The Hollywood Liberal

Gallup: Obama Opens His Largest Lead
Sen. Barack Obama now leads Sen. John McCain among national registered voters by a 49% to 40%, according to the latest Gallup Tracking Poll.

“The margin, coincident with the extensive U.S. news coverage of Obama’s foreign tour, is the largest for Obama over McCain measured since Gallup began tracking the general election horserace in March.”

R2000: Obama Holds Double Digit National Lead
A new Research 2000 national poll finds Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain, 51% to 39%, with Bob Barr getting 3% and Ralph Nader getting 2%.

Broder on Obama. So Athletic. So A-R-T-I-C-U-L-A-T-E
David Broder talks about Barack Obama in a way he would never talk about a white candidate. [A]s millions of Americans who watched the primary campaign learned, Obama is invariably articulate and well-spoken. There would be no verbal gaffes. And so athletic!

David Broder

David Broder talks about Barack Obama in a way he would never talk about a white candidate.

[A]s millions of Americans who watched the primary campaign learned, Obama is invariably articulate and well-spoken. There would be no verbal gaffes.

And so athletic!

When, on the first day of the trip, he stepped onto the basketball court at the air base in Kuwait and sent his first three-point shot cleanly through the basket, you knew the gods had decided to favor him.

If only newspapers hired black editors.

A Misguided Proposal to Protect IP

A proposed law would empower the federal government to seize your computer if you use it to violate a copyright law by downloading a song or movie for which you didn't pay. Doesn't that penalty seem a bit excessive?

The bill would also empower the federal government to bring civil suits for copyright infringement — doing what the RIAA now does in its abusive lawsuits against (mostly) college students who download copyrighted music. This seems like the kind of “big government” that conservatives should deplore. If copyright holders feel infringed, they should bring their own lawsuits rather than counting on the government to do it for them. Surely our scarce federal resources are better spent elsewhere — repairing bridges, building levees, strengthening port security, and doing the countless other things that benefit society as a whole rather than businesses that should spend their own money to protect their own intellectual property.

The bill enjoys the misguided sponsorship of Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Evan Bayh. Can't they find something more productive to do with their time?

Sunday Bobbleheads
Document the atrocities.

ABC’s “This Week” – Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

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CBS’ “Face the Nation” – Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jack Reed, D-R.I.

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NBC’s “Meet the Press” – Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

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CNN’s “Late Edition” – McCain and Obama.

The Vast and Dangerous Transfer of American Spying to Mercenary Companies
Johnson considers just how incompetent and unscrupulous a thoroughly privatized intelligence ‘community’ has turned out to be.

The New Knitting: This Is Not Your Grandma’s Arts & Crafts
To casual observers it may look like adults making toys and keeping them, but embroidery hoops and homemade clothes are officially cool.

White House: Leaders Should Listen To Public And International Opinion
White House Irony Watch… The Bush Administration’s statement today on its new sanctions against Zimbabwe call into question just how much of a sense of self-awareness they have. Quoting President Bush: “No regime should ignore the will of its own…

The Daily Muck
Four aides to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer have been cited by the N.Y. State Commission on Public Integrity, with misusing the New York State Police. The citations stem from a highly contentious relationship between Spitzer and former New…

Schiavo debate relived in Valley
Should govt. be able to overrule family members in case of comatose woman?

McCain Caves To Right Wing On Gay Adoption, Says Orphans Shouldn?t Have Gay Parents
Earlier this month, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took an extreme position on gay adoption, telling the New York Times he believes in “traditional” families even if it means leaving children in orphanages. “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no I don’t believe in gay […]

Earlier this month, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took an extreme position on gay adoption, telling the New York Times he believes in “traditional” families even if it means leaving children in orphanages. “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no I don’t believe in gay adoption,” he said.

But in follow-up statement, McCain aide Jill Hazelbaker backtracked, stating, “McCain could have been clearer.” She added that the senator would support gay adoption if there were no alternative:

However, as an adoptive father himself…he recognizes that there are many abandoned children who have yet to find homes. McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative.

Interviewed on ABC today, however, McCain reverted to his original radical position, telling George Stephanopolous that he does not support gay adoption in any circumstance:

McCAIN: I think that family values are important, when we have two parent — families that are of parents that are the traditional family.

Q: But there are several hundred thousand children in the country who don’t have a home. And if a gay couple wants to adopt them, what’s wrong with that?

MCCAIN: I am for the values that two parent families, the traditional family represents.

Watch it:

McCain didn’t acknowledge that a two-parent family can also consist of same-sex parents. Unlike his spokeswoman, he also didn’t recognize that rejecting adoptions by same-sex parents means leaving thousands of children with no parents. As Winnie Stachelberg and Robert Gordon noted, about 130,000 children wait in the foster care system each year for a permanent home. And every year, half of these children are never placed.

In the interview, McCain repeatedly said that he is “for the values and principles that two parent families represent.” He also said preserving traditional families is “not the reason why I’m running for president of the United States.” Just seconds later, however, he reversed course and bluntly stated, “I’m running for president of the United States because I want to help with family values.”

For Obama, Hurdles in Expanding Black Vote
MACON, Ga. — Amanda Bass, a volunteer for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, had already tried once to get Wilmer Gray to register to vote. But when she glimpsed him in a black T-shirt and White Sox cap again on a recent weekday at the main bus stop here, she was determined to give it…