Obama will come home, the dust will settle, we’ll move on to another news cycle, and McCain will once again be their man.

It’s getting harder and hard to pass of BS in today’s world of the internet.

First they laughed at bloggers, then then read them and then they tried to shut them out and now they are trying to avoid being skewered by them.

The old media is fading fast as more and more people use the net for information.

The BS kabuki is getting harder to pull off.

The net is too democratic for the fascists who run the show. Something has to give.

McCain is making lots of mistakes could the strain of the campaign be making him lose it? We were discussing this yesterday and now I’m even more convinced he is Second Term Reagen.

Some Newsmax “numbnuts” as Imus called him, is talking to Imus right now about Obama in the presumptuous uppity vein again. He started out by insulting Imus and then was too stoopid to realize it until I’m guessin’ somebody walked over and grabbed his shirt and said watch it, back at the Newsmax place.

Newsmax–official propaganda arm of the BuMac administration.

What is the radio/teevee version of advertorial? ’cause the Newsmax-Fox News stuff on Imus has gotta be bought and paid for.

The people of the Soviet Republics learned that what Pravda offered was not news and learned to read between the lines. I’m starting to get some hopes that the American public is starting to mistrust the media and the echo chamber in the same way.

Maybe, maybe not. Yes, they are fickle—so what else is new? Hard for him to complain with all of the showering of him they have done in the past. What? They haven’t had any good BBQ lately?

I would think that with the new plane and what you have to do to get a good seat that the reporters would finally realize that there is a price to pay for access, that is if they were too stoopid to realize it before, they should now. But then again, they’ve always been willing to pay it.

Same now with Obama.

If any of them had any objectivity and ethics to begin with we wouldn’t be in this mess. So what else is new?

Morning Scarecrow et al.

McCain as an angry, resentful, often befuddled old man.

Or as Gramm said [edited]

“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said,
“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining” he said.

I’m sure the media blinders to all things “McCainscrewsupagain” will be topic one this weekend on Reliable Sources….

How about Net Neutrality

I wonder if the press is getting tired of carrying, covering up for and selling a man they suspect is senile?
Remember the press sees McCain everyday we are only seeing the bits of McCain’s life that are on live TV that they can’t edit.

Morning Scarecrow!

Is Media’s McCain Love Affair Over?

I sure hope so.

maybe the tide has turned and the MSM just can’t keep up the pretense that McCain is not dotty.

I would love to see Dems fight back against this nonsense about civic participation being fascist/unAmerican/bad. I don’t know how to capture the message,but it needs to happen-NOW.

FDL is not my site,and I’m mostly a lurker(IOW,what the hell do I know?),but for the love of gawd,could ya’all remove Larry Johnson from your blogroll? The man is out of his damned mind and he’s attracting absolutely the worst kind of hate I’ve seen in quite awhile.

Sure just as soon as McCain collapses then the MSM will wonder if they should have said something.

They covered for Reagan,why not McCain?

As long as they have a steady supply of BBQ and cocktail weenies, what do they care?

Seriously, they may be bored but they also know how many newspapers and news orgs are laying off people. They still have jobs as long as they play it right. Being bored and sycophantic is the price they pay. They seem quite willing to keep it up.

Net Neutrality Gains Traction In 2008 Senate Races

The architect of John McCain’s forthcoming technology agenda may dismiss the concept of ‘net neutrality’ as inside baseball, but every single major Democratic candidate running for a senate seat in 2008 has recognized it as a fundamentally important issue that underlies the future of ideas and the economy. more…

Thanks for de-lurking with that excellent suggestion.

I’d like to see whatever Dems go on the Sunday bobblehead shows to start hammering on the hosts. The Rethugs in the Senate have shown they’re going to play obstructionist until the end of the session so what do the Dems have to lose? The Dems could make lotsa points by finally standing up for some our country’s core principles. Same goes for Dem appearances on the talking clown circuit on cable. These clowns make millions, let’s make them pay a price for it. Emails from folks like us would help as well.

Hey, Scarborough!! Yeah, you, slimeball. Ever read a book not written by Satann Coulter?

Well even with the covering up McCain is making lots of mistakes maybe McCain is in worse shape than Reagen, maybe the press can’t cover this up?

hopefully because he hasn’t been elected yet.

if you ask me,
I’m not wholly sure McCain will be the candidate come November.

It has begun to seem to me that the cruelest thing the press can do is to actually cover McCain. I wouldn’t mind it if cameramen dogged him 24-hours a day. If his staged coverage involves confused, petulant arguments in frnt of the cheese display and sausage lunches with used car salesmen, what would the unplanned coverage produce? But the McCain campaign says these events speak to the working class voters of Pennsylvania and Ohio. I wonder how they’ll like the Dalai Lama visit.

Am I wrong, or did the MSM obsess over those details of the latest NBC/WSJ poll which might be interpreted as unfavorable to Obama? It was barely discernable that the overall poll still showed a 6 point lead. All of the attention was on who was most risky, etc.

Things, I think I’m on your wavelength today

The would be boy king is irritating the 4th estate. They only like arrogance when it’s riding a bike or clearing brush.

I know you keep thinking this, but who else do they have to run? The back bench is pretty shaky.

Welcome!

And I totally agree. I cannot for the life of me understand the passivity Democrats seem to display far too often. Also, Dems need to come up with a tactic to shut down the overtalkers. Whether they be host or, just the most recent example, Heather Wilson overtalking Wexler yesterday on Hardball, and he just sat there takin’ it. They’ve had decades, centuries, millennia…the consultants charge gazillions…earn your money. Shut down the overtalkers.

you nail it on both fronts.

More TMZ/Youtube for McCain, ’cause the BBQ media ain’t gonna do their jobs.

you have a good point there to be sure, but McCain’s getting pretty wobbly.

Well if McCain collapses everyone will wonder if the press knew about it and stayed quiet.
But if the press had been doing their jobs the GOP would have had a stronger candidate with more time to get established, November is coming quick every day McCain holds out is one less day a new GOP candidate will have to get ready.
If we thought that Obama was going to win big before if McCain has to drop out now for health reasons we will get a landslide.
If McCain lasts another month or two even with a VP pick the loss of McCain so soon before the election will help us even more.

I was just going to say that? Were you here yesterday when we talked about McCain maybe having medical problems?

I saw that. I didn’t know that much about her except for her role in the David Ignacious (sp?) firing. She was dispicable in the conversation with Wexler. I almost want to move to New Mexico to vote against her.

I agree that Wexler seemed to sincerely try to make his points, rather than combat her insulting and scornful crap.

My thought is that all news organizations should have an independent ombudsman dept. that would be responsible to the public. They would have the authority to appear in time slot that committed an error.

I’ve wanted to see that for a a very long time. Only until Democrats begin to challange these talking heads that bend over backwards for the right in the interest of “balance” will any true semblance of balance in the media be returned. Obama should have challanged Couric’s straw man questions during his recent interview. Playing the straight man to these complicit and corrupted rich, celebrity “journalists” is a tactical and strategic error. Their integrity and veracity needs to be exposed for the sham that it is. Democrats should encourage the “people” at every opportunity to look to the internet for their information rather than a corporate media that puts profit before the peoples right to know.

That is a good question Huckabee is my biggest worry, Rudy is my pick for Snark purposes.

battered spouse reactions. They still haven’t let it sink in that they are the majority. Ether that or they like it. (ouch)

Didn’t she lose the repub Primary

The campaign trail is exhausting for a 40-something, much more so for a 70-something. I wonder how long McSFB can hold up. A total collapse before November wouldn’t surprise me. This guy hasn’t been engaged in this kind of activity in years. Flying back and forth between DC and his many homes and sittin’ on his ass in the Senate in between.

McSFB admits he’s more comfortable in town hall type settings. How does he think he can compete with someone who draws hundreds of thousands at rallies? The rally in Berlin has to have seriously unhinged the reich wing strategists. And these folks have absolutely no say come November, except the world saw it and was probably energized by it. I think McSFB is totally incapable of addressing a crowd of that magnitude.

In all fairness McSame gave a “memorable” speech in Louisiana the night Obama clinched the Dem. nomination. Remember, the one with the green background and a narceleptic audience. My friends, that was a speech to remember!

OTTune into http://www.cspan.org/ @ ten am
Thats all.

The rally in Berlin has to have seriously unhinged the reich wing strategists. And these folks have absolutely no say come November, except the world saw it and was probably energized by it. I think McSFB is totally incapable of addressing a crowd of that magnitude.

agreed, if he ever got a crowd approaching that size.
I think McCain is suffering greatly now, because he really really thought he was going to be President and he’s seeing it slip through his fingers.

Notice that McCain usually takes weekends off. His spin meisters present his townhall “prowess” as a positive thing and Obama’s crowd appeal as empty talk

Yes. You’re right. I remembered vaguely that her Senate atttempt was lost, but didn’t remember that she wasn’t going to run for her house seat. Still, she was infuriating enough that I might move out there just to vote against whoever she’s voting for.(Actually, I love New Mexico as a place to visit).

Morning, folks – the lovely server feeders finally got my IP address problem fixed. Big smooches going out to the FDL Mods and the server people. I’ve been one frustrated puppy over the past several weeks – I kept banging on the FDL front door and no one would let me in!!

and Colbert keeps airing green screen entrants for a contest he’s running. They are brilliant!

Welcome back Toby, we missed you :)

oh it is beautiful there.

(Hi Toby! glad they finally heard you and opened the door.)

What they need is editors. The sharp pencil guys decided a decade and a half ago that a news organization doesn’t need those green eyeshades — I mean, what do they do except check grammar, and we have computer programs that do that now. The business school types never understood that a newspaper is a layered organization. The reporters are supposed to report, the rewrite guys rewrite, and the editors go over the material to see if it makes sense and is true. Now the stuff comes out as raw as it went in, which means it doesn’t really matter whether a reporter tells the truth or not; his job no longer depends on it.

Friends, let’s not get so far ahead of ourselves about the election. Remember how we ridiculed W. in 2000 an 04? None of us with the power to reason could have anticipated that schmuk winning. They rigged it and this is what we have. It can happen again.

Vigilance and temperance.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool. And the great capitalist eagle shits today.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

This takes us back to yesterday. I don’t think McCain can keep up the pace. He’s running a traditional rethug type campaign that depends heavily on mass advertising and staged events like the so-called ‘town meetings’ (and watch what’s on your tee-shirt if you show up without a ticket). That’s all the thugs know how to do, because it’s worked for a quarter of a century. They will of course pull the gated community vote, but given the distribution of income in the US, that can’t amount to more than about 4 or 5 percent of potential voters. The bible-thumpers will be there, too, but that brings them only to about 20 percent. He’s missing 15 to 20 percent of the pukes’ people. It can only get worse.

I am betting that Bush will call the election off, in his capacity as CINC.

and volunteering to help a campaign near you…not just RevDeb! All of you and me too.

My two cents: Obama is hitting all the right notes in terms of his health – making sure he’s seen playing basketball, working out and all of that. He sounds young; he behaves like a guy who is in great shape and ready to rock and roll. McCain’s people are just doing a totally lackluster job – having him seen with George Bush I in a golf cart with everyone wearing sportcoats(on a golf outing? Maine can be nippy in the summer but those two guys looked like a couple of codgers – all that was missing were blankets). I read recently about a poll where people were asked to pick words to describe the candidates. Obama’s two big words were ‘young’(or ‘youthful’ or ‘energetic’ or something like that) and ‘change’. The choices on McCain were overwhelmed by the choice of the word “old”. Not ‘wise’ or ‘experienced’ or ‘credible’ or ‘trustworthy’ – OLD. I think what you will see is that Mitt Romney is picked – he’s someone with executive experience from being governor, he’s photo and tele-genic, and he’s already told the McCain campaign that he’s swallowing the $45 million in loans that he made his own campaign. I think they will want to team McCain to Romney in the hopes that Romney’s relative youth combined with his experience will be enough to help McCain. They forget that the group they are looking to attract as voters are not attracted to Romney. But in terms of who they have to pick from…I’m not sure they have a whole lot of choices that don’t offend some part of the base.

I agree and I worry that McCain is pushing himself too much but if he does collapse then no Presidential candidate will be able to duck the medical records issue like McCain did.
John gave the press how much time to look at his records I think without letting them take notes.

Editors may have performed that task in the past but they’re gone and ain’t coming back. An ombudsman role could be marketed and serve the function of getting correct information out – eventually

The Obama campaign sent a shot over Adam Nagourney’s bow last night, one he won’t forget. He cried like a baby that they didn’t ’seek him out first’, so they could straighten out their differences in private. I like Obama’s brass-nuckles approach to guys like Adam, who like to many journalists thing it’s all about them. He’s got another think coming. If you want to play with the big guys, you have to expect to take the big hits. I don’t know why Kerry wasn’t tougher. Personality, I suppose.

Josh Marshall on prez as CINC, and only CINC.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/205590.php

Yet another example of the U.S. military being a really big hammer & thus every international problem looks like a nail. Middle section of democracynow this morning includes some evaluation of how this will continue in an Obama administration.

I think that’s good advice. This has been a strange week for McCain, frustrating having to watch the Obama tour — but it’s also been a week in which his campaign has voiced its strongest attacks on Obama, so one wonders whether those are taking a toll or not.

On last night’s PBS NewsHour, there was a lengthy report using three European reporters — German, French, British — getting reactions to Obama’s speech, and there were mostly gushing about Europe’s favorable reactions to Obama and general and the speech. Near the end of the segment, there was a question “how about McCain?” and they all had respectful, but less enthusiastic answers. The story was about Obama, and the last question was just so PBS could claim “balance.”

The media are backing McCain more strongly than the Republican Party is. McCain, however, is such a flawed candidate that even they can’t spin away all his weaknesses or explain away all of his mistakes. My barometer in this is ABCNews which consistently spins against Obama. I will really know that the media has given up on McCain when ABC does, but to be honest I just don’t see that happening. Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos are just too in the bag for the Republicans. It’s important to remember that most media “stars” are multimillionaires and they made their millions following the corporate line of sucking up to Republicans. Now they essentially are Republicans and their covrage of both McCain and Obama will reflect this.

so true, so true
How did George Bush even come close to winning a second term?

.
Namaste SD

Well said. It’s time to redouble our efforts, volunteering and donating until it hurts. Without a sustained, aggressive effort on all fronts the Republicans will continue to manipulate the media and the fears of the public to steal yet another election. If McSame pulls this out it will be the final straw the breaks the back of the American experiment.

it is remarkable how badly he’s doing. maybe his maverickness only extends to ignoring his handlers …

I agree. I’m not confident at all about winning, even though the Republicans should have conceded already, based on every criterion which should matter. To me there’s always been a question of whether or not the electorate is well-informed enough to make democracy work. Voting fraud aside, I know enough people who don’t follow politics at all, but buy into all of the Republican wedge issues and think they need to vote to perform their civic duty.

Just a week ago, my wife and I visited an old high school friend who I’ve seen only occasionally in 40 years. He was never interested in politics. He told some joke, the punchline of which was disparaging to Obama. My wife said something like, “Watch that stuff, we’re for him.” My friend’s brow furrowed and he said, “Aren’t you concerned about his associations?”
That’s not a phrase he would normally use. It has to be Rush Limbaugh, e-mails, or some other source he’s paying attention to. I’m afraid he will probably vote.

Yeah, I’ve been following Couric/CBS the same way.

McCain is still very close in the polls.

Did you see Gibson’s interview with Obama on ABC News several nights ago? Gibson has his wire rimmed glasses at the end of his nose trying to give the impression that he is an intellect of substance and then proceeds to try and corner the Senator with more straw man questions. Gibson is but one of many rich celebrity “journalists” that have much to lose if Obama wins. Access should be denied to all the rich celebrity bubbleheads the day after the election. Without access their careers are finished.

Good Morning Scarecrow

I’m late to the thread, but I just love the irony here. Remember a couple of weeks ago when McCain was hammering Obama so hard for not having gone to Iraq? File that one under “Be careful what you ask for”. Getting al Maliki’s endorsement for a timetable is so huge that only yesterday’s crowd in Berlin could take people’s minds off that. Coupled with McCain’s simultaneous Iraq/Pakistan border gaffe, Obama now owns all issues Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan related. And that was McCain’s only issue.

Finally, the McCain campaign’s self-p3wnage yesterday is just too much. I mean, really, Schmidt’s Sausage Haus in Columbus, Ohio to counter 200,000 in Berlin? The guys at The Daily Show and Colbert Report must have peed their pants when they got the news. They really wouldn’t have written anything so stupid themselves.

On last night’s PBS NewsHour, there was a lengthy report using three European reporters — German, French, British — getting reactions to Obama’s speech, and there were mostly gushing about Europe’s favorable reactions to Obama and general and the speech.

I watched some reporting about the speech on Deutsche Welle, German TV (it’s a fill-in on the PA Cable Network overnight, every other hour is in English) and that was the general reaction there, too. The contrast between the two candidates = no contest. The people of Europe are hoping for change, even if what exactly the change will be wasn’t specific in Obama’s speech, they don’t want Bush 3.

Couple of points. Obama stated that he would not be taking any shots while he was beyond our shores.
Europe and SE asia don’t have a single electoral vote. Repub spin meisters are pushing the who cares what europe thinks theme

I think McCain is a First Term Jeb Bush.

Josh is right. Obama seems to be making a point about the President setting the strategy/policy, and the military implementing it because the CinC tells them what the policy is, not the other way around. And his point about Afghanistan versus Iraq is that McCain may have military experience, but he chose the “wrong war,” is intended to make this distinction between Prsident and CinC.

OT – the hearing loosely based on Kucinich’s Motion To Impeach is scheduled to go off at 10:00 A.M., with a long list of witnesses and topic. Looks like it will be on CSpan1.

I find myself wondering how long this hearing may take. Scheduled for just today? weeks?

If this is a one-timer, complete with the always inadequate 5-minute questioning limit, it’s a farce before it even starts.

So, if the GOP has a poor candidate, issues that definitely bite them in the backside 100%, etc., what’s their strategy? Steal the election? How do we prepare for THAT? How do we stop THAT? 50 State Strategy aside — what’s to stop them from repeats of 2000 and 2004?

Diebold and Friends helped GWB over the finish line, that’s how.

Personally, I find McCain’s campaign strategy brilliant. Using 50 year-old songs to make fun of your political opponent and your supposed base is absolute genius. I’m sure we’ll see McCain’s bump in the polls very soon. Actually, Kristol’s already written his Sunday column about it.

There’s no way the Republicans can lose with that kind of campaigning.

Last 2 times they stole the election. Maybe this time they’ll cancel it, due to terra.

It is precisely the CINC defense of Bush that is used against the argument of President has committing “abuse of power”. He has abused the power of Commander-in-Chief ,among other abuses. Yet somehow all is forgiven because of his alleged rank. Josh is right.

Good Morning Scarecrow and Firedogs,

oh my Scarecrow, Bowers nails it in your “phony charge they’re being unfair” link

here’s some gratuitous driftglass goodness for y’all

Horter argument: Bush has abused the power of CINC.

—damn, I have to get the donut sugar off my keyboard….

Can’t help but remember the headline in a London daily in November 2004 that asked “How can 56 million be so stupid?” You can bet the Republicans and their media water bearers will try and capitalize on the ignorance of the American public.

I do think the Obama campaign can come back and push a little on the line that McCain needs to go to Europe and reassure them that the U.S. will be able to work well with it’s old allies, regardless of who wins the election. They can quote European polls to show unpopularity with Bush, unease about future relations, and point out the necessity for good will and cooperation in order to fight the infinite war on terrorism and keep us safe in our beds.

This will be nothing more than bad Kabuki theater. Does anyone think this Congress will act on Kuccinich’s indictment of this criminal regime? Too many Democrats are complicit in the crimes of this administration. Self-preservation, not justice or the Constitution, is their motivation at this point.

the world is holding its breath to see a change of of guard, however, some of the world is also concerned that the margin of that happening is so very slim – the world does not not see Obama as a messiah or even a FDR or Dr King resurrected bc he is not – it understands he is another machine politician and even if he wins the nov08 presidential election, it’s going to be a tough fight in 2012 – I do not see the tough leadership required to steer the USA out of a deep recession – all I see is an ambitious machine politician who is somewhat historically uninformed and culturally dense bc he “loves america” …………..

He has already dispossesed the Hashemite Arabis by declaring Jerusalem as the ‘miracle’ Israel capital and that puts a dead end full stop to further US role to any resolution but that’s not a new phenomenon since we’ve already seen that re apartheid S Africa.

A query – i know your msm is not worth the potable water to flush it down – why doesn’t your vaunted capitalism provide you with alternatives?

I have spent many years in the USA and one thing that really stuck in my mind is that ‘Im alrite jack and bugger the rest’ attitude that I couldn’t come to terms with ………..

I’m Australian and Brit (EU), married to a Canadian, and I know Europe very well but I still can’t figure out why you lot are so gung ho re Obama when he doesn’t offer a vision ……………..

You do not have a vision? Don’t you even ask of your politicians to have one? If not, why not?

Raising the age-old question of whether lip service is better than no service at all.

OT- Listening right now to Jane being interviewed on NPR. Way to go Jane! You tell ‘em!

You can bet the Republicans and their media water bearers will try and capitalize on the ignorance of the American public.

Yep. If I’m the McCain people, my ads in the last 2 weeks before the election say this “Hi, my name is John McCain. I am a Republican. Please vote for me.”

“I’m John McCain, and I approve of this message.”

Really, how much more does the Republican-coveted low-information voter need?

Why else would there be such a long list of witnesses other than to obscure and obfuscate

“I’m John McCain, and I approve of this message.”

“And I’m white.”

You do not have a vision? Don’t you even ask of your politicians to have one? If not, why not?

U.S. pols have been completely corrupted by money. Legislation is written by lobbyists. Etc.

Voters have no choice, because they’re all alike. When I submitted my complaints to the Obama reps at Netroots Nation (how he’s stiffed the Left at every turn since he got the nomination), the little snits snarked: so what’s your choice?

The Washington Post runs Dan Balz coverage of the Obama speech, mostly favvorable, on page A6; their front page is McCain about to make VP selection.

Nice to hope, but…my sister just recently sent out a mass emailing that included that picture of Obama and Osama and the statement that “The only difference between Obama and Osama is the letter ‘b’”. She STILL thinks he is a crypto-Muslim.

The email itself pisses me off for the surface bullshit of it, but it also pisses me off that she (and others) would give a crap if a candidate is a Muslim or not. WHO CARES? Personally, I’d love to vote for an atheist but the American Taliban-Xtians wouldn’t permit that any more than they’d allow a Hindu, Buddhist, or any other non-Xtian.

These people really don’t understand what the United States was SUPPOSED to be about (it wasn’t about Jaysus! Ever).

But the fact is, whatever John McCain once was . . .,

with all due respect, I don’t think McCain has changed one wit, just that the glare got a lot brighter.

this is what Cliff, Greenwald, and others have been telling us for a while

it isn’t that ‘bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran’ impulsively came outta some straight talker’s pie hole, it reflects what they all have been telling him for 22+ years was teh clever

as long as the kewl quarterback was willing to let the journo geeks sit at his lunch table, occasionally sharing juicy gossipy tidbits about other politicos, everything was jake

as long as he appealed to their pusillanimous vanity, tousled their hair, with the occassional ‘pull my finger’, and paid attention to the little f**kers, they ignored EVERYTHING

You know, I sort of expect fawning coverage of McCain from the MSM. But I thought that CBS doctoring its interview of McCain was just WAY over the line.

The overall “vision” (some would call the vision a “hallucination”) is “Every man for himself!” and its corollary “Hurrah for me, too bad for you!”

Well, I am looking forward to watching this HJC hearing and it’s my belief that John Conyers is committed to getting to the truth about the many areas the president has lied to the public.
I watched almost all of Mr. Kucinich’s reading of his list of articles of impeachment to the house and was moved to tears several times.
This is an important step towards calling them to accountability.
And, I’m glad that it will be on CSpan.

We admit that, sadly, we have no John Howard visionaries. If you don’t understand it after your many years in the U.S., I guess we can’t explain it, but please use your European expertise to explain why they are so obsessed with Obama.

I meant John Conyer — no S. Sorry.

I agree with you demi,
plus it’ll be on the record, too.

We, the US, need to hold these racketeers to account

Btw, hearing up on CSPAN 1

Hearing firing up – CSpan 1…

Cheers erupting for Dennis the K…

Or maybe for Mrs. Kucinich…… heh.

Speaking of forever young, someone has a birthday today. New post ready.

Here’s the Witness List
via Politico

Here’s the full witness list released by the Judiciary Committee for Friday’s session:

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich, Representative from Ohio
The Honorable Maurice Hinchey, Representative from New York
The Honorable Walter Jones, Representative from North Carolina
The Honorable Brad Miller, Representative from North Carolina

Panel Two

The Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Representative from New York
The Honorable Bob Barr, Former Representative from Georgia, 2008 Libertarian Nominee for President
The Honorable Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, Founder and President, High Roads for Human Rights
Stephen Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law
Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General, 1981-82, Chairman, American Freedom Agenda
Vincent Bugliosi, Author and former Los Angeles County Prosecutor
Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
Elliott Adams, President of the Board, Veterans for Peace
Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr., Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

McCaine still has Gloria Borger. A dead-ender if there ever was. Keep an eye on her because if she flips, it’s all over.

You probably would be more persuasive if you were less condescending, and better informed. Many of us here have had concerns about Obama and his lack of progressive stands from the beginning. Some of us, like me, pulled our support of him over the FISA Amendments Act. Personally, I could care less about a politician’s vision. Visions do not solve problems.

re: “The Media’s Love Affair”

Perhaps the reporters traipsing around with McSame are getting a bit tired of his crankiness, his befuddlement, his general obnoxiousness, but their handlers, i.e. Corporate Bosses, have lost no love at all for the Benevolent St. John. The Corporate Bosses decide what the meme for their news organizations will be, and the meme is “Elect McCain”. Hence, we will continue to see campaign “news” massively slanted toward McCan’t.

A Republican led FCC is good to MSM Corporate Bosses. A Democratic led FCC tries to be good to American citizens. The MSM is Republican. The media will always be rooting for McSame. That is, until his “heart attack” or “recurrence of his melanoma” and Jebbie riding on the wings of the Fallen Angel Diebold comes to the rescue.

Scarecrow said:

The Washington Post runs Dan Balz coverage of the Obama speech, mostly favorable, on page A6; their front page is McCain about to make VP selection.

True, but in the dead-tree edition at least, there is a huge picture that runs all the way from the top to below the fold, of a packed-in, delirious crowd cheering Obama. Caption:

Barack Obama greets a crowd estimated at 200,000 as he arrives in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park. The Democratic presidential candidate urged Americans and Europeans to renew their long partnership to confront the issues of the 21st centry.

Ah — that’s a huge difference. Thanks for the tip.

the censorship of the MSM is not out in plain sight, but hidden between the lines by limiting what the vast majority of americans see in the “news” programs. Real news, hard news, is down to less than 7 min-or to the first commercial break-and the rest of the 22 min is filled with the same things you get in the 3 hour morning “news” programs. So CBS changes what McCain really said. Is this really a surprise? 4 years ago the networks would have gotten away with all of their bias towards the republician candidate, the only reason that they can’t now is because of the internet, the dissemination of what is happening in the world is no longer in the control of the networks-which is why they are shedding viewers so fast-but is now in the hands of the people. Unfortunately, the 50% of the electorate who are in fact sheeple, still only get their “news” from the networks. Those networks shape what the sheeple will hear, pointing them towards the candidate favored by the oligarchs-the ones that bush and st john are in the pockets of-I believe depending on how the nov election goes(r’s win, then 10-20 years to total dissolution of the republic of the US, D’s win, then 30-50 years to the same outcome. A theocratic oligarchy dictatorship)maybe a few years less if the drop out rate is not taken care of. schools report a 2-12% drop out rate, in reality it is anywhere from 30% to a max of 79% of students who start HS but never graduate. When the schools tell the govt what their NCLB drop out rate is, they are lying. The true rate is somewhere in the area of 100-500% higher. Check out your local school, you have to really look into their figures, but each and every school lies. If we do not get control of this, within 20 years we will be a 3rd world nation. A country is only as good as its education, and ours is horrible.

the one thing they’re not allowed to report.

Scarecrow, I am puzzled by your exact meaning here. Are you saying that reporters want to report on what a befuddled old coot McCain is, but their editors won’t let them [i.e., they’ve turned in such reports & gotten ‘em tossed], or they know their editors won’t publish them [so they don’t even write such reports] or that the reporters don’t see it themselves?

In the case of Borgia & Gibson, it’s easy to see that they have no intent of reporting the truth, but are there print journalists out there who’d like to, but can’t?