We Shall Keep the Faith  

      Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
      Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
      We caught the torch you threw
      And holding high, we keep the Faith
      With All who died.

      We cherish, too, the poppy red
      That grows on fields where valor led;
      It seems to signal to the skies
      That blood of heroes never dies,
      But lends a lustre to the red
      Of the flower that blooms above the dead
      In Flanders Fields.

      And now the Torch and Poppy Red
      We wear in honor of our dead.
      Fear not that ye have died for naught;
      We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
      In Flanders Fields.

   by Moina Michael, November 1918

Tonight we remember 3 Marines who were killed in Afghanistan.

Because we need a lift.

lynchburg, virginia

The Plain Dealer is now confirming a story it had run earlier.

A statement from the family and Hospital:

Tubbs Jones Family, Huron Hospital and Cleveland Clinic

August 20, 2008 - 6:40 p.m.

"Throughout the course of the day and into this evening, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones' medical condition declined. Medical doctors and neurosurgeons from Huron Hospital and Cleveland Clinic sadly report that at 6:12 p.m. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones died.

She dedicated her life in public service to helping others and will continue to do so through organ donations.

Please keep her family and friends in your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time."

Well, too bad about the whole Obama thing, huh?

Apparently the 2008 election for President ended today when the always reliable Zogby announced that John McCain will be elected over two months from now by 5%.

This is a HUGE relief for me because I was worried I might have to spend the fall making phone calls for Barack Obama and giving money to Barack Obama and maybe even flying somewhere on election day to go door to door for Barack Obama, but now that the election is over my family and I are freed up to go on our semi-annual, cross-country, tour of cities that claim to be the "Cheese Capitol" of America.

In recent months, this community has increasingly flattered me with recommended diaries, digg requests, personal friendships, and even job offers.  You have praised me when I've said something cool, forgiven me when I've said something offensive, and always treated my ideas with respect, even when they were opposed to the prevailing progressive opinion.  Since I signed up for Kos more than three years ago, I've written scores of diaries, and apparently more than 3,700 comments.  

So, at the risk of losing my trusted user status for the first time in years, I'd like to come clean about something.

I voted for George W. Bush.

Twice.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Cindy McCain was caught lying about meeting Mother Teresa:

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)

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.