Gregarius » Crooks and Liars

Crooks and Liars (20 unread)

Open Thread

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 11:30pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Wingnuts galore!

The Right’s Five Most Hilariously Boneheaded Anti-Obama Smears
C&L’s Late Nite Music Club with Ian Dury

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 11:00pm EDT by Nicole Belle

Enclosure: [download]

We have a new contributer here at C&L: Cernig of Newshoggers. Since I am ramping up after being a beach bum for the last week with my family (still trying to get the beach tar off my feet–ask me how much I appreciate off shore drilling. I also had a great dinner with Howie Klein, Digby, John and the other indispensable woman in Amato’s life, but I digress), I asked Cernig if he had a choice for tonight’s Music Club and he gave me Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, available on the CD, The Very Best Of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.

So join me in giving Cernig a big C&L welcome, won’t you?
Is The Narrative Shifting for Hillary as VP? He’s ready!

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 10:10pm EDT by John Amato

USA Today reports:

Days, perhaps hours, before an expected announcement of his running mate, Barack Obama offered some clues Tuesday as to what he’s looking for, suggesting that his pick might be an independent-minded person with a strong populist streak.
“I won’t hand over my energy policy to my vice president without knowing necessarily what he’s doing,” the presumptive Democratic nominee said.

Obama dropped the masculine pronoun several times in an answer to a supporter’s question here about his plans for his running mate. It was not clear whether it was a generic “he,” or a signal that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius are no longer under consideration.

With a slew of new polls coming out that have not been good for Obama, I wonder if his camp is rethinking their strategy for selecting a VP?

Check out this CBS/NY Times poll:

Senator Hillary Clinton is by far the favorite choice for the number two spot on the Democratic ticket, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll of delegates to the Democratic convention. When asked who they would like Barack Obama to select, 28 percent volunteer her as their top choice for Vice Presidential nominee.

What’s even more fascinating about this poll is that even Obama delegates like Hillary:

Thirty-five percent of Obama’s pledged delegates think having Clinton’s name on the ticket would help Obama win in November, 23 percent of them say choosing her would hurt.

I’ve made my thoughts known a while back that I thought she should be the VP.

Hillary can help Obama win Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. As we saw in the primary, women, elderly, Jewish and Latino voters really liked her as well. The media spotlight will be all his for another long period of time while McCain is left to stir up a little publicity with Bobby “what’s evolution?” Jindal or the boring wonder bread that is Romney. Maybe it will give him time to produce another video crying to the media that his VP pick wasn’t covered as much as Obama’s.

I didn’t support any candidate in the primary so I could be much more pragmatic as we moved forward into the general. I think it’s a smart choice. Do Biden, Bayh, Kaine or any other pick left standing represent his “change narrative?” No, because Obama is the narrative. He brings the change. He won the primary. Of course there are those that feel much differently. I’m just offering my thoughts. Many of my C&L writers don’t agree with me either. The blogosphere should be the place that we discuss these issues. There are so many undecided voters that I bet many of them are Hillary supporters. In my opinion her nomination would send a jolt of electricity throughout the country and into Denver.

From the USA Today article—it doesn’t look like it will happen. Huff Po’s Roy Sekoff — a huge Obama supporter — was on The Verdict last night and echoed my same points. Howie does too. I don’t care about the power structure in DC. I want to win the White House. And if Hillary helps Obama–then I’m cool with it. And Obama can handle it too. But, it’s his call and we’ll all support whoever he chooses. It’s his party now…We’ll find out soon.
Does McCain want to reinstate the draft?

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 9:20pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

I know John McCain oftentimes doesn’t speak for the McCain campaign, but someone in the press ought follow up on this immediately.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: If we don’t reenact the draft I don’t think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

MCCAIN: Ma’am let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said, and thank you …

Here’s what McCain said when asked about the draft in June:

“I don’t know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III.” …

It’s certainly possible McCain had a senior moment and didn’t realize he was essentially agreeing with the woman about needing to bring back the draft. But what if he does genuinely agree with her? Shouldn’t we have the know the answer to that question?
Limbaugh: Obama’s Nomination “Really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.”

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 8:30pm EDT by Logan Murphy

Enclosure: [download]

Audio and more from Media Matters:

On the August 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh said that “it is striking how unqualified [Sen. Barack] Obama is and, and how this whole thing came about with, within the Democrat [sic] Party. I think it really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.” Limbaugh went on to say: “I think this is a classic illustration here where affirmative action has reared its ugly head against them. It’s the reverse of it. They’ve, they’ve ended up nominating and placing at the top of their ticket somebody who’s not qualified, who has not earned it.” Limbaugh added: “It’s perfect affirmative action. And because of all this guilt and the historic nature of things, nobody had the guts to say, well, wait a minute, do we really want to do this?” Read on…

Yes, someone should have told this young, uppity negro to STFU and know his place in American society. You knew he was a baby killer, right?

Rush is a racist pig, we all know that. We knew long ago that the Republicans weren’t going to go down without a fight and that this election cycle was going to yield some of the ugliest politics in modern history — this is what it looks like. The stench of desperation makes this even more pathetic, as Limbaugh and the party he so diligently carries water for, take their nose dive into the political dustbin.
When party platforms cease to matter

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 7:40pm EDT by Steve Benen

It became something of a running joke in 1996, when Bob Dole publicly conceded, many times, that he hadn’t even read the Republican Party’s platform. ”I have due respect for the platform,” Dole said at one point after his convention. ”I read a lot of parts that I thought were essential.”

Twelve years later, we’ve reached the point at which a presidential candidate not only won’t read his platform, but doesn’t much care what’s in it.

Jean from Ferrisburgh, Vt., wants the Republican Party to get off “the global-warming bus.” Paul from Carrollton, Texas, wants it to “reject fetal stem-cell research.” And Larry from Waynesboro, Pa., wants the party to promise to “deport those who are here illegally.”

Republicans are inviting suggestions for their party platform this year, and thousands have responded online. But when a committee meets to draft the document in Minneapolis next week, one voice will be largely absent: John McCain’s…. Instead of fighting with party activists to form the platform around his own ideas, Sen. McCain has taken a hands-off approach.

McCain and his party’s base disagree on a few hot-button issues, and GOP activists are intent on making sure their platform reflects their priorities. McCain’s response is to ignore the platform altogether.

This certainly certainly seems like a reminder of the relevance of platforms in modern politics. Ostensibly, the Republican Party’s platform and the Republican Party’s presidential nominee would be on the same page. Indeed, from a historical perspective, voters who sought to learn more about a presidential candidate’s policy agenda would turn to the candidate’s party platform and read all about his priorities. And yet now, McCain won’t write, read, or care a whit about the platform that comes out of his own convention.

I remember working on a project in grad school that led me to read a lot of old party platforms, and it was a pretty fascinating way to watch the transitions of major parties over the decades. But at this point, they’re antiquated, meaningless documents. It’s probably time to scrap them altogether.
BREAKING: Threatening Letters Containing White Powder Sent To McCain Offices In CO & NH *UPDATED

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 7:27pm EDT by Logan Murphy

AP:

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Authorities say a threatening letter containing an unidentified white powder was sent to a John McCain campaign office in the Denver suburb of Centennial, and a similar letter was sent to a McCain office in Manchester, N.H.A hazardous materials team was trying to determine if the powder found in Colorado is harmful.

It wasn’t immediately known if the New Hampshire letter also contained a powder, said Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman with McCain’s national campaign office in Arlington, Va. Read on…

There are few details at this time, we’ll keep an eye on the story.

UPDATE:

Federal law enforcement sources tell NBC News that a threatening hand-written letter that sparked an evacuation of Sen. John McCain’s Centennial office was sent by a person being held in the Arapahoe County Jail.

NBC News says the person is a prolific letter writer who was already in the jail.

Sources also tell NBC that there is no link between the Colorado letter and another threatening letter that appeared on Thursday at McCain’s office in Manchester, New Hampshire. That letter had a return address from Denver, but investigators do not believe the two incidents are connected. Read on…
78% of Bush’s signing statements “have raised constitutional or legal objections”

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 6:40pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

When President Bush receives a bill he doesn’t like, instead of issuing a veto and challenging Congress to override him as School House Rock would have you believe, he issues a private “signing statement” setting forth how he plans on interpreting the new law. The House Armed Services Committee has just released a report on the practice and the conclusions are not encouraging.

From the report (.pdf)

The Bush Administration’s use of presidential signing statements to indicate disapproval of enacted legislation has generated confusion and has undermined congressional oversight of national defense policy, the House Armed Services Committee said in a report this week

“78 percent of President Bush’s more than 150 signing statements have raised constitutional or legal objections, compared with only 18% of all of President Clinton’s.”

“Signing statements may, if used appropriately, serve a legitimate function as a tool for continuing dialog between the President, Congress, and the public. On the other hand, signing statements may be a mechanism to expand executive authority at the expense of the legislature,” the Committee report said.

As the report makes clear, not all signing statements are bad. Sometimes they’re useful and entirely appropriate, and sometimes they’re used for naked power grabs that are nearly impossible to challenge. Well, it appears 78% of President Bush’s fall into the latter category.

That begs the obvious question: Which laws has Bush challenged?

1. A provision in the 2008 defense bill that would make it illegal to build permanent bases in Iraq. The White House is currently pushing for 58 bases.

2. A bill outlawing the use of torture on detainees. McCain did a lot of grandstanding on the day this law “passed,” but he hasn’t said anything since about Bush’s refusal to abide it.

3. A provision in the Patriot Act that requires the White House to inform Congress on how the FBI was using it’s new spying powers. This one naturally led to the FBI severely abusing their power.

etc. etc.

You know what happens after the President is called out on his lawbreaking, right? The White House should expect Congress’ Strongly Worded Letter™ any day now.

[HT: Satyam]
The Deadlier Real Front

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 5:50pm EDT by Cernig

Brandon Friedman at VetVoice today notes that “The fatality rate in Afghanistan during the past 10 weeks would be equivalent to 353 deaths in Iraq at the same time–a rate not even seen during the bloody crescendo of 2007.”

Will McCain, who has had tunnel vision on the Iraq war he helped start all along (and wants to pick and choose his timeline there to show how good his “judgement” is), now do another flip-flop and admit Afghanistan has always been the real central front in the battle against Islamic extremist terrorism?
Shorter Lou Dobbs

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 5:00pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

The federal government can invade every aspect of my life as long as they keep me safe from those drug-running Mexicans.

WaPo reported Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security is building a database that tracks every every American citizen’s border crossings and catalogs the data for as long as 15 years, with little to no privacy measures in place to prevent abuse.

The federal government has been using its system of border checkpoints to greatly expand a database on travelers entering the country by collecting information on all U.S. citizens crossing by land, compiling data that will be stored for 15 years and may be used in criminal and intelligence investigations.

When Wolf Blitzer asks CNN’s Resident Xenophobe, Lou Dobbs, for his opinion, the pseudo-intellectual said this story is troublesome not because of the invasion of privacy issues it raises, but rater because those damn illegals are still sneaking into the country with their horrific (i.e. non-existent) diseases and contraband.

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“The State Department has been tracking what’s happening with our passports for years and years and years. There seems to be some dust-up here. The real story to me is that all of this concern about tracking citizens going about their lawful activities entering and exiting this country, while they have done nothing at the DHS to shut down the flow of illegals aliens across our borders, potential terrorists, and still Mexico, for example, is the primary source for methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and marijuana into this country… and it’s not being stopped!!!”

Is there no issue out there that this hack won’t exploit in order to bash illegal immigrants?

The State Department certainly hasn’t been tracking border crossings “for years and years and years,” and keeping that information in a central computer for 15 years with no oversight provisions.

The fact that we’re becoming a bona fide surveillance state doesn’t bother Lou Dobbs. All he cares about is twisting a story in order to rail against his favorite target. He’s always sure to slip in his talking points, too, even if they’re bogus.
Sullivan: Bush & Cheney Don’t Believe John McCain Was Tortured

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 4:10pm EDT by Logan Murphy

Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic hits it right on the head. John McCain has gone back on his word not to play up his POW experiences during the presidential campaign, so this is absolutely fair game. He’s not just exploiting his time as a POW, he’s lifting other people’s stories to gain sympathy. Couple that with his vote in the Senate to allow Americans to use the same torture “enhanced interrogation techniques” that were used on him and he leaves himself wide open for this one. It was just a matter of time… (h/t Jamie)

In all the discussion of John McCain’s recently recovered memory of a religious epiphany in Vietnam, one thing has been missing. The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar?

According to the Bush administration’s definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.

Cheney denies that McCain was tortured; as does Bush. So do John Yoo and David Addington and George Tenet. In the one indisputably authentic version of the story of a Vietnamese guard showing compassion, McCain talks of the agony of long-time standing. A quarter century later, Don Rumsfeld was putting his signature to memos lengthening the agony of “long-time standing” that victims of Bush’s torture regime would have to endure. These torture techniques are, according to the president of the United States, merely “enhanced interrogation.” Read on…
Cindy fabricates Mother Theresa story

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 3:45pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Christian Science Monitor:

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)

I wonder if Cindy got her cookie recipes from Mother Theresa, too. It speaks volumes about the woman who hopes to be the First Lady of our country.

More at The Political Base…
McCain can’t remember how many homes he owns; Updated

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 3:00pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

Only non-elitists have trouble keeping track of all their multi-million dollar houses.

Politico: (audio available here)

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”

Is McCain’s memory so shot that he genuinely can’t remember? Hell, a parking lot he owns is worth four times more than the average American home. Does he have so many that it’s unimportant for him to even keep track? Whatever the reason, millions of Americans are at risk of losing their one and only home, and a new Obama ad is quick to point this out.

Senator Obama hammered McCain on this at a town hall today, too. McCain’s response? Typically lame: Obama Worries About Arugula, Vacations In Hawaii

RELATED:

Tour McCain’s Houses on Google Maps

Lifestyles of The Rich & Out of Touch

Fabulous Life of John McCain

McCain’s Many Mansions

Meet a woman who knows how many homes she now owns — zero!

UPDATE: (Nicole) McCains Bought Second Beach Condo At Around Time McCain Said Struggling Homeowners Needed To Skip Vacations…but will McCain’s Media report it? How about one of his unmemorable homes being featured in Architectural Digest?

UPDATE 2: Have they no shame? The McCain campaign is in full damage control mode, and have resorted to — you guessed it! — playing the POW card.

Speaking to the Washington Post, aide Brian Rogers, in full damage-control mode, acknowledged that his boss had “some investment properties and stuff,” but added: “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison.”

Wow. They played this card after McCain was caught in the “Cone of Silence” lie. It appears that we are going to see this strategy employed every time the McCain feels he needs to kill a story quickly. It can’t possibly work every time, can it?
$100 Million Man McCain: Rich Not Defined by Income

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 2:30pm EDT by Jon Perr

Enclosure: [download]

Eight years ago, then Governor George W. Bush revealingly joked about his backers at the 2000 Al Smith Dinner. “This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores,” Bush said, adding, “Some people call you the elites; I call you my base.” With his own quip Saturday night that “$5 million” is his definition of rich,” John McCain made no mistake that he is Bush’s natural heir.

Now, there is nothing wrong with being happily rich and utterly detached. Nothing, that is, unless you make criticizing your political opponent as “elitist” and “out of touch” a centerpiece of your campaign. Which is why McCain beat a hasty retreat in an interview today with the Politico. (In that same interview, McCain with no sense of irony called lobbyists “birds of prey.”) Without naming a number, McCain said:

“I define rich in other ways besides income. Some people are wealthy and rich in their lives and their children and their ability to educate them. Others are poor if they’re billionaires.”

Of course, by any accounting, the $100 million McCains are fabulously well-off (see the gold-plated details below the fold). But John McCain’s staggering detachment from the real lives of the American people can truly be measured in dollars – and sense.

For starters, McCain in April declared that there had been “great progress economically” during the Bush years. On more than one occasion, he diagnosed Americans’ concerns over the dismal U.S. economy as “psychological.” (Phil Gramm, McCain’s close friend and adviser supposedly excommunicated over his “whiners” remarks, was back with the campaign last week.) McCain, a man who owns eight homes nationwide, in March lectured Americans facing foreclosure that they ought to be “doing what is necessary — working a second job, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets — to make their payments on time.” And when all else fails, McCain told the people of the economically devastated regions in Martin County, Kentucky and Youngstown, Ohio, there’s always eBay.

In his defense, McCain’s shocking tone-deafness may just be a matter of perspective. When you’re as well off as he is, anything below a $5 million income (a figure exceeding that earned on average by the top 0.1% of Americans) seems middle class by comparison.

The $100 Million Man. Courtesy of his wife Cindy’s beer distribution fortune (one her late father apparently chose not to share with her half-sister Kathleen), the McCains are worth well over $100 million. (In the two-page tax summary she eventually released to the public, Cindy McCain reported another $6 million in 2006.) As Salon reported back in 2000, the second Mrs. McCain’s millions were essential in launching her husband’s political career. Unsurprisingly, the Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti, who four years ago called Theresa Heinz-Kerry a “sugar mommy,” has been silent on the topic of Cindy McCain.

The Joys of (Eight) Home Ownership. While fellow adulterer John Edwards was pilloried for his mansion, John McCain’s eight homes around the country have received little notice or criticism. His properties include a 10 acre lake-side Sedona estate, euphemistically called a “cabin” by the McCain campaign, and a home featured in Architectural Digest. The one featuring “remote control window coverings” was recently put up for sale. Still, their formidable resources did not prevent the McCains from failing to pay taxes on a tony La Jolla, California condo used by Cindy’s aged aunt.

The Anheuser-Busch Windfall. As it turns out, the beauty of globalization is in the eye of the beholder. While John McCain apparently played a critical role in facilitating DHL’s takeover of Airborne (and with it, the looming loss of 8,000 jobs in Wilmington, Ohio), Cindy McCain is set to earn a staggering multi-million dollar pay-day from the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by the Belgian beverage giant, In Bev. As the Wall Street Journal reported in July, Mrs. McCain runs the third largest Anheuser-Busch distributorship in the nation, and owns between $2.5 and $5 million in the company’s stock. Amazingly, while Missouri’s politicians of both parties lined up to try to block the sale, John McCain held a fundraiser in the Show Me State even as the In Bev deal was being finalized.

McCain’s $370,000 Personal Tax Break. Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress analyzed John McCain’s tax proposals. The conclusion? McCain’s plan is radically more regressive than even that of President Bush, delivering 58% of its benefits to the wealthiest 1% of American taxpayers. McCain’s born-again support for the Bush tax cuts has one additional bonus for Mr. Straight Talk: the McCains would save an estimated $373,000 a year.

Paying Off $225,000 Credit Card Debt? Priceless. That massive windfall from his own tax plan will come in handy for John McCain. As was reported in June, the McCains were carrying over $225,000 in credit card debt. The American Express card - don’t leave your homes without it.

Charity Begins at Home. As Harpers documented earlier this year, the McCains are true believers in the old saying that charity begins at home:

Between 2001 and 2006, McCain contributed roughly $950,000 to [their] foundation. That accounted for all of its listed income other than for $100 that came from an anonymous donor. During that same period, the McCain foundation made contributions of roughly $1.6 million. More than $500,000 went to his kids’ private schools, most of which was donated when his children were attending those institutions. So McCain apparently received major tax deductions for supporting elite schools attended by his children.

Ironically, the McCain campaign last week blasted Barack Obama for having attended a private school in Hawaii on scholarship. That attack came just weeks after John McCain held an event at his old prep school, Episcopal High, an institution where fees now top $38,000 a year.

Private Jet Setters. As the New York Times detailed back in April, John McCain enjoyed the use of his wife’s private jet for his campaign, courtesy of election law loopholes he helped craft. Despite the controversy, McCain continued to use Cindy’s corporate jet. For her part, Cindy McCain says that even with skyrocketing fuel costs, “in Arizona the only way to get around the state is by small private plane.”

Help on the Homefront. In these tough economic times, the McCains are able to stretch their household budget. As the AP reported in April, “McCain reported paying $136,572 in wages to household employees in 2007. Aides say the McCains pay for a caretaker for a cabin in Sedona, Ariz., child care for their teenage daughter, and a personal assistant for Cindy McCain.”

Well-Heeled in $520 Shoes. If clothes make the man, then John McCain has it made. As Huffington Post noted in July, “He has worn a pair of $520 black leather Ferragamo shoes on every recent campaign stop - from a news conference with the Dalai Lama to a supermarket visit in Bethlehem, PA.” It is altogether fitting that McCain wore the golden loafers during a golf outing with President George H.W. Bush in which he rode around in cart displaying the sign, “Property of Bush #41. Hands Off.”

And so it goes. John McCain proclaims $5 million finally makes you rich. Meanwhile, ABC’s Charlie Gibson thinks a $200,000 income makes you middle class. And his colleague Cokie Roberts claims Barack Obama’s vacation to his home state of Hawaii was “exotic.”

(For video details of John McCain lifestyle of the rich and famous, visit here and here.)
McCain has a thing for lobbyists

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 1:40pm EDT by SilentPatriot

Enclosure: [download]

The Jed Report is at it again with another damning video, this time “focusing on McCain’s relationship with Washington DC lobbyists, using clips from the past 18 years, from the Keating scandal to present.”

(h/t Bill W.)
Perceptive Paranoia

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 12:50pm EDT by Cernig

Dave Schuler at Outside The Beltway:

… like us, Russia is quite paranoid. Or, as Woody Allen once quipped, what’s a three syllable word beginning with ‘P’ that means you think that everybody’s against you? Answer: perceptive.

Dave argues that the Bush administration simply went along “fat, dumb, and happy” with the Clinton Administration’s policy of making clear to Russia that there had only been one winner of the Cold War and I think there’s a lot of truth in that, although the Bush hawks have taken it to a whole new level. But as Clinton-era hawks commenting on the Georgia crisis have reminded us, they don’t really believe in compromise and diplomacy. While in domestic politics “It’s Clinton’s Fault” doesn’t hold water 8 years later, in foreign policy, where other nations see “America under successive leaders” while Americans see “the Clinton and Bush administrations”, 8 years is just enough time to put a good hoppy head on the home-brew of resentment.

The real problem, however, is that we’re in danger of turning that perception into one of “three successive American leaders”.
Coulter and Hannity? Desperate much?

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 12:00pm EDT by bluegal

Enclosure: [download]

You know how we at C&L hate bringing teh crazy Ann to the table, but painting Obama as a killer of children with birth defects is proof-positive that she, Hannity, and other McCain surrogates are really truly desperate to “excite” the GOP base to show up at the polls this November. (Painting McCain honestly as a staunch enemy of choice might, well, unite the Democrats and Independents against him, you know.) Even Dennis Prager risks his life sitting next to Sean and saying “Huh?” True to the format of Hannity’s show, there is no proof or documentation as to what vote when gives them fodder for an explosion of bile. But the format of the show does allow for a lot of cross-yelping from Coulter. Nothing like job security, Ann honey:

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Mike’s Blog Roundup

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 11:00am EDT by Mike Finnigan

The Cunning Realist: One helluva gamble. It’s hard to understand how anyone would trust another Republican to run anything.

First Door on the Left: Supporting the troops

Obsidian Wings: Is there any corner of the Bush administration that isn’t hopelessly corrupt? Now it’s Medicare officials who’re caught not doing their jobs, lying about it, and costing us billions.

The Belgravia Dispatch: Thoughts on Georgia

Beat the Press: Why do reporters find it so difficult to understand protectionism for people like themselves? The atrocities continue below…

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: They print the propaganda first, because their good friends in the White House tell ‘em to…WaPo or The Onion?…The Sleeping Media….Nearly half of Americans favor government mandated political balance on radio and TV…Lifting the ban on press photographing coffins of returning dead…The corporate media continues to operate as the propaganda arm of the Pentagon…Limbaugh: “Nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy”…Any press criticism of the Israeli government is off limits…Corsi frequent guest on White Supremacist radio..News Corp stock in the toilet…US targets Al Jazeera
Ralph Reed doesn’t show up for McCain fundraiser

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 9:30am EDT by SilentPatriot

As Logan noted last week, Abramoff crony Ralph Reed was supposed to host a fundraiser for his pal John McCain Monday night. Well, apparently the McCain camp realized how bad that would have looked for their candidate, and although they won’t admit they explicitly told him to stay away, Reed never showed up and no mention was made of him.

WSJ:

Ralph Reed was a no-show at a fund-raiser for John McCain Monday evening, following nearly a week of considerable drama surrounding his involvement in the senator’s campaign.

The Republican candidate had come under fire for associating with Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition who fell from grace after his involvement with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. McCain was one of the leaders of the investigation of Abramoff’s lobbying activities that led to his imprisonment. Reed was never charged.

Kudos to the Obama campaign for jumping on this right quick:

That didn’t stop the Obama campaign from issuing a “response” to the absence. “Faced with the embarrassing prospect of holding a fundraiser with one of Jack Abramoff’s closest associates, the McCain campaign scrambled today scratch Ralph Reed from tonight’s program,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. “The real question isn’t why Reed isn’t showing up, but why a so-called reformer would invite him at all.”
Newsweek’s Alter: ‘McCain should stop lying about his opponent’

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 8:30am EDT by Steve Benen

Two weeks ago, it seemed Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter had just about had it with John McCain. The columnist said he’s “misread McCain,” who, it turns out, is “a surprisingly immature politician” who may not be “ready to lead.” Alter’s piece concluded that McCain had “mortgaged his precious personal honor.”

But underlying Alter’s argument is that McCain is still a good guy who’s been led astray by irresponsible advisors who’ve led him astray. McCain’s ugly campaign is “out of sync with the real guy,” Alter said.

In his new column, Alter takes McCain to task for “making stuff up about Barack Obama,” and this time, Alter doesn’t make excuses for the Republican nominee.

As usual, news organizations are deeply afraid to say that one side is more negative than the other. Doing so sounds “unfair.” It’s much easier, and less controversial, to say that “both candidates” are being negative. That would be “balanced”, but also untrue. […]

[O]verall, and to his credit, Obama has not engaged in anywhere near the number of falsehoods as McCain.

For about a month, McCain’s campaign has been resorting to charges that are patently false. When Obama traveled abroad in July, to positive reviews, McCain decided he had to make attack ads that went far beyond the norm. In the past, plainly deceptive ads were the province of the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee or independent committees free to fling mud that didn’t bear the fingerprints of candidates. But not this time. These smears come directly from the candidate.

The litany is no doubt familiar to those watching the campaign closely. McCain lied about Obama being responsible for gas prices. Then about Obama’s treatment of wounded U.S. troops in Germany. And then again about Obama’s tax policies.

[W]hen he resorts to these kinds of falsehoods, and casts such aspersions on his opponent’s patriotism, John McCain is no longer putting his country first. If he were, he would recognize that the interests of the nation require a relatively truthful campaign. To fulfill his image of himself, McCain should stop lying about his opponent. For a man with his claims to honor and integrity, that’s not too much to ask.

I think McCain has lost Jonathan Alter.