More Like This

Sadly, Yes.

McCain's Base

Militaristic, simplistic and paranoid:

The rest of the questions were non-confrontational, though they often veered to the right of McCain's own positions. One audience member suggested McCain throw out the current Mexican government in order to halt illegal immigration; a young boy suggested the country stop using paper money and revert to silver in order to curb inflation. A third person questioned whether "the administration, and maybe this is classified, has calculated what the daily losses would be under a retreat plan under Obama."

Insert your own commentary. I'm too appalled to educate. Here's McSame's responses:

McCain tactfully deflected most of these questions, saying the Mexican government faced a difficult drug war, he doubted the United States would start using silver dollars, and that he would continue to press for victory in Iraq.

The reporter can call it a tactful deflection all she wants. Looks more like someone who can't give an honest answer to a question to me.

I'm Sorry, So Sorry

A little late, but we'll take what we can get. Little Scottie McClellan, former Bush bootlicker:

The White House took part in an "endless effort to manipulate public opinion to their advantage" in promoting the invasion of Iraq, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan declares in a new book.

Mr. McClellan says that he "unknowingly passed along false information" in his press briefings, including strong denials from Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby that they had no role in the outing of Central Intelligence Agency spy Valerie Plame.

We knew all along...

Time to Go, Joe

Go. Go now.

Disgust

Fox News.

Go on, tell me the left and right are the same. Just try.

The Most Obnoxious Type of Partisanship

Elitism.

We need to stop pretending as if the media are disinterested observers.

GI Bill Passes

Webb's 21st century GI bill passed with a veto-proof majority:

Twenty-five Republican senators broke with President Bush and voted Thursday for a major expansion of veterans’ benefits as part of a bill to finance another year of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The proposal, adopted by a vote of 75 to 22, also provides money for extended unemployment insurance benefits and other domestic programs to which Mr. Bush has objected.

Of course troop-hating, terrorist-loving Barack Obama voted for bill, but even though troop-loving veteran John McCain opposed the bill, he couldn't be bothered to show up and vote against it, which led to:

“I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country,” Mr. Obama said. “But I can’t understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this G.I. Bill.”

Mr. McCain, who was campaigning in California, shot back with a statement questioning Mr. Obama’s motives.

“I take a back seat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans,” Mr. McCain said. “I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did.”

Easy, senator, no reason to throw a hissy fit! McCain is losing it, fast.

Bobblefoot Love

Hilarious.

Time to Go, Joe

Go join party in which you belong. You won't survive another election anyway.

Far too many Democratic leaders have kowtowed to these opinions rather than challenging them. That unfortunately includes Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign.

In this, Sen. Obama stands in stark contrast to John McCain, who has shown the political courage throughout his career to do what he thinks is right – regardless of its popularity in his party or outside it.

John also understands something else that too many Democrats seem to have become confused about lately – the difference between America's friends and America's enemies.

That's not even the worst of it. Read it, and read Hunter's smackdown.

Obama Wins It

He's won the pledged delegate count and is leading in supers. Can we go home now and start kicking around John McCain?

McSame

Wow. Even as dumb as Bush.

OR, KY Primaries Today

Clinton will no doubt crush Obama in KY with WV-like margins, but Obama will handily beat her in OR and win a majority of pledged delegates. This race is over.

Another One Bites the Dust

McCain advisors:

A top adviser overseeing finances for Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has quit over his ties with lobbying, a McCain campaign official confirmed on Sunday.

Former Texas Rep. Thomas Loeffler, a national finance co-chairman, is the latest McCain adviser to step down amid concern over potential conflicts of interest among lobbyists in the campaign.

He is the fifth person who worked on McCain's campaign to resign recently over links to lobbying activities.

Wanna bet he isn't the last?

How Low Can You Go?

This low:

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

You heard that right, Obama = Nazi appeaser. Have a feeling this one's not going to stick.

Little Tommy Friedman

Still an idiot.

At least he's not Richard Cohen.

Worst Sacrifice Ever

Golf.

McLobbyist

The fun don't stop on the Straight Talk Express:

A consultant to Sen. John McCain hired a public-relations firm last year to burnish the U.S. image of a Ukrainian political party backed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to documents filed with the Justice Department.

First Burma, now this. McCain should travel in a clown car. It would be much more amusing.

I don't know, maybe I've got this thing all wrong and the press will decide lobbying is the maverick thing to do. Hey, you never can tell!

Debunking Clinton's Claims

That was easy:

One of her primary arguments (no pun intended) is that she wins the big states and the swing states. McAuliffe falsely claimed that she can win the states with the most electoral college votes. I'm not sure how they can make either claim, since she has never run a national campaign, but that's the assertion she and her campaign always makes. Unfortunately for Hillary, her primary wins in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, and others really bear no relationship to how she, or Obama for that matter, will perform in a general election. Here's why:

First, it's a DEMOCRATIC primary. She's only hearing from less than half of the total electorate, less than half of whom support her. She and her campaign have asserted that only she can win the states that she won in the primaries. Of course, that's absurd on the face, and anyone with objective judgment can recognized that. The Democratic candidate WILL WIN New York, California, Massachusetts, and the other blue states in the general election.

Congrats on her win in WV. The following quote from last night has me optimistic:

"I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard," Sen. Clinton told supporters at a victory rally in Charleston Tuesday night.

Maybe this is just me looking for a pony, but it sounds like she'll drop out after the last primary (MT?). If that's what she needs to do to save face, that's fine, as it's impossible for her to win at this point. As a side effect, her continued campaign will force Obama to build his organization in every single state, which will come in handy in the general.

Onto McCain!

Wake up NYT

Even if McCain disagrees with Bush on an issue, that doesn't mean he's leading on it.

For example, compare McCain's plan to either Obama's or Clinton's. It's a no-brainer.

John McCain supports lukewarm measures that won't accomplish anything. If global warming is an important issue, the Dems are by far the stronger party.

Devilstower has the rundown.

Crazy Pills

Bill O'Reilly needs to stop taking them.

It's Over

Done.

Sen. Barack Obama moved into the lead today in the last category that Sen. Hillary Clinton had claimed to have an edge -- support among the Democratic Party's superdelegates.

The Illinois Democrat grabbed the superdelegate lead thanks to a switch by New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne and an endorsement from previously uncommitted Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon.

Can we end this now?

Moving Goalposts

Clinton campaign.

Operation Chaos

Obama outperformed expectations last night, handily winning NC and coming within breathing room in IN. To whom can Clinton credit her victory? None other than Rush Limbaugh:

Eleven percent of the voters in Indiana tonight were Republican, Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic reports -- and they went for Clinton over Obama 52% to 46%.

Over at the Huffington Post, Sam Stein crunches some of the exit poll numbers and wonders: “Thirty-six percent of primary voters said that Clinton does not share their values. And yet, among that total, one out of every five (20 percent) nevertheless voted for her in the Indiana election. Moreover, of the 10 percent of Hoosiers who said ‘neither candidate’ shared their values, 75 percent cast their ballots for Clinton.

Clinton's margin of victory was under 2%. Had it not been for those Republicans, who will not vote for Clinton in November, she would already be out of the race. I hope she can take a sober look at reality and concede.

Investigating the Investigators

Very corrupt investigators:

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the Office of Special Counsel here, seizing computers and documents belonging to the agency chief Scott Bloch and staff.

More than a dozen FBI agents served grand jury subpoenas shortly after 10 a.m., shutting down the agency's computer network and searching its offices, as well as Mr. Bloch's home. Employees said the searches appeared focused on alleged obstruction of justice by Mr. Bloch during the course of an 2006 inquiry into his conduct in office.

The independent agency, created by Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal, is charged with protecting federal employees and deciding whether their complaints merit full-scale investigation -- a first line of defense against fraud and mismanagement in government. It also enforces a ban on U.S. employees engaging in partisan political activity.

The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Mr. Bloch had used "Geeks on Call," an outside computer-service firm, to erase his computer and those of two former staff members in December 2006.

Corrupt from head to toe.

Investigating the Investigators

Very corrupt investigators:

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the Office of Special Counsel here, seizing computers and documents belonging to the agency chief Scott Bloch and staff.

More than a dozen FBI agents served grand jury subpoenas shortly after 10 a.m., shutting down the agency's computer network and searching its offices, as well as Mr. Bloch's home. Employees said the searches appeared focused on alleged obstruction of justice by Mr. Bloch during the course of an 2006 inquiry into his conduct in office.

The independent agency, created by Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal, is charged with protecting federal employees and deciding whether their complaints merit full-scale investigation -- a first line of defense against fraud and mismanagement in government. It also enforces a ban on U.S. employees engaging in partisan political activity.

The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Mr. Bloch had used "Geeks on Call," an outside computer-service firm, to erase his computer and those of two former staff members in December 2006.

Corrupt from head to toe.

Get Uncle Alan His Meds

He's talking crazy again:

The United States has fallen into an "awfully pale recession" and may remain stagnant for the rest of the year, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted on Monday saying.

"We're in a recession," Bloomberg news agency reported Greenspan had said in a television interview. "But this is an awfully pale recession at the moment. The declines in employment have not been as big as you'd expect to see."

Pale? If you call negative GDP growth and skyrocketing prices pale, then ok. As for the employment figures, 1. the unemployment rate doesn't tell the whole story (i.e. it doesn't include people who have been looking for work for over 6 months, those who have given up altogether or those who work part time), and 2. our latest economic boom was really a jobless recovery.

We're in for a bumpy ride. Buckle up and save.

Little Tommy Friedman Asks a Question

How could this be?

says Friedman, in a column the NYT describes as "Lost Greatness."

Gee, think this may have something to do with it?

I agree with Friedman's column - it's quite sensible - but his silence when it comes to his own role in our lost greatness is jarring and unsettling.

Not Enough Health Care to Go Around

Read up, it's a good article.

Under the current system, the winners are the insurance companies. By shrinking coverage to healthier and wealthier people - by charging more for it - insurance companies are raking in huge profits, because these people will not get sick as often. What this is about is maximizing insurers' profits at the expense of consumers. Both healthy, rich people, who pay higher premiums for the same service, and sick, poor people, who receive no coverage, are worse off. If we socialize the risk by way of a universal health care plan, costs will dramatically fall and everyone will be insured. Under that system, the losers are the insurance companies. Boohoo.

Economic Outlook

I don't think so.

Many on Wall Street, the epicenter of the credit mess, seem to think that the worst is over. For the first time in months, analysts and executives sound upbeat again. Many of them see a broad, sustained recovery in both the economy and the financial markets coming in the second half of this year, a prediction some market strategists call hopeful at best.

For now, policy makers are echoing the mood on Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday that “we are closer to the end of this problem than we are to the beginning.”

Sure, we'll trust the perennial optimists to tell us when the market has bottom. Look at this chart of the S&P 500 from 4Q07 to date. First they told us there was no crisis, then they told us it was contained, now they're telling us it's already passed.

It is, of course, not uncommon for Wall Street to run ahead of the broader economy. Investors, after all, make money by anticipating the future. The job market, by contrast, improves more slowly than other aspects of the economy.

But specialists say the two sides will eventually converge. Either the markets will give up their recent gains or, if the optimists are right, the broader economy will show greater strength as tax rebate checks and lower interest rates stimulate the economy.

That first sentence sums it up really well. Look at the logic on which the optimists - let's call them ponyboys - are banking their recovery on: tax rebate checks - $600 is enough to solve every negative homeowner equity and bad commercial/real estate loan ever! - and lower interest rates - $4 gas! That stimulates somebody's pockets - will save the world.

Ride on ponyboys, ride on into the sunset.

It's Over

Really.