"The Bush administration and the Maliki government appear to be "on the verge of an agreement that would spell out the conditions under which American troops would remain in Iraq and a timeline for their eventual departure."

Is the next President bound by this agreement?

I wasn't expecting Smerconish to go "all the way" but I listen to him every morning and he's very honest and even-handed. He's not at all like 99% of the right wing TV and Radio talkers. He leans right to be sure, but listens and engages with people who disagree.

I listen to him every morning for just that reason -- he doesn't shout people down or turn their microphone off, and he's respectful of others. And he admits when he's wrong.

He says he won't discuss the Obama thing until his Sunday column (in the Philly Inky) comes out. And his Monday morning show should be quite entertaining.

I bet his endorsement column has a couple of paragraphs about Pakistan. Pakistan is one of Smerconish's hobbyhorses and he and Obama are on the same page; while McCain has kept disappointing him.

I'm proud of our hometown boy, even though I often disagree with him.

I wasn't expecting Smerconish to go "all the way" but I listen to him every morning and he's very honest and even-handed. He's not at all like 99% of the right wing TV and Radio talkers. He leans right to be sure, but listens and engages with people who disagree.

I listen to him every morning for just that reason -- he doesn't shout people down or turn their microphone off, and he's respectful of others. And he admits when he's wrong.

He says he won't discuss the Obama thing until his Sunday column (in the Philly Inky) comes out. And his Monday morning show should be quite entertaining.

I bet his endorsement column has a couple of paragraphs about Pakistan. Pakistan is one of Smerconish's hobbyhorses and he and Obama are on the same page; while McCain has kept disappointing him.

I'm proud of our hometown boy, even though I often disagree with him.

I don't know that anyone outside of Illinois will understand what a big honkin' deal this is, but the Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama.

In their entire 161-year history the Tribune has never endorsed a Democrat. Ever.

(Sorry for doublepost, I swear I only clicked once...)

One of the stories making the blogs today is that an institutional buyer has been manipulating prices at Intrade in order to make it appear that McCain was in a closer race than polls suggested. For those who think it is unlikely that anyone would/could manipulate daily polls like Gallop or Rassmussen, I think this is significant. Not only do polls create the illusion of credibility on election day, but they also encourage or discourage candidates' supporters.

If I'm reading Nate Silver's analysis correctly, more than $200 thousand was spent in one day last month on this Intrade betting.

Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama.

Wow. Weren't they the ones who were so obsessed with the Rezko connection?

Wow. Weren't they the ones who were so obsessed with the Rezko connection?

Yep. They have always been the Republican, conservative paper.

Looking back, they did endorse Obama for Senate four years ago, but considering that Alan Keyes was Obama's opponent, they really didn't have much choice.

For the Trib to turn on John McCain ... that's huge.

"The Bush administration and the Maliki government appear to be "on the verge of an agreement that would spell out the conditions under which American troops would remain in Iraq and a timeline for their eventual departure." Is the next President bound by this agreement? Posted by: CJ

No. We can simply renegotiate it. Hell, the Iraqis don't really want us there anyway. Short of leaving 150,000 combat troops there, what good is a small contingent going to be if all hell breaks loose?

NOW the fRighties will start rooting through S.W.'s garbage, following his kid to school, checking his dog's poop for drugs ...

A couple of weeks ago I saw Michael Smerconish on some TV yakker -- forget which one now -- and hearing him talk about Obama, McCain, and the Republicans was a big eye opener. He's about as wingnutty as you can get, and I figure if he's going for Obama the race is 98% over.

And, didn't Obama mention in the debate that the owner of the Chi Trib was R-leaning when he was talking about the Ayers/Annanberg/R connection?
On a related topic, what did McCain actually say to Letterman last night about his connection to G. Gordon Liddy? I saw something on Obermann, but not the actual exchange.
peace,
st john

If we have any money left over from bailing out the country, we should create a road like this for Barack to ride into the White House everyday.

Hi! Ho! Silver!

Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama. Airborne pigs were officially seen headed south for the winter.

I don't know if we're going to talk about it here.

Steve--you didn't broach it(?).

But last night, with regard to the sort of 'self/other' political Roast:

Hard as I tried, I simply could not find a part of myself that found McCain 'funny' after the horrific hate he has unleashed himself and allowed his his running mate to pursue with zealous.

Maybe that's why I disagreed with Kent Jones who concluded on Maddow's show that: "McCain was funnier".

I suppose I'm one of those people who can't see 'funny' in a vacuum.

It seems to me there is a very real place where funny meets reality. Where make believe and pretend cannot penetrate what is truly so.

In truth, I found the "Roast" a pathetic charade.

But it was good therapy for me to hear Obama punch back hard on all the inane absurdities.

Really good therapy.

Warren Buffet is announcing he is buying American equities. He will not announce when to sell them.

Hey, Steve, how come you never mentioned Washington Post's endorsement of Obama (today)? It may not be as mind-boggling as Smerconish's or the Chicago Tribune's (which you also didn't mention and it's huge) but it certainly was most unexpected and all of us VA Dems have been celebrating it all day!

McCain/Palin supporters have taken to physically assaulting journalists. Seriously.

Or, as John McCain says, exercising *their* right to free speech and assembly.

Because if you talk bad about a McCain supporter, you talk bad about America.

When the right-wingers are physically assaulting journalists they have reverted to the fascist/Nazi practices of the 1920's and 1930's. Tom Delay's 'Brooks Brother's riot' to shut down vote counting in 2000 was just the beginning. The use of the Department of Justice to suppress votes and the firing of US Attorneys who tried to follow the law are further steps in the same process. Most of the Republican actions to shut down voting simply have escaped notice.

Perhaps the Democrats should look at the history of dithering and disorganization that was experienced by the Weimer Republic as well as the left in France, Italy and Spain when they faced similar right-wing mob actions. It didn't end well.

Let's not forget that Tim Mahoney was a favorite candidate of Rahm Emmanuel.

It's way past time to throw all the conservatives, Rep or Dem, under the bus.

NPR's coverage of the ACORN 'controversy' has been very disappointing, too. Larry Mantle from KPCC in Pasadena yesterday managed to get some extremely excitable hack out of Chapman University to recite every last Republican talking point on the issue, as well as a couple he made up on his own - Ohio has 200,000 fake ACORN registrations! They're stealing the election!

And this within about an hour of the first news item regarding the FBI's (obviously nonpartisan!) decision to investigate. I sent KPCC a nasty gram and left the radio off today. F@ck 'em.

Chris Matthews on Hardball did a fantastic job on Hardball today-- he got to the core and asked important questions.

Sadly, Stephanie Cutter was simply unable to respond to the 'here and now immediacy' of the horrific flashback to the 50's he was experiencing after that God awful senator he interviewed right before her indicated all in Congress should be looked into for "Un-American' activity..

It's like she was angry, because the questions had changed...

I just saw Michelle Bachman on Hardball. Imagine if a Dem ever said things as mindnumbingly stupid as her.

"I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America. I think people would love to see an expose' like that."

And she never stops smiling?

Danno,

We need to start seriously planning the primary challenges November 5th.

Here in Texas we also need to be working to remove the Republicans from office. But the Democratic primary elections are almost as important, even here.

Anything to add?

How about Rep. Michelle Bachman's repellant diatribe against Obama on Hardball? And once again the Obama surrogate blows it and Tweety wasn't much help either.

You know, I really feel for Stephanie Cutter, but she was obviously reeling from Bachman's logorrhea and too upset to effectively debunk Bachman's BS.

Obama, please, you need more composed and pithy surrogates on TV!

Bachmann on Hardball ... wow.

Words just don't do it justice. She's off her fucking rocker.

Why didn't John McCain leave the room when he discovered someone with a known racist past, Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond, were present?

Chris Matthews on Hardball did a fantastic job on Hardball today-- he got to the core and asked important questions.

He got better after the exchanges with Bachman and Cutter. Although the anti-American probe was good, he let Bachman get away with rehashing the gamut of RNC propaganda against Obama. Matthews often ignores spin, apparently out of boredom or weariness, giving characters like Bachman free rein.

Thank god for Katrina vanden Heuvel.

I notice now that McCain has started using his refrain from the last debate about "Obama wants to spread the wealth". I mean is that a bad thing?
If I remember early learning, to have a democracy with a capitalistic economy and have it be successful, doesn't the wealth have to be shared?
Isn't that they problem? When the spenders have no money products can't be purchased and nothing has to be made. I don't think he really does understand economics. And what's this "freeze" he's suggesting? That's bad medicine also. At least I think so. How about you?

Spread the wealth as in buy stuff? If I don't spread my wealth, that comes from my employer in my case, how do the wealthy get wealthy? Don't farmers spread fertilizer? What happens if they don't spread fertilizer, or spread seeds? If investors don't spread their wealth into the stock market, how do the companies that depend on this investment for their expansion and operation continue to expand and operate? And pay their employees, who spread their wealth to purchase goods and services? Does anyone understand how nature works? It is all interactive and interrelated, all of it!!! So, Joe the Plunderer, who is going to hire you if you blow off your responsibility to support the infrastructure that you are then hired to fix? "That One" gets it. When will you?
peace,
st john

Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama.
Wow. Weren't they the ones who were so obsessed with the Rezko connection?

Not quite obsessed, but they have covered it. Last spring, IIRC, Obama went before the Tribune's editorial board and offered to answer any and all questions about Rezko. They asked him questions for three hours. He answered every one of their questions (there may have been one or two questions he had to get back to them on, but he did so promptly). The board was very impressed, and published a fawning editorial soon after.

This is off-topic for most of the nation, but something very important to Washington State, though I'm sure other states will have to deal with it eventually. There is currently a ballot initiate for a "Death With Dignity" measure, very similar to the one Oregon passed a decade or so ago. A lot of special interestests are pumping a lot of money into both sides. Dan Savage, whose writing I have always enjoyed if not always agreed with, has a powerful article on this. I wanted to quote one passage that speaks to so many other social issues the nation is currently dealing with.

That's what the debate about I-1000 is really all about: your body, your death, your choice. The passage of I-1000 doesn't impose anything on terminally ill people who reject physician-assisted suicide for religious reasons. But the rejection of I-1000 imposes the values of others on terminally ill people who would like to make that choice for themselves, who should have a right to make that choice for themselves.

And, I'm sorry, but there's nothing about physician-assisted suicide—or, as it should be called, end-of-life pain management—that precludes the presence of loving caregivers. You can be surrounded by love and have access to the best medical care available and still conclude—reasonably and rationally—that you would rather not spend the last few moments of your life in blinding pain or gasping for breath or pumped full of just enough morphine to (hopefully) deaden your pain without deadening you.

...

If religious people believe assisted suicide is wrong, they have a right to say so. Same for gay marriage and abortion. They oppose them for religious reasons, but it's somehow not enough for them to deny those things to themselves. They have to rush into your intimate life and deny them to you, too—deny you control over your own reproductive organs, deny you the spouse of your choosing, condemn you to pain (or the terror of it) at the end of your life.

The proper response to religious opposition to choice or love or death can be reduced to a series of bumper stickers: Don't approve of abortion? Don't have one. Don't approve of gay marriage? Don't have one. Don't approve of physician-assisted suicide? For Christ's sake, don't have one. But don't tell me I can't have one—each one—because it offends your God.

[f-word] your God.

My fault for not proofing before posting.

initiate = initiative
interestests = interests

Damn fat fingers!!!

"And finally, I'm curious. Four years ago, a random MoveOn.org member made a video comparing Bush to Hitler, and the right is still talking about it. But when an official McCain campaign office compares Obama to Hitler, it's no big deal. I wonder why that is."

All together now: It's OK If You're A Republican!

Regarding Palin's comment that there are some parts of the US that are antiAmerican, you can't really argue with that. After all, her own husband belongs(ed) to a group that advocates seceding from the US and she herself has supported this group even to the point of saying, "God bless you" at their annual convention. That seems to me to indicate that indeed some people really are antiAmerican.

Another example would be this Bachmann creature. If there was ever someone who exhibited antiAmerican attitudes and lack of commitment to American values, it is her. She should be the first to go before the committee that she wants to set up to investigate unAmerican activities.

Larry Mantle from KPCC in Pasadena yesterday managed to get some extremely excitable hack out of Chapman University to recite every last Republican talking point on the issue, as well as a couple he made up on his own.

At the risk of being way too regional, I can't STAND Larry Mantle. One of my favorite KPCC moments was when they were doing one of those pre-recorded "chats" where it's supposed to sound like the show's host is throwing it back to the announcer, back when the announcer was the fabulous John Rabie. When "Larry" asked what part of his show Rabie liked best, he said, completely deadpan, "My favorite moment was when you said 'the money shot,' Larry."

I have a feeling Mantle may not be universally beloved at KPCC. Just a notion.

The press is in need of a good story for these remaining days of the election campaign.

Their choices:

1st black American president
Any issues
Battle ground states and trends in the horse-race
Fake voter registration fraud

Which does the press glom onto? The fake story.

Damn Liberal press! One wonders whether the White House press room shouldn't be turned into a parking garage.

Fun open thread item:

Bookmaker to pay out early on Obama victory

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's biggest bookmaker said on Thursday it would pay out more than 1 million euros ($1.35 million) on bets that Barack Obama will be the next U.S. president, three weeks before the election.

If only it were the USA instead of Ireland. . . .

Palin can claim some parts of the US are not "pro" American all she likes. The more of the country she insults and offends the better.

Go Sarah!

It does make you wonder just how stupid she and McCain are, though. Kind uh scary that they are both in positions of power.

This may seem like a superficial comment (and it is), but I just read Cindy McCain is 54? Is this true?

She looks MUCH older than that. I really thought she was at least 65. Now, recalling this is his second wife (and she is, what, 20 years younger than he is), of course she can be 54.

This makes me feel great.... I'm older than her and look much better! lol ;-)

Even with her bottle blonde hair and plastic surgery, I really did think she was much older.

Hey, I said this was not an important comment!

Godwin's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwins_law): "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

"...there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress"