Christy Hardin Smith

Autumn leaves in WV via Capn Madd Matt.We had some neighbors over for dinner last night. Nothing fancy -- some snacks, a little salad and some pizza. They have kids, one of whom is The Peanut's age, and after I got the dogs to (mostly) stop barking at the visitors, we settled the kids in with a movie while the adults talked about life and politics and the craziness of it all right now.

This from (PDF) the APA is harsh.  And George Bush earned every word of it: "The effect of this new policy is to prohibit psychologists from any involvement in interrogations or any other operational procedures at detention sites that are in violation of the U.S. Constitution or international law...

Election Day Hell, starring Homer Simpson. Hopefully not coming to an electronic voting machine near you...In case it does, the Brennan Center has some great resources available for your perusal. Plus, last month a non-partisan group called Election Protection, headed up by the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law -- launched an election protection effort that has a lot of fantastic information available for the public.  More from TPM. Their website has a handy state-by-state reference section. And Election Protection also has a hotline -- 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

This moment, when Joe Biden talked about being a single parent unsure whether his child would make it after his wife and child were tragically killed in a car accident? Most real thing I've seen in politics in a long, long time. When he was speaking about the folks he grew up with in Scranton and Wilmington -- their fear about how to pay for the heat in the winter, and groceries, and medical bills? You could feel the empathy pouring out of the television.

There is a discovery dispute hubbub in Sen. Ted Stevens' trial...

This could be a right-wing tango from hell.  Yesterday, CBS aired a "Vice Presidential Questions" series on the Supreme Court.  Sarah Palin's inability to name another SCOTUS case beyond Roe with which she disagrees has gotten press. What flew mostly under the radar was this Palin pronouncement: COURIC: Do you think there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution? PALIN: I do. Yeah, I do.

McCain in 1973 from Library of Congress via PingNews.

McCain in 1998:

...character -- I'm trying to think who it was who said, "Character is who you are in the dark." 

Okay, flyboy, let's hold you to your own standard.  From a brutal piece of reporting in Rolling Stone: 

McCain displayed little of Hope's valor....McCain took no part in dousing the flames himself....

Jeebus, could media hyperventilation get more ludicrous? "If Palin, as she is expected to do, goes into a full blown attack...Biden must resist doing the one thing that comes so naturally to him. He can't smile. As Biden likes to say on the stump, he "literally, literally" cannot flash the famous Biden wall of teeth, that reflexive wide-angle grin."...Holy crock o' shite.

That phrase "pre-9/11 mindset" gets thrown around a lot, in conservative neocon circles especially.  Well, here's a clear view of John McCain's pre-9/11 mindset, from a 1998 Mother Jones interview...

Sitting here waiting for George Bush, who will be speaking momentarily. Peggy Noonan is hoping he'll inspire us. Um...yeah. Bush walks out to face the clicking cameras, and looks rumpled and peevish. Will transcribe as quickly as I can: Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted on a financial rescue plan that had been negotiated by Congressional leaders of both parties and by my Administration.