Republicans under the guise of the "terrorism' fears have shafted the American public out of our civil liberties since 9/11. With the rah, rah, rah blind patriotism they got enough votes to do severe damage to our people, so much even I haven't been able to figure it all out.

Now I'm not saying all Democrats are saints, but a good 99% would be opposed to the latest efforts by Republicans, who smashed us over the head with the inefficient Department Of Homeland Security which is supposed to stop illegal immigration, and their newest ruling out of Utah, which states that in the event of an employee injury, if a worker cannot show legal citizenship the Worker's Compensation insurer will be able to deny him/her benefits. Not only that, the employer will skate free of legal scrutiny in their hiring practices and will not be threatened by a higher insurance premium.

As you will read below this is another effort by Republicans, who I mentioned had their voters convinced they were going to stop people from entering the country illegally, to make the use of a work force with no rights or benefits virtually legal.

CBS news is reporting that:

Barack Obama's campaign has received roughly 10 times more money from declared U.S. donors living in Germany, France and Britain than his Republican rival, reflecting his popularity in Europe as he makes his first tour of the continent as the presumed Democratic nominee.

Federal Election Commission reports show Obama has raised at least $1 million from donors who identify themselves as Americans living in Great Britain, Germany and France, while John McCain has taken in at least $150,000.

http://www.cbsnews.com/...

I tried and hoped for someone else, but Bobby Bright won the primary here overwhelmingly. He is the worse Democrat I've ever seen.

In an effort to blunt the positive coverage Obama is receiving.  Fox news pre-emptively paid money for an bogus poll.

Bogus? you may ask, Yes.  The headline for this poll is to try to manipulate their viewers (The Right Wing Flat Earthers) into beleiving Obama's trip is having no effect on the American Electorate.  I have already seen Drudge pick up the story and expect more right wing outlets to hammer this point....

We're in trouble:

Obama was at the Tiergarten in Berlin, amid a sea of people.  McCain was at "Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant" in German Village, an enclave of Columbus, Ohio.

McCain addressed about a half dozen Ohio small business owners in the historic village.
"I'd love to give a speech in Germany," McCain said. "But I'd much prefer to do it as President."

[...]

This event was hastily organized after the candidate's planned visit to a Louisiana [oil rig] was cancelled due to the threat of hurricanes in the Gulf Coast.

Someone emailed me this news from another source, and at first we couldn't tell if it was satire.  Obama, of course, gave a speech this afternoon to huge crowd in Berlin.  He has just come from the Middle East, where he garnered glowing press.   Seeing the McCain campaign try to counter Obama's Berlin event with a stop in German Village where McCain ate some sausage is so pathetic it probably causes most political observers who aren't fervent Republicans to laugh, and like us, think, "nah, this has to be a joke.  They're not that bad...are they?"

It wasn't a joke.  And it's got me worried.

You probably know the concept of peaking too soon.  I'm afraid the McCain campaign may be bottoming out too soon.  I've been following politics since the mid-80's, and I can't think of any campaign that has been as bad as McCain's.  

The campaign thought it was a good idea to send McCain out to an oil rig during a hurricane.  That didn't work, because, you know, there was a hurricane.  By even suggesting that it was a good idea, and then having to pull back from their plans, they looked like nitwits.  (And that doesn't even address the problems caused by the oil spill that's shut down the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.  

Their Plan B?  They sent him to an ethnic diner that will reinforce the contrast between the tired McCain, who met with a few small businessmen, and the charismatic Obama, who got a reception from Berliners like that given to John F. Kennedy.  

Obama went to Berlin and got hundreds of thousands of people and fawning press coverage.  McCain went to Ohio and got a bratwurst and probably a case of heartburn.    

So why am I worried?  Because I can't believe Republicans will allow McCain to continue running his campaign this poorly.  [And the RNC hasn't been any better, as SusanG pointed out yesterday.]  The rest of the party doesn't necessarily need him to run a campaign that can put him in a position to win, but they have to do whatever they can to prevent him from losing solidly and losing in a landslide.  A solid loss hurts them for a while.  It could take them a decade or longer to recover from a landslide loss.

McCain isn't a particularly good candidate.  He's undisciplined, many people think he's too old to be president, he's too closely associated with George W. Bush, and his party is now loathed by much of America.  He's generally seen as likable, but more and more his weaknesses as a candidate are becoming visible.

But as bad a candidate as McCain may be, his campaign is making him worse.  They wasted the time between him locking up their nomination and Obama securing ours.  Obama raised as much money in one day last month as McCain raised in all of June.  McCain spent far more than Obama in June, but he didn't gain any ground.

The McCain campaign recently went through shake-up that was supposed to tighten their operations.  While they have gotten slightly more aggressive in attacking Obama, their messaging and choice of locations and visuals have been laughably bad and don't appear to be getting any better.

I love seeing McCain's campaign get outclassed by Obama's in almost every facet.  I have thought all along that whoever won our nomination would win the presidency, and that there's a good chance that by historical standards it won't even be close.  But I don't like to see the McCain campaign hit what by similar historical standards may be rock bottom, and do it so far out from the election that McCain might have time to bring in people who could improve his operation and make the election closer than we would all like.  

Many columnists aware of the relentless movement of the calendar and the current pre-convention status of the two Presidential contenders are starting to ask the only significant question of concern in the upcoming American election. There are many major issues facing America, most created by sheer visionary neglect by the current Presidential administration, but as far as the election is concerned RACE triumphs them all. The burning question is not whether America is ready for an African American President; the actual gut question is America ready for THIS African American man, Senator Barack Obama, to be its leader! America is standing on the threshold of the greatest decision it will ever make in the course of its 370 year history. The question of race engenders another question, namely, how do you effectively campaign for the highest political office with a serious ever-present racial handicap in the minds of voters? We will look at this below the fold.

"Let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet."

Indeed, Wins-ton. Oh sure, the news from Berlin is fantastic (how often do you get to type that one?), but if my calculations are correct, it's still July 24, 2008—not January 20, 2009—and the junior Senator from the great state of Illinois is still a long, long way from his desired November election result. None of that "thirty minutes in ten," "three months in one" shit. Not only that, but we're all still an eternity away from the much-vaunted "realignment" election result we all desperately, maniacally crave. Today, the Germans merely saw us get our hands wet, not wash them.

As we've suffered through the longest Presidential race in history, a narrative on our side of the political spectrum arose. McSame. Obviously, because McCain's policies were so close to those of President Bush.

But I'm not sure that's fair. And not in the way you might think. I'm not arguing that McSame is too harsh...I'm arguing it isn't harsh enough.

More below the fold

This story caught by Mark Nickolas over at Political Base deserves a lot more attention than it has received.  It turns out that not only is McCain getting killed by the traditional media, his advertising campaigns just aren't working, either.  Voters seem to be immune to the appeals of an angry, befuddled septuagenarian looking to preside over Bush's 3rd term.

This story was posted yesterday at the NYT and appears on the front page today.  It is full of errors and misinformation and speculation.  I expect better from the NYT.  Unfortunately, comments at the NYT are closed.  Here is the link to the story.:

NYT article on Obama's health plan

The story focuses on whether or not the average family will really save $2500 a year on health insurance premiums under Senator Obama's universal health plan.  

More below the fold with a comparison with the McCain plan.

Many of us in SC are ecstatic that Bush/Barrett were overridden on the Medicare Bill.  Finally, their efforts to reward insurance company’s profits at the cost of American citizens have been thwarted.

According to the Los Angeles Times (link),

   Bush issued the veto in the morning, declaring the bill "objectionable" because it would take funds from private health insurers to keep paying doctors and would be "fiscally irresponsible."

Seniors have been faced with more and more doctors not accepting Medicare patients and what do our elected officials do?  They want to cut payments to doctors by over 10%.  Do they have any idea how tough it is for Medicare patients to find a doctor as it is?

One of the most distressing parts of their attempts is that this bill also provides for mental health and other health services to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom living in rural areas.  Our elected officials opposed this effort to take care of our veterans.

more after the jump...

In a CBS interview Tuesday in which John McCain told one lie by insisting that the Sunni awakening occurred after the surge and not before, as discussed in rogereaton's dairy, this interesting exchange also occurred between Katie Couric and John McCain:

Couric: You have said, quote, "I know how to win wars." Which war, Sen. McCain, are you referring to?

McCain: Bosnia. Kosovo. First Gulf War. The conflict in Iraq. To name a few. I've been engaged in every single one of them, and in a decision making process as one of the senior members of the Armed Services Committee. And engaged in the debates on the floor of the United States Senate. And involved in the Armed Services Committee. I know those wars. I know conflicts. And I hate war. No one hates war more than the veteran who feels most plainly the loss of a veteran. And I know how to win wars.

Well, John, time for a little "straight talk."

king abdullah II welcomes barack obama to jordan

Real quick because I have to go to work!

I have heard several of these recently but until I heard it with my own ears, wasn't sure.

Right-wing swift-boater David Bossie and his organization Citizen's United  have geared up for the release of a "documentary" attack film on Barack Obama.

In Minnesota Democratic politics, everyone knows that the coordinated campaign, which is supposed to get all the campaigns at all levels to work together, usually fails and often miserably.  The saying goes "it's neither coordinated nor a campaign.".  Another older saying goes "I'm not a member of an organized political party, I'm a Democrat."  But that was the past.  In 2008 the campaigns are actually working all together.  It's unheard of.

One time is excusable.  Twice, maybe (but not if it is on the same thing in back to back days).  Three, four, five times?  That is the start of a pattern.  And when it is over and over and over again, well, I think that there really needs to be some further discussion on what has long since passed "pattern" and is now a big concern.

This isn’t like George W. Bush, who was clueless and needed to be coached on the foreign leaders’ names.  This is a man – a Presidential candidate – who has based a large part of his campaign on being more adept at foreign policy, on being more knowledgeable in world affairs, more, well, "everything" than Senator Obama when it comes to foreign policy issues.