Election 08 Videos
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Jacob Soboroff wants to see more people voting and isn t afraid to ask the hard questions.

Author: Badknee Added: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:55:13 -0800 Duration: 57I started the "Presidential Debates" early. They don't discuss health care, balanced budgets, oil prices or abortion. I believe the important issues should be discussed first.

Author: Badknee Added: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:55:13 -0800 Duration: 55Now things are getting "stupid". This episode Senator's Obama and McCain debate their intelligence. Why discuss the important issues when you can argue about brain power.

Author: Badknee Added: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:55:13 -0800 Duration: 55Now things are getting "stupid". This episode Senator's Obama and McCain debate their intelligence. Why discuss the important issues when you can argue about brain power.

Author: Badknee Added: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:55:13 -0800 Duration: 57I started the "Presidential Debates" early. They don't discuss health care, balanced budgets, oil prices or abortion. I believe the important issues should be discussed first.

Author: Badknee Added: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:55:02 -0800 Duration: 58Japanese style game shows are all the rage. I put our Republican candidate, John McCain on a "Wipeout" style obstacle course trying to reach his White House goals.

Author: Badknee Added: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:55:02 -0800 Duration: 59In this debate things get "ugly". Back and forth they discuss their appearance. Will the bickering ever stop?

Author: Badknee Added: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:55:02 -0800 Duration: 103Edio is so stupid he wears his shoe on his head, his pants for his shirt, his shirt for his pants and has his foot in a bucket. He is confident he will get elected even with his short comings. Any references to the present administration is purely coincidental.

Lindsay explains why we should all stay home on election day.

CNN s AC 360° on Friday took a look at both of the Democratic and Republican candidates and their wives, and the short bio they did on John McCain gave viewers little reason, if any, why he would be very well suited at all to become our next President or our military s Commander in Chief. Download | Play Download | Play In fact, it helped reveal a McCain who was an underachieving party boy during his military career - lucky to have graduated at all, much less fifth from the bottom of his class in the Naval Academy, and reminded viewers of his involvement in one of the biggest financial scandals to touch the capitol in the 80s and 90s. As the CNN report tells it, the lessons John McCain learned during his time as a POW were that one of the most important things in life - along with a man s family - is to make some contribution to his country, and that his involvement in the Keating 5 scandal which resulted in the Congressional finding that he had exercised poor judgment for intervening with federal regulators on behalf of his good friend and largest political contributor/fundraiser, Charles Keating, led to his becoming a crusader for campaign finance reform and transparency. While the lessons learned parts may sound nice, what the segment didn t reveal was the fact that his own actions have in large part belied that account. The McCain that learned the importance of family as a POW returned to divorce his first wife in a manner that offended many of his friends and colleagues to this day, and his supposed commitment as a crusader for campaign finance reform and transparency went out the window when he began skirting or breaking many of the very campaign finance laws he used to champion just as soon as they would have applied to him during this campaign. Seriously, what part of John McCain s past would lead anyone who actually looked at it to believe he s the one who should lead this country forward? What part of what little we know about his military record suggests he s leadership material? Is there any significant policy position that John McCain currently holds, on any topic, that he s consistently held about anything?

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather) Barack Obama may be our first post-racial politics candidate, but it s clear the media has not caught up to that paradigm, especially any show that includes John McLaughlin and Pat Buchanan amongst its panel. Kudos to Media Matters, who caught it first: On the edition of the syndicated program The McLaughlin Group that aired the weekend of July 11-13, while discussing recent comments made by the Rev. Jesse Jackson about Sen. Barack Obama, host John McLaughlin said: Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo a black on the outside, a white on the inside that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for? If I had been a guest on that panel, I think my jaw would have dropped right then. Oreo? Really, that s the best place to take this conversation? To his credit, Peter Beinart does tell McLaughlin that it s an unfair depiction, but McLaughlin perseveres, thinking he s caught Beinart in a rhetorical trap when Beinart dismisses the notion that Obama should give as much weight to issues of discrimination in incarceration. BEINART: But Barack Obama doesn t talk about jobs and healthcare? He talks about it all the time. If he wanted to talk about the fact that there are too many people in prison, then you re asking him to do something that will lose him the election. That is politically no serious political strategist MCLAUGHLIN: Oh oh oh [crosstalk] BEINART: He is a man trying to win the presidency, John. MCLAUGHLIN: But then he s exactly what Jeremiah Wright says he is. He will do whatever is necessary to win. So hold up here, McLaughlin. That he doesn t talk about prison rates in the black community but encourages fathers (on Father s Day, mind you) to be present in their children s lives, he s doing whatever is necessary to win? And then you had to give the floor to Pat Buchanan: MCLAUGHLIN: Does Jackson have a legitimate point? BUCHANAN: No, he doesn t. I ll tell you why, John. Here s why. What Barack Obama is saying is the message that needs to be heard. It s the Bill Cosby message. It is Look, this is our responsibility. These are our families. White society is not responsible for our kids dropping out of schools or using drugs or going on welfare. We are. What Jesse Jackson says, is the white community s responsible and they ve got to solve our problems. Oh help me. Stereotype much, Pat? This is what passes as elevated public television political debate in this country. The omnipresent Michelle Bernard tries to get this back on track and get the old guard to catch up on post-race politics: BERNARD: I want to go back to the point you made about whether or not Barack Obama is an Oreo, because if Barack Obama is an Oreo, then every member of this generation of African Americans is an Oreo, because we stand on the shoulders of the people who fought for our rights and all of us say that you cannot blame The Man or white racism for everything that ails the black community. Pam s House Blend looks at that nugget of truth UPDATE: Media Matters is circulating a petition to ask John McLaughlin to apologize on air. Transcripts below the fold: MCLAUGHLIN: Does it frost Jackson-Jesse Jackson-that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo -black on the outside, while white on the inside-that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fight for? Peter Beinart? BEINART: Who knows what Jesse Jackson is thinking. But that is a completely unfair depiction of Barack Obama, who the genius of Barack Obama is that he moves seamlessly between the African American world and the white world in a way that even Bill Clinton couldn t possibly match. And the tragedy of this experience is you know who s spoken eloquently for many, many years about personal responsibility in the black community? Jesse Jackson. He of all people should recognize in fact that what Barack Obama is saying is not contrary to the message of the civil rights movement, it is in keeping with that message. MCLAUGHLIN: Let s nail this down a little bit more, for the sake of Jackson. The question is this: Jackson s point of contention is this, this is the exit question. The point of contention is that instead of Obama solely lecturing African Americans on parental duty, particularly fathers, he should have also given equal attention to the large and many believe prejudicial incarceration rate for blacks, their lack of economic opportunity and other public policy issues that limit choices for black males. Why doesn t Obama hit that as hard as he hits individual parental responsibility? That s what Jackson s complaining about. BEINART: But Barack Obama doesn t talk about jobs and healthcare? He talks about it all the time. If he wanted to talk about the fact that there are too many people in prison, then you re asking him to do something that will lose him the election. That is politically no serious political strategist MCLAUGHLIN: Oh oh oh [crosstalk] BEINART: He is a man trying to win the presidency, John. MCLAUGHLIN: But then he s exactly what Jeremiah Wright says he is. He will do whatever s necessary to win. BEINART: He s a practical politician. CLIFT: This is a generational shift. Jesse Jackson, Jr. put out a statement basically saying Dad, time to leave the stage. There is a disconnect in terms of style and tactics from the older civil rights generation to the generation that Obama is from and that he s trying to attract. MCLAUGHLIN: Does Jackson have a legitimate point? BUCHANAN: No, he doesn t. I ll tell you why, John. Here s why. What Barack Obama is saying is the message that needs to be heard. It s the Bill Cosby message. It is Look, this is our responsibility. These are our families. White society is not responsible for our kids dropping out of schools or using drugs or going on welfare. We are. What Jesse Jackson says, is the white community s responsible and they ve got to solve our problems. MCLAUGHLIN: Isn t this the oddity of the century, where a Barack Obama is a conservative and Jesse Jackson is the liberal? Isn t that an oddity? [laughter] BUCHANAN: Well, Jesse Jackson used to talk this way BERNARD: It is an oddity, but I want to go back to the point you made about whether or not Barack Obama is an Oreo, because if Barack Obama is an Oreo, then every member of this generation of African Americans is an Oreo, because we stand on the shoulders of the people who fought for our rights and all of us say that you cannot blame The Man or white racism for everything that ails the black community. MCLAUGHLIN: What about changing public policy where it needs to be changed? BERNARD: Well, you change public policy, but, but . [crosstalk] BERNARD: If I could finish my point, when Jesse Jackson came out and said when he gave his quote unquote apology the next day was Barack Obama should be demanding more government programs for African Americans and that s wrong. CLIFT: As Jack White, a former Time Magazine writer, says that it s disorienting for the black community when The Man might be the guy in the Oval Office and so everybody s making some adjustments here, but Barack Obama is handling his role beautifully and that is to relate to America as a broad population.

Download | Play Download | Play (YouTube) MN s WCCO CH4 news Reality Check segment destroys, point-by-point, a new intentionally misleading Sopranos-spoof TV ad by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is actually a cartel of national business groups including the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Wal-Mart, masquerading as a pro-union, pro-worker group on behalf of Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) against his Democratic challenger Al Franken. The ad exploits a distorted stereotype of the Mafia, and of labor unions as tools of organized crime to misrepresent legislation that, despite what the ad implies, would actually make it easier for workers to organize unions.

The Conservatives are out in force trying to bail John McCain out from Phil Gramm s ridiculous comments you know about calling us all a bunch of whiners. Download | Play Download | Play Think Progress: Phil Gramm was right of course, Will declared. Absolutely WILL: On two points. We re not in a recession as commonly defined. That is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. STEPHANOPOULOS: We may be running there though. Even Bernanke says so. WILL: We re not however. Unemployment is just about the post-war average at 5.5 percent. His second point that we re a nation of whiners: we are the crybabies of the western world. In fact, we have an extraordinarily low pain threshold. Heather says: Stengel follows with saying that no one wants to be called a whiner and cites one of their polls on the public perception of the economy and says those statements weren t helpful. You, think? Brazile notes that McCain had to distance himself from Gramm and says Phil is mental. Roberts follows with saying that it s just the old harsh style of politics and it s the wrong year for that. Oh, and the public doesn t understand McCain s jokes.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather) Actually, it s hard to think of anything that the talking heads inside the Beltway Bubble think would hurt John McCain s chances. But this is so slippery and the terminology so vague that it s troublesome to see the potential to sway a lot of low information voters. With the news that we are considering drawing down forces in Iraq, beginning in September (reg. req d), Roger Simon of The Politico, who never met a Republican for whom he wouldn t apologize, insists that this October Surprise will help John McCain. SIMON: Yeah. It may be an October surprise in July. I think anything that signals that the war in Iraq is generally winding down would be good news for John McCain. He has always said that he wants to leave Iraq, too, but he wants to leave it with victory and honor. And if a drawdown of troops is seen to be militarily justified because we re winning, because the surge is working, and not political trickery because Republicans need it for the fall elections, then that is likely to be effective. So how many caveats did you count? There s a lot of stars that have to line up just so to make that work, but let s focus on the purposeful vagueness and empty rhetoric. McCain has ALWAYS said that he wants to leave Iraq? Does anyone ever explain how you can leave an occupation (remember, we won the war back in 2003) with victory ? Is there any honor to that? The surge is working meme is working my last nerve as well. Yes, violence is down within Baghdad (where the majority of those escalation-designated troops were sent), but outside of that area, in Kirkuk, Diyala, Mosul and Fallujah? Not so much. And is it considered a win when we re talking about 4.5 million Iraqi refugees? What happens if the drawdown (which is Beltway speak for returning to pre-surge levels) is NOT militarily justified but politically justified? Is it still a drawdown if we re simply moving them to Afghanistan where violence and attacks has jumped lately? Will it still help McCain when the number of troop deaths in Afghanistan increase even more, like today s attack in Kabul? Transcripts below the fold SCHIEFFER: Joining us now with a campaign quick check: Roger Simon, the chief political columnist of Politico and our old friend. Roger, what do you make of this? Suddenly we re talking about drawing out more troops out of Iraq and before the November elections. Now, you just heard Ed Gillespie say this has kind of always kind of been in the works, and in fact, I suppose . Mr. ROGER SIMON (Politico): Right. SCHIEFFER: Well, that is right. But suddenly they re starting to talk about it. What do you make? Mr. SIMON: Yeah. It may be an October surprise in July. I think anything that signals that the war in Iraq is generally winding down would be good news for John McCain. He has always said that he wants to leave Iraq, too, but he wants to leave it with victory and honor. And if a drawdown of troops is seen to be militarily justified because we re winning, because the surge is working, and not political trickery because Republicans need it for the fall elections, then that is likely to be effective. Now, as you accurately pointed out, this may be a shifting of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. But even that, fighting in Afghanistan is just less politically charged than fighting in Iraq. Afghanistan, the country from where the 9/11 attacks were launched, where there is a clear linkage with our military operations there and fighting terrorism a linkage which never really existed in Iraq it is a more acceptable war, if you will, to the American people.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather) John McCain s campaign is struggling, and this was a particularly hard week for them. But never fear, McCain s Media is here to spin this as well as possible for the MaverickMan. After all, there s no need for them to go over and over ad nauseam all of McCain s verbal gaffes from this week. They did that during the Democratic primary when they talked about Clinton s Bosnia story and Obama s relationship with Rev. Wright for weeks on end. It s so done. Let s instead focus on him bringing in new staff. But don t look too hard at the fact that he s brought in the people from Karl Rove s shop that destroyed his candidacy in 2000, because that might indicate some sort of desperation for the dirty politics that Rove is so famous for using. So let s invent a more mild concern, like a messy desk analogy for his management style. And we all know that can be turned around to be a positive, since Nixon had a neat desk. But above all, let s ask if this is a fair question to evaluate a supposed McCain presidency. MATTHEWS: NY Times reporter Adam Nagourney wrote this week that quote even former McCain associates think voters now might be getting an early glimpse of the messy, unstructured way in which McCain and his White House might be managed. Howard, is this a fair problem for people to be worried about, staff shakeups, firing people, layering people, bringing in new bosses to run the campaign? FINEMAN: Well, John McCain is not a systems thinker. He s a leader by personal will and force of personality. He s gathered a sort of constellation of people around him. Nobody ever actually leaves the orbit, it s just different planets fly closer at different times. MATTHEWS: Well, who are these former staffers that keep dumping on him in the NY Times? FINEMAN: There are a couple who have escaped who had escaped gravitational pull. McCain Media, hard at work to make you not think at all.

Today s vote in the Senate approving FISA legislation was a huge blow to our country, our Constitution and our rule of law. Twenty-six Democrats stayed true to democratic principles and voted against the bill, which grants immunity to telecommunication companies who betrayed the American people by illegally spying on our communications without warrants. Download | Play Download | Play One of the Democrats who voted correctly today was Senator Russ Feingold, who appeared on Wednesday s Countdown with Rachel Maddow. Feingold has long been a staunch advocate for following the Constitution, speaking out against President Bush s illegal wiretapping program and fighting and voting against the anti-American Patriot Act. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama voted for the FISA legislation, and while Feingold says there is hope that as president, Obama could change the unconstitutional aspects of the bill, it was still the wrong vote. Maddow: It is heartening to hear your optimism on the prospect of Obama s presidency on this issue, but of course, his vote today led a lot of us who see this as a real abrogation of the fourth amendment to be very concerned. Feingold: Well, it was the wrong vote. Any Democrat that voted that way was not voting according to what people in the Democratic Party clearly want, but, you know, we ll pull together after the election, we ll lay the case out again.

A women from the group ADAPT asked John McCain at his recent Town Hall meeting for his support of the Community Choice Act, a bi-partisan bill sponsored by Harkin and Specter. ADAPT is very active in getting their message out and raising awareness of treating people with disabilities with dignity and respect. The Community Choice Act allows people who require significant caregiving the choice of staying in the community instead of being forced by Medicaid and Medicare restrictions into nursing homes and other institutions. Obama supports it. It looks like a good piece of legislation. Q: Will you sign on to join the Community Choice Act? McCain: I will not because I don t think that it s the right kind of legislation. I m proud to have been one of the many people who was involved in the original Americans for Disabilities Act. Now we will continue to update it and upgrade and improve it as needed. Community Choice Act is not a piece of legislation that I support Download | Play Download | Play Here s some background about the protest. The office of Senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain was occupied by the disability-rights organization ADAPT this afternoon. The protesters-the vast majority of which had disabilities-were seeking a meeting with McCain to ask for his support for the Community Choice Act. The legislation reforms Medicaid payments by allowing those with disabilities to use their benefits for community-based care instead of nursing homes. Approximately forty ADAPT activists participated in the protest. McCain never says why he s against it in his answer. He holds up the ADA as an example of legislation that he does support, but that goes to issues of accessibility and accommodation, not care. The ADA has nothing to do with providing long term care of disabled people. And he had to be aware of the legislation, as the ADAPT people had a protest at his office just a couple of months ago. Heather says: His pretty blunt answer is no and that he supported the Americans With Disabilities Act. From press reports, a number of wheelchair-bound participants left the meeting after McCain made his statement. I guess not everyone has a Sugar Momma like Cindy to take care of them and doesn t have to worry about ending up in a nursing home like John does.

Poor John McCain he doesn t like it when people start pointing out that maybe just maybe his vaunted experience of being a Vietnam vet and POW doesn t exactly hold up as a prerequisite for holding the office of the President of the United States. And now he s accusing Jim Webb of coordinating with the Obama campaign too. On MSNBC last night, Webb told McCain that he should calm down with the use of his military service in the campaign, adding that it was time to get the politics out of the military. Now the McCain campaign is responding to Webb, arguing that Webb s comments prove that Obama can t control his surrogate operation. McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers sends us this: If you didn t think this was a coordinated attack on John McCain s credentials before, it s clear now that it is. Barack Obama s surrogates are telling the McCain campaign to calm down about attacks on his military record? Seriously? Now somehow Wes Clark s attacks are John McCain s fault? It s absurd. If Barack Obama can t control his own surrogate operation, how can he be trusted to run the country? Luckily for McCain, those smitten members of the media only too happy to carry his water have rushed to his defense: (T)o understand why the press is reacting with such outrage, you have to understand what they ve been saying about McCain for the last decade. There s a myth out there that the McCain campaign and the media have cooperated to create. It says that John McCain is reluctant to exploit his Vietnam POW story for political advantage, so modest and full of integrity is he. We ve seen this repeated again and again, not just by McCain and his supporters but by reporters who ought to know better. Nothing could be further from the truth. From the first time he ran for Congress in 1982 up to the present day, McCain has made his POW story the centerpiece of his entire political career. The key moment of that 1982 campaign was when he responded to his opponent s (absolutely true) accusation that McCain was a carpetbagger by saying, As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi. At every point since, it has been the deft use of this tool that has brought McCain renewed attention or won him a key victory. The Columbia Journalism Review backs Clark on this one, as has MoveOn. This morning, Obama rejected the analogy that Clark was swiftboating McCain. But for all his bluster and sad sighing over this kind of campaigning, McCain no problem bringing in Bud Day who appeared in two Swiftboat ads that McCain called dishonest and dishonorable . But hey, at least McCain is still distancing himself from Bush or is he? Shocking, I tell you

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather) John McCain has flip-flopped on so many subjects that he would feel quite at home in my toddler s tumbling class. Keith Olbermann recounts McCain s flip-floppery on Political reform, Immigration, Gay marriage, Abortion, Nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Military actions against rogue states, Negotiating with Kim Jong Il, Negotiating with Castro, Negotiating with terrorists (acceptable in 2002 when Powell went to Syria. In 2006, McCain said sooner or later we ll talk to Hamas, not appropriate now), Unilateral action against suspected terrorists in Pakistan (Confused leadership with Obama, not with Bush) Warrantless wiretapping, Torturing Detainees, Indefinitely holding detainees, Iraq War, Tax cuts for the rich, Estate tax, Privatizing Social Security, Balanced budget, Windfall profits tax, Offshore drilling, Bush fundraisers, Jerry Falwell, Pastor John Hagee, MLK Jr. holiday, South Africa divestment, the confederate flag, and alternatives to evolution being taught at school Feeling dizzy yet?

Download | Play Download | Play Keith Olbermann presented Barack Obama with a few options on how to handle the pending FISA legislation in a Special Comment on Monday s Countdown. Senator Obama had once said he was against giving immunity to telecom companies who assisted the Bush administration in illegally spying on American citizens, but more recently has said he would, in fact, vote for the FISA legislation, immunity included. As Keith points out, Obama has taken political hits from the right and the left and the right is going to attack him no matter how he votes, so he might as well do the right thing and demand telecom immunity be stripped from the bill. You ve already taken the political hit from the Right, for saying you d seek to strip out, or rescind immunity. You ve already taken the political hit from the Left, for saying you d vote for the FISA bill even with the immunity. You ve paid the political price in advance. Now buy yourself and those who have most ardently supported you something worth more than just class action suits against Verizon. Explain that you are standing aside on civil immunity, not just for political expediency, but for a greater and more tangible good the holding to account, of the most-corrupt, the most dangerous, and the most anti-democracy presidential administration in our long history. Of course, if you disagree with this interpretation if you think the FISA bill doesn t have the giant loophole, or if you don t think you, as president, would be ready to support criminal prosecution of well, criminals then your duty is clear. Vote against the FISA bill, if it still carries that immunity. Full transcripts below the fold: Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on FISA and the Junior Senator from Illinois. The Democratic leadership in the Senate, Republican knuckle-dragging in the same chamber, and the mediocre skills of whoever wrote the final version of the FISA bill, have combined to give Senator Barack Obama a second chance to make a first impression. And he damned well better take it. The Senate vote on this tortured and reckless piece of legislation has now been postponed until after the 4th of July break. The Democrats, completing their FISA experience (a collective impression of Homer Simpson falling off a cliff and hitting every bramble on the way down), didn t exactly plan this fortuitous delay. Last week, the vote on their cave-in was imminent. But, while arguing over a piece of housing legislation, about how many mortgage lenders can dance on the head of a pin, Republicans dithered so long about protecting their constituents the banks that the Senate calendar got backed up. This, in turn, gave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid some time to think. There was one among his group, chosen to run for President, who had loudly assailed the idea of handing a get-out-of-jail-free card to corporations who had approached definitional fascism by breaking the law in concert with the Bush Administration. But this Senator had suddenly realized, that to the large group of voters who operate with an information base that would make Cliffs Notes look like the encyclopedia, if, in the final vote, he stood against FISA, he would hand them a rock with which they could hit him over the head, a rock wrapped up in a piece of paper reading: Obama voted uh-uh thing terror stop. Thus, Senator Obama, was born your first second chance. Senator Reid was kind enough to help you out by composing an amendment that would keep FISA which you rightly endorse but strips out the telecom immunity, which you rightly oppose. It s a protest a decidedly lame one but in our daily world of political transactions, voting for the amendment when it has no chance of passing and has been in essence constructed as pure Obama CYA that is a petty crime. Whether it will do more to harm your premise of new politics than to your credibility as an immunity-opponent, is for you, Senator, to assess. And live with. It would be sweet to have a pure, politics-free president, but the last of those retired from office in 1797. And while we ve all quoted the farewell address of The Father Of Our Nation for 211 years now, nobody seems to want to remember that its point was to urge his children that: whatever you do, for God s sake, don t form political parties some day they will kill you. Anyway, Senator, your problem here isn t the backlash about telecom immunity, and it isn t really about your political fluidity on the FISA bill. Your problem is what happens even if this plays out according to plan next week: 1) You vote for the anti-immunity amendment. 2) The anti-immunity amendment fails. 3) You vote for the FISA legislation. And 4) The FISA legislation passes. Oh, and, 5) Senator: The Republicans still run against you with the elections-for-dummies message: Obama voted uh-uh thing terror-stop. Because, inside the obscenity that was Charlie Black s comment about how a terrorist attack in this country would be good good for his boy McCain s chances for election Inside the inhuman calculation that Benazhir Bhutto did not die in vain she helped McCain in the New Hampshire primary There is a sad and cynical reality. The Republicans can scare some of the people all of the time, and they can scare all of the people some of the time. This is all they are right now. Nobody ever said it better than did Aaron Sorkin in his script for the movie The American President : Whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you, Bob Rumson (and for Bob Rumson, read John McCain ) is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it, and telling you who s to blame for it. Republicans, with almost no exceptions, have no true credibility on counter-terrorism, no track record of prevention or amelioration, and their president can t even remember the name of the skyscraper he claims to have saved in Los Angeles. And yet, somehow, the Republicans have managed to convince the public that it doesn t matter that Mr. Bush had already completed 22 percent of his first term, when he, his administration, and his party, failed so catastrophically on 9/11. The President and party who were at fault, were magically transformed into the President and party who would never let it happen again. An unjust repellant nefarious, trick. But, politically, rather a neat trick. Senator, the Republicans are going to paint you as soft on terror no matter how you vote on FISA. Or how you vote on the Telecom Immunity Amendment. Or on the next farm bill. Last week it was Grover Norquist calling you John Kerry with a tan. By November 1st, it ll be Dick Cheney calling you Osama Bin Laden with a tan. When you announced your support of this latest FISA bill (with or without the telecom immunity), the Republicans actually raced to get out a press release accusing you of flip-flopping. You shared the exact same position, on which they are running their entire campaign and they criticized you anyway! So, Senator, from their point of view, they think they ve got you boxed in. Vote for FISA and you ve contradicted yourself. Vote against FISA and it s Obama voted uh-uh thing terror-stop. Vote for FISA and against immunity, and it s political expediency, and Democrats soft on terror, and Obama voted uh-uh thing terror-stop. This is a problem, Senator. Because, flatly, of all the measures that can be taken to aid our damaged nation, and our de-valued Constitution, the first, if not the foremost, is not blocking telecom immunity, but making sure no Republican is in the White House past noon next January 20th. Of all the remedial efforts against the Bush administration s high crimes and misdemeanors, and of all the prophylactic steps against further inroads against the freedoms of the citizens of this nation and the rights of everyone else, the primary step must still come to us through the prism of politics. Would that it were otherwise. But it ain t. Frankly, Senator, this political tight-rope act you ve tried on FISA the last two weeks, which from the outside seems to have been intended to increase the chances of your election, probably hasn t helped that chance in the slightest. There is, fortunately, a possible a most unexpected solution. Your second second chance. Since the final version of the FISA bill was passed down from on high, John Dean has been reading it, and re-reading it, and cross-referencing it with other relevant law, and thinking. Something bothered him about it. Or, more correctly, something didn t bother him about it. Turns out lawyers at the ACLU have been doing the same thing for the last ten days. John compared notes with them, and will be devoting his column at Find Law this week, to this unlikely conclusion: The Republicans who wrote most of this bill at Mr. Bush s urging, managed to immunize the telecoms from civil suits. But not from criminal prosecution. Senator, here is John Dean s summary of his findings, which he sent me this morning. It is clear not only from the language of the bill (which must be read in the context of other, related statutes to be clearly understood), but also from the legislative history, that there is absolutely no criminal immunity for anyone in these FISA amendments. Moreover, Senator, it seems as if a lot of people have known this, for a long time. During the January 24th, 2008 debate in the Senate, Senator Brownback noted, The immunity provisions would not apply to the Government or Government officials. Cases against the Government regarding the alleged programs would continue. And the provisions would apply only to civil and not criminal cases. In fact, Senator, just last week, Attorney General Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence McConnell sent a letter, for the record, to House Speaker Pelosi emphasizing that the liability protection, quote, does not immunize any criminal conduct. And if you ask, Senator, about the President responding to all this by belching out a series of pardons or a blanket pardon to those who broke the law on his behalf, Dean has you covered here, too It would require acceptance by them of the fact that they had broken the law, and thus be an admission of guilt. And a blanket pardon would be an admission by Bush that his war on terror has been a lawless undertaking, operating beyond the bounds of the Constitution and statutes that check the powers of the president and the executive branch. It would be an admission by Bush, too, of his own criminal culpability (which is why Nixon refused to grant his aides a pardon.) Senator sometimes it is better to be lucky, than good. Keep your eye on the wording of the legislation to make sure the Republicans don t realize its flaws. Then vote for the amendment to strip telecom immunity out of the FISA bill. Then after that fails, vote for the FISA bill, if that s your final answer. Then the minute the president has signed the FISA bill, you announce that you voted for it because it renews FISA and because it permits a bigger prize than just civil suits; that it allows for criminal prosecution of past illegal eavesdropping. Say, loudly, that your understanding of this bill is such, that if you are elected, your Attorney General will begin a full-scale criminal investigation of the telecom companies who collaborated with President Bush in eavesdropping on Americans. And mention oh by the way that your Attorney General will subpoena such records, notes, e-mail, data, and testimony, from any and all Bush Administration officials, FBI or CIA personnel, or any members of the Executive Branch, who may have as much as breathed in the general direction of these nefarious acts of domestic spying at Mr. Bush s behest. Wait you say there s a political hit waiting for you there too? Another Obama voted uh-uh thing terror-stop. ? Actually, Senator, you ve already gone down this road, when you spoke to my colleague, Will Bunch, of the Philadelphia Daily News, on April 14th of this year. He asked about the possibility of criminal investigations of the 43rd President and his henchmen. What I would want to do, you told him, is have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that s already there and to find out, are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can t prejudge that, because we don t have access to all the material right now. You re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we ve got too many problems we ve got to solve. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in cover-ups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is: nobody above the law. And I think that s roughly how I would look at it. Make this clear, Senator. You ve already taken the political hit from the Right, for saying you d seek to strip out, or rescind immunity. You ve already taken the political hit from the Left, for saying you d vote for the FISA bill even with the immunity. You ve paid the political price in advance. Now buy yourself and those who have most ardently supported you something worth more than just class action suits against Verizon. Explain that you are standing aside on civil immunity, not just for political expediency, but for a greater and more tangible good the holding to account, of the most-corrupt, the most dangerous, and the most anti-democracy presidential administration in our long history. Of course, if you disagree with this interpretation if you think the FISA bill doesn t have the giant loophole, or if you don t think you, as president, would be ready to support criminal prosecution of well, criminals then your duty is clear. Vote against the FISA bill, if it still carries that immunity. The Republicans are going to call you the names any which way, Senator. They re going to cry regardless, Senator. And as the old line goes: give them something to cry about. Good night, and good luck.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather) Gee, ya think? The McLaughlin Group panel ponders the deep and abiding love the media has for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, affectionately known to him as his base . True love. The press has found it. Smitten by the Republican nominee, John McCain, maverick, here s a sampling of journalists saluting McCain in their own words in recent days: Kind of like a Martin Luther [Chris Matthews - Hardball] A man of unshakable character, willing to stand up for his convictions [R.W. Apple, NY Times] An affable man of zealous, unbending beliefs [Richard Cohen, The Washington Post] The hero who still does things his own way [Richard Cohen, The Washington Post] Rises above the pack-eloquent, as only a prisoner of war can be [David Nyhan, The Boston Globe] The perfect candidate to deal with what challenges we face as a country. [Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC] Blunt, unyielding, deploying his principles, what he does do is what he s always done, play it as straight as possible. [Terry Moran, Nightline] Wordly-wise and witty, determined to follow the facts to the exclusion of ideology. [Michael Hirsh, Newsweek] Willing to defy his own party and forge compromise. [Michael Hirsh, Newsweek] Pragmatic in the service of the national interest, rises to passion when he believes that America s best values are at stake. [Michael Hirsh, Newsweek] The maverick candidate still. [Terry Moran, Nightline] It s enough to make you lose your dinner, I tell you. Michelle Bernard claims that they are just as exultant over Obama, and Pat Buchanan insists the McCain Media love affair is over. Done. Gone. I m not sure I m buying that just yet

CNN s Late Edition dug from their archives this clip of John McCain in August of 1999: Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather) McCain: I think that we must go back to the party platform of 1980 and 1984 - we include people who have specific disagreements who share our same goals. Ultimately, I would like to see the repeal of Roe v. Wade, but to do it immediately, I think, would condemn young women to dangerous and illegal operations. See, back in 1999, McCain was walking a tightrope by calling himself pro-life on a personal level while at the same time assuring pro-choice voters for pragmatic reasons that “in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade.” Yet, today, McCain says bluntly right on his website that John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned. It s really hard to overstate the audacity of those in the media who tried to make Obama s recent decision to opt out of public campaign financing out to be some colossal flip-flop without even mentioning the fact that McCain has now flip-flopped a gazillion times on almost every issue under the sun. To summarize just a few of Steve Benen s list of McCain flip-flops: McCain was against the repeal of Roe v. Wade before he was for it. McCain was against torture before he was for it. Really for it. McCain was against crazy right-wing preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson before he was for them. McCain was against Bush s tax cuts for the wealthy before he was for them. McCain was against shady Bush Pioneer Texas billionaire swift-boat financiers before he was for them. McCain was for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law before he was against it and began breaking it. McCain was against Grover Norquist, whom he called corrupt, a shill for dictators before he was for him. McCain was against BJU because of its hateful, racist and cruel policies before he was for it. McCain was against ethanol before he was for ethanol and then he was against it again. McCain was against a Martin Luther King holiday before he was for it. And that s not all. There s many many more. In fact, here s an even longer list. McCain has reversed his former positions to fall more in line with the Bush administration so many times now it s really hard to tell Bush and McCain apart (can you beat my 3 out of 5 on the first try?). It might actually be easier to list the issue(s) McCain hasn t (yet) flip-flopped on, although I can t think of a single one right offhand.

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Heather) Republicans sure have funny ideas to what does and doesn t make for a good President. They framed the dry drunk frat boy as the kind of guy you wanted to have a beer with, the guy with nice hair as too effete to be considered maybe because he cared about those unfortunate souls who couldn t afford to be a campaign donor, the three time Purple Heart combat veteran as hating the troops and now the man who voted with Bush 95% of the time in 2007 and 100% of the time in 2008 as a maverick willing to put country before party. I got an idea: let s ask the vets if they think McSame is a maverick when it comes to the GI Bill. But Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) on This Week with George Stephanopoulos thinks he s come up with a great gotcha for Rep. Rahm Emanuel: when has Barack Obama stood up against his party for what s right for the country? PAWLENTY: And, actually, John McCain is the one person who says, I ll stand up and do what s right for my country even before party. And I ll challenge you once again. Name me one instance, even one, where Barack Obama has stood up and said, I will take on my party on a matter of principle, on something large While Rahm Emanuel doesn t take the bait, he also fails to point out that the reason that Obama hasn t needed to take on his party is that it is the Democratic Party trying to do the best for the country, instead of the corporate elite and cronies. Transcripts below the fold: PAWLENTY: Well, we should worry about the country first. EMANUEL: I agree with that. PAWLENTY: And, actually, John McCain is the one person who says, I ll stand up and do what s right for my country even before party. And I ll challenge you once again. Name me one instance, even one, where Barack Obama has stood up and said, I will take on my party on a matter of principle, on something large (CROSSTALK) PAWLENTY: as a United States senator, not some remote vote in the state legislature in Illinois. EMANUEL: Tim, I like you. You and I (CROSSTALK) EMANUEL: Everybody knows we like each other. Our friendship goes way back. We ve worked on issues together. In the last seven years under George Bush, median household income PAWLENTY: Can you name me one? EMANUEL: I m going to say it. Median household income in Minnesota dropped $7,000. Uninsured went up 30 percent, and employment went 3.3 percent to 5.6 percent. That s the legacy of the Bush economy and you re struggling against it, as a good governor, against a legacy of a mismanaged and a bad economic plan that s put too much resources over in Iraq and not enough resources here in America. And there s consequences to that policy. STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor, the last word. PAWLENTY: If you look at any argument that Senator McCain is an extension of George Bush, it does not hold water, in a whole bunch of categories. He s the one who said we ve got to change the conduct of the war. He s the one that says we have to take a different approach on energy. You have got Barack Obama saying no to tax holiday, no to more drilling, no to more nuclear, no to tax credits for EMANUEL: Yes to alternative energy. PAWLENTY: And let s put some more taxes, according to Obama, on energy. That s exactly the wrong thing STEPHANOPOULOS: I ll invite you both back. You guys have a lot to talk about. CROSSTALK) STEPHANOPOULOS: Thank you both very much.

MSNBC was covering John McCain s speech in front of a Latino conference this morning when he was interrupted by two anti-war protesters. (at about the 1:10 mark) MSNBC s Alex Witt, while speaking off the cuff during a live event, mischaracterized the women as hecklers. Download | Play Download | Play Protester: Your silence is consent to war crimes! McCain has been met with protest before in this campaign and it won t be last time he hears strong opposition from the American people on his war. He likes to talk about the freedoms our troops provide us, but on the Straight Talk Express, free speech is limited to those who agree with him and President Bush. Also note how McCain states that he didn t learn to love the United States until he went to Viet Nam.

Republican Presidential Candidate, John McCain, proposed a gas tax holiday which turned out to be a non-starter with the American people, then he flip flopped on offshore drilling, and now, with his latest proposal to help end our current energy crisis, the Arizona Senator proves why voters prefer Barack Obama over him when it comes to the economy and solving the energy crisis. Download | Play Download | Play Keith Olbermann talked to Chris Hayes from The Nation on Monday s Countdown about McCain s $300 million dollar offer to anyone who can design a Flash Gordon-y battery, and exposes it for the joke that it really is. McCain even said he would pay the hefty sum by cutting out pork barrel projects from his budget which is a bit confusing as he is supposed to be the savior who will step in and put an end to all pork barrel spending.

In a segment ending with the disclosure that Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is brought to you by The People of America s Oil and Natural Gas Industry and immediately followed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) front group s misleading ad, the Fox News host seized on one of John McCain s more recent flip-flops siding with President Bush s recent call to rescind the ban on offshore oil drilling and asked over and over why McCain won t cave all the way to big oil and also allow for oil exploration in the Alaskan Arctic Wildlife Refuge, ANWR. Download | Play Download | Play In the process of spewing talking points on behalf of his show s sponsor, Wallace brings Obama into the discussion by joining the growing list of conservative dittoheads in the media who have been repeating this same false claim made by McCain last Tues. about oil spills and Hurricane Katrina: Wallace: Obama talks about environmental damage from drilling offshore but the fact is the moratorium was put into effect in 1981. There s been a lot of technological advances since then. We had Hurricane Katrina go through the heart of the Gulf of Mexico and ravage these oil rigs and there were almost no oil spills, so what s he talking about? As ThinkProgress points out, that s not true at all. The truth is that Hurricane Katrina caused oil spillage so significant it was clearly visible from space. It also wreaked environmental havoc near the scale of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. As Sen Reid correctly pointed out, this recent push by George Bush nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy that will do nothing to lower energy prices, and represents another big giveaway to oil companies already making billions in profits. and the NYT went further to note that the only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land before their friends in power Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney exit the political stage. In fact, the oil industry has yet drilled in just 19 percent of the more than 40 million acres they already can that are not covered by the current ban 40 million acres that represent 79 percent of America’s technically recoverable offshore oil reserves. Using generous estimates from the latest analysis from Bush s own Department of Energy, allowing for unlimited drilling both offshore and in ANWR would lower the price at the pump by less than 6 cents by 2025. How much do you reckon a gallon of gas will be in 2025, with or without the hypothetical $0.06 a gal. savings?

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr tells Lindsay why he should be the next president of the United States.

Libertarin presidential candidate Bob Barr tried to impeach President Bill Clinton, but these days he d rather have Bill than Bush.

If you thought we needed another reason to consider Joe Lieberman a wanker there is this. I watched HBO s movie called Recount the other day and it reminded me once again about his painful appearance on Meet the Press where he gets scared out of doing what was right and does everything he can during the Florida election scandal in 2000 to get Bush elected Download | Play Download | Play Lieberman: My own point of view, if I was there, I would give the benefit of the doubt to ballots coming in from military personnel, generally, Mr. Lieberman said on NBC s Meet the Press. Of the local canvassing boards, he said, If they have the capacity, I d urge them to go back and take another look, because again, Al Gore and I don t want to ever be part of anything that would put an extra burden on the military personnel abroad. The conciliatory words came a day after Gov. George W. Bush s campaign and its surrogates accused the Democrats of a systematic campaign to have military votes, which are presumed to strongly favor Mr. Bush, thrown out, while some service members voiced anger at that possibility. We re getting kicked around for saying illegal votes are illegal votes, said a Democratic congressman from Florida. The Republicans got a lot of illegal votes counted on Friday that never would have been let in before, and now we re the ones retreating? Incredible. Telephone: Gore is going ballistic, what the hell just happened? Klain: I think Joe Lieberman just entered the 2004 primaries. correction (h/t seth) Thanks, Joe. Help John McCain all you want. NY Times: We re getting kicked around for saying illegal votes are illegal votes, said a Democratic congressman from Florida. The Republicans got a lot of illegal votes counted on Friday that never would have been let in before, and now we re the ones retreating? Incredible.

E.D. Hill, host of the freshly cancelled Fox News show, America s Pulse, connects presidential candidate, Barack Obama s hand gesture to terrorism.