Well, since it looks like we're finally going to cave - excuse me: since it looks like congressional Democrats are finally going to cave - on this bad joke of an offshore- drilling fiasco, I say let's make the most of it:  Let's turn the table on the Republicans, who have up to this point been making political hay with this inane issue.

Since the logic of the reductio ad absurdum argument of Okay, pal, exactly where do we stop drilling - your backyard? appears to be utterly lost on the majority of the American electorate in its oil-starved fevered panic, I say we turn around and pull a Rove. Let’s attack their strength. Let's get more visceral, more jingoistic, more patriotic, more freakin’ Amrkin than they could ever hope to possibly get:

You wanna drill for oil in America?  Fine – every bit of that oil you drill in America, stays in America, for use by Americans.

More Please!  At the moment only airing in Georgia... CNN?  This is the first true Obama "Kidney Punch" of the season, lets see if the Media bites.  Clearly it indicates a foul quid-pro-quo... low blow yes... effective? YES  Finally some Chicago style bloodsport...

Script

"It was one of Washington’s biggest scandals. And the Republican power broker Ralph Reed was in the middle of it. In deep with convicted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"But when the Senate investigated, the senator in charge never even called Reed to testify....And that senator? John McCain. And who’s now raising money for McCain’s campaign? Ralph Reed. For 26 years in Washington, John McCain’s played the same old games. We just can’t afford more of the same."

We must spread this around the blogosphere and get the MSM to cover this.

Via Think Progress, John McCain was at a townhall today, and a questioner said:

If we don’t reenact the draft, I don’t think we’ll have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

To which McCain responded:

Ma’am, let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said.

Video below the jump:

So, a little poll from Zogby comes out and lots of people are in freakout mode, and Kos has front-paged about how silly that is.

Good.

Let me add one little bit o' info to the fire for each of you to chew on...

Anybody here remember 1992?

That is the "kindest verb" I can use.
The "statistics" on the status quo are lies.
We are being led down the "Primrose Path" again.
The "MIC" wants you to think they are winning.
These lies are necessary for the election fraud to work.
This election could be the end of Fascism
in the World's future.
It must be stopped.
If it succeeds this time, after failing with World War 2,
it will consume the people of the earth.
The "Middle Class" will  become the slaves of the New Order.
They have set the stage for the "finale".

Like many others here, I have been loudly "encouraging" Barack Obama to physically attack the geezer, John McCain.

But, no.

Obama is all "pacifist" and shit and he, apparently, doesn't think knocking the snot out of that old goat is "the right thing to do."

Well, I have news for Mr. "I'll-play-nice" Obama:

                                   Nice guys finish last.

(And, yes, Obama camp, feel free to use that quote I just made up.)

When is Obama gonna', literally, punch McCain square in his pre-cancerous-scarred beak?

(more)

The political career of John McCain has been made possible by a series of political maneuvers and a skillful public relations campaign, creating the juggernaut that I like to call The Legend of John McCain^TM.  There are many facets of The Legend^TM, but the base of the entire concept lies in John McCain’s military service.  The deification of his service and of his time in Vietnam as a prisoner of war has been constructed into a nearly impenetrable firewall against scrutiny, and have also served, along with media complicity, as rose colored glasses to the public throughout his political career.  Up until recently, no one could ever think of questioning any part of The Legend^TM without facing serious public backlash.  Fortunately, his candidacy for President has allowed and demanded closer scrutiny of his history, and of the phenomenon that is The Legend of John McCain^TM.

Cleveland-area congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones had a massive aneurysm last night and is on life support. It does not look good.

Please send up some thoughts and prayers to her and her family.

She is Ohio's first African-American woman to be elected to Congress and has served Cleveland's east side for 10 years. She is also one of Hillary Clinton's most trusted supporters.

Let's hope she pulls through.

UPDATE (12:14 pm EDT) : Officials were to update her condition at noon. At least one local news station, WOIO Channel 19, is reporting that the situation is grim and life support will be removed this afternoon.

UPDATE II (12:22 pm EDT): From WKYC Channel 3:  

According to police, officers stopped her car late last night in the 2300 block of Lee Road in Cleveland Heights. Tubb Jones was reportedly found unconscious behind the wheel.  Upon reaching the vehicle the officer found the driver, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, to be in obvious medical distress and called for an ambulance.

UPDATE III (2:05 pm) : The congresswoman has died. A terrible day.

UPDATE IV (2:34 pm) : The congresswoman remains in critical condition. Reports of her death were erroneous. Please pray for her and her family.

As readers know, Slinkerwink and I have been fed up with Obama’s milquetoast, undisciplined press strategy. For all the talk about how miserable a candidate McCain is, he says something, his advertising echoes it, his press releases repeat it, and his surrogates are disciplined and drill in the same talking points over and over. Obama’s camp wants to get something across, they put the candidate out there to say something once in a town hall and then they drop it. No surrogates. No repetition. No discipline.

Now, to get this out of the way, Obama is, in our opinion, one of the best candidates we’ve had in years and, more importantly, will make a great president. And on the ground, in terms of organization, his campaign is incredibly impressive. But a ground-game cannot make up the difference for lacking a coherent strategy for setting a macro-narrative, and it’s mind-boggling to think they’ve let McCain hit them with the “celebrity” tag over and over for a month now with no response.

So, in interests of DOING something instead of just complaining about it, Slinkerwink and I are launching a new project: putting out our own proposed press releases and talking points.  

One more round on the Church thing--but perhaps from another angle.  Pardon me if this thought has been posted before, but I haven't seen it.

As far as the Saddleback thing goes, couldn't Obama have pulled a Stephen Colbert/Press Club thing that night?

By that I mean, while McCain was speaking to the audience in front of him and ignoring the fact that the nation was watching, Obama was speaking to all of us.

As we see news of the possible (and increasingly likely) bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae by the US Treasury, I am reminded of something that I have been writing about nuclear energy, ie that it should be financed by the State, and I'd like to extend on why I think there are fascinating similarities between the two topics, however distinct they may seem.

Has the traditional media worm turned?  Is it possible that Jerome Corsi is the occasion when what we have called the main stream media has finally had enough?  Today I offer an example that may provide a hint.

Scot Lehigh of The Boston Globe is the centrist voice of that major publication's stable of op ed writers.  And today's column, addressing "Doctor" Corsi's latest opus is entitled Doctoring the facts against Obama and is a major takedown of Corsi's Obama Nation.   In his first paragraph he describes the book as a "revelation."  Lest that scare you, it is intended as a sarcastic remark, which he quickly makes clear by noting how often Corsi reminds us he has a doctorate:  on the cover, on the title page, in the author bio (which tells us it is from Harvard), in the preface, and  

Oh, yes, and as a header on every other page throughout the book.

Unfortunately for Corsi's, um, scholarly reputation, the last high-profile work he was involved with didn't withstand independent scrutiny

You should now be relaxed enough for the rest of this review.

(and who knows if it is or not)

'Twas the night before Veepmas, when through Daily Kos
users were betting who Barack liked the most.

The diaries were screaming "pick this one or that!"
In hopes that Obama soon settles the spat;

Recently, a fair number of high-profile progressive bloggers have been, to put it mildly, flipping out about Barack Obama's campaign style and his chances in November.  Josh Marshall thinks there need to be consistent lines of attack against McCain.  John Aravosis thinks Team Obama is in a bubble and this is feeling like the Democratic campaigns of the past.  Matt Stoller thinks it's time for message testing to find the attack that'll work on McCain.

All of these are smart people who want Obama to win and see it slipping away.  But they are failing to totally account for the X factor of the election, which is going virtually unmentioned throughout the blogosphere - the historic ground effort that the Obama campaign is banking on to win.  It is not without peril, but it is a very new thing, and I think we have to understand it if we want to understand the twists and turns of this election.

Post partisan my ass! That MIGHT be a good theme as a campaign strategy. It MIGHT appeal to an electorate tired of the incompetent,  ineffectual and just plain stupid brand of government they have been getting for the last ten years....you know, since the incredibly partisan impeachment of Bill Clinton by the Republican Congress....

It might sound ... nice ...and evenhanded and reasonable and mature and responsible and all that. But it ignores the simple and undeniable fact that since the Republicans lied, cheated and smeared (including smearing their current champion when he was running against Bush) their way into having full unfettered dominance of the government.....just about everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and the country is in sad, sorry shape.

Because of the Republicans.

Everything the Republicans has touched in the last decade has turned to crap. From the micro (life saving stem cell research) to the macro (Climate Crisis) the Republicans have had full power to implement their vision, programs and policies....and have gotten it wrong every single time.

    Happy Now?
    The network will be formally announcing this tomorrow, but I am pleased to inform you in this fully authorized leak, that as of Monday, September 8, our mutual friend Ms. Maddow will become host of her own show, on MSNBC, at 9 PM Eastern Time.
    And, yes, we will be making another unofficial announcement of this on tonight's edition of Countdown. My guest to analyze the Rachel Maddow news will be Rachel Maddow.

Andrew Sullivan reminds us today of something that is missing in all this talk of crosses in the dirt.

More below the fold!

As impressive as his record is and as much as I love and respect him, I believe this is food for the opposition.