Domestically, we lament the death of political discourse and lose our bearings over sound bites.  It could be worse.  Instead of going to war over a lie, we could go to war over a phone system.

A private telephone network built by the Shiite Hezbollah organisation is at the centre of a political storm that has brought Lebanon perilously close to a new civil war.

I'm not making this up.  I'm not that creative.  Remember that Israeli assault on Lebanon a couple years ago?  You know, the one that Israel basically lost.  You know why they lost?  You're not going to believe this...

McCain’s pro-occupation trial balloon was his trip to Iraq a month or so ago,  “Springtime in Baghdad with Pretaeus."  The American public, the majority of whom are hoping for an end to the violence in Iraq, were treated instead to the vision of McCain and two of his buddies fetchingly garbed in bulletproof vests strolling through the streets of Baghdad amidst the flowers and the shrapnel.   And then came the news that the open air market visited last year is now too dangerous to be cleared even for pro-occupation American politicians backed by the full force of the American military.  Not too many Republican candidates will be desperately seeking more photo ops in the Cradle of Civilization during this election year, I suspect.

Frank Rich, in his op-ed piece today in the New York Time's "The All-White Elephant in the Room" asks why the media has not focused more on McCain's association with Rev. John Hagee. I agree. But what about Pastor Rod Parsley? This man is as much a hater of Islam as Hagee is a hater of Catholicism.

David Broder chimes in today.

A conspiracy of "international bankers" was responsible for the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, and a host of other ills. Who said that? And who are those "international bankers," anyway?

In the past two days McCain went for the trifecta, playing the phony Ayers card, Hamas card and the Wright card.  So much for a respectful campaing on the issues.

"By sinking to a level that he specifically said he’d avoid," said an Obama campaign spokesman, Hari Sevugan, "John McCain has broken his word to the American people and rendered hollow his promise of a respectful campaign."

I on the other hand made no such promises. It is time to remind everybody of John McCain's, and the Republcian party's, ties to terrorists.

1. John McCain has been an Arizona politician strongly supported by mainstream and conservative business and development interests in that state. They have over the years met with him, endorsed him, done fundraisers for him and given him money.

2. John McCain from the beginning of his career has a solid anti-abortion record. Over the years people associated with anti-abortion groups have met with, endorsed him, done fundraisers for him and given him money.

So perhaps somebody who has EVER supported John McCain, has sometime EVER been associated with either of these two separate Terrorist circles:

Now that the McCain campaign has decided that Ayers is a legit story, it is time to remind everybody of John McCain's, and the Republcian party's, ties to terrorists.

John McCain has been an Arizona politician strongly supported by mainstream and conservative business and development interests in that state. They have over the years met with him, endorsed him, done fundraisers for him and given him money.

John McCain from the beginning of his career has a solid anti-abortion record. Over the years people associated with anti-abortion groups have met with, endorsed him, done fundraisers for him and given him money.

So perhaps somebody who has EVER supported John McCain, has sometime EVER been associated with either of these two separate Terrorist circles:

In New Orleans as part of his so-called "Forgotten Places" tour, former Navy airman John McCain found himself evading incoming flak over the most recent comments of Pastor John Hagee.  Coming just days after George Stephanolous lobbed him a Hagee softball, McCain faced questions over Hagee's assertions that "God's hand" was behind Hurricane Katrina because New Orleans was a "sinful city."  But still absent from the media discussion about John McCain and his supporter the End-Times Pastor Hagee is the question of conflict with Iran.  Given his own tough talk toward Tehran, does John McCain agree with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy?

While the liberal blogosphere and media critics alike are fuming over the deplorable gotcha-fest that was the ABC Democratic debate Wednesday in Philadelphia, conservative talking heads are positively ecstatic.  In the New York Times, David Brooks called the questions on lapel pins and the Weather Underground "excellent."  The excreable Michelle Malkin snarked, "How dare they explore questions of character, truthfulness, and judgment?" And over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey offered "kudos to ABC News" while noting "John McCain has to feel grateful not to be included."

Join us in fighting the email smear campaign against Obama and his pastor.

A perfect storm is brewing over the Bush administration, with more revelations coming out every day. And there are more and more revelations coming out against John McCain as well. MoveOn reveals the top ten things that you should know about John McCain, yet you don't:

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3

Note: I'm the author of a new book, Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest, but I'm not part of the Obama campaign.

In her syndicated column today, right-wing nut Ann Coulter compares Barack Obama to Hitler and claims that his book "Dreams From My Father" is like "Mein Kampf."

You might think this lunacy is a "jump the shark" moment for Coulter, except that she’s spouted insanity so many times before without losing any of her stature as a leader in the conservative movement.

If Barack Obama is constantly asked about his pastor’s remarks (and Louis Farrakhan’s unwanted endorsement of him), why won’t the media apply the same standard to McCain’s supporters on the far right?

Some media have been struggling with the explosion of controversies over statements by prominent religious supporters of Clinton, McCain and Obama.  Of these, Obama's progressive pastor has received the lion's share of attention. The extreme views of Religious Right leaders Doug Coe, John Hagee and Rod Parsley, and their relationship to candidates Clinton and McCain, much less so. (At Talk to Action we have been covering these guys for a long time and discussed these things well ahead of the curve. for example, my first (but not the last!) post picking-up on Jeff Sharlet and Kathryn Joyce's Mother Jones story about Hillary Clinton and The Family, was in December. Our reporting on Hagee and Parley is better measured in years. I was the first to point out, for example, based on the reports of my Talk to Action colleagues, that McCain had courted Hagee for more than a year prior to his scoring the endorsement. I say this not so much to toot our horn, (not that it couldn't use a good tooting once in awhile) but because I want to underscore the value of ongoing research and reporting on these things.

As much as anything else, presidential campaigns are won and lost by the media narratives that rightly or wrongly come to define a candidate.  In the case of Repubican nominee John McCain, the seemingly unshakable narrative of the political "maverick" could not be further off the mark. At almost every turn, McCain in his eternal quest for the White House has reversed long-held positions, compromised core principles and swallowed his pride in order to curry favor with both the leading lights of the conservative movement and right-wing Republican primary voters.  The untold story of campaign 2008 is simply that of John McCain's transformation from maverick to prostitute.

Surge? What surge?

A suicide car bomber killed at least 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounded dozens more people in Iraq's north on Sunday. Meanwhile, the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad came under fire from either mortars or rockets, and a round that fell short injured two bystanders.

The Easter Sunday attacks underscored the fragility of Iraq's security, despite a decline in violence over the past year. They also came as the U.S. military death toll in Iraq nears 4,000.

Iraqi security forces opened fire on the bomber as he drove toward the military base in the northwestern city of Mosul but were unable to foil the attack because the truck's windshield had been made bullet-proof.

Huffington Post reports John McCain's "Spiritual Guide" accused the U.S. Gov't of enabling 'Black Genocide".  Speaking of Planned Parenthood, who he accused of being like the KKK, he says:

If I were call for the sterilization or the elimination of an entire segment of society, I'd be labeled a racists or a murderer, or at very best a Nazi," says Parsley. "That every single year, millions of our tax dollars are funding a national organization built upon that very goal -- their target: African Americans. That's right, the death toll: nearly fifteen hundred African Americans a day. The shocking truth of black genocide."

Watch the video:

In several comments, I have asked the question: "Do Americans really want to have their preacher's sermons become part of the national political discourse?"  I'm not sure that they do.  Catholics would be in a heap of hot-water over the whole molestation scandal (The Pope has repeatedly blamed homosexuality).  Conservative religious members could have their preachers calls to bring about the end of abortion with violence used against them.

And John McCain could have the statements of his preachers parsed.  Apparently, Sam Stein over at Huffpo is doing just that.

First McCain and Hagee/Parsley, then Obama and Wright, now Clinton and "The Family":  HRC's now part of the "preacher problem club".

From http://www.thenation.com/...:

There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

More about this after the jump.  

UPDATE: Well, well -- Back in 1998, the same Reverend Wright who HRC surrogates like Lanny Davis now gleefully attack was an honored guest at the first post-Monica-admission prayer breakfast, and was photographed with Bill Clinton.  Even more reason for Hillary to stay away from playing the preacher-problem game!