Bad news for John McSame's campaign in the Buckeye State...an Ohio Court has ruled that Libertarian candidate Bob Barr must be included on the November ballot:

Ohio must include the Libertarian Party's nominees on its ballot in November, a federal court has ruled, complicating Sen. John McCain's effort to win conservative votes in a hotly contested state.

More after the jump...

[From the diaries - BarbinMD]

Stupid is as stupid does.

The White House this afternoon accidentally sent to its extensive distribution list a Reuters story headlined "Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan - magazine."

The story relayed how Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the German magazine Der Spiegel that "he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months ... ‘U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,'" the prime minister said.

The White House employee had intended to send the article to an internal distribution list, ABC News' Martha Raddatz reports, but hit the wrong button.

My take: The WH was obviously freaking out after the announcement that al-Maliki supports Obama's plan, and of course was planning to email this around internally get some some advice from advisers and get their talking points together. This also ensures additional coverage of this issue. The Obama camp of course has already pounced on this:

The national security adviser to the Obama campaign, Susan Rice, said the senator welcomed Maliki's support.

"This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan," Rice said in a statement Saturday.

This is just starting to hit the media; unlike McCain leaking Obama's travel schedule, this is just too big to ignore. The implications are huge, when you consider what would have happened had the opposite occurred:

To really understand the importance of Maliki's comments, you need to consider their opposite. Imagine if Maliki had walked in front of the cameras and said, "at this stage, a timetable for withdrawal is unrealistic, and we hope our American friends will not bow to domestic political pressures and be hasty in leaving Iraq just as the country improves." It would be a transformative moment in this election. John McCain would talk of nothing else. The cable shows would talk of nothing else. Magazines would run thousands of covers about "Obama's Iraq Problem." Obama would probably lose the race.

Indeed.

Update: I just had to relay this post on what the al-Maliki statement means for McCain (per Ambinder):

Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, "We're fucked." No response yet from the McCain campaign, although here's what McCain said the last time Maliki mentioned withdrawal: "Since we are succeeding, then I am convinced, as I have said before, we can withdraw and withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable. And I’m confident that is what Prime Minister Maliki is talking about, since he has told me that for many meetings we’'ve had."

DIGG IT UP!!

Marc Ambinder is exactly right with this statement:

This could be one of those unexpected events that forever changes the way the world perceives an issue. Iraq's Prime Minister agrees with Obama, and there's no wiggle room or fudge factor. This puts John McCain in an extremely precarious spot: what's left to argue? to argue against Maliki would be to predicate that Iraqi sovereignty at this point means nothing. Obviously, our national interests aren't equivalent to Iraq's, but... Malik isn't listening to the generals on the ground...but the "hasn't been to Iraq" line doesn't work here.

Realizing, of course, that Obama can't make political hay of this fact now that he's overseas, I really hope his team is preparing a full court press upon his return.  Imagine Obama saying something as simple as this:

In case anyone ever forgot, back in 2000 there was this ad about our pal Al Gore.  The Republican National Committee put out an ad that featured a quick-shot of the word "RATS" in it.  Today, we know they really were referring to themselves.  Also today, some have begun to ask about Senator McCain's ads.  Not the Republican National Committees, but his own.  The ads which feature his name and his vote of approval.  However, two of Senator McCain's ads have raised eyebrows from different organizations because of some rather subtle-components.

Before you say, "what the fuck???", hear me out.

It is clear that the corporate media is willing to ask John McCain the tough questions like "don’t you think that Obama is a flip flopper", and that his repeated gaffes, double speak, lies, pandering and outright crazy talk is not only being ignored but is being dismissed as something that he "didn’t mean" or that he "has enough credibility anyway" or is "no big deal" - when what he says and does is far, FAR worse than anything that Obama may or may not have said.

And yet, Obama still holds leads in every poll (even when the results or samples are skewed) and is doing a pretty good job of defending himself from the outrageous attacks and smears.  Hell, he beat back the Edwards and Clinton campaigns pretty soundly - which is a very impressive thing.  However and more importantly, by continuing to defend himself (or for us to spend so much time defending him), we are missing an opportunity to set the narrative on McCain and force him to go on defense.  And when McCain is forced to go on the defensive, we see the angry, unstable, hothead McCain that is being hidden from millions of voters..

So, the news breaks that Phil Gramm is "resigning" as John McCain’s economic advisor. And like all members of his Corruptionist Party he whines as he leaves the spotlight for the shadows.

In truth, he isn’t going anywhere. It is a play for the rubes in the cheep seats and the well-trained media sycophants who make up McCain’s "base". McCain can no more quit Gramm than he can quit Bush or quit his very long record of enabling and protecting corruption in politics. Despite a well crafted myth to the contrary, Curveball McCain is running to continue the policies of Gramm, Bush, Gingrich, DeLay, Norquist, Abramoff, Black and the long, long list of Republican grifters who have built their identity, careers and livelihood on the destruction of our Constitution and our Government.

Together, they are The Wrecking Crew and they must be stopped.

To the jump...

Well, we knew it wouldn't take too long for Mitch McConnell to begin his smearing, and outright lying. Yes, fresh after charging for his time in a supposedly non-profit, Christian bookstore, Mitch McConnell is unleashing his war-chest of dirty money to try and smear the Democratic Senatate candidate in Kentucky, Bruce Lunsford.

No, really.

(UPDATE):  Here's a link to the Miami Herald article.
On a just-ended campaign conference call, Bud Day made this outrageous statement:

One of John McCain's fellow POW's in Vietnam defended the war in Iraq, saying, "The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us.''

In a phone call with reporters arranged by the McCain campaign, Colonel Bud Day added: "I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.''

Note:  this was a CAMPAIGN conference call.  More on Bud Day below the fold.

Gallup alluded to the fact that the trip could really move the meter in the polls at it will likely be the first high profile story in July to actually break through the mailaise of the mid summer's back-n-forth.  

Obama will next week begin what is shaping up to be a highly publicized international trip, which could, at least in theory, have the potential to change the structure of the race.

Obama's trip doubtlessly could be the catalyst for the race in '08 breaking wide open.  Bars have been set high as Obama tries to address the one weak spot on his resume, foreign policy credibility, by addressing various world leaders and generally appearing Presidential in a variety of settings.  Yesterday, I broke the story about how McCain publically contradicted the official message of his campaign which was trying to lambaste and freedom fry it's way into framing the upcoming trip... much to no avail as the press is essentially mesmerized by Obama's upcoming tour, with stories about where and what he'll be doing dominating a week of otherwise slow news.

Looks like they want Iraq to go away by November.  Declare victory and begin leaving.  We suggested that long ago:

Statement by the Press Secretary on Iraq

In the area of security cooperation, the President and the Prime Minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals -- such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of U.S. combat forces from Iraq.

More, after the fold.

Seeing as it's Friday, time for some of that science shenanigans.

Earlier in the week, the McCain campaign announced that it had someone develop a little application that could monitor a website and show you the changes that had been made. And in doing so, were trying to show Obama for a flip-flopper because of these changes.

The politicos' mutual stalking has reached unprecedented new levels this year: At least one side has started to spider the other's campaign website to track that campaign pages' precise word changes up to an hourly basis.

Sorry if you missed it as a news item: all the geeks were "oh wow" about it on Wednesday, but by Thursday they were all waiting for 'The Dark Knight' to open and they wanted to be first in line.

There's just one problem for McCain with this.

Balls.

More, below the fold.

Obama born to Muslim Martians and Wants To Tax Water.

Beware, the lies and smears are flying right to your in-box. The swiftboaters are having a ball, making all the naive, believe what THEY want them to believe. If you don't belong to the "R" base, (Those guys will go to their graves with the mantra "BUSH WAS THE BEST PRESIDENT EVER" and will not believe anything to the contrary.) don't let them coax you into joining up, by Thinking!
thinkingblue.blogspot
Read Article Here

Everyone who pays any attention to politics knows that the GOP is on its heels.  On every issue from the war to healthcare to the environment to the middle-class economy, the American people have sided firmly with Democrats and progressives.  The issues have always favored Democrats, of course.  But the prominence of those issues as the basis for voting as well as the strength with which those issues clearly favor Democrats first made itself abundantly clear in 2006.

And the same thing is likely to happen in 2008, with the outside chance of a filibuster-proof Senate to boot.

Proposition 8, the hot-button measure to engrave a ban on same-sex marriage into the state constitution, is trailing by nine points, according to a new Field Poll.

More than two-thirds of GOP poll respondents (68 percent) said they would vote for the ban, while 63 percent of Democrats said they would vote "no."

Independents sided with the "no" side even more than Democrats (66 percent).

The Sacramento Bee
CapitolAlert

I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
 
Thanks for your condolences - trust me, you don't know half of it.  My city sits on one of the most beautiful pieces of real estate the New World has to offer - Pike's Peak, Seven Falls and Garden of the Gods, just to name a few spectaular sites, are within a short drive.  I wouldn't trade growing up here for anything... but the political leanings of my compatriots leave a little to be desired.

El Paso County is one of the most conservative in the entire country.  Focus on the Family is a scant three exits north on I-25 from the house I grew up in.  I was raised knowing that the majority where I lived thought I was going to Hell (and taking America with me) because I didn't believe in God.  From taunts in the schoolyard to horrifed looks from friend's parents (my mother told me not to make a point of telling people, but what did I know?  I was a kid who didn't know what people expected him to be ashamed about - I guess I still am in a lot of ways), I knew where I came from was different than most my age in this town. I didn't know anything about politics at that time, entering sixth grade - just that I felt differently than those around me.

And when I was eleven years old, Al Franken opened my eyes.

cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland

If Congressman Steve King hadn't already won the "jackass award," someone would need to give it to him for the way he behaved at a House Judiciary Committee hearing this week.

It's no secret that King isn't interested in the Congress serving as a check or balance on executive power. As we saw just a few weeks ago, King believes former White House spokesman Scott McClellan could have "done this country a favor" by keeping his mouth shut about alleged lawbreaking and lying in the Bush administration.

Apparently not satisfied with his efforts to sidetrack the McClellan hearings, King used one parliamentary trick after another on Tuesday to prevent Democrats on the Judiciary Committee from effectively questioning Douglas Feith, the former number three Pentagon official.

Hi, I don't know if Daily Kos makes some sort of note about this in the post, but this is my first diary.  I've been holding off asking this question for awhile to make sure that it's coming from a constructive place.

I mean this in a lot of different ways, both rhetorically and literally.  Obviously, Obama wants money and votes and voter registration and canvassing and phone banking and whatnot.  My girlfriend has been doing that for over a year.  I haven't been doing that, however (I voted for Edwards), and I think the best way to describe my hesitancy is trying to figure out whether Obama represents something that's better than McCain, or something that's truly different, ie, 'change we can believe in'.

As someone who didn't support Obama in the primary, I should be in that group of undecideds/moderates/whatevers that the campaign is interested in courting.  And as someone who didn't 'drink the koolaid', as has been employed on here more than once to varying purposes, there are some benefits to my perspective as I'm not particularly surprised that Obama takes some actions with which I disagree.  I don't expect anybody else, let alone a presidential candidate, to see the world exactly the way I do.

Why the "OTR Edition," you ask? Well, instead of watching the fist airing live like I normally do, I had to catch the DVRed version because I got home 40 minutes into it because I was here:

http://www.imamuseum.org/...

What fun! I've seen the scroll before, of course, but I actually learned a couple of new things in the presentation tonight by the gentleman keeping the scroll in one piece. Ah...I actually forgot where I live for a couple of hours; it was nice.

Oh well, so advanced apologies if tonight's diary isn't as "through" as I'd normally like it to be. Back to my non - "Beat" "Hoosier" reality, if I must, and on to tonight's Countdown!