Finally the Anchorage Daily News decides to take notice of the Sarah Palin "Babygate" story.

OK - the Palin baby speculation is inescapable at this point. The left-leaning Daily Kos posted an item Friday called "Palin's faked "pregnancy"? Covering for teen daughter?"
It's a version of a rumor - long simmering in Alaska -- that Palin's daughter Bristol was pregnant and the governor somehow covered it up by pretending to have the baby (Trig) herself.

Then the also-left leaning Huffington Post slammed all the speculators saying that Democrats have plenty to target Palin on without the baby drama. "Guys, its a loser. Can we not do this?" writes Bart Motes. And then there's this from the Atlantic Web site , pursuing the questions.

So, time for some rumor patrol. It'd be nice to put this to bed.

The answer here should be pretty simple. It happened or it didn't. For months, we have been getting anonymous people telling us they "know" it's true, or people we do know telling us they've heard it fifth-hand. We haven't seen anything resembling proof. We asked the governor's office, and the governor, multiple times about it.

Here's a story we wrote soon after the birth. At that point, the questions were all about whether Palin should have flown back to Alaska to give birth. In the story, Palin's doctor talks about the labor and addresses questions raised at the time about Palin's decision to board a jet and fly to Alaska from Texas when she showed signs of early labor.

"The stage of her pregnancy was not apparent by observation," said the doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson. She said she induced labor once Palin was at the hospital.

What's the McCain campaign say? Nothing so far. I've called and e-mailed for an on-the-record response, but haven't heard back.

What's Palin's in-state spokesman, Bill McAllister say?

That it's not true. "The answer to that is no," he said.

"But beyond that, I don't know, why should we even have to say anything," he said.
McAllister was an Anchorage TV reporter before working for Palin. He said Palin once approached him - before people knew she was pregnant - assuming he'd been hearing rumors.
"She said it's not true about Bristol," McAllister said.

At the time, the rumor would have been that Palin's daughter was pregnant.
(Okay this part is very important. I had been hearing anecdotally that the rumors about Bristol Palin being pregnant happened BEFORE Sarah announced she was pregnant. This is the first official confirmation of that rumor. Now think about this scenario for a moment. There are rumors swirling that the daughter is pregnant. Then Sarah announces SHE is pregnant, which NOBODY on her staff seems to have noticed even though she is supposedly SEVEN MONTHS ALONG. Then she flies to Texas, where her she starts leaking amniotic fluid. Then she FLIES FROM TEXAS TO ALASKA ON A 12 HOUR FLIGHT, lands and drives for 45-60 more minutes to a small Wasilla hospital. Does ANY of that seem plausible? I am just asking.)

How does McAllister know it's not true?

"The governor's not a liar. That's the main reason. But also this would have to involve some sort of conspiracy with the hospital of Wasilla. They said she gave birth there. Is the doctor, the nurses ... are they all lying?" he said.

Why not share the birth certificate?

"What a thing to request -- prove that this is your baby," McAllister said. "I mean, my god, that's horrifying to think that she would have to do that."

I said one reason is to put it to rest.

"In my mind, there's nothing to put to rest," he said.

No, Alaska birth certificates are not public record. Meantime, this is all a plotline straight out of a recent season of Desperate Housewives.

Okay for the sake of argument, let's say Trig Palin really is Sarah's baby. But then we have to contend with these facts.

Even McCain did not want Palin for his running mate.

In the end, the choice of his running mate said more about Senator John McCain and his image of himself than it did about Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska whose selection has shaken up the presidential race.

For weeks, advisers close to the campaign said, Mr. McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat turned independent. But by the end of last weekend, the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that Mr. McCain would fill out the Republican ticket with Mr. Lieberman, a supporter of abortion rights, had become too intense to be ignored.

With time running out, and after a long meeting with his inner circle in Phoenix, Mr. McCain finally picked up the phone last Sunday and reached Ms. Palin at the Alaska State Fair. Although the campaign’s polling on Mr. McCain’s potential running mates was inconclusive on the selection of Ms. Palin — virtually no one had heard of her, a McCain adviser said — the governor, who opposes abortion, had glowing reviews from influential social conservatives.

You know I am almost beginning to feel sorry for John McCain.

He has to act all buddy buddy with George W. Bush , a man he clearly despised in 2000, just to get back into the good graces of the GOP.

Then he has to start kissing the asses of the Evangelicals (Who he also hates).

Then he has to do a compete 180 on every single political point of view he has ever held.

George Bush tax policy? For it now, against it then.

Drilling offshore? For it now, against it then.

The only one of his old opinions he can still brag about is his anti-abortion position. I mean the why the hell should John McCain care about the women anyway? Well except for Hillary Clinton and her supporters of course. Them he loves!

Which brings us to his most recent disappointment.

He wants his buddy Joe Lieberman as V.P., but he gets saddled with a know nothing, scandal ridden, Governor from a state that he barely even considers part of America.

And if that were not bad enough. There is an even bigger Sarah Palin scandal coming which is going to make John McCain wish he had never, ever decided to run for President again.

Oh yeah I feel bad for John McCain.

But I feel really good about the Democrat's chances in November.

Do these people even know who Jesus Christ was?

Todd Bentley has a long night ahead of him, resurrecting the dead, healing the blind, and exploding cancerous tumors. Since April 3, the 32-year-old, heavily tattooed, body-pierced, shaved-head Canadian preacher has been leading a continuous "supernatural healing revival" in central Florida. To contain the 10,000-plus crowds flocking from around the globe, Bentley has rented baseball stadiums, arenas and airport hangars at a cost of up to $15,000 a day. Many in attendance are church pastors themselves who believe Bentley to be a prophet and don't bat an eye when he tells them he's seen King David and spoken with the Apostle Paul in heaven. "He was looking very Jewish," Bentley notes.

Tattooed across his sternum are military dog tags that read "Joel's Army." They're evidence of Bentley's generalship in a rapidly growing apocalyptic movement that's gone largely unnoticed by watchdogs of the theocratic right. According to Bentley and a handful of other "hyper-charismatic" preachers advancing the same agenda, Joel's Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers.

"An end-time army has one common purpose -- to aggressively take ground for the kingdom of God under the authority of Jesus Christ, the Dread Champion," Bentley declares on the website for his ministry school in British Columbia, Canada. "The trumpet is sounding, calling on-fire, revolutionary believers to enlist in Joel's Army. ... Many are now ready to be mobilized to establish and advance God's kingdom on earth."

Joel's Army followers, many of them teenagers and young adults who believe they're members of the final generation to come of age before the end of the world, are breaking away in droves from mainline Pentecostal churches. Numbering in the tens of thousands, they base their beliefs on an esoteric reading of the second chapter of the Old Testament Book of Joel, in which an avenging swarm of locusts attacks Israel. In their view, the locusts are a metaphor for Joel's Army.

Now anybody who has ever visited this blog is undoubtedly aware that I am not a religious person. But I HAVE read the bible. As well as the I-Ching, the teachings of Buddha, the Tao Te Ching, and many other religious books.

There is no way that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament would EVER have condoned this kind of aggressive, military-like behavior.

These people are not true Christians. When people started learning of the radical extremists in the Muslim religion, many Christian churches called for the leaders in the Islamic religion to stand up and denounce the aggressive behavior of these extremists.

Now it is time for the Christian leaders to follow their own advice. It is what Jesus Christ would expect from them. And if you doubt that, I think there is a book you should probably read.

THIS is what a pregnant Sarah Palin looks like.

The link above is from 1989, when Palin did some on air news stories for KTVA News.

You can even tell she is pregnant by looking just at her face.

Yeah the new evidence pouring is is not doing anything to kill this particular story.

Gustav crashes the Republican party.

President Bush is unlikely to make it to the Republican National Convention, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may deliver his acceptance speech via satellite because of the historically huge hurricane threatening New Orleans, top officials said.

So after the Democrats put on the show of the century, peppered with speeches that will go down in history, the Republicans are hiding from the return of their past sins.

Call it God, Call it Karma, call it coincidence, but you cannot deny that SOMETHING is working against the GOP.

Daily Kos takes Sarah Palin Baby Story and runs with it!

What started as a snarky rumor has taken on a life of its own and is now a giant story that has gone viral all over the Internets.

Has Sarah Palin scrubbed her Wikipedia page?

Just 15 minutes after rumor of her selection broke, a Wikipedia editor discovered something interesting. Yesterday, thirty mostly favorable changes were made to Palin's Wikipedia biography.

The user making the changes was "Young Trigg." Trig happens to be the name of Sarah Palin's son.

The changes, all from a single source, included the addition of a quotation calling Palin "a politician of eye-popping integrity." The edits diminished a reference to Palin's participation in a beauty pageant and minimized a section about a controversy over whether Palin used her influence to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.

There have also been a bunch of photos of Sarah when she was supposed to have been pregnant taken off of the web, and some very pointed attacks coming into websites that have challenged Sarah's credibility on a number of issues.

And it is only one day after she was appointed! This is going to be a bumpy ride!

The Sarah Palin questions just keep on coming.

The link above goes to perhaps the most ticklish Sarah Palin story on the internet.

I have received numerous e-mails about this very topic but decided not to post it.

The site linked above has done a much more delicate and sensitive job then I could have done so I leave it to them to provide insights into this story.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert weigh in on John McCain's VP pick.

Hysterical!

McCain camp heading to Alaska to investigate Palin "Troopergate" scandal.

So let me get this straight.

The McCain campaign chose Sarah as his running mate without having vetted her enough to know that she has scandals brewing at home?

So did the McCain camp simply grab the first politician with a vagina and sign her up?

Is this an indication of how John McCain makes his decisions?

Oh that is way scary!

Sarah Palin's first nationally televised political speech.

I don't think that John McCain has ever appeared so old to me. He looks like Palin's great-grandfather!

As you can see Todd Palin has deep ties to the oil companies and a vested interest in seeing oil exploration continue in Alaska.

Sarah may seem like a breath of fresh air to people who are tired of seeing the same old white haired men leading the GOP. But make no mistake, she is simply bait to bring some of those disenfranchised women who are still angry that they cannot vote for Hillary Clinton over to the dark side. You can bet it is no accident that Palin sums up her speech by mentioning Hillary Clinton and her 18 million supporters.

But she is adamantly against a woman's right to choose, has advocated for Creationism to be taught alongside Evolution in our public schools, and fought to keep the Polar Bears from being added to the endangered species list so that it did not interfere with the Republicans crazed desire to drill all over Alaska's pristine wilderness.

Any woman who believes that Sarah Palin is a substitute for Hillary Clinton has either never really supported Hillary's political positions, or is simply too stupid to vote.

Update: Okay I just saw Keith repeat the same bit of misinformation about Sarah Palin's attempt to have the state trooper fired. The trooper in question is Mike Wooten, and he was married to Sarah's sister. He apparently tasered his 11 year old step son when the boy asked what it felt like. The boy was uninjured and was a willing participant. Wooten did NOT beat up Sarah Palin's sister! It has been claimed that he threatened to kill Sarah's father when he hired an attorney to fight Wooten in court for custody of their children. He also threatened to "bring Sarah down" politically.

But the thing that seems to have REALLY pissed Sarah and her family off, was when Wooten dared to show up at the Governor''s picnic with a DATE!

Sarah was not protecting her family from harm. She was trying to protect herself from embarrassment!

Sarah Palin rises to the top of McCain's VP list.

Well this is interesting.

It was not too long ago that I thought that if McCain chose Palin he would destroy Obama's slim chance of carrying our state and getting our 3 electoral points. But I have changed my mind about that recently.

You see Alaskans may be proud to have one of our own on the national ticket but I think even more of us will feel that Sarah is abandoning the state at a time when there are huge issues being dealt with.

With a gas pipeline still being worked out which many Alaskan are counting on to bring in some big revenue to the state, huge scandals still rocking Alaska's Republicans, and her Lt. Governor fighting tooth and nail to get Congressman Don Young's job, Sarah will leave the state without anybody at the rudder at the worst possible time. I mean who steps in if both Palin and Parnell are busy trying to get other jobs?

And if McCain believes Sarah Palin will help him to defeat Barack Obama and Joe Biden then he has lost his freaking mind.

Update: ABC News confirms it will be Sarah Plain. Holy shit!

Update part two: I am listening to the MSM try to flesh out Palin's biography. They are not getting everything right, but I am sure that will be straightened out as time goes on.

I do have one question for Palin supporters however. How will Sarah Palin's famous dislike for corruption jive with standing shoulder to shoulder with members of the most corrupt administration in American political history? What will Sarah have to say to Dick Cheney? George Bush? Or even new Bush acolyte John McCain?

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accuses America of staging conflict with Georgia to benefit John McCain's campaign.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi on Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

Putin said his defense officials had told him it was done to benefit a presidential candidate -- Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are competing to succeed George W. Bush -- although he presented no evidence to back it up.

"U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict," Putin said. "They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino blasted Putin's statements, saying they were "patently false."

This is not the first time the Russians have made this claim.

I was struck by how sudden this conflict seemed to happen, but I was even more surprised by how fast, and well prepared, the McCain camps response was to the event. They seemed to literally hit the ground running. They did not seem even a little bit confused about who had been the aggressor, or who was at fault. Isn't that interesting?

We have been lied to for the last eight years by the Republicans in power, and it is obvious that policy will continue if John McCain is elected President. And he will also continue to start wars, resulting in the deaths of potentially thousands of people, simply for political gain.

I feel blessesd to have witnessed history being made last night.

I have watched the amazing speeches of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, and read the text of speeched given by Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, and others. The question I always have is "did the people hearing that speech as it was being given know they were witnessing history?"

Now I know the answer.

Last night I watch history being made. I watched Barack Obama deliver possibly the greatest speech in American political history.

Obama stood in Mile High Stadium in Denver Colorado, which was packed with over 84,000 people, and gave the most inspiring speech that has been spoken since Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have dream" speech exactly 45 years ago.

It is my belief that ANYBODY who takes the time to listen to the speech will be inspired.

So do yourself and your country a favor and go to the post directly below this one and watch Barack Obama's speech. And then decide if you want to sit on the sidelines while history is being made, or if you would like to someday tell your children that you were one of the many thousands of patriotic Americans who helped wrest control of this country out of the hands of the criminals who had almost destroyed it and helped elect one of the greatest Presidents that this country has ever produced.

Here is Barack Obama's convention speech. Enjoy.

This was perhaps the best speech I have ever heard.

Barack made every important point that he had to make, and he made them with passion and conviction!

I have been disappointed by politicians in the past, but this feels so much different I almost cannot put it into words.

This is our time, and this is our President!

Update: I think some of the speech is missing. When I get the whole thing I will replace the one posted above.

Update 2: Okay it is now the full 43 minute speech.

Here is the video tribute to Barack Obama shown at the convention tonight. Give it a look, it was beautiful.

This is how the GOP fights Barack Obama's message of hope and prosperity?

If you are still a registered Republican you should hide your head in shame.

The man who helped John McCain to draft his health care plan says the solution is to change the definition of "uninsured". WTF!

This is a quote from John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. And the man who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy:

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

This is what the Republicans are famous for. They do not solve problems they simply work to redefine them. Where do you think the phrase "Partial birth abortion" comes from? Or "Tax and Spend Liberal"? Or "Catastrophic Success"? Or "Death tax"? Or the "War on Terrorism"?

If you think about the real definition of each phrase you realize it is complete gobbedly gook, but it still finds its way into our lexicon and the next thing you know even the Democrats start using them.

It is time for us to stop letting the Republicans destroy our language in an attempt to manipulate us into not noticing just how broken and empty their solutions really are.

Last night was full of great speeches. Here are Joe Biden's and Bill Clinton's in their entirety.

Both were great speeches, and Bill Clinton did a wonderful job of signaling his desire to help make Barack Obama the next President of the United States.

Jon Stewart and the Daily Show have a lot of fun with the friction at MSNBC. And then cap it off by comparing it to the Clinton/Obama tension.

Okay now that was funny.

Republican operative remarks about Joe Biden: "He’ll take McCain apart”

Some insiders are pressing McCain to make a strategic selection, one that beefs up his economic strength, enhances his chance to grab a state or amps up the partisan firepower.

“McCain knows Biden well. He knows how good he is as a knife fighter. He’ll take McCain apart,” said one Republican operative.

Well I was not too excited about watching Biden's speech, but now I would not miss it for the world!

Go get'em Joe!

I guess not everybody was impressed by Michelle Obama's speech on Monday.

A man who was angered by Michelle Obama's speech at Democratic National Convention was taken into custody after a six-hour standoff with SWAT team members, Pasco County authorities said.

Sheriff's office spokesman Kevin Doll said the man, whose name was not released, will undergo a psychological evaluation.

Doll said Monday night's standoff started after the man ran out of his RV, yelling and firing a gun.

The guy couldn't just send a heated letter to the editor or something?

I am going to go out on a limb here and say there was probably nothing Michelle Obama could have said to convince this guy to vote for Barack.

Get ready to rumble, Alaska style.

With 84% of the vote, Mark Begich has been chosen as the Democratic challenger to Senator Ted Stevens, who came away with 63% of the Republican vote.

Ethan Berkowitz will be the Democratic challenger, with 53% of the vote (just barely squeaking past fellow Democrat Diane Benson who earned an impressive 37% percent), to challenge Don Young, who had the closest race of the evening just barely nudging ahead of Sean Parnell, with a 45% to 45 % virtual tie.

So if things go the way the Alaskan Democrats are hoping, November will see both Mark Begich and Ethan Berkowitz heading off to Washington as the first Democrats to represent Alaska in the House or Senate since 1981.

And yes we are fired up and ready to go!

Barack Obama is now the official nominee of the Democratic party!!!

The wave of emotion that rushed through the crowd when Hillary cast those final votes was breathtaking.

Everywhere there are people in tears.

It is amazing.

Update: Below you can watch Hillary officially give the nomination to Obama.



Very classy move.

Easily the best thing on last night's Daily Show.

When Jon Oliver referred to these crazed Hillary supporters as children that rang so true in my mind that I literally sat up in my bed and said "Bingo".

And if you look carefully at the back row, second from the left, you can see the batshit crazy "Clintons for McCain" supporter who was featured in that insane exchange with Chris Matthews that I posted yesterday.

Hillary urges her followers to come home to the Democratic party and support Barack Obama.

I have had many mixed feelings about Hillary over the last year or so. And i ended up being very disappointed in her and Bill's selfishness. But last night Hillary did the right thing.

The right thing for her.

The right thing for the Democrats.

And the right thing for this country.

Yeah Barack and Michelle Obama are great speakers. But the star of the family may in fact be six year old Sasha Obama.

Sent. Barack Obama made a surprise appearance tonight at the Democratic National Convention - via video from a St. Louis home - after his wife's headline speech at the Pepsi Center.

Sasha Obama, on stage with her sister and her mother, Michelle Obama, took the opportunity to speak with her dad, saying, "Hi, Daddy!" to the giant video screen.

And after Obama said he was with the Gerardo family in St. Louis, she quickly piped up, "Hi, Gerardo family!"

When Barack Obama asked Sasha how she thought her mother's speech was, the little girl said, "I think she did good."

"I think so, too," Barack Obama said. The father and his girls then exchanged I love yous, and he said he'd see them on Thursday.

Right when most of us were becoming convinced that Michelle Obama had delivered a speech that could not be one upped by anybody, her youngest daughter came out on stage and stole America's heart with a few short sentences.

I was moved by Michelle Obama's words to be sure, but the Obama who may have secured Barack's ascension to the White House is very likely to be little Sasha.

Chris Matthews challenges "Clintons for McCain" supporter about information she says she has that proves Obama is unfit to be President.

The facts are that Obama went to a public school in Indonesia. Not a Muslim school.

He was registered as a Muslim because his step father identified himself as a Muslim and that is what they went by. But his step father was only an occasional visitor to the local mosque. And it appears that Barack and his mother were unaffiliated with any religion while he was a child.

I think that religion is a ridiculous yardstick to use to measure a candidates worthiness to be President. But if it were to be used then isn't the religion that he chose for himself as an adult, and raised his children to believe in, far more important then the ones he was exposed to when he was a child?

These women are not true Democrats and they are just looking for a reason not to vote for Obama. I guess they would rather be identified as religiously intolerant rather then racist.

John McCain's POW status officially jumped the shark on Jay Leno last night.

This almost looks like a parody that they might do on Saturday Night Live.

I almost cannot believe he is serious.

How can somebody take, what is a very impressive story of heroism, and turn it into a joke? John McCain will live to regret treating his POW experiences like a "get out of jail free" card to be used every time the questions get tough.

P.S. And yes I know the cool term is no longer "jump the shark". It is now "nuke the refrigerator". But I did not think most of my visitors would get that reference.

Michelle Obama's convention speech in full.

Now wipe your tears away and get ready to vote the most amazing couple in American politics into the White House.

Just think how great this country will be with Barack and Michelle Obama at the helm.

Oh you have got to see this new Obama ad!

I love it!

Jon Stewart eviscerates a bunch of televison reporters. And no "eviscerate" does not mean "made them laugh".

As Comedy Central's "Daily Show" descends on Denver for four days of coverage, Jon Stewart took after the "established" media for getting too cozy with candidates and regurgitating campaign spin when it comes to political coverage.

In a breakfast with reporters, Stewart directed most of his ire at the 24-hour cable news networks, which he called "gerbil wheels," and said the media at-large had "abdicated" to what he called the "slow-witted beast."

He said the never-ending television news cycle creates a "false sense of urgency" and forces reporters to "follow the veins that have been mined," instead of pursuing serious and in-depth reporting.

Even as Stewart shredded reporters for, in his estimation, getting too cozy with and used by political candidates, he readily admitted that candidates flock to his show to attract his much sought after younger audience. "It's just one part of their sales pitch," he said.

Stewart said politicians in recent campaigns are "animatronic" because all of the "humanity has been managed out of campaigns." He referenced the back-and-forth during the Pennsylvania Democratic primary over Obama's lack of bowling skills.

"It's stunning where this election is going to be decided on," he said. "Or what we allow it to be decided on."

I love Jon Stewart. And he is absolutely right in his condemnation of the 24 hours cable news programs. But I am making a mental note to never, ever, make him angry at me. The man can be vicious!

Report claims that women are being led to witchcraft by "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer".

The report claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their congregations over the past two decades because they feel the church is not relevant to their lives.

It says that instead young women are becoming attracted to the pagan religion Wicca, where females play a central role, which has grown in popularity after being featured positively in films, TV shows and books.

The study comes amid ongoing controversy over the role of women in all Christian denominations. Last month its governing body voted to allow women to become bishops for the first time, having admitted them to the priesthood in 1994, but traditionalist bishops have warned that hundreds of clergy and parishes will leave if the move goes ahead as planned.

The report's author, Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby, said: "In short, women are abandoning the church.

"Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Aww look at how cute Willow is in that picture. How could she be blamed for corrupting anybody?

You know every time anybody threatens to open the minds of Christians about other religions or philosophical beliefs they go on the attack and try to make them the villain. Well in my mind the villain is any organization that denies its followers the opportunity to learn about opposing points of view or the freedom in choosing their own religion.

By the way, and this is just between us, I LOVE Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I am a died in the wool geek when it comes to the show, and it is still the ONLY television series that I own on DVD. Yep all seven seasons worth. But if you tell anybody I will totally deny it.

Military is filled with broken soldiers, being forced to return to the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the weeks before Christmas last year, a brigade of battle-bruised soldiers left Colorado's Fort Carson for its third round of war in Iraq.

Sgt. Colin Barton was getting Botox shots in his forehead to kill the relentless pain from a brain injury. Army doctors said he should not wear a helmet — a safety requirement for the flight to Iraq. The Army sent him anyway.

Sgt. Joshua Rackley, recovering from his eighth knee surgery, was classified as permanently injured. The Army sent him anyway.

Master Sgt. Denny Nelson and Sgt. Joseph Smith didn't have time to recover from predeployment surgeries. Nelson hobbled with crutches; Smith wore a post-surgical boot.

Sgt. Tim Graham brought a sleep-apnea machine. Sgt. 1st Class Walter Overton had a shoulder injury and couldn't lift his gear. Spec. Joseph Leon was popping morphine pills to dull the nerve damage to his groin.

The Army sent them too.

Five years into the war in Iraq and six years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the Army is sending soldiers with physical and mental injuries back to war, at times overruling physicians' classifications of soldiers as "nondeployable."

Facing demands unprecedented in the history of the all-volunteer force, the Army has deployed soldiers with slings and crutches and some who need machines to help keep them alive through the night. Thousands are taking pain, sleep or antidepressant medication, with sometimes deadly consequences.

Much of this is the direct result of the "surge" that McCain continues to brag about on the campaign trail. I think that it is increasingly clear that John McCain cares little for the welfare of the soldiers, and will continue to sacrifice them to win some imaginary battle that he feels he is waging against the forces of darkness.

While the Iraqis and Bush administration hash out a long overdue plan for withdrawal, McCain continues to talk of "winning a war" that is for all intents and purposes already over.

I think it is clear to everyone, not running for President on a war strategy, that these brave men and women have sacrificed bravely for this country and they deserve to be given time to rest and heal. There is no telling when they may have to take up arms again to defend this nation, but I can tell you that it is much less likely with Barack Obama in the White House.

McCain continues to woo Clinton supporters and attempt to create division within the Democratic party. Will it work?

You know when I read things like this I always imagine what would have happened if the situation had been reversed? What if Obama had come up short? Would his strongest supporters, the African American community, have decided to vote for John McCain?

And the answer is, no. There would have been disappointment, anger, and the feeling that they had been cheated. Perhaps a number of them would have refused to even vote, but they would NEVER have decided to vote for John McCain!

Any Democrat that is so childish and short sighted as to vote for the Republican simply because their Democratic choice is not the nominee is simply a traitor to this country. No true patriot would ever allow the Republicans to continue pushing this nation into perpetual war, or support the continued erosion of our personal freedoms, or cast a vote for the party that has worked so hard to erode America's reputation in the eyes of the world.

ABC News isn't even pretending to be a legitimate news outlet anymore.

Group of protestors in Denver yell "F**k Fox News" while being filmed by Fox News. Video is NSFW even though it aired live on Fox.

Well there may have been a better way to get their point across, but I certainly cannot argue with their sentiment.

Maureen Dowd finally takes on the McCain trump card. His POW excuse.

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor who married Jenna Bush and who is part of a new Christian-based political action committee supporting Obama, recently criticized the joke McCain made at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally encouraging Cindy to enter the topless Miss Buffalo Chip contest. The McCain spokesman Brian Rogers brought out the bottomless excuse, responding with asperity that McCain’s character had been “tested and forged in ways few can fathom.”

When the Obama crowd was miffed to learn that McCain was in a motorcade rather than in a “cone of silence” while Obama was being questioned by Rick Warren, Nicolle Wallace of the McCain camp retorted, “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous.”

When Obama chaffed McCain for forgetting how many houses he owns, Rogers huffed, “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison.”

As Sam Stein notes in The Huffington Post: “The senator has even brought his military record into discussion of his music tastes. Explaining that his favorite song was ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba, he offered that his knowledge of music ‘stopped evolving when his plane intercepted a surface-to-air missile.’ ‘Dancing Queen,’ however, was produced in 1975, eight years after McCain’s plane was shot down.”

Nicely done.

I have noticed, along with many others, that McCain has been using his experiences as a Vietnam prisoner of war as a shield to block every single possible criticism.

At first it worked perfectly. If a reporter asked a question which questioned McCain's qualifications, he simply whipped out the POW card and the journalist simply slinked away and hoped no Republican blogger would eviscerate them for daring to insult a war hero.

But since McCain has used his POW status with such reckless abandon he has not only reduced it to an excuse for his every gaffe or mistake, but he is also in danger of making the experiences of other POW's into a joke

Could this be the start of a trend?

I have decided I can no longer be a registered Republican. For the first time in my life I announced my support for a Democratic candidate for the presidency, in February of this year. This was not an endorsement of the Democratic platform, nor was it a slap in the face to the Republican Party. It was an expression of support specifically for Senator Barack Obama. I had always intended to go back to party ranks after the election and work with my many dedicated friends and colleagues to help reshape the GOP, especially in the foreign-policy arena. But I now know I will be more effective focusing on our national and international problems than I will be in trying to reinvigorate a political organization that has already consumed nearly all of its moderate “seed corn.” And now, as the party threatens to trivialize what promised to be a serious debate on our future direction, it will alienate many young people who might have come into party ranks.

My decision came at the end of last week when it was demonstrated to the nation that McCain and this Bush White House have learned little in the last five years. They mishandled what became a crisis in the Caucusus, and this has undermined U.S. national security. At the same time, the McCain camp appears to be comfortable with running an unworthy Karl Rove–style political campaign. Will the McCain operation, and its sponsors, do anything to win?

This week, I changed my registration from Republican to independent. The two political parties as they exist today, and the partisanship that they foster, reflect the many fights of the cold war, the Vietnam era, the post–cold war and the 9/11 periods. Today we are in a different place altogether, where our security as a nation is challenged not just from abroad but also close to home. The energy, health-care and financial crises threaten our national prosperity and well-being, just as surely as any confrontation overseas or an attack by radical terrorists.

For years I was an Independent. I could not see myself joining either political party because i found them both to be totally corrupt.

But that was before the Republicans elected George W. Bush and revealed themselves to be completely out of their damn minds! That was when i became a Democrat so that it would be crystal clear which side I was on and how I was going to vote from now on.

No more occasional votes for a "different kind of Republican". No more simply voting for the Senator who always wins anyway. No now it was more then just simple styles of government we were choosing. We are choosing the very fate of our country. And currently that is not safe in the hands of the Republicans.

The summer of the Grizzly continues. This time the bear loses.

The male bear came out of the woods from one of Anchorage’s many greenbelts. It was struck on the Seward Highway near Cal Worthington Ford. The collision pushed in the front end of Hawkins’ Land Rover. The vehicle’s air bags deployed, but Hawkins was uninjured.

“The poor animal just came from nowhere,” he said.

He called 911 and got out of his car to await police. The bear, now angry and in a lot of pain with a broken leg, was behind the Land Rover stumbling around, roaring and growling.

Officers arrived within minutes and advised Hawkins to get back in his vehicle; he did.
At one point, the bear charged the officers, police spokesman Paul Honeman said.

The grizzly made its way off the road and back into the woods, where officers found it and killed it.

I have lived here all of my life. I have dodged more moose then I can count in and around Anchorage. But I have NEVER seen a bear on the roads.

About twenty years ago we had a bear in town that got chased along the streets by a bunch of people who were being egged on by a radio station which kept giving updates on the bears' location. That bear also ended up dead.

This is the strangest summer for bears that I have ever experienced. There are way more, they are way more aggressive, and for some reason they seem to be getting bolder.

This is a sad summer for bears, and a frightening one for Anchorage citizens.

Random thought of the day.

Voting machines in Ohio contain critical programming error.

A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges.

The problem was identified after complaints from Ohio elections officials following the March primary there, but the logic error that is the root of the problem has been part of the software for 10 years, said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.

The flawed software is on both touch screen and optical scan voting machines made by Premier and the problem with vote counts is most likely to affect larger jurisdictions that feed many memory cards to a central counting database rapidly.

We have these exact same machines in Alaska.

I have already written a letter to the editor about this problem and how important it is to change out these machines to insure the integrity of our elections.

The fact that we still have these machines in the system after eight years of reported glitches is a criminal act, and the blame should land firmly on the shoulders of the Republicans who are in charge of the voting in not only Ohio and Alaska, but also many other states which also have these machines just waiting to be tampered with by those who want to steal our democracy right out from under our noses.

Until this serious problem is addressed we CANNOT trust the integrity of our election process.

The Associate Press says that Joe Biden is Obama's VP pick!

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware is Barack Obama's pick as vice presidential running mate, The Associated Press has learned.

Biden, 65, is a veteran of more than three decades in the Senate, and one of his party's leading experts on foreign policy, an area in which polls indicate Obama needs help in his race against Republican rival John McCain.

The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.

I post this with some trepidation just in case it turns out to be another red herring.

But hey if I am wrong we can just blame the AP.

Update: CNN confirms it here.

New Obama music video. American Prayer.

Beautiful!

But this is still my favorite of all time.

Joe Biden or not Joe Biden. That is the question of the day.

So all day long the MSM has been straining against their choke collars in a desperate attempt to find out who Obama's running mate will be.

I heard we were going to hear it at any moment at six o'clock this morning'

I heard the same thing at one o'clock this after noon.

And again just now.

Obviously NOBODY has any idea as to when we will learn.

So then the next question is WHO?

Hillary? Nope did not even get vetted.

Bayh? No but somebody made up some fake Obama/Bayh bumper stickers in Kansas to fuck with people.

Tim Kain? Kathleen Sebelius? Probably not.

Which leaves us with Joe Biden. EVERYBODY thinks it will be Joe Biden.

Howard Fineman thinks it going to be him.

Davis Brooks thinks it is going to be him.

Hell even his colleagues think he is the one.

And you know what? Obama could do a hell of a lot worse then choosing Senator Joe Biden.

I certainly hope we find out soon, because the suspense is killing me.

The bad economy has convinced some teachers to stop having sex with their students for free and to start selling it to strangers instead.

A Cleveland High School teacher, in Houston, Texas was charged with prostitution after meeting a man in an online chat room and soliciting him in a downtown Houston hotel.

Police said Laurie Ann Lewis, 38, was arrested Tuesday at the Four Seasons in an undercover sting.

Investigators said Lewis agreed to meet her client at the hotel as an escort.

She was arrested after asking for $300 to perform a sexual act, police said.

I have to wonder how a teacher can encourage their students to study hard so that they can have a good future when this is the result of achieving a four year degree. I know a lot of teachers who have part time jobs on the side, but this is a little extreme.

This may sound odd but I kind of hope that this teacher did this more for a sexual thrill then because she simply needed the money. Because that would be a very sad thing indeed.

If John McCain is elected he will work to keep veterans from receiving the outstanding medical attention that he himself received.

On the campaign trail, the Republican's presumptive nominee has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals -- in other words, an end to the kind of universal health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations.

"We need to relieve the burden on the VA from routine health care," McCain told the National Forum on Disability Issues last month. "If you have a routine health care need, take it wherever you want, whatever doctor or health care provider and get the treatment you need, while we at the VA focus our attention, our care, our love, on these grievous wounds of war."

The Republican senator argues that giving veterans a VA card that they can use at private doctors would shorten the long wait times many veterans face in seeing government doctors, who are nearly universally viewed as among the best in the world.

A recent study by the RAND Corporation found that "VA patients were more likely to receive recommended care" and "received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow up" than that delivered by other U.S. health care providers.

Virtually all veterans groups oppose McCain's plan. The Veterans of Foreign Wars' national legislative director has said the VA card would "undermine the entire system".

You know occasionally I receive comments telling me I am not honoring John McCain's service and that I should treat him like the war hero that he is.

Well how can I be expected to honor John McCain when he is talks about his unwavering support for our military while he is planning to stab them in the back?

This plan would mean that the V.A. could turn away patients that they deem unqualified for their services and send them to other medical providers who may not completely understand the kinds of problems that these brave men and women may be suffering with. Like PTSD, or Gulf War Syndrome, or unusual allergies, or even the side effects of a chemical attack.

Does anybody really believe that your local family doctor is going to know what to do in those circumstances? Of course not.

John McCain is slowly being revealed to be one of the biggest hypocrites that this country has ever produced. Perhaps that is why he became so much more comfortable with George Bush and his cronies, after he got to know them better. Clearly they have much in common.

Great Republicans in history.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology says that WTC 7 collapsed due to "thermal expansion" which is a previously unheard of phenomenon.

According to a federal agency report released Thursday, a "new phenomenon" known as thermal expansion was directly responsible for the mysterious collapse of World Trade Center 7 on Sept. 11, 2001.

This study, posed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- a federal scientific agency which promotes technical industrial standards -- marks the first 'official' government theory on the collapse.

The building's demise occurred some seven hours after the twin towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, and has been the source of numerous conspiracy theories key to the "9/11 Truth" movement, most of which argue that the symmetrical, seven-second collapse was brought about by a controlled demolition.

Dr. Shyam Sunder, director of Institute's building and fire research laboratory, oversaw the government's three-year research efforts. The report aims to disprove the controlled demolition argument.

So this institute is going to put to rest all of the conspiracy theorists by using a previously unknown phenomenon to explain the collapse of tower 7? Oh yeah that should totally put this controversy to rest!

However, Richard Gage, founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and a member of the American Institute of Architects, doesn't believe a word of the theory.

"Tons of [molten metal] was found 21 days after the attack," said Gage in an interview with a Vancouver, Canada television station. "Steel doesn't begin to melt until 2,700 degrees, which is much hotter than what these fires could have caused."

"There are holes in this story that you can drive a truck through," Gage added during the press conference. His group asserts that thermite, a steel cutting agent, was used to bring the building down.

Dr. Sunder disagreed.

"We conducted the study without bias, without interference from anyone," said Dr. Sunder. "We have only one single-minded goal in this effort."

While the Institute said it considered the possibility of a controlled demolition taking place at WTC 7, the notion was dismissed due to the absence of any recordings of an explosion sound.
(By the way if you want to hear the exposive sound that Dr. Sunder says did not occur then simply click here.)

Thermite, however, does not make an explosion sound. And while this was raised to Dr. Sunder in the media's Q&A session, he dismissed it as impossible.

"FEMA found it," said Gage. "Dr. Steven Jones found it, in the dust that landed in the entire area of lower Manhattan. And he finds it in the chunks of previously molten metal [from the towers]."

Specifically, in Appendix C of its World Trade Center Building Performance Study, FEMA claimed:

Evidence of a severe high temperature corrosion attack on the steel, including oxidation and sulfidation with subsequent intergranular melting, was readily visible in the near-surface microstructure. A liquid eutectic mixture containing primarily iron, oxygen, and sulfur formed during this hot corrosion attack on the steel... The severe corrosion and subsequent erosion of Samples 1 and 2 are a very unusual event. No clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified.

Yet, no study of the mysterious sulfur or melted steel was included in the NIST report.

If the institute cannot answer the question of the molten metal found in the basement of all three towers then this so called "explanation" explains absolutely nothing. In my opinion this is still an ongoing mystery that will never be solved with the Bush administration actively engaged in a cover up.

McCain's war has fizzled out. It is time for "terrorism" to rear its ugly head to help the Republicans get elected.

John McCain's campaign office in Denver, Colorado, has received a letter containing a threat and "an amount of white powder in it," a McCain campaign spokesman told CBS News'

Michelle Levi. "We immediately notified local and federal law enforcement agencies and are looking to cooperate with them," McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky said.

This has got to be the most pathetic attempt to scare the voting public that I have ever seen.

Look Bruce Ivins committed suicide so who is the McCain campaign going to blame this on? Iran? Russia? The Democrats?

Sure it could just be a prankster not affiliated with either campaign but if I had money to bet, I would bet that it will lead right back to somebody working on the McCain campaign.

US and Iraq to agree on setting timetable for withdrawal of troops. That's right "timetables"!

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday that U.S. and Iraqi officials agree that timetables should be set for a U.S. troop withdrawal, but conceded that nailing down a broader pact on future relations is difficult.

Appearing together at a news conference, Rice and Zebari also mutually asserted that a final agreement between Washington and Baghdad on a a broad document spelling out the nature of any future U.S. troop presence and Washington-Baghdad relations is close to fruition, but not yet complete.

"We have agreed that some goals, some aspirational timetables for how that might unfold, are well worth having in such an agreement," Rice told reporters after meeting with Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The two sides had come together on a draft agreement earlier this week and Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad to press officials there to complete the accord.

This is one of the most bizarre things about the McCain campaign.

While the news about withdrawing troops and establishing timetables is dominating the news, he is still talking about "winning the war" and "how the surge is working".

Does John McCain not have access to a newspaper? I mean I know he cannot work his computer to search for pertinent news items but surely he may have overheard one of the cable networks discussing this new direction.

And if we are all done killing Iraqis which war does John McCain talk about winning? He has already established the majority of his credibility around his ability to win wars, but with no wars to win what does he run on?

He tried to start some shit with Iran and Russia but could not get traction there. So essentially John McCain is the "war candidate" looking for a war.

I can't say that makes me feel very secure.

Kick ass new Obama ad.

John McCain owns seven houses? Damn!

My bank currently owns the one I am living in.

But I think I have completely purchased half of one of the bedrooms so far. So obviously John McCain and I have a lot in common. Or not so much.

If John McCain becomes President he will reinstate the draft!

The video is on You Tube and as we all know You Tube does not lie.

So if you are a young person between 18 and 25 years old you do not want John McCain to ever be President.

If you are a parent of a male child between 18 and 25 you do not want John McCain to be President.

And if you are an intelligent sentient being, you do not want John McCain to be President.

Is that clear enough for you?

Ted Stevens trial will NOT be moved to Alaska. You know what that means don't you kids? Ted Stevens is going to jail!

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan decided today that the trial will stay in the nation's capital and continue on its accelerated schedule. The judge offered to take Fridays off during the trial so that Stevens could travel to Alaska to campaign on the weekends, but Stevens lawyer Brendan Sullivan was lukewarm to the idea, especially if it meant a slower path to a verdict.

Well the good thing about this decision is that Uncle Ted will not be able to stack the jury to decide in his favor.

The bad thing is that I won't be able to be in the courtroom the minute the judge gives Stevens the guilty verdict and his head explodes in anger.

I wonder if he will wear his Incredible Hulk tie on that day?

Scott McClellan finally gives voice to what the Republicans fear most about an Obama Presidency.

[W]hen asked what advice he would give to a President Barack Obama or Democratic Congress on the matter of handling former Bush officials, McClellan speaks now of the perils of probing the past.

“If Obama were to win,” he said last week, “that would be an issue his administration would have to face early ... because he’s pledging to be a uniter, not a divider — without saying those exact words we campaigned on in 2000. He’s pledging to change the way Washington works, and if Congress were to pursue that, it would be very divisive.”

He continued: “That could be very problematic for his presidency right off the start.”

Have I said how much I just love Scott McClellan? He is the gift that just keeps on giving.

And this is why EVERY American SHOULD vote for Barack Obama, and why the Republican party is desperate to stop him.

If you believe that America is about truth and justice, then you should want the Bush administration to be investigated as thoroughly as possible. It is only in that way that we can start to bring integrity back to this country.

You can bet your ass that John McCain's plan is to cover up EVERY crime ever committed by this criminal regime so that the Republicans can cling to power and continue to treat this nation like their own personal playground.

John McCain claims his Vietnamese captors were homosexuals. Is gay torture worse then regular torture?

Time and time again it comes up in his stump speeches, campaign commercials and discussions on faith. And for good reason: the Arizona Senator's tale of torture and patriotism captured a nation back in 1973, when he was finally released after almost six years in Vietnamese captivity. McCain became a bit of a - dare we say it - celebrity, and even penned a first hand account of his experience for US News & Report.

In the piece, McCain explains his relationship to his captors, some of whom he claims were gay:

In other words, if you are going to make it, you get tougher as time goes by. Part of it is just a transition from our way of life to that way of life. But you get to hate them so bad that it gives you strength.

Now I don't hate them any more—not these particular guys. I hate and detest the leaders. Some guards would just come in and do their job. When they were told to beat you they would come in and do it. Some seemed to get a big bang out of it. A lot of them were homosexual, although never toward us. Some, who were pretty damned sadistic, seemed to get a big thrill out of the beatings.

Hmmm. One has to wonder why this was an important distinction for John McCain to have made. So perhaps being held captive and tortured for five years is not impressive enough to your military pals, but if you say they were also possibly butt-bandits, well damn that scares the hell out of your testosterone infused Navy buddies.

And if they did not go all gay on John McCain or his fellow prisoners then how did he know?

Did they suddenly suck in their breath when McCain took off his shirt? Did they torture him by tweezing his eyebrows? Did they play show tunes while they were administering the beatings? I mean what the hell was it?

Or could it be that John McCain, like many uber conservative assholes, used homosexuality as a measurement of a certain level of depravity. In other words being beaten, starved, and put into a sweat box is a horrible experience. But being touched by a fag is infinitely worse.

John McCain, hating fags since 1973!

Surprisingly there is somebody who is not an Alaskan who believes that Ted Stevens is innocent.

Most people assume, or have concluded, that Sen. Ted Stevens is guilty. After all, didn't a D.C. grand jury indict Mr. Stevens on seven felony counts? Haven't the U.S. government and its federal prosecutors concluded that Mr. Stevens failed to disclose taking more than $250,000 worth of gifts on his Senate financial-disclosure forms?

Yep. Case closed and thanks for agreeing that Uncle Ted is guilty, guilty, guilty.

Oh wait, you don't agree with that?

Okay I will save you the pain of having to read through this pathetic attempt by Mr. Davis to suggest that Stevens is innocent simply because in the past other individuals have been accused of crimes and have been found innocent.

It is a ridiculous argument and to be honest it seemed that Mr. Davis did not have his heart in really trying to defend our embattled Alaskan Senator.

I wondered what would compel somebody to put on paper a defense that they clearly did not have much faith in. And then I read this: Lanny Davis is a prominent Washington lawyer and a political analyst for Fox News.

So FOX News paid him to write something positive about Ted Stevens. I wonder if they feel they got their money's worth?

Rachel Maddow will replace Dan Abrams at MSNBC.

Just in time for the closing rush of the presidential election, MSNBC is shaking up its prime-time programming lineup, removing the long-time host –- and one-time general manager of the network — Dan Abrams from his 9 p.m. program and replacing him with Rachel Maddow, who has emerged as a favored political commentator for the all-news cable channel.

The moves, which were confirmed by MSNBC executives Tuesday, are expected to be finalized by Wednesday, with Mr. Abrams’s last program on Thursday. After MSNBC’s extensive coverage of the two political conventions during the next two weeks, Ms. Maddow will begin her program on Sept. 8.

Well personally I really like Rachel Maddow and I am sure I will enjoy her new show.

But if MSNBC felt like replacing a show why did they choose Abrams show, which I can stomach occasionally, and not David Gregory's "Race for the White House", which is a total piece of crap?

Imagine how liberating it will feel to have a President who is not a national disgrace.

We have sent to the Olympics the greatest athletes that America has to offer. And accompanying them is the biggest embarrassment America has ever produced.

I must give a hat tip to Crooks and Liars from where I "borrowed" this picture.

Keith Olbermann turns the power of his Special Comments on John McCain.

How can you act as cheerleader for continuing a war that you yourself claimed was over?

As usual Keith does a great job of cutting through the bullshit and finding the sparkling hidden truth beneath.

Which is unfortunate for Senator McCain.

McCain campaign complains of MSNBC bias toward Obama. FOX News stands off to the side looking at the ceiling and whistling.

So the McCain campaign is getting upset because the media love affair with the so called "maverick" is slowly coming to a close and they are starting to be treated like every other candidate. Time to start point the finger of blame, and it seems that Andrea Mitchell is the first target.

August 17, 2008
Mr. Steve Capus
President, NBC News
30 Rockefeller PlazaNew
York, NY 10112

Steve:

We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain.

Nowhere was this more evident than with NBC chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell's comments on "Meet the Press" this morning. In analyzing last night's presidential forum at Saddleback Church, Mitchell expressed the Obama campaign spin that John McCain could only have done so well last night because he "may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama." Here are Andrea Mitchell's comments in full:

Mitchell: "The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 8/17/08)

Make no mistake: This is a serious charge. Andrea Mitchell is repeating, uncritically, a completely unsubstantiated Obama campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated in last night's forum at Saddleback Church. Instead of trying to substantiate this blatant falsehood in any way, Andrea Mitchell felt that she needed to repeat it on air to millions of "Meet the Press" viewers with no indication that 1.) There's not one shred of evidence that it's true; 2.) In his official correspondence to both campaigns, Pastor Rick Warren provided both candidates with information regarding the topic areas to be covered, which Barack Obama acknowledged during the forum when asked about Pastor Warren's idea of an emergency plan for orphans and Obama said, "I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a great idea;" 3.) John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot.

Indeed, instead of taking a critical journalistic approach to this spin, Andrea Mitchell did what has become a pattern for her of simply repeating Obama campaign talking points.

This is irresponsible journalism and sadly, indicative of the level of objectivity we have witnessed at NBC News this election cycle. Instead of examining the Obama campaign's spin for truth before reporting it to more than 3 million NBC News viewers, Andrea Mitchell simply passed along Obama campaign conspiracy theories. The fact is that during Senator Obama's segment at Saddleback last night, Senator McCain was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green room with no broadcast feed. In the forum, John McCain clearly demonstrated to the American people that he is prepared to be our next President.....

We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC's lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about the news standards and level of objectivity at NBC.

Sincerely,


Rick Davis
Campaign Manager
John McCain 2008

Does the McCain campaign really want to have this discussion? Fine.

How about we launch a non partisan investigation into how MSNBC covers the candidates while at the same time doing a parallel investigation of how FOX News covers the candidates. Hell let's throw in CNN, CBS, and ABC in there as well.

What does the John McCain and his cronies think such an investigation will prove? Do they seriously think that MSNBC will be the one that shows prejudice? Hell no.

So STFU McCain, you hypocritical son of a bitch! You and every other person with half of a brain know that FOX NEWS is the Republican party personal propaganda machine. So stop acting like a petulant child and deal with the fact that not everybody buys your straight talking bullshit!

Garry Trudeau sums up John McCain's main problem in one comic strip panel.

Obama raises 7.8 million in just one night!

Democrat Barack Obama piled up nearly eight million fundraising dollars in a single lucrative night, as anticipation built over his looming choice of White House running mate.

"I will win, don't worry about that," Obama told a crowd of 1,300 people at a fundraiser Sunday night in California, one of three back-to-back events which netted a staggering 7.8 million dollars, his campaign said.

I think that the ability to raise almost eight million dollars in a single night is a pretty good indication of your chances in an election.

McCain claims to support the troops, but who do the troops support?

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.

McCain can talk all he wants about how dedicated the troops are to "winning" the war in Iraq. But this information definitely demonstrates that the soldiers want to come home and they will support the candidate that will make that happen.

Here is an ad that reminds us of the differences between the old "Maverick" McCain and the McCain of now.

I bet when the Republicans encouraged the Georgians to start this conflict that this was not the outcome they were hoping for.

Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate for White House hopeful Barack Obama, said on Saturday he would visit Georgia this weekend.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, said he had been asked to go to Georgia by President Mikheil Saakashvili for talks over the conflict with Russia.

"I am going to Georgia this weekend to get the facts first-hand and to show my support for Georgia's people and its democratically-elected government," said Biden in a statement.

I hope when Biden gets down there he can get the straight facts as to just what the Georgians were thinking when they attacked South Ossetia and if they were encouraged to do so.

I find it humorous that while McCain sends his two lap dog Senators, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham, to the area to show that he is on top of the situation that the Georgian President requests the presence of Democrat Joe Biden to actually help solve the dilemma.

And does this mean the Saakashvili is less then impressed with what Condi Rice was able to achieve with her visit?

The worst question a Democratic candidate can be asked in front of a religious crowd.

Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”

He went on to reiterate his view that it was important to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who followed Obama onto the stage of the nationally televised event, was more blunt and more emphatic.

He said a baby’s human rights began “at the moment of conception … I have a 25-year pro-life record.”

When I heard this question posed to Obama I quite literally wanted to yell "Get out of there Barack, it's a trap!" I watched Obama struggle to answer one of the most complicated and emotion packed questions in all of politics, and I felt just as uncomfortable as I know he did under the gaze of that impassioned pro-life crowd.

There was just no way he could give an answer that would receive even one clap from that crowd. I guess it is to Rick Warren's credit that there were no "boos" being picked up by the microphones.

And then John McCain takes the stage and gives the Republican party line without any qualification or clarification. "Life begins at conception", next question. It is quick, it is clean, and it is arguably incorrect. But McCain is not trying to get the support of the PHD crowd, he is looking for support from the under educated, emotional, and faith based crowd. These people do not care about facts or science, they only care about what they believe to be true. What they are told by their religious leaders to be true.

Well it may confuse people to hear that as a flaming liberal I am not pro-abortion. To be honest I am pro-life, and that extends to doing away with the death penalty and providing support for other countries where life is fragile indeed. It may confuse people even more to learn that MOST liberals are pro-life and not pro-abortion. I have never talked to ANYBODY who wanted there to be more abortions in this country.

What I am is pro-choice and pro-education. I want our population to be educated on how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. But if they are unsuccessful in that endeavor I do not feel I have the right to tell them what to do with their body or the life growing inside of them. My emotions say they should keep it. But the practical side of me, who has worked with many children with physical and emotional damage, believes that not ALL babies should be brought to term. I know that sounds harsh, but if you had seen the children that I have worked with you may also secretly wish that they did not have to suffer through a life that causes them some level of pain almost every single day.

So though I am indeed pro-life I am also pro-choice, and with proper education about nutrition, preventing FAS, avoiding preventable birth defects, and proper parenting techniques, we can work together to raise happy, healthy children who will someday be productive American citizens.

Of course the above is just my opinion. It is based on my life experiences, but I would never suggest that my opinion is infallible. Some of these opinions may shift slightly based on new information or new life experiences. That is the beauty of an open mind and a flexible intellect.

And I want a candidate who struggles with an issue as complicated as abortion, or the death penalty, or when it is the right time to declare war. I am not comfortable with a candidate who declares certainty on issues that confound some of the greatest minds of our generation.

That is how impulsive, dangerous decisions are reached. The evidence of that can be found in the entire eight years of the Bush administration.

Update: Here is an example of just how far the so called "Pro-Choice" movement will go to vilify anybody who disagrees with them.

Is Jon Stewart the most trusted man on television? Well duh!

While the show scrambled in its early years to book high-profile politicians, it has since become what Newsweek calls “the coolest pit stop on television,” with presidential candidates, former presidents, world leaders and administration officials signing on as guests. One of the program’s signature techniques — using video montages to show politicians contradicting themselves — has been widely imitated by “real” news shows, while Mr. Stewart’s interviews with serious authors like Thomas Ricks, George Packer, Seymour Hersh, Michael Beschloss and Reza Aslan have helped them and their books win a far wider audience than they otherwise might have had.

Most important, at a time when Fox, MSNBC and CNN routinely mix news and entertainment, larding their 24-hour schedules with bloviation fests and marathon coverage of sexual predators and dead celebrities, it’s been “The Daily Show” that has tenaciously tracked big, “super depressing” issues like the cherry-picking of prewar intelligence, the politicization of the Department of Justice and the efforts of the Bush White House to augment its executive power.

For that matter, the Comedy Central program — which is not above using silly sight gags and sophomoric sex jokes to get a laugh — has earned a devoted following that regards the broadcast as both the smartest, funniest show on television and a provocative and substantive source of news. “The Daily Show” resonates not only because it is wickedly funny but also because its keen sense of the absurd is perfectly attuned to an era in which cognitive dissonance has become a national epidemic. Indeed, Mr. Stewart’s frequent exclamation “Are you insane?!” seems a fitting refrain for a post-M*A*S*H, post-“Catch-22” reality, where the surreal and outrageous have become commonplace — an era kicked off by the wacko 2000 election standoff in Florida, rocked by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and haunted by the fallout of a costly war waged on the premise of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist.

I have mentioned before that without Jon Stewart finding the funny in things that are truly frightening in the world around me I am not sure I would have been able to hang onto my sanity. That may be overstating things, but not by as much as you may think.

My two favorite, and most trusted, sources of news are the great Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart.

Every night before I drift off to sleep I watch the Daily Show, gently touching myself as Jon and his team of geniuses create magic out of the garbage that fell out of the cable news channels all day.

So is Jon Stewart the most trusted man on television? You betcha!

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is in the Comic!

Hurricane Fay visits the Dominican Republic.

My ex-mother in law is named Fay.

From my past experiences I would advise the Dominican people to RUN!!!!! RUN LIKE YOUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT!!!

Today marks first joint appearance by McCain and Obama. Set your TIVO kids.

The political spotlight will shine on Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama Obama on Saturday night, when the two candidates will face tough questions focused on personal values, presidential leadership and international affairs.

The Rev. Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book "The Purpose-Driven Life," will spend an hour interviewing each candidate at his 20,000-member Saddleback mega-church in southern California.

On Thursday's "Situation Room," Warren said he won't play the role of a political pundit, or ask "gotcha" questions, but rather tackle four areas of interest: the role of the presidency in government, leadership, the candidates' world view and America's role internationally.

Now usually I would not be a big fan of this particular type of forum, except that I know Obama will dominate John McCain in this event.

McCain will struggle to answer the questions without doing any damage to his tenuous support from the evangelicals. But Obama, who has actually read the bible, can only improve his approval ratings with the bible thumpers. Once he stands up there and starts speaking with that Sunday morning preacher cadence of his he is going to bring those true believers over to his side in droves.

Those wing nut "Left Behind" authors say Obama is not the Anti-Christ. Oh like that really helps!

If it wasn't for these Christian snake oil salesmen, there wouldn't be anybody outside of an insane asylum who would even think that Obama WAS the freaking Anti-Christ!

In other words don't set my house on fire and then offer to call 9-11.

Assholes!

Russia claims that United States is responsible for the Russia-Georgia conflict. Damn I love a good conspiracy theory!

Russians were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the United States.

“George Bush's Administration is promoting interests of candidate John McCain,” said Dr Markov. “Defeated by Barak Obama on all fronts, McCain has one last card to play yet - the creation of a virtual Cold War with Russia . . . Bush himself did not want a war in South Ossetia but his Republican Party did not leave him any choice.” The Americans were now engineering an armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Dr Markov added.


Now usually I would take any conspiracy theories from Russia with a ginormous grain of salt, but if i have to choose between believing them or the Bush administration? Well....

Besides Russia is not alone in making this claim.

The LA Times does not disagree with them completely.

Neither does my friend over at Watergate Summer.

The same sentiment can be found here.

You can even see a cartoon about it below.

The Iraqis have decided that the Iraq war is over, we are losing in Afghanistan, and Bin Laden's cabdriver only received a minimal sentence. Who can the Republicans use to scare us into voting for John McCain?

Fear of Russia kept us voting for Republicans and building up our military for decades, so I believe the neo-cons went back to the bogeyman of their youth.

Unfortunately for them, in this age of instant communication the Russians proved far too capable of getting their side of the story out to the world. Then the Georgians crumbled under the great might of the Russian military with barely a whimper. And the majority of Americans were too worn out from the Iraqi conflict to get too worked up about another war. What if you gave a war an nobody showed up?

In other words this is an example of another Republican epic-fail. And it shows that they are getting desperate. And that is a little scary.

Update: Now the Bush administration is actually taking credit for brokering a peace between Georgia and Russia. Damn who in that administration has that kind of balls? Oh Condi, I should have known.

Son of Update: Apparently this 12 year old girls knows who started the conflict as well. And she says it to American audiences on FOX NEWS! Listen for Shepard Smith mumbling to himself and trying to figure out some way to get the girl and her aunt off his damn show!

Federal prosecutors reveal more of the dirt that they have on Senator Ted Stevens.

Federal prosecutors offered a glimpse of previously unseen evidence against U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in new court filings Thursday, including allegations that Stevens used insider help to turn a secret $5,000 investment in a Florida condo development into more than $100,000 in quick profits.

The government also dismissed assertions by Stevens that his conduct was shielded by the constitution as a member of Congress, citing nine examples of Stevens' "errands" and requests involving Veco that had nothing to do with protected lawmaking.
Among them: an intercepted telephone call in which Stevens discusses how his son Ben, then the state Senate President, planned to push a bill favored by the oil industry as a prelude to gas development.

The new filings go substantially further than the indictment handed up against Stevens last month charging him with seven counts of failing to disclose gifts from 1999 through 2006. Most of the alleged gifts were from the former Alaska-based oil field service company Veco and its politically active chairman, Bill Allen. Allen and Veco vice president Rick Smith have pleaded guilty to bribing elected officials and are working with government prosecutors and are expected to testify at Stevens' trial, tentatively scheduled to start with jury selection Sept. 22.

So what new and decidely tasty new morsels are revealed about Uncle Ted's ethical lapses?

The allegations concerning the Florida condo emerged in another document filed electronically by prosecutors Wednesday night, hours after the court clerk closed for the day. That document also alleges that Stevens sought jobs from Veco for a son and a grandchild and a new Jeep Cherokee for his daughter Lily in 2005.

Hmm so far I have to say that the governments case is not very impressive. I mean sure they have a few small ethical violations and financial hanky panky, but none of it will lead any longtime Alaskan to feel any great sense of outrage.

For the FBI's sake I hope there is more. But if there is not, they better make damn sure this trial is not held in Alaska. Because my friends not only will Stevens beat the rap, but he will undoubtedly win financial compensation for having his character impugned by the Feds. And you can take that to the bank.

Ellen Degeneres will marry the goddess Portia de Rossi. Noooo!!

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, 35, will wed this weekend in California, Usmagazine.com has learned exclusively.

The pair are planning a small, intimate ceremony with only a few close friends and family.

Look I have nothing against same sex marriage, but why Portia?

I have had a huge crush on her since her days on Ally McBeal, and cannot believe that not only does she not return my affection, she doesn't even like my gender.

Oh well, I hope she and Ellen will be very, very happy.

But Portia if you ever want to change teams you know where to find me.

This YouTube video about John McCain says it all.

Do you support George Bush more then you did four years ago?

Now that is a great line.

Judge rules that University of California does not have to accept credits from classes taught "from a religious perspective".

A federal judge has ruled that the University of California did not discriminate against two Christian high schools in Southern California when it refused to honor some of their courses when considering students' eligibility for admission to UC campuses.

U.S. District Judge S. James Ortero rejected arguments from Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta and Calvary Baptist School in La Verne that the university system rejected the courses because they were taught from a religious perspective.

In a written opinion issued Friday, the judge said the schools had failed to prove that religious intolerance, rather than academic merit, prompted UC not to count "Christianity and Morality in American Literature" and other courses toward admission.

"The decision to reject a course is constitutional as long as 1) UC did not reject the course because of animus and 2) UC had a rational basis for rejecting the course," said Ortero.

Hey if the answer to every question in your science book is "because God made it so", then you may not be getting the best education available.

But damn think how easy the pop quizzes would be!

Obama campaign creates 40 page rebuttal in answer to Jerome Corsi's book of baseless attacks.

This book is an orgy of disinformation and right wing masturbation fantasies. Corsi describes the inaccuracies as minimal and not terribly important, so since the book is packed full of these inaccuracies then the whole thing must be "minimal and not terribly important".

Anyhow if you have any misconceptions as a result of the constant right wing sewage that flows out your radio or television about Obama, take a moment to click the link and have all of your questions answered.