The Celebrity "Other"

post from Open Left - Front Page on 10 August 2008 08:51:37 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Over at 538, Nate's side-kcik, Sean posted a diary yesterday, arguing that there was an inherent[...]

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SO NOT READY FOR TAKEOFF

post from Ezra Klein on 10 August 2008 08:36:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

Sorry for the light posting, ya'll. This was supposed to be a blogger-writes-about-Star-Wars-gets-on-plane-gets-off-plane-writes-more-stuff kinda day, but instead it ended with me spending five and a half hours at the airport, my plane GETTING LOST at[...]

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House and Senate Race Roundup: Weekend Update

post from Daily Kos on 10 August 2008 08:30:46 PM. © Daily Kos

OK-Sen: Ever the demagogue, Jim Inhofe's latest plan to lower gas prices is...(drumroll)...

...to come up with a perfectly meaningless and stupid gesture to blame Democrats for gas prices!

He's asking Oklahomans to mail him their gas receipts, apparently so he can make a big show of dumping them on Harry Reid's door or something.

Meanwhile, Andrew Rice's campaign is focused on actual solutions:

"While he and Congress are on recess this August, Jim Inhofe is asking Oklahomans to send him their gas receipts so he can send them to Democrats," said Geri Prado, Rice's campaign manager. "Instead of using gimmicks to give the impression that he's doing something, Sen. Inhofe should take actions that will actually do something to deal with record gas prices we're seeing here in Oklahoma."

Prado said Inhofe has had those opportunities with several bills already, and a current compromise that five Democrats and five Republicans have put forth will offer another opportunity for real solutions.

Prado said Rice is waiting to hear Inhofe's opinion on the "Gang of 10" bipartisan energy bill authored by five Democrats and five Republicans.

Which is not to say that Andrew Rice doesn't have a nice zinger to counteract Inhofe's stupid gesture:

Rice said he would not be sending Inhofe his gas receipts, but he would be sending him an invoice for the $1,076,573 Inhofe has taken from the oil and gas industry.

NH-Sen: The New York Times has a nice article on New Hampshire's Senate race:

"New Hampshire is one of the five seats we expect to win," Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the head of the party’s campaign efforts, boasted at the Capitol last week.

The New Hampshire race is shaping up as a bare-knuckle bout featuring two veteran, polished candidates who know the terrain — and each other — well. It is already heavy on policy, with clashes over the economy, health care, the Iraq war, national security, and their records in Congress and the State House.

Mr. Sununu dismisses Mrs. Shaheen as a hopeless liberal who blindly follows the playbook of Democratic strategists in Washington. "Jeanne Shaheen read the press release from Chuck Schumer, she didn’t read the legislation and she came out for the wrong bill," he said recently, criticizing her position on a Medicare bill.

Mrs. Shaheen, in turn, pounds on Mr. Sununu’s close ties to Mr. Bush and his voting record, which she says has supported the White House 90 percent of the time. "The policies of George Bush and John Sununu," she said, "have been out of step from where the voters of New Hampshire are."

They speak nicely of Governor Shaheen:

Mrs. Shaheen, 61, who in 1996 was the first woman elected as New Hampshire’s governor, is an archetype of the high-profile candidates that Democrats have put forward this year in hopes of seizing on a built-in numerical advantage: Republicans must defend 23 Senate seats, including 5 left open by retirements, while Democrats have just 12 seats up with not a single vacancy.

The thrust of the article feeds the conventional wisdom (which appears accurate) that while this race is far from decided, it leans Shaheen's way at this juncture.

House Races

AL-02: A Democratic poll (by Anzalone-Liszt) shows Bobby Bright (D), the current Mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, leading his Republican opponent Jay Love by 10 points in their race to fill the seat of retiring Republican Terry Everett.

Bright (D) 50
Love (R) 40

Meanwhile, Love's own internals show the race deadlocked:

Love (R) 41
Bright (D) 39

This is an R+13.2 seat, so even to be statistically tied (as Love's own internals indicate) is awfully good for a Democrat. To sport a double-digit lead is especially impressive.

AK-AL: Meanwhile, incumbent Alaska Republican Don Young is leading the field in his Republican primary against Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, according to Ivan Moore Research:

Young (R) 46
Parnell (R) 36
LeDoux (R) 6

This is certainly bright news for Democrats, as Young's reelect numbers are weak for the general, at least against one of his possible opponents:

Berkowitz (D) 52
Young (R) 37

One way or another, Young isn't getting back to Washington next year.

IL-10: Mark Kirk's recent vote against pay equity for women has naturally met with some outrage:

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Back to School Aint Easy for Iraqi Refugees

post from Firedoglake on 10 August 2008 08:30:11 PM. © Firedoglake

It's "Back to School" time, with ads everywhere for clothes, backpacks, pencils and notebooks and school supplies of every kind. But "back to school" takes on a whole new meaning for Iraqi children living as refugees outside Iraq.[...]

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Election 2008: Healthcare Hero in Ohio's 14th

post from Open Left - Front Page on 10 August 2008 08:22:21 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

By Donna Smith, communications specialist, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing[...]

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Pelosi says she hasnt read Articles of
Impeachment!

post from Crooks and Liars on 10 August 2008 08:20:24 PM. © Crooks and Liars

If you’ve seen the Dennis Kucinich part of this video, start watching at 5:10 or so. A citizen shows Nancy Pelosi a copy of the articles of impeachment at one of her book signings [Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters]. I’m raising my daughters to recognize what an appalling, self-interested, complicit, beltway insider [...]

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A Sunday with the Leader of the Free World

post from Jesus' General on 10 August 2008 08:01:00 PM. © Jesus' General

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Isaac Hayes Died Today

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Isaac Hayes, Academy and Grammy Award winner, died this afternoon at the age of 65.

His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White. And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."
"Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes -- the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it."

The video above is the wonderful Isaac Hayes version of "Walk On By," the Burt Bacharach song made famous by Dionne Warwick. You can go here if you prefer to remember Hayes by listening to his award-winning "Theme From Shaft."

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A Missing Elephant

A note from TPM Reader JB, who's a Republican, albeit of a slightly lapsed sort ...I've noticed something about both your recent, frequent campaign posts and most of what the Obama campaign itself has had to say recently. Both talk about Sen. McCain --[...]

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This Weeks In Memoriam

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather)This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passing of actor/comedian Bernie Mac, Nobel Laureate author Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, talent agent/producer Bernie Brillstein, GOP foreign affairs consultant and Kissinger protege Peter Rodman, as well as 16 soldiers and Marines killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to icasualties.org, the allied deaths in Iraq now total [...]

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