat slanderers paint his friend and fellow Vietnam war vet Kerry as a liar and coward. A single word from McCain would have put a stop to it. Even staying neutral would have probably pushed Bush into a loss. But again he turned his back on every principle he stood for:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/06/MNGUT83SS41.DTL
"I deplore this kind of politics," McCain told the Associated Press. "I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War." . . .

McCain, who is chairing Bush's campaign in Arizona and is a featured speaker at the Republican convention, which begins Aug. 30, said he does not believe the White House was involved with the ads.

"I can't believe the president would pull such a cheap stunt," he said.

The White House and the Bush campaign did not condemn the ad . . .

Can’t believe it, huh? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5612836/
“It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me,” McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, comparing the anti-Kerry ad to tactics in his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.

In 2000, McCain condemned the wackos of the fringe religious right as “agents of intolerance.” But when it became necessary, he sucked up to them like every other Republican presidential candidate has to:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1779141&page=1
When McCain ran for president the last time, he denounced Falwell as one of America's "agents of intolerance." But now that McCain is gearing up to run for president as the GOP's establishment candidate, he has told Falwell that he spoke "in haste" in 2000.

As a former prisoner of war who had experienced torture, McCain spoke with real moral authority in condemning Bush’s torture regime. But when it came to really standing up to Bush:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/dishonorable-discharge-by-digby-andrew.html
[CBS] After first insisting that federal law clearly and unambiguously outlaw “torture,” McCain suddenly caved to White House pressure on the MCA, allowing the Administration to insert into the law a clause that effectively allows (and, indeed, legally buttresses the efforts of) the executive branch to implement torture as a means of interrogation. . . . [read on]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/13/mccain-waterboarding-fail/
Today, the Senate brought the Intelligence Authorization Bill to the floor, which contained a provision from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) establishing one interrogation standard across the government. The bill requires the intelligence community to abide by the same standards as articulated in the Army Field Manual and bans waterboarding. . . .

Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war, has spoken strongly in favor of implementing the Army Field Manual standard. When confronted today with the decision of whether to stick with his conscience or cave to the right wing, McCain chose to ditch his principles and instead vote to preserve waterboarding. . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/worst-decision-by-digby-if-you-wondered.html

This isn’t just flip-flopping. It isn’t forgetting what he has said in times past; you simply get the sense that for McCain everything, even the image of a plain-talking “maverick,” is the stuff of political expediency and opportunism. Yes, accusing a politician of expediency and opportunism is coals to Newcastle. But in McCain’s case, it’s a pattern of taking very strong, even admirable positions in some of his statements, then backing off them in any difficult instance that requires him to actually make a stand.

He’s just a Big Phony.

Today is the latest example:

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/ad-mccain-stood-up
Sen. John McCain launched a new 30-second TV ad highlighting his environmental record. The spot, titled "Global," will air in key battleground states and on cable nationally. In the ad, a woman voice-over notes that McCain "stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago." She then states that McCain "has a plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions."

Funny she should mention his plan to curb greenhouse gases. Yesterday, McCain left a lot of reporters scratching their heads when he denied that his proposed cap-and-trade plan would place a limit on greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, the whole point of the cap-and-trade system is that there is a cap. . . . [read on]

More: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/17/does_john_mccain_know_what_hes/

Yes, here is what the great environmentalist wants to do: approve more offshore drilling for oil, an environmental nightmare

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/us/politics/17cnd-mccain.html
Senator John McCain sought to straddle the divide between environmentalists and the energy industry on Tuesday, calling for conservation but also more refineries, more nuclear power plants and the end of a ban on oil drilling off the nation’s coasts. . . .

In a speech to an audience of oil industry executives in Houston . . .

Mr. Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee relentlessly mocked Mr. McCain throughout the day for what they called his flip-flopping and capitulation to the oil industry. Mr. Obama’s campaign swiftly pointed out, for example, that Mr. McCain had supported the ban on offshore drilling during his run for the presidency in 2000.

“John McCain’s support of the moratorium on offshore drilling during his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, but his decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.

It does indeed take tremendous moral courage to stand up in front of an audience of oil executives and call for more offshore drilling. But wait, what’s this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/washington/18drill.html
President Bush, reversing a longstanding position, will call on Congress on Wednesday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling . . .

Wow! What an amazing coincidence! On the very day when McCain reverses his longstanding opposition to offshore drilling, President Bush – the man McCain “stood up to” – calls for. . . gee . . . EXACTLY the same policy. And who says McCain is running for Bush’s third term?

Even CNN gets it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-OL7TsS9P4

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/17/late-nite-fdl-wag-the-bush/

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15897.html

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15901.html

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/new_drilling.php

Somehow McCain forgot to mention to the oil execs his willingness to consider a windfall profits tax on big oil profits – another former position thrown by the wayside

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/quote_for_the_day.php

Losing the “maverick” brand

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15899.html
[ABC] McCain will be running into stiff headwinds over the next five months. Bush’s approval rating hit another low in Post-ABC polling and now is 29 percent, with 68 percent saying they disapprove of the job he is doing — 54 percent strongly. Among the dwindling number who approve of the way Bush is handling his job, 80 percent back McCain. Among the much higher number who disapprove, 26 percent support McCain.

In general, 57 percent said McCain would continue to lead the country as Bush has and 38 percent said he would chart a new course. . . . [read on]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/your_guide_to_the_ways_mccain.php
Today's Times comes through with a very user-friendly chart detailing all the ways that McCain is the McSame as Bush. . . .

Here it is: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/06/17/us/politics/20080617_POLICY_GRAPHIC.html

It’s not just about four more years of Bush policies, but four more years of Bush’s obfuscations and word games

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200449.php
[Josh Marshall] One of the most entertaining things about the 2008 campaign has been watching John McCain embrace all of President Bush's policies and word game flimflams. And there's no better example than Social Security . . .

“Dems for McCain” – a sham

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15908.html
[Steve Benen] I found it interesting that the McCain campaign hosted a conference call on Saturday as part of an outreach effort to non-Republicans. The campaign released a list of a “group of prominent Democratic and unaffiliated leaders and activists who have joined ‘Citizens for McCain,’ a new grass-roots effort headed by Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to rally Americans of all political parties to support John McCain’s candidacy.”

Ben Smith posted the entire list of 30, and to characterize them as “prominent” is a bit of a stretch. Only one of the thirty ever held federal office; there were no Dems who currently hold statewide office; some have never held elected office before; and one is a blogger. More than half are out-of-office local officials.

Nevertheless, these are ostensibly 30 “Democratic and unaffiliated leaders and activists” who’ve decided to throw their support to the conservative Republican candidate instead of the Democratic ticket. Cause for concern? Indicative of a larger trend?

My estimable friends at TPM, Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld, decided to take a closer look at the group. Oddly enough, they discovered that the list is “a bit of a sham.” . . .

More: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_dems.php

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200559.php

Women for McCain? I don’t think so

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/17/11351/0830

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/17/12401/9580

It became a running joke during the primaries that Rudy Giuliani couldn’t discuss any topic without bringing it back incessantly to the issue of 9/11, and his own experience with it. It’s no surprise, then, to see what his role will be in backing the McCain candidacy

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/rudy_lives_he_resurfaces_to_at.php
Rudy has jumped into the dust-up today over the McCain camp's claims that Obama has a "September 10th mindset." . . . [read on]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_campaign_accuses_obama.php
Aggressively moving to shift the debate away from domestic issues to national security, the McCain campaign hit Obama with some of the most incendiary language of the campaign, accusing Obama on a conference call with reporters moments ago of having a "September 10th mindset." . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15905.html

[NB: Let’s see: Obama’s an out-of-touch liberal elitist. Check. He will raise taxes on everybody. Check. He can’t be trusted to keep the nation safe. Check. Well, it’s official: McCain has now copied every basic cliché in the Republican Presidential Election Playbook. And don’t kid yourself – he would have used every one of those same lines with Hillary Clinton. It’s. . .all. . .they . . .have.]

Don’t – play – defense

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013926.php
[Kevin Drum] So Barack Obama tells Jake Tapper that we can fight terrorists and follow the constitution at the same time ("for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial"), and we get the standard talking point reaction from the McCain team. You know the drill: naive, September 10th mindset, etc. etc. All the usual dumb little campaign comments.

But wouldn't it be nice if we could have a real conversation about this? We could compare, say, the amount of terrorism we've stopped via police work, intelligence, international cooperation, financial interdiction, and so forth, and compare it to the amount of terrorism created by our military intervention in Iraq. And then we could talk about how the real September 10th mindset is the one that says it doesn't matter what other people think of us because, you know, we've got the biggest military in the world and we can squash 'em all like bugs anyway.

I say: bring 'em on. Let's talk about who's naive vs. who's learned some lessons from 9/11. The sooner the better.

Bring ‘em on: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_blasts_back_on_terror.php
If there were any doubts that the Obama campaign would respond aggressively to the sort of soft-on-terror attacks that felled John Kerry four years ago, Obama put them to rest today. . . .

"Let's think about this: these are the same guys who helped engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9-11," Obama told reporters on his campaign plane...

"What they're trying to do us what they've done every election cycle, which is to use terrorism as a club to make the American people afraid," Obama said.

Reminded that the Republican playbook worked in the 2004 presidential race, Obama countered: "Well, it's 2008."

"I'm looking forward to having a robust argument about this issue," he said. "I don't shy away from it."

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_campaign_rolls_out_richa.php
Richard Clarke made an appearance as an Obama surrogate on a conference call with reporters moments ago, hitting back very hard against the McCain camp's claim today that Obama has a "September 10th mindset."

"I'm frankly disgusted at my friends on the McCain campaign," Clarke said . . . [read on]

Empirical thinking (what a concept!)

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15907.html
[Steve Benen] Barack Obama sat down with the Wall Street Journal’s Bob Davis and Amy Chozick’s yesterday to talk about economic policy in considerable detail. There are plenty of interesting exchanges, but I was especially fond of Obama’s remarks about empiricism.

The Journal asked about what role Bob Rubin might play in an Obama administration, and Obama noted that he likes to hear competing ideas from Rubin to Bob Reich to “folks in between.” When the Journal asked if he’s willing to give Reich “another shot,” Obama said:

“I tend to be eclectic. I do think we’re in a different time in 2008 than we were in 1992. The thing I think people should feel confident in is that I’m going to make these judgments not based on some fierce ideological pre-disposition but based on what makes sense. I’m a big believer in evidence. I’m a big believer in fact. You know, if somebody shows me we can do something better through a market mechanism, I’m happy to do it. I have no vested interest in expanding government or setting up a program just for the sake of setting one up. It’s too much work.

“On the health-care front, for example, if I actually believed that just providing a tax cut to everybody would solve the problem of lack of health insurance and cure health-care inflation, I’d say great, that’s a nice way to do it. It prevents a lot of headaches. But I’ve seen no evidence that the kinds of policies John McCain puts forward would actually work.

“If I saw strong evidence that an additional $300 billion in tax cuts that John has proposed — without a clear way of paying for it — would actually boost economic growth and productivity, I’d be happy to take a look at that evidence. But I haven’t seen that. It’s all conjecture.”

I realize my perspective is clouded in part by nearly eight years of mind-numbing disappointment in a president and his team who, as one White House official once boasted, create their “own reality,” but the kind of pragmatic thinking Obama outlined to the WSJ is not only heartening, it helps reinforce one of the key differences between the contemporary ideologies of the left and right. . . . [read on]

Against Nunn for VP

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6419

Tough campaign ad. Too much?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/chuck-todd-thinks-this-anti-mccain-ad.html
Chuck Todd thinks this anti-McCain ad is "shameless." What do you think? [watch]

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/hissy-by-proxy-by-digby-fergawds-sake.html

Bonus item: The kind of people they are

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/this-is-going-to-be-most-awesome.html
On sale at the Texas Republican Convention . . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:33 AM

 
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . . .

War crimes

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602779.html
A Senate investigation has concluded that top Pentagon officials began assembling lists of harsh interrogation techniques in the summer of 2002 for use on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and that those officials later cited memos from field commanders to suggest that the proposals originated far down the chain of command . . .

McClatchy continues its record of tough, honest reporting on the war

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38775.html
Former guards and detainees whom McClatchy interviewed said Bagram was a center of systematic brutality for at least 20 months, starting in late 2001. Yet the soldiers responsible have escaped serious punishment.

The public outcry in the United States and abroad has focused on detainee abuse at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but sadistic violence first appeared at Bagram, north of Kabul, and at a similar U.S. internment camp at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan. . . .

Rampant corruption

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/washington/17contractor.html
The Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to American troops. . . .

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/corruption_in_washington_/2008/06/blackmail.php
[Mark Kleiman] KBR had the Army over a barrel: if the Army refused to pay KBR's inflated bills (more than $1B in unjustified costs), KBR threatened to shut off payments to its subcontractors, which in turn would stop feeding the army in Iraq.

Of course, the fact that KBR was then a subsidiary of Halliburton didn't hurt its bargaining position either; the Halliburton board knew what it was doing when it gave Dick Cheney $80 million he wasn't contractually entitled to as he moved from its executive suite to the White House. . . . [read on]

Useless

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/06/rice_blesses_hezbollah_powersh.php
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she welcomes a new power-sharing arrangement in Lebanon even though it increased the power of Hezbollah militants at the expense of U.S.-backed moderates.

"Obviously in any compromise there are compromises," Rice said . . .

Those stubborn facts

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/intel.php
[Andrew Tilghman] Buried deep in the new Senate intel report is evidence that yet another pre-war Bush administration claim about Iraq had been discredited within the intelligence community, months before the president used the claim publicly as an argument for war. . . [read on]

The Bush parade of sleazoids continue to meet their fates

Scott Bloch: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200078.php
Scott Bloch, if you'll recall, was among other things nominated for a Golden Duke for Outstanding Achievement in Corruption-based Chutzpah for taking his computer hard drive to Geeks on Call for a scrubbing to stymie investigators. Bloch is the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an administration office charged with protecting federal whistleblowers. But he actually spent most of his time either ignoring whistleblowers or retaliating against them. . . . [read on]

Bradley Schlozman: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200252.php
[WSJ] Justice Department lawyers have filed a grand-jury referral stemming from the 2006 U.S. attorneys scandal, according to people familiar with the probe, a move indicating that the yearlong investigation may be entering a new phase. . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/todays_must_read_351.php
[Kate Klonick] You might remember Schlozman as the head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division-cum-U.S. attorney in Kansas City, and most recently, his work at Main Justice. Schlozman famously talked of replacing Clinton appointees with "good Americans" and keeping tabs on a lawyer who he had heard, "didn't even vote for Bush." . . . [read on]

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_06_15_archive.html#8109704931329371909
[Atrios] Oh what a sad thing it would be if Bradley Schlozman discovered he had some legal difficulties. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of all the B- and C-list Bushies who find themselves having a bit of trouble, so let's remind ourselves of what a stellar specimen he is . . . [read on]

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/16/rule-of-law-overreach-and-roosting-gop-chickensagain/

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15891.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/washington/17attorneys.html

Congress wants FBI testimonies of Cheney, Bush

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/cheneys_fbi_interview_subpoena.php

More: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/41239.html

In 2000, Jesse Jackson warned us, “Stay out of the Bushes!” The American people didn’t listen. Now Dubya seems to think the country is craving for his brother to continue that fine Bush legacy of leadership

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/democratic/transcripts/u060815.html

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/16/another_bush_in_the_white_hous.html

It’s been a repeated theme: Bush has truly come to believe that he shouldn’t HAVE to do certain things as President – like explain himself or answer questions. He’s the Decider, dammit!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/16/BL2008061601206.html

It normally doesn’t take Paul Krugman this long to figure something out

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/opinion/16krugman.html
As I read the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the presidential candidates’ tax proposals, I realized that the tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration are, in effect, a fiscal poison pill aimed at future administrations.

True, the tax cuts won’t prevent a change in management — the Constitution sees to that. But they will make it hard for the next president to change the country’s direction. . . .

What does the new FISA “compromise” do about telecom immunity?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/16/145320/639

Someone’s misbehavin’

http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/06/john_mccains_favorite_charity.html
In 2001, John McCain helped found a northern Virginia think tank that has frequently taken policy positions that dovetail with his and provided paychecks to key political associates.

The Reform Institute also has bent and may have broken rules governing non-profits, including one that requires charities to disclose their donors to the IRS.

The institute's fundraising and disclosure practices at times conflicted with McCain's political profile as a champion of transparency and an enemy of special interests. . . . [read on]

Was McCain offered a chance to become Admiral McCain?

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/06/commander_in_chief_mccain_didnt_even_make_admiral.php

McCain versus McCain: he just keeps giving us more ammunition

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15887.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013922.php

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/mandawhat.php

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/17/the-not-talkin-policy-is-working-out-well-preemptively-for-mccain/

McCain/Giuliani? Well, we can dream . . .

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15893.html

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/bringing_back_rudy.php

[NB: On the Chris Matthews show, Andrew Sullivan said “the decision has already been made” to go with Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota]

Heh

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/From_Jeffersons_vs_Hemingses_to_McCain_vs_Obama.html
A key organizer of John McCain's meeting Saturday with former supporters of Hillary Clinton is best known for her role in another bitter American fight: The effort by some white descendants of Thomas Jefferson to keep his possible African-American descendants out of family gatherings.

Paula Abeles emailed Politico yesterday to complain that her group had gotten short shrift in a blog item, writing, "I initiated the teleconference with McCain on Saturday and was solely responsible for the guest list." Another Clinton backer at the event, Will Bower, confirmed that she was "integral" to assembling the group.

But Abeles first made the news in 2003, when she and her husband, then-Monticello Association President Nat Abeles, led the fight to keep members of the Hemings family -- descendants of Jefferson slave and, some historians believe, mistress Sally Hemmings -- out of a gathering of the Monticello Association, which is made up of lineal descendants of the third president. . . .

Women for McCain, huh? I guess that makes sense, if you don’t mind the “b” word and the “c” word

B: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/opinion/15rich.html
TEN years ago John McCain had to apologize for regaling a Republican audience with a crude sexual joke about Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno. Last year he had to explain why he didn’t so much as flinch when a supporter asked him on camera, “How do we beat the bitch?”

C: http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/why-isnt-media-reporting-fact-that-john.html

More: http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/women_for_mccain.php

Obama responds

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Vote2008/story?id=5177410&page=1
"On almost every single issue that's important to women, he's been on the wrong side," the presumptive Democratic nominee told ABC News in an interview in Flint, Mich. Monday.

"You know, he is in favor of judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade. He has opposed equal pay. He has opposed the CHIP [Children's Health Insurance] program, that would make children insured," Obama said. . . .

The youth vote

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/will-the-youth-vote

Obama hires Patti Solis Doyle, former Clinton campaign manager, as “Chief of Staff for the Vice President.” Does this make it more or less likely that Obama is going to pick Clinton as VP? The tea-leaf reading is all over the map, but the general sense (which shouldn’t come as any surprise in these quarters) is “ain’t gonna happen”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/Solis_Doyle_to_Obamaland.html
[Ben Smith] Though this will stir speculation that she's paving the way for Hillary, but it actually makes me think the opposite. Clinton fired her in February, and many of her backers view Solis Doyle as a bit of a traitor for having signaled that she'd move to Obama before the primary was over.

But she adds a prominent female, Hispanic face to Obama's senior staff, and has a major role, if an ambiguous one

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/16/134243/028

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/solis_doyles_hiring_a_clinton.php

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/obamanology_interpreting_patti.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15894

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013918.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013921.php

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/former-clinton-campaign-manager-joins-obama-team/

A new favorite for the Dem VP slot: Sam Nunn?

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/06/16/many_see_nunn_leading_veepstakes.html

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6394

Wes Clark? http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6399

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/wes_clark_mccain_untested_and_untried_in_national_security_leadership.php

Al Gore? http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15895.html

Can Obama win without Ohio and Florida?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/16/115413/892

Theocracy watch: I have mixed feelings about this, but politically it’s smart

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/pro-bush-biographer-to-release-pro.html
[John Aravosis] This is huge. And it's another brilliant inside-move by the Obama people. Absolutely brilliant. Evangelicals, like other conservatives, already aren't too happy with John McCain. And now we have a book detailing Obama's true commitment to Christianity, by the guy who wrote the best seller about George Bush's Christianity. McCain can't even come close to something like this - not to mention, this seriously helps out on the Muslim rumors. . . .

Fox News signs on a former Clintonista (and Obama hater). Hard to say who’s the bigger hypocrite here

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200289.php

Who said it?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/16/9451/66536
“I don’t exactly approve of a lot of the things he stands for and I’m not sure we know enough about him . . . He’s got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be."

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/16/texas-gop-delegate-mccain-will-need-racism-to-beat-obama/
"I don't see how [McCain] has a chance at all unless people vote only because they don't like black people."

And this is from an ENDORSEMENT for McCain!

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/mccain_and_the_bitter_conserva.html
John McCain is detested, and deservedly so, by many Republicans of all types. Beyond issue and policy differences, and they are legion, his personality grates. His conceit of "straight-talk" and "maverick"-like independence so superficially applauded (up until now) by the mainstream media is almost Clintonesque in its narcissism. If only other politicians had his courage, he implies, things would be fixed straightaway. The big special interests have all the other elected officials in their pockets. Only Maverick-John tells it like it is! Yet the truth is that McCain could serve well as poster boy of the arrogant elitist beltway insider, friend of Hillary and Ted, foe of the unwashed. The party habit of selecting the next in line (e.g. Dole) has rarely produced such an unappealing candidate at such a critical time. . . .

Bonus item: McCain “bloopers” – the man can’t read a speech

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/and-you-thought-bush-was-bad.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:04 AM

 
WE AREN’T STUPID, YOU KNOW

Treating Iraq as a colony

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/06/15/iraq_the_sovereign_colony/
PRESIDENT BUSH has been treating Iraq less as an ally than a vassal. He has been pushing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to accept two long-term agreements that would, as many Iraqis rightly object, compromise Iraq's sovereignty and independence. . . . [read on]

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/15/wapo-iraq-the-colony-is-a-ok/
[Siun] In an editorial with the uplifting title A Partnership with Iraq, the WaPo makes a series of claims that are astonishing even given the source. After announcing that Iraqi Shiites want the deal (perhaps the WaPo editorial board needs a few lessons in Iraqi politics given their equation of “Shiites” with the puppet government?) they launch into an attack on Democrats who oppose it . . . [read on]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/15/20548/6991
[Smintheus] The dirty secret about the Bush administration negotiations with Nouri al Maliki's government for a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is that they hinge upon secrecy. Begun in earnest in March, all the details have been kept secret from the US Congress, the Iraqi Parliament, and the public in both countries. In fact Bush announced last year that he would not permit Congress to ratify what would be a (major) defense treaty. The American public has no enthusiasm and Iraqis across the board are deeply hostile to almost everything about SOFA. Virtually every Iraqi politician of note is suspicious if not dismissive. . . . [read on]

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/15/quick-quotes/
[Bush] "If I were a betting man, we'll reach agreement with the Iraqis," Bush said. "You know, we're there at their invitation; they're a sovereign nation." . . . [read on]

Who’s actually being held in Guantanamo, and why? (a must-read)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38773.html
McClatchy's interviews are the most ever conducted with former Guantanamo detainees by a U.S. news organization. The issue of detainee backgrounds has previously been reported on by other media outlets, but not as comprehensively.

McClatchy also in many cases did more research than either the U.S. military at Guantanamo, which often relied on secondhand accounts, or the detainees' lawyers, who relied mainly on the detainees' accounts.

The McClatchy investigation found that top Bush administration officials knew within months of opening the Guantanamo detention center that many of the prisoners there weren't "the worst of the worst." From the moment that Guantanamo opened in early 2002, former Secretary of the Army Thomas White said, it was obvious that at least a third of the population didn't belong there. . . .

The Pentagon declined to discuss the findings. . . .

The Supremes' three big hits

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/weekinreview/15mahler.html

Democratic VP speculation

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/15/sunday-late-nite-veep-gossip-roundup/

Obama versus McCain on the economy

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/14/campaign.wrap/index.html

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/15/mccains-incoherent-economic-analysis-strikes-out-again/

McCain campaign vehemently denies NYT story – is there another shoe to drop?

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5063617
The McCain campaign is strongly denying the paper's reporting that in 2005, a White House National Security Council staffer called John McCain's Senate office to complain that Rick Davis' lobbying firm was "undercutting American policy on Ukraine" by representing a Kremlin-backed politician. . . . [read on]

Let’s see, when Michelle Obama said it, it was a major scandal. Now what will happen when McCain says pretty much the same thing?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15879.html

The McCain “team.” This raises the question: aside from Lieberman and Graham, which prominent GOP are actually out there publicly and enthusiastically working for McCain?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200236.php

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080615/ap_on_el_pr/lieberman;_ylt=AugshL78m4v1J8ly1TNIakOs0NUE



Karl Rove, increasingly discredited as a GOP strategist, takes on a bigger and bigger role behind the scenes in the McCain campaign

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15882.html

By the way, what has McCain actually DONE for the military?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/15/12281/2169

McCain versus McCain: On torture

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/06/ambition_and_moral_degeneration.php

Have McCain’s embrace of Bush, and his two-faced reversals of his own previous positions, cost him his “straight-shootin’ maverick” brand? Looks like it

http://cliffschecter.firedoglake.com/2008/06/15/mccain-losing-maverick-brand-voters-most-likely-to-see-him-as-old/
It wasn't too many years ago that "maverick" was the cliche of choice in describing him.

But that term didn't even make the list this year when voters were asked by the Pew Research Center to sum up McCain in a single word. "Old" got the most mentions, followed by "honest," "experienced," "patriot," "conservative" and a dozen more. The words "independent," "change" or "reformer" weren't among them.

More: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.infocus15jun15,0,4687694.story

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/15/mccain-and-latinos-ol-two-face-cant-shed-the-r-brand/

Dems for McCain?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15877.html
[Steve Benen] McCain assured Clinton supporters that “he supported Bill Clinton with both Ginsburg and Breyer.”

Similarly, when asked about marriage equality for gay couples, one attendee said McCain explained that his position is “the same as [John] Kerry’s position.”

In other words, in attempting to divide Democrats, McCain has decided to try blatant deception, and hope Clinton supporters don’t know the difference. There’s no reason on earth to think this will work. Plenty of Clinton supporters are disappointed and resentful, but they’re not crazy. . . [read on]

More: http://www.slate.com/id/2193674/

Women for McCain?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/opinion/15rich.html
[Frank Rich] The McCain Web site is showcasing a new blogger who crooned of the “genuine affection” for Mrs. Clinton “here at McCain HQ” after she lost. One of the few visible women in the McCain campaign hierarchy, Carly Fiorina, has declared herself “enormously proud” of Mrs. Clinton and is barnstorming to win over Democratic women to her guy’s cause.

How heartwarming. You’d never guess that Mr. McCain is a fierce foe of abortion rights or that he voted to terminate the federal family-planning program that provides breast-cancer screenings. You’d never know that his new campaign blogger, recruited from The Weekly Standard, had shown his genuine affection for Mrs. Clinton earlier this year by portraying her as a liar and whiner and by piling on with a locker-room jeer after she’d been called a monster. “Tell us something we don’t know,” he wrote.

But while the McCain campaign apparently believes that women are easy marks for its latent feminist cross-dressing, a reality check suggests that most women can instantly identify any man who’s hitting on them for selfish ends. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/15/83321/2771

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013914.php

McCain’s dirty little fundraiser

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_doesnt_quite_cancel_con.php
[Eric Kleefeld] John McCain's campaign has arrived at a new solution in canceling their planned fundraiser with controversial Texas oilman Clayton Williams -- a compromise that allows them to both distance themselves from a man who would seriously complicate their efforts at outreach to women voters, while also getting access to the money he's helped bring in.

The original fundraiser, planned for Monday, was cancelled after Democrats publicized a statement about rape that Williams had made during his 1990 campaign for governor, and which had arguably cost him the race.

The fundraiser will now be rescheduled for later this summer at a new venue. All the people on the guest list that Williams had organized will be invited -- just not Williams himself. . . .

More: http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/mccain_and_clayton_williams.php

It’s not news, but the Dems work to expand the mandate, while the GOP works to constrict it

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080615/ap_on_re_us/election_commission;_ylt=AguzC4udCCgS38TcNekf3iqs0NUE

The GOP blocks a highly successful international AIDS program – why? Because the Religious Right wants them to

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/15/12494/0959

Bonus item: How the Internet is changing politics (and guess who doesn’t get it?)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/15/224543/470

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/15/181856/743

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:55 AM

 
ONE VOTE AWAY

Justice Kennedy speaks plainly in his decision on detainees

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/14/103010/914
Even when the United States acts outside its borders, its powers are not "absolute and unlimited" but are subject "to such restrictions as are expressed in the Constitution." Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U. S. 15, 44 (1885). Abstaining from questions involving formal sovereignty and territorial governance is one thing. To hold the political branches have the power to switch the Constitution on or off at will is quite another. The former position reflects this Court’s recognition that certain matters requiring political judgments are best left to the political branches. The latter would permit a striking anomaly in our tripartite system of government, leading to a regime in which Congress and the President, not this Court, say "what the law is." Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177 (1803).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/12cnd-gitmo.html
The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401541.html

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6360

McCain attacks Obama . . . for supporting the Supreme Court!

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/nation/ny-uscamp145726792jun14,0,6040596.story

[NB: Yes, a true patriot, like Bush or McCain, would know that there is a higher principle at stake – letting the President do whatever the hell he likes.]

Laura Ingraham comes out in favor of totalitarianism

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/14/various_items/index.html
I was trying to think to myself, look, if I were President Bush, and I had heard that this case had come down, and I'm out of office in a few months. My ratings, my popularity ratings are pretty low, I would have said at this point, that's very interesting that the court decided this, but I'm not going to respect the decision of the court because my job is to keep this country safe.

“One vote away”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/14/145755/068

Future fights to come

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401540.html
The Justice Department has argued that the Supreme Court's decision last week granting the Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their detentions in U.S. courts should not affect the military trials process. . . .

Though the top legal adviser for the commissions process, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, has said that the trials would be "fair, just and transparent" and that detainees would have full access to the evidence against them, Pentagon officials have now backed off of those claims. The Office of Military Commissions said last week that defendants representing themselves might not get access to information about their interrogators and that secret information might have to be redacted in order to be shared with them.

"If classified information is presented to the jury, the accused will see it, no exceptions," according to the Office of Military Commissions' written responses to Washington Post questions about how the military commissions will deal with classified evidence in the Sept. 11 case. But a further explanation reveals that classified contents of certain materials could be replaced by summaries and blacked-out documents. . . .

The defendants, some of whom have already said they were tortured by CIA agents while held in secret prisons overseas, almost certainly will request to use highly classified evidence relating to their captures and alleged confessions under duress. Legal experts said that, in such cases, it would be critical to challenge the confessions as illegal because of coercion, even if the government did not seek to use them, because of the legal doctrine that if the defendant was abused, all of his following statements would then be tainted and inadmissible.

But the Office of Military Commissions will not guarantee that the defendants will be able to question and confront their interrogators or captors, saying that the "identities of intelligence interrogators are normally classified." . . .

McCain versus McCain: On Samuel Alito

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-06-mccain-judges_N.htm
[May 6, 2008] Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito are the models for the type of judges Republican John McCain said Tuesday he would appoint to the federal bench if elected president.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14391.html
[January 28, 2008] Mr. McCain has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito, because “he wore his conservatism on his sleeve.”

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/01/019662.php
[January 28, 2008] John McCain held a blogger conference call today, mostly to respond to John Fund's claim in the Wall Street Journal that he might not appoint a judge like Sam Alito who "wore his conservatism on his sleeve." . . . McCain said that he doesn't recall making the statement attributed to him by Fund . . . .

McCain versus McCain: On litmus tests

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/now-mccain-is-flip-flopping-on-judges.html
McCain in a Town Hall today "I will not impose a litmus test on any nominee."

McCain in 2000: "Somewhat surprisingly, McCain had the support of Gary Bauer, the social conservative, who had dropped out of the race by that time. 'I wanted a commitment from either George Bush or John McCain that if elected he would appoint pro-life judges to the Supreme Court,' Bauer told me. 'Bush said he had no litmus test, and his judges would be strict constructionists. But McCain, in private, assured me he would appoint pro-life judges.'" [New Yorker, 5/30/05]

McCain versus McCain: On continuing Bush’s policies

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/mccain_versus_mccain.php

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/lying_in_politics_/2008/06/the_mccainmccain_debate_probush_or_antibush.php
[Mark Kleiman] A liar needs a long memory and John McCain has a short one. . . .

McCain versus McCain: On the AMT

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-goes-wobbly-on-amt-repeal.html

McCain’s half-assed approach to campaigning

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/14/12538/7251

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15872.html

I think this is going to turn out to be a huge story before it’s all over. With massive voter registration and a historic black vote in the offing, will state election officials become a bottleneck?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/us/politics/15vote.html

Could it be a landslide?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15868.html

Desperate GOP incumbents are reduced to this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401542.html

More bad timing for the Republicans: Jack Abramoff is cooperating and may testify in court in the fall

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/14/23923/1719/206/535771

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401933.html
FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Sens. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), American Petroleum Institute President Red Cavaney and former White House senior adviser Karl Rove.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Former senators Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.).

NEWSMAKERS (C-SPAN).: Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan.

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and former House speaker Newt Gingrich.

MEET THE PRESS (NBC) [NB: I think they have a testimonial to Tim Russert planned]

LATE EDITION (CNN): Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Reps. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Bonus item: McCain and Obama – their senses of humor

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/14/105732/781
When asked yesterday by reporters what it was like to be interviewed by Russert, McCain said with a smile, "I once told him I haven't had so much fun since my last interrogation at prison camp.'' . . . [read on]

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/yet-another-reason-i-like-obama.html
“I had an internal debate,” he said. “Because I knew that the A.P. was going to take a picture, and they were trying to portray it like Dukakis wearing that tank helmet. But I wanted to make sure that the children who saw that picture knew that even the Democratic nominee for president wears a helmet when he goes biking. (Hearty applause.)

“Now, obviously the rest of my apparel was apparently not up to snuff, because I got a hard time from all sorts of blogs,” he said, “Who said I looked like Urkel.”

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:20 AM

 
DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

Here’s why the Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus is so devastating for the Bush gang. The whole principle of habeas corpus is to prevent people being locked up indefinitely without charges and without trials – but that is exactly what the Bush gang wants to be able to do! They can’t try the Gitmo detainees because in most cases they don’t have specific charges or evidence that would withstand scrutiny; they can’t release them because many of them are (presumably) dangerous and there’s no country to take them; and they can’t treat them like prisoners of war because even prisoners of war get exchanged or sent home eventually, after the war is over. This war will never be “over.” So, they built Gitmo as a site for permanent incarceration; they never had any intention of letting most of these people go. Ever. And now the Court has said they can’t do that

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/bush-administration-in-disarray-after.html
Bush administration in "disarray" after Supreme Court slapdown on habeas . .

More: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/detainee-case-a

On the other hand

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012696.php
[Paradox] Much like Steve Soto, I did not find yesterday’s rejection on the Military Commissions Act a shining act of the good America ultimately triumphing yet again, but rather a depressing, disturbing sight of four fanatical Supreme Court Justices desperately holding up some tablets of bloody authoritarianism . . .

More: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012692.php

So much for “strict constructionism,” eh? Bush reveals his true theory of results-driven jurisprudence

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/13/bush-doesnt-know-what-the-supreme-court-does/
"It was a deeply divided court, and I strongly agree with those who dissented. And that dissent was based upon their serious concerns about US national security."

McCain weighs in

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/13/153731/564
“The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country. Sen. Graham and Sen. Lieberman and I had worked very hard to make sure that we didn't torture any prisoners, that we didn't mistreat them, that we abided by the Geneva Conventions . . .”

[NB: And what a fine job they did in guaranteeing that, wasn’t it?]

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15864.html

They’re really trying hard to get us to accept the idea that an attack on Iran is inevitable

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/40764.html

Another contempt of Congress charge coming

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/rep_henry_waxman_threatening_t.php

No comments

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/post_5.php

Steny Hoyer claims a “done deal” on FISA

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/13/fisa-whats-in-it-for-steny/

Why? http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/13/161713/855/425/535544

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6355

Chuck Schumer predicts an 11-seat gain in the Senate (astonishing, if it happens)

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/13/114247/654

Almost beyond satire. It’s just the Republican way

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200128.php
[Josh Marshall] We haven't had Rudy Giuliani to kick around for a while. But Rudy seems intent on throwing us a bone.

The Times reports that with the GOP for once running seriously behind Democrats in campaign fundraising, Giuliani is offering to hold fundraisers for down-ticket Republicans. But with an important catch -- he gets to keep part of the haul for himself. . . . [read on, it gets worse]

McCain versus McCain

On Social Security: http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-i-never-supported-social.html
“I'm not for quote privatizing Social Security, I never have been, I never will be." - New Hampshire Town Hall, 06/12/08

"Without privatization, I don't see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits." - C-Span Road to the White House, 11/18/2004

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/13/mccain-denies-his-record-of-supporting-social-security-privatization/
“As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it — along the lines that President Bush proposed.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/2008]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15863.html
[Steve Benen] That’s really the entire debate. Dems say, “McCain, you want to privatize Social Security.” McCain responds, “No I don’t, I just want people to have private accounts with money that used to go into the Social Security system.”

Except that’s what privatization means. . . [read on]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200044.php
[Josh Marshall] Needless to say, not only is 'privatization' an accurate description of the policy but it's also the one Republicans came up with and the one they used until polls showed definitively that the American people want to preserve Social Security and weren't for privatizing it. So 'privatization' was consigned to the memory hole and Republican spinmeisters tried to find as many ignorant or gullible journalists as they could to allow them to keep changing the name of their policy in order to trick the public into accepting a policy they didn't like.

After they dropped 'privatization' they called it 'private accounts'. And when 'private accounts' tanked too, they said that 'private accounts' wasn't fair either. They were really 'personal accounts.' The whole thing just got silly and sad.

On immigration: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6335
The latest flip-flop accusation was yesterday, with Senator Robert Menendez accusing John McCain of flip-flopping on immigration in an interview with the Huffington Post. . . .

On warrantless wiretapping: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/13/fisa-mccain-and-his-telecom-lobbyist-posse-provide-cheney-cya/
[Christy Hardin Smith] If John McCain can't even figure out how to send an e-mail by himself, how in the hell am I supposed to have confidence in his ability to comprehend both the technological and constitutional issues involved in FISA? It's like asking Ted Stevens for networking advice, isn't it? . . .

Maybe McCain's vast posse of telecom lobbyist cronies can help him out -- because they've managed to flip yet another McCain position on an issue to their clients' advantage. . . .

On taxes: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/mccain-campaign-on

Pretzel Man

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/06/he_contains_multitudes.php
[Mark Kleiman] Some people have expressed doubt that John Bottom-of-his-Class McCain has the intellectual wherewithal to function as President. But McCain seems to have some mental skills that others lack.

Any politician can change his position, either in the face of new information or under pressure. And any politician can remain consistent.

But McCain can adopt a position (for privatizing social security, against warrantless communications monitoring, against torture even if we don't call it that) then adopt the opposite position (against privatizing social security, for warrantless communications monitoring, not against torture as long as we don't call it that) without changing his mind. Whatever position McCain holds at the moment is the position he has always held, just as Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

This is an impressive feat, and McCain makes it look easy. Remember, though he's a trained professional; don't try it at home, kids. Some people have tied themselves in such mental knots they never got untied again.

Fiscal responsibility?

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/mccains-report-more-than-100000-in-credit-card-debt-2008-06-13.html
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his wife reported more than $100,000 of credit card liabilities, according to financial disclosure documents released Friday. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/13/12041/3432

Obama on McCain on Social Security

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/obama_on_social_security.php
Now, John McCain’s ideas on Social Security amount to four more years of what was attempted and failed under George Bush. He said he supports private accounts for Social Security – in his words, “along the lines that President Bush proposed.” Yesterday he tried to deny that he ever took that position, leaving us wondering if he had a change of heart or a change of politics.

Well let me be clear: privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it. It's a bad idea today. It would eventually cut guaranteed benefits by up to 50%. It would cost a trillion dollars that we don’t have to implement on the front end, permanently elevating our debt. And most of all, it would gamble the retirement plans of millions of Americans on the stock market. That’s why I stood up against this plan in the Senate, and that’s why I won’t stand for it as President.

Debating the debates

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6349
[Chris Bowers] Obama smartly rejects McCain's proposal for ten faux "town hall" style joint appearances . . .

McCain stood to gain quite a bit if Obama either accepted the proposal, or even if Obama has countered with something like five joint "town hall" appearances. Here is what McCain could have gained . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/13/143046/949
[BarbinMD] On the day John McCain challenged Barack Obama to join him in a series of old-style town hall meetings, he said:

“I believe they should be people who are selected randomly, who come and enjoy the oldest form of democracy in America, and let them tell us what’s on their minds and let each of us make a response.”

What a maverick. What a straight talker. What a load of garbage.

Yesterday, after the McCain campaign spent the day hyping an event as a town hall meeting where McCain would "answer questions from real voters," and tsk, tsking Obama for not being there to "revolutionize our political process and start a real change in the tone in politics," there was clarification, as reported by Fox News’ Shepard Smith, at the end of the broadcast:

“I reported at the top of this hour that the campaign had told us at Fox News that the audience would be made up of Republicans, Democrats, and independents. We have now received a clarification from the campaign and I feel I should pass it along to you. The McCain campaign distributed tickets to supporters, Mayor Bloomberg, who of course is a registered Republican, and other independent groups.”

And other attendees:

“Sens. Joseph Lieberman...and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Others were culled from McCain e-mail lists and from independent voter groups.”

Well, you can't get much more random or real than that, can you?

VP thoughts

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/ambinder_veepstakes_lists_613.php

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6342

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15866.html

More proof that Obama can’t be trusted to protect the country

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/06/13/powell_may_vote_for_obama.html
[Globe and Mail] Colin Powell, the former Republican secretary of state, says he is not ruling out a vote for Barack Obama . . .

An aggressive, smart, confident move

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/3600_24_6.php
[Marc Ambinder] The Washington Post's Peter Slevin reports that the Obama campaign is dispatching 3,600 full-time volunteers to 17 states for six weeks of intensive, well, we don't really know, but I would suspect that voter registration will occupy a lot of their time.

Under the radar screen, the Obama campaign has been hosting thousands of house parties for undecided voters across the country; normally, campaigns use the model to organize caucuses or primaries, but Obama has taken it to the next level.

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6336
[Chris Bowers] While the Obama campaign will keep staff in all 50 states, and while it is keeping its volunteer campaign infrastructure in place in all 50 states as well, today it is sending 3,600 organizing fellows to 17 states. Unless plans have changed in the last seventeen days, the seventeen states are as follows . . .

Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Iowa
Michigan
Missouri
North Carolina
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
Nevada
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin

Obama opens up an anti-smear web site

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_camp_unveils_fight_the_s.php

Here it is: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

A contrary approach to smears

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6327
[Joe Brewer] The Obama campaign has just launched a new website to fight the smears. While it is encouraging that they are taking seriously the need to respond quickly to hateful distortions and fabrications, we want to lay out a more effective approach than the standard myth-busting tactic. This conventional approach to dispelling myths about a candidate is to first present and label the smear, then offer facts that contradict it. Recent studies have shown that this approach can backfire and reinforce the ideas you are attempting to debunk. . . .

Jujitsu in Action - The Smart Way to Fight Smears Against Obama . . . [read on]

How Hillary helped Obama?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/13/201723/178
[Todd Beeton] Josh Marshall rightly observes the vast gap that is evident both in readiness and professionalism between the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain (election night speech with lime green background, anyone?) As one of the primary reasons for this, Josh credits the enormous challenge posed to Barack by Hillary Clinton's candidacy. . . . [read on]

More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199987.php

Barack Obama, dictator

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/13/brilliant-democratic-strategy-revealed/
[Eli] A couple of days ago, Tony Blankley performed one of those truly amazing logical contortions that only conservatives can pull off . . .

Bonus item: She’s b-a-a-a-c-k

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/13/115342/977
Schmidt's latest: she has sent out a letter accusing Dr. Wulsin, her opponent again in 2008, of performing "grotesque medical experiments" on humans. . . . [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:17 AM

 
A NATION OF LAWS

It’s taken a while – too long – but little by little the courts and legislative process are starting to roll back the lawless security regime the Bush gang managed to foist upon the country in the frightened days just after 9-11. The latest is a Supreme Court decision re-establishing habeas corpus for detainees. This is big

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-gives-detainees-habeas-rights/
In a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to pursue habeas challenges to their detention. . . . [read on]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/supreme_court_rules_in_favor_o.php
[AP] Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/12/102835/929
[Justice Scalia] "The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed. That consequence would be tolerable if necessary to preserve a time-honored legal principle vital to our constitutional Republic. But it is this Court’s blatant abandonment of such a principle that produces the decision today . . ."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/12/BL2008061202172.html
[Dan Froomkin] President Bush's slow and painful schooling in constitutional law continued today . . .

A repudiation of Yoo: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/discredited_yoo_memos_led_to_enemy_combatant_detainment_and_denial_of_habea/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/12/AR2008061204283.html
In the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush and his advisers sought to create an unprecedented parallel system to detain suspected terrorists far from the normal scrutiny of the U.S. judiciary. The naval base at Guantanamo Bay offered a way to indefinitely hold those individuals the administration considered among the most dangerous in the world.

But the Supreme Court's decision yesterday to grant habeas corpus rights to the detainees struck at the very core of the administration's approach . . .

Analysis

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/analysis-what-are-detainees-rights-now/
What are detainees’ rights now? . . .

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/06/early-summary-of-boumediene.html
[Marty Lederman] [A]s far as I can tell just yet, the Court did not reach the two even more important questions:

1. Whether the Constitution applies to detainees held outside GTMO; and

2. What the substantive standard for detention is: "It bears repeating that our opinion does not address the content of the law that governs petitioners’ detention. That is a matter yet to be determined."

At first glance, it would appear that although the decision is momentous, there are other important things that it does not do:

It does not speak to whether GTMO should be closed (although it basically undermines the Administration's principal reason for using GTMO in the first place, which was to keep the courts from reviewing the legality of the Executive's conduct).

Nor does it affect, in any dramatic sense, possible military commission trials -- with the important exception that it invites the defendants in those trials to raise constitutional defenses, such as under the Ex Post Facto Clause.

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/007532.html
A Washington lawyer comments, "Having now read the entire 134 page decision, I'm afraid it may not go as far as I originally thought. The same rationale could apply to foreign nationals held at other U.S. military bases abroad, depending on the agreement between the U.S. and the foreign country in which it is based, but it would not apply to less formal U.S. outposts abroad, i.e., CIA safe houses."

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/13/21518/2400
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, speaking in Tokyo today, said the Supreme Court's decision yesterday upholding the rights of detainees to challenge the determination they are enemy combatants will not affect the upcoming Military Commissions Act trials. . . .

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/12/boumediene/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] In a major rebuke to the Bush administration's theories of presidential power -- and in an equally stinging rebuke to the bipartisan political class which has supported the Bush detention policies . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013895.php
[Kevin Drum] I wonder, in practice, what this will mean? As near as I can tell, there's not a single country in the world willing to take these prisoners even if they get a trial and are judged innocent. This means that we either release them in the United States or — what? Dump them on a military cargo plane and release them in Afghanistan, where no one can stop us from doing it? There's no question that the court did the right thing today, but I wonder what the end game is here?

Lots more: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/12/the-rule-of-law-prevailed/

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/boumediene-v-bush-and-al-odah-v-us-decision-round-up/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91441607

Listen to them howl

Bush: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iz5NfWQ4MwfbD7DuNXYSVorKzZsAD918ME282
Bush suggested new legislation may now be needed to keep the American people safe.

"We'll abide by the court's decision," Bush said during a news conference in Rome. "That doesn't mean I have to agree with it."

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court's liberal justices were in the majority.

"It was a deeply divided court, and I strongly agree with those who dissented," Bush said. "And that dissent was based upon their serious concerns about U.S. national security."

Bush said his administration will study the ruling. "We'll do this with this in mind — to determine whether or not additional legislation might be appropriate so we can safely say to the American people, 'We're doing everything we can to protect you.'"

[NB: Of course, nearly every decision favoring Bush polices, including the infamous 2000 decision giving him the presidency, were by a “deeply divided” 5-4 Court – but only now does that seem to be a concern.]

McCain: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/12/21210/4208
"These are unlawful combatants, they are not American citizens and I think we should pay attention to Justice Roberts' opinion in this decision," McCain said, referring to the chief justice's dissent.

[NB: Which he later went on to say he hadn’t read.]

Lindsey Graham: http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0608/GOP_blast_Gitmo_decision_Graham_says_he_is_willing_to_push_for_a_constitutional_amendment_if_necessa.html
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) vowed Thursday to do everything in his power to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision on Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying that, “if necessary,” he would push for a constitutional amendment to modify the decision . . .

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/13/lindsey-graham-gets-an-f-in-constitutional-law/
[Scarecrow] It was Graham who assured his colleagues that the procedures employed under the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs) were both reasonable and an "acceptable substitute" for a federal habeas corpus hearing, even though the CSRT rules denied detainees the right to counsel and to know or challenge all the "evidence" used to justify their detention. In November 2005, Graham offered and vouched for the less than due process measures used by the CSRTs and then sponsored the amendments to strip federal courts of the right to hear habeas petitions.

It was Graham who argued Congress should replace normal court habeas review with a severely restricted review by the D.C. Circuit Court of CSRT decisions. And it was Graham who led efforts to defeat habeas' restoration and fostered the sham that what eventually became the infamous Military Commissions Act was reasonable because it was superficially "better" than what the Administration originally proposed, an argument Justice Roberts relied on.

And who can forget that it was Graham, along with Senator Kyl, who also tried to deceive the Supreme Court about Congressional intent by inserting into a Conference Report a colloquy that in fact never occurred, to the effect that Congress intended to strip federal courts of habeas jurisdiction in Gitmo detainee cases on both pending and future cases.

Yesterday's decision was a repudiation of Lindsey Graham's lawyering. . . . [read on]

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_061208/content/01125106.guest.html
[Rush Limbaugh] So there is absolutely no limit now, no respect for the law anymore. The moral of this story is going to shake out this way. Take no captives. This is a victory for the enemy. It is a disgrace. . .

One of the things that really frustrates me about this, if you read the coverage, it was a loss for the Bush administration. It was another defeat for the Bush administration. Wrongo . . . It's a defeat for the United States of America. . . .

So this is what happens when you get leftists on the bench. . . .

[NB: Leftists like Anthony Kennedy?]

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_061208/content/01125113.guest.html
. . . The leftists -- not just on the Supreme Court, the leftists throughout American judiciary -- want to take the right to prosecute war away from the commander-in-chief and turn it over to themselves.

CALLER: I just see that this is going to have so many unintended consequences.

RUSH: No, it has many intended consequences. This is what many of us who ring the clarion bells are trying to get people to understand. This is not a bunch of little idiots that write laws in Congress with their unintended consequences. . . They have every intention of changing the way this country looks, cutting this country down to size. I've been through all the reasons. They think we're too big. We're stealing the world's resources. We're destroying the planet with global warming. We've got this idiot president they can't figure out how to beat. He's so stupid he keeps beating them, and we gotta get rid of him. He's illegitimate, his war is unjust; his policies are unjust. Look, there's a systematic desire -- and it's been going on for quite a while -- to change or get rid of the institutions and traditions that have always defined and maintained the country's greatness. It's a very serious problem. . . .

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_061208/content/01125110.guest.html
See, I put nothing past the left. And I know that the left is all over the CIA and the left is all over the State Department. The left is all over the Pentagon. . . . Levin wrote his book in 2005, published in 2005. He wrote it before that. He saw this coming, the attempt to transfer the power to fight wars to the judiciary from the chief executive. This has been an objective that the left has had. It's based on a bunch of reasons. They hate Bush, they hate the military, they don't trust it. They're only comfortable with it when they control it and to get it in the hands of their judges, which they've done. I mean, how can you deny that this has happened? Command decisions are now being made by the US Supreme Court and lesser courts! This has never happened in 232 years, never happened in this exact circumstance, where prisoners captured overseas -- key -- the Supreme Court has said we don't have jurisdiction there. They asserted it in this decision.

More: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6329

A reminder, for all those considering staying home or voting for McCain in November

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/12/boumediene/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] Three of the five Justices in the majority -- John Paul Stevens (age 88), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (age 75) and David Souter (age 68) -- are widely expected by court observers to retire or otherwise leave the Court in the first term of the next President. By contrast, the four judges who dissented -- Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Sam Alito -- are expected to stay right where they are for many years to come.

John McCain has identified Roberts and Alito as ideal justices of the type he would nominate, while Barack Obama has identified Stephen Breyer, David Souter and Ginsberg (all in the majority today). It's not hyperbole to say that, from Supreme Court appointments alone, our core constitutional protections could easily depend upon the outcome of the 2008 election.

More: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/12/121339/650

More roll-backs?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/opinion/12thu1.html
Congress is finally moving to ban one of the Bush administration’s most blatant evasions of accountability in Iraq — the outsourcing of war detainees’ interrogation to mercenary private contractors.

Operating free of the restraints of military rule and ethics, some of these corporate thugs turned up in the torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison and walked away with impunity. Others are now believed to be in the employ of the Central Intelligence Agency at secret prisons that remain outside the rule of law, exempted even from the weak 2006 rules on interrogating prisoners.

Civilian interrogators are part of the broader pool of hired guns that the administration has deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other spots around the world . . .

Even the Iraqis sense weakness

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-iraq-usa-deal.html
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday talks with the United States on a new long-term security pact were deadlocked because of U.S. demands that infringed Iraq's sovereignty.

"We have reached a deadlock, because when we started the talks, we found that the U.S. demands hugely infringe on the sovereignty of Iraq, and this we can never accept," Maliki said . . .

"We can't extend the U.S. forces permission to arrest Iraqis or to undertake the responsibility of fighting terrorism in an independent way, or to keep Iraqi skies and waters open for themselves whenever they want," he said.

"One of the important issues that the U.S. is asking for is immunity for its soldiers and those contracting with it. We reject this totally."

Unbelievable corruption

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/weldon_1.php
[Andrew Tilghman] The other day we told you about the Russian not-for-profit group that was giving undisclosed payments to the wife of former Rep. Curt Weldon's chief of staff.

Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who lost his reelection bid in 2006, had sought federal grants for International Exchange Group, which was run by a Russian with ties to the Kremlin. IEG was involved in "promoting U.S.-Russia business exchange, including nonproliferation issues."

IEG popped up again this week. . . . [read on]

Schadenfreude

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/12/19335/7083
[Kos] House Republicans have had to deal with the nearly $2 million tab from its embezzlement scandal ($725,000 stolen by their former treasurer, and continued legal and accounting costs trying to sort out the mess), not to mention the severe public embarrassment which allows people like me to say, "Republicans run their committees the same way they run the country." . . . [read on]

A fellow Republican has to call Dick Cheney on a big lie

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/12/153024/665

Bush’s approval continues to sink, and we probably haven’t seen the bottom yet

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/12/bush-cheney-and-rice-sink-to-lowest-ratings-ever/
24%

One of the presidential candidates presides over a seriously divided party, in which many members of his own party in Congress refuse to unify behind him. Guess which one?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15846.html

Deeply divided and demoralized: http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/13/55956/9472

McCain used to say that he repudiated the activities of 527’s and other independent groups in posting attack ads. He also said he wanted to run a civil and respectful campaign. Now he says. . . .

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_i_cant_stop_outside_gro.php
. . . there really isn't anything he can do about it [read on]

Taking McCain at his word

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/061108.html
McCain routinely makes stuff up . . . [read on]

Obama takes a clever turn on McCain’s “not important” comment – he takes McCain’s excuse at face value (“what I really meant to say. . .”) then bashes him for THAT

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/06/obama-hits-mc-1.html
First of all, that means he's not thinking about the extraordinary burden that families are under on two or three or four tours of duty. But he's also not thinking about taxpayers who are spending $10- to $12 billion a month in Iraq. And that's money that could go to rebuilding Wisconsin and putting people back to work right here in the United States of America." . . [read on]

Comparing Obama and McCain on taxes

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199890.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013899.php

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/the_bottom_line.php

Bonus item: Fox News is almost starting to act like a respectable news organization (but don’t hold your breath!)

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0608/Foxs_addresses_baby_mama_drama_Producer_used_poor_judgment.html

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/fox-news-mccain-lied-to-us.html

Just like Bush: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/13/oh-not-like-bush-at-all-right-mr-straight-talk/

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15855.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:14 AM

 
SHOOTING FROM THE HIP

I think people are missing the point about the latest McCain gaffe – I don’t think that it’s because he truly doesn’t think it’s important when or whether troops start coming home from Iraq. But this comment, like his “I don’t care if we’re in Iraq for another 100 years,” and many others, shows his greatest weakness as a candidate – a certain flippancy toward questions that he doesn’t like, and a tendency to dismiss them with ill-considered quips and offhand remarks, ALL of which are now captured on tape and replayable endlessly.

His campaign’s constant excuse that they’re being “taken out of context” is only half fair: because EVEN IN CONTEXT these are callous and insensitive formulations of bad policy. But that’s part of being a self-identified “maverick,” isn’t it: saying the blunt and impolitic things that others are reluctant to express? Which is to say, expect a lot more of these in the future . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199687.php
McCain was asked if he has an estimate for when U.S. troops might leave Iraq.

"No, but that's not too important," McCain replied. . .

The Dems pounce: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_campaign_opens_fire_on_m.php

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/new-dnc-video-blasts-mccains-latest.html

The McCain campaign pushes back hard: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_campaign_hits_back_over.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15837.html
[Steve Benen] But what’s truly entertaining about all of this is watching the McCain campaign struggle to come up with a coherent response. It’s almost consistent with the five stages of grief. . .

Lieberman plays his role: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/lieberman_to_defend_mccains_co.php
Lieberman dismissed the controversy as "another partisan attempt to distort John McCain's words to distract the American people from the fact that John McCain has been both courageous and right about the surge, and Barack Obama has been consistently wrong."

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/lieberman_invokes_mccains_war.php
“I mean the obvious fact is that more than most any American, Senator McCain knows the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform make. . .”

Context? http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199728.php
[Josh Marshall] The McCain campaign is hitting back hard against Democratic criticism of his "not that important" quote this morning on Today. But as often is the case with McCain, the explanations of what he said are even sillier than the original statement. . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013889.php
[Kevin Drum] 100 years redux? Actually, yes, because McCain said exactly the same thing he said the last time he got in hot water over this: he's OK with keeping troops in Iraq forever as long as it becomes as peaceful as garrison duty in Okinawa or Germany. Unfortunately, in typical McCain style, that's where he stops. He never explains how Iraq is going to be fully pacified when a large and growing majority of its residents are outraged at the idea of a long-term U.S. presence. He just doesn't get the Catch-22: he wants Iraq to become Okinawa Jr., but as long as we're there the violence is never going to stop and Iraq will stay Iraq. Casualties will never be reduced to zero.

And there's a broader question anyway: even if casualties did drop to zero, would we really want a long-term neocolonial presence in Iraq anyway? Why? To protect the oil? That was pumping just fine before we were there. To fight al-Qaeda? They're in Pakistan. To ensure a presence in the area? We already have bases in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and elsewhere. How the hell many do we need?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15833.html
[Steve Benen] To be sure, McCain has made comments like these before, most notably in response to questions about his stated willingness to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years. He frequently emphasizes his belief that as long as Americans are not being killed or seriously injured in Iraq, he doesn’t much care when we leave.

But he’s usually not this clumsy and politically tone deaf. Bringing the troops home is “not too important”? For thousands of Americans in uniform and their families, nothing is more important.

In fact, everything about McCain’s bizarre worldview is misguided. First, as recently as Monday, McCain reiterated his support for an indefinite war in Iraq. Coupled with this morning’s remarks, McCain believes the U.S. presence in Iraq has no end in sight, and bringing the troops home is “not too important.”

Second, his repeated comparisons to Germany, Japan, and Korea are not just foolish, they’re bordering on absurd. The more McCain makes the argument, the dumber it sounds. (Indeed, McCain himself has said his own comparison doesn’t apply well to Iraq.)

And third, there’s the pesky detail of the growing number of Iraqi officials who used to support a long-term U.S. security presence, but who are now ready to see Americans leave.

More: http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/06/not_that_important.php

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/11/112159/339

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/11/203356/589

It’s not really about McCain’s age, it’s about his casual attitude toward the facts

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15836.html
[Steve Benen] * McCain has been confused about how many U.S. troops are in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about whether the U.S. can maintain a long-term presence in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about the source of violence in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about Iran’s relationship with al Qaeda.

* McCain has been confused about the difference between Sunni and Shi’ia.

* McCain has been confused about Gen. Petraeus’ responsibilities in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about what transpired during the Maliki government’s recent offensive in Basra.

* McCain has been confused about Gen. Petraeus’ ability to travel around Baghdad “in a non-armed Humvee.”

* McCain has been so confused about Iraq, in November 2006, he couldn’t even do a live interview about the war without reading prepared notes on national television.

This is a great way to deflect all those “Bush’s third term” rumors

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/the_cheney_factor.php
[Politico] In an interview he gave to the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes in 2006 for Hayes’s biography, “Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President,” McCain said: “I will strongly assert to you that he has been of enormous help to this president of the United States.”

Going further, McCain even told Hayes in comments heretofore unpublished that he’d consider Cheney for an administration post.

Asked whether he’d be interested in Cheney had the vice president not already have served under Bush for two terms, McCain said: “I don’t know if I would want him as vice president. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah.”

More: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/11/mccain-cheney-hell-yeah/

Could this REALLY be McCain’s VP choice?

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/bobby_jindals_dance_with_the_d.php
[Eric Kleefeld and Kate Klonick] Bobby Jindal, the 36-year old governor of Louisiana, is being taken seriously by the national press as a candidate on the shortlist to be John McCain's Vice President. No one doubts that he's a political prodigy -- his impressive resume includes stints as president of the state university system, a Congressman and now governor.

But one of Jindal's job titles hasn't gotten much attention -- and it just might prompt a few questions if his Veep candidacy gains steam: Exorcist.

We've discovered that in an essay Jindal wrote in 1994 for the New Oxford Review, a serious right-wing Catholic journal, Jindal narrated a bizarre story of a personal encounter with a demon, in which he participated in an exorcism with a group of college friends. And not only did they cast out the supernatural spirit that had possessed his friend, Jindal wrote that he believes that their ritual may well have cured her cancer. . . .

Heh

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/11/after-bad-press-mccain-goes-back-to-town-halls/
Following a harsh press assessment of John McCain's recent formal speeches delivered before a teleprompter, the Arizona senator is returning to a format in which he is decidedly more comfortable.

McCain is slated to hold a town-hall with voters in Philadelphia Wednesday and hold town halls with voters for the rest of the week. McCain’s event in Philadelphia was originally planned to be a scripted speech, but the campaign scrapped those plans after a wave of harsh critiques over a bright green screen that backed him last Tuesday, and the stiffness of his delivery when using a teleprompter.

McCain to CUT defense spending?

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6298
[Chris Bowers] If true, this would be a much bigger bombshell that McCain's remarks on Iraq withdrawal. . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15840.html

McCain calls himself a technology “illiterate.” Is that important? (I think it is)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/11/134456/659
Asked whether he is a Mac or PC person, McCain answered:

“Neither, I'm an illiterate . . .” [read on]

Joe Lieberman is cruisin’ for a bruisin’

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/joe-lieberman-are
[Spencer Ackerman] Are You Really Going to Make Me Capitalize The First Three Letters Of Your Last Name? [read on]

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/11/203356/589

Well, he’s the only one

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/11/bush.europe/index.html
U.S. President George W. Bush claimed Wednesday that he had no regrets about the decision to invade Iraq . . .

U.S. torture. On film?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-10-torture_N.htm

The American University of Iraq

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/amer_univiraq_chancellor_hired.php
As Inside Higher Ed reports today, [Owen] Cargol resigned back in April as the first chancellor of the American University in Iraq, apparently for health reasons, but he'd been forced out of a previous position as president of Northern Arizona University after just four months for allegedly sexually harassing a NAU employee . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_06/013888.php
From Owen Cargol, then president of Northern Arizona University, explaining his locker room conduct to a fellow employee:

In a subsequent e-mail to the employee, Cargol described himself as "a rub-your-belly, grab-your-balls, give-you-a-hug, slap-your-back, pull-your-dick, squeeze-your-hand, cheek-your-face, and pat-your-thigh kind of guy."

[Kevin Drum] Uh huh. You'll be unsurprised to know that Cargol was considered an ideal choice by the Coalition Provisional Authority to become the first chancellor of the American University of Iraq last year.

Obama drops Jim Johnson from his VP selection team, which was probably unnecessary, but frees him up now for a broadside attack against McCain’s lobbyist staffers, starting with Charlie Black

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15839.html

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/johnsons_departure_and_obamas.php

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/campaign-adviser

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccains-has-lobbyist-in-charge-of-vp.html
"We don't need any lectures from a campaign that waited fifteen months to purge the lobbyists from their staff, and only did so because they said it was a 'perception problem. It's too bad their campaign is still rife with lobbyist influence and doesn't see a similar 'perception problem' with the man currently running their own vice presidential selection process, a prominent DC lobbyist whose firm has represented Exxon and a top Enron executive, or their campaign chair and John McCain's top economic adviser Carly Fiorina, who presided over thousands of layoffs at Hewlett Packard while receiving a $21 million severance package and $650,000 in mortgage assistance," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

50 states. Count ‘em

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/11/105023/784
[Obama] People like you have been the heart of Chairman Howard Dean's 50-state strategy to rebuild our party and empower Democrats to compete everywhere. We've all seen the energy and enthusiasm at the grassroots level impact races up and down the ballot over the last three years.

I am proud to announce that our presidential campaign will be the first in a generation to deploy and maintain staff in every single state. . . .

[Kos] That's incredible. It's revolutionary. . . [read on]

Jim Webb’s VP chances take a big hit

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/could_webbs_writings_on_civil.php
[Politico] Webb is no mere student of the Civil War era. He's an author, too, and he's left a trail of writings and statements about one of the rawest and most sensitive topics in American history.

He has suggested many times that while the Confederacy is a symbol to many of the racist legacy of slavery and segregation, for others it simply reflects Southern pride...

Webb, a descendant of Confederate officers, also voiced sympathy for the notion of state sovereignty as it was understood in the early 1860s, and seemed to suggest that states were justified in trying to secede. . . [read on]

The GOP goes after Michelle Obama (it’s what they do – but with all of Cindy McCain’s baggage, is this a fight they want to pick?)

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15831.html

Cindy McCain? http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/18/drugs/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/03/cindy-mccains-fortune-pro_n_94833.html

Bonus item: “Obama’s Baby Mama”

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/11/fox_obama/index.html

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/12/stay-classy-foxnews/
“At long last, have you no sense of decency?” [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:49 AM

 
WAR, GOLF, AND OTHER DIVERSIONS

Now the Bush gang says they WILL complete a security agreement with Iraq before the end of the summer. Neither the US Congress nor Iraqi Parliament will support it, and it is not clear that it will have any force beyond Bush’s tenure. But it’s sure to put McCain in a tough spot

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061003415.html
If the talks collapse, several Iraqi officials said, they would request another one-year extension of the U.N. mandate. But Iraqi officials said they would also ask for modifications to the mandate similar to those they are seeking in the current negotiations.

"All the same issues would then be transferred to the talks with the U.N. Security Council," Abadi said.

Assuming that violence in Iraq will continue to decrease, politicians such as Saghir have begun discussing another option: asking the U.S. military to leave Iraq. . . .

Failing to reach agreements this year authorizing the future presence of American forces in Iraq would be a strategic setback for the Bush administration, which says that such a presence is essential to promoting stability. Absent the agreements or the extension of the U.N. mandate, U.S. troops would have no legal basis to remain in Iraq.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199544.php
[Josh Marshall] Perhaps I'm missing something, but how does anybody think future US governments, not to mention future Iraqi governments, are going to be bound by some slapped-together deal President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki put together that hasn't even been passed by our Congress or their parliament? The administration is treating it as a big priority because it will supposedly ensure a longterm (i.e., permanent) US presence in Iraq. And war critics are taking it seriously for the same reason. But it's entirely unclear to me why anyone thinks a President Obama couldn't say 'Forget it. Bad idea.' on day one.

23 billion dollars

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7444083.stm
To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.

The president's Democrat opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.

Henry Waxman who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said: "The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, its egregious.

"It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history." . . .

In the Other War

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/afghanistan
[Spencer Ackerman] In the middle of a consuming presidential election, the American public is focused on the faltering economy first and the Iraq war second. So it's easy to forget that there's another, older war going on in Afghanistan -- one that's shown alarming signs of deterioration in recent months . . .

The conventional niceties of press coverage tend to avoid terms like “lie” and “deception.” But the Senate “Phase II” report shows clearly a systematic effort of lies and deception to drive the country to war. Things may work out for the better in Iraq, or may not, but Bush’s legacy will always carry this burden

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-big-story-you-may-hav_b_106159.html

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/phase_ii_what_was_missing.php
[Kate Klonick] [A]s damning as parts of the report were (Rumsfeld's false testimony, etc.) it probably could have been a lot worse for the executive branch, had not large swaths of White House communications been excluded from the scope of the investigations. . . [read on]

Another Bush legacy: privatizing military and intelligence services – and in doing so, making them less accountable

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/todays_must_read_349.php

Bush’s other legacies

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/11/mah-legacy/

Articles of impeachment filed against Bush. 35 of them, to be exact. (Is that all?)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/10/8428/58033/718/533225

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2008/06/impeach_bush_wexler_says.html

Full text: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/10/122352/156

Yep, he said it

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/10/21352/2767/24/532894
[February 29, 2008] Peter Maer of CBS News Radio asked: "What’s your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4-a-gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing ... "

"Wait, what did you just say?" the president interrupted. "You’re predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?"

Maer responded: "A number of analysts are predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline."

Bush’s rejoinder: "Oh, yeah? That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that."

Take it with a grain of salt, but according to this report, Bush fired Rove. In a church. And Rove didn’t take it very well

http://www.examiner.com/blogs-73-Yeas_and_Nays~y2008m6d9-Bush-confronted-Roves-sins-in-church

How angry are Republicans with the Bush gang and the electoral catastrophe they’ve been saddled with? You wouldn’t believe how angry

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/10/50-ways-to-leave-your-rover/
"Every Republican I know looks at the Bush administration as a total failure," said Matt Towery, chairman of Newt Gingrich's political organization.

“To do what he did politically to us is unforgivable," Rep. Tom Tancredo told Alexander. "It will take generations to recover. I don't know how long; maybe never."

"I think the legacy is that Karl Rove will be a name that'll be used for a long, long time as an example of how not to do it," said long-time GOP strategist Ed Rollins.

And it carries over to McCain too: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/9/9418/79016/230/532680

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/kristol-gop

Chris Matthews has been railing that the Dems need to do more to hammer the GOP on their cozy ties to big oil, in the midst of rising gas prices, with no end in sight. Stories like this would help

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/big-oil-subsidies
Senate Republicans today killed legislation to eliminate billions of dollars in federal subsidies for the oil and gas industry and invest the money instead in renewable fuels. The bill would also have applied a windfall-profit tax to large oil companies that fail to invest in clean energy technologies. . . .

The election in a nutshell

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/10/105051/922/637/533306
[DemfromCT] How do you know you're talking to a Hillary supporter? They think Barry can't win.

How do you know you're talking to a Obama supporter? They think Barack can't lose.

How do you know you're talking to a Bush supporter? If you can find one, they think that Barack Hussein Obama is a secret Muslim who hates America.

How do you know you're talking to a McCain supporter? They hate the Clintons but covet her voters. . . [read on]

Is it just me, or is there something not quite serious about McCain’s drive to be President?

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccains_web_site_golf_gear_for.php

Ha, ha: read the comments (before they delete them!) http://store.johnmccain.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=FDR2583

[LATER] It's gone now, of course. But the McCain people just don't quite get the Internet - here are many of the comments, retrieved:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/11/02345/5501/143/533800
"I thought that I would give this McBush golf set to Dad for Father's Day as a way to commemorate his leaving Mom for the younger, blonder, much richer woman!!"

"Obama has better get some bowling gear out prontissimo!"

"This is just the thing for strolling around the Baghdad Market with 100 soldiers; 2 Blackhawks; and 3 Apache gunships, and then telling us that Baghdad is safe!"

"Whenever I get angry at how elitist the limousine liberals are, I have the chef make me some Cindy McCain Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Slaw, then I take my John McCain golf gear out on the country club, where I can be with real, hardworking Americans. Also, white people."

"Support the troops and go golfing."

"I'm going to use it on the golf course in the Green Zone in Baghdad!"

"Wonderful gift for loved ones in sand traps Send one to every service member you know who will be stationed in Iraq over the next hundred or so years."

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/blog/default.asp?perm=1304
"There we were on the 17th green when a bedbug-ridden bearded terrorist leaped from the hole screaming godless gibberish. My pitiful peace-loving liberal partners grabbed their balls and ran, leaving me alone with only my John McCain equipment for defense. I slung my ball bag at his head and leaping atop the mangy rascal jammed my stiff club down his throat, finally finishing him off by jerking my McCain brand divot picker up his misshapen nose. Thank you, John McCain for giving me the courage to fight!"

"Wow, John McCain is such a maverick! He's totally breaking free from George Bush on this one. How can people honestly say that a McCain presidency would just be an extension of Bush? Bush isn't playing golf in respect for the thousands of soldiers he's sent to death in Iraq, McCain just doesn't give a fsck! He's exactly the kind of leader this country needs. He'll get our country back on the track, starting by bom bom bombing Iran, those godless heathen."

"I never cottoned to the idea that I should give up my Wednesday golf game just because there's a war on. Our Commander in Chief has already made this sacrifice for us, turning in his clubs out of respect for the 4,000+ families who welcomed home a corpse, rather than their serviceman or servicewoman. So let's hit the links! And what better way than with a John McCain golf bag? Nothing better identifies you with the wealthy, graying elite than zipping your balls behind the proud McCain brand."

McCain’s lobbyist troubles continue

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/10/17351/3340/989/532954

He thinks it’s a joke: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/mccain-thanks
“I’m gonna thank some corrupt unscrupulous lobbyists that are destroying America as we speak, everything we stand for and believe in,” McCain quipped, which got the crowd laughing. “You can’t even eat a piece of apple pie any more without being corrupted.”

Another typical Republican scare campaign

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_obama_will_raise_taxes.php
McCain: Obama Will Raise Taxes On Everybody

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061003376.html
McCain Camp Distorts Obama's Tax Policies

It’s not working

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/10/16230/9658/384/533535
According to a Congressional Quarterly analysis, only about 5,000 of the 62,800 donors who gave the maximum contribution of $2,000 to Bush -- roughly 8 percent -- had given to McCain as of April 30.

More: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/big-bush-backers

Another quotable quote – thanks John

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-i-dont-care-how-many-troops-we.html
[JedReport] On NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams asks John Bush McCain about Iraq. "Will your support be there for however many U.S. troops are required?" McCain answers emphatically: "Yes." . . . [read on]

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15818.html

The old politics, and the new

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/10/14401/4418/822/533105
[Jonathan Alter] I don’t think he’s senile, I think that he is caught in an old politics where politicians routinely just said you know, black is white, white is black and blue is grey and they got away with it for many, many years [Alter tells a couple of anecdotes about a time McCain is more familiar with...before radio and the FDR era] So McCain just can’t get away with this kind of thing anymore in the new era, in the YouTube era. And it’s a learning curve for him to get up to speed, to recognize he’s living with new rules.

The good old days

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15825.html
[Steve Benen] Remember the good ol’ days? When John McCain used to occasionally say sensible things and break with his party when they embraced ridiculous policy proposals? Good times, good times.

For example, Republicans have been railing against the existence of the estate tax for years. It’s a foolish gambit for the GOP — they want to cut inheritance taxes for the very wealthy, costing the government billions of dollars in revenue, and they characterize this as a key populist goal.

McCain used to see through this nonsense. . . [read on]

As McCain pivots to try to pick up disgruntled female Clinton supporters, he works to blur his position on choice. Don’t be fooled

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_moderate_/2008/06/mccain_and_abortion.php

Webb down, Sebelius up – and about 20 other names in the VP hopper

http://www.slate.com/id/2193217/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/10/kathleen-sebelius-complet_n_106219.html

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/10/171318/577

Just when you think Joe Lieberman couldn’t stoop any lower . . .

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199559.php
"If the Obama campaign thinks they are going to intimidate Joe Lieberman with these sleazy tactics then they are sorely mistaken." [read on]

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/10/two-faced-joe-rides-again/

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/lieberman_camp_pushes_back_at.php

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15823.html

An ingrate too: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/top_lieberman_staffer_we_begge.php
[Greg Sargent] Now that Joe Lieberman has emerged as John McCain's lead attack dog against Barack Obama -- even going so far as to suggest that Obama's judgment could pose a danger to our safety -- there's some very interesting behind-the-scenes back-story to the Lieberman-Obama relationship that you should know about.

Specifically, a top official on Joe Lieberman's 2006 Senate reelection campaign tells me that Lieberman's staff practically begged Barack Obama to come in and endorse him at a critical moment -- requests that Obama agreed to, helping Lieberman minimize the damage from challenger Ned Lamont's recent entry into the contest. . . . [read on]

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/how-joe-lieberman-stabbed-friend-in.html
How Joe Lieberman stabbed a friend in the back . . .

Fox News airhead E.D. Hill apologizes for “terrorist fist jab” line, gets canned anyway

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15828.html

Bonus item: I’ve said it before: the Bush gang runs government like a two-bit patronage operation

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15821.html
A senior Justice Department official says a $500,000 federal grant to the World Golf Foundation is an appropriate use of money designed to deal with juvenile crime in America.

“We need something really attractive to engage the gangs and the street kids, golf is the hook,” said J. Robert Flores, the administrator of the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. . .

Wouldn’t you know it, the honorary chairman of the First Tee program is former President George Bush.

[NB: Yep, it’s well-known that golf is very, very popular among street gang members. And the country clubs are eager to have them out on the links.]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:03 AM

 
A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Is the Plame issue about to make a big comeback?

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/08/duffy-waxman-plame/
Duffy: ‘White House Lawyers Are Concerned’ McClellan’s Book Will Reignite ‘The Valerie Plame Business’

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/06/mcclellan_to_testify_in_house.php
President Bush's former spokesman, Scott McClellan, will testify before a House committee next week about whether Vice President Dick Cheney ordered him to make misleading public statements about the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

McClellan will testify publicly and under oath . . .

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/05/fitzgerald-indicates-he-may-be-ready-to-testify-on-roves-efforts-to-push-him-out/?sortby=toprated
In the past, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has refused to answer questions about whether officials such as Karl Rove tried to push him out during his investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame’s CIA identity. He cited a “trial ongoing in the Northern District of Illinois.” Marcy Wheeler notes that after yesterday’s verdict in the Tony Rezko case, Fitzgerald indicated he may now be ready to testify . . .

Remember the WHIG?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060801819.html
There is an important line in last week's Senate intelligence committee report on the Bush administration's prewar exaggerations of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. It says that the panel did not review "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch."

More important, there was no effort to obtain White House records or interview President Bush, Vice President Cheney or other administration officials whose speeches were analyzed because, the report says, such steps were considered beyond the scope of the report.

One obvious target for such an expanded inquiry would have been the records of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group set up in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. . . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/09/whither-the-whig/

It might be starting all over again, with Iran (thanks to Robert M. for the link)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/09/9501/
[Chris Hedges] The deterioration of the conflict in Israel, which would be accelerated by airstrikes on Iran and an ensuring regional war, will propel us into the Armageddon-type scenario in the Middle East relished by the lunatic fringes of the radical Christian right. . . .

The instant we attack Iran, oil prices will double, perhaps triple. This price increase will devastate the American economy. The ensuing retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel, as well as on American military installations in Iraq, will leave hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead. The Shiites in the region, from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, will see an attack on Iran as a war against Shiism. They will turn with rage and violence on us and our allies. Hezbollah will renew attacks on northern Israel. And the localized war in Iraq will become a long, messy and protracted regional war that, by the time it is done, will most likely end the American empire and leave in its wake mounds of corpses and smoldering ruins.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/06/alert_cheney_wi/
[Steve Clemons] Last September, I wrote a Salon.com article explaining the many reasons why despite neoconservative obsession with bombing Iran, President Bush would not do so. He had tacked a different direction.

Part of my case, though not all of it, rested on the fact that one of Vice President Cheney's staff members had allegedly told a private group in Washington that the VP himself was frustrated with the President's tilt towards Condi Rice, Bob Gates and others who emphasized a mix of diplomatic options over hard power gestures.

More recently, however, in the last six to eight weeks, many of my sources in the State Department, the White House, and the intelligence community tell me that the losers last summer and fall are winning again. . . .

“Indefinitely”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/40372.html
Iraqi lawmakers say the United States is demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed "status of forces" agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely.

Leading members of the two ruling Shiite parties said in a series of interviews the Iraqi government rejected this proposal along with another U.S. demand that would have effectively handed over to the United States the power to determine if a hostile act from another country is aggression against Iraq. Lawmakers said they fear this power would drag Iraq into a war between the United States and Iran. . . .

http://www.juancole.com/2008/06/us-seeking-58-bases-khamenei-tells-al.html
Khamenei Tells al-Maliki not to sign Security Pact . . .

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080610/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq_2;_ylt=AmA2LuGF2IA24liGRLajkAlX6GMA
The Bush administration is conceding for the first time that the United States may not finish a complex security agreement with Iraq before President Bush leaves office.

Faced with stiff Iraqi opposition, it is "very possible" the U.S. may have to extend an existing U.N. mandate, said a senior administration official close to the talks. That would mean major decisions about how U.S. forces operate in Iraq could be left to the next president, including how much authority the U.S. must give Iraqis over military operations and how quickly the handover takes place. . . .

We’ve seen it all before: how Bush policies make national crises worse

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902626.html
In 2004, as regulators warned that subprime lenders were saddling borrowers with mortgages they could not afford, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development helped fuel more of that risky lending. . . .

Heh. What does George Bush have in common with “leftist dictator” Hugo Chavez?

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6151

Jack is Back

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/9/17942/44630
[SusanG] Here's what the White House today is calling warmed up leftovers and "a joke" . . .

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5031587&page=1
The White House had stronger ties to disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff than it has publicly admitted, according to a draft congressional report released Monday. . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/house_committee_report_rove_ti.php
[T]he Committee uncovered extensive contacts between Abramoff team and the White House, including access to Rove and direct influence on White House policy, from unseating Department of Interior official Alan Stayman to affecting nominating processes . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/_records_from_abramoffs_firm.php
The term "fruit" was used as a code word for tickets to sporting events or concerts between Jennifer Farley, former White House Associate Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Kevin Ring, a lobbyist for Jack Abramoff's firm . . .

Full text: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080609095928.pdf

Photos: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/the_house_committee_on_oversig.php

McCain too: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/8/32530/31654/843/532075

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/house_committee_report_details_abramoff.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_camp_advisor_linked_to.php

A new recurring feature: McCain versus McCain

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/9/121852/2504
[BarbinMD] In an interview with Newsweek, John McCain tries to back away from his recent criticism of the media:

Q: Want to back up a little bit and talk about press coverage. One of the things that you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans was that you felt that the media hadn't recognized or had overlooked some of the attributes that Hillary Clinton had brought to the race. And I wondered—

MCCAIN: I did not [say that]—that was in prepared remarks, and I did not [say it]—I'm not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage...I can't change any of the coverage that I know of except to just campaign as hard as I can and try to seek the approval of the majority of my fellow citizens.

It is something that the American people will judge, and I won't complain about it and I won't praise it. I will just run my campaign and hope that the American people will make a judgment.

The problem is, he did say it:

Senator Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes receives

Video: http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=0cfd648d-0ae5-4688-9eca-ee0d08546d0d

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15809.html

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/06/gotcha.php

[NB: Obviously, he didn’t remember what he'd said just a few days before. This isn’t really lying, it’s a problem of memory. But which is worse?]

Just a romantic at heart

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/9/11302/39071
[Georgia10] John McCain: "Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war...."

As user Dr Colossus and others have pointed out, George W. Bush had this to say to American soldiers about two months ago:

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

The first reporter on the Straight Talk Express to ask McCain if he believes the President is a "fool" or a "fraud" gets a cookie.

What Obama said to Lieberman

http://www.newsweek.com/id/140476
Obama has long had a strong core of liberal Jewish supporters in Chicago; his national Jewish support grew as his campaign surged. But so did rumors that he had a "problem" with Jewish voters because of his family background (middle name: Hussein) and that some of his aides held pro-Palestinian views. David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul who once backed the Clintons but turned to Obama, told NEWSWEEK that her campaign bears some responsibility for "an awful lot of disinformation" that sowed doubts about the candidate's support of Israel among "older Jewish voters in Florida." New Jersey Rep. Robert Andrews, an Obama backer, says that two months ago a top Hillary campaign operative told him Obama would have a "hard time winning in November" because of his alleged Jewish problem and indicated Clinton's campaign was going to take advantage of those fears . . .

Obama has many high-profile Jewish fund-raisers, and aides claim his support among Jews will equal or surpass John Kerry's 75 percent in 2004. McCain has enlisted high-profile help of his own to help win Jewish votes: Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a self-described "independent Democrat" who has criticized Obama's leadership qualities, has agreed to head up a booster group called Citizens for McCain. In a brief but animated Senate floor confrontation last week, according to a campaign aide who asked for anonymity when talking about private discussions, Obama told Lieberman he was surprised by Lieberman's personal attacks and his half-hearted denials of the false rumors that Obama is a Muslim. (The aide says Lieberman was "strangely muted" during the exchange; a Lieberman spokesman says the chat was "private and friendly.") McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker says Lieberman "played a key role in reaching out to the Jewish community in the primary … and you can expect that will continue."

Obama looks very comfortable playing on the offense – nice to see for a change

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/obama-deals-with-economy-and-mccains-views/index.html
In a speech in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday Mr. Obama made an appeal to those Americans who are suffering the most because of the economic downturn . . .

“The principle is simple,” Mr. Obama said in prepared remarks. “If the government can bail out investment banks on Wall Street, we can extend a hand to folks who are struggling on Main Street.” . . .

He said Mr. McCain’s proposals for easing the housing crisis and fixing the health care system would do little to help struggling Americans. And Mr. Obama sought to portray his rival as a flip-flopper on tax policy, noting that Mr. McCain now supports extending President Bush’s income-tax cuts after voting against them in 2001 and 2003.

“If John McCain’s policies were implemented, they would add $5.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade,” Mr. Obama said. “That isn’t fiscal conservatism, that’s what George Bush has done over the last eight years.” . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/us/politics/09cnd-obama.html
“We did not arrive at the doorstep of our current economic crisis by some accident of history,” Mr. Obama said to an invitation-only audience here. “This was not an inevitable part of the business cycle that was beyond our power to avoid. It was the logical conclusion of a tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for far too long.”

He added a moment later: “We were promised a fiscal conservative. Instead, we got the most fiscally irresponsible administration in history. And now John McCain wants to give us another. Well, we’ve been there once. Were not going back.”

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15815.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/9/183554/2510/952/532983

Obama’s fundraising juggernaut

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/10/holy-crap-if-you
Leading Democratic fundraisers predict that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few months if he opts out of public financing and begins raising money for the general election.

Specifically, they say Obama could raise $100 million in June and could attract 2.5 million to 3 million new donors to his campaign. . . .

Is this the best the McCain crew can do?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccain-running-negative-ads-juxtaposing.html
[John Aravosis] I just noticed that McCain is running what are probably Google Ads showing Obama's face next to the face of Irani leader, and nutjob, Ahmadinejad. . . .

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/mccain_obama_would_equal_carte.php
"You know one of his favorite phrases is that I would be a Bush third term. Well I think maybe his proposals could be Carter second term," McCain told Fox.

More: http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/only-hope-for-mccain-is-for-republicans.html

McCain's still beating the “gas tax holiday” drum – though his version is more dishonest than Clinton’s, because he proposes no way to pay for it

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15816.html

A challenge to the campaigns: talk to us like grownups, please

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199404.php
[Josh Marshall] Sometimes the national political conversation lapses so far into nonsense that it's necessary to restate the obvious to get things back on track. And that is the case with the debate over whether to hold negotiations or high-level meetings with our enemies without pre-conditions. As you've seen, Sen. McCain is making a big ruckus about Sen. Obama's willingness to do so, even going so far as to run new ads questioning his willingness to meet "unconditionally" -- a loaded reference to the phrase 'unconditional surrender'.

But let's remember what this issue is really about. The Bush administration (and to a much less but still significant degree, the Clinton administration) has held to a policy of refusing to hold any negotiations with rogue states on the theory that we gained by not providing them the prestige of holding direct negotiations with the US. It wasn't framed that way precisely. We were willing to meet as long as certain preconditions were met. So in the case of Cuba, this would mean, changing the form of government, releasing political prisoners, giving an atomic wedgy to Hugo Chavez, etc.; or with Iran, ending their nuclear program, changing their political system, cutting off funding to Hamas and Hezbollah, etc. Laudable aims in most cases, but also ones that amount to demanding that bad-guy country X give in to our maximal demands of a potential bilateral relationship in advance of even saying hello -- something that's obviously not going to happen.

So the question is, are we willing to have negotiations and high-level meetings (even at the presidential level) with hostile powers to discuss our differences (do whatever risks there may be outweigh the possible benefits?) or do we think the current freeze-out approach is serving us well?

One of the ways the media tries to be “even handed” is to brush over and obscure complex policy differences between the candidates (going into too much detail would make their heads hurt) – so they bleat out reassuring platitudes like, “there is surprisingly little difference between the candidates on most issues.” This serves a purpose, by refocusing the election away from issues and on to personal qualities (like, who would you rather have a beer with?) They played this beautifully with Gore and Bush (Bush the moderate, bipartisan governor of Texas – my, who could have known what he would turn into?) Well, it’s happening again

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/except_for_disagreements_they.php
[Matt Yglesias] There was a bizarre editorial in the LA Times yesterday about how Obama and McCain are really pretty similar dudes and it's awesome that they're both so centristy and the same. . . .

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15810.html

It’s a stupid methodology: combing the comments sections of web sites for obnoxious comments, then holding the web site owner responsible for those views. Both sides can play this game, you know

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15813.html

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/mccains-web-site-talks-about-anti.html

Meet John McCain’s FIRST wife

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15812.html

Pretty pathetic, isn’t it?

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/gop_official_if_we_only_lose_e.php
GOP Official: If We Only Lose Eight Senate Seats, We Win

Our weekly nonsense from Bill Kristol

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15814.html

Appalling report: university researchers fail to disclose millions in income from the very industries whose products they are testing

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/the_system_designed_to_keep.php

No fresh tomatoes? Gahhh!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tue-salmonella-tomatoes-jun10,0,35

Bonus item: That ridiculous excuse for a “news” network, Fox

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/9/10455/96312/237/532689
“A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently. We’ll show you some interesting body communication and find out what it really says.”

Terrorists everywhere! http://www.first-draft.com/2008/06/zomgterrorists.html

http://phillybits.blogspot.com/2008/06/photo-bush-sr-in-terrorist-fistjab.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:20 AM

 
AN UNCOMFORTABLE S.O.F.A.

Iran’s growing influence in Iraq

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/08/lies-and-blackmail-hiding-behind-the-sofa/
[Siun] There are signals that the Maliki Green Zone “government” is starting to get the message that the Status of Forces Agreement the US is pushing is not likely to win them friends at home. Aswat Al Iraq reported that Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh tried to head off criticism by saying:

“the Iraqi government has a vision of the agreement different from the one speculated by the U.S,” and he went on to insist that the Mailiki “vision” will “stress preservation of Iraq’s territorial, maritime and aerial sovereignty…” [read on]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4092919.ece
American troops in Iraq would be confined to their bases and private security guards subject to local law if Iraq gets its way in negotiations with the US over the future status of American forces.

According to a senior Iraqi official, the negotiations between the two allies became so fraught recently that President Bush intervened personally to defuse the situation. On Thursday he telephoned Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, to assure him that Washington was not seeking to undermine Iraq’s sovereignty and that America would reconsider any contentious part of the agreement. . . .

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/08/iraq.iran/index.html
"Today's Iraq is a constitutional state based on the rule of law, and it seeks to develop its relations with the regional countries based on cooperation and mutual respect," al-Maliki said. . . .

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8703190707
The Iraqi premier, heading a high ranking delegation, arrived at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran Saturday evening, and was scheduled to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and discuss the latest developments in Iraq, including an agreement between Iraq and the United States to be finalized next month.

Under the not yet concluded agreement, the US wants Iraq's approval to maintain military bases in the war-torn country as well as permission to carry out military operations from those bases against other countries unilaterally. Iran has been opposing the agreement fearing that the country could be targeted easily in case of any fall out.

The Iraqi leader is also expected to reiterate the Iraqi government's wish for resumption of Iran-US talks over Iraq's security, which both sides have halted. Tehran has said it would not hold further talks with the current US administration. . . .

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRQVZiXFr6POdUrVlcgDNyEhUB5w
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought to reassure Iran over a planned security pact with Washington on Sunday, vowing Iraq would never be used as a platform to attack the Islamic republic.

"We will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and neighbours," Maliki said . . .

http://www.juancole.com/2008/06/2-gis-killed-18-wounded-al-maliki-tries.html
[Juan Cole] Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that its sources say that Iranian FM Mottaki informed al-Maliki of Iran's opposition to the signing of a security agreement between Iraq and the US as long as Tehran does not receive guarantees that it will participate in a regional security order.

When you don’t have an effective Secretary of State, send your wife

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/afghanistan-continues-to-crumble-during.html

Uh. . . . . . nope

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060802255.html
As the door begins to close on his tenure, Bush is increasingly drawing on selected events of the past to argue that history will vindicate him on Iraq, terrorism, trade and other controversial issues. . . .

White House aides say Bush, who majored in history at Yale, likes to emphasize historical comparisons because they are easy for the public to understand and illustrate in dramatic fashion how differently future generations may come to view him. . . .

Failure everywhere

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/8/21329/08462
[TChris] The Bush administration's extraordinarily unsuccessful attempt to engineer a series of show trials at Guantanamo is about to accelerate. . . .

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/09/pentagon-manual-encouraged-destruction-of-interrogation-notes/
[Scarecrow] The Guantanamo "war crimes" trials took another shameful turn yesterday when the Navy lawyer representing Canadian-born Omar Khadr revealed that a 2003 Pentagon manual encouraged interrogators to destroy their hand written notes made at the time of the interrogations. Only last week the military judge assigned to preside over Khadr's trial was unexpectedly replaced, after rebuking prosecution lawyers for their delay in turning over evidence to Khadr's defense counsel.

According the AP and Canadian media, the new disclosure could be used to seek the dismissal of charges against Khadr, and in a pending Supreme Court case challenging the denial of habeas corpus under the notorious Military Commissions Act.

The impact of higher oil prices, at home and abroad

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/6/9/11050/72656
[Jeralyn Merritt] Gas is $4.00 across the country. Driving to Aspen this weekend, I paid $4.27 a gallon. I knew better to wait to refill until reaching Aspen, where everything costs more. Sure enough, one station in town was charging $4.65.

It's going to keep rising. I think we'll see $5.00 across the country in July. The New York Times says rural residents are being hit the hardest. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/business/09gas.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7415215.stm

It’s still the economy, stupid

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/07/AR2008060702124.html
With the country confronting a rising jobless rate, soaring gas prices and a shaky stock market, voters say their biggest concern is the economy. . . .

Well, thank you Lindsey: McCain’s policies would “absolutely” be a continuation of Bush’s

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/08/graham-mccain-bush/

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15805.html

The McCain campaign just LOVES Hillary Clinton (now)

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15802.html

McCain on the war in Iraq (then)

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/09/the-same-you-can-believe-in/
“It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay. No other national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. If the nation and the government lack that resolve, it is criminal to expect men in the field to carry it alone.”

McCain’s gonna lose it (in more than one sense of the term)

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/john-mccain-is-already-getting-angry.html
[Joe Sudbay] [I]t does seem only a matter of time before the American people see for themselves just how nasty and unhinged McCain is. He just can't control himself. . . [read on]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10919.html
Openly frustrated by what they see as an ongoing double standard in the press’s treatment of his campaign, Sen. John McCain and his aides have been aggressively denouncing unfavorable stories as “smear jobs” and “scurrilous attacks,” while the candidate himself has launched a series of stinging attacks on Sen. Barack Obama. . . . [read on]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/gop_insiders_worry_about_mccai.html
[Thomas Edsall] For four months John McCain had a clear field while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were at each other's throats. Given the opportunity, the Arizona Senator failed to define the debate in favorable terms, spending much of the valuable primary months defending himself on charges that his campaign staff was top heavy with lobbyists. . . .

In not-for-attribution interviews, a number of Republicans were neither optimistic about his chances nor positive in their assessment of his campaign so far.

"I think we've got a world of problems," said one Republican strategist with extensive experience in presidential campaigns. He said this came home to him with a thud when he watched Obama and McCain give speeches last Tuesday, with the Democrat speaking before "20,000 screaming fans, while John McCain looked every bit of his 72 years" in a speech televised from New Orleans. . . . [read on]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/opinion/09kristol.html
[Bill Kristol] Several of these worried McCain supporters cited the decision by the campaign gurus that McCain’s Tuesday night speech should consist in large part of criticisms of Obama’s various proposals. The attacks often concluded, “That’s not change we can believe in.” Is it wise to begin a general election campaign by making fun of your opponent’s slogan and presenting yourself mostly as a debunker of his claims? Even hard-hearted Republicans think a general election message should be a bit more positive than that.

Actually, to be fair, there was a positive message Tuesday night. It was stenciled over and over on the now-notorious green backdrop behind McCain: “A leader we can believe in.” This was another play on Obama’s “change we can believe in” — and a foolish one. . . . [read on]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/6/8/18550/47265
[J Ro] As I touched on a couple of weeks ago, John McCain has had three months to run unopposed and so far, he hasn't been making a convincing case to the American people that he has an overarching idea of where America should be going. I've been watching McCain's campaign closely over the last few months, and the multiple and often competing "visions" he has been laying out don't coalesce into anything that makes sense. . . [read on]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/06/mccain-lobbyist.html
A watchdog group is launching an advertising campaign and filing an FEC complaint questioning the McCain campaign's ties to lobbyists, as Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama spar over each other's ties to special interests.

The TV ad from Campaign Money Watch, set to run on Washington, D.C., broadcast and cable outlets starting Monday, focuses on McCain's role in the awarding of an Air Force contract that would eventually go to the French company Airbus instead of the American company Boeing.

"Seven of McCain’s staff and fundraisers lobbied for Airbus," the ad says. "And guess what? John McCain intervened, which helped Airbus get that Pentagon contract. Tell John McCain to kick those lobbyists off the Straight Talk Express."

Bonus item: Bill Moyers’ Smackdown (don’t miss it)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/8/05933/63224/869/532041

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- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:58 AM

 
TURNING THE PAGE

Good for her – a great speech from Hillary, deservedly proud of what she and her supporters have accomplished, but with a clear focus on the bigger picture: helping Obama beat McCain in November

Video: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/199210.php

Text: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6231

From worst to first

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601073&sid=aaUIIClmEfwA
The first Democratic convention Obama ever attended was Los Angeles in 2000 and his credit card bounced at the rental-car station. He also wasn't able to secure a floor pass and watched most of the speeches on television screens. . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/06/AR2008060604163.html
Sen. Barack Obama will head into the general election with the ability to raise significantly more money than his Republican opponent, an extremely rare position for a Democrat and one that could give him a huge advantage in mobilizing supporters, reaching voters and competing across the country. . . .

He’s gonna spread them thin and bleed them dry

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/politics/08obama.html
Senator Barack Obama’s general election plan calls for broadening the electoral map by challenging Senator John McCain in typically Republican states — from North Carolina to Missouri to Montana — as Mr. Obama seeks to take advantage of voter turnout operations built in nearly 50 states in the long Democratic nomination battle, aides said. . .

Expect stiff competition for this award

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15800.html
Andrew Sullivan recently unveiled “The Hewitt Award,” named after “the absurd partisan fanatic, Hugh Hewitt,” which Sullivan extends to “the most egregious attempts to label Barack Obama a