http://westernstandard.blogs.com/...

The Democrats and Republicans have missed the filing deadline for getting on the ballot in Texas. Here's a Bob Barr press release:

Bob Barr is slated to be the only presidential candidate on the ballot in Texas after Republicans and Democrats missed the Aug. 26 deadline to file in the state.

"Unless the state of Texas violates their own election laws, Congressman Barr will be the only presidential candidate on the ballot," says Russell Verney, campaign manager for the Barr Campaign and the former campaign manager for Ross Perot.  "Texas law makes no exceptions for missing deadlines."

Indeed, if the law were enforced as written, he would be the only candidate on the ballot in Texas.

This article in PC World Magazine, based on a survey, purports that the strongest VP candidate for either party is Colin Powell.

Powell's links to the current Iraq war didn't seem to bother survey respondents, said Kevin Karty, vice president of analytics at Affinnova. Powell, in early 2003, argued for the war before the United Nations Security Council, but since he has left the Bush administration, he's criticized its handling of the war.

"There might be an indication that people are willing to give him a pass [on Iraq]," Karty said. "He seems to be an extremely credible figure ... and he's trustworthy."

UPDATE: C'mon, people, stop taking it so seriously.

A Minnesota pastor named Gus Booth addressed his flock at the Warroad Community Church in May and told them

"If you are a Christian, you cannot support a candidate like Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton for President."

Darwin Defeated in the Bayou: Louisiana Encourages 'Critical Thinking' About Evolution

The Louisiana House voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill on Wednesday that would promote "critical thinking" by students on topics such as evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning. The Louisiana Senate already passed a similar bill.

Similar bills have been introduced in several states over the past year and have been supported by opponents of evolution. The Discovery Institute, which promotes a brand of creationism known as intelligent design, hailed the 94-to-3 vote on the bill.

Also, in case you haven't yet read it, read this New York Times piece from 6/4 on the strategy the creationists are using these days, using the language "discussing the strengths and weaknesses of evolution theory" to slip their religious opinions into the science curriculums (curriculi?) curricula across the nation.

I saw this on Fark and couldn't resist posting it here, while the comments are still on McCain's site.

McCain has a "store" on his website, which invites people to comment on the products purchased as contributions to his campaign.

This page is for the "Father's Day McCain Golf Pack".

For posterity I am copying the comments after the jump, since I figure they won't be there that long...

Update: Holy crap, this is on the Rec list! Thanks guys!

Update II: Holy crap again, I return to find this on top of the Rec list. Looks like McCain's web team finally removed the "offending remarks" though. All good things...

Update III: Tojojo's got an archive. See comment here.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Holy crap, I actually agree with something Cheney said. Shoot me in the face now.

"I think it's a false notion, in the sense that you're not going to have much of an impact, given the size of the gasoline tax on the total cost of the gallon of gas," Cheney said when asked about the matter during a luncheon appearance. "You might buy a little bit of relief there, but it's minimal."

That's pretty much as far as I agree with him, considering that his solutions pretty much are standard wingnut fare, such as drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, etc.

But the interesting thing to me is that he is willing to "throw McCain under the bus", so to speak.

The Daily Mail has a feature article this morning entitled The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind.

Guess what former Presidential candidate said this:

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory. After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’

Answer over the flip...

Christopher Ward, once the highly respected former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee, allegedly improperly diverted more than $500,000 in GOP campaign donations during a four-year period from 2003 to 2007, according to documents unveiled by the Justice Dept. on Friday.

Well I must say I'm shocked. A crook in the GOP? Unpossible!

No charges have been filed against Ward yet, but DOJ has placed a lien on his Bethesda, Md., home, stating that the funds he took were used to pay his mortgage for several years, as well as cover the cost of a $200,000 home renovation.

I guess the NRCC will have some money to pay for those attack ads after all. If they can sell this guy's house in today's market, that is...

Full Story at http://news.yahoo.com/...

Just wanted to post and maintain an archive of funny McCain-oriented pics and photoshops I've "borrowed" from around the Interwebs.

This one is my favorite, featured in Top Comments a couple of days ago. It is a real pic taken at the beginning of May in Des Moines, according to the photographer's site.

more over yonder...

A California Ford dealership has been running an ad against non-Christians and those in favor of separation of church and state, etc:

   Did you know that there are people in this country who want prayer out of schools, "Under God" out of the Pledge, and "In God We Trust" to be taken off our money?

   But did you know that 86% of Americans say they believe in God? Now, since we all know that 86 out of every 100 of us are Christians who believe in God, we at Kieffe & Sons Ford wonder why we don't just tell the other 14% to sit down and shut up. I guess maybe I just offended 14% of the people who are listening to this message. Well, if that is the case, then I say that's tough, this is America folks, it's called free speech. And none of us at Kieffe & Sons Ford are afraid to speak up. Kieffe & Sons Ford on Sierra Highway in Mojave and Rosamond: if we don't see you today, by the grace of God, we'll be here tomorrow.

A recording of the ad can be found here.

Arianna Huffington has been taking questions at firedoglake today and I was just catching up with some of the discussion. Glenn Greenwald was also there and answered a question:

Arianna and Glenn,
Are you planning to come to Netroots Nation this summer? Do you think that these kinds of events will help build us up or are we wasting our time and money doing them?

Glenn's Reply over the hump...

Some interesting insight from Carl Bernstein in the AC360 blog:

Carl Bernstein's View: What a Hillary Presidency Would Look Like

The answer by now seems obvious: It will look like her presidential campaign, which in turn looks increasingly like the first Clinton presidency.

Which is to say, high-minded ideals, lowered execution, half truths, outright lies (and imaginary flights), take-no prisoners politics, some very good policy ideas, a presidential spouse given to wallowing in anger and self-pity, and a succession of aides and surrogates pushed under the bus when things don’t go right. Which is to say, often.

And endless psychodrama: the essential Clintonian experience that mesmerizes the press, confuses the citizenry, confounds members of both parties in Congress (not to mention the Clintons themselves, at times) and pretty much keeps the rest of the world constantly amused and fixated.

Read the rest

http://www.reuters.com/...

Just a quickie piece of news... I wonder if the NFL would have been this accommodating to the Democrats?

The National Football League and NBC will likely move up the time of the league's September season opener so it won't conflict with presidential nominee John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

Since 2002, the NFL has held its season opener on the first Thursday night after Labor Day. This year, the game runs smack into the final night of the convention, when McCain will officially accept the nomination and give a nationally televised speech from Minneapolis.

While the NFL has yet to announce its schedule for the 2008 season, it's apparently not going to shy away from having its season opener on the scheduled day, with the game likely featuring the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

So, the NFL and NBC have agreed in principle to have the kickoff at 7 p.m. ET instead of the traditional 8:30 p.m. That would mean, except in the event of an overtime, that the game would end before NBC's expected one hour of convention coverage for the night.

Kwaku Atta Poku was living the "American Dream" - emigrated from Ghana, drove a cab, started a small cab company, bought a townhouse and paid it off quickly.

And then one day some investors showed up looking at his house, telling him they read it was going to be sold at foreclosure.

And sure enough, it was...

Thanks at least in part to the candy lobby, we got an extended week of Daylight Saving this year and are scheduled to get our extra hour this Sunday at 2 am.

"First time I've ever been early for work! Except for all those 'daylight savings' days."

"Daylight Saving Time" is a deceptive name, since no one can save daylight. "Get Your Ass Out Of Bed Earlier Time" is more to the point, but I suppose that name is a bit long and doesn't sound like something Ben Franklin would have invented.

The Senate is debating the Levin-Reed Amendment to the defense appropriations bill which requires redeployment of troops out of Iraq within 120 days of enactment.

Harry Reid has requested a standard simple majority vote on the Levin-Reed Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill.

Tim Gunn is leaving Parsons!

Not wanting to face the "angry left" here on dkos and elsewhere, and not getting a lot of reach with her new website, Hillary has a new approach to "reaching out" to the "netroots":

(drumroll) Yahoo Answers!

Yes indeed, Hillary wants to know what 14 year old illiterates around the country the regular folks are thinking about healthcare.

See her question here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/...