News aggregator

Politics aside, the opening ceremonies for the Olympics in Beijing Friday night were nothing short of spectacular. Beautiful, creative, synchronized, and perfectly produced - combined with a state-of-the-art stadium - the ceremony in Beijing was one for the ages. The show was truly a sight to behold and has definitely raised the bar for the rest of the world. In case you missed it live, NBC has the video.

U.S. athletes got off on the right foot as American fencers Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson, and Becca Ward took the gold, silver, and bronze. The overnight medal count from SI shows the U.S. with eight medals - tied with China for the lead. However, China leads the gold category with six gold medals thus far.

Michael Phelps broke his own world record in the 400m medley to win gold and is focused on breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals.  

Dara Torres, 41-year old phenom/inspiration, anchored the women's freestyle relay team to a second place finish, earning her tenth Olympic medal.  Wow. Just, wow.

Team USA, the men's basketball team, routed China 101-70 in front of a home crowd.  However, SI reports that the American players are so popular in China, it negated the home court advantage because the Chinese were cheering equally as loud for the American superstars.

The U.S. women's soccer team escaped Japan yesterday, 1-0.  The men's team was within reach of a semi-finals bid, but allowed a Netherlands goal in the final seconds of the match. Instead of sailing on to the quarterfinals, they'll have to claw back out of this group with a tie or victory against Nigeria.

Politics not aside, there is still trouble in China, including a continued censorship of Internet access. Sports writers, like the KC Star's Joe Posnaski have been surprised to discover they can't even view their own blogs (Joe's reports are usually entertaining). He's been emailing his wife reports so that she can get them posted.

A small Pro-Tibet group of American protesters were detained after displaying a Tibetan flag for less than a minute in Beijing.

Protests continue outside of China as well.

Elsewhere Friday, protests against China's human rights record were held in a number of countries, including India, Nepal, Turkey, England, France, Belgium, Germany and Thailand.

Most demonstrators focused on China's treatment of Tibetans. Others focused on China's restrictions on freedom of religion and expression, as well as its treatment of minorities.

In the Turkish capital, Ankara, a man set himself on fire outside the Chinese Embassy during a protest by ethnic Uighurs against China's human rights record.

In Nepal, police detained more than 1,000 Tibetan exiles gathered outside the Chinese Embassy to protest China's crackdown on anti-government protesters in Tibet.

Perhaps the saddest news from the opening weekend of the Olympics is a report that a Chinese man attacked the in-laws of the U.S. Olypic men's volleyball coach at a tourist site.

The victims were Todd and Barbara Bachman, parents of former Olympian Elisabeth Bachman, who is married to men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. Bachman's father was killed.

The assailant also stabbed and injured a Chinese female tour guide with the Americans. He then committed suicide by throwing himself off a 130-foot-high balcony of the ancient landmark the Americans were visiting, the 13th century Drum Tower, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

On Sunday morning, the men's volleyball team took the court, without their coach, and played an emotional game, defeating Venezuela 3-2.

Reuters has the story:

The United States must provide a "very clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to stay beyond this year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday.

It was the strongest public assertion yet that Iraq is demanding a timeline. U.S. President George W. Bush has long resisted setting a firm schedule for pulling troops out of Iraq, although last month the White House began speaking of a general "time horizon" and "aspirational goals" to withdraw.

[...]

[Zebari] would not be drawn on the precise dates that Iraqi negotiators are seeking for withdrawal, saying the document was not yet final. Iraqi officials have said they would like to see all combat troops out by October 2010.

An agreement that included that date would require the Bush administration effectively to accept a timeline almost identical to the one proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who opposed the 2003 invasion.

I'm not banking on the establishment media to seriously call the Bush administration -- or John McCain, who is seeking to extend the Bush administration for another four to eight years -- on the increasingly clear statements from the Iraqi government and people that like the American people they want to see U.S. military forces on their way out of Iraq. But in an alternative universe in which Republicans weren't given a leg up at every turn by the Beltway press, you could imagine this having an impact on the presidential race and the way that reporters cover it.

Tags: Iraq, Barack Obama, White House 2008 (all tags)

In "McCain takes lead on YouTube hits", Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times, in a feat as amazing as squeezing raindrops from a rock, concludes from the number of hits on McCain's YouTube channel that McCain has "figured out the younger generation just fine." Dinan's article echoes what's been chattered about on cable news coverage of McCain's "Celeb" ad--that the ad's YouTube popularity is allegedly evidence that younger voters are "tuning in" to John McCain:

Mr. McCain has pumped out a series of brutal yet entertaining attack ads and Web videos mocking the press and Mr. Obama, and the combination of wit and insult has pushed his YouTube channel to the sixth most watched on the site this week. Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama's channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote.

That is a giant reversal. Mr. Obama had been quadrupling Mr. McCain's YouTube views and beat him every day since February, according to TubeMogul, which tracks online video

Dinan admits that Obama's YouTube channel still dominates with 51 million views, but states that McCain is "catching up" with 4.1 million hits.

Equating YouTube hits with candidate popularity or relevance is obviously a flawed calculus which is easily embraced by those eager to pump out a "tech in 2008" story. Yes, McCain's two most recent ads - "Celeb" and "The One" -- have indeed been YouTube hits. "Celeb" boasts 1.9 million hits, and "The One" has been viewed some 1.1 million times.

Yet, while McCain's "Celeb" ad and "The One" ad have received over a million hits each, those are the only two McCain ads to have crossed that threshold. All of McCain's other ads are lucky to break 300,000 hits. In contrast, Obama's ads almost universally break the 1 million hit barrier, with his race speech having almost 5 million hits.

But the hits are not what's important. Just because you slow to look at a car wreck doesn't mean you love the carnage of the accident. People are looking at the "Celeb" and "The One" ads out of curiosity, and not because youth voters can be wooed by Britney Spears and Paris Hilton references.

To disprove Dinan's entire article, one need only look at how YouTube users have rated McCain's ads. Sure, people are flocking to McCain's channel these last couple of weeks, but both ads barely garner a two-star rating (on a five-star scale). Indeed, most of McCain's ads receive less three stars or less. Obama's ads all have either four or five star ratings.

So, in short, people are flocking to see the McCain ads for the same reason people flocked to see Paris's sex tape---some things are so bad, you can't help but look.

Need more evidence that McCain isn't making any inroads with the YouTube crowd? A recent Democracy Corps poll reinforces the fact that the youth vote is Obama's--and Obama's alone:

The most recent national survey of young voters conducted by Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner finds that the last six weeks have not dulled young people’s support for Barack Obama, despite the inauguration of a Republican attack machine. The new research finds the same convincing margin (27 points) as last month.

And really, when Paris Hilton's ad---which says McCain is so old he remembers when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket -- already has almost 6.4 million hits and has received rave reviews, any claim that McCain nets a positive out of this is just absurd.

Those seeking to gauge candidate support among the "kids" are best served not by simply adding up YouTube view counts, but by looking at what really counts--how they are showing their support for a candidate, both on and offline.  Who are they organizing for on college campus? Are they buying up Obama shirts or McCain shirts? Are they dipping into their Ramen noodle budget to donate to Republicans or Democrats? Are they getting up early on a Saturday morning to attend an Obama rally or a McCain Townhall?  Those are hard indicators of which candidate best relates to the youth of this nation. And all indicators are that McCain, even with his new snarky ads, just isn't cutting it.

• We can't drill our way out when "America consumes roughly 24% of the world's oil supplies yet the U.S. has only 2% of the world's oil reserves."
  
• Do women have an inner glass ceiling?


• Click here for news, because Avedon always finds the cool stuff.


• McCain's "One" ad is explicitly calling Obama the Antichrist to a certain segment of the public. (via)


• Adultery is very fascinating and all, but like, dude, Russia and Georgia just started a war.


• Liberals have pottymouths. This makes everything we say totally effing irrelevant.


• Our system incentivizes cheating workers out of benefits, so it shouldn't be surprising when it happens, even if it's sad.


• McCain, Obama, Big Oil.


• Some thoughts on the totalitarian trade show going on in Beijing.


• George Orwell's diaries are coming online. If you're following along at home, this is a good time to put that 'destroy old diaries' task in your scheduler, while you're thinking about it.


• The House Minority Leader thinks that the Speaker of the House should be hanged. Hey look, look over there! Adultery!

Now, you. What's up?

Tags: blog news, news roundup, open thread (all tags)

If you glance over to the right hand margin, you’ll see a diary written by a group of staunch, progressive allies from the Americans for Cures Foundation. They are one of many science advocacy groups operating on a shoestring budget who take on massive anti-science think tanks with limitless financial resources. These talented scientists, proven entrepreneurs, and visionary leaders could sit back and make a lucrative living working for corporate America. They’ve chosen instead to dedicate their professional careers opposing the forces of ignorance and greed for the mere possibility of helping millions of injured and sick Americans with shattered dreams and broken bodies become whole again.

Science stands on the cusp of dramatic new breakthroughs with the promise of improving and saving the lives of millions of Americans. Regenerative Medicine: it is the most exciting field of medical research since the development of surgery or the invention of antibiotics. But before venture capitalists and medical researchers can do molecular battle against virtually every currently incurable disease and irreparable injury afflicting humanity, we will all have to and defeat the powerful, entrenched anti-science and anti-cure movements. The stakes are literally life and death. And the anticure movement isn't the least bit hesitant to lie their asses off.

For example, every year hopeful parents flock to in vitro fertilization clinics. There, under controlled conditions, human eggs are extracted from the mother and carefully fertilized. The tiny fertilized eggs, referred to as blastocysts, are then implanted back in the mother's womb. With a little luck, one or more might begin developing into an embryo. If everything goes as planned, nine months later a child is born. For many couples this is the only way they will ever know the joy of having their own children. But what of the blastocysts left over, slated for destruction, that could be used to save countless lives? You have to see it to believe it.  

The image to the right courtesy of Karen Wehrstein illustrates the absurdity of justifying Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell research with claims that it 'saves children.' Thousands of leftover blastocysts, each about the size of the period at the end of this sentence, are discarded every year from IVF clinics. A handful could be diverted from certain destruction in a medical incinerator and kept alive for research into regenerative cures. Banning or restricting that research won't save a single one. It only guarantees all of them will be destroyed. Social conservative leaders and the politicians that pander to them call that certain destruction 'saving lives.' This inexcusable deception, waste and tragic stupidity is but a single gloomy corner in the dark, bizarro world inhabited by today's conservative denizens.

Regenerative medicine relies on research done on embryonic, adult, or cancer stem cells, it could combine somatic cell transfer, therapeutic cloning, and genetic engineering, but it means exactly what it sounds like. Over the last few centuries, medical science has made enormous strides minimizing the complications of trauma or disease. But regenerative medicine now offers the possibility of regrowing completely new, healthy cells, tissue, or even whole custom made organs or limbs to replace those damaged or lost. Despite being hamstrung, delayed, and at times plain shut down at every turn by the Bush Administration and their knuckle dragging loyalists, the first tantalizing experimental treatments are finally here.  

Regenerative therapy shows great promise for aggressively treating and perhaps, one day, curing the estimated 25 million diabetics in the US. Diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness, heart problems, kidney disease, amputation, and premature death:

San Diego-based Novocell, reported earlier this year that they "stopped diabetes" when they implanted modified human embryonic, insulin-making cells into mice.  ... Challenges remain, but the chief scientist at Novocell vowed, "I’m convinced we’re going to do it....it’s going to take some time, but we can do this."

Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, California hopes to clear the last minute regulatory hurdles that seem to keep popping up, and begin clinical trials of an embryonic stem cell derived treatment for spinal cord injuries this year, other companies with similar approaches will follow suit. There are over a quarter million Americans with severe spinal cord injuries (Including hundreds of veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam); roughly half of them are quadriplegics, paralyzed from the neck down. The average life-time cost for traditional treatment of SCI ranges from half a million to over a million dollars. Since the median age at time of injury is 31 years-old, the  loss in wages, taxes, and increased health insurance premiums is in the tens of billions.

Parkinson’s, MS, leukemia and other cancers, macular degeneration, burn victims, ... This paragraph could go on all day. It would be far easier to enumerate the illnesses and injuries that cannot be theoretically treated with regenerative medicine than to list those that can.

In a sane, moral world, when and if the day comes when a paralyzed Iraq War veteran stands up from his wheelchair and walks or thousands of healthy children throw away their glucose monitors and insulin, it would signal the demise of the anticure movement. But we’re not dealing with sane, moral people. In years past these are the same folks who would have led a pitchfork carrying mob to lynch the world's first surgeons or burn down an early laboratory developing a primitive vaccine for smallpox. These days, the same kind of clowns spend their time begging for money on TV in between diagnosing Terri Schiavo from a video tape and blaming Hurricane Katrina on a parade.

The vast majority of what is often called the religious right is indeed composed of kind, decent caring people. They live by the Sermon on the Mount: they give to the poor, heal the sick, comfort the dying. For them, honesty, humility, and mercy are virtues. Lying, cheating, and stealing are a sin. But for the pampered fundamentalist crooks who prey upon those political congregations, telling lies and cheating their followers for power and profit is a job.

Dominionist leaders have been seduced by power and wealth, and they’re not about to relinquish it, even if that means defying the will of the electorate, rejecting common sense, and condemning millions of Americans to needless suffering and preventable death. If they can't prevent cures at the federal level, they'll work state-by-state.

In Colorado, for example, a grassroots organization wants Colorado citizens to legally define the fused nuclei of an egg and a sperm as a "person." The logic goes that if a single cell is a person, then doing research on it would be illegal, or even criminal. The always unhelpful Christian law firm Thomas More Law Center based in Michigan wrote most of Colorado legislation, and word is similar anti-stem cell legislation will suddenly appear on the November 2008 ballots in Oregon, Montana and Georgia, to name a few.

Perhaps the best examples of what’s in store for the nation -- assuming the next President lifts the current federal ban on ESCR -- can be seen in preview in California, where residents overwhelmingly voted in 2004 to bypass Bush's ESCR ban. Despite being thrashed soundly at the ballot box, opponents of regenerative medicine have managed to bring research and development to a crawl. They’ve stripped out or discouraged preference for embryonic stem cells and replaced it with an emphasis on alternatives; worked diligently to discourage private investment using any potential regenerative therapies by creating costly, time consuming regulatory hurdles; they work to stall approval of clinical trials by placing them 'under review' in infinite, ideologically stained auditing, governmental, and consulting loops, until the desired outcome is reached by one of those politically controlled orgs.

Bush & McCain's proud to be ignorant religious liaisons will fight tooth and nail to prevent or postpone the development of therapeutic applications from therapeutic cloning and ESCR, for no other reason than to preserve the already specious talking point that no therapies have been developed using them. Conservative ideology may have failed publicly and spectacularly. But its hallmark circular reasoning and shameless duplicity are alive and well in the senior ranks of conservative leadership. They still have a robust, seamlessly integrated, multi-media grassroots message machine capable of amplifying any lie or distortion they dream up and force feeding it to an entire nation, regardless if that nation is more than fed up with their medieval bullshit.

We've lost two Presidential terms worth of critical work in regenerative cures, an eight year gap that can never be filled. For too many sick and injured people who might have benefited had a wiser President and Congress been in power, the clock has already run out, their race is run. But there are millions more we can still help.

Yet another reason to vote for progressives. And if that's not enough motivation, consider this: If you live long enough, sooner or later you will probably fall prey to one or more of the diseases and injuries regenerative medicine might cure. Given those odds, it’s a fair bet that one of the lives you help save will, sooner or later, be your own.

Your one stop pundit shop.

Terry Box isn't going to feel guilty about his car, and says that:

...despite the growing drumbeat against them, the allegations that they're melting glaciers and maiming thousands, the claim that we're choking on them, the fear that they're our worst national addiction, I love them dearly.

They are my "carma." And I refuse to go on the national guilt trip about them.

Peter Mansoor, David Petraeus' former boy Friday, makes a thinly veiled pitch for John McCain's plans for Iraq.

Ed Feulner says that Barack Obama wants to stick it to the rich and is apparently one of the few people on the planet who wants to return to the '70's. Key scary word: Carter.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner thinks that:

President Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing was a disgrace - both to the United States and to China's long-suffering people. Mr. Bush's appearance has given political legitimacy and moral credibility to Beijing's murderous regime.

Kuhner also hopes the U.S. kicks commie neo-fascist empire ass and brings home the gold.

Nicholas Kristof says that there's a cancer on our foreign policy and that:

In short, the United States is hugely overinvesting in military tools and underinvesting in diplomatic tools. The result is a lopsided foreign policy that antagonizes the rest of the world and is ineffective in tackling many modern problems.

After all, you can’t bomb global warming.

Maureen Dowd continues to waste space, using 800 or so words to tell us that John Edwards is a narcissist.

Joseph L. Galloway says that more troops won't make a difference and that we can't "shoot our way out of Afghanistan."

Thomas Friedman thinks we need to take a page out of Denmark's book when it comes to dealing with an energy crisis.

 

My friends, there's a full lineup and other fireworks below...

This evening's Rescue Rangers are ybruti, jlms qkw (pulling double duty), HansScholl, dadanation and srkp23, with watercarrier4diogenes at the wheel of the Editmobile, the Robes of Objectivity flapping wildly behind him.

Tonight's diaries cover a variety of interesting issues not covered by the 'traditional media' (tm Kos) and definitely not with the same dismal 'truthiness' that the Broders of that notorious 'village' inside 'The Beltway' are known for.

• For dmhlt 66, the 34th anniversary of the resignation of Richard Nixon is a day to lament the loss of a leader in his impeachment in We Need a Barbara Jordan: Nixon's Resignation Anniversary, while the same day leads Shocko from Seattle to compare the hope following Nixon's resignation with the disappointment of Nixon's continuing legacy in Here's to the state of Richard Nixon. (HansScholl)
• Watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony with her daughter is the catalyst for classico's very touching Beijing and My Daughter. (dadanation)
• Barcelona offers provocative thoughts on the meaning of the Olympic opening ceremonies, the legend of China's origins, and the prospects for a better world in A different kind of Shock and Awe (or the answer to "why do they hate us?"). (HansScholl)
• Indonesian Ajipon uses his rare vantage point to comment on democracy in Authoritarian China? It May Be Best - My POV. (jlms qkw)
• iampunha looks back at the Berlin Olympics, in August 9, 1936: What could have happened. (srkp23)
• Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse grounds her discussion in solid history and legal opinions in Remembering Spiritual Death: In Honor of World's Indigenous People Day. (jlms qkw)
• With many scholarly references, daw13 explores What Racism does to White People. (ybruti)
• True Independent provides thoughtful analysis of Voter Registration Numbers ---- Iowa and their potential impact. (jlms qkw)
• Poor John McCain. Trouble abounds in his very own home state. Quite a bit of it. Gramarye lays it out in Neo-Nazis, Battered Wives, and the Arizona Republican Party. (dadanation)
• Bcgntn laments our nuclear history and future, highlighting that America is One of Three nations that refuses to support the abolition of the manufacture and use of nuclear weapons. (srkp23)
• Christy1947 reveals a new tactic for prosecution and punishment in No longer independent judiciary. (jlms qkw)
• zoniedude analyzes the role of journalism in Fraud is more poisonous than Anthrax. (ybruti)
• Since you can't tell a player without a program, for the upcoming Democratic and Republican gatherings, juliewolf has your snark-filled guide as to What to expect at the conventions. (dadanation)
• jlang57 illustrates strong belief in family, tradition and fun by way of a game of pinochle in "Whole lotta blacks..." (dadanation)

jotter has High Impact Diaries - August 8, 2008 and sardonyx has Top Comments: Clogged Tubes Edition.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread (even if you're the author! Here's where that's actually appreciated). And, of course, since it's an open thread, PLAY NICE, OK? 8^)

At every turn, John McCain is entangled by the ties of the lobbyists who serve as his campaign staffers and advisers. The sudden outbreak of war in the Caucasus brings to light an especially dangerous example of this, and suggests he'll never be free of his lobbyist problem.

McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until March a registered lobbyist for the Republic of Georgia. His firm continues to work on behalf of Georgia and other countries in the region. In 2006, lobbyist Scheunemann accompanied McCain on a trip to Georgia. And since Friday, McCain and Scheunemann have been issuing bellicose pronouncements on behalf of Georgia in its conflict with Russia over the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia. However neither of them mentioned that Scheunemann was a Georgian lobbyist.

The conflict in Georgia also brought attention to another complicating feature of McCain’s campaign: His ties to Republican operatives with extensive lobbying practices. Scheunemann was, until earlier this year, registered to lobby for the government of Georgia.

A public relations firm working for the Russian Federation pointed out Scheunemann’s lobbying past to reporters — a sign that McCain’s stance is not, for better or worse, being welcomed in Moscow — as did Obama’s campaign.

“John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser lobbied for, and has a vested interest in, the Republic of Georgia and McCain has mirrored the position advocated by the government,” said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan, noting that the “appearance of a conflict of interest” was a consequence of McCain’s too-close ties to lobbyists.

The conflict in South Ossetia is complex and nearly every observer of the situation blames both Georgia and Russia for escalating the long-simmering tensions there. As Ben Smith notes, Barack Obama issued a statement condeming the violence and urging both Georgia and Russia to end the conflict and avoid further escalation. It was similar to the line taken by the Bush administration and virtually all other western nations, all of whom recognize that there's plenty of blame to spread around and little advantage to wade in immediately scoring points against one of the parties to the war.

Not John McCain, however. His statement was frankly confrontational toward Russia, which he blames exclusively for the fighting. McCain also calls for NATO to be inserted into the conflict, though Georgia is not a NATO member.  McCain also dusted off his bizarre call for Russia to be kicked out of The G-8. And Randy Scheunemann immediately tried to politicize the conflict - without however mentioning that he was a lobbyist for Georgia.

"Sen. McCain is clearly willing to note who he thinks is the aggressor here,” he said, dismissing the notion that Georgia’s move into its renegade province had precipitated the crisis. "I don't think you can excuse, defend, explain or make allowance for Russian behavior because of what is going on in Georgia.”

He also criticized Obama for calling on both sides to show “restraint,” and suggested the Democrat was putting too much blame on the conflict’s clear victim.

“That's kind of like saying after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, that Kuwait and Iraq need to show restraint, or like saying in 1968 [when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia] ... that the Czechoslovaks should show restraint,” he said.

As shown by the contrast between the reactions to the fighting in Georgia from Obama and McCain, the US cannot afford a president who is instinctively and immediately belligerent in every international crisis. Further, McCain is ensnared irretrievably by the lobbyists he's surrounded himself with. Americans can't be sure of knowing what kinds of conflicts of interest lie behind John McCain's pronouncements on both foreign and domestic issues.

The parallel to McCain's problems this week with voters in Wilmington, OH is striking. In his latest visit there, McCain tried to downplay the role that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, had in lobbying for the DHL deal that now threatens to leave tens of thousands unemployed in southern Ohio. Indeed, McCain personally had intervened in the Senate to push the DHL deal through. Yet as Obama manager David Plouffe pointed out, until the Cleveland Plain Dealer this week uncovered Davis' role as a lobbyist for DHL, McCain had tried to keep concerned Ohio voters in the dark about that most basic of facts:

"[John McCain] was there a month ago in this community and was asked a question about this DHL issue and did not say one word about his role in this or the role of his campaign manager. That is the furthest thing from straight talk that we can imagine."

McCain's lobbyist entanglements will keep getting worse as this campaign progresses. They should help to keep him out of the White House, where his lobbyist buddies don't belong.

Back to a five-point Obama lead. McCain high water mark in the poll is still only 44.

Time for the media to initiate another round of "this is good for McCain" stories, complete with unnamed nervous Dem consultant who lost in the primaries to express his or her "concern".

Coming Up on Sunday Kos ....

• Contrary to the conventional wisdom, rural America isn't a vast sea of Red. mcjoan will review two books that explore the efforts by people in the heartland to fight back, and the progressive populism that's starting to take hold out there in the middle: Joshua Frank's and Jeffrey St. Clair's Red State Rebels and Greg Lemon's Blue Man in a Red State: Montana's Governor Brian Schweitzer and the New Western Populism.
• georgia10 will explore why--contrary to traditional media reports--McCain really isn't getting this newfangled "internets" thing after all.
• SusanG will review Rep. Robert Wexler's delightful Fire-Breathing Liberal: How I Learned to Survive (and Thrive) in the Contact Sport of Congress.

Oh please let this happen.

Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee who has endorsed John McCain, is being vetted as a potential running mate for the Republican presidential hopeful, according to an adviser to Mr McCain’s ­campaign.

Mr Lieberman, who has campaigned for the Arizona senator, has long been ­considered an unconventional but plausible choice for Mr McCain.

Although Democrats have rejected Mr McCain’s image as a maverick politician, Mr Lieberman’s support for the presumptive Republican nominee has, much to the chagrin of his former colleagues, helped to boost Mr McCain’s reputation as a bi-partisan legislator with friends on both sides of the aisle. Mr Lieberman, a staunch supporter of Israel, could also help Mr McCain win over Jewish voters.

"[McCain] loves Lieberman. And he is on the [short-]list because Lieberman has never embarrassed anyone, never misspoken. The first rule is, don’t take someone who costs you votes," said one McCain adviser.

Never embarrassed anyone? His own constituents would beg to differ.

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 6/30-7/2. Likely voters. MoE 4% (3/31-4/2 results)

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Joe Lieberman is doing as U.S. senator?

           All       Dem       GOP       Ind

Approve     45 (47)   37 (40)   66 (62)   43 (46)
Disapprove  43 (40)   49 (45)   28 (32)   44 (40)

If you could vote again for U.S. Senate, would you vote for Ned Lamont, the Democrat, Alan Schlesinger, the Republican, or Joe Lieberman, an Independent?

              All       Dem       GOP       Ind

Lamont (D)     51 (51)   74 (74)    4 (4)    53 (53)
Lieberman (I)  36 (37)   18 (19)   74 (74)   36 (36)
Schlesinger (R) 7  (7)    2 (2)    19 (19)    6 (6)

Now, it's clear that in Connecticut, he has lost Democrats and Independents. That's a no-brainer given his views on Iraq and his tireless efforts to prop up the Bush Administration on homeland security issues and Katrina. And if McCain really wants someone as wedded to the Bush Administration as he is, then he'd strike the jackpot with Lieberman.

But note that even his home state numbers among Republicans, his base, aren't particularly that exciting. 66 percent? For a candidate that has had problems solidifying his right flank, Lieberman doesn't exactly get McCain any extra points with that crowd. Witness the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land:

Richard Land: First of all, I agree with that assessment. I think that the vice presidential choice that John McCain makes is probably the most important choice he's going to make in this entire campaign. Because he has no room for error, no margin for doubt. If he picks a pro-choice running mate, it will confirm the unease and the mistrust that some evangelicals--and don't forget this, social conservative Catholics--feel about McCain.

If he picks a pro-life running mate, it will help to ease their concerns and confirm to them that, while he may not have been their first choice, he may not have been their second choice, that it's better to vote for a third class fireman than it is to allow a first class arsonist to become president.

CBSNews.com: So, Tom Ridge, who's been discussed. You think ...

Richard Land: That would be a catastrophe.

CBSNews.com: As well as Joe Lieberman?

Richard Land: Yes. And I like Joe Lieberman. Joe Lieberman wrote the forward to my book. And I would love to have Joe Lieberman as Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State. But not as Vice President, not as Attorney General and not as a Supreme Court Justice.

The vetting may be merely a formality, a way for McCain to thank Lieberman for his enthusiastic advocacy. Because quite frankly, picking a pro-choice scold from Connecticut wouldn't deliver much of value to a McCain ticket. And just like Hillary Clinton would inevitably energize moribund conservatives into more actively opposing the Obama ticket (perhaps even closing the "enthusiasm gap"), does McCain really need to give progressives extra motivation as they mobilize against him?

Not that we need it, but extra motivation is never a problem.

Leaving aside the pollution and the politics, the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics, from the more than 2000 drummers that started the show, to gymnastic gold medalist Li Ning soaring around the top of the stadium before lighting the torch, were nothing short of spectacular. Simply unbelievable pagentry.

And throughout the coverage, the advertisements were positive and upbeat, and often playing on the theme of the Olympics, "One World, One Dream." And then, on a break during the Parade of Nations, there was John McCain introducing himself to a huge, non-political audience by running an attack ad on Barack Obama. Proving once again that he is willing to do or say anything to win, McCain chose to inject politics into the Olympics with a negative ad. Unfortunately for McCain, the unspoken and unintended message was:

Vote for the old mean nasty guy you thought you admired eight years ago. I'm John McCain and I approved this message.

Let the games...continue.

• Ken Silverstein at Harper's digs into the background of NBC's vapid China expert, Joshua Cooper-Ramos, who's providing commentary for the Olympics, and finds that roads lead to ... Henry Kissinger.
• What would Orwell blog? Beginning today, we might get a glimpse as The Orwell Prize begins to post, day by day, Orwell's diary from 1938 onwards. Today's entry appropriately begins the journey, seventy years to the day after the original was made.
• In dueling Saturday radio addresses, the two presidential candidates go at it. Obama focuses on our record deficits and Iraq's oil profit-driven surplus, and McCain focuses on ... Obama. And his celebrity. And that people like him. And that he gives good speeches.
• David Gregory is determined to prove that even when it's not about Barack Obama, it's all about Barack Obama.
• A total of 1500 killed in battle as chaos unfolds and Georgia and Russia get their war on.
• Nate Silver (a/k/a DK's poblano) from fivethirtyeight.com appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night to discuss his polling data which suggests an Obama victory in November. --Scout Finch
• Good headline in Newsweek as it runs a piece by factcheck.org: "More Tax Deceptions: McCain misrepresents Obama's tax proposals again. And again, and again."
• The FBI admits it improperly obtained records of phone calls by NYT and WaPo reporters in 2004. This is another case of the FBI using "exigent" letters to demand records without a warrant. Director Robert Mueller says whoopsie, we broke the law again.

  F.B.I. officials said the incident came to light as part of the continuing review by the Justice Department inspector general’s office into the bureau’s improper collection of telephone records through “emergency” records demands issued to phone providers.

  The records were apparently sought as part of a terrorism investigation, but the F.B.I. did not explain what was being investigated or why the reporters’ phone records were considered relevant.

  - smintheus

The hits might not be coming on the national level quite yet, but this is a tough spot from the Obama campaign out in Nevada (more over at My Silver State):

Consider this an open thread... What's on your mind?

Tags: Open Thread, NV-Pres (all tags)

Yesterday John McCain said that he doesn't begrudge Barack Obama his vacation and that he could use a little more shut-eye himself:

If I put in three or four 18-hour, 20-hour days in a row, I'm not sharp. It's just a fact. I'm more sharp if I get a little rest.

Isn't it comforting to know that the man running for the most powerful job in the world isn't too sharp when he's tired?

An ad from the Obama campaign that will begin running Monday in Reno and Las Vegas media markets:

The most recent Rasmussen poll, from 7/16, showed Obama leading McCain in the state by a razor-thin two points, 47 to 45, well within the 4.5% MOE.

Hillary Clinton hit the trail in Nevada Friday on behalf of Obama, adding to the push for Democrats to take the Silver State:

"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Sen. Obama than Sen. McCain," Clinton told her cheering audience in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. "Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign."

We've all heard hand-wringing over what will become of the facebook generation when their drunken college-age (And you don't have to go to college to do stupid crap at that age, which seems to be getting older all the time, if you know what I mean.) facebook pictures come up in middle age. People can even point to the would-be teacher, Stacy Snyder, who was denied a teaching credential by Dr. Jane Bray of Millersville University, because there was a tame picture of her on MySpace in costume holding an opaque cup and captioned "drunken pirate."

When the Dr. Brays of the world are replaced by Stacy Snyder's contemporaries, I bet that will happen ... very rarely. [I could perhaps have chosen a better example. Oh well.]

Anyway, that's my guess. That people who've grown up in more of a public fishbowl, without the fictional veneer of respectability, where it's shameful to admit nearly universal indulgences, will give less of a damn about stupid non-issues and have more room to worry about big crimes that affect us all. But we don't live in that future.

We live in a present where the Republicans ran three admitted adulterers, including John McCain, for the presidency - and no one cared. But a former Democratic contender's affair is revealed - big news.

Bush is rendered an unfit campaigner for his party successor not because of lies, torture, lawbreaking, economic havoc, an unjust war, the death of hundreds of thousands, the loss of an entire city - but because his poll numbers have tanked. Bill Clinton was rendered an unfit campaigner for his party successor, in spite of being very popular at home and overseas, presiding over an era of general peace and prosperity, winning a war - just because he did, in fact, have sex with that woman.

That's our media world. That's our reality. It's stupid and unfair. It's grossly immoral if your ethical compass includes a measure of the suffering caused by an action, and isn't solely predicated on whether the lapse in question touches you there.

Yet one of the main messages the blogosphere has been trying to drum into our representatives' heads is that while they're looking to build us all a better future, they need to operate in the media reality of today.

The Established Church

While the US doesn't have a state religion, it does have a state prudery somewhat based, still, on what it was acceptable to show on television during the "Leave it to Beaver" era. Like other authoritarian moralities, its allegiance is to the dominant power structure more than its alleged ideals, which is clear from the enforcement patterns.

Take something lots of people do, make it a 'crime'. Don't enforce it among the establishment. Use it as a stick to beat dissidents and potential dissidents with.

This is why patriarchal societies enforce purity norms more strongly against women - and the men who ally with them. This is why ethnically stratified societies enforce purity norms more strongly against subordinated ethnicities - and those in the dominant ethnicity that would ally with them. This is why societies struggling to retain a religious cast to their laws most enthusiastically villify secularists - and religious people with secular sympathies.

So it shouldn't be confusing when it's perpetually okay, if you're a Republican, to transgress against the stated moral codes. That misunderstands what's being transgressed against.

I'd go as far as to argue that Larry Craig, to take an extreme example, isn't actually transgressive against the conservative ideal of homosexuality. His career has upheld state sanctioned bigotry against the queer community with scrupulous devotion. His life as a gay man has fueled their story about what it should always mean to be gay; a life of furtive, criminal activity, torment and betrayal of the family, meaningless encounters with strangers, unsatisfied longing, an unhappy but respectable partnership with someone who just doesn't do it for you, and ultimate reconfirmation of the ideal by an apology for your own identity and existence.

Larry Craig, by conservative lights, is a model gay man. He has lived the mortification of the flesh and returned to the fold. Craig's more in line with the underlying point of the anti-gay ethic than a straight male like Howard Dean who favors letting gay people have unapologetic, happy lives with people they're attracted to.

To put it another way, Craig has faced his demons of temptation and publicly repudiated them, while Dean's ethic holds this to have been unnecessary, the demons no more than natural, but unhealthily repressed, desires. It's all about setting an example for the little people, about holding a fig leaf of morality over throbbing abuses of power.

When your life is spent apologizing for your own, animal existence, how much energy do you have left over to hold the powerful to account for their mass crimes of murder and theft?

Transgression and Enforcement

John Edwards' entire presidential run in 2007-2008 was transgressive against the functional ethical blueprint the media and the powerful operate by. You're never supposed to question the power structure itself. Even if you criticize it to score points with the public, you're only allowed to point to trivial symptoms, not root causes.

- You can be sorry about job losses, but not about the trade regime that caused them.

- You can be sorry about the death of the small town, but not about the agribusiness consolidation and chain store brutality that caused it.

- You can be sorry about the breakdown in civic participation, but not about the isolated incident and horserace-focused media coverage that makes people feel powerless.

- You can be sorry about the conditions poor families live in, but not about the lack of healthcare or living wages that make them nearly inevitable.

- You can be sorry about high crime rates, but not about the lack of opportunity or abuses of criminal justice power that fuel them.

This is why the Republicans have turned themselves into the party of Stupid, of not thinking things through. Because rational analysis looks bad for their corporate sponsors. They repeatedly dare their constituents to admit they've been punked out of their livelihoods and lose face, and they often win that dare.

John Edwards transgressed against the established order. John McCain doesn't. He voted with Bush 100% of the time this year, and 95 percent of the time last year. McCain supports the crimes of ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Blackwater, etc., without dissent. By the only important measure, he's solidly among the faithful.

Democrats, by contrast, often chafe against that order. They may even, now and again, actively side with people who want it to change significantly. Heresy against the Church of Nothing's Wrong.

The media, our allegedly secular and independent version of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, then takes it upon themselves to punish the offender. For example, they might refuse to talk about even a popular politician while their career is a going concern, but then aggressively humiliate them at the first opportunity.

Please, Make It Stop

I've written before about how annoying it is to me when those in power put all the onus for social change on 'young people' and some supposedly inevitable direction of 'progress'. Even Nixon was young once, and progress never just happens unless determined people make it happen. But here, I find myself in the unenviable position of not seeing many ways past this small-bore stupidity besides attrition and replacement.

The enthusiastic supporters of the regime seem immune to shame or logic. They just don't care. Their paychecks depend on it, after all.

A changeover might take as little as 10 years, though. You don't have to be a teenager to embrace the evolving social networking aesthetic or be galled by hypocrisy, lies and corruption. But you do have to see the need for a devolution of power away from a two-faced morality that frowns selectively on biology and smiles on destruction.

Though the first lies that need to go, beyond all the WMD hysteria and the legal shenanigans, are the lies about how people live and have lived.

Not everyone does, or wants to, live in a heterosexual nuclear family. There was never a past teeming with virtuous youth, chaste adult singles and perfect spouses, nor is there any such place in the present. We do not all find our one true love as a young person and stick with them forever, even though many of us have wished it could be so.

And it's fine. It's fine. Not least, it means that if you are of the heterosexual, death-do-us-part persuasion and you end up married for life, that it was a real choice and not an autopiloted path of least resistance. Less compulsion and more free will.

Though until we can give our political culture that sort of attitude adjustment, one that most of the public is already embracing ... it'd be mighty big of our progressive politicians to stay out of the petty sin cookie jar until we can start getting a handle on the big crimes.

If you have a partner, please be faithful or end it. If you're single, please just date, you don't need to pay for it. Stick to caffeine, physician-managed prescriptions, alcohol and cigarettes; the legal pharmacopia is vast.

Or work in the back office if you can't leave the hookers, blow, love children and cheating to the Republicans. Please. You likely already know if that's a problem for you. Let's not get tripped up on the way to the promised land because you let Brian Williams get a death grip on your genitalia for his little peep show, shall we?

Tags: John Edwards, John McCain, Larry Craig, adultery, facebook (all tags)

Everything from labor movements to infomercials in the diaries this week.  Let it never be said the MyDD community doesn't get around!  Enjoy.

• DLCC spots a sustained voter registration movement, and A Nationwide Voter Shift?
• They stakes their future on gas guzzlers, now they are reporting losses.  Karma's a Bitch says canadian gal.
• Scaring Up Votes: Tell the FEC to Investigate Wal-Mart's Partisan Political Meetings. (Wake Up Walmart)
• 10 reasons for Democrats to fight back on tax policy from Dan Conley and The Dick Morris Depression.
• Video: McCain's Deep Involvement with Foreign Shipping Company as 8,000 Ohio Jobs Hang in the Balance. (Todd Hoffman)
• California Nurses Shum spots the sales pitch from the shill in Infomercial Healthcare! Low, Low price!
• Bored now explains the low priorities of A Failed Governor, Failing Illinois.
• Protect Colorado's Future Submits Over 250,000 Signatures To Support Colorado Workers. ((Protect Colorados Future)
• The Georgia Senate race is not one to write off writes odinseye2k in Saxby Chambliss Sez: My Netroots Beat Yours.
• MILiberal brings us an informative recap of factors leading to the War between Russia and Georgia.
• (OK-Sen) Rice to Inhofe: Talk is Cheap, Gas is Expensive. (Andrew for Oklahoma)
• Voter Registration Drive Fuels Voter Suppression Attempts in Wisconsin.  (Project Vote)

Tags: Diary Rescue, Open Thread (all tags)

One pollster does not an election make, but its interesting to look at the trend of Rasmussen's 'likely voter' national polling since the first week in June, when this became an Obama - McCain GE race: Summary of Weekly Polling Results Rasmussen Reports 7,000 Likely Voters Per Week No Leaners With Leaners Wk Ending Obama McCain Obama McCain Aug 3 44 43 47 46 Jul 27 45 41 48 45 Jul 20 44 41 46 46 Jul 13 44 41 47 45 Jul 6 46 40 49 44 Jun 29 46 40 49 44 Jun 22 46 40 49 43 Jun 15 46 40 49 44 Jun 8 46 40 49 44 We can revisit this at the beginning of the week, but with todays results, it looks like this week will result in the following: Aug 10 44 44 47 47 All tied up. No doubt, Daschle is right is saying that Obama took a small polling hit from the McCain attacks on Obama as a lightweight celebrity candidate. But I believe the bigger result was that the attacks energized the Republican base to more strongly favor McCain.

It will be interesting to watch the reaction to the potential of Lieberman being the VP for McCain, now that we can read Lieberman's on the McCain shortlist, but here's a sample. This, like traveling with Ridge in PA next week, is likely a floater more than a real option. I don't believe that Romney is going to be chosen either now (too late to get his money). Palin is mentioned a lot by conservatives, but not by the McCain campaign. Is Cantor for real? He's seen as a lightweight in VA. Pawlenty may get it by default.

Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain (all tags)