Link To My Lou!

Back, by popular demand...

• You have to watch this video to the bitter end to catch the real money quote (after a bunch of clips of Fox"News," talking heads discussing quid pro quo with regard to the two journalists who were just released from Korea, thanks to Bill Clinton's efforts, there appears a photo of Oliver North):

You mean kinda like a quid pro quo like an American government would sell arms to an outlaw regime to secure the release of hostages, and then take that money to fund a bloody Central American war, and then have this guy lie to Congress about it? Because if that's the kind of stuff you're worried about, you should really ask that guy about it, 'cause he's got a show on your fucking network!

• Web of Deception has the dirt on so many people you know and love (to hate?). Who knew that Lou "I'm not a racist!" Dobbs pays so little tax on so much property in New Jersey!

• Speaking of Lou... On the Birthers: the stupidity of this "controversy" might be merely amusing, if it weren't for the way the Republican party still coddles scary racists. But then again, maybe Barack Obama is the anti-christ and maybe he does want to kill Sarah Palin's baby.

• Why am I keeping my fingers crossed (while eating well and exercising every day)? Because I have United Health Care insurance, so if I get sick (or pregnant, god forbid!), I might just be screwed. But then again, I'm one of the lucky Americans, because I have coverage.

• The Republican response? Obstruction. Violence. Fakery (to put it nicely). Stupidity. Incoherence. But no real plan for fixing health care. But then again, the blue dog democrats aren't exactly moving things along either (and where's Obama?).

• And, while we're at it, why do these people freak out when they hear the truth? Stupid is as stupid does.

• On the lighter side, check out this interloper squirrel.

Video Roundup!

Here's what I've collected since the last time I did a video dump. Sorry some of it may be a bit dated. So much creativity is flowing out there these days, and I haven't been able to do a roundup in a while!

The Daily Show: The Drill Pickle, Hannity and Palin, Bill Clinton, Around the World in a Day, McCain Suspends Campaign, Bob Schieffer, Bush & the Economy, Florida Focus Group, World War I, Kill Bill, Gams and Gammer, Bailout Bill Passes, Common Man-Off, Nate Silver, The Stupid Vote, Sarah Vowell goes back to the 30s to be reassured, World War II, Michelle Obama

Real Time: New Rules (Levi Johnston), Bush in Drag, New Rules (Ebony and Irony), New Rules (Preach Around)

The Young Turks: McCain and Spain, Debate I Wrapup

The Late Show: Bill Clinton, Chris Rock, John McCain, McCain: Take Two, Brian Williams

Sarah Silverman: The Great Schlep

The Colbert Report: Colbert Suspends His Show, Teen Talk Voter Abstinence

SNL: Couric & Palin, VP Debate

Penn & Teller: The Bible

A Vagina-American President?

Is it time?

Absolutely! The United States is very much ready for a female president, as 18 million Americans have already demonstrated.

Will any female do? No. Don't be silly. And that John McCain would make such a condescending suggestion indicates either that he is incredibly tone-deaf when it comes to women's issues or that he thinks we women are incredibly stupid.

Those 18 million votes for Hillary Clinton weren't because of her vagina. They were voting for a well-traveled person who has experience fighting for a health care program, working for children's and women's issues, supporting a woman's right to control her own body, pushing for equal pay for equal work, wanting to reverse devastating disease through stem cell research -- a person with knowledge of our the economy and how it fits into the global marketplace, and foreign policy experience, with a grasp off all that's going on in the Middle East. To suggest that those 18 million people would ignore the differences between Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin on the issues and vote for McCain/Palin simply because Palin has a vagina is absurd.

Perhaps John McCain is impressed with Sarah Palin -- maybe because she has more executive experience than he does, or because he loves a good mullet as much as anyone, or perhaps he likes the fact that she's a woman who supports misogynists and anti-woman policies, or he likes her work on the PTA, or even that she's a family-values conservative with a bastard child (how maverick is that?!?).

But you have to wonder if John McCain really gave this selection as much thought as it deserved. He claims to put America first and that politics should never take precedence over doing what's right for this country. And then he goes and makes an intensely political choice when he picked a running mate who is clearly not qualified to assume the duties of the presidency "on day one." As David Frum asks:

If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

I would go further and point out that this neophyte is not just a heartbeat away from the presidency -- but that that heartbeat is a 72-year-old man's heartbeat -- one who's already been treated for cancer (ha ha, that's so funny!) at least four times, needs an ambien to get to sleep, and has kidney stones, an enlarged prostate, high cholesterol, and degenerative arthritis. But perhaps McCain is hoping that we, along with his staff, will just keep our fingers crossed while she's working her way through Foreign Policy for Dummies.

The early reviews are certainly mixed (even on her home turf)... Is there a punchline to this story?

We'll have to wait to find out and in the meantime, while we're trying to get to know Sarah Palin (Joe found an Alaskan's perspective and sugarfatpie has her Aunt Gene), we'll also have to decide how John McCain did with his first presidential decision. Is he (or she) up to those 3am phone calls?

And finally, on a less serious level, consider this: do you really think you can take another four (or more!) years of someone saying "nu-cu-lar" instead of "noo-klee-er?" I'm pretty sure I can't.

patriotboy

Brother Bill & Fightin' Joe

The Big Dog warmed up the crowd for Joe Biden this evening. He was, as always, great on the stump. He said "Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she'll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us." And then he caught himself and said, "actually, that makes 18 million of us." It was a nice line. He then went on to say what he needed to say -- that he's convinced that Obama is the man for the job, and he enumerated Obama's qualifications. He also gave Biden a hat tip by saying that when it came to choosing a running mate, Obama hit it out of the park. And as far as the Republicans are concerned, Bill had plenty to say, including this: "they actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more. Let's send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks."

The crowd went wild when Bill came out and wouldn't let him speak for the first several minutes he was on the stage. Clearly, he's as popular as ever with the party faithful, and his speech demonstrated one reason why. Bill Clinton, is one of the greatest public speakers in modern politics. He still takes my breath away.

Here're a the key lines from Clinton's remarks this evening: "Everything I learned in my eight years as President and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job" and "Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States."

You can read his remarks as prepared here and watch the video here.

And then Joe Biden came out. Wow. What a bio. His beautiful mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden was there in the crowd to hear him speak -- what a rock and an inspiration! Joe speaks like regular people and is a great storyteller. He slipped at one point and started to call John McCain "George" -- an honest slip, I think, but also quite on-message.

Joe talked about dignity and respect. He discussed Barack Obama's accomplishments in Illinois and DC, as well as how he learned about Obama when they were both on the campaign trail together. He also talked about his friend, John McCain, who wants to take this country "in the wrong direction."
Here's my nomination for the line of the night: "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader." And then he really got rolling...

As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole with very few friends to help us climb out. For the last seven years, this administration has failed to face the biggest forces shaping this century: the emergence of Russia, China and India as great powers; the spread of lethal weapons; the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water; the challenge of climate change; and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front against terrorism.

In recent days, we’ve once again seen the consequences of this neglect with Russia’s challenge to the free and democratic country of Georgia. Barack Obama and I will end this neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its actions, and we’ll help the people of Georgia rebuild.

I’ve been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms: this Administration’s policy has been an abject failure. America cannot afford four more years of this.

Now, despite being complicit in this catastrophic foreign policy, John McCain says Barack Obama isn’t ready to protect our national security. Now, let me ask you: whose judgment should we trust? Should we trust John McCain’s judgment when he said only three years ago, “Afghanistan—we don’t read about it anymore because it’s succeeded”? Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?

The fact is, al-Qaida and the Taliban—the people who actually attacked us on 9/11—have regrouped in those mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and are plotting new attacks. And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff echoed Barack’s call for more troops.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Should we trust John McCain’s judgment when he rejected talking with Iran and then asked: What is there to talk about? Or Barack Obama, who said we must talk and make it clear to Iran that its conduct must change.

Now, after seven years of denial, even the Bush administration recognizes that we should talk to Iran, because that’s the best way to advance our security.

Again, John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Should we trust John McCain’s judgment when he says there can be no timelines to draw down our troops from Iraq—that we must stay indefinitely? Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home?

Now, after six long years, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama was proven right.

Folks, remember when the world used to trust us? When they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they’ll look to us again, they’ll trust us again, and we’ll be able to lead again.

Here are the prepared remarks, and more videos.

And as if that weren't enough to work the Democrats into a frenzy, then Barack Obama, his badass self, showed up! He thanked the entire Biden family for being on board, complemented his wife on her great convention opener, gave Hillary props for "rock[ing] the house the other night," and then gave Bill Clinton mad props as well. And then Barack and the whole Biden family filled the stage as the room rocked out to Bruce Springsteen.

Wow. What a night. Tomorrow, Obama will turn it up to eleven...

Convention Night 2: Tonight, we were all wearing pantsuits!

Some great lines from the evening:

"John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush more than 90% of the time...that's not a maverick, that's a sidekick." -- Bob Casey

"No way, no how, no McCain." -- Hillary

"In four months, we'll have an administration that actually believes in science." -- Mark Warner

"It’s appropriate that McCain and Bush will appear together next week in the twin cities, because these days they are awfully hard to tell apart!" -- Hillary

"We don't need four more years of the last eight years!" -- Hillary

"To my supporters, my champions — my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits – from the bottom of my heart: Thank you." -- Hillary

“We can’t simply drill our way to energy independence. If you drilled everywhere; if you drilled in all of John McCain’s back yards, even the ones he doesn’t know he has; that single answer proposition is a dry well.” -- Brian Schweitzer

UPDATE: more here!

Hillary

She hit it out of the park tonight.

As G-Dog says, "The pressure's on the men now."

So far in this convention, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton both gave the best speeches of their lives. They'll be tough acts to follow.

Watch it! read it!

Quote of the Day

"That's post-rational!"
-- Rachel Maddow, at the Democratic Convention on 8/25/2008, talking about how Hillary supporters don't support Obama because they're Hillary supporters, even though Hillary wants them to support Obama.

Link and video as soon as they're available...

Monday Roundup

Chances are, I'll find something to add to this list as the day wears on...

• Today is California Gay Marriage Day. Lots of us will be watching, with lumps in our throats, as so many wonderful couples say "I do." Mazal Tov!
• Hillary Clinton supporters are quickly lining up behind Barack Obama, as expected (despite the icky efforts of the creepy McCain team). The democratic nomination, the White House and the feminist movement are all about more than just one person. It hurts to lose, but it doesn't take long for reality to sink in, and McCain definitely is not a woman's candidate -- not even close.
• Fall ballot watch: will it be Barr/Paul?
• Gas pump sticker shock got you down? How about taking a one-tank trip?
• It's like watching a fish on a hook: John McCain flip flops his way to new record!

Hillary: "Yes, We Can!"

It was an excellent speech. Here's just a clip (watch the whole thing here).

48 Hours

MSNBC's Chuck Todd, in reacting to the news from the AP that Hillary Clinton will acknowledge that Barack Obama is the nominee tonight (a story that some Clinton insiders flatly contradict), says that the next 48 hours belong to Hillary Clinton. It will be a big victory for Obama tonight, but everyone will be watching Clinton.

Since the story keeps changing by the moment, it's hard to say what might happen, but I still think Todd is right about the next couple of days. She's run a hard-fought race and she deserves to enjoy her last few moments in the campaign spotlight and to go out on her own terms.

While we're waiting to find out how this will all play out, I'll share with you my suggestion for Hillary's next big career move...

I don't think she'd be a good vice-presidential candidate. I just can't see it -- Bill would be the 800-pound gorilla on the ticket, not really on the ticket, but constantly getting in the way and overshadowing the real candidates. But Hillary's a great Senator and a great campaigner, so I'd like to see her return to those jobs as soon as she's had a chance to catch her breath. She has a lot to contribute on Capitol Hill and I'd like to see her on the campaign trail, working to get Barack Obama, and other Democrats, elected.

Beyond the election, I'd love to see her as our next Supreme Court justice -- if the Democrats make enough gains in the Senate to get her confirmed, of course. This would be a twofer, as far as I'm concerned. First, she'd be a fantastic Justice -- she's an incredibly smart person with a willingness to dig deep into issues and really flesh out a debate. But the big bonus would be that the right wingnuts would go completely bonkers at the idea of a Clinton sitting on the Supreme Court for the rest of her life. We'd probably get to watch more than a few conservative heads explode in the aftermath. A great appointment and quality entertainment! You can't beat it!

Bill waxes nostalgic

I want to say also, that this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind. I thought I was out of politics, 'til Hillary decided to run, but it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president.

-- Bill Clinton, today in Milbank, SD

In the meantime, the staff is being called home.

Big Win in Puerto Rico

This contest is finally winding up!

Saturday June 1	Puerto Rico
			%	# delegates	votes
		Clinton	68%	38	263,120
		Obama	32%	17	121,458
		100% reporting

Next up:
Tuesday, June 3: South Dakota and Montana

And then, finally, hopefully, it will be over.

Rules and Bylaws

So, the powers-that-be at the DNC will seat delegations from Florida and Michigan with 50% voting power at the convention.

Or will they?

In August of last year, when the DNC stripped Florida of its delegates, a DNC committee member stated that "Rules are rules." But then in December, when the Committee stripped Michigan of its delegates, party leaders admitted that rules are made to be broken, allowing for the possibility of an appeal that could lead to delegate reinstatement.

Now that the DNC has reinstated the delegates, what's to stop them from changing the rules again before this is over? Should they? As Donna Brazile said yesterday, "My momma taught me to play by the rules and respect those rules. My mother taught me, and I'm sure your mother taught you, that when you decide to change the rules, middle of the game, end of the game, that is referred to as cheatin.'"

I would have left well enough alone, if for no other reason than so that the DNC would have some credibility in its future rulings.

At this point, I think the score is still Q to 12...

Another Link List

• This is not good news for the beef industry. The Bush administration wants to stop all this crazy testing for mad cow disease! They're afraid the consumer might be freaked out by too much information. Seriously. But you're not still eating that hormone-laden, untested, corn-fed, antibiotic-charged, E. coli-tainted beef from the big cattle companies anyway, are you? Me neither (via Ice Station Tango).
• Oy. Tennessee's addled legislature has apparently decided to illustrate the principle of entropy. Sigh.
• For anyone bothered by the suggestion that their hard-earned contributions to the Obama campaign might end up being used to pay off the debts of a woman who's worth tens of millions of dollars, relax -- it doesn't work that way.
• Like many of this year's Congressional Republicans, Liddy Dole is in deep trouble in North Carolina. Oh, well.
• Jenna Bush got married yesterday, and guess who performed the ceremony?The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston officiated at the ceremony. Mr. Caldwell, a longtime religious adviser to Mr. Bush, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama.
  Of course, Jenna might be supporting Barack Obama as well.
• What is Half in Ten? Well, this is the way the Station Agent puts it: John Edwards moves his campaign against poverty forward by creating Half in Ten. The idea is to cut poverty in half in ten years, which is a truly ambitious goal considering Bush is trying to double poverty within the next five or six hours.
• And finally, via A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago, I found the trailer to Hamlet 2, which is due to hit theaters at the end of August. It could be hilarious or it be so over-the-top that it misses the mark, but the bit here made me laugh.

NC, IN

Oh, please, let this be the night that puts us all out of our misery.

UPDATE: Clinton has cancelled all public events for tomorrow (except for a fundraiser tomorrow night). The results from Lake County look like they might be enough for Obama to take the lead from her in Indiana. It's almost 1 am and we're still waiting...

UPDATE: AT 1:09am, MSNBC declared Clinton the winner in an Indiana squeaker.

UPDATE: good summary coverage from towleroad.

	Democrat (%, #votes, delegates)					Republican (%, #votes, delegates)
Tuesday May 6	North Carolina
		Obama	56%	890,695	(58)		McCain	73%	381,138	(0)
		Clinton	42%	657,920	(42)		Huckabee	12%	62,917	(0)
		(margin		232,775)			Paul	8%	40,275	(0)
	Indiana
		Clinton	51%	638,274	(37)		McCain	77%	317,837	(0)
		Obama	49%	615,862	(33)		Huckabee	10%	40,018	(0)
		(margin		22,412)			Paul	8%	31,481	(0)
	99% reporting

Upcoming:
May 13: West Virginia
May 20: Kentucky and Oregon
June 1: Puerto Rico
June 3: South Dakota and Montana

Of oil and tax holidays

Everywhere I've gone for the past few days, everyone has been talking about how Hillary (and McCain, for that matter) wants to have a gas tax holiday. No one I've met who has an opinion about it thinks her idea is a good one. I'd like to suggest an alternative.

Hillary likes to frame her position from a people-vs.-the-big-bad-oil-companies perspective, which is a pretty smart approach to the situation. They are big and they are bad. Some of them are downright disgusting, if you ask me (I'd rather push my car than buy gas at Exxon/Mobil).

Lee Raymond

But, the problem with Hillary's tax holiday is that it offers nothing that would change the behavior of Big Oil. In fact, it would be doing them a terrific favor because gas prices would drop, which would in turn raise demand. They could sell more oil without lowering their prices! It's almost like Hillary has worked out a deal with these guys.

But here's another idea.

[Let me note here that this proposal does not offer any sort of long-term solution to our energy problems (neither does Hillary or McCain's for that matter). It just buys us a bit of time, which I would hope we could use to take drastic and dramatic steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.]

So, there's the idea. At this moment, we have 700 million barrels of oil in the US Stretegic Oil Reserve. What would happen if we suddenly unleashed just a million of those barrels on the market? Well, I'm guessing prices would drop precipitously, which would help out the consumer quite a bit. And, there would be the special bonus benefit of screwing over the oil companies, too, because they'd be forced to drop their prices in response to the sudden increase in supply. Ha! Teach them to screw over their customers for the sake of record-breaking profits and hundred-million-dollar golden parachutes.

Then I would go one step further. I would pull our troops out of Iraq. If the oil companies want Iraq's oil, let them use those all record profits to fight their own freakin' oil wars (hell, send Lee Raymond over there to fight), but leave us out of it. We've already spent over half a trillion dollars (and counting) trying to secure their oil supply. Now it's time for them to do their own damn dirty work.

And there you have it. That's my proposal.

Guam

Yeah, there was a primary on Saturday, and it was quite the nail-biter. Check out this photo finish:

	Democrat (%, #votes, delegates)
Saturday May 3	Guam
	Obama	50%	2,264	(2)
	Clinton	50%	2,257	(2)
	100% reporting

Next up:
May 6: North Carolina and Indiana
May 13: West Virginia
May 20: Kentucky and Oregon
June 1: Puerto Rico
June 3: South Dakota and Montana

(And still, our long national nightmare continues...)

At Last, PA!

The dog had some minor surgery today, but she's back home and feeling fine. While she convalesces, we'll be following the returns from Pennsylvania...

UPDATE: just an aside: I've been watching the coverage all evening, and have noticed that both candidates have played John Mellencamp songs. But interestingly, Mellencamp himself (along with his wife) appeared on stage with Obama in Indiana this evening. Will the campaign music issue resurface?

	Democrat (%, #votes, delegates)					Republican (%, #votes, delegates)
Tuesday April 22	Pennsylvania
	Clinton	55%	1,260,444	(83)		McCain	73%	587,210	(0)
	Obama	45%	1,046,220	(73)		Paul	16%	128,483	(0)
						Huckabee	11%	91,430	(0)
100% reporting

Next up:
May 3: Guam
May 6: North Carolina and Indiana
May 13: West Virginia
May 20: Kentucky and Oregon
June 1: Puerto Rico
June 3: South Dakota and Montana

(Our long national nightmare continues ad nauseum...)

Dems Do Colbert

Thursday night, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards all appeared on the Colbert Report. It took us back to the heyday of the primary campaign -- before things got ugly and boring. To see the clips from the show, go here (edWØRDS was my favorite segment). And if you'll forgive me a bit of photoshopping, I loved this campaign when it was a three-man race. Now -- enh -- not so much...

Last Night's Debate

I watched it and was bored -- few questions about policy and too many about the silliness of the season. How is that supposed to help Pennsylvania voters make a wise decision about their vote? If ABC was trying to convince me that they have a serious news organization, they failed miserably, since George and Charlie didn't seem to dig beyond Drudge when coming up with questions.

As it turns out, few people think it qualified as much more than the worst debate in a long series of parleys:

• Fire Dog Lake: Democratic Debate Wrap-up
• Ice Station Tango: Reaction to Democratic Debate
• Lots of stuff from Uggabugga: ABC's handling of the debate, What a bunch of shitheads, One observation..., The reason..., Josh Marshall..., How about this question?, Stephanopoulos should lose his job, Words spoken
• AmericaBlog: Disastrous debate reprise
and Does ABC love America as much as you?
• Crooks & Liars: The reviews are in and Uh Oh...
• Daily Kos: Embarrassing and The Collapse Of The National Press
• Oliver Willis: ABC's Hannitized Debate
• One Good Move: The Debate
• Pam's House Blend: I did laundry... and Live from Rove Junior High School
• Pensito Review: Stephanoopoulos grilled...
• Scholars & Rogues: ABC Sinks...

UPDATES: Does giving up a college deferment and six years on active duty count as loving one's country?

A shameful night for the U.S. media