The Hollywood Liberal

McCain is on the ropes, he’s going down, and he is desperate, so what does he do. Runs back to Washington becuase he is too chicken to debate Obama, he knows the carnage would be devastating for him. Not to mention what would happen to the pig with lipstick when Biden got through with her. He even punked out on Letterman. Dave wasn’t too happy, the show went on without the doddering old Keating 5 dude. Check out Dave.

Late Late Nite FDL: King of the Road

Dean Martin and Roger Miller with King of The Road performed on The Dean Martin Show.  

What’s on your mind tonight?

Dean Martin and Roger Miller with King of The Road performed on The Dean Martin Show.  Thank you, Eureka Springs, for covering for me while on my road trip.

What’s on your mind tonight?

Overnight
Rock on.

Wall Street Takes Welfare It Begrudges to Ordinary Americans
Why is it that the rich and reckless accept “welfare” for themselves while rejecting it for those who need it most, particularly woman.

World writes open letter to McCain
EARTH, July 25, 2008 — The entire world drafted an open letter to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) today, asking him to drop out of the U.S. presidential race and concede the presidency to Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois). “Ordinarily we do…

Obama In Berlin
The speech: Late Update: TPM Election Central analyzes the speech here….

Missing The Target

This attack ad from the McCain campaign and the RNC is notable in how it misses the mark.

It doesn’t just go at Obama. It tries to argue that “Obama and his liberal allies” in congress have no plan, while “McCain and his congressional allies” do.

This would seem an oddly short-sighted attack, as it is Obama’s “liberal allies” Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank who run the key banking committees that will draft any legislation, and each has already released proposals.

(Obama has laid out principles he believes should guide legislation, but he is not on the Banking committee charged with drafting such legislation.)

Granted, McCain is premising his campaign on a “facts don’t matter” strategy, and Dodd and Frank are not yet household names. Obviously he hopes that the perception of Obama as lacking leadership on the economy is what sticks (according to recent polls, it isn’t).

But as this crisis unfolds — and it appears that it’s unfolding with congressional Democrats pushing back on Bush’s blank check boondoggle — it’s going to be hard not to notice that it’s Obama allies Dodd and Frank taking the lead, not “McCain and his congressional allies.”

(McCain’s “plan” is literally less than 300 words, not exactly what’s driving the debate on the Hill.)

Why then is McCain directing his attack on “Obama and his liberal allies?”

Because while Obama opted out of public financing of his campaign, the cash-strapped McCain had to stay in and accept caps on his spending.

The only way for McCain to keep pace financially was to raise fat checks that largely go to the Republican National Committee. But under the law, that money cannot be narrowly spent on the presidential campaign.

Hence, McCain and RNC need to lump in Obama with congressional “allies,” so technically, it’s not just about the presidential campaign.

Even when the charge doesn’t make any sense.

That flaw is far from the main reason why McCain is failing to either articulate a consistent message on the economy or offer a reassuring presence in a time of crisis.

But it highlights one of the difficulties McCain has in spending campaign money, even though McCain and the RNC combined started this month with more money in hand than Obama and the DNC.

War in Afghanistan is now ?15 times more? deadly than Iraq.
Brandon Friedman at VetVoice writes today that “one year ago — last September — the hostile fire death rates in Iraq and Afghanistan were roughly equal. But now, in terms of hostile fire death rates, what was once seen as the ’safer’ theater, Afghanistan has now exploded to the point that it’s nearly 15 times […]

Brandon Friedman at VetVoice writes today that “one year ago — last September — the hostile fire death rates in Iraq and Afghanistan were roughly equal. But now, in terms of hostile fire death rates, what was once seen as the ’safer’ theater, Afghanistan has now exploded to the point that it’s nearly 15 times more dangerous for American troops than Iraq.” Using causality figures from the last 30 days, Friedman finds:

Hostile fire death rate in Iraq: 7 deaths per 146,000 troops (.005 percent)
Hostile fire death rate in Afghanistan: 7 deaths per 10,000 troops (.07 percent)

The Death of Policy
WASHINGTON — The financial crisis has resulted in a strange inversion of political reality. Each presidential campaign has proved less creative, interesting and bold than the administration they are both, in different ways, running against. Usually, just the opposite is the case. A sitting president normally must accept the boring constraints of real-world choices. Campaigns can inhabit the utopia of their own ambitions.