Two articles have come out yesterday and today, one at the Washington Post and one put out by Reuters, that are dealing with the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll about the presidential race.  Given that the articles themselves are almost all about race, race, and more race, maybe that should read "president's race," instead.

Come now below the fold!  I've got headlines!  I've got summaries!  I've got the one thing Americans are more concerned about, but that the media barely mentions! C'mon, how can you pass up that teaser?

The Obama and McCain camps are having a bit of back-and-forth over terrorism, national security, etc.  The point of conflict seems to be Obama's praise for the capture, prosecution, and incarceration of the 1993 World Trade Center attackers.

In the ABC interview, Obama said the perpetrators of the 1993 bombing are proof that the existing justice system can handle terrorism cases. "They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated," he said. "And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.'"

In perhaps record time for a general election campaign, a McCain advisor, Randy Scheunemann, shot back that Obama was advocating "a policy of delusion," and that Obama has the "perfect manifestation of a September 10 mind-set."

After I went to the Obama Town Hall meeting here in LaFeet, we explained to my oldest kid (age 3) that Daddy went to see a man named "Barack Obama," and Daddy wanted him to be the next president.  Mommy also liked Barack Obama, but she preferred a woman named Hillary Clinton to be president.  There is also a man named John McCain running for president.  He is bad.  Mommy and Daddy don't like him.  He makes Bad Choices.

UPDATE:  Everyone's favorite Portland, ME resident spelled it out for slow little ol' me in comments.  It turns out Johnson was not denying what I thought he was, and is, for once, correct.

--Praxxus

He is now claiming that Team Obama is lying about something he said, when the exact text he is denying is  still posted on his website, under his name, with the date stamp the Obama campaign claims.

Since Uncle Larry likes to Factify^© The Troll Farm and Insanity Emporium from time to time, I took the liberty of doing some screen-a-magrabs.

Photorials and linkages below the fold . . . .

Look, I know there was a diary up a few days ago saying that some black organizations had received "racist" t-shirts.  I'm here to set the record straight:  That is just a lie, dammit!

How dare you suggest such a thing!  Kelly Newcom of Ash Flat, AR is not racist! Just because he printed up a t-shirt featuring Curious George an unidentified monkey holding up a sign reading "A truth we can Believe in '08" on the front, then the list of several black organizations, some Hispanic organizations, and the KKK on the back and mailed them to The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and other organizations listed on his non-racist shirt the day after Obama claimed the Democratic Party's nomination?  You obviously have no idea what you're talking about!

Oh no!  It's Veep-vetting-gate!

Or is that "Veep-vetter-gate?"

In a achingly obvious case of the pot calling out the kettle and attacking it for its darkened hue, the McCain Camp is criticizing one of Team Obama's veep selection members, James Johnson, based on an article that appeared in Saturday's Fox Street Journal.

This is what happens when the yapping bobble-heads in the press start to believe their own shallow narratives. The specific narrative in this case is the "Obama has a Latino problem," or the variant, "Hispanics won't vote for an African American." It first took root during the lead up to NV, then really took off in CA. Unfortunately it only got reinforced as Senator Clinton continued to be the preferred Democratic candidate among Latinos.

That led the FUD to continue to be slathered on in thick, creamy chunks as the "chicken littles" on the Left ate it up, buying into the false logic of "If A is less than B, A is also less than C." There were absolutely no facts being offered to back up that conclusion, but it damn sure never stopped anyone from reaching it.

Wow, that didn't take long.  Fresh off of his stunning speech Tuesday night where he abandoned the ~25% of Republicans who don't like him anyway as he ran as far and as fast as he could towards the center, John McCain continues on his journey in Detroit.  Yes, miraculously the hard-right, Bush-humping McCain that aroused the passions of no one on the right seems to be gone.  The new John McCain is flipping, flopping, pandering, and feeling his way towards the political center, as he tries to out-Obama Obama.

Join me below the fold to see the amazing flip-floppery McCain is pulling . . .

All last week Obama and McCain traded barbs about Iraq. McCain, of course, started it off last weekend by serving up the "Vets for Freedom" crafted taunts of "Why hasn't he visited Iraq?" "Why won't he sit with Petraeus one-on-one?" and "Why does he want to surrender without going and seeing how well the al Sadr ceasefire . . . er, The Surge is working?" Obama responded with stuff about wars being mistakes, jumping all over McCain's "troop level" gaffe and the ensuing factifying© of that gaffe as he refused to admit his mistake.

The Obama Campaign responded to every taunt from McCain, and the exchanges got mucho press coverage. That of course only encouraged Camp McCain to shout more taunts across the lake, as Iraq is the one chance in hell he has of getting elected. The press got into a little more, with a few headlines about "the focus shifting back to Iraq," with quotes from each campaign declaring that this was in their favor.

So what do we get starting this week? McCain slams Obama in an AIPAC speech. What did Obama come out with today?

I loathe "period abuse."  However, I really feel this is warranted:  What.  The.  Fuck?!  This is the sort of thing you expect from The Onion, not from a Politico post by Johnathan Martin.  Really.

There are two things that have been bouncing around the StevensTubes this week that just came crashing together in a seemingly innocent paragraph in the New York Times.

The first thing, which the Times story is about, is the fact that two of "W" McCain's highest ranking surrogates, Lindsey Graham and JoJo the Turncoat Monkey, have stepped down from their positions with the Vets for Freedom 527 501(c)(4) group.  That finally puts them in compliance with Team McCain's bold, Maverick™ rule about no one "with a McCain campaign title or position" participating in independent entities that publicly support or oppose a candidate."

Yay for them for complying.  Boo for them for not self-policing their own damn rules.

Here we are with yet another installment in my "Oil Lies" series that is such a hit on teh intertubes.   If you think I'm kidding, go do a Google search for the phrase, "Why don't we use Alaskan oil?" I'm authoritative, baybee!  *snort*

This entry is dedicated to my local Congressional "representative," Steve Buyer.  I had noticed a few days ago over at Masson's Blog that since it's election season Steve has introduced a buzzword-laden monstrosity, the "Main Street USA Energy Security Act of 2008."  Sounds fantastic, eh?

Well, not so much.  Go below the fold for a detailed look at what sort of solution ANWR drilling would be . . .

From a delightfully ever-growing series.

The politics section of the Sunday New York Times has an article about how yeah, you're getting rid of the lobbyists in your campaign.  Yay, you.  Oh, but what about the former lobbyists that are still high paid consultants and investors?

The article focuses on Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager.  In keeping with the New Rules over at Camp McCain, Mr. Davis hasn't been a registered lobbyist since '05.  However, he still invests and consults, and the lines that connect him through those two ventures become a tangled web pretty durn quickly.  The overall theme of the article --sorry, J. "W" McCain-- seems to be that what Mr. Davis does is really lobbying under a legally defined different name.

Let us venture below the fold to see what Mr. Davis is up to now that he is no longer technically a lobbyist.

Also posted at my little internet sandbox.  Now with less cat poop!

I know that most people who will stumble across this blog are aware that Republicans are not the party of "National Security."  The normal reasons we get into with our more politically elephantine acquaintances tend to involve discussions about The War on Terra, 9/11, torture, foreign policy and the like.

We also know about domestic concerns that are related to Terra, like inspecting cargo containers or physical access to power and water supplies.   What gets overlooked by us in our arguments are the more mundane things, like network security.

Note:  This is (hopefully) a less ranty spinoff of a recent blog post.  If you're interested, feel free to check it out.  If you're not, feel free to check it out.  ;-)

Previously titled: 2025 Delegates:  The Only Math You Need

It seems like after every Obama win or milestone there is a renewed clamor from Camp Clinton to try and throw the current state of the Democratic nomination into confusion.  The current two-pronged approach focuses on a combination of crying for the popular vote to be the One True Metric™ and for the previously agreed-upon rules to be thrown out, and have the FL and MI primary results count as-is and in full.

In the process on enbiggening herself in this role as The Supreme Antidisenfranchisementarian, Hillary Clinton and her surrogates have begun to sound like they're reading from an Onion article instead of a valid campaign strategy.

Dana Milbank, seen here in a recent
Washington Post staff photo

If there is such a thing as a Kool-Aid™ shark, Dana Milbank has yea verily jumped it in his latest column over at the Washington Post.  In it he directly references "Kool-Aid" in relation to Camp Clinton and their supporters no less than 9 times, and makes numerous other references to it.  Very nearly one per paragraph.

Examples and some ranting commentary below the fold.

This is going to be a short diary, because beyond a link and a few LOLs, there isn't a lot to tell.  But there are hours of creative fun to be had!

That's right, the fine folks from I Can Has Cheezburger have created a political spinoff, Pundit Kitchen where you can upload and LOL-ify your favorite --or least favorite-- political photos.

Let us peruse a few examples below the fold . . . .

We already have people squeezed between paying bills and going to work (ooh! irony!), truckers paying out the wazoo for fuel, and rate increases for mass transit.  Now we can add mom and pop gas stations to the growing list of people getting directly reamed by the rising gas prices.