It's pretty well known that John McCain was dating Cindy Hensley while he was still married to his first wife Carol Shepp McCain.  He married Hensley just one month after his divorce to Carol was completed.

Now in an NPR report it turns out that Cindy McCain may have been attracted to John McCain because he was just like her dear old dad.

Jim Hensley was a bombardier on a B-17, flying over Europe during World War II.

He was injured and sent to a facility in West Virginia to recuperate. During that time, while still married to Mary Jeanne, Hensley met another woman — Marguerite Smith. Jim divorced Mary Jeanne and married Marguerite in 1945.

And brought to you by the New York Times (click on Glen McCoy), the sickest editorial cartoon I think I've ever seen.  

Now, I know they don't check these on-line comics.  They come automated from UClick through a contract or something.  But this cartoon is really about as close to the edge of totally unacceptable as I have ever seen.

It also points to the vicious nature of the right wing mind, and their inability to see other sides of issues.  If Obama thinks that he can work with these people he is nuts.  Even Rick Warren stabbed Obama in the back, saying after the "interview" that no evangelical should ever vote fro a pro-choice candidate.

Update: The NY Times says this is the deadliest month in the entire Afghan war.

Twenty seven American soldiers died in Afghanistan in June, just three fewer than died in Iraq.  These deaths should be added to the cost of the Iraq War, because the Bush and neocon focus on Saddam Hussein drew us out of Afghanistan and caused this protracted war.

We would likely still be in Afghanistan had we not invaded Iraq, but the Taliban and al Qaeda would be nowhere near as strong or control so much of the country.  This strength and control have destabilized things to such an extent that public works, government and recovery programs are unable to succeed.  That then filters into a sense of misery for the public, who then turn to the only alternative -- the Taliban and al Qaeda.  And thus a vicious circle is born.

In a blog entry on some of George Packer's idiocy, the WSJ Washington Wire Blog asserts that "Doubts are creeping up about the candidate" as a photo caption but provide no basis in fact or evidence other than a few McCain supporters standing on a street corner.

Well, there sure are doubts creeping up, which explains these polling results over the past month:

Hacks

Well, given rising energy prices and the impending climate change tipping point, this decision seems a little idiotic:

Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years. . .

Galvanized by the national demand for clean energy development, solar companies have filed more than 130 proposals with the Bureau of Land Management since 2005. They center on the companies’ desires to lease public land to build solar plants and then sell the energy to utilities.

According to the bureau, the applications, which cover more than one million acres, are for projects that have the potential to power more than 20 million homes.

Holy crap.  I used to think the Bushies were idiots, then I thought they were stupid, then I thought they were incompetent, then I thought they were malicious, then I thought they were vengeful.

Now I just think they're evil.

Here's a classic line from our good friend John McCain where he tries to turn the tables on the Bush III argument:

"Sen. Obama says that I'm running for a Bush's third terms.  It seems to me he's running for Jimmy Carter's second."

-- Sen. John McCain, in an interview with NBC News.

Now, a few diarists have taken exception to this attack, but I think there is a kernel of truth to what McCain has to say about Obama's presidency being necessarily like Jimmy Carter's.

Just like Carter, Barack Obama will inherit the White House from a massively failed Republican administration whose policies resulted in a dangerously collapsed economy, a badly broken military and a population deeply mistrustful of the government.

It's just a thought, but the Democrats were the fist major party to nominate as their top two candidates a woman, a Jew and an African American.

When it comes to equality we haven't come anywhere near far enough in our lifetime because there is no near far enough: you either are equal or you are not.  But the fact is that our tickets more closely resemble the country.  The crowds at our rallies more closely resemble the country.  The delegates at our national convention more closely resemble the country.  Our Democratic National Committee more closely resemble the country.

We need more women and minorities in Mayor's offices and legislatures and Governor's mansions and the House and Senate and the White House, yes.

But one thing you can see is that at the very least we have taken to heart the words of the great revolutionary Reverend James J. Lasher of Vonnegut's Player Piano:

Now that Barack Obama is our nominee (presumptive) it's time to turn our fire on the other guy.  There's so much to go after him for, I thought I'd start with something sure to get all those newspaper and radio and Fox News guys talking.  You know, like flag pins and false stories about putting your hand on your heart.

From the NY Times here's a picture of a flag John McCain desecrated back in Keane, NH in January.

This is from the Flag Code on disrespecting the flag:

TITLE 4 > CHAPTER 1 > § 8

§ 8. Respect for flag

(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

There is no doubt that sexism hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign and that without such a sexist culture she could have beaten Barack Obama for the nomination.  But that argument is only valid in a vacuum, since Obama had to overcome racial and religious bigotry in his own quest for the nomination.

But Obama did not play the gender card against Hillary, while the Clinton campaign regularly spoke of Obama's issues with white, hard-working voters.

Just saying, I hope that Clinton supporters -- and I was one -- who are angry at sexism realize that the white woman and the black man each had their own bigots to overcome, and they both beat a field of white men.

State blog Blue Jersey's fame is expanding!

As Jon Ausman, a FL DNC committeeman, began his remarks a few moments ago, he noted that Sen. Bill Nelson and his wife, Grace, are in attendance, as are former Sen. Bob Graham and his wife, Adele.

"I want this to be a healing process that unifies us that brings us together. ... that results in collegial bargaining," Ausman said. Ultimately, he said, he wants all Democrats to wear "blue jerseys" in November.

Not blue shirts or blue hats or blue sweaters, but Blue Jersies!  Awesome.

Click on Obama Girl to get your own Blue Jersey blue jersey.

Last night I got this e-mail from Michael Murphy and the Rob Andrews (D-NJ1) for Senate campaign in New Jersey, and I have to say it's pretty sleazy.  It used innuendo, dog-whistle code words and intentionally slanted transcription in an attempt to paint Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)as a doddering old fool.

His inarticulate, meandering performance did not even approach the standards expected of a United States senator, especially one who has held the office for 24 years.

How can a campaign that slammed Lautneberg for the "one of the low points in NJ political history" for calling Millicent Fenwick an "eccentric" go this far?  Why don't they just come out and say, "He's demented and should be in a home"?  At least that would be their honest position instead of creeping up on it like this.

For those of you who don't know, Congressman Rob Andrews (NJ1) decided with two days left to file in April to primary Senator Frank Lautenberg for the US Senate seat he holds.  To do so, Andrews had to abandon the reelection campaign for his own House seat, leaving a vacancy on the primary ballot and only two days to fill it.

In New Jersey the party line is very powerful, and in NJ1 the party line is controlled by the bosses.  In order to prevent a fight for the party line which had to be decided soon after the filing, Andrews and the party bosses decided to place Camile Andrews, the Congressman's wife, on the ballot.

However, they would only do so it she promised not to accept the nomination, which results in a meeting of the 600 or so Democratic county committee members to give the nomination to someone else.  Essentially, they decided to block the primary voters from selecting their nominee and instead give that power to the party.

Glenn Greenwald has a great piece on John McCain's recent attack on the federal judiciary, and it just brought to mind something that people keep forgetting: For the majority of the past 30 years the Republicans have run this country, so any problems you see with the structure or makeup is their ficking fault!.

Seriously, check out this chart that shows who has run the show since 1980, 28 years ago:

McCain's claim that the federal judiciary is the dumbest of them all.  Federal judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.  As you can see on the chart above, these have overwhelmingly been in Republican control.  

One of the stupider things Rev. Wright said is that there is a possibility that the government created AIDS to kill black people.  That caused a stir in the media and a lot of hubub.  Of course, after watching the gov't ignore black people after Katrina and knowing about the Tuskegee experiments ... it's still stupid (because AIDS kills indiscriminately, and is not race based) but not outrageous.

But Wright gets crap for it, and Obama has to deal with that crap.  But when John McCain's favorite pastor, John Hagee, says that public schools give out abortions there's not much about it.  McCain faces no recriminations or questions of his judgment, even though Hagee said this:

"Your daughter can get an abortion in public school without telling you but she can't get an aspirin without your approval."

Update: It appears the comments disagree that pansy is a slur against gays, but only applies to "effeminate men."  Seems to me, however, that the portrayal of men as effeminate is an effort to question their "manhood" and that each is pretty much the same thing.

This is pretty amazing.  Back in October I was pretty tough on Barack Obama for the whole Donnie McClurkin situation, and suggested that Obama had lost my support for much of anything beyond a vote in the general.  

But now we get the Governor of North Carolina, Mike Easley, endorsing Hillary Clinton with a gay slur:

Gov. Mike Easley made his endorsement official this morning, saying that Hillary Clinton is a fighter who "makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy."

I was pretty bad at math when I was a kid, which is probably because I sat in the back of the room reading books instead of listening to the teacher.  But still, I learned rounding and am pretty sure that you don't round up at "4".  Tie goes to the runner at 5, sure, assuming the runner is "up" and the fielder is "down", but at "4" you round down.

So how does a 9.4 percent margin of victory for Hillary Clinton become a double digit win?  The magic of multiple rounding.

According to the NY Times on this page Hillary Clinton won 54.7 percent of the vote and Barack Obama won 45.3 percent of the vote, for a tidy Clinton win of 9.4 percent.

Well, I know no one cares today given all the hype about the primaries today, but the feds have once again overreached to nail a "terrorist".  This time their effort to nail a "terrorist" blew up in their face.  Here's boing boing's succinct summary:

A judge dismissed charges against Steve Kurtz, professor and member of the Critical Art Ensemble, who has been in a four year legal battle after police discovered biological lab equipment and harmless bacteria in his home. The cops were at his house because he called 911 to report that his wife had died of heart failure. He had the biological gear and specimens for an art project. Kurtz was initially investigated for bioterrorism but later indicted for mail and wire fraud.

So they decided to charge him with something else and that blew up as well.  

U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara ruled that the 2004 mail and wire fraud indictment against Steven Kurtz, a University at Buffalo professor, was "insufficient on its face..."

Feel safer?

I just can't believe this one.  Apparently the barriers we'd already placed around the Green Zone in Iraq weren't good enough, so now we are building a brand new one even farther out.  Just goes to show how well things are going in Iraq.

The construction, which began Tuesday night, is intended to turn the southern quarter of Sadr City near the international Green Zone into a protected enclave, secured by Iraqi and American forces, where the Iraqi government can undertake reconstruction efforts.

"You can’t really repair anything that is broken until you establish security," said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, commander of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment. "A wall that isolates those who would continue to attack the Iraqi Army and coalition forces can create security conditions that they can go in and rebuild."