WALL STREET JOURNAL CLAIMS INTERFERENCE FROM HIS
WIFE IS WHAT HAS DONE IN McCAIN'S CAMPAIGN

post from DownWithTyranny! on 26 July 2007 08:32:00 AM. © DownWithTyranny!

The beer money calls the shots
Two of the most vicious right wing propagandists in the entire world, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, have no beef with McCain's message of endless war in Iraq. They just want the green. The two hired hands are the latest in a long, long list of McCain staffers who have abandoned his floundering campaign. Today's Wall Street Journal reports that McCain's campaign is imperiled.

After Terry Nelson and John Weaver and the last legitimate political operatives left McCain earlier in the month, he was forced to hire from way at the bottom of the barrel and wound up with one of DC's worst-regarded low-life crooks running his campaign, the notoriously corrupt lobbyist Rick Davis. Davis' reputation makes it impossible for any legitimate DC players to work for McCain. Over a dozen high ranking aides have quit McCain's campaign since Davis came on, not just in DC but all over the country. Even worse, fundraisers have stopped raising for the campaign since no one feels Davis can be trusted with money.

Now the loss of the Schriefer-Stevens media team is considered a new blow, Republican strategists say. The McCain campaign had long planned to begin running ads this fall in early contest states; those plans are at risk given Mr. McCain's debt, compounded now by the difficulty of getting donors to invest in a troubled campaign.

...The unraveling of the McCain team this month climaxes months of infighting between other McCain advisers and Mr. Davis. That came against a backdrop of a slide in the polls as Sen. McCain became identified with two unpopular issues, the Iraq war and immigration overhauls. Mr. Davis privately complained to Republicans outside the campaign about the Nelson-Weaver team's strategic leadership, while within the campaign his own actions were a source of building tension.

In particular, last year Mr. Davis and lobbying partner Paul Manafort had started and co-owned an Internet services firm, 3eDC, which billed the campaign more than $1 million. Mr. Davis also arranged for the campaign to give its property-management business to a second new company started by a lobbyist-friend's client, Indian-casino developer Richard Fields. That move came despite the fact that Mr. McCain had become known as the Senate's biggest critic of scandals involving Indian casinos. The campaign has ended both companies' deals, though it still owes them money.

The other advisers also objected that Mr. Davis and his firm lobbied for a Kremlin-backed Ukrainian Party that is opposed by the U.S. government and Mr. McCain.

As these issues festered, Mr. McCain twice agreed to sideline Mr. Davis as CEO, last December and in April. But Mr. Davis continued to advise the senator informally, and was a frequent traveling companion and confidant of the senator's wife, Cindy. McCain supporters privately attribute Mr. Davis's reemergence at the head of the campaign to her influence.

Cindy holds the purse strings and her bad personnel judgment, coupled with McCain's terrible policy judgment-- he was still claiming Iraq is doing great-- is what's behind the complete collapse of his presidential bid and why someone like Newt Gingrich could refer to him as just another pathetic pygmy as though he were as much a nothing as Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani or Tom Tancredo.

One McCain staffer who is staying put is arrested alleged sex predator Bob Allen, McCain's Florida co-chairman. McCain liked that his guy Allen wrote Florida's Sexual Predator Elimination Act but wasn't as pleased that Allen was caught trying to blow a policeman in a public toilet. It kind of took the smirk off poor Old McCain's face after Giuliani's Southern Major Domo, David Vitters, was caught with his diapers down. At least McCain supporter/rapist Michael Flory wasn't actually a paid staffer. One has to wonder what kind of administrations these nominees would put together if any of them were actually elected to the presidency. I guess it couldn't be any worse than Bush's. And GOP lobbyist Freddy Thompson, who still insists he's only "testing the waters," seems to just have experienced the wheels coming off his own non-campaign. Although, not unlike Bob Allen sticking with McCain, Thompson will still have Cheney operative Mary Matalin staying with him.

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Sentiment On Withdrawal

post from Daily Kos on 26 July 2007 08:31:34 AM. © Daily Kos

From Chris Cillizza's WaPo poll analysis:

Let's Parse the Polls!

A look at the profile of the 29 percent who want to pull out all troops now produces a somewhat unconventional picture.

Women are more likely than men to back immediate withdrawal (33 percent to 23 percent). Support for an immediate withdrawal is highest in the West (34 percent) and lowest in the South (24 percent). Thirty four percent of black voters supported an immediate withdrawal, as did 26 percent of whites.

None of those figures is terribly surprising.

But how about the fact that there isn't any statistical difference between liberals and moderates? Twenty-eight percent of self-identified liberals backed immediate withdrawal, while a similar 27 percent of moderates felt the same way.

...

The poll data suggests any attempt to put a definitive label on those who favor immediate withdrawal (liberals, young people, Obama supporters) falls short. The reality is that the war as a political issue is far too complicated to boil down into neatly-packed subgroups.

The analysis speaks for itself. Trying to put 'far left' labels on this won't stick any more than calling 65% disapproval of Bush's performance 'far left'.

Welcome to the mainstream.

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Cheers and Jeers: DNC Flashback Thursday

post from Daily Kos on 26 July 2007 08:27:29 AM. © Daily Kos

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Three years ago today the Democratic National Convention began in Boston. These political lovefests don't carry the weight they used to, but it's still inspiring to hear from the party's grizzled veterans and up-and-comers as they lay out their vision of America's future under Democratic leadership. (I know, "Democratic leadership" is redundant.)

Now that the 2004 event is ancient history, I suppose I can admit this without having too many bricks thrown through my window: when John Kerry stood up at the podium, saluted, and said, "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty," I winced. It was a silly and awkward way to start an otherwise damn good speech. He recovered with words like these:

"I will be a Commander-in-Chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a Vice President who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a Secretary of Defense who will listen to the advice of the military leaders. And I will appoint an Attorney General who will uphold the Constitution of the United States."

If John Kerry had won, my Acme Chertoff5000 Gutchecker™ tells me that, based on his performance in the '04 campaign, he would've been an average president. I suspect he would've tried to do too much too quickly, gotten bogged down, and underestimated the obstructionist tactics of the GOP. But y'know what? Average would be a helluva lot better than what we've got now. I wouldn’t settle for average, I'd REVEL in average. I'd be thrilled with Chester Alan Arthuresque mediocrity. I'd grin from ear to ear for "He did one thing right." Instead, we made a statement to the world. A statement that said, "To protest our country's endorsement of torture, we are going to torture ourselves for another four years."

Three months after the convention, the Daily Mirror delivered the bad news thusly: How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB? We hope the little '06 congressional changing of the guard at least partially atoned for our sin, an admitted whopper.

Today we raid the C&J archives and look back at the week that was: July 26-29, 2004. The DNC is back in session in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

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Coulter accidentally tells the truth

post from Crooks and Liars on 26 July 2007 08:20:43 AM. © Crooks and Liars

Rick Perlstein catches Ann Coulter accidentally telling the truth about the Republican Party’s “news” network.Ann Coulter’s latest column claims that “New York cabbies’ compliance rate on daily bathing” is less than 48 percent; dilates upon the reporting in the “Treason Times“; and reflects, “Fox News ought to buy a copy of Monday’s Democrat [sic] debate [...]

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Omerta

post from Firedoglake on 26 July 2007 08:15:55 AM. © Firedoglake

YouTube of Bill Moyers and Jon Stewart discussing AG Gonzales’ and his casual, passing acquaintence with honesty back in April of 2007. So true then, and more true now…Looks like the Paulie Walnuts of the Bush Administration may be in some[...]

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We ignored Ike

post from William K. Wolfrum on 26 July 2007 08:01:19 AM. © William K. Wolfrum

It is easy to allow history to to repeat itself when they stop teaching history.From President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation, January 17, 1961:This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence ? economic, political, ...

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O'Reilly banned me for exposing terrorist and
assassination chatter on his Web site

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 26 July 2007 07:59:00 AM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Apparently threatening to take a gun to Hillary Clinton and suggesting we burn down the US Capitol building is okay to post on Bill O'Reilly's Web site, but complaining about those terrorist and assassination proposals gets your banned. Which brings into question just how serious Bill O'Reilly is about the death threats being posted on BillOReilly.com since an attempt to find those threats is cause for being banned. Where's your free speech now, Bill?

Why are jetBlue and Home Depot insisting on supporting people who seem more concerned about liberals than they are terrorists? Perhaps you should ask them. Here is jetBlue's contact:
corporatecommunications@jetblue.com

Anybody got Home Depot's?

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Broadening Psychotropic Drug Use Abroad

Lo and behold, the sharply increasing use of psychotropic medication on children is not just a phenomenon unique to the United States. As reported by the Telegraph, a similar trend has occurred across the pond in Great Britain: Child use of antidepressants up four-fold The use of antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs among schoolchildren has more [...]

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