From OPEC's Secretary General we heard the following this morning:

There is "no shortage" in the oil market and OPEC member countries would prefer a lower price than the current highs, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri told CNBC on Tuesday.

"I think the problem is with the U.S. dollar, I think the problem is with the speculators, but there is no shortage in the markets," El-Badri said on "Squawk Box."

Further, from the same linked article we see the Saudi Oil Minister is quoted as saying:

On Monday, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia stands ready to pump as much oil as its customers require, but supply for now was adequate.

So OPEC just called bullshit on the McCain/GOP ANWR/drilling off the coasts argument. There's an opening here that Obama and the Democrats could drive a big rig through.  

So I guess we knew the FISA capitulation was coming just from the spin we kept hearing over the last couple days from Pelosi and others in the House Leadership. But that doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

To me at least the most galling part of it are the "Aye" votes by members of Congress that we (yes - you and me) helped elect in 2006. My personal list of regrettable campaign contributions includes Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, Kirsten Gillibrand and Ed Perlmutter.

Currently at 57 % - Yes, 38 % No

There's also another follow-up poll question there.

So follow after the jump and vote in the non-scientific Poll.

Survey USA conducted head to head polling in Wisconsin for the General Election.

McCain leads HRC by a margin of 49 percent to 42 percent.

Obama leads McCain by a margin of 52 percent to 42 percent.

Follow past the jump for the links.

If this has been previously diaried, please delete this.

This is going to be a real short diary.

Listening to POTUS 08 on XM radio right 10 minutes ago, the host had the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vila, on the line. During the phone call Acevedo endorsed Obama for President.

He said that both Hillary and Obama had contacted him within the last couple days. Acevedo is a Super Delegate.

Little bit more on the flip.

So on this somewhat lazy afternoon I log on to the internets and the first thing that slaps me in the face is the lead Yahoo news story that 12 more American soldiers died this weekend in Iraq. I literally turned away from the screen and said "damn it". It is just so damn depressing.

So repression takes hold and I steer clear of Dkos and my other primary news haunts that I know would have that news and I go to a tech website to see if I got some answers to the hardware questions I floated out there yesterday. Yeah - I get some good feedback on a new build using an Intel dual core processor - I give a couple courtesy responses thanking for the help and then I stop by the P/N forum to see progressive and conservative geeks duke it out a little. Usually nothing really hardcore here, just a little bashing back and forth.

That's when I see the post. A post containing a video link, that to me at least, is the most disturbing video footage I have ever seen.

more on the flip...

I've been here for 4 years and never have I seen the number of troll diaries like I've seen here in the last couple months. Whether they're racist or anti-semetic or however offensive, its clear to me at least at what's happening: right wing provocateurs are trying to discredit this site.

more beneath the fold

Well we got some bad news today regarding our 8-year old labrador retriever as he was diagnosed with bone cancer near his front right shoulder.

We took him to the vet after the little limp he had for a couple weeks wouldn't go away. The diagnosis was based on x-rays and some other work.

I have researched a little since we found out and see that dog bone cancer is pretty common in dogs, so I was wondering if there are any out there in the dKos world who were unfortunate enough to have gone through this, and whether they would be so kind as to answer a couple questions or share some experiences.

more below...

In Colorado - I don't think Allard is going to run again. He has almost no money in his warchest (around $150,000) and he is self term limited. Meanwhile Udall has a decent warchest already (around $1.2 million) and Tancredo (around $1.5 million) is going to angle to be the GOP nominee. If it is Tancredo - Udall is going to walk all over him. If the GOP nominee is Bill Owens it will be a much closer race.

More on the flip, plus a poll.

Here's the deal Kossacks - I'm going to donate $100.01 each tomorrow  to 10 candidates, but I'm going to let you tell me where to send it (well at least most of it).

I was gonna do a poll and limit it to 2nd and 3rd tier races, but there weren't nearly enough choice slots.

Just a little more on the flip...

The analysis from the MSM and rightwing noisemachine that we are going to hear tomorrow is going to be wrong. Both on a micro (Ned vs. Joe vs. GOP clown) and macro (Dems vs. GOP) level for the November elections. They will say this will be divisive inside the Dem party. They will say focus will be lost. They will be dead wrong.

This remarkable result tonight was that strong Bush disapproval number manifesting itself. People just don't disapprove of BushCo, they disapprove strongly. They want answers on Iraq and stay the course is not going to be an acceptable position. Incumbents beware.

more on the flip

You know what to do:

http://www.kqv.com/...

The poll is already being freeped by the knuckle draggers and mouth breathers. Right now it is 74% Santorum, 25% Casey.

As an aside, Casey may be a little bit too moderate for the majority here, but there is no comparison between him and Santorum. He will caucus with Democrats which is the most important thing. His election might even be the difference maker vis-a-vis the majority. We will work to bring him into line after he gets elected. We will probably never have a better chance at taking the abomination that is Rick Santorum out. Lets close the deal on this one.

Now something didn't sit right with me when our President trotted out to defend his and the NSA's latest intrusion on Americans privacy. Right on cue, he said that they needed this latest transgression as yet another tool in the fight of the "War on Terror".

In my opinion, the key to reducing the latest BushCo spying spin to rubble lies in a statistical analysis of phone usage in the United States. Looking at typical call volumes and their distribution, it should be easy to expose BushCo's latest lie.  

More beneath the fold.

From the AP Story:

Go to the link.

Some choice quotes on the flip.

CNN is running the following poll on their front page:

"Should the government have been given the authority to spy on Americans without warrants after the 9/11 attacks?"

pile it on people

Currently running 70-30, no-yes. Poll is in the bottom right hand corner.

Also if you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you check out Jack Cafferty's take on C & L. Good stuff.

Have the DNC start a help/assistance line for Seniors struggling with the choices in the prescription drug plans. Help confused Seniors - then point out how if the Dems were in charge the first thing they would do is put a simpler, more effective, plan on the table. If a new plan costs the government more, so be it - there are things more important than tax cuts for the already wealthy. Think of it as a soft sell of the Democratic party and our principles to Seniors.

just a little bit more on the flipside

I looked at the NOAA / USGS Data and at least to this engineer, it seems that the storm surge at NO was probably between 3 and 6 feet. Based on what I've heard about the levee system, I don't think that would be enough to cause the levee failure (actually topping before failure).

My conclusion regarding the storm surge is based on an interpretation of water level data from the USGS gauging stations on the Mississippi River (at Norcross, LA) and tidal gauging at Grand Isle, LA, West Pass, LA and Waveland, MS. The Grand Isle and West Pass gauging stations which were closer to the eye than NOLA, being located southeast thereof, saw water about 6 feet higher than the mean high tide level. Waveland, which is located near Bay of St. Louis / Gulfport, and near to Katrina's 3rd landfall, had water about 8 feet above the mean high tide level before the gauging station stopped recording at about 9 AM last Monday.

More beneath the fold.

The power of the net roots has been on display since Monday afternoon. In the past 48 hours, more than $80,000 has been raised for Hackett on ActBlue.

A little more below the fold.