The Times Did a Report on Matt Harding (the dancing guy whose video I had up for a while. I even learned more than I did from the interview (available on You Tube)

Just a couple of weeks ago the Republicans cried foul when Barack Obama refused to go along with the broken public financing system in which a candidate had allies spend overwhelming amounts of money while he collected taxpayer dollars in a supposedly pristine environment. Now we see the dirty donors that will overwhelmingly enhance McCains virginal public funds.

Plenty of blame to go around for lousy economy of the new millennial period, but Republicans share most of it.

Heck tell your friends, lovers, and relatives too. Help them to contact their federal representatives and Senators. The last thing we need is to let the problems exposed in this report continue.

Excerpt: We can build spectacular new stadiums for football and baseball teams (the Yanks, the Mets, the Giants and the Jets are all getting ready to move into staggeringly expensive new homes) but we can’t rebuild New Orleans or reconstruct the World Trade Center site destroyed almost seven years ago. This year’s presidential election is the perfect opportunity to place the truth before the American public in the form of a realistic examination of the state of the nation, and an honest consideration of creative ideas for moving forward. Instead, we’re getting hour after hour and day after day of trivia: Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s patriotic? Who’s not?

Excerpts:... the Clark affair did reveal something important — not about General Clark, but about Mr. McCain. Now we know what a McCain administration would represent: namely, a third term for Karl Rove. ...the McCain campaign went beyond condemning General Clark’s remarks; it went out of its way to distort them.

Proof, that in mainstream reports the press tends to run to the safe right wing side. And it doesn't hurt to make such a big deal of something that it begins to have scandal qualities. The press loves scandals because they boost their ratings. The Rs know this and play the fourth estate like a fiddle.

Produced by phenomenon that creates auroras. Could be heard by anyone out there. Earth also hums.

A very erudite treatise on why we should not continue in Afghanistan and Iraq, and points to what may happen if we stay.

Yeah, I could have ripped off the video (it has a share option) with just a hat tip, but I have the sexy "African animals being mellow video up and Truth Dig is a good low bandwidth site.

James Dobson attacked Barack Obama for not ascribing to Dobson's view of Christianity. Don Wycliff uses logic to explain why Dobson is a "doo doo head". (Words within quotes are my own.) BTW, Dobson, we know you take your contributors' money and pay someone to google for your name, so Google This. My view is that Barack Obama's wonderfully caring, inclusive theology actually matches more people's view of Christ's desire for his church than the hate and bigotry filled view as practiced and pushed onto people by Dobson and other right wing church types.

Tragic story: Soldier with cognitive problems is sent to do one of the toughest military jobs with predictable results as military becomes desperate for cannon fodder.

I've always suspected that Darrin Bell was a little too nice to mainstream while he tends to lamblast bloggers in general. Well, he went after bloggers again -- and shows his true sensibilities apparently, but saves a good swift kick for mainstream news. And gets it right. Links to Comic from Sunday June 15, 2008. Link will be available for c. 30 days from that date. Get some good reading glasses. It's bit hard to read. Try bringing up the comic alone (right click Firefox and chose "View Image" or save image, picture to disk and bring up with viewer that will enlarge it). Then of course, immediately delete image to comply with copyright laws, right? I will too -- right after doomsday.

After taking office, the president would nominate a VP, subject to Congressional approval according to one idea. It would preclude a VP vetter selecting himself as happened in 2000 and other mistakes like Dan Quayle, and Spiro Agnew. But in this case I think the news media are looking for ways to blame someone other than their own pandering tendencies, for the problems in our elections.

Excerpt: The Energy Information Administration says that even if both coasts were opened, prices would not begin to drop until 2030. The only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land before their friends in power — Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — exit the political stage.

Is John McCain's pro-nuclear power stance just a campaign gimic?

It's about what we stand for, Stupid!

Assign your own level of Pinocchio noses using the information available at link.

Excerpt: The architects of American culture papered over this shaming history [of failures to protect families during the Indian Wars] by concocting what would become our prevailing national security fantasy — personified by the ever-vigilant white frontiersman who, by triumphing over the rapacious “savage” and rescuing the American maiden from his clutches, redeemed American manhood.

Excerpt: You’d never guess that Mr. McCain is a fierce foe of abortion rights or that he voted to terminate the federal family-planning program that provides breast-cancer screenings. You’d never know that his new campaign blogger, recruited from The Weekly Standard, had shown his genuine affection for Mrs. Clinton earlier this year by portraying her as a liar and whiner and by piling on with a locker-room jeer after she’d been called a monster. “Tell us something we don’t know,” he wrote.