If You Enjoyed "Big Bad John"...

...you'll love the Brand New Man.

This is Democratic Congressional candidate Jack Davis' idea of a campaign ad, apparently.

Big John Cornyn must be breathing a sigh of relief that his campaign is no longer responsible for the worst campaign song of all time.

And the campaign of Davis' Democratic primary opponent Jon Powers must be quite relieved that this is how Davis chooses to spend his vast personal fortune.

Assuming they can stop laughing.

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Shopping with John McCain

video details and more



A helmet tip to Women for McCain.

Read The Full Article:
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2008/07/shopping-with-john-mccain.html

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Rice warns China on Olympic security

Careful now. China might get angry and we wouldn't want that.

Beijing officials maintain the Olympics are threatened by terrorists and other extremists and some fear Chinese authorities could use that as an excuse to move against political opponents. Rice and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said any such action could mar the Games.

"Security threats have to be dealt with and that is fully understood by everybody, but security should not become in any way a cover to try and deal with dissent," said Rice who will head the U.S. delegation to the Olympic closing ceremonies. "That would be unfortunate."

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Friday Night Fluff: Fright Night Edition

Watch this movie for free online at FearNet. When it comes to dropping ’80s movie quotes into a conversation, there is a bit of a hierarchy. “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” has a high level of recognition but needs an irony kickback to[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://mouemagazine.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/friday-night-fluff-fright-night-edit
ion/

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McCain: We won the Iraqi civil war

Ever since Nouri al-Maliki endorsed Barack Obama's plan to withdraw most US troops from Iraq within about 16 months, John McCain has been agitatedly trying to find a cloud in the silver lining. He's opted to belittle Obama's judgment for opposing the "surge" - implying somehow that the US has won the sectarian civil war by placing more troops in the middle of it. What we won is left unclear, but whatever it is McCain is keen to take the credit.

Speaking to Hispanic vets on Friday in Colorado, however, McCain moved beyond mere vaunting to full mouth frothing. In situations like these the temptation is always to rebut McCain point by point. But sometimes you have to resist the easy route. Sometimes, tactically, it's more effective to force yourself just to stand back and report the Berserk as you happen to find it.

Without further ado, then, McCain's insights on the Iraqi civil war:

McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, said if Obama had succeeded in his effort to prevent last year's boost in U.S. troop levels in Iraq, American forces would have had to retreat under fire, the Iraqi army would have collapsed and al Qaeda would have found a safe haven..."We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right," the Arizona senator added

Because drawing fire is more hopeful than evading it.

"We face another choice today. We can withdraw when we have secured the peace and the gains we have sacrificed so much to achieve are safe," McCain said. "Or we can follow Senator Obama's unconditional withdrawal and risk losing the peace even if that results in spreading violence and a third Iraq war."

'Unconditional withdrawal' - a cute turn of phrase. Makes you wonder whether McCain would prefer, say, negotiated violence.

"Senator Obama and I ... faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander in chief," McCain said. "America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe that Senator Obama's failed."

McCain doesn't grade on a curve, America! And just look how Obama even failed at his attempts to fail.

"Senator Obama made a different choice. He not only opposed the new strategy, but actually tried to prevent us from implementing it. He didn't just advocate defeat, he tried to legislate it. When his efforts failed, he continued to predict the failure of our troops."

Boy is he lousy at predicting things.

"As our soldiers and Marines prepared to move into Baghdad neighborhoods and ... villages, Senator Obama predicted that their efforts would make the sectarian violence in Iraq worse - worse! - not better."...

In retrospect, given the opportunity to choose between failure and success, he chose failure," McCain said. "I cannot conceive of a commander in chief making that choice."

Is John McCain trying to convince us that he's the smart one, or the angry one?

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Senator Obama, I presume

I'm really bored with the Usual Suspects.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://firedoglake.com/2008/07/25/senator-obama-i-presume/

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C&Ls Late Nite Music Club with CSN&Y

Neil Young’s documentary/concert feature Deja Vu opens today.   Read some reviews here.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/07/25/cls-late-nite-music-club-with-csny/

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U.S. Expands Expands Iraqi Visa Program Tenfold

We have 12 million people living in this country without proper documentation, many of whom work, have families and pay taxes.

While Congress stalls year after year on providing a path to citizenship for them, and the radical right says there is no room for them, the Bush Administration has no problem playing favorites:

The American Embassy in Baghdad announced Thursday that it had expanded tenfold its program to help Iraqi employees of the American government here, who faced threats for their work, to obtain visas and ultimately citizenship in the United States.

Why should the Iraqis get special treatment? Because they provided aid to the U.S. in its unneccessary preemptive war that we entered under false pretenses?[More...]

The program will allow 5,000 Iraqis to go to the United States for each of the next five years. Each person can take immediate family members, who include spouses and children. More distant relatives, including siblings, parents and grandchildren, can apply under another program. So the actual numbers emigrating will probably be considerably higher. The average Iraqi household is estimated to have about six people, according to officials from the International Organization for Migration.

What about the Haitians? They face horrible fates when sent back home from the U.S. What about those from Mexico, many of whom work at jobs Americans don't want? When Congress does act on their behalf, will they have to go to the back of the line, learn English, pay fines and taxes -- all behind the Iraqis?

The answer seems to be yes, even as to those who are here seeking asylum:

....immigration experts warn that because there is a global cap on the number of refugees that the United States accepts and the slots are allocated by region — with some flexibility — it is possible that either Iraqi refugees will squeeze out others who are equally deserving or that not all Iraqi refugees who are eligible will be granted a space.

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House and Senate Roundup, 7/25

CO-Sen: Several polls out over the past few days. Rasmussen showed the race at 47% for Udall, 44% for Republican Bob Schaffer yesterday.

Previously, four polls in a row had showed a 9-10 point lead for Udall.

Now, two new polls are out with contrasting results. From Frederick:

Udall (D) 48
Schaffer (R) 39

And from Quinnipiac:

Udall (D) 44 (48)
Schaffer (R) 44 (38)

Could be statistical noise, or it could be the race closing a little. Conventional wisdom (and most other wisdom) rates the race "Leans Democratic, and that seems accurate. But this race is not money in the bank, and never has been.

ME-Sen: Here is a Maine poll, showing Republican incumbent Susan Collins with a substantial lead over Democrat Tom Allen. From Critical Insights:

Collins (R) 51
Allen (D) 37

Swing State Project notes that when the sample is limited to likely voters, there is only a 10-point margin for Collins, 50% to 40%.

This race has leaned towards Collins from the get-go, and Allen has been slowly closing the margin throughout the campaign. It's certainly not unreasonable to think he can catch her by election day, but this is still Collins' race to lose.

AK-Sen: Ted Stevens doesn't like us. And he doesn't like ActBlue. Here's a recent Stevens fundraising email attacking Democrat Mark Begich:

Instead of tending to his job in Anchorage, Begich was recently in Austin, Texas, at a "Netroots Nation" convention where he spent two days trying to garner support from bloggers with extreme left agendas. Just last quarter, the mayor raised more than $37,000 from just one liberal Lower 48 Internet campaign known as ActBlue (the 1,500 out-of-state donors he gained through this site amounted to a third of the "grassroots" support he received last quarter).

Fortunately the Begich campaign has a stinging response:

You wrote in your fundraising email:

   "Just last quarter, the mayor raised more than $37,000 from just one liberal Lower 48 Internet campaign known as ActBlue"

ActBlue.com is a website, not a "Lower 48 Internet campaign". I hate to break it to you, but Alaskans use ActBlue, too. We're proud of our Alaskan donors who used ActBlue to support Mark's campaign.

What sort of website is ActBlue? Well, it is a website that allows Americans to make donations to candidates they support. That's it. It processes credit cards. So when you imply that we raised money "from" ActBlue, it's kind of like attacking us for raising money "from" PayPal or American Express or personal checks.

And it sure would be silly for you to criticize us for taking money "from" American Express (I'll spill the beans -- some of our donors gave with their AmEx cards).

The campaign also notes that Begich received far more donations in Q2 from Alaskans alone than Stevens received in toto. But why bother with facts if you're a Republican?

NH-Sen: UNH's polling showed this race tightening, with Democrat Jeanne Shaheen up only four points on Republican incumbent John Sununu.

Now, Rasmussen has a similar result:

Shaheen (D) 50
Sununu (R) 45

Sununu had been compared to this cycle's Rick Santorum, as he had consistently failed to close what had been solid double-digit polling leads for Shaheen. Now, it seems as though the race may well be tightening, at last. Shaheen still has an edge, but these polling results seem more in line with what one might have expected from this race.

OK-Sen: Orange to Blue candidate Andrew Rice diaried at Daily Kos today. Rice is trying to raise money to keep his latest ad on the air, so feel free to head over to the Orange to Blue page and help him out.

video details and more

House Races:

MI-09: Democrat Gary Peters' campaign brought in an impressive $570,000 last quarter, and now sits on $1.1 million cash on hand.

It should be a tough fight against Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg, who brought in even more - $713K, and now has $1.8 million. Still, it's good to know that Peters will have the financial resources to take this race.

OH-02: Not a good sign for Republican party unity in this district; even they don't like Jean Schmidt. From her former primary opponent, Tom Brinkman:

Schmidt is now enmeshed in a bitter feud with another Ohio Republican, who's so furious with her that he called her a "lying b----" and a "despicable person" who would "sell her mother" -- and expressly told us we could print that!

The issue? GOP State Rep. Tom Brinkman, who founded an anti-tax government watchdog group, is charging that Schmidt's House staffers frequently work on her campaign for re-election.

"You can quote me anywhere you like. Jean Schmidt is a lying b----," said Brinkman, who lost his primary challenge to her this year by a 58%-40% margin, in an interview with Election Central. "She would sell her mother to promote herself. She is a despicable person. She will go any length possible to win, to get what she wants."

Oh, dear. That kind of rancor cannot be good for Republicans in the district.

IA-04: Republicans are scared all over. From a press release from Democrat Becky Greenwald's campaign, it appears that Karl Rove himself is coming to Iowa to fundraise for Republican incumbent Tom Latham.

"When Tom Latham is in the district, he blames partisan bickering for the problems in Washington. But the next thing we know, he brings Mr. Republican Party himself, Karl Rove, in for a fundraiser," said Greenwald Communications Director Erin Seidler. "Plus, Latham has voted with the Republican Party 92% of the time. It will be hard for Latham to run from his loyalties to the Bush administration and Republican Party."

Latham is hardly on the top lists of vulnerable Republican incumbents, although his district is quite winnable (D+0.4). The fact that Rove is actually going out to fundraise for Latham seems to indicate that Latham is some part of a Republican firewall. One which it would be delicious to break.

On the web:
Orange to Blue ActBlue page

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Daily Show: Obama in Berlin vs. McCain in the
supermarket

  Jon Stewart juxtaposes how the two candidates spent their Thursdays. Download | Play   Download | Play“But watching Senator Obama address a crowd of 200,000 in Germany while Senator McCain addresses a crowd of two in the frozen food section…”That about sums it up.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/07/25/daily-show-obama-in-berlin-vs-mccain-in-
the-supermarket/

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