NYT: McCain pushed legislation that benefited top
donor

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 08 May 2008 08:09:00 PM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

The man is dirty. Yeah, we get it, all you mainstream media types think he's "nice." Well, that's nice, but it's kind of irrelevant to you doing your job. The man has a history of being crooked, and that history keeps growing, first with his campaign finance law-breaking, then with the funny business with that lobbyist who looks an awful like a younger version of his wife, and now this. And let's not forget the Keating Five - hardly a youthful indiscretion - McCain was already in his 50s at that time. At least the Washington Post gets it (as has the Times in the past):

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

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tion-that.html

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The Electoral Map vs. the Primary Map

post from TalkLeft on 08 May 2008 08:05:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Clinton Campaign Chairman Terry McCauliffe today said the primary race will be decided by June:

As talk swirled this morning over when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should end her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, her campaign chairman predicted the party would have a presumptive nominee in June and, if it's not Clinton, she would campaign for Sen. Barack Obama.

As for Hillary, she said today:

"The delegate math may be complicated, but the electoral math is easy," Clinton said, arguing that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is a "formidable opponent" and that she has won more "swing states" -- such as Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- than Obama.

Hillary's campaign schedule is as full as always: [More...]

But the Clinton campaign showed no signs of slowing down. The New York senator began the day with an appearance in Charleston, W. Va., then was to fly on to Sioux Falls, S.D., and finish the day with an event in Central Point, Ore. -- all states still to hold nominating contests.

And Bill Clinton planned five appearances in West Virginia, a state his wife is favored to win Tuesday. But analysts generally agree that barring a tidal shift in support away from Obama, Clinton has little chance of overtaking the Illinois senator's delegate lead, which would leave the decision in the hands of the party superdelegates.

The point:

Clinton hopes that strong showings in the last few states will help her make the case to those uncommitted superdelegates that she has momentum and is better able to compete against McCain in crucial swing states in the fall.

In other news, Hillary's campaign took in $1 million in donations in the 24 hours after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

For more on how the electoral vote may play out, see my post a few weeks ago based on an analysis by William Arnone, The Electoral Map and the Battleground States.

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Bush and the Crazy Pastor

post from Daily Kos on 08 May 2008 08:00:24 PM. © Daily Kos

I don't know what a search of Politicians and their Crazy Pastors on traditional media would come up with. But without seeing the results, I'm willing to speculate the double standard in play on progressive Vs. conservative crazy pastor problems is just breathtaking:

Ed Brayton -- And did you see one article anywhere in the mainstream media about it? I've not seen one that even mentions that on May 2nd, the former president and father of the current president, George HW Bush, was paid by the world's most prominent fascist cult leader to give yet another speech on his behalf, with Moon on the same stage. And it happened right in Washington DC, where the media has no excuse for not knowing about it.

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Global Suicide Pact: Darfur Engine, Pt 2

post from Open Left - Front Page on 08 May 2008 08:00:00 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Suicide (n) - The most preventable type of death.This is the ongoing story of a species whose[...]

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On Fox News, Williams cited McCain's immigration
record as evidence of "working across party lines," but not his abandonment of bipartisan position

post from Media Matters for America on 08 May 2008 07:55:23 PM. © Media Matters for America

During the May 7 edition of FoxNews' Special Report with Brit Hume,White House correspondent James Rosen aired a clip of Fox News analyst and NPRcontributor Juan Williams claiming: "You think about everything fromcampaign finance to immigration and on, and there's John McCain, working acrossparty lines." Williams did notnote that McCain now says that he would nolonger support his own bill if it came up for a vote in the Senate. Additionally, McCain has reversed himself on the issue of border[...]

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MS-01: Greg Davis and education, don't fully fund
our schools

post from Cotton Mouth on 08 May 2008 07:52:00 PM. © Cotton Mouth

In Tuesday's Daily Journal, Bobby Harrison pointed out the glaring truth for the voters of north Mississippi to see. You don't have to look any further than one vote to see where Greg Davis stands when it comes our most valuable resource, our children.

Not all decisions made by politicians are equal.

In 1997, Greg Davis was one of about 55 members in the 174-member Legislature to vote against the MAEP - a program that is now hailed by the mainstream of both parties as important legislation, a program that Barbour boasts is fully funded, a program, by the way, that has been critical to the success of the school system in Davis' fast growing home county of DeSoto.

Davis originally voted for the bill, but after Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice vetoed it, Davis was one of a few members to change their votes and oppose it. It should be noted that many Republicans, such as Sen. Alan Nunnelee of Tupelo, said while they supported Fordice he was wrong on that issue and they voted with the majority to override the governor's veto. It was a tough vote for Republicans like Nunnelee because the head of their party was opposing them, but they stood firm.

Being out of touch with your constituency can mean a lot of different things. The more important question for voters is, what have the candidates done when given an opportunity to make decisions that actually have an impact on our lives?

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ucation-dont.html

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Clinton's June 15 Strategy

post from MyDD on 08 May 2008 07:51:04 PM. © MyDD

On The Today Show this morning, Terry McCauliffe predicted the Democratic nominee will be known by early June. "It'll be over early June," McAuliffe said. "We've all said we'll be together at the end. If Hillary doesn't win, Hillary, (former) President[...]

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Rumsfeld blames the generals for poor pre-war
planning.

In February 2003, Gen. Eric Shinseki famously predicted that “several hundred thousand” troops would be needed for post-war hostilities in Iraq. According to documents recently released by the Pentagon in response to The New York Times’s expose on its propaganda program, however, Donald Rumsfeld claimed in a 2006 briefing that the reason why he did not support a larger invasion force was because commanders did not request it:

RUMSFELD: Now, it turns out he [Shinkseki] was right. The commanders–you guys ended up wanting roughly the same as you had for the major combat operation, and that’s what we have. There is no damned guidebook that says what the number ought to be. We were queued up to go up to what, 400-plus thousand.
Q: Yes, they were already in queue.
RUMSFELD: They were in the queue. We would have gone right on if they’d wanted them, but they didn’t, so life goes on.

In reality, Rumsfeld fought back when generals like Shinseki requested more troops. He said in 2003 that Shinseki was “far from the mark.” As McClatchy reported in 2004, “Central Command originally proposed a force of 380,000 to attack and occupy Iraq. Rumsfeld’s opening bid was about 40,000. … By September 2003, Rumsfeld and his aides thought, there would be very few American troops left in Iraq.”

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http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/08/rumsfeld-blames-the-generals-for-poor-pre-war
-planning/

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Big newspaper endorsement for Kleeb in Nebraska

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 08 May 2008 07:45:00 PM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

As you know, we've been fundraising for Scott Kleeb's Senate race in Neraska. (And you guys gave over $10,000 in just 48 hours!) Well, he just got a big newspaper endorsement. More from DKos. And feel free to keep contributing to Scott's campaign by clicking on the blue box at left.

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-for-kleeb-in.html

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Well never see the McCains tax returns

The Obamas released tax returns for both Barack and Michelle. The Clintons released returns for both Bill and Hillary. But when John McCain released his tax returns a few weeks ago, Cindy McCain?s tax documents will remain private.It?s not too hard to understand why. The McCains are extraordinarily wealthy ? one might even be tempted [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/08/well-never-see-the-mccains-tax-returns/

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